Iran's Supreme Leader Dismisses Obama's Appeal By Edward Yeranian Iran's supreme leader is dismissing calls from U.S. President Barack Obama for a new beginning in relations between the two countries. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Mashhad, 21 Mar 2009 Speaking in the holy city of Mashhad Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States is using the slogan of change, but that he sees no real change in U.S. policy toward Iran. Change in rhetoric alone is not enough, he said, and even then we haven't seen much change in vocabulary. Change, he insists, must be authentic. We must tell the American leadership that the change [Obama] is talking about is a must, he said. There is no choice, you must change, because God's divine conduct will change you. The world will change you. In a videotaped message to the Iranian people, Mr. Obama said Friday he is committed to diplomacy to address serious differences between the United States and Iran. Khamenei asked Mr. Obama if what he called America's hostility towards the Iranian nation has really changed. Has your hostility towards the Iranian nation changed? Is there some sign of this? Have you unblocked Iran's assets [frozen in US banks]? Have you lifted the oppressive sanctions? Have you stopped insulting us and making accusations against our great nat Ali Nourizadeh, who runs the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, says he is pessimistic about any real improvement in ties between the United States and Iran. Even if President Obama, tomorrow, returns what remains of the Iranian assets, if President Obama condemns Israel, if President Obama withdraws all American forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and if the United States announced that they recognize Iran as The U.S. and Iran are entangled in a dispute over the Persian Gulf nation's nuclear program, which the United States contends is a cover for developing weapons. Iran denies that the program has military aims, saying it is trying to produce electricity. Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Middle East analyst in Tel Aviv says that he thinks the United States will have to make substantial concessions before the Iranian leadership considers improving ties with Washington: I think if America can offer Iran something that has equal value or exceeds the value of Iran's nuclear program, then the Iranians might consider it. Maybe if Iran's role is recognized in Lebanon, in Afghanistan, in Iraq. Maybe, even then, I'm not sure. Both analysts, however, believe that Mr. Obama has created significant goodwill with the Iranian people by addressing them directly. Ayatollah Khamenei, argues Javedanfar, has reason to be worried: said Javedanfar. What concerns Khamenei, he says, is that Mr. Obama has credibility. What Mr. Obama did yesterday has endeared him, I believe, to the hearts of many Iranians. It's going to be very difficult for Khamenei to ignore Mr. Obama. Emirates plane searched at London\~airport British police said they arrested a man Sunday on suspicion of making a bomb threat aboard a flight from Dubai to\~London. The threat turned out to be a hoax, police said after searching the Emirates flight after it landed at London's Gatwick Airport and finding no suspicious\~device. Dubai-based Emirates said that, shortly before the plane landed Sunday morning, a passenger found a note indicating there might be a security threat on\~board. Police declined to identify the suspect by name or\~nationality. On Friday evening, an Emirates plane carrying more than 225 people slammed its tail into the runway as it took off from Melbourne, Australia, sending smoke into the cabin and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing. No one was hurt in that\~incident Associated Press Writer Adam Schreck contributed to this report from\~Dubai. Published: March 22, 2009 Do you know anyone who was on the flight? Let us know. Please include your mobile number or telephone number if you want Gulf News to get in touch with you. On Friday, an Emirates plane had to return to Melbourne airport shortly after the pilot discovered the aircraft's tail could possibly have hit the runway during takeoff. This is the second time within days that an Emirates plane has become the subject of unwelcome news for the company. For Emirates, the safety of its crew and passengers is of paramount importance, the spokesperson said. The incident resulted in the airport's brief closure at about 7am local time. Police said the investigation was completed around 3pm. The airport reopened shortly afterwards, and although some flights were delayed there was no major disruption. Minor delays The airline did not say whether the arrested man was a passenger. It was searched by explosives experts upon landing and people onboard were questioned. Local police have arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of involvement in this hoax, an Emirates spokesperson said. The airline said a note implying a security threat was found on flight EK011 10 minutes before landing. The Boeing 777 aircraft carried 164 passengers and 16 crew. Dubai: British police arrested a man in connection with a bomb hoax on an Emirates flight from Dubai to London Gatwick on Sunday. Man arrested after bomb scare on Emirates flight at Gatwick By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter Published: March 22, 2009, 15:28 As 26/11 trial opens, Kasab admits he is a Pakistani MUMBAI: Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the_lone terrorist arrested in the November 26 terror attacks, on Monday admitted_that he is from Faridkot in Pakistan and demanded that he be provided a lawyer_by the Maharashtra government. ( Appearing in a video_conference before special judge M L Tahilyani on the first day of trial by the_special court trying the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attackers, Kasab said_he received a copy of the 11,000-plus pages chargesheet. Do you_know who I am? I am your judge in this case, Tahilyani informed Kasab. At this,_Kasab immediately responded with Namaste, which the judge reciprocated. When asked by Tahilyani whether he had a lawyer, Kasab replied in_the negative. To a question: Do you want to engage a laywer? Kasab replied_that he wanted to appoint a lawyer and asked for the same lawyer who defended_him earlier. When special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam pointed out_that no lawyer has appeared on his behalf so far, the judge asked Kasab whether_he could afford to pay for a lawyer. As Kasab remained silent, the_judge asked whether he would like a lawyer paid for by the government. Kasab_gave his consent. Shortly thereafter, the two other LeT activists_who are co-accused in the case, Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Mohammed, were also_presented before the special judge through a video link. Fahim_immediately sought permission to change his lawyer Aejaz Naqvi. Tahilyani asked_Sabahuddin what his next move would be, since his co-accused (Fahim) wanted a_change of the lawyer who represents both of them. Sabahuddin_informed the court that he would discuss the matter with Fahim and inform the_judge later. The hearing will continue later on Monday. The media were given written account of the morning session's_proceedings as per an earlier order of Tahilyani. The trial formally_opened here on Monday at the special court set up inside the tightly guarded_precincts of the Arthur Road Jail in south-central Mumbai. The jail is being_guarded by a three-tier security force comprising the Mumbai police, the_Indo-Tibe Nikam said here that Monday marked the formal opening of the trial_but the actual trial on a day-to-day basis would be held only after three weeks. This is because the state government has written to us that they_needed at least another two weeks to complete the work of constructing the_special court inside Arthur Road Jail premises. I have moved an application_requesting the honourable special judg Last month, the Mumbai police filed a_voluminous chargesheet running into over 11,000 pages against Kasab and 37_others including Ansari and Sabahuddin. The remaining 35 have been_listed in the chargesheet as wanted absconders. Among the charges under_different sections of various Indian laws are waging war against the nation,_terrorist activities, kidnapping, entering the country illegally, attempt to_ Nine associates of Kasab were killed by the_combined security forces that battled the terrorists for 60 hours at several_locations in Mumbai. The carnage resulted in the killings of over_170 people, including 26 foreigners and 18 security personnel. Mumbai gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab laughs at terror charges Mohammed Azam Amir Kasab, who has been dubbed the baby-faced gunman. He is said to be reading Gandhi's autiography in his cell A man accused of helping to carry out the Mumbai terror attacks broke into_laughter today when he was asked by a court whether he understood the_charges against him. Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, was one of ten heavily armed gunmen who ran_amok in India\rquote s financial capital in November in a series of coordinated_commando-style raids that claimed more than 170 lives. He was the only one_to be captured alive. The Pakistani national, who was dubbed \ldblquote the baby-faced killer\rdblquote after being_caught on camera brandishing an AK-47 rifle and carrying a haversack stuffed_with ammunition and grenades, faces death by hanging if convicted of charges_of murder and waging war a He and an accomplice killed 58 people at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the_city\rquote s main train station. Kasab was smiling throughout the hearing and said that he was from Pakistan,\rdblquote _said Ujjwal Nikam, the special public prosecutor. \ldblquote He laughed when the judge asked him if he understood everything in the charge_sheet. The charge sheet, which runs to more than 11,000 pages, is written in English_and Marathi, the local language in Mumbai. Kasab, whose first language_appears to be Urdu, has said that he does not understand the document but he_did answer some questions tod It appears that the charge sheet's overriding aim is to establish Pakistan's_involvement in the attacks. It names 37 suspects, 35 of whom are Pakistani._They include at least one serving member of the Pakistani Army, a Colonel_Saadat Ullah, who is alleged Today\rquote s proceedings marked the formal hearing ahead of what has been described_in India as \ldblquote the trial of the century\rdblquote . Kasab, who was bearded and wore a_grey t-shirt for his court appearance, is thought to be a footsoldier for_the Islamist Lashkar-e-Taiba Kasab is said to be reading an Urdu translation of Gandhi\rquote s autobiography, My_Experiments With Truth, in his cell. The next formal court hearing is scheduled for March 30. The trial proper will_follow and will be held in a special high-security courtroom inside the_Arthur Road jail. He told the court that he agreed to be represented by a court-appointed_defence lawyer. If there will be a trial, then I will need a lawyer, he_said in Hindi. He not yet entered a plea to the charges. He appeared in the Mumbai Sessions Court via a video link from the city's_Arthur Road Jail, where he is being held. He represents a unique catch, experts say: the first LeT operative to have_been captured during a terrorist atrocity who is unquestionably Pakistani. March 23, 2009 Elisabeth Fritzl seeks refuge with children in a fortress The inhabitants of Village X have become fiercely protective of the Fritzl family Roger Boyes If you want to hide in Austria, where better than Village X? After passing_through snow-crusted fields full of pear orchards, you cross the Danube by_an almost secret bridge. If you can find your way over that moat you have to traverse miles of_marshland on roads where the signs seem to have been switched to cheat an_invading army. Suddenly you find yourself in front of Elisabeth Fritzl\rquote s new home and your_heart melts because it becomes clear that she has exchanged her dungeon_existence, her windowless 24 years, for a kind of fortress. It is brightly painted and has kids\rquote toys in the garden but it is a defensive_installation. What does Ms Fritzl, 42, fear in her new existence? Her father Josef is now safely under lock and key. The paparazzi have snatched_a picture of her with one of her children but interest has waned. Claudia_Bandion-Ortner, the Justice Minister, promised to tighten further Austria\rquote s_strict victim-protection l The parish priest Father J, a 52-year-old former Carmelite, says the community_is one that has always had to make new beginnings. \ldblquote Throughout history there have always been terrible floods here, the latest in_1954 and 2002 and you can only guess what that means for the village\rquote s sense_of itself, of its history.\rdblquote The villagers are fiercely protective of Ms Fritzl and her children. \ldblquote Fritzl -_never heard of him,\rdblquote says Andreas, who runs the local pub. As we move down the few streets it gets spookier. Net curtains twitch, nobody_answers the doorbell. One neighbour can be heard hushing his barking dog._There is a sense of each resident passing on the news that there are_strangers in town. The drive into Ms Fritzl\rquote s house, her new upstairs world, is marked by a_strange little pile of debris: a grinning Halloween pumpkin head and a_broken wooden angel. It was her brother Harald, 46, who spotted that there_was a house to rent in Village X. He Harald \emdash the only member of the Fritzl clan apart from Elisabeth prepared to_testify against Josef \emdash had his own unpleasant encounters with their father._Once Josef smelt alcohol on his breath and broke his nose. Now Harald is a_neighbour. It is in her fortress that Ms Fritzl has the chance to make the transition_from the dungeon in which she was confined to a normal Austrian parent. The_constant in this transition is her desire to protect the children. Their_birth in the cellar kept her sa Israeli Army T-Shirts Mock Gaza Killings Dominic Waghorn,______Middle East correspondent The Israeli army is at the centre of a second controversy over the moral conduct of its soldiers in as many days. The printed t-shirts were discovered by an Israeli newspaper (Pic: courtesy of Yanai Yechiel) The revelations centre on t-shirt designs made for soldiers that make light of shooting pregnant Palestinian mothers and children and include images of dead babies and destroyed mosques. The t-shirts were printed for Israeli soldiers at the end of periods of deployment or training courses and were discovered by Israeli newspaper Haaretz One, printed for a platoon of Israeli snipers depicts an armed Palestinian pregnant women caught in the crosshairs of a rifle, with the disturbing caption in English: 1 shot 2 kills. Another depicts a child carrying a gun also in the centre of a target. The smaller, the harder, read the words on the t-shirt. According to a soldier interviewed by the newspaper, the message has a double meaning: It's a kid, so you've got a little more of a problem, morally and also the target is smaller. Another shows an Israeli soldier blowing up a mosque and reads Only God forgives. Above a ninja figure, yet another shirt bears the slogan Won't chill until I confirm a kill. in which hundreds of civilians were killed - many of them women and children - are causing outrage. The revelations, coming so soon after Israel's offensive in Perhaps the most shocking design shows a Palestinian mother weeping next to her dead baby's grave, also in the crosshairs of a rifle. It suggests it would have been better if the child had never been born, with the slogan Better use Durex. and the shooting of civilians during Israel's offensive during the Gaza offensive. The controversy follows more revelations by other soldiers about abuses Ex-soldier and campaigner with Breaking The Silence , Michael Maniken, told Sky News Online this week's revelations suggest a pattern of immoral conduct in the army. The army keeps on saying we're talking about a few rotten apples but it seems the army doesn't understand there's a norm in this kind of action, he explained. We're hearing about this time and time again and the army seems disconnected from reality. A spokesman for the (IDF) told Sky News Online, the t-shirts were printed on the private initiative of the soldiers and their designs are not in accordance with IDF values and are simply tasteless. This type of humour is unacceptable and should be condemned. Joyce MacMillan: David Greig's 2007 work Damascus has polarised critics following its debut in Syria Published Date: 19 March 2009 IT'S LATE on Thursday night when I arrive in Damascus, the ancient city sprawling its way up the dramatic slopes of Mount Quissoun; and although their second performance in Syria is in full swing, at the municipal theatre in the middle-class suburb of Dum As playwright David Greig and director Philip Howard are only too aware, bringing a play called Damascus to the city of Damascus was always going to be a high-risk enterprise. It was a play that Greig wrote reluctantly, for the Traverse's Edinburgh F estival programme of 2007, after several years of work with young playwrights across the Arab world had made him acutely aware of their need to find their own voice, rather than see themselves and their society defined through western eyes. And it was a p To audiences in the UK, in other words, Damascus looks like a searing piece of self-criticism directed against the well-meaning but ineffectual westerner abroad. To audiences in the Arab world, though, it inevitably looks like a thumbnail sketch of their Nothing, though, had quite prepared the company for the explosive reaction to the play on its first night in Syria. First there was the performance, received with huge warmth and responsiveness, much laughter, and even a small standing ovation.Then there Controversy swirled in particular around the character of the desk clerk Zakaria, who finally kills himself when Paul fails to help him achieve his last desperate hope of becoming a writer in the west. Some young Syrians saw him as an iconic figure; other And these divisions were repeated at a major British Council seminar on Saturday, when some speakers expressed rage that a British playwright should be able to command such significant resources to caricature their culture on an international stage; while After the seminar, Greig headed off into the Old Town of Damascus, to spend a last evening with the young Syrian playwrights whose work he has already helped to present in London, before a brief return to Scotland. And the rest of us climbed into a small bus, and rattled off over the mountains, through mist and rain and grubby border checkpoints, on the 100-mile drive to Beirut, down by the Mediterranean. It was a journey that seemed to take us from east to west, fr Yet this, too, is a Middle Eastern city full of contrasts, where some of the women go modestly veiled, and others present spectacular displays of big hair and bling. And here, too, although the tone of the post-show discussion was more relaxed, the same t Behind these debates, of course, lie some of the most profound questions facing our 21st-century world. There is the debate between former colonising powers, and the countries they once used and manipulated for their own ends; a debate still full of well- Sometimes, in these dialogues, there comes a moment \endash like Nora's great slamming of the door in Ibsen's A Doll's House \endash when the less powerful partner has to walk away, and find his or her own voice, before dialogue can begin again. If the tour of Damasc Suez Canal revenue drops ISMAILIYA (Egypt) - SUEZ Canal revenue and traffic dropped almost 25 per cent in February as the world economic crisis continued to bite, a Canal Authority official said on Monday. Canal revenue fell to US$302 million (S$623 million) from US$408 million in February 2008 and the number of boats dropped to 868 from 1,272, the official said. The volume of trade passing through the vital shipping route also took a hit, dropping to 53 million tonnes in February from 73 million tonnes in the same period last year. The Canal Authority decided at the start of the year not to increase tariffs due to uncertainty in the shipping industry in the light of the piracy problem in the Gulf of Aden and the worldwide credit crunch. Arms manufacturers in particular have rerouted their shipping round the Cape of Good Hope in recent months to avoid pirates preying on vessels en route between the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. The canal is Egypt's third-largest source of revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers. The government last year raised more than five billion dollars from ships passing through the canal. -- AFP Canal revenue fell to US$302 million (S$623 million) from US$408 million in February 2008 and the number of boats dropped to 868 from 1,272. -- PHOTO: REUTERS Bibi, Barak ink deal despite Labor's fury Israel's Labor Party chief Ehud Barak has reached a draft accord with the Premier-designate amid his last ditch effort to form a government. Barak and Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu agreed on a draft coalition deal under which the government platform will include a commitment to the goal of reaching a comprehensive regional peace agreement, the Israeli Army Radio reported Tuesda to any agreement by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, vowed to enforce law with regards to illegal West Bank outposts, the draft states. If Labor lawmakers back the deal and agree to join Netanyahu's coalition, the party will have five ministries with Barak keeping the defense portfolio. The agreement allows us to have important and dramatic influence on the way the country will be run for the next few years, and Labor will have significant involvement in implementing what it believes in: on welfare, economic, and security issues in the The draft agreement however sparked fury among the dissident Knesset members who threatened not to toe the party line if Labor's central committee votes to join Netanyahu's government. Given the severity of the situation, we feel obliged to inform you that you would not be able to count on our support for any understandings reached between the teams, warned seven MKs opposed to the deal. The opponents include secretary general Eitan C They're trying to buy us off with portfolios and empty promises, but the central committee will show today that the Labor Party is not up for sale and that it did not finish its historic role, said MK Ophir Paz-Pines who also opposes the move. Under the deal, Labor will also be involved in all diplomatic and defense decisions. The party was promised to hold the chairmanship of Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee during the first third of the government's tenure. Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:33:32 GMT Netanyahu, who formerly declined to remain committed Chinese officials told Reuters that they didn't know about YouTube being blocked and stressed that they had a positive view of the Internet and its content. in particular, which features mythical creature the grass-mud horse, has become an icon for the anti-censorship movement. When written, the creature's name is benign, but when spoken, the word for grass-mud horse becomes an inflammatory expletive. Many people have a false impression that the Chinese government fears the Internet. In fact it is just the opposite,\rdblquote Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters, Reuters said. One Internet video Chinese officials have been selectively blocking YouTube videos for months in an attempt to weed out dissent. It routinely monitors all Internet content visited by Chinese residents and can limit access at its discretion. But the Chinese recently have begun to fight back against the censorship, finding loopholes to get around the eyes of their Big Brother government. told the Times. \ldblquote Our government relations people are trying to resolve it. Scott Rubin \ldblquote We don\rquote t know the reason for the block,\rdblquote YouTube spokesman Google trackers noticed late Monday that Chinese traffic of YouTube had decreased dramatically and watched as it dropped to nearly zero Tuesday morning, the New York Times reported The Chinese government has banned its citizens from viewing videos on , the video sharing site's owner YouTube said Tuesday. Google Updated 4:15 PM EDT, Tue, Mar 24, 2009 CAITLIN MILLAT By YouTube Banned in China: Google Algerians mull French nuclear test compensation ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU Originally published 12:45 p.m., March 24, 2009, updated 11:48 a.m., March 24, 2009 ALGIERS, ALGERIA (AP) - Algerian officials and activists said they hoped France's pledge Tuesday to compensate victims of its nuclear tests in the Sahara Desert would be a first step toward broader atonement and reparation. French Defense Minister Herve Morin said the draft law he presented provides for euro10 million ($13.5 million) in compensation for the first year and targets people with health problems linked to nuclear tests _ including Algerians. The proposal for compensation over the tests in Algeria and the South Pacific is a first by France, nearly 50 years after the country conducted its first atomic tests. It's a good first step but I'm not satisfied, because we've suffered so much that money can't compensate all, said Abderahmane Laksassi, head of Algeria's February 13, 1960 association _ named after the date of the first French military nuclear test i A little pension for victims isn't what we seek, Laksassi said. We want France to build a hospital, and conduct de-pollution efforts to make sure the tests' side-effects end for good, he said. The Algerian Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment. An official said the ministry wanted to first make sure the bill would significantly compensate Algerians. France tested dozens of bombs near the Sahara Desert town of Reggane in Algeria, both before and after the former French colony won independence in 1962. Other tests followed in the Pacific Ocean atolls of French Polynesia. There are no official tallies of the number of Algerian victims of the tests. Laksassi said that even now an average of 50 people die each year of cancer because they were exposed to radiation. He estimated that 10,000 people have suffered disease or material losses because of the tests _ including tribes of nomads whose herds coul France's defense minister, however, said only a few hundred people who had health problems linked to atomic tests would likely be eligible for the compensation. Unafraid China apparently fears YouTube is not afraid of the Internet, its Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, even as access to the popular video sharing site , has been unavailable for users in China, which filters the Internet for content critical of the Chinese government fears YouTube, owned by search giant Google Inc was apparently blocked. BEIJING (Reuters) \endash China Communist Party , since late on Monday. Many people have a false impression that the the Internet. In fact it is just the opposite, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. He said he did not know about YouTube being blocked. spokesman confirmed that access to the video site has been blocked in China over the past 24 hours. YouTube is currently blocked in China. We don't know the reason for the blockage, but are working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users in China, said spokesman Scott Rubin. Rubin would not comment on whether YouTube has contacted the Chinese authorities to confirm it has officially been blocked or if it is a technical problem. Both Google and YouTube have previously been blocked in China for brief periods, according to the company. In the past Chinese authorities have blocked specific videos. Access to YouTube had been spotty earlier in March, the one-year anniversary of widespread protests by against Chinese rule. blogs showed China's Internet is open enough, but also needs to be regulated by law in order to prevent the spread of harmful information and for national security. 100 million Qin said China's 300 million Internet users and Tibetans An Internet crackdown that began in January has closed hundreds of Chinese sites, including a popular blog hosting site and several sites popular with Tibetans. It has been described by analysts as another step in the Party's battle to stifle dissent in a year of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy in 1989. Tiananmen Square protests YouTube, which has country-specific sites in 23 countries, has in the past been blocked in certain countries, including Turkey and Thailand , additional reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Nick Macfie and Andre Grenon) (Reporting by Lucy Hornby in in disputes over specific videos. Beijing Tue\~Mar\~24, 4:26\~pm\~ET The question is, would Eini as Histadrut chairman against Netanyahu as prime minister have been able to reach such achievements on his own? This is open for debate. Eini is sure that were it not for Netanyahu's need for the Labor party, many elements of t In light of the achievements made in the social-economic part of the agreement, what is remarkable is the lack of vision and achievement in the diplomatic sphere, the key area traditionally promoted by the Labor party. The clauses are well formulated but It includes NIS 100 million for retraining people for different professions, NIS 200 million for funding day and afternoon care for working women's children, investment in factories and a commitment not to cut salaries in the public sector. Furthermore, t The outstanding achievement of the deal itself is within the social-economic field, and was pushed for by Histadrut Labor Federation leader Ofer Eini. It is a sort of economic rescue plan - as it will be marketed to the public and the party delegates at T Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's package of temptation for Labor was so bountiful that it is not clear whether the party will have enough people to man all the positions. Labor chairman Ehud Barak's camp, as of Tuesday morning, consisted of M There is no debate over two of the achievements of the Labor-Likud coalition agreement that was initialed on Tuesday morning: It was reached after negotiations unprecedented in their brevity - taking less than 24 hours - and it grants Labor a scandalous p , Haaretz Correspondent Mazal Mualem ANALYSIS / Netanyahu made an offer Barak couldn't refuse Last update\~-\~20:38 24/03/2009 Tags: Israel News Coalition Labor Women To Be Off Media Demand Saudi Arabia Clergy Saudi clerics are all set to bring about a wide range of reforms in the country on the line of religion. A group of clerics in Saudi have asked the information minister to ban the appearance of women on TV, newspapers or magazines. According to Daily Express, the group of 35 clergy men also called on Abdel Aziz Khoja, appointed by King Abdullah on February 14 in order to put an end to playing of music and music shows on television as a part of their reformation activity. However it is believed that clerics' reformation rules would hardly make an impact over the king as his reshuffle had already removed a number of hard-line figures as a part of curbing the influence of conservatives in the country. But the statement does on the other hand has intended to pressurise the new minister to a certain extent on revealing to him the feelings of the country's powerful religious establishment. It is to be noted that Saudi Arabia was founded on an alliance with the conservative Wahhabi strain of Islam which views the mixing of sexes as anathema and believes music brings about a breach the religious law. Seoul to Raise Rocket Issue with UN By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade called on North Korea Thursday to stop its planned rocket launch. Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters that if the North launches it, the government will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) after consultation with other countries. Resolution 1718, adopted unanimously in October 2006, imposed a series of arms and economic sanctions on North Korea three months after the state's nuclear test. It also banned the sale of luxury goods to the North. The secretive state, on the other hand, denounced the South for supporting U.N. sanctions against the launch, calling it a ``traitor.'' Moon said, ``Whether it's a satellite or a missile, the launch would apparently violate UNSC Resolution 1718 because the two are using the same launch pad.'' South Korea's nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac will leave for Washington Friday for talks with Stephen Bosworth, special envoy on North Korea, and chief nuclear negotiator Sung Kim. They will discuss ways to resume denuclearization talks and cope with the rocket launch, ministry officials said. Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae agreed that the planned rocket launch will be a ``serious challenge and provocation'' to security in Northeast Asia as well as on the Korean Peninsula. ``We call on the North to halt the alleged rocket launch,'' he told reporters, claiming it would violate the resolution. The communist state reported to international organizations early this month that it would send a ``satellite'' into orbit between April 4 and 8 as part of a national space program. Yet the outside world believes that it will be a test launch of the Taepodong-2 missile, theoretically capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii. According to diplomatic sources, the Stalinist North apparently put the missile on a launch pad at its east coast Musudan-ri missile base. NBC television reported the intelligence, citing anonymous U.S. officials, that the missile was visible but the top was covered with a shroud supported by a crane. Tunisian pilot who prayed as his plane went down jailed in Italy A pilot accused of praying when he should have been taking emergency measures to avoid a crash in which 16 people died has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court. Captain Chafik Gharby was at the controls of a plane belonging to the Tunisian charter airline Tuninter that crashed in the sea off the coast of Sicily four years ago. The 23 survivors were left swimming for their lives, some clinging to a piece of the fu Gharby was at first hailed as a hero for having saved the lives of most of the passengers. But after an investigation, he, his co-pilot, and several Tuninter executives and technicians were charged with a range of offences including manslaughter. The court in Palermo agreed with prosecutors that the chain of events that led to the crash began when a wrong part was installed in the ill-fated plane, a Franco-Italian ATR 72. A mechanic accidentally fitted an outwardly identical fuel gauge intended fo The plane took off from Bari, bound for the Tunisian island of Djerba, on 6 August 2005. As it flew over Sicily, its engines slowed to a halt, even though the instrument panel showed the aircraft had enough fuel left for the flight. The judges accepted the prosecution case that the pilots, instead of making a crash landing on the sea, should have been able to glide the plane to Palermo airport. Instead, Gharby was said to have panicked. In cockpit recordings entered as evidence he wa His lawyer, Francesca Coppi, said: Faced with danger, he invoked his god as would any one of us. She described her client as a broken man who was convinced he did everything possible to save as many lives as possible. The co-pilot, Ali Kebaier, also received a 10-year sentence. Tuninter's director-general, Moncef Zouari, and the company's technical director were both given nine years. A mechanic and two executives in the airline's maintenance department each received eight-year sentences. Two of the accused were acquitted. The remaining seven defendants, who were not in court to hear the verdict, will not have to go to prison until the Of the passengers who died, two were Tunisians. The other 14 were Italians and many of their relatives travelled to Palermo on chartered buses to hear the verdict. Angela Trentadue, whose 27-year-old daughter died in the crash, welcomed the sentences. Another relative, who did not wish to be identified, said: I wanted to hug the judge. Article history The Guardian 70 killed, 100 injured in Jamrud mosque suicide attack KHYBER AGENCY/ISLAMABAD: At least 70 _people died and 100 more have been _injured when a suicide bomber blew _himself up in a mosque near a security _check post in Jamrud town of Khyber _Agency on Friday. The incident took place some ten-kilometers away from Tehsil Jamrud of Khyber Agency in a mosque adjacent to security checkpost amid Friday prayers. The two-story building of the mosque completely collapsed as result of the attack. Authorities feared that the death toll could rise as most the persons are still buried under the rubbles of mosque building. Soon after the incident, hundreds of people rushed to the spot to retrieve the injured and dead bodies from the rubble of mosque building. The deceased and injured were immediately rushed to Hayat Medical Complex and Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar and other hospitals. The hospital administration while announcing emergency in the hospitals has summoned all the staff. The political agent Khyber Agency Tariq Hayat in an interview with private TV Channel told that between 250 and 300 worshippers were in the mosque. The suicide bomber was standing in the mosque and as soon as Jumma prayer started he blew himself up. He further said that no Muslim could think about this heinous act. These are anti-state elements who want to destabilize Pakistan. In response to a question he said that they have issued directives of shoot on sight of terrorists. Tariq Hayat has confirmed death of the 48 people in the attack. Sources said that around 100 people injured in the incident out of which 80 were rushed to the Khyber Teaching Hospital, 25 were taken to Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar, 12 were carried to Hayat Sherpao Hospital while some of the injured were taken to Assistant Political Agency of Jamrud, Fazl Qadir while talking to BBC feared that that death could toll. Locals of the area told that the explosion was so powerful that it can be heard from distance. They further added that due to mosque proximity with check post, the personnel of Khasadar force often visit mosque for prayers. That is why suicide bomber hit the mosque. Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, NWFP Chief Minister, Amir Haider Khan Hoti and other leaders have strongly condemned attack and expressed their sorrow over Both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani in their separate messages advised the nation to be united against any anti-state elements. They also directed the government of NWFP for the investigation and all out measures for the arrest of the responsible of the incident. Both the leaders have also directed for the full treatment facilities to the injured. The comments to the Lebanese daily As-Safir were Bashar Assad's first on why the Turkish-mediated negotiations collapsed. Previously, Syrian officials said they suspended the talks in protest against Israel's war in Gaza, which began in late December. BEIRUT (AP) \emdash Syria's president said indirect peace talks with Israel failed last year because the Jewish state would not make an unambiguous commitment to return all the territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war, according to an interview published Syria leader explains failure of talks with Israel However Assad outlined another major point of contention. He suggested Syria insisted on the complete return of the strategic Golan Heights, while Israel wanted to keep some disputed land around the Sea of Galilee, its main water source. Assad said Syria had specified some points of land on the Galilee shores and the Jordan River he wanted returned. We asked the Israelis to prove their seriousness on these points and of course they agreed in principle, Assad said. But when it came to drafting, they wanted to draft it in a way that is somehow ambiguous and obscure, he added. We said no. We do not discuss. These points are either approved or not. ... The discussions ended at this point and the talks failed, Assad said. The president's office confirmed to The Associated Press that the As-Safir report was accurate. Syria and Israel held direct talks in the late 1990s and early 2000. They also broke down over the extent of a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured from Syria in 1967. Israel sought lines closer to the 1923 colonial border and i The late Syrian President Hafez Assad, the current president's father, also insisted on the return of all the Golan, including the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. At a meeting with then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in Geneva in March 2000, the elder A I would swim in the Sea of Galilee, I would have barbecues there, I ate fish, he told Clinton. Israelis have argued in the past that a 21-square-mile area along the sea was originally Palestinian, not Syrian, and therefore need not be returned to Syria with the rest of the Golan. Bashar Assad was also asked in the interview what concessions Israel wanted for peace with Syria. No Iran, no Hezbollah and no Hamas, he said, referring to Syrian alliances with Tehran and the Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups. He did not say how he responded to those demands. NATO confirms first high-level meeting with Iran on Afghanistan BRUSSELS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Iran and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held their first secret and informal talks in 30 years in Brussels where NATO is headquartered, focusing on Afghanistan, the alliance confirmed here Thursday. The meeting took place on March 9 between NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Martin Erdmann and Iran's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union, Ali-Asghar Khaji, NATO deputy spokeswoman Carmen Rom It was a very informal contact and they basically discussed Afghanistan, she added. You know the secretary-general (Jaap de Hoop Scheffer) has said recently that Iran should be involved in a regional approach in regard of Afghanistan. Romero said that she did not know if there will be another meeting. However, she said I don't rule out there will be another contact. The alliance's spokesman James Appathurai also told reporters earlier that it was a first informal contact and the Iranian side is interested in cooperation on Afghanistan. Speaking at the Brussels-based Security and Defense Agenda think tank in January, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called on the United States and its fellow NATO allies to engage with Iran to quell the insurgency in Afghanistan. On Thursday, Iran announced it will take part in a United Nations conference on the future of Afghanistan to be held in The Hague next week. But Iranian Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi said that the level of participation is not clear. The NATO is playing a key role in maintaining peace and stability in Afghanistan, which neighbors Iran. In Washington, the U.S. State Department Wednesday said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not planning to have a separate meeting with Iran's I will not rule out the fact that there could be some kind of a greeting of some type, but there's no plan, as far as I know, for there to be a meeting between the two delegations, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. This conference is more than just the U.S. and Iran. It's about Afghanistan and the situation in the region. And that's where we need to keep our focus, he said. ANALYSIS / Sudan strike won't make Iran give up on Hamas Amos Harel A moment before the Olmert government leaves office, coincidently or not, American television network CBS breaks the fascinating story of the Israel Air Force attack on an Iranian weapons convoy in Sudan. If Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's detractors say his Although Israel did not officially repond to the CBS report, Olmert's remark Thursday that we act everywhere we can hit terror infrastructure, close and less close, can be seen an unofficial confirmation of the report. If a decision was made to risk an attack 1,400 kilometers away, apparently it was due to a belief that Iran was about to inject a significant quantity of arms into Gaza, possibly 70-kilometer-range Fajr rockets. Iran learned from the Sudan strike that Israel has excellent intelligence, and that it can, and will take the gamble of carrying out long-range strikes when the prize seems high enough. But Iran already knew that. The Sudan strike, if it indeed occurred, Former IAF commander Eitan Ben-Eliyahu said Thursday the main difficulty in such an attack is precise intelligence. Getting there requires a flight of about two and a half hours, presumably on a southerly flight path along the Red Sea coast, below Saudi a Although the media responded enthusiastically to the strike, security officials said Thursday that it cannot be compared with the one against the Syrian facility. The presumed strike cost Israel in terms of revealing its intelligence capabilities. It may be assumed that Tehran launched an investigation after the strike to discover how intelligence about the convoy reached Israel. Nevertheless, it is difficult to im BNC Statement on Land Day \endash Boycott Israel! Make it account for its crimes in Gaza! Peace Cyclists petition to end EU-Israeli trade ties The two Mideast foes held four rounds of indirect talks mediated by Turkey last year. Recounting how the contacts came about, Assad he agreed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's overtures after we reached a point when Olmert was ready to fully return the Golan Heights. Olmert's office did not immediately comment on the interview. Government spokesman Mark Regev said the basis of the talks with the Syrians was a formula that we know exactly what the Syrians expect from negotiations and they know exactly what we expect. No progress was achieved with the Turkish mediation unfortunately, Regev said. Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report. Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. By BASSEM MROUE \endash China Talks Tough with Call to Dump Dollar China's top central banker says it's time to replace the country's reliance on the dollar, but such a move likely won't happen any time soon , China is making clear it wants a greater say in managing economic policies worldwide. The latest blast from Beijing: a call by 's top central banker to dump the U.S. dollar as the world's most important currency. , called for a new super-sovereign reserve currency to replace the current reliance on the dollar. The goal, Zhou writes, is to create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the lo Just over one week before President Barack Obama and other world leaders meet in London for a summit focusing on the global recession People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, in a paper released on the bank's Web site on Mar. 23 Not surprisingly, U.S. officials aren't welcoming the idea. Speaking on Mar. 24 at a congressional hearing in Washington, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke both said they categorically oppose the change. And pretty much everyone agrees it's not going to happen. In his paper, Zhou called for using the International Monetary Fund's special drawing right (SDR) currency, now used mainly for accounting purposes by the Washington-based organization, and pegge Seeking More Say How then to read Zhou's roiling of the financial waters? It's most likely a shot across the bow signaling China's intention to have a greater voice in world financial affairs. When he attends the G-20 opening on Apr. 2, Chinese President Hu Jintao is almo By calling for a super-sovereign reserve currency, Zhou signals China's dissatisfaction with the global economic pecking order. As well as demonstrating Beijing's new more assertive role in the world economy, Zhou's proposal to replace the dollar may also The central banker's controversial proposal is the latest in a series of moves signaling Chinese irritation with the U.S. For instance, Premier Wen Jiabao on Mar. 13 told reporters he was worried about the value of China's massive dollar holdings. Stand ) estimates that China, the world's largest holder of U.S. debt, held $1.45 trillion in U.S. securities at the end of 2008, out of a total $1.9 trillion in foreign reserves. As the starts spending $787 billion to boost the U.S. economy and another $1 trillion on its cash-strapped banks, Beijing is worried inflation in the U.S. could erode the value of its dollar holdings. During the Mar. 13 press conference broadcast live across Chi to take efforts to maintain its good credit, to honor its promises, and to guarantee the safety of China's assets. Wen called on the U.S. Obama Administration STAN.L Despite Zhou's bold proposal, Beijing also knows that any rapid move toward a new reserve tender could backfire for China. That would erode the value of China's dollar holdings and likely would lift the value of the yuan, China's currency, making the coun is BusinessWeek's Asia News Editor and China bureau chief. With Frederik Balfour in Hong Kong Roberts Dexter Roberts North Korea\rquote s Missile Test Raises International Concern Palestinian Land Day background Land Day marks the beginning of March 1976 when the Israeli Labor party government, with Prime Minister Isaac Rabin, took the decision to confiscate hundreds of square kilometers of 'Sakhnin' city farms, an Arabic city inside the green line that was occup of March, while 'Sakhnin' residents were in their farms, Israeli Police and border guards forced themselves onto the farmers' land and threw them out, fencing the perimeter and confiscating the land. News of the confiscation spread fast to nearby cities a th Despite the relatively high number of martyrs amongst them, the Arabs inside Israel succeeded in holding on to their Palestinian identity and extracting a promise from the Israeli government to never confiscate their land again. The history of 1976 still has great relevance to the current situation. In the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, the ever-increasing settlement growth and the building of the Apartheid Wall will leave the Palestinians with no more than 12% of Hist On the 30 Doha Summit ends with a whimper The Doha Arab Summit has just ended a day early, with a whimper rather than a bang. Doha Declaration The final posted the text of over twenty statements too busy patching things up with Qaddafi ? Fun fact: after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki requested that his country postpone hosting a summit until 2011 instead of trying to do it in 2010 (which would have been quite a logistical challenge, to say the least), the honor of hosting the next su That should be interesting Netanyahu and the \lquote Future of the Peace Process\rquote It seems that the Palestinian-Israeli \lquote peace process\rquote is in serious jeopardy. At least, this is the immediate impression one gleans from media reports from Israel. Unlike, Israel\rquote s Kadima and Labor party \lquote moderates\rquote , Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Neta Livni: New government is bad for Israel By Haaretz Service Opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Tuesday wished success to the incoming coalition as it prepared to be sworn in at the Knesset in Jerusalem, but quickly added that the deal under which the government had been assembled would not benefit the state at all. Livni, who lost out on the opportunity to form the new government despite her Kadima party's slim win in the February elections, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the opposition under her leadership would act responsibly. I would like to see new government succeed, Livni said, as she took the podium following incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address. Her speech was heaped with criticism of Israel's 32nd government, though, calling the coalition deal a shame to the Knesset. Livni also blasted the enormous size of the cabinet, which will comprise 30 ministers and seven deputy ministers. The honorable prime minister-designate, the skinny man who is getting skinnier every day, Livni said, alluding to Netanyahu's feted metaphor of the private sector struggling to support the wasteful public sector. On this thin man's shoulders you have n A big and lavish cabinet is wrong at a time of economic constraints, said Livni, adding that the public will have to carry the enormous weight of a bloated cabinet. Kadima will continue to be alternative to government, she vowed. If [we] had joined the government, we would have buried hope. Livni pledged that her opposition would work to bring the public's faith back to the Knesset. She also took the opportunity to lambaste Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak, who chose to join Netanyahu's government despite the latter's right-wing stance. Ehud Barak is committing personal fraud by exploting his political connections, she said. In response, Barak's office called Livni's embarrassing statements... proof of her losing control. The extent of her frustration is not a justification to say these things in the name of a 'more ethical politics,' Barak's associates said. Ms. Livni should put her own house in order, and scrutinize the conduct of Kadima members, before giving lessons Livni should invest her energies in parliamentary motions instead of baseless and reckless accusations, they concluded. Related articles: British forces hand over control of Basra airport to Americans • Ceremony marks formal withdrawal from Iraq • No mention of Blair or Brown by military leaders In a ceremony marking the UK's official withdrawal from Iraq, Major General Andy Salmon transferred authority to a US major general, Michael Oates. Most of the 4,100 British troops will go by 31 May, the day they complete their combat mission. Britain has formally handed to the US control of Basra airport, where thousands of its troops have been based since the invasion of Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup, chief of the defence staff, flew in from London for the changing of the guard ceremony, and the Royal Marines band played Reveille as the US 10th Mountain Division hoisted its standard in place of the British division This occasion is about the countless numbers of young men and women from far-flung corners of the US and the various reaches of the British Isles who have together striven here with such commitment, such dedication and courage, over so long a period, St Since 2003, 179 UK personnel have died in Iraq, 43 as a result of illness or accidents. Yesterday there was talk of gallantry and hardships endured, but the memory of only one former British leader was invoked - Winston Churchill. There was no mention of General Ray Odierno, the US commander in Iraq, paid tribute to reconstruction efforts, which are slowly taking shape in Basra after eight relatively stable months. Under the former regime, the people of Basra suffered from oppression and neglect, he said. Only one in four people had access to running water and one in 10 had access to sewerage. The British presence here brought in projects of over $1bn [£0.7bn], a While the US will be on hand in crises as well as protecting supply routes, the Iraqis now have overall responsibility for Basra's security. John Hutton, the defence secretary, said: Basra is now a much safer city with a bright economic future, which has Aside from safer streets, Basra city, about 10 miles from the fortified airport base, has yet to see the broad benefits of the money pledged. The army has funded several dozen community projects, such as pavement improvements and general clean-ups, but th Salmon, who took control of the Basra region last summer, said: Basra bears little resemblance to the place I came to with my headquarters eight months ago. Security was not a given and we were in the midst of six months of counter-insurgency operations. General Nasier Abadi, vice-chief of staff of the Iraqi joint forces, said: On behalf of all the Iraqis, I thank the United Kingdom for the hard work and sacrifice that helped bring peace and stability to Iraq's second city. Gordon Brown called the handover a further step forward in the UK's work in Iraq. He added: There have been difficult times along the way, but British troops have made an outstanding contribution to laying the ground for a stable and increasingly prosp London I\rquote m flying to London later tonight to blog the G20 Summit 50 bloggers from 22 different countries have been invited by a group of British NGOs to provide a different kind of coverage for this global event, where world leaders will meet to discuss the current economic crisis and try to find answers and solutions. More from there later… Waiting to see your coverage report! That is just great! Congratulations! Monday, March 30, 2009 at 22:20 What a signal distinction. You have certainly merited this honour, and I truly await your reportage with anticipation. Monday, March 30, 2009 at 22:48 I am very jealous! You deserve it dear and please keep us posted! Monday, March 30, 2009 at 23:12 Netanyahu tells IDF: Make every effort to catch Bat Ayin murderer Two days after being sworn in as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement condemning the terror attack earlier Thursday in the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, in which an axe-wielding Palestinian killed a 13-year-old boy and left another bo The perpetrator was thought to have fled the scene of the attack and the Israel Defense Forces were searching for him well into the evening. The prime minister was briefed on the attack and the subsequent manhunt during the course of the day. A statement issued by his office said that Netanyahu exclaimed that he views the attack with the utmost gravity, and that he has instructed the defense The IDF said Thursday night that they had obtained information on the identity of the attacker and that they expected to make an arrest within several hours. IDF officers have been combing the West Bank village of Safa, which is adjacent to Bat Ayin, and have already made several arrests. Earlier Thursday, Channel 2 television reported that the terrorist was a local Palestinian employee. The teenage victim, identified as Shlomo Nativ, sustained critical head wounds and later died while receiving medical care, Magen David Adom rescue personnel said. The 7-year-old victim was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karem in Jerusalem for treatment. Security guards at the settlement wounded the attacker before he fled, said Shaul Goldstein, a settler leader. The security team here managed to shoot and hit the terrorist, but he managed to escape, he told Army Radio. Israel Radio reported that the military wing of Islamic Jihad and a lesser-known faction identifying itself as the Imad Mughniyeh Group claimed joint responsibility for the attack. The dead youth was the son of Haim and Revital Nativ, one of the original settlers who founded Bat Ayin, a community of secular-cum-religious Jews. Among the residents of Bat Ayin are followers of the Braslav Hassidic sect and many Chabad devotees. Revital Nativ moved to Bat Ayin from Kibbutz Hatzor, and her husband is a long-time teacher. He runs a women's religious seminary in Jerusalem that has published children's books. Immediately after the attack, a passerby confronted the terrorist and wrested the axe from his possession. The terrorist subsequently broke free from the passerby's grasp and fled the scene, Channel 2 reported. Bat Ayin officials said residents in the settlement were instructed to remain in their homes. Security forces in the vicinity have also been advised to remain on high alert. Bat Ayin, situated in the Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem near the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, is not ringed by a security fence, residents told Channel 2. This is apparently for ideological reasons. This was the first attack in the Etzion Bloc since January 2008, when two students were wounded after two terrorists armed with knives broke into their yeshiva. 'He tried to stab me. I kicked him, he kicked me.' He tried to stab me. I kicked him, he kicked me, the settler, who gave his name only as Avinoam, told Channel 10. The Palestinian terrorist was immediately confronted by a passerby who forcibly removed the weapon from his hand. I saw the seven-year-old boy running, the axe-wielding terrorist was running after him, Avinoam said. I ran toward the terrorist and he tried to raise the axe over me with the aim of killing me. I caught his hand and struggled with him, while calling other people to come and help. First I caught the hand holding the axe so that he couldn't kill me, I somehow managed to grab the axe. He succeeded in escaping and I shouted to somebody to run after At first I thought he was a laborer and that this wasn't a serious incident, but then I realized it was an Arab, Avinoam said. I wouldn't have a clue if this was somebody who was employed here in an illegal manner, because we don't employ Arabs. He was not dressed-up (for work), he looked normal. He had a longing for murder in his eyes.' The struggle lasted several minutes, Avinoam said, adding that the terrorist was saying something along the lines of I will kill, I will kill while the two were struggling. The attacker apparently entered Bat Ayin, located between Jerusalem and the southern West Bank city of Hebron, unhindered. The religious settlers have refused to build a security fence around their community - standard practice in most settlements - sayin Palestinians suspend Cairo talks without agreement, again Middle East News Gaza/Cairo - Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas on Thursday suspended talks in Cairo without an agreement on a 'national unity' government, representatives from the factions said. Fatah, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, for the third time failed to agree on the political platform for the interim government, control of Palestinian security forces, or the conduct of elections to replace the i Delegates from the Palestinian factions will return to Cairo for a fourth round of Egyptian-brokered talks on April 21 after returning to Gaza, Ramallah and Damascus for consultation with their leaders, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported. The talks 'haven't achieved any progress on all the outstanding issues,' Senior Hamas leader and negotiator Izzat al-Rishq told reporters on Thursday. Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan struck a more optimistic note. 'We hope to overcome all our differences and problems soon,' said Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan. 'The Egyptians are exerting tremendous effort to bridge the gaps and make the dialogue succeed.' 'If an agreement is reached, it will be linked to the release of all Hamas political prisoners in Palestinian jails in the West Bank,' Radwan said. 'Any agreement will be reached should be implemented as one package.' The big one - is Google buying Twitter? It sounds like one of those deals that's too big - or at least too obvious - to be true; in talks to buy Twitter reports three sources on acquisition talks, with scant detail including price. The assumption is that it would be more than the company's internal valuation of $250m , and a more secure figure than the $500m in stock deal that Twitter turned down from last year. But talks for what? Would this be an outright acquisition, part acquisition or a search deal? I said when Facebook talks were reported that it would be sad to see Twitter lose its independence, though it is perhaps inevitable. Twitter is backed by some extremely influential investors who, despite their apparently unwavering support for the firm, w It could be for a stake in the firm, which would mean Twitter retained control and that precious independence. Real-time communication and search, along with social media context, are going becoming crucial to the web - as Google knows. It's not inconceiv The third scenario is a partnership between the two around real-time search, and as TechCrunch says: Google doesn't even have a horse in the game, referring to the once-rival Jaiku that it bought but later closed. You can guarantee that the two are talk Though much of the recent media buzz around Twitter has been outside its control (Twitter has only just stated recruiting a PR ...), it has also created intense interest in the site and no doubt helped bolster its valuation claims. ' caveat - if this is true - it vindicates Twitter's regular assurances that there really is money in them there hills. Google clearly sees where the money lies, and it will be fascinating to see what unfolds. What else does this say about Twitter? With the big ' • Update: Fulfilling her professional obligation to disprove anything TechCrunch claims as an exclusive, says acquisition talks are inaccurate and that talks are focused on product-related discussions. Swisher reports another source who said of an acquisition: Seriously, no negotiations, no deal, nada. So more strength, then, to a collaborative deal on real-time search. At the moment, you can supplement Google's usual search with real-time Twitter results if you use a Greasemonkey Firefox plugin . But these two will be talking about something far more substantial that takes real-time search mainstream. The Full Picture: Broader Unemployment Hits 15.6% Americans are giving up on their job searches at a faster pace. The nation\rquote s official unemployment rate jumped to 8.5% in March from 8.1%, putting U.S. joblessness at its highest since November 1983. But the \rquote s most comprehensive gauge of unemployment surpassed even its early 1980s levels. The government\rquote s broader measure, known as the \ldblquote U-6″ for its data classification, hit 15.6% in March \emdash a big leap from 14.8% in February. The comprehensive measure of labor underutilization accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or who can\rquote t find full-time jobs. The March figure is the highest since the Labor Department started this particular data series in 1994. It\rquote s also a The 8.5% unemployment rate is calculated based on people who are without jobs, who are available to work and who have actively sought work in the prior four weeks. The \ldblquote actively looking for work\rdblquote definition is fairly broad, including people who contacted The U-6 figure includes everyone in the official rate plus \ldblquote marginally attached workers\rdblquote \emdash those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently; and people who are employed part-time for economic re Many forecasters expect the official unemployment rate to top 10% by early next year. If the path of the broader unemployment rate continues, it\rquote s likely to top 18%. For people in this group, comparisons to the Great Depression (when 25% of Americans w At Least 12 Slain in Binghamton, N.Y. By MITCHELL L. BLUMENTHAL and LIZ ROBBINS Published: April 3, 2009 Twelve or 13 people were killed when a gunman opened fire in an immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y., Gov. David A. Paterson said Friday. According to several news reports, the police said the gunman then killed himself with a bullet to the head. While the situation is still developing and details are being gathered, we do know that a gunman entered the American Civic Association in Binghamton this morning and that there are fatalities,\rdblquote Governor Paterson said in a statement Friday afternoon. \ldblquote We The gunman, described as an Asian male, had a high-powered rifle, Mayor Matthew Ryan of Binghamton told The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin. NBC News quoted law enforcement sources saying that several weapons were recovered from the scene. Three people with gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson Medical Center in nearby Johnson City, according to Christina Boyd, a hospital spokeswoman. They are a woman in her 20s and another in her 50s, and a man of undetermined age, she said; one was \ldblquote We\rquote ve been told that all of the fatalities are still at the scene because of the investigation,\rdblquote Ms. Boyd said. \ldblquote We\rquote re hearing they will release the bodies soon.\rdblquote Another person was being treated at Our Lady of Lourdes in Binghamton, a hospital spokeswoman there said. The Associated Press quoted a local official as saying that the gunman barricaded the rear door of the one-story association building in downtown Binghamton with his car before entering through the front door, firing his weapon. The newspaper\rquote s web site quoted the police there as saying that about 40 hostages were initially in the building. Shortly after noon, about 10 people were released from the building, the reports said, and about 40 minutes later another 10 were released. The Binghamton Police Department declined to provide details of the shootings, as officers and members of local S.W.A.T. teams surrounded the building, situated on a mixed commercial and residential strip on the west bank of the Chenango River near the ce Binghamton High School, around the corner from the scene of the shootings, was locked down until late afternoon, and nearby apartment buildings were evacuated. The association describes itself on its Web site an organization that aids immigrants and refugees. In New York on Friday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was to speak to the Rev. Al Sharpton \rquote s National Action Network when he learned of the incident. As he told the audience about the shooting before his speech, an audible gasp could be heard. We\rquote ve got to figure out a way to deal with this terrible, terrible violence,\rdblquote Mr. Biden said. Mayor Matthew Ryan of Binghamton scheduled a news conference at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time to brief reporters about the situation. Pennie Kerber, 72, who lives in a renovated former firehouse across the street from the civic association, said that as of 3 p.m., there were only about 12 law enforcement officers left at the scene. But earlier, Ms. Kerber said, she could see from her fr F.B.I. officials, and probably \ldblquote every policeman on our force\rdblquote surrounding the civic association building. Maryam Weisser, a vice president of the civic association, said in a telephone interview that she was not sure how many people were killed, though she knew that the group\rquote s secretary and a case worker were in the building and that classes in English as a \ldblquote This is the friendliest, nicest place to be,\rdblquote Ms. Weisser, a volunteer from Vestal, N.Y., said. \ldblquote This is a community where we help with any immigrant issue, with citizenship and translation.\rdblquote Last month, a gunman in Samson, Ala., shot and killed 10 people and wounded 6 others \emdash including several members of his family \emdash before turning the gun on himself. Original Article: Other measures of employment reported that discouraged workers and workers only able to find part-time work rose to a record 15.6%. Furthermore, nine million workers want full-time work but are only able to find part-time jobs. This total represents an in During the past six months, nearly 3.7 million jobs have been lost, or nearly 3% of the workforce. The percentage loss is the second largest in 50 years. Turning to specific industries, service industries saw 358,000 jobs lost and goods-producing industri released by the Labor Department this morning, U.S. nonfarm payrolls dropped by 663,000 in March and the unemployment rate ascended to 8.5% from 8.1%. January's job losses were revised to 741,000 -- which is the worst since 1949. The Labor Department also March payrolls fall by 663,000, unemployment jumps to 8.5% Justin's US Conservative Politics\~Blog A 41-year-old Asian man reportedly opened fire inside the American Civic Association on Front Street in Binghamton, NY Friday morning around 10:30 a.m., killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 20 others before allegedly turning the gun on himself. Along with the usual citizenship classes, Friday afternoons at the American Civic Association were reserved for administering practice citizenship tests. At the time of the shooting, FOX News reports there could have been as many as 40 to 45 people inside.. Undoubtedly, in the days ahead more developments will come to light as people all across the nation -- but especially those in Binghamton -- try to make sense of this tragedy. Unfortunately, it is almost certain that the incident will be politicized event While I caution everyone against politicizing this one way or another before all the facts are in, there is bound to be backlash against conservative positions, as there almost always is in situations like this. Conservatives should not be surprised. They Gun control advocates will undoubtedly be poised to use this incident as fodder for championing their cause. Likewise, there will be those who maintain that anti-immigration conservatives are more likely to perpetrate a crime of this nature. Yet, even if Since so little information is available, I encourage everyone to avoid jumping to conclusions, making assumptions or speculating on the shooting's political ramifications. There will be plenty of time to deal with those matters in the coming days and wee For now, let's just pray for the victims and send our collective condolences to the townspeople of Binghamton. Bird flu cases rise in Egypt 3rd April 2009 In Egypt, the number of bird flu cases has risen yet again to 61, making six new human infections over the past month. Egypt is the most populous Arab country and the one hit hardest by bird flu outside Asia. A two-year-old boy from the province of Bohaira, in the north, is believed to have become infected after coming into contact with poultry carrying the disease. The boy was taken to hospital earlier this week after coming down with a fever during a family visit, where he was treated with the drug Tamiflu. Even though it is recommended by experts, health authorities in Egypt do not compensate farmers for birds that need to be culled. In the last six years, at least 410 people have contracted the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The infections have occurred in 15 countries and caused 254 human deaths, and entailed the culling of some 300 million birds in 61 countries. The human dead include 23 Egyptians, contact with domestic birds carrying the virus being the most common infection route. In Egypt, where approximately 5 million households derive their main source of food and income from domestic poultry, comparatively few people have been infected. This recent case comes just over one week after a two-year-old girl in the province of Qena was found to have contracted the virus. One day after the girl's symptoms began, she was moved to a hospital specialising in treating the disease and given the drug oseltamivir. Her condition eventually stabilised. Cases in Egypt have been sporadic, and just over one third have been fatal. However, experts fear that the H5N1 virus could become transmissible from one human to another, bringing devastating consequences worldwide. The virus responsible for the Spanish flu pandemic, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed somewhere between 20 and 50 million people worldwide, was less deadly than a potentially mutated H5N1 bird flu virus. Billions of dollars are currently being spent by governments in preparation for a potential outbreak, and at least 17 governments and 12 companies are developing bird flu vaccines. Cyber-spies used social sites to trick Dalai Lama\rquote s office: US expert March 30th, 2009 - 8:13 pm ICT by IANS Washington, March 30 (IANS) A Chinese cyber-espionage network used sophisticated social and computer engineering techniques to trick the Dalai Lama\rquote s office into downloading malicious software, according to a cyber security expert. Researchers, based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada, Sunday reported that the spy ring had infiltrated computers and stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, incl The software was attached to e-mails that purported to come from colleagues or contacts in the Tibetan movement, according to researcher Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, cited by the Wash The software stole passwords and other information, which in turn gave the hackers access to the office\rquote s e-mail system and documents stored on computers there. \ldblquote The intelligent and highly coordinated use of social engineering and [malicious software] techniques is extraordinarily effective,\rdblquote Anderson told the Times, warning that the techniques involved could easily be used by cybercriminals to victimise major co \ldblquote It is only a matter of time before we see [these techniques] used by cybercriminals,\rdblquote he said. \ldblquote The existing accounting systems of Fortune 500 companies are designed to withstand one crooked person… or one compromised computer at a time,\rdblquote he added, notin After analysing the software, Anderson and his colleagues turned their data over to researchers at the Munk Center, which published its findings Sunday. \ldblquote There is no doubt that this is a Chinese state actor at work,\rdblquote Anderson said. \ldblquote There is a lot of concurrence between what we found on the ground and what is known about Chinese information-warfare capabilities and doctrine… The targets are a very good fi The Toronto researchers declined to be so definite about who was behind the attacks. Former senior US cybersecurity official Greg Garcia was similarly cautious, telling the Times that \ldblquote attribution is a hall of mirrors\rdblquote . \ldblquote There are a whole range of complex technical and other questions that have to be resolved… before you start pointing fingers,\rdblquote said Garcia, who was assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security from Octob He said it was the prevalence of such threats \ldblquote from all over the world\rdblquote that led the Bush administration to launch the Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative last year. \ldblquote Congress and the Obama administration need to use that momentum and accelerate fundi DPRK's Projected Satellite Launch Supported Pyongyang, April 3 (KCNA) -- Daniel Alvarez Celi, chairman of the Ecuadorian Committee for Supporting Korea's Independent and Peaceful Reunification, released a statement titled The imperialists' sophism on the DPRK's projected just satellite launch can Noting that use of outer space is not a privilege only for some countries, the statement stressed that all sovereign states in the world have rights to make a free use of outer space, whether they be big or small. Nevertheless, the U.S., Japan and the south Korean puppets are raising a hue and cry over the quite legitimate satellite launch projected by the DPRK. Such behaviors can never be allowed as they are a wonton violation of the international law on free use It further said: Chronology of North Korea's missile program 10 hours ago By The Associated Press \endash A timeline of developments in North Korea's missile program: _ Aug. 31, 1998: North Korea fires suspected missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, calling it a satellite. _ Sept. 13, 1999: North Korea pledges to freeze long-range missile tests. _ June 2001: North Korea warns it will reconsider missile test moratorium if Washington doesn't resume contacts aimed at normalizing relations. _ July 2001: U.S. State Department reports North Korea developing long-range missile. _ September 2002: North Korea pledges in summit talks with Japan to extend its moratorium on missile tests beyond 2003. _ Jan. 10, 2003: North Korea announces withdrawal from Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. _ March 10, 2003: North Korea fires a land-to-ship missile off east coast into waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan. _ October 2003: North Korea fires two land-to-ship missiles. _ May 2004: North Korea reaffirms its missile moratorium in summit talks with Japan. _ May 2005: North Korea fires a short-range missile into waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan. _ March 8, 2006: North Korea fires two short-range missiles. _ June 18, 2006: North Korea vows to increase its military deterrent to cope with what it calls U.S. attempts to provoke war. _ July 5, 2006: North Korea launches seven missiles into waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, including a long-range Taepodong-2. _ July 15, 2006: U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 1695 demanding North Korea halt missile program. _ Oct. 9, 2006: North Korea conducts underground nuclear test blast after citing extreme threat of a nuclear war from U.S. _ Oct. 15, 2006: U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 1718 condemning test, imposing sanctions and banning North Korea from activities related to its nuclear weapons program, including their means of delivery and related materials. _ July 14, 2007: North Korea shuts down its main Yongbyon reactor, later starts disabling it. _ June 27, 2008: North Korea destroys cooling tower at Yongbyon. _ Sept. 19, 2008: North Korea says it is restoring a key atomic reactor. _ Oct. 11, 2008: U.S. removes North Korea from a list of states that sponsor terrorism. _ Feb. 15: North Korea claims it has the right to space development. _ Feb. 23: South Korea says North Korea has a new type of medium-range ballistic missile capable of reaching northern Australia and Guam. _ March 11: North Korea declares satellite launch will take place between April 4-8. _ April 5: North Korea launches long-range rocket from its base at Musundan-ri on the country's northeast coast. Source: South Korean defense and foreign ministries and presidential office. 24 killed, 35 injured in Pakistan mosque bombing (Fifth Lead) Islamabad, April 5 (IANS) At least 24 people, including four children, were killed and 35 others injured Sunday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a Shia mosque in Pakistan\rquote s Punjab province. April 5th, 2009 - 9:04 pm ICT by IANS The blast occurred at the Imambargah (Mosque) in the Mohala Sarpak area in Chakwal town, where a large number of devotees gathered to offer special prayers on the occasion of the annual Majlis Aza. Eyewitnesses said the devotees were at the main gate, waiting to go back to their respective places after prayers, when the bomb exploded. At least 24 people, including four children, were killed in the powerful explosion. Several vehicles parked near the mosque were damaged, the Geo TV reported. The report citing eyewitnesses said the suicide bomber was about 17 years old. Women choose exile as Taliban laws return THE first Afghan woman to appear on television after the fall of the Taliban_has fled the country, saying it is too dangerous, as her husband was shot_dead outside their house. Paween Mushtakhel, 41, and her two children left Afghanistan on Friday. Hours_later, under intense pressure from critics worldwide, President Hamid Karzai_promised to review new laws that are said in effect to legalise marital rape_in the Shi\rquote ite minority Those laws had angered Nato countries weighing up US calls for more troops._From London to Ottawa, officials questioned whether they should risk their_soldiers\rquote lives to bolster an Afghan government that not only failed to_protect women but was also plann \ldblquote When the Taliban went I thought things were getting better for women,\rdblquote said_Paween. \ldblquote Now I think it won\rquote t change for a long time.\rdblquote One of the country\rquote s leading actresses, Paween is among a number of prominent_Afghan women who have been forced to leave the country in recent months._Others include a leading policewoman who received a letter from the Taliban_saying she had been sentence Paween began her career aged 19 but fled to Pakistan when the mujaheddin_entered Kabul in 1992 and closed the theatres. She later returned and_married a taxi driver from Khost, with whom she had a son and daughter, now_aged eight and seven. When the Taliban fell she seized the opportunity to be the first woman to_appear on TV. \ldblquote Others were scared but I thought it was good to show the_way,\rdblquote she explained. Her own family did not agree. \ldblquote My sisters cut me off, saying, \lquote Why are you_appearing on TV? Being an actress in this country is like being a whore\rquote .\rdblquote Last summer she appeared in a production of the Shakespeare comedy Love\rquote s_Labour\rquote s Lost, staged by a French director, after which she began to receive_death threats. People in turbans came on motorbikes, saying: \ldblquote Don\rquote t act or_you\rquote ll be killed.\rdblquote Her husban One night, as Paween came out of Ariana TV, she was knocked down by a bike._Then, as she prepared dinner at home, her husband went out for firewood. She_thought she heard shots, but because there were lots of fireworks at the_time, she took little notice. At 9am a local elder told her she should go to the police station, and 200_yards from their house she saw her husband\rquote s bullet-riddled body. When she tried to register a case with the police, they asked for a bribe. She_took her children into hiding and spent three months trying to get help._Eventually she ended up at the national security office, where she was_warned off, on pain of also endi \ldblquote What can I do but run away?\rdblquote she asked. Paween is now in Pakistan and hopes_to request asylum in Canada. Her story adds weight to the fury of Nato_officials over the laws from the Shi\rquote ite minority, which would limit the_rights of women, apparently in a b \ldblquote We are there to defend universal values and when I see a law threatening to_come into effect which fundamentally violates women\rquote s rights . . . that_worries me,\rdblquote said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary-general. Karzai said he had ordered the justice ministry to review the law, together_with scholars and religious leaders. \ldblquote Measures would be taken\rdblquote if it_contravened the country\rquote s constitution or sharia, he said. He complained that western media had mistranslated one part of the law, which_appeared to restrict a woman\rquote s right to leave her home. However, he did not_mention another article that governs sexual relations between Shi\rquote ite men_and their wives, which the Twenty people died on the spot, while four others died in hospitals. Blood stained bodies were found strewn all across the place, it said. The injured and the bodies were shifted to Chakwal District Headquarter Hospital and in medical centres in Rawalpindi. People have rushed to hospitals to finding out the welfare of their injured relatives. Meanwhile, the police have cordoned off the blast site for investigation. Pakistan has a long history of sectarian attacks mostly against Shia Muslims by Sunni extremist groups, which have joined hands with Taliban and Al Qaeda militants based in country\rquote s lawless tribal region near Afghan border. DPA said the Chakwal attack could be a part of a new wave of attacks by Taliban, who have threatened to step up strikes inside Pakistan till the government stops the US from carrying out drone attacks in tribal belt. The Taliban accuse Islamabad, a key US ally in the international fight against terrorism, of providing assistance to US forces for these air strikes. On Sunday, a suicide bomber targeted paramilitary troops deployed in Islamabad\rquote s upmarket neighbourhood where several embassies, UN offices and residences of foreign diplomats are located. Eight soldiers and a civilian died and 12 others were injured. T-Mobile Germany Banning Skype for iPhone We in the U.S. love to complain. Take this week's introduction of Skype for the iPhone . The mobile VoIP client appears to be a pretty solid offering, letting you not only chat with your Skype buddies, but also make voice calls -- as long as you're using the Wi-Fi connection, a stipulation Apple had pointed out way back in March 2008 when it first unveiled the iPhone SDK. (Also see PCWorld.com's review That didn't stop the barrage of complaints that the ban on 3G was arbitrary and designed only to support AT&T's business model. Which, to be fair, is pretty accurate. Whether or not that makes it wrong, well, that's up to higher powers to decide. But at l wants to ban use of the Skype app on both its 3G network and its extensive Wi-Fi hot spot network. Not only has T-Mobile said that the use of Skype is forbidden, but it's also declared its intent to cancel the contracts of any users who use workarounds to run the program anyway. The company's reasoning is that the program's high data use would choke th Skype's general counsel fired back in a blog post , saying: They pretend that their action has to do with technical concerns: this is baseless. Skype works perfectly well on iPhone, as hundreds of thousands of people globally can already readily attest. Whatever the case, T-Mobile looks to have a steep road ahead of itself, as Skype is currently the top free app on the German App Store. Viel Glück! Lebanese election scene takes shape BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 3 (UPI) -- The number of candidates for the Lebanese parliamentary election has reached 270 as an April 7 deadline for electoral lists looms. The Lebanese Interior Ministry has imposed an April 7 deadline for political organizations to submit their lists for the June elections. That list has so far reached 270 candidates competing for 128 seats, the Lebanese Daily Star reports. The report comes as several major political blocs in Lebanon announced their lists and launched campaigns in recent weeks. Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Hezbollah, gave a major televised speech this week unveiling his platform an Observers predict a close race for the June elections between members of the pro-Western March 14 alliance and the March 8 coalition, which includes Hezbollah. Ibrahim Halabi, a candidate for a Sunni seat in Beirut, issued a stark warning for the aftermath of the elections. This has put the country before two possibilities: the opposition winning the majority by a slight margin and forming a national unity cabinet, or the March 14 alliance winning by a slight margin and monopolizing the governing process, he said, adding t Afghan women betrayed Karzai courts votes of conservative Shia clerics by endorsing repressive family law Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghan women in theory have had the right to wear what they want. After five years of being hounded, beaten and denied their basic human rights by the Taliban, the women of Afghanistan should have been able to count on the support of the man who replaced them, the country's current leader, President Hamid Karzai. After all as part of the deal for being put into power in 2001 by the West, Karzai vowed to build a modern state in which women were guaranteed equal rights. He did keep his promise, briefly. Afghanistan's post-Taliban constitution guaranteed equal rights to men and women. But in his seven years as the head of Afghanistan's government, Karzai failed to consolidate power and now fears defeat. As this year's presidential election closes in - it's scheduled for August - Karzai is chasing swing votes. Most of those votes, regre The Afghan constitution was written to leave a foothold for the Shias. A religious minority making up about 10 per cent of the population, Shias are constitutionally allowed to have a separate family law. Shia clerics made it clear to Karzai, reports say, Karzai is reported to have already signed a law acceding to their every demand: Rape within marriage is legalized. Women are banned from leaving their homes without their husbands' permission. They cannot work, go to school or see a doctor unless their hu Shinkai Zahine Karokhail, a female MP, told The Guardian the law was pushed through the Afghan parliament with almost no debate. She said, They wanted to pass it almost like a secret negotiation. There were lots of things that we wanted to change, but th A second Afghan politician, Senator Humaira Namati, also told the Guardian that the new law was worse than during the Taliban. She also described an atmosphere of intimidation during the limited debate, saying, Anyone who spoke out was accused of being Shia clerics protested that the new law was not as bad as its critics have made it out to be, saying that women can leave their homes in an emergency. This is a concept that requires definition. Who can forget the schoolgirls in Saudi Arabia whom religious police refused to allow to escape their burning school because they were not wearing the headscarves and long dresses required to appear in public? The religious police viewed improper clothi The outrage directed at Karzai from around the world represents the one silver lining in this story of treachery at the highest political level. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters, Women's rights are a central part of the foreign policy of the Obama administration. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, We will continue to work to protect human rights, especially for women and girls. Women should be free to work, teach and live without oppression and fear. In Canada, it was a clean sweep among political parties Making progress on human rights for women is a significant component of the international engagement in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in London. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff c And now what? We all disapprove. Karzai cares only about getting re-elected and we care about rooting out terrorists. Unfortunately, for both those purposes, the women of Afghanistan are - and will likely remain - non-essential. Until this law was passed, Afghan Shia women could have simply waited until August and voted Karzai out of power. In the 2004 election, women brushed past threats and violence to register to vote. They made up 41 per cent of the more than 8.2 million vote This is the true tragedy: Having known freedom, women will once again be locked up, powerless to change their fate. The April 6 strike as seen by Egyptian newspapers The headlines in today\rquote s Egyptian dailies: The state press - Al-Ahram (loyal and sycophantic): As per Mubarak\rquote s instructions, LE10bn will be earmarked for social welfare and job creation. - Al-Akhbar (dour and old-fashioned): \ldblquote Call for strike: no room for chaos and production stoppage.\rdblquote - Al-Gomhouriya (gloating): \ldblquote Egypt does not acknowledge chaos.\rdblquote - Rose al-Youssef (triumphant): \ldblquote New defeats for the supporters of the strike.\rdblquote The mainstream independent press - Al-Masri al-Youm (brutally honest): A failed strike. - Al-Shorouq al-Gedid (poetic): 6 April: calm streets and timid protests. - Nahdet Misr (laconic): A strike without strikers. - Al-Badil (embarrassed): Weak participation in strike. The opposition-independent press - Al-Dostour (oblivious): 6 April: small protests The real big story of the day, though, are allegations by Masri al-Youm editor Magdi Gallad that Ayman Nour\rquote s wife and stalwart supporter, Gamila Ismail (well-known in Egypt as a former television presenter and later an advocate for her husband) that Gamila sent him a SMS s Obama makes surprise stop in Baghdad Rich says Obama is wrapping up. The president and Prime Minister al-Maliki met for about 30 minutes. Obama said all hearts go out to victims of recent violence. Still, he said, We should not be distracted because we have made enormous progress working al Rich says Obama will now head back to Washington. Unclear when Air Force One will get back to Andrews Air Force Base. Obama has finished addressing about 600 troops at Camp Victory. He thanked them and said turning Iraq into a fledgling democracy is an extraordinary achievement and pledged that as long as I'm in the White House, you are going to get the support that y Rich talked to Army Spec. Joshua Tisdale, 24, of Pekin, Ill. Tisdale said Obama's visit makes me feel like he actually cares. Update at 10:50 a.m.: Rich filed a pool report explaining Obama's decision to go to Iraq. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One that Obama chose Iraq over Afghanistan for the visit for three reasons: proximity to Turkey, the last stop in his European tour; the need to consult with Iraqi officials because Rich says Obama had planned to helicopter to Baghdad's Green Zone to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iraqi President Jalal Talibani but bad weather and poor visibility caused that plan to be scrapped. Obama will meet with Gen. Raymond O Obama just landed in Iraq. USA TODAY's Rich Wolf reports that the president made a detour as he heads home from his first trans-Atlantic trip. Rich says Obama plans to speak with troops at Camp Victory near Baghdad's main airport, as well as Pentagon officials and Iraqi leaders, during his brief stop. We're updating Rich's story here , so please check back with us. USA TODAY's Mimi Hall and David Jackson will add context throughout the day on the president's Iraq trip and his plans to withdraw most U.S. combat troops by the end of 2011. (Posted by Catalina Camia) Troops welcome Obama in Iraq He works to build bonds with forces in surprise visit WASHINGTON - President Obama drew praise from troops and veterans groups for his surprise visit yesterday to Baghdad, another step in his concerted effort to win the support of the military despite having opposed the Iraq war and never having served in u I'm honored and grateful to be with all of you. And I'm not going to talk long because I want to shake as many hands as I can, the president said, to loud applause and shouts. The troops, he said, have performed brilliantly and he pledged to do ever We have not forgotten what you have already done, we are grateful for what you will do, Obama said. And as long as I am in the White House, you are going to get the support that you need and the thanks that you deserve from a grateful nation. The unscheduled trip to Baghdad is Obama's latest gesture designed to win over the armed forces since he went on a listening tour with top Pentagon brass seven weeks ago. Last month, speaking to Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Obama promised The new president knows that the military has a key role to play in shaping the tone of his early presidency, said Rudy DeLeone, a military specialist at the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning Washington think tank. Taking care of the men and women who are serving in the field is one of the unique requirements of the president as commander in chief. He gets that, said DeLeone, who was undersecretary of defense under former president Clinton. Yet members of the military and their families have long been skeptical of Democratic leaders, especially those who have never served in the military. And Obama was no exception: A Military Times poll conducted three weeks before his inauguration showed Clinton, who was the first president in more than half a century never to have worn a military uniform, had serious problems in his first months in office winning the respect of troops. Many expressed resistance to his leadership, and questioned his comm But analysts note that Obama - who, like Clinton, was educated in the Ivy League and seems culturally distant from the military rank and file - wants to avoid Clinton's missteps. Even before Clinton's election, many in the military distrusted him for h Beirut, 04 Apr 09, 08:05 My boss is going to be doing things as expeditiously as possible, Achouri said. The intention is not to delay. As an example of Bellemare's desire to move the tribunal proceedings along as fast as possible, Achouri said the prosecutor had sent Fransen Tribunal prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, for his part, intends to provide his recommendations on the four detained generals as soon as possible, said Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office. Lebanese authorities have to submit the necessary information within 14 days after the March 31 receipt of the tribunal's order, as written in the tribunal's rules of evidence and procedure. Lebanon's justice ministry, meanwhile, will meet the deadline to transfer to the tribunal all Lebanese material on the Feb. 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, as well as the names of those detained in connection with the killing, said a minist Cassese will arrive full-time in The Hague on April 14, earlier than previous proposals for him to move to the Netherlands at the beginning of May, Vincent told the English-language newspaper. The court released Cassese's and Fransen's names because security measures had been taken in their home countries, but the names of the Lebanese judges will come out only when the judges say the security precautions in Beirut are sufficient, Vincent said. The Lebanese judges - among them the tribunal's vice president as required by the court's statutes - were sworn in with the seven international jurists, but their identities remain a secret. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced on March 24 that Antonio Cassese, an Italian, had taken his oath as president of the tribunal's judges, while Belgium's Daniel Fransen had been sworn in as the court's pre-trial judge. I need confirmation from the judges themselves that the security precautions are in place and working, the registrar said. I need to be satisfied that ... [the Lebanese judges] are happy with the arrangements, Vincent told The Daily Star in an intervi The international tribunal's registrar, Robin Vincent, said he hopes to uncover the Lebanese judges' identities soon, adding that the Lebanese vice president of the court would take office in The Hague sooner rather than later. Vincent Hopes to Reveal Identities of Lebanese Judges Soon Apr 7, 2009 23:20\~|\~Updated Apr 9, 2009 14:44 'Present border line only plausible defense for Israel' Security arrangements for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights considered by prime ministers Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak in the late 1990s would not provide Israel with sufficient security, a new paper being released by the Jerusalem Center The paper, authored by former national security adviser Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland and set for release on Wednesday, states that the present border line is the only one affording plausible defense for the State of Israel. The JCPA is headed by former ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold, who has served as a foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu and is touted as a leading candidate to serve as Israel's next envoy to Washington. In the paper, Eiland claims that the security arrangements discussed at the time were flawed and relied on dangerous assumptions. There has been speculation that Netanyahu will seek to engage Syria in peace talks during his current term in office. The security arrangements were based on two components: that the ceded territory would be demilitarized and that Israel would retain an early-warning base on the Hermon to identify violations of the agreement. Eiland claims that neither of these components would successfully ensure the country's security, and that any Israeli movement westward - away from the Golan - would create a considerable depreciation of Israel's defensive capability. In addition, Eiland warns that the major Syrian threat to Israel is no longer its ground forces, but its ground-to-ground missiles and large stockpiles of chemical weapons. During the talks Barak led in 1999-2000, Eiland writes, no attempt was made to deg Eiland also casts doubt on the assumption that peace with Syria would isolate Iran, assist the Palestinian-Israeli track and weaken Hizbullah. The greatest strategic threat to Israel is posed by nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran. The continued existence of such a threat will not be influenced at all by whether there will be a peace agreement between Israel and Syria, he writes. Iran, he continues, is the primary supporter of Hizbullah, and even following a peace agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem, it could transfer arms to Hizbullah via Syria, as well as via other routes. A forfeiture of the Golan Heights, Eiland says, would also create a situation where the IDF's assembly areas in the Hula Valley would be within the effective range of Syrian mortars and artillery. We are no longer dealing with the Sagger missiles of Yom Kippur War vintage, but with advanced missiles with an effective range of 5 km., both day and night, he says. Additionally, improvements in anti-aircraft missiles, and especially the existence of The Israel Air Force, he warns, might also lose its upper hand, since the Syrian missile threat to the home front would compel the IAF to fight both in support of ground troops and to suppress Syrian rocket and missile fire at an early stage. This stands in sharp contrast to the current security concept positing that Israeli ground forces can get along almost on their own during the first days of the fighting while the air force achieves air superiority, Eiland writes. RATE THIS ARTICLE 55. Golan is a necessity for the existence of Israel. I know that, I am from a Golani army unit. unit. Anton________________________-____________Israel________________________(04/09/2009 14:13) 48. Why is Israel in the Golan in the first place? Remember 1967, and never forget it. stella________________________-____________USA________________________(04/09/2009 04:50) Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski Israeli delegation walks out of Ethiopia conference The Israeli delegation at an inter-parliamentary conference in Addis Ababa walked out of the event Tuesday in protest of the presence of Hamas officials in the Palestinian team. The delegation was lead by Likud's Silvan Shalom and Kadima's Shlomo Molla. Shalom said that he could not sit in a conference with a terror group and that Hamas's participation was no different to the attendance of Taliban or al-Qaida representatives. During the conference, the Palestinian and Iranian delegations held up photos of Palestinians killed during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead and scenes of destruction from the Gaza Strip. In a related development, Arab, Iranian MPs walk out of meeting during a speech by the delegate from Israel Ma\rquote an ) \emdash Palestinian, Arab, and Iranian members of parliament walked out of a meeting of the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) during a speech by an Israeli politician on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Ahmad Bahar, claimed to have announced his departure from the hall during a speech by the Israeli. Representatives of Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen also walked ou Israeli Knesset member Silvan Shalom responded to the walk-out by denouncing Hamas and its parliament members as \ldblquote terrorists.\rdblquote Syria\rquote s representative replied to Shalom\rquote s comments by telling that Hamas is a Palestinian resistance movement elected by the Pa Shalom told Israeli media a different version of events, in which he blocked an Iranian effort to raise a critical discussion of the Israeli war on Gaza during the meeting. Prophet Muhammad cartoon goes on sale in Denmark A Danish press freedom group said Wednesday it is selling copies of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that caused outrage across the Muslim World. COPENHAGEN -- Some 1,000 printed reproductions of a drawing depicting the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban are being sold for 1,400 kroner ($250) each, said Lars Hedegaard, chairman of the Danish Free Press Society. All we are doing is starting a debate, Hedegaard said. We are using our freedom of speech. Hedegaard said Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, who drew the cartoon in 2005, had given the society permission to produce the copies and sell them. Each numbered copy has been signed by Westergaard, Hedegaard said. We have not, and are not, breaking any laws, Hedegaard told The Associated Press. Westergaard has been living under police protection since an alleged plot to murder him was discovered last year. Twelve cartoons depicting the prophet, including the one by Westergaard, were published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005. The following year, they triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia, with rioters torching Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry. Throughout the crisis, then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologize for them, citing freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for the actions of Denmark's pr On Saturday, Fogh Rasmussen was chosen to become NATO's new secretary-general despite threats by Turkey, the alliance's only Muslim member, to veto his election. Mohammed cartoon on sale COPENHAGEN - DENMARK'S Free Press Society is selling prints of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed published by a Danish newspaper in 2005 that angered the Muslim world, it said on its website on Wednesday. One thousand prints of the cartoon, featuring the prophet wearing a turban with a lit fuse stuck in it, are up for sale for US$250 (S$379) on the group's website. 'Now you can own an exclusive print of the most famous picture of our time,' the site said. Westergaard, 73, is one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Muslim prophet were first published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, sparking controversy among Muslims worldwide. Two Tunisians were arrested in Denmark last year on suspicion of planning to murder Westergaard, and later released without trial after they appealed a government order for their expulsion on national security grounds. 'The image won Kurt Westergaard international fame, but it has also forced him to live under constant police protection,' the Free Press Society said on its website. Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan. -- AFP He has since been the subject of threats, forcing him to live in hiding. 'Despite threats and concrete murder plots planned by Islamists, he has nonetheless never expressed any regret and never apologised for being a free artist.' Calls to the organisation were not returned. The 12 cartoons were considered offensive by many Muslims and their publication sparked violent protests worldwide in January and February 2006. Each print is numbered and signed by the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. France Foreign Minister rebuffs Obama's call for Turkey's EU admission France's powerful Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, said today that he had_turned against the idea of allowing Turkey to join the European Union_because of Ankara\rquote s behaviour at last week\rquote s Nato summit. Mr Kouchner, who came to prominence as co-founder of Medecins sans Frontieres,_made the comment as Barack Obama - speaking to a gathering of students in_Istanbul on the final event of his eight-day European tour - called once_again for Turkey to be grante President Sarkozy has long been opposed to Turkey\rquote s EU bid and that has been_official French policy, but his left-wing Foreign Minister had been more_open to the idea - at least until Saturday's summit in Strasbourg. \ldblquote Turkey\rquote s evolution in, let\rquote s say, a more religious direction, towards a less_robust secularism, worries me,\rdblquote the minister told RTL radio. Mr Kouchner said that he had been surprised when Turkey\rquote s delegation to the_Nato summit had initially refused to accept the appointment of Anders Fogh_Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, as the alliance\rquote s new_Secretary-General. Mr Rasmussen made enemies The Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, delayed Saturday's summit by refusing to_accept his nomination and only dropped his veto threat after Mr Obama_brokered a compromise deal under which Mr Rasmussen will have a Turkish_deputy. \ldblquote I was very shocked by the pressure that was brought on us,\rdblquote Mr Kouchner said. After the Strasbourg summit, Mr Obama ruffled some feathers in Europe by_explicitly backing Turkish membership of the EU - prompting a sniffy rebuke_from Mr Sarkozy that that would be Europe's decision, not America's. In Istanbul today, Mr Obama was asked about Mr Sarkozy's comments. It is_true that the United States is not a member of the EU, so it's not our_decision to take, but that doesn't prevent me fro having an opinion,_he replied. I've noticed that the Europeans have a lot of opinions about US policy_for a long time and they've not been shy about expressing them. That's what_friends do. He added: If Turkey can be a member of Nato and send its troops to help_protect and support its allies and its young men are put in their way, I_don't see why you should not also be allowed to sell apricots to Europe or_have more freedom to travel. Once again, Mr Kouchner echoed his boss. \ldblquote It\rquote s not for the Americans to decide_who comes into Europe or not,\rdblquote he said. \ldblquote We are in charge in our own house. Palestine: Twittering Gazan Mom Stranded at Cairo Airport Deported after 36 Hours have gone silent and her last message spoke of a deportation to somewhere other than home. and her two American-born children Yousuf and Noor (who is reportedly 15 months old) can't travel to, to be reunited with their grandparents except through the Egypt won't let them through; and El-Haddad's visa to the US, where she has flown from to the Cairo Airport where she was , drawing attention to the ordeal of this travelling mother, and that of scores of Palestinians harrassed, interrogated and banned from travelling, even across Arab countries, just because they are .. erm .. Palestinian. for 36 hours, had expired. In the meanwhile, her saga which she broadcast to the world on Twitter and an intermittent wi-fi service at the airport, is making waves on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook stranded on the Egyptian-Palestinian border - which is closed. Home is Gaza in Palestine, which journalist and blogger Laila El-Haddad Her tweets Rafah Crossing El-Haddad's last blog post on Raising Yousuf and Noor: dairy of a Palestinian mother said: quick post to let everyone know after 36 hours I am being deported- away from my home. more later Pierre's Middle East Issues\~Blog Bouteflika and the Parody of Algerian Democracy Algeria pretended to have a presidential election today. Two-term president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 72, in power since 1999, pretended to have opposition. The five opposition candidates pretended to be his rivals, though the real opposition, such as it is ( If Smy-B, quoted in Le Monde , is any indication, blank ballots were more frequent than Bouteflika will let on: I'm an Algerian living in France for the past six years, Smy-B says, and I've participated by absentee ballot in every election since. This year again, I did my duty. Bu By day's end the foregone conclusion was in the books. Bouteflika had won his third term with the kind of overwhelming margin reminiscent of the heydays of similarly bogus elections--those of Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar el Qaddaf Bouteflika wasn't supposed to run for a third term. Algeria had such a thing as presidential term limits. But last November Bouteflika muscled through the legislature he controls a constitutional coup that enabled him to run for a third time, and presumab His five challengers were dubbed the hares, because aside from a Trotskyite called Louisa Hanoune, they might as well have been strangers in Algeria's democratic night. Moussa Touati? Mohammed Said? Ali Fawzi Rebaine? Straw men for Bouteflika to clobber Bouteflika claims he'll create 3 million jobs and build 1 million housing unites in his next five years. He also claims that he'll keep Algeria safe from terrorism, although Algeria has been one of the few places where Al Qaeda's North African franchise h The real winner in Algeria isn't Bouteflika. It's derision. For Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, democracy is all a pose. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) Can We End Piracy? [David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey] The seizure of Maersk Alabama is but the latest episode in a tremendous contemporary upsurge in piracy . While pirate activities are certainly rampant off the Somali coast, pirates have been active worldwide. The reasons are obvious \emdash given the lame performance\~of the world's navies, including the U.S. and British navies (that in the 19th century\~substa \emdash enemies of mankind \emdash subject to harsh sanctions, up to and including the death penalty. It should also be recalled that the harshness of traditional punishments for piracy was, at least partially, grounded in the nature of their operations on the hi The less obvious, but probably even more deleterious, consequences are that, in the 21st century, the forces of chaos and disorder are flourishing on the world's oceans at\~levels unseen for more than a century,\~and the forces of civilization and law a hostis humani generis David B. Rivkin Jr. & Lee A. Casey are partners in the Washington, D.C., office of Baker & Hostetler LLP. They served in the Justice Department during the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. The Depressing, Official Truth About Somalia and its Pirates By Gerald F. Seib While pirates that seized an American ship continue to hold its captain hostage off the coast of Somalia, many Americans probably are wondering: Why can\rquote t the world just put a stop to this bizarre scourge of Somali pirate attacks on the high seas? At least a partial answer might be found by perusing a recently produced State Department report on human rights \emdash or lack thereof\endash in Somalia. It is a long and frightening description of a country with no functioning central government that has splintered into sections controlled by three competing forces, and descended into near-total chaos as a result. The report has sections with such telling titles as: \ldblquote Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life,\rdblquote and \ldblquote Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.\rdblquote A typical passage: \ldblquote During the year hundreds of civilians were killed in inter- or intraclan militia clashes. The killings resulted from clan militias fighting for political power and control of territory and resources; revenge attacks; criminal activitie Oh, and yes, the piracy: \ldblquote During the year piracy off the coast of Somalia significantly increased, and the International Maritime Bureau identified Somali territorial waters as the most dangerous in the world. Pirates conducted 42 successful hijackings an The new Bolivian constitution approved by more than 60% of voters last year mandates new Presidential and Congressional elections this coming December. But the precise rules that will govern that election are still in dispute, with all sides jockeying for Yesterday, following a heated debate in the Congress, President Morales announced that he will go on a hunger strike to pressure the opposition-controlled Senate to approve the legislation required for the elections to proceed. Here are the dispatches, al Reuters French hospital performs face, hand transplants Dozens of doctors working in teams over 30 hours performed the_world's first simultaneous partial-face and double-hand_transplant during the weekend, Paris' Public Hospital authority_said Monday. The authority described the recipient as a 30-year-old burn_victim. The man, whose name was not released, was injured in a 2004_accident that left him with scars preventing any social_life, it said. No further details were provided by officials, but French media_reports said the upper half of the man's face, including the_scalp, forehead and eyelids, were transplanted. The authority's statement said the operation, performed over_Saturday and Sunday at the Henri Mondor hospital in the Paris_suburb of Creteil, was the world's sixth partial-face_transplant but the first to include hands as well. A French woman, Isabelle Dinoire, underwent the first partial_face transplant in 2005 in Amiens, France. Other recipients include_another European patient, a Chinese farmer and a woman operated on_late last year in Cleveland, Ohio. Dinoire was disfigured when her dog chewed her face after she_passed out from an overdose of sleeping pills. She lost part of her_nose, lips, chin, and parts of her cheeks. French doctors gave Dinoire, then 38, a new face from a_brain-dead donor, as well as bone marrow cells that they hoped_would prevent rejection. Dinoire still had two instances of_rejection _ one month after her surgery and again a year later. Other recipients have also have been plagued by rejection _ a_problem that worries Dr. Patrick Warnke, a professor of surgery at_the University of Kiel in Germany who has expressed skepticism_about the procedure. I think the hype about face transplants is too much,_he said in a phone interview Monday. He pointed to the risk of long-term use of immuno-suppression_drugs aimed at preventing rejection, which he said could cause_cancer and other life-threatening diseases. I'm worried that patients don't understand what it_means to be on these drugs for the rest of their lives, he_said. Iran touts nuclear technology gains President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center front, tours the new factory in Esfahan that will produce uranium fuel pellets for use at the Arak research reactor. Reporting from Beirut and Esfahan, Iran -- _Iran announced fresh advances Thursday in its steady drive to master nuclear technology, trumpeting two new devices to enrich uranium and inaugurating a plant to produce fuel pellets for a heavy-water reactor. State television broadcast a patriotic three-minute music video called Fruits of Science heralding technological achievements during the annual National Day of Nuclear Technology celebrations marking the date in 2006 when Iran produced its first batch o We are witness to very important nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Iranian officials and foreign guests in Esfahan for the launch of the nuclear fuel production plant, which was broadcast on state television. Iran's nuclear authorities have announced that the various cycles of nuclear fuel management are in our grasp in a comprehensive and domestically produced way, Ahmadinejad said. Also at the event, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said the country now has around 7,000 centrifuges installed at its Natanz facility, a significant jump from the 5,600 the International Atomic Energy Agency cited in a February report. Ira This shows Iran's unique progress in line with the most up-to-date technology in the world, Gholamreza Aghazadeh said. The West suspects that Iran's program is meant to eventually produce weapons, but Tehran insists that it is meant to expand the country's energy supply. The United Nations Security Council has called on Iran to stop producing nuclear material with the pot Iran's buildup of nuclear technology infrastructure, without explicitly pursuing weapons, keeps its unnerved regional rivals and the West guessing about its capabilities and intentions, a strategy that some analysts say could serve as a deterrent to forei But experts say Iran's plan could backfire if international inspectors accuse it of violating the Nonproliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory. Evo on Hunger Strike Over Election Rules The new Bolivian constitution approved by more than 60% of voters in January mandates new Presidential and Congressional elections this coming December. But the precise rules that will govern that election are still in dispute, with all sides jockeying fo Bloomberg AP and At issue are such debates as whether Bolivians living abroad will be eligible to vote \endash a huge population and one likely sympathetic to Morales \endash and how Congress will implement the new constitution\rquote s requirement that a dozen congressional seats be set as Morales opponents charge that he is using the hunger strike, and a threatened mobilization of his base to surround the Congress, as coercion against them. Morales backers say that his opponents are blocking implementation of popular will as expressed over In reality, this is just the latest round of heated debate over the political rules of the game in country where the forces of politics are in the midst of historic changes. In 2006 and 2007 the opposition tried to shut down the country over the rules governing the Constituent Assembly, with crowds in the street used to shut down the Assembly altogether. Before that it was Morales and his allies who used those tactics against Both sides use the powers at their disposal to gain an upper hand. In the end a compromise of some sort will be reached and the elections will be held. If current polls hold true, Morales will likely win that vote by the same landslide with which he won i But the real issue facing the country \endash how to create economic opportunity with dignity for all Bolivians \endash will remain the same. Friday, April 10, 2009 Americans Split On Capitalism? That's what a new Rasmussen poll seems to suggest. According to an automated telephone survey of 1,000 U.S. adults taken Monday and Tuesday, 53 percent of Americans prefer capitalism, 20 percent prefer socialism, and 27 percent say they're not sure. The exact question was: Which is a be Compare that to a Dec. 29 poll on similar concepts, cast in different terms, in which 70 percent said a free market economy is better than an economy managed by the government (which collected 15 percent--the same as unsure). Rasmussen points out that free market may simply elicit more favorable responses than capitalism. That could be, but it's also worth noting that a lot has happened between Dec. 29 and now. Most importantly, the nation has experienced a political dispu Perhaps that dispute has led socialism through a liminal process;_perhaps socialism now signifies that which is hated by Rush_Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the most vocal of Obama's critics. The_debate over Obama's economic rollouts has, at least, tur Or perhaps the nation's firm belief_in capitalism has simply been eroded by the economic crisis, along with_all other once-firm beliefs about the economy. If we equivocate, for a_moment, this poll with the one from December, free-market/capitalistic_ethos And, after_all, who is sure of anything these days? When it comes to the economy, certainty isn't exactly the spirit of the age. After learning that we're on the brink of nationalization anyway,_perhaps the respondents to this poll, when they got automated calls_from Rasmussen, just felt more inclined to say Well, my 401k is worthless, so_who the hell knows? Poll of the Day from Political Animal POLL OF THE DAY.... For a couple of months, every sentence from Republican officials and Fox News personalities had to include the word socialism while attacking the president. It didn't have much of an effect. Maybe the smears didn't connect... Egypt accuses Hizbullah of plotting attacks in country Daily Star staff BEIRUT: Egypt's state prosecutor accused Hizbullah of planning to carry out attacks inside Egypt on Wednesday, as Israel warned its citizens that they faced an immediate and concrete threat in the country.\~The state prosecutor has received a statement Egyptian security forces are questioning a group of 49 men accused of smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border on behalf of Hizbullah and Hamas. It is not clear when they were arrested, but a judicial source in Cairo confirmed that t The group of detainees is mainly made up of Egyptian nationals, but includes three Lebanese and several Palestinians. The Lebanese are understood to be suspected of acting as a link between Hamas in Gaza and their sympathizers in Egypt. Hizbullah officials contacted by on Wednesday were unable to issue immediate comment on the allegations. - The Egyptian lawyer representing the men, Montasser al-Zayyat, said that interrogations of the men began over the weekend. The information that we have is that they are accused of weapons smuggling through tunnels and spreading Hizbullah ideology, he sa He said the case had been created for political purposes. My impression is that it is a fabricated case created by Egyptian security in the context of bad relations between Hizbullah and Egypt, he said on Wednesday. Hizbullah was highly critical of the Egyptian government's decision to close the Rafah crossing point during Israel's recent military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, which saw more than 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians, killed. The prosecutor's statement also accuses Hizbullah of spreading Shiite ideology. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities warned of a serious, immediate and concrete threat, against Israeli citizens in the Sinai desert during the upcoming Jewish Passover holiday. Officials in Tel Aviv warned that Hizbullah could be planning to abduct Israelis in Egypt and take them to the Gaza, and called for Israeli citizens to leave the area immediately. The warning is the latest in a series of statements aimed at discouraging I Israel issues regular warnings against potential risks to its citizens and has focused increasingly on Hizbullah since the group pledged revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the group's senior military commander, in Damascus last year. The kil In the months after the killing, Hizbullah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that revenge would come at the time, the place, the way and the means of the group's choosing. But at the end of last month, a Hizbullah official vowed that the group would not carry out attacks abroad. We will not carry out any operation outside our Lebanese territories, Mohammad Raad, the leader of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bl The Daily Star By Andrew Wander Vanity plates banned - and no BUT's about it... April 13, 2009 Saudi Arabia has banned vehicle licence plates whose Arabic characters spell out offensive words when romanised - and one of them is USA. Al-Watan newspaper reported on Sunday that Saudi plates normally had three Arabic characters and three numbers but the growing fashion is for auto owners also to display a version using the Latin alphabet and some buyers of personalised vanity plates The authorities in charge of issuing vanity plates have released a list of nine prohibited three-letter combinations and ordered all branches to stop renewing plates that include them Nine combinations prohibited by Saudi authorities On the list are combinations such as BUT, BAD and BAR - the last presumably a problem because it suggests alcohol, something strictly prohibited in the conservative Islamic kingdom. About 90 000 plates with the prohibited letter combinations are to be replaced, Watan said. Vanity plates are fashionable with wealthy and young Saudis and auctions of special combinations have brought in as much as $1.6-million for one plate, the newspaper reported. - Sapa-AFP Saudis ban 'lewd' number plates Some 90,000 plates with the banned letters will reportedly be replaced Saudi Arabia has banned vehicle number plates which are seen as offensive in English when Arabic letters are given in the Latin alphabet, reports say. Saudi newspaper al-Watan said the banned words included sex and ass, but the list was topped by USA. Al-Watan said 90,000 existing plates were to be replaced. Personalised plates are popular with wealthy young Saudis. One plate recently sold at auction for 6m riyals ($1.2m), the newspaper reported. Newer Saudi plates include three Arabic letters that are also shown in the Latin alphabet. The growing fashion is for car owners to buy personalised vanity plates that deliberately read nut, but, bad, or bar in English. The latter presumably has been deemed offensive as it relates to alcohol, which is banned in the Islamic kingdom, the AFP news agency reports. The first on the list, for unexplained reasons, is the combination USA. Thai premier declares emergency, escapes mob attack (Second Lead) Bangkok, April 12 (DPA) Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Bangkok Sunday to quell anti-government protests that forced the cancellation of a major Asian summit the previous day. A protest leader Jatuporn Promphan called for a popular uprising Sunday to overthrow what he described as an illegitimate government now that law and order had broken down, The Nation newspaper reported. Protestors surrounded two armoured personal carriers parked near the upmarket Siam Paragon shopping mall in central Bangkok in the afternoon, according to witnesses. Jakrapob Penkair, a strategist of the so-called Red Shirts, said the protestors were ready to fight a \ldblquote brutal government in every possible way\rdblquote and accused the military of surrounding innocent people holding a legal rally. About 50 protestors loyal to fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra forced their way into the Interior Ministry to confront Abhisit. Abhisit managed to leave the ministry after a mob attacked his car and were backed off when soldiers guarding him fired shots in the air. Officials later said the prime minister was not in his regular vehicle, but had switched to another one to exit the m Witnesses reported seeing tanks passing on a major street in mid-afternoon, and sources said some army units were being mobilised. The prime minister said the government took the decision because the problems threatening social stability were escalating. \ldblquote The government has to declare the state of emergency to restore normalcy as soon as possible,\rdblquote Abhisit said. Authorities arrested protest organiser Arisamun Pongruengrong, who had led a mob Saturday to disrupt the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its dialogue partners\rquote s summit in the seaside resort of Pattaya, 100 km south of Bangkok. The arrest provoked fury from Arisamun\rquote s followers, who began to converge on key government buildings and block traffic in the capital city. Early Sunday, it appeared there could be a break in the protests for the important Buddhist New Year holiday. There were only about 2,000 protestors camped outside government house, police said. Abhisit and his Democrat party government were widely criticised in the local media Sunday for the failure to stop the protestors from disrupting the ASEAN summit. Jakrapob warned the government against using the military to crack down on the protestors. \ldblquote This is a legitimate protest against an illegitimate government,\rdblquote he said. \ldblquote If he truly believes in democracy then he should hold an election and if he wins we wil The protestors are demanding the resignation of Abhisit, who they say was named to head the government after anti-democratic meddling from elite royalists and other influential opponents of Thaksin, who was ousted by a coup in 2006. The flamboyant former prime minister is a fugitive, having fled the country to avoid a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power. Egypt Church Issues First Conversion Certificate CAIRO (AFP) -- Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has for the first time issued a certificate of conversion to a Muslim-born Christian, his lawyer said, in a country where religious conversion is highly sensitive. Maher al-Gohari, who is seeking to change his religion on his official documents from Muslim to Christian was asked by a court to provide a conversion certificate from the Egyptian church. He handed it in today, Nabil Gabriel told AFP. It is the first time the church provides this sort of certificate. In Egypt, citizens are required to carry their personal ID cards at all times. Without an ID card, one has no access to basic services. It is only the second time that such a request has been formally made in a country where converting to Christianity, while not illegal, is practically impossible. Last year, a court rejected a request by a Christian convert from Islam, Mohammed Higazi, to have his new religion written on his identity card. Highlighting the sensitivity of the topic, the church would not comment on Gohari's case specifically. In general, the church cannot turn away anyone who reaches out to it, otherwise it would be abandoning one its role as a church. Tensions often run high between Egypt's Muslim and Christian communities in an increasingly religious society dominated by Sunni Muslims. Egypt's Copts -- the largest Christian community in the Middle East -- account for an estimated six to 10 percent of the country's 80 million inhabitants. Twitter wrestles with fourth worm attack April 13, 2009 (Computerworld) Another worm attack early Monday on Twitter kept the microblogging Web service chasing down infected accounts and deleting rogue tweets. Late Sunday night and into the wee hours of Monday we fought off a fourth attack, said Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter , in an update to a blog post he originally published Sunday. Once again, we secured the compromised accounts and deleted any material that would further propagate the worm. The newest attack -- which followed a pair of worms Saturday and a third Sunday -- originated from a just-registered account labeled cleaningUpMikey, said F-Secure Corp.'s chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen. Today's copycat worm infected account profiles of people who clicked on the sender's name or A message like this is particularly nasty, as there were plenty of re-tweets of this malicious message sent by genuine users, Hypponen said in a blog post just minutes after Monday's attack began. The bit.ly link got redirected back to Twitter, to user reberbrerber's profile & which would infect Twitter users who viewed it. Twitter has since deleted the cleaningUpMikey account and the tweets it and other infected accounts spawned. Endangered Aramaic language makes a comeback in Syria Syrian President Assad has set up an institute to revive interest in the language of Christ A stone ossuary bearing the inscription in the ancient Aramaic language 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus' Photograph: Biblical Archaelogy Society/Corbis Sygma Ilyana Barqil wears skinny jeans, boots and a fur-lined jacket, handy for keeping out the cold in the Qalamoun mountains north of Damascus. She likes TV quiz shows and American films and enjoys swimming. But this thoroughly modern Syrian teenager is also Ilyana, 15, is part of an extraordinary effort to preserve and revive the world's oldest living tongue, still close to what it probably sounded like in Galilee, now in Israel, on the brink of the Christian era. In Nazareth when Jesus was born they spoke more or less the same language as we do in Maaloula today, said teacher Imad Reihan, one of the pillars of this picturesque village's Aramaic Language Academy, where Barqil is studying. Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani (My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me) \endash Christ's lament on the cross \endash was famously uttered in Aramaic. Recognised by Unesco as a definitely endangered language, Aramaic is spoken by 7,000 people in Maaloula, dominated by Greek Catholics (Melikites) whose churches and rites long pre-date the arrival of Islam and Arabic. Western Neo-Aramaic, to use its pro Aramaic's long decline accelerated as the area opened up in the 1920s when the French colonial authorities built a road from Damascus to Aleppo. Television and the internet, and youngsters leaving to work, reduced the number of speakers. Nowadays, many local men are away driving the huge refrigerated trucks that cross the desert to Saudi Arabia. Still, many old traces remain: in nearby Sidnaya, worshippers at the Church of Our Lady speak Arabic with a distinct Aramaic accent. But things are definitely looking up. When I was at school over 30 years ago, we were not allowed to speak Aramaic, said Mukhail Bkheil, standing behind the counter in Abu George's souvenir shop in Maaloula's main square, where buses disgorge tourists v Bkheil's party piece is reciting the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic. But he chats freely to friends, underlining the fact that the language is alive and well, not just liturgical. Saada Sarhan, the language academy administrator, learned Aramaic as a child and is teaching her own children, but often feels social pressure to speak Arabic when non-Aramaic speakers are present. Otherwise it's rude, she says. Improbably, Aramaic was given a boost by a Hollywood film, Mel Gibson's controversial Passion of the Christ, released in 2004 before the academy was set up. Founded by the University of Damascus with government help, its modern premises boast a bank of PCs, new textbooks, a teaching staff of six and 85 students at three different levels. Elias Taja is another of them: this native Aramaic speaker and retired maths teacher wanted to learn how to write the language. I talk to my wife and daughter Miladi only in Aramaic though my daughter does sometimes reply in Arabic, he explained over ca Miladi, 25, recently married a man from Sidnaya who does not speak Aramaic. Taja worries she will not manage to pass it on to her children \endash his grandchildren. Syria being Syria, there are political sensitivities, not least because Arabisation was a key feature of government education policy after the Ba'ath party came to power in the 1960s. In Syria there are a lot of minority groups: Circassians, Armenians, Kurds and Assyrians, so it's a big decision to allow the teaching of other languages in government schools, said Reihan. But the government is interested in promoting the Aramaic lang Observers say the opening of the Aramaic academy showed a more relaxed and confident attitude by the regime. Scholar George Rizkallah dedicated his 2007 Aramaic textbook to the great leader and patron of the sciences and education Dr Bashar al-Assad. A Considering the bitter enmity between Syria and Israel, which still occupies the Golan Heights, it is striking that Aramaic letters are so similar to the Hebrew used in rabbinic texts; one reason, perhaps, why the only Aramaic sign in Maaloula is on the a Linguistic experts say that Syria is doing well in fostering this part of its heritage. Aramaic is actually pretty healthy in Maaloula, said Professor Geoffrey Kahn, who teaches semitic philology at Cambridge University. It's the eastern Aramaic dialec Reihan and colleagues were delighted recently when a Unesco team came to visit and hope for funds to allow them to collect vanishing words into proper dictionaries. The teaching, meanwhile, goes on. Ilyana started classes last November. My father speaks Aramaic but my mother doesn't as she's from Lebanon, she said. I speak OK already but I'm going to carry on as I want to become fluent. I don't know too much about the Aramaic language but I do kn o, Tony Blair has been awarded a $1m prize for his exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to_ areas in conflict. Some will argue that Blair should be on trial for war crimes, not receiving prizes. Others will say that the award, made by the Dan David Foundation of Tel Aviv, is a huge own goal for Israel_ because it sinks the country's international standing even lo But they are missing the point. The award - along with many of the other riches which have come Blair's way since he left Downing Street - is the payback for doing 'the right thing' by way of the US and Israel while he was in_ office. Follow the \lquote right\rquote foreign policy and look forward to a comfortable retirement The £2m-plus annual fee from JP Morgan Chase... the $250,000 for a 45-minute speech on the US lecture circuit... the all-expenses paid jaunts to Jerusalem as the Quartet's (ineffectual) Middle East_ envoy... it all serves as a reminder to members of the It makes no difference that the $1m from Dan David will go to the former Prime Minister's 'Faith Foundation'; it is still heading for the overall Blair kitty. Over the past six years, there has been much debate as to why Blair led Britain into a disastrous and illegal war with Iraq. Some say it was due to a passionate belief in spreading democracy._ Others maintain that he genuinely believed that Iraq possesse For Chirac there have been no offers from JP Morgan Chase, no US lecture tours and absolutely no prospect of a Dan David leadership prize. John Howard, the former Australian Prime Minister who,_ like Blair, supported the Iraq war, has fared rather better We know that money has always been a major motivator for the Blairs, as it is for most politicians everywhere. The number of genuinely principled politicians - the Tony Benns and Enoch Powells of_ this world, who are prepared to put their beliefs before The message from both the US and Israel to Britain's political elite could not be clearer: if you continue to follow the 'right' foreign policy and take your country into wars which we desire -_ such as Iraq - you can look forward to a very comfortable r Today it's Blair who\rquote s reaping the financial benefits for his Atlanticism and his pro-Zionism; tomorrow it will be David Cameron, who also supported the Iraq war and who stayed silent as Israel_ bombarded Gaza. After the disaster in Iraq, many Britons would love to see a reorientation of our country's foreign policy. But they are likely to be disappointed until other countries can offer our opportunistic_ and unprincipled leaders the lucrative pension plans tha What Facebook Users Share: Lower Grades Forget the widely unloved redesign. has committed a greater offense. According to by doctoral candidate Aryn Karpinski of Ohio State University and her co-author Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University, college students who use the 200 million\endash member social network have significantly lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than those wh The study, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association on April 16, surveyed 219 undergraduate and graduate students and found that GPAs of Facebook users typically ranged a full grade point lower than thos See the 50 best websites of 2008. Karpinski says she isn't surprised by her findings but clarifies that the study does not suggest that Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there's some relationship between the two factors. Maybe [Facebook users] are just prone to distracti John Kamin, 23, a student at Hofstra University in New York who uses Facebook, says it's absurd to associate the social network with poor grades or lack of aptitude. It's a networking tool for people, says Kamin, who adds that he spends about an hour Brick Breaker on his BlackBerry \emdash there's that question of users' distractability and tendency to procrastinate. But, Kamin says, I don't think someone is more or less intelligent because they sign up for it. ( See pictures of the college dorm's evolution. Karpinski and Duberstein's study isn't the first to associate Facebook with diminished mental abilities. In February, Oxford University neuroscientist Susan Greenfield cautioned Britain's House of Lords that social networks like Facebook and Bebo were infantilizing the brain into the state of small children by shortening the attention span and providing constant instant gratification. And in his new book, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind , UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small warns of a decreased ability among devotees of social networks and other modern technology to read real-life facial expressions and understand the emotional context of subtle gestures. Young people are particularly at risk Some experts dismiss all studies of Internet use as flawed, since there is no reasonable way to control for the myriad variables that may affect such research. For its part, Facebook declined to address the specific findings of the new study but issued a a study released earlier this month by researchers at the University of Melbourne showing that personal Internet use at work can help focus workers' concentration and increase productivity. Facebook added that it's in the hands of students, in consultation with their parents, to define pri Read 25 Things I Didn't Want to Know About You on Facebook. By most accounts, students spend a heck of a lot of time logged onto Facebook, a circumstance that irks educators, who complain of students messaging friends or posting snarky status updates from their laptops instead of paying attention to lectures. It w She demurred, saying the world of online gossip just did not appeal. Every day there was some new drama and they would ruminate about it for hours, says Karpinski, who eventually graduated with a GPA of 3.8. Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy \endash backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China \endash is sailing into Somalian waters to take on me Johann Hari: You are being lied to about pirates Some are clearly just gangsters. But others are trying to stop illegal dumping and trawling Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the golden age of piracy \endash from 1650 to 1730 \endash the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage Bluebeard that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many o If you became a merchant or navy sailor then \endash plucked from the docks of London's East End, young and hungry \endash you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off, the all-powerful captain w Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied \endash and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively, without torture. They share They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed quite clearly \endash and subversively \endash that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal Navy. This is why the The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and ma Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury \endash you name it. Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who s At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation \endash and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster This is the context in which the pirates have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a tax on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia \endash and ordinary Somalis agre No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters \endash especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: We don't consider ourselves Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won't act on those crimes \endash the only sane solution to this problem \endash b The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know what he meant by keeping possession of the sea. The pirate s Monday, 5 January 2009 Demi Moore 'in tears' at Britain's Got Talent's Susan Boyle Moore, who has starred in Ghost and GI Jane, was sent a YouTube link of Miss _ Boyle's rendition of I Dream A Dream from Les Miserables , by her _ husband Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher, 31, whose username is aplusk, urged his wife to watch the clip, _ saying This just made my night. Moore, 48, replying as MrsKutcher, told him You saw it made me teary! It is thought that the exchange has helped boost the number of YouTube hits. _ Miss Boyle's audition clip has been viewed more then 3.5 million times. _ Kutcher and Moore are followed by more than 1.4 million on the social _ networking site. Miss Boyle, a 48-year-old charity worker from West Lothian, announced from the _ stage that her dream was to emulate West End star Elaine Paige. It is thought Simon Cowell is lining up a record deal in a bid to repeat the _ success of opera star Paul Potts, the unassuming mobile phone salesman who _ won the first series of Britain's Got Talent in 2007. Potts has become the most internationally successful reality show winner in _ history, scoring a number one album in 15 countries. Saudi Arabia to regulate girls' marriages RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia plans to regulate the marriages of young girls, its justice minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday, after a court refused to nullify the marriage of an 8-year-old to a man 50 years her senior. The justice ministry aims to put an end to arbitrariness by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls, Justice Minister Mohamed al-Issa told al-Watan newspaper, partially owned by members of the royal family. Saudi Arabia is a patriarchal society that applies an austere form of Sunni Islam that bans unrelated men and women from mixing and gives fathers the right to wed their sons and daughters to whoever they deem fit. The minister's comments suggested the practice of marrying off young girls would not be abolished. The regulations will seek to preserve the rights, fending off blights to end the negative aspects of underage girls' marriage, he said. A court in the Saudi town of Unaiza upheld for the second time last week the marriage of the Saudi girl to a man who is about 50 years her senior, on condition he does not have sex with her until she reaches puberty. The minister added that any new regulations would be made under the provision that the requirements of universal laws were not binding to religious commandments. Officials at the ministry could not be reached for comment. Financial considerations could prompt some Saudi families to wed their underage daughters to much older men. Many Saudi clerics, including the kingdom's chief cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh, endorse the practice. For them this is allowed by Islamic Sharia law, lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem said. Thousands arrive in Jerusalem to protect Al Aqsa Mosque from a major threat by Israeli settlers Israeli police and soldiers are filling the streets wearing riot gear and carrying heavy arms. Horses, jeeps and police cars are patrolling the streets. Palestinians are being blocked access to the city. Most of those able to arrive are coming from within The occupying Israeli administration announced last night it would impose restrictions on the entry of Muslim worshippers into Al Aqsa Mosque, among the most holy sites in the world for Islam. A declaration was issued by Jewish communities and organizations to storm Al Aqsa Mosque and perform Jewish religious services inside the Muslim holy site. Israeli forces announced they would prevent Palestinians from entering the mosque if they are male Since early this morning dozens of Palestinian buses provided by the Islamic Movement leaders have been arriving; Palestinian flags are flying everywhere. In a meeting with Sheikh Ikrima Al Sabri, head of the Islamic Supreme Council, he told PNN, It is no secret that Jewish extremists are working to overtaking Al Aqsa Mosque and taking opportunities to implement their plans of aggression if they feel that He added, They are trying to impose a new reality in the courtyards of the Al Aqsa Mosque, not only for visits and tours of provocation, but to try to take an aggressive new step, a practice of religious rites in the plazas of the Al Aqsa Mosque. This is Palestinians began arriving at the Mosque yesterday hoping to pack it tightly, but calls are issued daily\~to keep a heavy presence as the Israeli threat is unending. The Israeli administration and settlers are in the process of overtaking the area around Citizen Walid said, \ldblquote This attack requires the unity of our hearts to combat and our feelings toward Jerusalem and the holy Al Aqsa Mosque must be strong. We need to pause in unity to repel the Israeli attacks that are coming in various forms.\rdblquote Criminals exploit careless mistakes as data breaches hit record In a study of large-scale data breaches in 2008, Verizon Business found that cybercriminals profited mostly from exploiting careless mistakes. In fact, of the more that 285 million records compromised last year -- more than in the previous four years combined -- highly sophisticated attackers largely applied their skills only after gaining access from such openings as unpatched vulnerabilities \ldblquote The overall message about hacking in 2008 was that it was not all that sophisticated,\rdblquote Wade Baker, research and intelligence principal, Verizon Business, and primary author of the report, told SCMagazineUS.com Wednesday. \ldblquote The criminals are getting in the The Verizon study was based on data analyzed from the company's actual caseload from 90 confirmed breaches. The financial sector accounted for 93 percent of all records compromised last year, and 90 percent of the records stolen was done by groups identif The study also revealed the intricate methodology and sophistication of recent attacks. \ldblquote Rather than malware being some worm that makes a lot of noise, criminals put it on the exact system they want, where it would remain stealthy and unnoticed for a long time,\rdblquote Wade said. \ldblquote This is where the criminals have to innovate. To get large volumes o The report also noted the falling price of stolen data. As with any legitimate market system, the unit value of goods and services fluctuates with supply and demand, the report pointed out. \ldblquote In 2007, you would have to pay $13 to $14 for stolen credit card information, Wade said. Recently, we saw that dip under 50 cents That's just simply supply and demand. There was so much [stolen data] out there, the value dropped.\rdblquote The Memos: Torture Redefined The Justice Department on Thursday released four detailed memos , issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005, describing and approving the use of harsh interrogation techniques by the Central Intelligence Agency. President Obama said that while these techniques \ldblquote undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer,\rdblquote the C.I.A. operatives who relied on the legal advice would not be subject to prosecution. We\rquote re asking several legal and national security experts for their reaction to these memos and whether they think President Obama\rquote s call for moving on from this chapter is the right decision. David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center Kori Schake, United States Military Academy Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights David B. Rivkin, attorney Kenneth Anderson, law professor, American University Macabre and Excruciating Details , a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, is the author, most recently, of \ldblquote Justice At War: The Men and Ideas That Shaped America\rquote s \lquote War on Terror.\rquote \rdblquote The four legal memos released by the Obama administration on Thursday confirm in excruciating detail that the Bush administration employed twisted and macabre legal reasoning to authorize the unspeakable \endash the torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading trea The memos\rquote matter-of-fact clinical descriptions belie the harsh tactics to which they gave a green light. They set the C.I.A. loose to slam suspects\rquote heads into walls up to 30 times in a row, to deprive suspects of sleep for more than a week straight, to Mr. Obama\rquote s refusal to hold accountable those responsible for the wrongs so evident from the memos is unacceptable. A child would recognize these tactics as cruel and inhumane. The United States itself treated waterboarding as torture when the Japanese used it against our troops in World War II. Yet through pages and pages of dense legal reasoning, the Office of Leg President Obama should be commended for releasing these memos. But his simultaneous assertion that he will not seek to hold accountable those responsible for the wrongs so evident on the memos\rquote face is unacceptable. The line C.I.A. agents are not, howev It is not enough to say that when we have a president who does not believe in cruel and inhuman treatment and torture, the United States will not engage in such practices \endash while leaving open the possibility that if we again elect a president who does bel Censored\~Syria 17 April 2009 Domestic censorship of the internet is one thing, but Syrian internet users face a battle on two fronts. America is doing the job of the Syrian censors. First it was the whole internet that was blocked in Syria. Then just Hotmail. Then Hotmail was unblocked, and Yahoo Mail was blocked. Then it swapped around again. Then they were both ok. Then Blogger was blocked. Then it was unblocked. Then Facebook was Syrian internet users run the gauntlet of proxies and tricks to access certain websites deemed a security risk. But now they face a new challenge: corporate America. If you\rquote re American and you do business with a Syrian, you could go to jail. Some American companies are getting very twitchy and have even stopped Syrian citizens using their service. Two years ago George Ajjan discovered that ANY website purchased from domain registration company GoDaddy.com would be blocked to Syrian users. And it seems this perverse practise shows no signs of abating, even as top-level American officials pay visits to Damascus. reports that all Syrian LinkedIn accounts have just been blocked. He received this explanation from the company: Anas \ldblquote Use of LinkedIn services, including our software, is subject to export and re-export control laws and regulations. This includes the … sanctions programs maintained by the Treasury Department\rquote s Office of Foreign Assets Control. We do not allow member accounts or access to our site from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria.\rdblquote Some Google services can not be accessed in Syria too. Google is such a It seems censorship works both ways. company. principled Syria News Wire Happy Syrian Independence\~Day Strike gold in\~Damascus 2 Comments It\rquote s not censorship per se- this is where a fine and fuzzy line between information and services on the internet comes into play. It still does expose a fundamental problem with the American sanctions. Jonathan 18 April 2009 at 1.06 pm This IS censorship. LinkedIn does not provide paid services (unlike Google or Amazon.com) and is therefore not required by law to participate in sanctions. Twitter and Facebook don\rquote t. Other social networking sites don\rquote t. I will be discontinuing use of LinkedIn. 18 April 2009 at 7.39 pm Leave a Comment Jillian C. York Notify me of follow-up comments via email. Trial of Iranian American journalist over, officials say US to boycott United Nations racism meeting WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will boycott with regret a U.N. conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting's final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Dep The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against U.S. participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who had hoped that Presiden The administration had wanted to attend the April 20-25 meeting in Geneva, although it warned in late February it would not go unless significant changes were made to the draft text. Some revisions - including the removal of specific critical references to Israel and problematic passages about the defamation of religion - were negotiated for which State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the administration was deeply grateful. But he said the text retains troubling elements that suggest support for restrictions on free speech and an affirmation of the findings of the first World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 that the U.S cannot endorse. Unfortunately, it now seems certain these remaining concerns will not be addressed in the document to be adopted by the conference next week, Wood said in a statement. Therefore, with regret, the United States will not join the review conference. Despite the decision, he stressed that the United States is profoundly committed to ending racism and racial discrimination and will work with all people and nations to build greater resolve and enduring political will to halt racism and discrimination Concern is high that the meeting may descend into heated debate over Israel that marred the last such gathering eight years ago, especially since Iran's hardline president - who has called for Israel's destruction - will attend. The Durban meeting was dominated by quarrels over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery. The United States, under the Bush administration, and Israel walked out over attempts to liken Zionism - the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land - to racism. The reference was later dropped, but concerns about anti-Semitism remained in t Plans to reaffirm the 2001 document were of particular concern to the Obama administration. (It) singles out one particular conflict and prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, Wood said. Planning for the upcoming meeting, which is to review progress made in fighting racism since Durban, has been underway for months but was ignored by the Bush administration. But once Obama took office, his team decided to engage in the process as part of its broader aim of reaching out to the international community. That has included overtures to Iran, Cuba and seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, a body the Bush After sending delegates to a preparatory meeting, the administration announced on Feb. 27 that it would not participate in further planning talks or the conference itself unless the changes were made. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. pressed its European allies to lobby for an acceptable text and officials had held out hope until earlier this week that the negotiations would produce an acceptable document. Possible participation by Washington remained on the table, pending the changes, even after it was learned that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would go. Pro-Israel groups in the United States vehemently opposed U.S. participation while human rights advocates and organizations like TransAfrica and members of the Congressional Black Caucus thought it was important to attend. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee applauded Obama's decision to boycott, saying it underscores America's unstinting commitment to combating intolerance and racism in all its forms and in all settings. But Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., the chair of the black caucus, said the group was deeply dismayed. This decision is inconsistent with the administration's policy of engaging with those we agree with and those we disagree with, she said. By boycotting Durban, the U.S. is making it more difficult for it to play a leadership role on U.N. Human Rights C Hours earlier, Human Rights Watch appealed for the U.S. to go, saying it should stand with the victims of racism. Roxana Saberi has been in prison since January, accused of spying for U.S. intelligence. A judicial spokesman says she had her day in court Monday and can expect a verdict in the next three weeks. Reporting from Beirut -- _The trial of an Iranian American journalist facing espionage charges is over and her fate rests in the hands of a judge who will deliver a verdict in the next three weeks, a judiciary official in Tehran told reporters Tuesday. The spokesman for Iran's judiciary said 31-year-old Roxana Saberi, an American-born dual U.S. and Iranian national, had her day in court Monday. Apparently, the court has heard her final defense, spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters, according to Iran's Mehr news agency. Saberi is accused of collecting information from Iranian officials and passing it to U.S. intelligence services, authorities said last week. She and her lawyer, Abdul-Samad Khorramshahi, appeared Monday before a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Court, which Michigan Muslims say FBI asking people to spy DETROIT \emdash A Michigan Muslim organization said Thursday it has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate complaints alleging the FBI is asking followers of the faith to spy on Islamic leaders and congregations. The Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan sent a letter last week to Holder after mosques and other groups reported members of the community have been approached to monitor people coming to mosques and donations they make. Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman in the FBI's Detroit office, had no immediate comment. Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said such complaints aren't new, but concerns grew after a recent revelation the FBI planted a spy in a Southern California mosque. An FBI agent testified in February at a detention hearing that an informant infiltrated several mosques in Orange County, Calif., and befriended Ahmadullah Niazi, brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard. Niazi was charged with lying about his ties t Former FBI agents and federal prosecutors have said spying on mosques is one of the government's best weapons to thwart terrorists, but agents need to have credible and specific information before sending in a plant. Walid said the complaints in Michigan amount to a fishing expedition. If there was a specific imam who they felt was telling people to support Osama bin Laden, that's a different story -- we wouldn't have a problem with that, he said. Community members would be the first people to report to federal law enforcement if suc Walid said the most common complaints have come from people with pending immigration issues being approached by agents to monitor mosques in exchange for help in resolving their citizenship cases. He said the Detroit area's Muslim community -- one the country's largest -- has been supported by non-Muslim groups and individuals, and that a Catholic youth organization, a Baptist pastor and an interfaith group promoting peace and justice have all writ The attorney general has not been in office for that long, Walid said. He's in the process of revamping the Justice Department. It's extremely necessary for him to take a serious look at this issue. World Bank: Israelis get four times more water than Palestinians The water-supply regime used by Israel and the Palestinians must be changed, according to a World Bank report that is to be published today. The report notes that an average Israeli gets four times as much water as the average Palestinian, and warns that the Palestinian Authority water system is nearing catastrophe. It concludes by recommending that the current water-distribution arrangement, mandated as part of the Oslo II accords, be changed to improve the Palestinian system. The report, requested by the PA, is likely to be particularly problematic for Israel due to the regional water crisis. The agreement between the two sides is asymmetrical and exacerbates the crisis greatly as far as the Palestinians are concerned. This is the first such document presented by the World Bank on the subject of Israeli and Palestinian water use. According to the report, the understandings reached at Oslo fall far short of fulfilling the needs of Palestinian civilians. The unequal division of the resources, as well as constraints on information regarding the area's water supply, have impeded the Palestinians' ability to develop water sources - a problem that is intensified by the weakness of Palestinian government insti The report says this has lead to an emergency situation with grave ramifications vis-a-vis the economy, the society and the ecology of the PA. Water-related humanitarian crises are frequent in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. The report states that Palestinians have access to only one-fifth of the mountain aquifer supply, while Israel pumps out the rest, reaching its allocated quota without due authorization from the joint water committee set up in the Oslo accords. Over-pumping from the aquifer creates a danger of salinity, the report maintains. It also notes that Palestinians dig comparatively shallow wells and cannot reach water sources, because of Israel's much deeper drilling. According to the World Bank, Israel has a satisfactory water distribution and management system, while the PA is struggling to maintain a minimal infrastructure with minimal financial means. In Gaza, the meager investment in water and sanitation has lead Iranian lawyers have frequently questioned the due process and transparency afforded defendants at the Revolutionary Court. Jamshidi said the public and media would not be able to evaluate the evidence. Relevant documents exist in the case and the claimants can gain access to it in order to prepare their defense, Mehr quoted him as telling reporters. Her parents arrived in Tehran last week. A few days later she was formally charged with espionage, a weighty accusation that could mean years in prison for the Northwestern University graduate and former Miss North Dakota. Saberi was detained in January after living and working in Iran for six years as a journalist, at least two of them without accreditation. She was confined to Tehran's Evin Prison. In addition to the Iranian contention that Saberi was a covert U.S. operative, analysts have described other possible explanations for the charges: Journalists' work -- interviewing officials and sending reports -- might resemble espionage. Those monitoring her might have built up a body of circumstantial evidence, such as visits to embassies, ministries and calls to the U.S., that might appear to be Rescued migrants being landed in Agrigento A four-day spat between Italy and Malta on the destination of 140 migrants rescued by a Turkish-owned freighter was drawing to a close this morning as the migrants started being landed at Some of the migrants were transferred from the ship to a Coastguard launch and others onto an Italian Navy corvette. The ship itself entered the Sicilian harbour early this morning. on Thursday evening close to the Italian island of Lampedusa. But while Italy on Friday refused to take them in because they were in Malta's search and rescue area, Malta also rejected them, arguing that in terms of international conventions, they should Porto Empedocle in Agrigento. The migrants were picked up by the ship Pimar E The Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday evening that the migrants were being accepted for humanitarian reasons and acceptance does not constitute a precedent in recognizing Malta's reasons for refusing the migrants. The stalemate was broken by Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi after discussing the case on the phone with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Dr Gonzi had earlier also urged the EU to intervene. Foreign Minister Tonio Borg welcomed Italy\rquote s decision to let the migrants land, and insisted that Malta had been right all along. \ldblquote I think this was the right decision considering also that this developed into a humanitarian crisis,\rdblquote he said. He refused to call this a victory for Malta and said that the two countries had to continue to cooperate. \ldblquote This was a dispute between friends. We just have to learn to respect each other\rquote s points of view. But I think this has proven that Malta position was correct.\rdblquote A number of the rescued migrants were taken to Lampedusa for urgent medical attention. The issue is expected to be raised at an EU Foreign Ministers' meeting in Brussels this week. Jackie Chan started a minor media storm by suggesting that Chinese people ought to be \ldblquote controlled,\rdblquote that they had no business handling their own affairs. This is how he has been quoted in the media: Jackie Chan: China Has A Problem With Its \ldblquote Suzhi\rdblquote I\rquote m not sure if it\rquote s good to have freedom or not,… I\rquote m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we\rquote re not being controlled, we\rquote ll just do what we want. Of all those on the Internet who have tried to slice and dice this commentary, John Pomfret at the Washington Post has come closest. He rejects the ideas floating about that this is about getting in good with the Communist Party, or that this is the rant of a \ldblquote self-loathing Chinese.\rdblquote Instead, Pomfret suggests, \ldblquote Chan is just saying what a lot of other rich Chinese feel One phrase of his was familiar: Anyone who has conversations of depth with members of China\rquote s elite has heard this argument before. \ldblquote The quality of the average Chinese is too low,\rdblquote the line goes. ( This business about \ldblquote suzhi tai di\rdblquote is right out of my recently published book, \ldblquote Poorly Made in China .\rdblquote While my publisher doesn\rquote t want me to give away too much of what\rquote s in it, here\rquote s something that is worth passing along in the midst of this discourse on Jackie Chan. It makes its appearance in Chapter 5: \ldblquote There, you see?\rdblquote The driver pointed to a pair of middle-aged women who were attempting to cross the street. He shook a finger in their direction and jokingly said that they did not have the sense to get to a crosswalk. Tamen de suzhi tai di la . The education level of the people is too low,\rdblquote he said, placing emphasis on the word tai , as if to suggest that a certain amount of ignorance was presumed, but that folks in these parts really pushed limits of tolerability. Now, while Pomfret and I see the Jackie Chan comment in the same light, where he says, \ldblquote Chan is just saying what a lot of other rich Chinese feel,\rdblquote I would support the notion that Chan is saying what a lot of average Chinese people feel.\~In another part of my book, Chapter 18, I take a stab at a larger point by suggesting that Mainland China is hindered by myopia. What had kept [China] from creating its own industrial revolution was more than likely this enduring cultural trait \emdash an endemic myopia \emdash and knowing that they suffered from it was what led common folk to welcome the larger and more direct role that gover Chinese netizens who are angry with Jackie Chan are upset that he has given away too much about how average Mainland Chinese feel about themselves. This is an important issue for those who support the possibility of democracy in China. Beyond Stereotypes Apr 12, 2009 | Published under: On Thursday 16th April at 7 pm the Al-Hussein Cultural Centre in Ras al-Ain is opening its doors to an event arranged by The Danish Centre for Culture and Development in close cooperation with the Danish Embassy and the Royal Film Commission. Written by H.E. Thomas F. Lund-Sørensen Danish Ambassador Beyond Stereotypes \endash as the event is called \endash will put spotlight on stereotypes. I suppose most of us would like to be looked upon as individuals and not as belonging to one big bulk or group of individuals that can be put into a box defined by one culture, one nationality, one linguistic group and/or one religion. I also suppose that At a recent LEGO charity event that we had here in Jordan I attended a workshop with close to 80 participants. Each participant was given four identical yellow LEGO bricks and two red ones. Following, we were all asked to put together the bricks so that t Now \endash it might be that none of us were very talented LEGO brick builders but I am quite sure that most of the participants did know what a real duck looks like. But imagine if you had never seen a real duck in your entire life. Imagine if the only duck yo And isn\rquote t that what sometimes happen to us? When we do not have the chance to make personal encounters we are forced to rely on what other people tell us and what we watch on the TV or read in the news. In fact, what most of the world knows about the \lquote others\rquote are based on what we are taught by the media \endash when we are watching a movie, reading the newspaper, facebooking or \endash as I am now \endash blogging on the internet. In many ways we are lucky. Globalisation, satellite TV and the internet has given us opportunities that the majority of the generation before us had not even imagined would be possible. Opportunities not only to watch \endash but also an opportunity to interact These media are very powerful tools when it comes to creating stereotypes, transmitting them \endash or breaking them down. On Thursday 16th we are inviting you to meet a stand-up comedian, a journalist, a blogger, two filmmakers and an actor who will put spotl Iran's domestic political scene can be vicious. One faction might be trying to use Saberi to undermine possible rapprochement with the U.S. by another faction. Obama moves to calm CIA fears over potential prosecution Barack Obama yesterday visited CIA headquarters to defend last week's decision to release four Bush administration memos detailing the agency's interrogation methods against al-Qaida suspects. After the release of the memos, human rights organisations called for prosecution of Bush officials as well as CIA interrogators. The row gathered further momentum yesterday when it emerged that one detainee, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, had been subjected to waterboarding 183 times and another, Abu Zubaydah, 83 times. Former Vice President Dick Cheney also weighed into the debate overnight saying he found it disturbing that Obama did not also release memos which would show the technique was successful in gathering intelligence. Appearing on the Fox News Channel, Cheney said he has asked the CIA to release documents showing the effectiveness of the widely condemned technique. I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained, he said. Obama is keen to try to put the row behind him, reluctant to see prosecutions that could be politically divisive and distract attention from his heavy domestic and foreign agenda. In a speech to about 1,000 staff aimed at restoring CIA morale, Obama, who promised last week that CIA operatives would not be prosecuted, reiterated that he would stand by them. Don't be discouraged by what's happened in the last few weeks, Obama said. Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we've made some mistakes. That's how we learn. At a private meeting with 50 rank-and-file CIA members at their headquarters in Langley, Virginia, before his speech, Obama heard understandable anxiety and concern from agents fearful of prosecution. The CIA's director during the Bush administration, Michael Hayden, who criticised the release of the memos, warned on Sunday that agents could be vulnerable because of the memos, facing civil lawsuits or congressional inquiries. Sensitive details were blacked out in the memos seen by most of the media on Thursday but over the weekend Marcy Wheeler, of the Emptywheel blog, found a copy in which crucial details were not masked. That copy showed that Mohammed had been subjected to waterboarding - which simulates drowning - 183 times in March 2003. He had been arrested in Pakistan at the start of that month. Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi captured in Pakistan in March 2002, was subjected t Mohammed had admitted to involvement in terrorist actions before his capture but, after being interrogated, confessed to a list of incidents and plots that included the 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, as well as a plot to attack Heathro Abu Zubaydah denied involvement with al-Qaida. Obama, defending himself against those in the CIA who argued that he should not have released the memos, said legally he had no grounds for blocking a freedom of information request from the US human rights group, the American Civil Liberties Union. I ac Standing in front of a wall with 89 stars, each depicting an officer killed in action, Obama praised the CIA as the tip of the spear in protecting the US from its enemies. Obama said he understood that intelligence officials must sometimes feel that they are working with one hand tied behind their backs. But, rebutting Hayden, he said: What makes the special and what makes you special is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it's hard, not just when it's easy, even when we are afraid and under threat, not just when its expedient to do so. United States So yes, you've got a harder job and so do I, and that's OK. And over the long term, that is why I believe we will defeat our enemies, because we're on the better side of history. Hayden had argued that the harsher interrogation techniques had provided valuable information and said that the techniques did not amount to torture. Human rights lawyers question the credibility of the confessions because they were obtained under duress. The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, when asked yesterday why Bush administration lawyers could not be prosecuted, said: The president is focusing on looking forward. • Reassurance after Bush spy chief's warning • Suspect was subjected to waterboarding 183 times 2009 Global Leadership Awards Sadiqa Basiri Saleem Temituokpe Esisi of Nigeria has committed herself to educating those who work for her successful tailoring company Tuopsy\rquote s Enterprises. Somaly Mam Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu Marceline Kongolo-Bicé The last award of the evening, the Global Trailblazer Award, was given to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Should we support internet activists in the Middle East? Wed, 04/22/2009 - 12:33pm I spoke yesterday at the Archaeologists unearth four pharaonic temples in Sinai Desert CAIRO, April 21 (Reuters) - Archaeologists have unearthed four pharaonic temples in the Sinai peninsula, including one of mud brick with fortified walls that served as an important religious centre at the eastern gateway to ancient Egypt. Kenya Muslims fume at move to convert Obama grandma NAIROBI (AFP) \emdash A Protestant church in Kenya is trying to convert US President Barack Obama's step-grandmother to Christianity against her will, a Muslim group said Monday, condemning the move as provocation. The Seventh Day Adventist church in the western town of Kisumu had invited 87-year-old Sarah Obama -- a Muslim -- to a function on Saturday, where she was allegedly to be baptised. According to relatives in her village of Kogelo, Mama Sarah, as she is popularly known in the US president's paternal homeland, was surprised by the offer and declined to attend. I regret the attempt by the Christian religion to force her to convert, Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa, the organising secretary of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, told AFP. Why only her? Why not before Obama became president? Didn't they see her before he became president? We are ready to protect our religion, he said. Said Obama, a step-brother to the US president, said the church pastors had approached Sarah Obama with news that she could become a Christian. Mama (Sarah) was born a Muslim and wishes to die a Muslim. The issue of conversion is neither here not there, he said. Journalist Roxana Saberi, right, shoots footage in Iran in 2003. The dual U.S. and Iranian citizen has been in Tehran's Evin Prison since January and is charged with espionage. Khalifa denounced the move as a provocation. They don't have permission from Jesus to convert someone. I challenge them to quote a verse from the Bible allowing them to convert someone, he said. Sarah became a national celebrity when her grandson visited the country in 2006 and her modest homestead has become a tourist attraction since the former Illinois senator's November 2008 election triumph. The Kenyan government last month declared Kogelo a protected national heritage site. Behrouz Mehri / AFP/Getty Images April 15, 2009 By Borzou Daragahi Iran also might want a bargaining chip to trade for officials who have been arrested and held by the U.S. in Iraq as spies over the last few years. Army issues orders to stop the preparation work in Bethlehem for the Pope visit The Israeli military issued issued orders on Thursday to stop the preparation work for the Pope's visit in Aiyda refugee camp in the southern West bank city of Bethlehem. Israeli troops in the west Bank- Photo by Ghassan Bannoura 2008 The Refugee camp welcoming committee for the Pope visit said Israeli troops stormed the camp and told the workers to stop the preparations, and claimed that the camp is under the military control and any work there should be granted a permit from the mili Aiyda refugee camp is located in Bethlehem city, the Israeli Wall was built near it to separate Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Bethlehem is under the full control of the Palestinian Authority. The Pope is expected to visit Bethlehem and stop by Aiyda refugee camp in mid-may as part of his visit to Palestine. PARIS \emdash A globe-spanning UN digital library seeking to display and explain the wealth of all human cultures has gone into operation on the Internet, serving up mankind's accumulated knowledge in seven languages for students around the world. The main target is children, he added, building on the success among young people of Voting ended today in Facebook\rquote s first move to become a democracy. The user-developed governance policy won by a huge margin but due to the vote count getting nowhere near its target, Facebook is essentially free to do what it wants with the result. February saw Facebook suddenly change its Terms of Service There is no limit, Billington said. Everybody is welcome. to one which meant it effectively owned you forever, even if you deleted your account. The media wasn\rquote t happy, the blogosphere wasn\rquote t happy, and above all a lot of Facebook users weren\rquote t happy. This meant Facebook had to back down or risk upsetting a large number of its users. These same users were asked to contribute their thoughts and feelings on the ToS and the dual Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities were born. A vote was promised , and that chance to vote was delivered last week. How Publishing Really Works Book Army HarperCollins' new website for readers, , is now open to all. Anyone can join and comment on the books that they've read, and add links between books. Working on the reasonable premise that someone who enjoyed reading Maggie O'Farrell might also like Sue Gee, it's hoped that Book Army's users w The problem is that there is no restriction on the links that can be made. Book Army isn't restricted to HarperCollins books and lists anything with an ISBN: I quickly found Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea, and Crack of Death by Sharla Tann (which are respectively the worst book and the second-worst book ever written) and linked them to one another. But while those two books fit beautifully together, I could just as easily have linked them to a car repair manual, A Brief Histo That lack of control means that anyone can join the site and create links between any books at all. That might not sound too bad, but I don't think it's going to be long before links start to be made between highly-successful commercially-published books Jane Smith At present there's little new on offer here for readers, who can find more information and lots of dense book-to-book linking on Amazon. Which means that in the short term at least, Book Army's main users are likely to be the less-successful writers, par So: is Book Army a good idea or a bad one? Anything which encourages people to read more, and more widely, has to have at least some good points: but the lack of monitoring and control in Book Army's system leads me to suspect that while the intentions be I joined Book Army when I first read about it, but I don't think I've been back since. It's a bad habit of mine.... Open Society Institute US Defense Department to Release Prison Abuse Pictures A rights group says U.S. authorities will release photographs showing abuse of prisoners by U.S. personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration. The American Civil Liberties Union said late Thursday the Defense Department had agreed to release the pictures by May 28, in response to a lawsuit the ACLU filed in 2004. ACLU staff attorney Amrit Singh said the photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse was widespread. The Bush administration had refused to release the photographs, saying they could generate anti-American outrage and may violate the country's obligations to the detainees under the Geneva Conventions. It failed in several court battles to keep the photos secret, including an appeal denied in March. In 2004, photographs were published of U.S. soldiers abusing and humiliating detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, sparking outrage around the world. The scandal led to 11 U.S. soldiers being sentenced to prison terms of up to 10 years. Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP. By VOA News Clinton: Iraq on 'right track' Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has said that suicide bombings that have rocked Iraq are a sign that fighters are afraid the Iraqi government is succeeding in restoring security. Clinton was speaking on Saturday to reporters in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital,\~on her first trip to the country as the US's most senior diplomat. Despite deadly attacks that have killed at least 148 people in Iraq on Thursday and Friday, Clinton said the country had made great strides. I think that these suicide bombings ... are unfortunately, in a tragic way, a signal that the rejectionists fear that Iraq is going in the right direction, she said. I think in Iraq there will always be political conflicts, there will always be, as in any society, sides drawn between different factions, but I really believe Iraq as a whole is on the right track. Clinton said there were going to be bad days, but\~I don't know of any difficult international situation anywhere in the world or history where there haven't been bad days. She\~arrived a day after\~suicide bombings killed 60 people outside the most important Shia shrine in Baghdad. At least 88 people\~were killed on Thursday by suicide bombers in Baghdad and Muqdadiyah, north of the capital, in what is seen as\~Iraq's\~deadliest violence in more than a year. Violence has\~gone down\~since the months following the 2003 US-led invasion, but the\~latest bombings come amid an increase in high-profile sectarian attacks that have raised concerns about the abilities of Iraq's security forces. The Pentagon will hand over responsibility for most urban security in about three months as part of the US government's goal of a complete exit of forces by the end of 2011. Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:18 Mecca time, 09:18 GMT Malaria Continues to be a Major Killer in Africa Malaria kills about one million people annually, and 9 out of 10 of them are Africans. Pregnant women and children are the most vulnerable to the disease, and it is estimated that every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Though the disease is preventable and treatable, health workers have found that simply passing out mosquito nets and treating homes with insecticide is not sufficient. Community education is key. Sackie Williams is a local health worker in Liberia. As part of the Ministry of Health's Door-to-Door Campaign, he goes to people's homes to teach them about malaria and how to protect themselves from the disease. Actually what we noticed is that more pe As part of the Hang it up and Keep it Up campaign, the volunteers not only hang up the nets in the homes but also do follow-up visits to make sure they are being used correctly. The only way we can get rid of it is to tell the people how to prevent the The Roll-Back Malaria Campaign is a global initiative aimed at providing preventative methods to everyone in at-risk countries by 2010. They estimate that 700 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets are needed worldwide, half of those in Africa. Though high rates of infection are still plaguing countries like Nigeria, other countries including Senegal, Gambia and Rwanda have seen significant progress thanks to awareness campaigns and improved treatment. Dr. Claude-Emile Rwagacondo is West Africa coordinator for the Roll-Back Malaria Campaign. He says speedy access to effective treatment is crucial. Yet, health clinics can be difficult to get to in rural areas and people are more likely to go to a traditional healer first. By the time they go to a clinic for malaria treatment, Dr. Rwagacondo says it is often too late. He says insuring the quality and affordability of the medicines can be difficult. Sometimes, when people get sick, they go to a small pharmacy, boutique or street corner, where vendors sell medicines that aren't effective. He says many don't even have the There is a tendency to treat all fevers as malaria in West Africa, and resistance to otherwise effective treatments, like cloroquine, has become a problem. Dr. Rwagacondo says if children get sick, they don't go to school and fall behind scholastically. That affects the economy. In rural communities, if the population is always sick, they can't work in the fields and production suffers. But there are rays of hope, and thanks to the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests and combination treatments, Senegal has seen large drops in both reported cases and mortality rates. Still, malaria impedes economic development and is one of the major contributors to poverty in Africa. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria costs Africa an estimated $12 billion a year in health expenditures and lost productivity. Sampson Kollie has malaria. He's being treated at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Liberia's capital. Malaria is so bad. I'm a victim of malaria. Malaria is a kind of sickness that makes you very weak. You vomit, and it drains you down. I hope th Though funding from the IMF, the World Bank, the United States and other donors has made it possible to subsidize treatment and prevention methods in Africa, Dr. Rwagacondo says that local governments also have a key role to play in mobilizing their popul By Anne Look Dakar 25 April 2009 Lieberman promotes 2-state solution Egyptian paper reports meeting between Foreign Minister, Intelligence Chief Suleiman; Egyptian sources say Lieberman was incredibly moderate Israel's controversial foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, openly promoted the concept of two states for two people, London-based Egyptian newspaper al-Hayat reported on Saturday. According to the paper, Lieberman was incredibly moderate during a meeting with Omar Suleiman, Egypt's Intelligence Chief. Suleiman visited Israel last week, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. His meeting with Lieberman was kept secret in order to avoid making waves in Egypt, where many demanded that the foreign minister issue a formal apology for statements made about Egypt's government in the past. Al-Hayat reported that the meeting was successful and met its objectives. In this context, the newspaper reported that the Netanyahu government has set deepening ties with Egypt as one of its top priorities. One Egyptian source said that Netanyahu would The paper quoted the source as saying that Lieberman was incredibly moderate and spoke with Suleiman about the peace process and negotiations. He presented the two-state solution as a means to promote security, stability and peace in the region. Additionally, he emphasized the importance of economic development in the West Bank and Gaza, the source said. Prisoner swap talks delayed The source told al-Hayat that talks on a prisoner swap for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit are being delayed until the new Israeli government will reassess the situation. They stated that they need time to study and discuss the options on the table. As su Regarding the connection to a ceasefire in Gaza, the Egyptian source was quoted as saying that the Israelis are certain that issues related to the kidnapped soldier in Gaza, Gilad Shalit, must come prior to a ceasefire agreement between them and the Pale As such, the issue (of a ceasefire) has also been delayed and what will happen for now is a mutual ceasefire or a cessation of fire in exchange for a cessation of fire, although there are no new ideas on the matter. According to al-Hayat's report, Suleiman emphasized to his hosts in Israel that the Palestinian factions are currently holding their fire based on an understanding reached with the Egyptians on the need to show restraint at this time. He added, however, t Roxana Saberi on hunger strike: Report Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi sentenced to eight years of prison for espionage in Tehran has reportedly gone on a hunger strike. Saberi's father, who is in Tehran to pursue her daughter's case, said on Saturday that Roxana had called from prison to say she was on her fifth day of hunger strike and would continue to refuse food until she is released. She's not eating anything ... I'm very worried, he told Reuters. Judging by her voice, she seems to be weak, Reza Saberi said. According to Saberi's father, her lawyer Abdolsamad Khoramshahi lodged an appeal against Roxana's eight-year prison term on Saturday. Saberi's decision to go on a hunger strike comes as earlier last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked Iran's judiciary to ensure that justice is administered in the case of the detained journalist. Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi later ordered a careful, quick and fair appeal for Roxana's controversial eight-year sentence. Fair examination of the case at every stage and especially at the appeal stage is the defendant's right, Shahroudi said in a letter to the head of the Tehran court. US-born Saberi, who is also half Japanese, was arrested late January in Tehran and was charged with spying for Washington following a trial by an Iranian court on April 18. Saberi, who reported for US National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News, has lived in Iran since 2003. Her controversial sentencing has prompted American circles to make every attempt to help her release. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reportedly sent a delegation to Iran to seek the release of Saberi. According to a report by Canada's PR newswire, CAIR Board Chairman State Senator Larry Shaw (NC) and CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad had sent a letter to President Ahmadinejad earlier, demanding permission to travel to Iran to discuss with you and oth US President Barack Obama has expressed concern over the sentencing of Saberi, saying, She is an American citizen, and I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort of espionage. Holy Book Reunites All Faiths in Bosnia By Amir Telibečirović Senior editor, Bosnia Daily Passover is a time for millions of Jewish families to remember the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt over three thousand years ago. As the Jewish community celebrates Passover, each family will open their Haggadah - a Jewish religious text that sets out the o Just as various communities across the world have been forced to migrate as a result of conflict, the oldest Sephardic-Jewish Haggadah in the world, owned by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo has also experienced a refugee life. This wine-stained book, evidence that it was used at many Passover Seders, traveled from Barcelona, where it was written and illustrated in the 14th century, to Sarajevo in the 15th century. It contains 34 pages of key scenes in the Torah - from the story In World War II, it was hidden from Nazi officers by the museum's chief librarian, Derviš Korkut. A Muslim, Korkut worked with his Croat colleague to risk his life in order to smuggle the Haggadah out of Sarajevo. According to common tales, the book was h When it was returned to the museum, it was locked in a separate room for the next few decades. Because it was so valuable, the book was kept from the probing eyes of museum visitors, who were instead only allowed to inspect printed copies. The Haggadah remained untouched in the museum until the Bosnian War. From 1992 to 1995, Sarajevo was under siege by the Serbian army and the museum, which was near the front lines, was exposed to shelling and sniper fire. As a result, the room containing the Haggadah was destroyed, and although the book remained untouched, many Sarajevans believed it would not survive too many more rounds of shelling. So a group of ordinary Sarajevans - Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats - went to Even now, when ethnic and religious tensions in parts of Bosnia are worsening, this old manuscript is finding a way to reunite ordinary Bosnians. Recently, the Sarajevo-based publishing house, Rabic Ltd., created 613 replicas of the Haggadah, which are cu Although the Sephardic Jewish community in Bosnia is rather small, they support the idea of keeping the Haggadah in Sarajevo as a unifying example of centuries of Bosnian coexistence and as part of the common heritage as Bosnians. Amir Telibečirović is senior editor of Sarajevo-based online magazine Bosnia Daily . The article was written for the Common Ground News Service Beirut: World Book Capital for 2009 Beirut became Saturday the World Book Capital for 2009, running under the Unesco cultural activities in the presence of senior leaders. Some 250 activities related to the book, publishing, how to encourage children and young people in reading are scheduled until April 2010. The Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, who attended the inauguration of this event, took the opportunity to appeal to all Lebanese political players to agree and dialogue. \ldblquote Lebanon needs its children to understand and agree to immune it against disorder,\rdblquote he said. Legislative elections are scheduled for June 7 in the country. The electoral battle is concentrated between the candidates of the parliamentary majority (anti-Syrian) backed by Washington and Riyadh and the minority led by the Shiite Hezbollah and support As for the Lebanese President Michel Sleimane, appointed head of the state in May 2008, he felt that Lebanon should remain a center of influence for the civilization and humanity. The event was launched at the Palais de l'Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Beirut, in the presence of the Director General of the UN organization, Koichiro Matsuura, the President of the Lebanese parliament Nebi Support Grows for One Democratic State in\~Palestine Ehud Olmert\rquote s nightmare is at hand. Not only does the former Israeli prime minister now really have to fight those corruption charges. He also faces the realization of his fears that the Palestinians might give up on a two-state solution in favor of a str Just last weekend in Boston, American and/or Israeli Jews accounted for nearly a third of the 29 speakers at a conference organized by TARI (Trans Arab Research Institute) with the William Joiner Center at the University of Massachusetts. This is the second major public conference on how to achieve a single democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis. The first was held in London in November, and a third is slated for Toronto in June. Yo, Ehud, that struggle is a growing movement, and it isn\rquote t a threat to Jews - on the contrary, Jews are very much a part of it. loses her agnosticism concerning the one-state solution. 2009-04-26 01:36:55 GAZA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian young man was killed on Saturday evening after a tunnel, dug under the borders between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and used for smuggling, collapsed, medics and security sources said. Palestinian dies as Gaza smuggling tunnel collapsed Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told reporters that Mustafa Abu Jazar, 24, of Rafah town in southern Gaza Strip died of suffocation in a tunnel under the borders that collapsed on Saturday. Hamas security sources in Gaza said that right after the tunnel collapsed in Rafah town, rescue teams arrived at the scene and managed to take out the body of a Palestinian young man, died of suffocation. In the last two years, the Palestinians dug hundreds of tunnels under the borders between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt. The tunnels were used in smuggling goods that Gaza Strip population lack. The tunnels business flourished right after Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip following Hamas takeover of the enclave in June 2007. Israel sealed off the enclave's crossings and only allowed humanitarian aids and fuels. All other products and materials used for construction, industry and agriculture, in addition to clothes, shoes and many different kinds of food products were not allowed into the Gaza Strip since two years ago. Israel says it would only ease security restrictions on Gaza borders crossings if Hamas frees an Israeli soldier its militants captured in the summer of 2006. Meanwhile, Hamas says Israel has to free 1450 prisoners from its jails for a change. Editor:_ Yan Related Stories Print Back to Top In a sign of the one-state movement\rquote s persistence, the conference was over-subscribed weeks before it was held; Those who got dozens were turned away because the hall only seated 500 people. . Ain remained glued to their seats as one intense presenter fol 'Three judges' to hear Saberi appeal The head of the Tehran Judiciary says three judges are likely to preside over the appeal court of a convicted Iranian-American journalist. Alireza Avaei told ISNA news agency on Friday that considering the calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Judiciary chief Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, at least two or three judges would preside at Roxana Saberi's appeal court. Saberi, 31, is a freelance journalist who was sentenced to eight years imprisonment on charges of spying for the United States government. President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Shahroudi have called for a fair appeal court for Saberi. Saberi is currently assisted by one lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, while Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is expected to join her defense team. World moves to contain flu spread Governments around the world are hurrying to contain the spread of a new swine flu virus after outbreaks were reported in Mexico, the US and Canada. At least 100 people are now suspected to have died of the disease in Mexico. In Europe, health ministers called for an urgent meeting as one case of swine flu was confirmed in Spain. The UN has warned the virus has the potential to become a pandemic, but said the world was better prepared than ever to deal with the threat. Stocks of anti-viral medicines are being readied and travellers are being screened at some airports for symptoms. Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said suspected swine flu cases in his country had risen to 1,614. Of the 103 deaths in Mexico, only 20 are so far confirmed to have been caused by the new virus. A public health emergency has been declared in the US, where 20 people are confirmed to have caught the virus. There are also six confirmed cases in Canada and one in Spain, where at least 17 other people are being tested for the virus. Investigations are being carried out on possible cases in five other countries. In most cases outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery. In other developments: • Tests are also being carried out on individuals or groups in New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Britain and Israel who fell ill following travel to Mexico • World Health Organization (WHO) experts will meet in Geneva on Tuesday to discuss whether to raise the pandemic alert level • The European Commission also said it was calling an urgent meeting of health mi • The World Bank is providing Mexico with more than $200m in loans to help it deal with the outbreak • Shares in airlines have fallen sharply on fears about the economic impact of the outbreak Vigilance urged The WHO - the UN's health agency - has said the swine flu virus could be capable of mutating into a more dangerous strain. But officials say they need more information on the virus to determine the threat it poses. Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of health security, said all countries were looking at this situation very seriously. But it's also clear that we are in a period in which the picture is evolving... [and that] we have to be very careful to collect the best possible information, he said. The WHO is advising all countries to be vigilant for seasonally unusual flu or pneumonia-like symptoms among their populations - particularly among young healthy adults, a characteristic of past pandemics. Most of those who have died so far in Mexico were young adults. The H1N1 virus is the same strain that causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans but the newly detected version contains genetic material from versions of flu which usually affect pigs and birds. There is currently no vaccine for the new strain, but severe cases can be treated with antiviral medication. Dr Fukuda said years of preparing for bird flu had boosted world stocks of anti-virals. Widespread cases In the US, eight cases have been confirmed among New York students, seven in California, two in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio. I do fear that we will have deaths, Dr Anne Schuchat of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters. The Canadian cases were recorded at opposite ends of the country: two in British Columbia in the west, and four in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia. In Spain, a young man who had recently returned from Mexico was found to have the virus. He was said to be in a stable condition. A number of countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe have begun screening airport passengers for symptoms. Russia, China and Thailand have banned imports of raw pork and pork products from Mexico and parts of the US. But Dr Fukuda said that there was no evidence to link exposure to pork with infection. In the Mexican capital, schools, bars and public buildings remain closed and many people are choosing to stay indoors. Some people are beginning to worry about the effects swine flu is having on their livelihoods and the Mexican economy in general. Fear of the virus is expected to lead to many tourists cancelling their holidays and Mexican exports are already beginning to be affected. Saudi women face gyms ban Action taken to shut down unlicensed, all-women fitness clubs, condemned as 'shameless' by Saudi Arabia's clerics Saudi women could see their private sports clubs and gyms closed down because the government seems likely to agree licensing of the clubs for men only. But news of the likely shutdown of dozens of female-only gyms came as a government official suggested that women might be allowed to vote in municipal elections, although they would still be barred from running for office. With the sexes strictly separated in public in the conservative kingdom, the two reports illustrate the slow and fitful nature of the progress made since the octogenarian King Abdullah instigated reforms three years ago. This year the government appointed its first woman as deputy minister to run a department for female students. But women are still banned from driving and they face many other restrictions. They are required to have compulsory guardianship by a male. 's austere brand of Wahhabi Islam forbids the mixing of unrelated members of the opposite sex. In the \-presence of strange men, women must remain covered. The problem that has emerged in recent months is that women's gyms are unlicensed and so illegal. Female fitness fans complain of a lack of places to exercise outside the home since they cannot use men's clubs. The general presidency for sport and youth welfare is responsible for men's gyms but it has not been allowed or prepared to regulate those for women. Businessman Bader Al-Shibani wanted to open a women's sports club along with the one he runs for men in Jeddah. I ran into a stone wall at every turn, he said. Every department I visited denied that they had the authority to give permission to establis Action has already been taken against two women's gyms, in Jeddah and in Dammam, according to al-Madinah newspaper. Clubs in Riyadh have so far been spared. This month a group of Saudi women launched a campaign entitled Let Her Get Fat, in opposition to a decision to close down all-female wellness centres that are not under the supervision of a government hospital or clinic. Leading Saudi clerics have condemned the gyms and clubs as shamelessness and warned that women would be tempted to leave their homes and neglect their husbands and children. However, it has been reported that Prince \-Mansour bin Muteb, deputy minister for municipal and rural affairs, has suggested that Saudi women be allowed to vote. Only eligible males voted in municipal elections in 2005, which were the kingdom's first countrywide polls since the state was created in 1932. Last month Prince Nayef, the powerful interior minister and half-brother of King Abdullah, said the kingdom had no need of either women MPs or elections. Shortly afterward he was named second deputy prime minister, boosting his chances for the succession. Abbas urges Hamas, Fatah to agree on unity gov't Special Report: Palestine-Israel\~Conflicts RAMALLAH, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday urged rival Fatah and Hamas conferees in Cairo to overcome their differences to form a unity government. Abbas, addressing a young Palestinian parliament association at his office, called on Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip since June 2007, to agree on forming a government that accepts the signed interim treaties with Israel. Leaders of rival Fatah and Hamas movements began another round of dialogue in Cairo on Monday, aimed at reaching an agreement on forming a unity government that prepares for elections before Jan. 25 next year. I call on Cairo dialogue to agree on forming a government that will run the country's affairs, reunite it and rebuild Gaza, then go to elections, said Abbas, adding that we cannot rebuild Gaza without this government. Abbas stressed his demand for all the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to accept the signed agreements with Israel. Hamas movement refuses to abide by the international requirements related to recognizing Israel and the signed peace agreements and condemning violence. Abbas pledged to guarantee honest elections and that if Hamas wins, he will hand over power to the radical movement because we believe in democracy. Hamas movement, which won the latest parliamentary elections in January 2006, has formed two governments. Abbas deposed the national unity one after the movement took over the Gaza Strip by force. Abbas added that if elections were not held by Jan. 24, then there will be no legitimacy to anyone - not the government, not the parliament and not the president. Meanwhile, Abbas said he wants to continue peace talks with Israel, but reiterated that these talks would only resume on the basis of the Arab peace initiative issued at the Arab summit held in Beirut in 2002. Talks can be resumed if Israel accepts the two-state solution and the road map peace plans which calls for total freeze of settlement activities and removal of checkpoints, said Abbas. Researcher Uses His Thoughts to Update Twitter A doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is developing a way for those whose brain function normal, but bodies don't work can communicate better. Using an electrode-studded cap wired to a computer, Adam Wilson can update a Twitter status by just thinking about it, Wisconsin Technology Network reported. The electrodes detect the brain's thoughts and translates them into physical actions, such as a cursor motion on a computer screen. We started thinking that moving a cursor on a screen is a good scientific exercise, Justin Williams, a UW-Madison assistant professor of biomedical engineering and Wilson's adviser, told Wisconsin Technology Network. But when we talk to people who have Researchers say the new technology could help people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brain-stem stroke or high spinal cord injury. Wilson compares the technology to texting. You have to press a button four times to get the character you want, Wilson says of the technology. So this is kind of a slow process at first. Venezuela establishes ties with Palestinians Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, center, shakes hands with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malki prior to a meeting in Caracas, Monday, April 27, 2009. The Palestinian Authority is opening an embassy in Caracas on Monday. CARACAS, Venezuela -- Palestinian officials established formal ties on Monday with Venezuela and opened a diplomatic mission in the South American country. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki thanked President Hugo Chavez's government for its support during the recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which prompted the Venezuelan leader to break off relations with Israel. Venezuelan-Palestinian relations have warmed as tensions have grown between Chavez's government and Israel. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the Palestinian cause is like our own, while al-Malki praised Chavez as the most popular leader in the Arab world, in part for his staunch support of Palestinians. The two officials signed a document formally establishing diplomatic relations, and a Palestinian Embassy in Caracas was inaugurated on Monday afternoon. Al-Malki said it is one of various embassies and representative offices throughout Latin America in countries from Cuba to Chile. Palestinian officials say there are 97 embassies and representative offices worldwide. Venezuela expelled Israeli diplomats on Jan. 6 to protest the Gaza offensive, and Israel later responded by kicking out Venezuelan envoys. Chavez has labeled Israeli leaders genocidal. Maduro accused Israel of persecuting Palestinians, saying they deserve to live in justice, in peace, in freedom and independence. Al-Malki said Palestinian officials hope the new embassy in Caracas will serve as a sort of hub for diplomatic efforts across South America. We also hope to open more Palestinian embassies all over the continent because for us it's a great priority... to focus on this continent due to the political importance it has, the Palestinian official said. Avaei on Friday reiterated that the Saberi case would be thoroughly processed to ensure a strong and fair ruling. The White House has called for the speedy release of Saberi where President Barack Obama has said that she is an American citizen, and I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort of espionage. Saberi, who reported for the BBC, NPR, and Fox News during her six-year stay in Iran, was arrested in February for working illegally as a journalist after her press card was revoked in 2006. (Source: Press TV) Tuesday, April 28, 2009________| Back Send To Friend أوباما _يختار العالم المصري أحمد زويل ضمن مجلس مستشاريه العلميين واشنطن: أعلن الرئيس الأمريكي _باراك أوباما رسميا عن اختيار العالم المصري الكبير الدكتور أحمد زويل الحاصل على _جائزة نوبل في الكيمياء عام 1999 ليكون ضمن أعضاء مجلس المستشارين العلميين _والتكنولوجيين التابع للبيت الأبيض مباشرة والمعروف اختصارا باسم مجلس بي وكان قرار تشكيل المجلس _الاستشاري الرئاسي الأمريكي بي كاست قد تم التوقيع عليه في صورة قانون رئاسي _بواسطة الرئيس الأمريكي السابق جورج بوش يوم 30 سبتمبر عام 2001 ، وهو مجلس يتكون _من مجموعة من أبرز العلماء والمستشارين الذين يقدمون المشورة إلى الرئيس ونائ وجاء الإعلان عن اختيار الدكتور _زويل \endash الأستاذ في معهد كاليفورنيا للتكنولوجيا كالتيك \endash في خطاب ألقاه أوباما في _الأكاديمية الوطنية للعلوم في واشنطن. وحسبما ذكرت صحيفة الشروق _المصرية فقد وقع اختيار أوباما على زويل من بين عشرين من الشخصيات العلمية البارزة _التي تم تعيينها في المجلس ، وهم : روزينا بيرباوم وكريستين كاسل وكريستوفر تشيبا _وجيمس جيتس وجون هولدرن وشيرلي جاكسون وإيريك لاندر وريتشار ليفن وتش والمجلس بتشكيله الحالي يتألف من _ثلاثة من الحاصلين على جوائز نوبل واثنين من رؤساء الجامعات _الأمريكية. وقال أوباما عن هذا المجلس : _إنه يتكون من قادة بارزين من العديد من المجالات العلمية ممن يساعدون على إيجاد _تنوع في الخبرات ووجهات النظر ، وسوف أكلف المجلس بتوجيه المشورة لي حول _الاستراتيجيات الوطنية من أجل الحفاظ على ثقافة الإبداع _العلمي. أما أحمد زويل نفسه فقال تعليقا _على هذا الاختيار : إنني سعيد بأن أكون مستشارا لمساعدة الرئيس أوباما في تحقيق _رؤيته للولايات المتحدة للقرن الحادي والعشرين ، وللتعامل مع القضايا ذات الأهمية _العالمية. ووصف جان لو تشامو رئيس معهد كالتك زويل بأنه اختيار رائع _لعضوية بي كاست ، ليس فقط لكونه عالما متميزا ، ولكن لأنه أيضا قائد نخبوي يملك _رؤية عظيمة في القضايا التي يواجهها المجتمع. نبذة عن حياة _الدكتور أحمد زويل ولد الدكتور أحمد زويل في مدينة دمنهور بجمهورية مصر العربية في السادس _والعشرين من فبراير/ شباط عام 1946, وبدأ المرحلة اولاى من تعليمه بمدينة دمنهور ثم _انتقل مع الأسرة الي مدينة دسوق مقر عمل والده حيث أكمل تعليمه حتي المرحلة _الثانوية ثم التحق بكلية العلو وبعد شهادة _الدكتوراه, انتقل الدكتور زويل الي جامعة بيركلي بولاية كاليفورنيا وانضم لفريق _الأبحاث هناك. وفي عام 1976 عين زويل في كلية كالتك كمساعد أستاذ للفيزياء _الكيميائية وكان في ذلك الوقت في سن الثلاثين. وفي عام 1982 نجح في تولي منصب أستاذا للكيمياء وفي عام 1990 _تم تكريمه بالحصول علي منصب الأستاذ الأول للكيمياء في معهد لينوس بولينج . وفي سن _الثانية والخمسين فاز الدكتور أحمد زويل بجائزة بنيامين فرانكلين بعد اكتشافه _العلمي المذهل المعروف بإسم الفيمتو ثا وبدأ الدكتور أحمد زويل مستقبله العملي كمتدرب في شركة شل _في مدينة الأسكندرية عام 1966 واستكمل دراساته العليا بعد ذلك في الولايات المتحدة _حيث حصل علي شهادة الدكتوراه عام 1974 من جامعة بنسلفانيا وفي عام 1991 تم ترشيح الدكتور أحمد زويل لجائزة نوبل في _الكيمياء وبذلك يكون أول عالم عربي مسلم يفوز بتلك الجائزة في الكيمياء منذ أن فاز _بها الروائي المصري نجيب محفوظ عام 1988 في الأدب والرئيس الراحل محمد أنور السادات _في السلام عام 1978 . وللدكتور أحمد زويل أربعة أبناء وهو متزوج من ديما زويل وهي _تعمل طبيبة في مجال الصحة العامة, وهو يعيش حاليا في سان مارينو بولاية كاليفورنيا _. ويشغل الدكتور أحمد زويل عدة مناصب منها الأستاذ الاول _للكيمياء في معهد لينوس بولينج وأستاذا للفيزياء في معهد كاليفورنيا للتكنولوجيا _ومدير معمل العلوم الذرية. وأبحاث الدكتور زويل حاليا تهدف الي تطوير _استخدامات أشعة الليزر للإستفادة منها في علم الكيمياء والأحياء, أما في مجال _الفيمتو الذي تم تطويره مع فريق العمل بجامعة كالتك فإن هدفهم الرئيسي حاليا هو _استخدام تكنولوجيا الفيمتو في تصوير العمليات الكيميائية وفي In other words, even if two states are established, Israel cannot continue to be a state that privileges its Jewish citizens over its non-Jewish citizens. So either one or two states would mean the end of a Jewish state - although not of the state of Isra US Military: Can't Confirm Capture Of Al-Qaeda In Iraq Leader WASHINGTON (AFP)--The U.S. military said Thursday it can't confirm reports of_the capture of the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. I can't confirm it. At this point, we are still trying to confirm it, said_Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman. He noted that past reports of Al-_Qaeda leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi's capture have proven untrue. This would be a significant capture if the report is true, Whitman said. Baghdad's security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta told AFP Thursday that_Baghdadi was arrested by Iraqi forces thanks to an intelligence tipoff. Baghdadi is said to lead the Islamic State of Iraq, a self-styled umbrella_organization for Al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgent groups fighting U.S. and Iraqi_forces that has pledged loyalty to Osama bin Laden. But the Pentagon has said in the past that the fronting of Baghdadi as the_leader of Iraq's Al-Qaeda operation is part of an elaborate ruse to put an Iraqi_face on an organization that has always been led by foreign fighters. The U.S. military maintains that the real leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq is Abu_Hamza al-Muhajir - better known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri - a veteran Egyptian_militant named Al-Qaeda chief in June 2006 following the death of his better-_known Jordanian predecesso Even so, Whitman said, Baghdadi's capture, if true, would be very good news. We think this is a significant Al-Qaeda leader and if the report is true that_would be very good news, he said. Baghdadi has been believed to be a key_leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq for some time. Venezuela Salts Wounds by Inviting PA Officials (IsraelNN.com) Months after the expulsion of the Israeli Embassy\~from Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez invited representatives of the Palestinian Authority to open a diplomatic consulate in his country\rquote s capital. On Monday, Venezuela\rquote s Foreign Minister Ni PA Foreign Minister Riyad el-Malki thanked Chavez for his support of the PA Arabs during Israel\rquote s military operations in Gaza. \ldblquote Chavez is the most popular leader in the western world,\rdblquote el-Malki said. Venezuela presently has a diplomatic office in Ramallah. In Latin America, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has embassies in Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, and a diplomatic representative in Peru. On January 6th, the Venezuelan government expelled Israel\rquote s ambassador and all Israeli officials from Israel\rquote s Embassy in Caracas, in protest of Israel\rquote s Operation \lquote Cast Lead\rquote . Chavez\rquote s Track Record Venezuela\rquote s move was not\~the first time it has ousted Israeli officials. During the 2006 War in Lebanon, the Venezuelan president decided to recall its ambassador from Israel. In resp During Israel\rquote s\~counter-terror operations in Gaza, Venezuela\rquote s foreign minister condemned Israel and expressed solidarity with PA Arabs. In this tragic and indignant hour, the people of Venezuela manifest their unconditional solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people, share in the sadness that overcomes thousands of families through the loss of t \ldblquote The Holocaust \endash this is what is presently happening in Gaza,\rdblquote Chavez told television viewers during Israel\rquote s military operations this past January. \ldblquote The president of Israel must be tried in the International Court, together with George Bush,\rdblquote he stated. The Venezuelan president has developed a close relationship with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the past two years in a mutual effort to back other countries' attempting to liberate themselves from the imperialist yoke. Chavez has stated suppo In response to the Chavez regime's anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hostility, the Hashomer Hatzair Socialist Zionist youth movement last week initiated a protest campaign targeting Venezuelan embassies worldwide . The demonstrations are continuing this week as well. No Hands or Voice Required: Researchers Use Brain Interface to Post to Twitter From the Post: In early April, Adam Wilson posted a status update on the social networking Web site Twitter - just by thinking about it. Just 23 characters long, his message, \ldblquote using EEG to send tweet,\rdblquote demonstrates a natural, manageable way in which \ldblquote locked-in\rdblquote patients can couple brain-computer interface technologies with modern communication tools. A University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student, Wilson is among a growing group of researchers worldwide who aim to perfect a communication system for users whose bodies do not work, but whose brains function normally. Among tho Some brain-computer interface systems employ an electrode-studded cap wired to a computer. The electrodes detect electrical signals in the brain - essentially, thoughts - and translate them into physical actions, such as a cursor motion on a computer scre See Also: View and download a video of person using the brain-computer interface to post to Twitter Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF Associated Press Writer CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said. The move immediately provoked resistance from pig farmers. At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, farmers refused to cooperate with Health Ministry workers who came to slaughter the animals and the workers left without carrying out the gover It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country's slaughterhouses, Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork due to religious restrictions. But the animals are raised and consumed by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population. Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman estimated there were between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt. Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation. In 2008, following fears over diseases spread by animals, Mubarak ordered all pig and chicken farms moved out of population areas. But the order was never implemented. Pigs can be found in many places around Muslim world, often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork. But they are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya. In Jordan, the government decided Wednesday to shut down the country's five pig farms, involving 800 animals, for violating public health safety regulations. Anthropologist Smadar Lavie said a common struggle against the oppression of Jews of Arab descent and Palestinian Arabs offered a way out of Zionism towards co-existence. Historian Ilan Pappe pointed to many concrete \ldblquote de-Zionising\rdblquote projects on the ground, Historian Gabriel Piterberg held up the poetry of the late Avot Yeshurun as a model of blending narratives and identities by mixing Arabic and Yiddish idiom into Hebrew poetry. As for the Jews, several referred to the way that Zionism had subverted the values of Judaism, and highlighted alternative discourses. As law philosopher Ori Ben-Dor put it, \ldblquote Zionism abuses the Jewish memory and the humanist message of the holocaust.\rdblquote His And political scientist As\rquote ad Ghanem emphasized that no one can decide for a people what their national consciousness is: \ldblquote I know who I am as a Palestinian; I cannot decide for the Israelis who they are.\rdblquote There is no \ldblquote monolithic Jewish voice,\rdblquote Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti reminded, adding that it is anti-Semitic to claim otherwise. He pointed to the \ldblquote disproportionate number of Jews\rdblquote in the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel until P Five dead, 12 injured in Queen's Day tragedy Palestinian National Authority to Open Diplomatic Mission in Venezuela CARACAS \endash The Palestinian National Authority will open an official diplomatic office in Caracas at the beginning of the week, an event for which Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki is traveling to the Venezuelan capital. The Palestinian official and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro are scheduled to sign a document formally establishing the start of diplomatic relations between Caracas and the PNA. \ldblquote Venezuela took time requesting the opening of the Palestinian embassy in Caracas, a matter that has been delayed due to internal problems,\rdblquote sources close to Mahmoud Abbas\rquote s PNA said on Friday in Jerusalem. At the beginning of the year, the government of Hugo Chávez expelled the Israeli diplomatic contingent from Caracas after dubbing the Israel offensive in Gaza last December and January a \ldblquote massacre.\rdblquote A few weeks later, Israel expelled the Venezuelan diplomatic corps in Tel Aviv in a reciprocal measure, and it also expelled the South American country\rquote s diplomatic personnel with the PNA. Most of the Latin American countries to have diplomatic missions accredited to the PNA opened their embassies during the 1990s, including Brazil and Chile, and in recent years Mexico and Argentina have opened missions there. In Venezuela, the resident Palestinian community does not exceed 1,000 people, and most of them come from villages around Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem or are refugees who fled the fighting during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948-1949. Five candidates in race for IAEA top job: Diplomat Five candidates are in the running to take over from Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the UN atomic watchdog, diplomats close to the election process said today as the deadline for nominations expired. The deadline for nominations for the position of director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency expired at midnight yesterday. Egyptian diplomat ElBaradei is stepping down in November after 12 years at the head of the agency. Yesterday, there were five candidates, a diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Poncelet emerged at the last minute as a candidate. The IAEA is unlikely to name the candidates officially for a couple of days yet, to give Taous Feroukhi, time to inform the IAEA's member states, the diplomat said. Besides, I believe other vital challenges face the Palestinians, including how to keep Palestinians physically on the land of Palestine, and how to effectively and non-violently challenge a leadership that represents at best a quarter of the Palestinian p I share the view of policy analyst Phyllis Bennis who warned at the conference that the United States might seek to impose a mini-state with minimal sovereignty and rights. That\rquote s why my talk focused on an analysis of the sources of non-violent power available to the Palestinian people, including economic, moral, cultural, legal, and political power. Queen's Day celebrations in Apeldoorn ended in tragedy, with five people killed and 12 injured, five of them seriously. Just before noon a man deliberately drove his car at high speed into a crowd watching an open-topped coach carrying the Royal Family pa The driver is a 38-year-old Dutc national, who is an unemployed security guard. The public prosecutor says the man told police the target of this attack was the Royal Family, a crime punishable with a maximum jail sentence of 30 years. The public prosecut The car missed the royal coach by 15 metres and came to a standstill when it crashed into a well-known monument. The driver was injured and had to be cut from his vehicle. He was arrested and taken away for interrogation. He is in hospital and his conditi The man had made an earlier attempt to cross a safety barrier and was turned away by police. By the time the man approached the royal coach, his car was already heavily damaged. Together with a bomb disposal squad police searched the vehicle in the presen Queen Beatrix, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, Princess Máxima and other members of the Royal Family watched in horror as the car ploughed through the public. Surrounded by security agents, the coach was immediately driven to the nearby Het Loo palace. In Flags were lowered to half-mast at the palace and all government buildings. Prime Minister Balkenende expressed deep shock at the horrible event and traveled to Apeldoorn. Most Queen's Day celebrations across the country were cancelled. In the capital Amsterdam, where some 600,000 people were partying, and a few other towns, festivities went ahead but were toned down. Iraq Claims Arrest of Alleged al-Qaida Cell Iraq's Interior Ministry said it has arrested seven men from an alleged al-Qaida in Iraq cell suspected of a string of car bombings and other attacks. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdel-Karim Khalaf told reporters Tuesday the group includes Shi'ite Muslims. That is extremely unusual regarding al-Qaida in Iraq, which is almost entirely composed of Sunni extremists, and which has staged many deadly attacks Khalaf said one of the Shi'ite suspects is a police officer who is accused of helping the attackers get car bombs through police checkpoints. At a news conference in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry played what it said was a videotaped confession from the men, one of whom said he was the head of an al-Qaida cell in Haditha, a town in western Anbar province. Khalaf said members of the group were responsible for at least 25 attacks, including car bombings and vehicle hijackings. The photograph showed a bearded man wearing a black T-shirt. In a separate development, the Iraqi government released a photo Tuesday of the man it said is the detained Sunni insurgent leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the alleged head of the al-Qaida-linked group known as the Islamic State of Iraq. Authorities announced the arrest of Baghdadi last week, but had offered no evidence that he was in custody. Earlier claims of Baghdadi's arrest or death turned out to be false, and the U.S. military has previously called him a fictional character invented to put an Iraqi face on an extremist group run mostly by foreigners. Elsewhere in Iraq Tuesday, a group of relatives and supporters of Iraq's executed former leader, Saddam Hussein, marked his birthday in the small village where he was born. They laid flowers on his grave in the town of Ouja, near Tikrit, north of Baghdad. The former dictator would have turned 72 on Tuesday. He was hanged in 2006 after an Iraqi court convicted him of crimes against humanity. One important fact (simple but of utmost importance) was reiterated by several Palestinians - from the occupied territories, from within Israel, and in exile. They said loud and clear that working for the one-state solution means working with Israeli Jews Political scientist Laila Farsakh acknowledged this would be difficult given the anger Palestinians feel at Israel after Gaza and given their history of dispossession at Israel\rquote s hands. As one strategy to overcome this anger, she suggests a debate on iden Civil rights advocate Nancy Murray and others suggested presenting the attack on Gaza in the context of how Israel was created as well as pointing to the parallels of the one-state discourse with the values Americans uphold. A remarkable aspect of the conference was the way nearly all speakers highlighted the Zionist project - creating an exclusivist state - as the root of the problem, and discussed ways to challenge it. One of the few - perhaps only - Zionist speakers at the conference, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Meron Benvenisti, came to bury Zionism not to praise it. \ldblquote As a Zionist, I wanted a Jewish state but that option is abrogated. The \lquote one state\rquote is already h A shared theme was the urgent warning that future Israeli assaults on Palestinians cannot be ruled out. Ilan Pappe and this author drew the audience\rquote s attention to the Israeli High Court decision to allow 100 Israeli extremists, whose leader belonged to a This is a scary echo of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon\rquote s insistence on walking through Al Aqsa mosque, the spark that lit the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000 and set the stage for the brutal crushing of the Palestinian Authority in 2002. I A major theme was the need to reconstitute the Palestinian body politic. Political scientist Karma Nabulsi outlined existing efforts and strategies as she reviewed how the \ldblquote discourse about solutions has derailed and disenfranchised the Palestinian popular Several participants noted the need to move from discussion of the concept of one state to concrete strategies on how to get there to address not just agnosticism but outright opposition among many Palestinians, Israelis and the rest of the world. As law Stating that \ldblquote We are still at the first question,\rdblquote As\rquote ad Ghanem offered a particularly frank critique. The Jewish state, the Islamic state and the two-state options all have more public support. The difficult questions are: Nadia Hijab is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington D.C. Those who support a two-state solution must do better if they want to hang on to hearts and minds. For, make no mistake, as American politicians are fond of saying, the adherents of the one-state movement share a faith. And fear and brute force - whether And the realists in the United States, Europe, and Israel, whose core argument is that a Palestinian state is the only way to save a majority Jewish state - an argument that does not inspire. Think about it. Who\rquote s defending the two-state option today? The Palestinian Authority, its case ever weaker against the decades-long clanging of Israeli bulldozers as they colonize Palestinian land and demolish homes. The discussion of concrete steps challenged my agnosticism. So did the passion and creativity of the debate. The best vision of the one-state solution does make the alternative debates \ldblquote barren,\rdblquote Ghada Karmi put it. In offering concrete strategies, Omar Barghouti\rquote s examples included ways in which restitution of inherent rights could be achieved without harming acquired rights. How could Palestinians and Israelis be convinced it would serve their needs? What would be its relationship to the Jewish Diaspora and the Arab national movement? Who are the citizens of the one-state, Israeli or Palestinian? Helena Cobban wrote a similar story for IPS showing the rise in support of a one-state solution. Christian Avard April 11, 2009 at Written by qunfuz April 11, 2009 at 10:23 am with one comment Lieberman: Israel has worked to achieve peace since its creation , Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday congratulated Israel on its 61rst anniversary, telling foreign diplomats that since the beginning of its existence, Israel has worked hard to achieve peace. It's no secret that these are difficult times here in Israel, filled with constant security threats... We signed a peace treaty with Egypt, with Jordan and have made great efforts to try and reach an agreement with the Palestinians, Lieberman said durin Tuesday, March 31, 2009 The World According To Mom A few months ago, my friend David clicks! I don't know, I said. But it sure sounds like a cool thing to try. Cool. And if you could visit, virtually, moms around the world, what would you want to talk to them about? asked me if I thought that it would be possible to travel around the world via blog. Like Around The World In 80 Days, he said, but on the Internet. Around the world in 80 . 80 mom-blogger clicks This was my answer (more on our Around The World In 80 Clicks project after the post, below) love being a mom? Becoming a mom means entering a state of existence wherein you are always, at some level, deeply fulfilled. It means being adored by tiny creatures who delight at the sound of your voice. It means love, giggles and ice cream and rainbows don't you just Once, when Emilia was 8 or 9 months old and we were socializing at a local playground, another mother asked me this question: She meant it rhetorically: being a mom? I loved being a mom. How could anyone of course not love Sort of, I replied. Some of the time. My memory on this might be fuzzy, but I think that she physically recoiled. . My attachment to my married state has everything to do with him, and pretty much nothing to do with the institution of marriage itself. Motherhood is a little different, obviously: some women really do love motherhood as a practice, as a craft, as a way Of course I love being a mother. But it's complicated. I love being a mother to my children, but there's a very great difference between loving being a mother to one's own children and loving motherhood generally. I mean, I love being married to my husban wife my house is a mess good at, as a mother: love, and good humor. I adore my children, and they delight me to no end. We have a lot of fun; we laugh a lot. Sure, the baby sometimes ends up with paper towels shoved down his pants in lieu of a diaper, but still: he's happy. We'r am . What I So if someone were to ask me that question today - don't you just love being a mom? - I'd answer in much the same way - sort of/some of the time/some of it - but I'd also, depending upon how nervy I was feeling that day, say this: why don't I tell you, specifically, what I love about being a mom? And then - if, that is, my inquisitor had not gathered up her children and fled my toxic presence - I would provide her with the following list: do 1) I love that there are always cookies in the cupboard, and that I can claim plausible deniability if someone asks if the cookies are mine and whether I intend to eat them all myself. 2) I love that birthdays and holidays are major events involving ridiculous amounts of sugar and gift wrap. 3) I love that, for at least some months following the births of my children, I had really epic breasts. They're gone now, but still. For a while I had the bustline of a stripper, and that - feminist correctness be damned - was kind of cool. 4) I love seeing the world through her eyes: 5) And his: there's always somebody on whom to blame the farts the way that it feels when tiny hands get tangled in my hair There are, of course, a thousand and some other reasons that I could give, reasons that range from the poetic ( ) to the profane ( ), but then this list would go on forever, and that would very probably undermine my claim to be ambivalent about the condition of motherhood. question from my own perspective, and to invite other mothers - mothers from around the world - to do the same thing and share their answers. In part because I'm looking for some affirmation that I'm not the only mother in the world who ordinarily raises In any case, the whole point of this exercise was this: to consider a standard entre-mamans Israel Time:\~20:20\~(EST+7) Despite the circumstances, the people of Israel live and achieve wonderful things. You live here and witness the state of Israel making significant contributions to industries such as technology, medicine, agriculture and education. Israelis have receive Even in sports, Lieberman added, our Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team has won the Euro League championship several times. In today's financial world crisis, the state of Israel is doing relatively well. Heads of states arrive here, the pope is coming next month, and thousands of tourists come to experience the spirituality of the holy land, the foreign minister went on to In my eyes, Israel is the land of opportunities. My personal story is a testament to that. I arrived in Israel in 1978 as a new immigrant. I started out as a student and remember studying for my exams in a security booth right here, outside of the presid During his trip, Lieberman was expected to raise Israel's concerns over Iran's nuclear aspirations and to ask his hosts to prepare for the possibility of the breakdown of future dialogue between Iran and the U.S., and international pressure may become nec I hope that this new government will inspire the people of Israel and manage to create a dramatic change for them as well as the other nations in our region. With God's help, and yours, we will attain our objectives of security, stability, prosperity and Meanwhile, Lieberman was scheduled to embark on his first trip abroad as foreign minister next Tuesday, with stops in Rome, Paris and Berlin. Lieberman was also to ask his hosts to prevent the freezing of a planned upgrade of ties between Israel and the European Union, which several voices within the EU have called for in response to Israel's policy. It is not yet clear what Lieberman's message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be, as Israel's new government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has yet to formulate its official policy. Last update\~-\~23:23 29/04/2009 Thu., April 30, 2009 Iyyar 6, 5769 Afghan women protest against law that 'legalises rape' Let\rquote s speak in a scientific talk : Yes the Swine flu does not transfer only through pigs to humans but it also it also transfers from humans to humans which is the dangerous stage in the disease. Still the main origin of the virus is the pigs. Now for the Swine flu is a combination between H1N1,H5N1 and human flu . The H5N1 mutated in Egypt and the WHO as I hinted several times in my blog warned from the pigs farms and its danger on health especially those farms are inside the cities not outside it. For three years there was a presidential decree issued to transfer the farms outside the cities in the different governorates and up till now it has not been implemented because of the powerful lobby of garbage collectors , do not laugh you do not know how big is the garbage collecting business. You only have to know that this lobby is standing against the Recycle business in Egypt. Now back to flu the WHO is saying that the H5N1 is mutating dangerously in Egypt so we do not need to have our own Swine flu in Egypt thanks to the combination of H5N1 with human flu and Swine flu !! I know pigs are God\rquote s creatures but God gives us mind to think and God ordered us not to throw ourselves in doom ,the protection Those poor thousands who work in pigs farms do not understand the danger that they are facing , if they are infected with Swine flu locally ,they will be the first victims and it is well known that the government won\rquote t help them , in fact there is no vacc It is ridiculous and irresponsible to claim that this decision was taken for religious reasons because you have to know that the Christian Church as I repeated thousand times has agreed and support the government decision. Now it amazed me that for some C Regarding the FAO and WHO reactions , well pardon me but I saw Dr.Hussein Abdel-Razzak Al Gezairy, the head of the regional office of WHO in the region saying on TV that both slaughtering the pigs or transferring them to isolated areas were good decision !! So why the WHO and FAO are so angry !! Unfortunately this is a presidential decree and despite the official announcement that the slaughtering will start on Saturday , the slaughtering has started already today . Mubarak won\rquote t cancel a presidential decree because of pigs so he would be become the joke of the Egyptians , I do not know what those international organizations were thinking when they were asking the halt of this presidential decree. !!! Now the minister of health presented a summarized report to Mubarak about the Avian flu and Swine flu in Egypt and the world today. You can download and read the report here ,it is already in Arabic. It is actually a presentation to be accurate. The report included a map for the pigs farms in Egypt : I think now the President is calmed down by his men that everything is under control which I hope it is because we have not yet finished from the H5N1 bomb so we can deal with this scary new threat. I forget to say that the Health ministry is considering Sinai as an expected virus entry area because Israel announced that there are confirmed H1N1 cases there , I won\rquote t use the swine word as it is not allowed there !!! Speaking about Israel , I think we should do the same thing they are doing at Ben Gurion airport in Cairo airport. Back to Sinai , this is too much for this dear part of the nation , war , smuggling and now swine flu !! Iran: Delara Darabi, a 23 year old artist hanged Friday, 01 May 2009 In a brutal act, mullahs\rquote regime hung Delara Darabi, a 23 year old artist She was only 17 at the time of crime attributed to her NCRI - This morning, Delara Darabi, an artist, was hung by the mullahs\rquote regime in the city of Rasht, northern Iran. She was only 17 at the time of crime attributed to her. Less than a month ago, mullahs\rquote regime supreme court reinstated her sentence and she was due to be executed, but pressures from international human rights organizations and women\rquote s rights groups forced the regime not to carry out the sentence. This mornin She was a young talented painter and her work was exhibited inside and outside Iran in order to gain support for a campaign to stop her execution. Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz, Chairperson of the NCRI\rquote s Women\rquote s Committee condemned this brutal execution and said: \ldblquote In thirty years of mullahs\rquote misogynist rule, women have continued to be the target of the most brutal crimes and have suffered oppression more than She called on all international human rights and women\rquote s rights organizations, and in particular the United Nation\rquote s Special Rapporteur on violence against women, to condemn this brutal murder which contravenes international conventions and regulations. Women\rquote s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran May 1, 2009 Go To Top Saturday, 02 May 2009 National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee Home Do you really think slaughtering pigs in Egypt will prevent swine flu from entering through the airport in a man's lung? Killing 300,000 thousand innocent Egyptian pigs to prevent the swine flu from jeopardising our health is the most gruesome act of unjustifiable killing of animals I will ever witness. The swine influenza type A (H1N1) is now a human transmissible virus of swine origin i.e. it spreads from a sick person to another healthy one through coughing and sneezing. Although, it originated from pigs in Mexico and infected humans the role of pigs in the spread of infection now is minimal, specifically non-infected pigs in Egypt. I am not a specialist in matters of public health and how infections spread. But there are stuff that if you thought about for a second or two will really makes sense. Swine flu will enter Egypt through its borders and not from pigs. The funds that will go in compensating farmers can be better directed to improve the appalling sanitation of the pig farms and the conditions of their farmers not to the eradication of a lo Women protest outside Kabul mosque run by the cleric who promoted law giving husbands right to have sex with wives whenever they choose ALGERIA: Police prevent Benchicou book publishing Posted October 22nd, 2008 CAIRO, October 22, 2008 (ANHRI/IFEX) \endash The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has condemned a recent Algerian police order which prevents the publication of respected Algerian journalist Mohamed Benchicou's book, The Free Man's Journal This is the second time that Algerian police have used such brutal censorship against the author. At the same time last year, police issued an order to stop the production of Benchicou's book, The Jails of Algiers. This is a blatant intervention in publ The refusal to print Benchicou's new book is part of a systematic campaign of harassment against him by the Algerian government. He was held in prison from 2004 to 2006 and his newspaper Le Matin was closed down two years ANHRI said, The prevention of the publication of Benchicou's book confirms the point behind his criticism, namely the absence of law and the domination of corruption. We would like Benchicou to know that his message has been received and that we strongly ago in retaliation for releasing a book called Bouteflika: The Algerian Trick in 2004. In this book, Benchicou courageously criticised the prevailing corruption in Algeria under current president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. He is playing with fire. How will he be able to refuse demands for similar discriminatory laws from other communities? President Karzai should not sacrifice women for short-term political deal-making, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch strongly supported today's protest and said Karzai should repeal the law. The cleric recently defended the law, saying Karzai was wrong to bow to international pressure by ordering the justice ministry to review it. He described the political pressure from western leaders as cultural invasion, thinking one's culture is better than others. Ayatollah Mohseni is a leading figure among Afghanistan's Shias, who represent about 15% of the population and are seen as an important voting block in this year's presidential elections. It said the law contradicted equal rights provisions in the constitution and demanded the scrapping of articles that give husbands the right to have sex with their wives whenever they chose, except during times when they are ill or menstruating. A statement by the group of civil rights groups who organised the rally said it had been called to protest against a law that insults dignity of women as fellow human beings and increases ethnocentrism and inequality. But today's demonstration shows at least some Afghan women are as angered by the law as leading international critics, which also included Gordon Brown, Hillary Clinton and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary general. News that the law, which only affects Afghanistan's Shia minority, had been quietly passed by President Hamid Karzai last month, prompted international fury when the Guardian revealed details of legislation that the US president, Barack Obama, described a According to Associated Press, some of the women were pelted with stones by opponents. Meanwhile, a roughly equal number of largely male counter-protesters shouted Allahu Akbar and furiously protested against what they see as largely foreign pressure to impose western cultural norms on About 200 women chanted slogans and carried banners outside the imposing Khatam Al Nabi mosque and seminary run by Mohammad Asif Mohseni, the cleric who has strongly promoted a law that also bans women from leaving their homes without the permission of th Afghanistan Hundreds of angry Afghan women gathered outside the Kabul mosque run by a hardline Shia cleric today to protest against a law that organisations claim legalises marital rape. Jon Boone in Kabul ,________ Wednesday 15 April 2009 11.07 BST Related information Sunni militia leader held in Iraq The head of a leading US-allied Sunni militia group in Iraq has been arrested in a joint Iraqi-US operation. Nadhim al-Jubouri and his two brothers were arrested at their home in the town of Dhuliuya under the charge of terrorism, the US military says. Nadhim al-Jubouri is a leader in the Awakening Councils, US-sponsored groups that helped cut violence in Iraq after turning against al-Qaeda. The charges reportedly date back to when he was fighting against the US. Iraq's Shia-dominated government took over responsibility for supervising the mainly Sunni Awakening militias from the US military on 1 April. Many of the Awakening members had been fighting against the Americans but joined forces with them in 2006 to take on al-Qaeda. Awakening leaders have complained that they have been subjected to growing attacks from insurgents recently and that the government is falling behind in paying their salaries. Mr al-Jubouri's arrest is the latest in a number of recent detentions of Awakening members. 'Charge of terrorism' Members of the Iraq National Police with coalition advisors arrested three individuals, Derrick Cheng, a U.S. military spokesman in northern Iraq, said, Reuters news agency reports. He said the police had warrants for Mr al-Jubouri and his brothers under the charge of terrorism. The deputy governor of the province of Salahuddin said that local people had brought charges against Mr al-Jubouri for the murder of their relatives at a time when he was fighting with al-Qaeda, Reuters reports. In March, the arrest of a leader of one of the councils in Baghdad sparked clashes between militiamen and government forces. Last month a suicide bomber attacked an Awakening militia group in Iraq, killing at least nine people. Iranians send Persian Gulf petition to Obama Iranians have launched an online petition to urge the US President Barack Obama to respect the Iranian identity of the Persian Gulf. is a public reaction to an Obama speech on March 27 in which he referred to the Persian Gulf as 'Gulf'. The petition says that the Persian Gulf is an ancient historical reality that cannot be manipulated. Iran designated today, Thursday, April 30, as the National Persian Gulf Day to highlight the fact that the historic waterway, is part of the natural heritage of Iran. Some Arab countries have launched a campaign to change the Persian Gulf's name to the fake title of the Arabian Gulf. Saudi Arabia has made conditional taking part in the Islamic Solidarity Games -- Oct 16 to 30 in Tehran -- on Iran's use of the term Arabian Gulf instead of Persian Gulf. Emir warns on moral and cultural crisis The figures coming from the US and Europe on the intensity of damage on account of the financial turmoil have been shocking to the whole world, says HH the Emir By Ramesh Mathew HH The Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday cautioned world leaders against the consequences of the ongoing financial crisis. Addressing the opening session of the ninth Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade at Doha Sheraton Hotel, HH the Emir said the economic crisis \ldblquote has exceeded the limits of what is usually foreseen and expected of the market activity, from exp \ldblquote The culture of consumption and getting-rich quickly without production has spread out, turning speculation into a norm and custom in the same developed countries in which the extent of the financial catastrophe was suddenly revealed. The way to address w He said the solution to the crisis was not to abandon the market laws and free trade nor to resort to selective protectionist measures or to reject planning entirely. \ldblquote The solution lies in balancing between responsibility and freedom, between market laws and public social responsibility represented by the modern state.\rdblquote He said: \ldblquote What happened in the last few months and still happening is not a natural catastrophe like a hurricane or an earthquake, but a result of human miscalculations, poor planning, excessive self-confidence and over-enthusiasm to get rich quickly. \ldblquote It was the outcome of some ill-planned investments in stock markets as also the result of a turning away from the fundamentals of a sound economy based on labour, production, market and of course profits.\rdblquote HH the Emir said the figures coming from the US and Europe on the intensity of damage on account of the financial turmoil were shocking to the whole world. The US had to spend until now more than $11.6tn as part of its bail-out operations. \ldblquote This is apart Calling upon the world leaders to formulate rules with which economies could be saved to a large extent, the Emir said the forum had a mission to get engaged in the international movement and put forward some useful ideas to counter what happened and what Earlier, HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani said the meeting had come at a time when the entire world was passing through an unprecedented financial turmoil. Former French president Jacques Chirac and Finland Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen also addressed the gathering. Islamic games suspended over Gulf row About 500 delegates from about 50 countries are attending the three-day conference. For millennia has guarded the \-strategic waterway dividing it from its Arab neighbours as a symbol of national greatness that should be defended in name and deed. But now its insistence that it be known only as the Persian Gulf threatens to torpedo ambitious plans for a sporting extravaganza intended to promote Islamic harmony. Iran announced it was cancelling the Islamic Solidarity Games planned for October rather than bow to Arab demands that the Persian tag be dropped from the competition's medals and promotional material. Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia , refused to compete unless the waterway was called the Arabian Gulf or simply the Gulf. The condition was too much for Iranian officials, who said they were abandoning the games after only 28 nations agreed to take part \emdash compared with 55 who participated in the 2005 event in Saudi Arabia. We must insist on our correct stance even if it leads to the cancellation of the games, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told a conference marking national Persian Gulf day last week. The state-run English language satellite channel, Press TV, said the event had been cancelled but added negotiations were taking place in an effort to salvage it. Iran has already spent £6.7m preparing for the games, which were to feature an array of sports \emdash including football, fencing, archery, basketball and weightlifting. The powerful speaker of Iran's parliament, ⸀⸀.6įЈ Arabs pose themselves useless tests by changing the name of this large Gulf, he said. An American \ldblquote shock jock\rdblquote said last night that he was planning legal action _against the Government after discovering that he had been on a list of 16 _people banned from entering Britain since October. I'll sue for defamation, says US shock-jock Michael Savage, on UK banned list Iran will continue to support Palestinian cause: Ahmadinejad Tehran Times Political Desk DAMASCUS - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran will continue to support the Palestinian cause and Israel has no place in the Middle East. The Iranian president made the remarks in the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday. Ahmadinejad arrived in the afternoon and went to the People\rquote s Palace in Damascus, where he was given a red carpet welcome by President Bashar al-Assad followed by a closed-door meeting. It was his first visit to Syria since July 2007. \ldblquote There are no bright prospects for the Zionist regime… They know that all regional nations oppose them and they have no place in the region,\rdblquote Ahmadinejad said in a press conference with al-Assad. \ldblquote No liberal human being will recognize the illegitimate Zionist regime,\rdblquote he added. Commenting on relations between Iran and Syria, he said, \ldblquote Iran sees no limitations hindering the expansion of its ties with Syria.\rdblquote Asked about Iran\rquote s support for the Palestinians, Ahmadinejad replied, \ldblquote The path Iran has taken in support of the Palestinians is the right path, and we will continue on this path.\rdblquote \ldblquote Iran will continue its support for the Palestinian nation and will make efforts to unite them.\rdblquote Michael Savage, who hosts the \ldblquote Savage Nation\rdblquote radio show, told the San _Francisco Chronicle that he had been defamed and endangered by the decision _made by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary. \ldblquote This lunatic . . . is linking me up with Nazi skinheads who are killing _people in Russia,\rdblquote he said. \ldblquote She\rquote s putting me in a league with Hamas _murderers who kill Jews on buses. \ldblquote I have never advocated violence. I've been on the air 15 years. My views may _be inflammatory, but they're not violent in any way.\rdblquote The list of 16 \ldblquote least wanted\rdblquote also included the American Baptist pastor Fred _Waldron Phelps Sr and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, who have picketed _the funerals of Aids victims and claimed that the deaths of American _soldiers are a punishment for U Others include Mike Guzovsky, a Jewish militant said to be the leader of a _violent group actively involved with military training camps, and Artur Ryno _and Pavel Skachevsky, leaders of a Russian skinhead gang that beat migrants _and posted films of the The Hamas MP Yunis al-Astal has been banned, as has the neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe, _who made web broadcasts in which he vilified ethnic minority groups and _encouraged the distribution of racist leaflets and posters. The category of \ldblquote preachers of hate\rdblquote \emdash the supposed target of the list \emdash covers _the exclusion of Wadgy Abd el-Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri _al-Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique. Six other people on the list have not been identified for security reasons. Ms Smith said: \ldblquote I think it\rquote s important that people understand the sorts of _values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it\rquote s a _privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won\rquote t be welcome in _this country.\rdblquote Abu Izzadeen, who was jailed after footage was found showing him calling for _the beheading of any Muslim serving in the Army, has been freed after the _Court of Appeal agreed to reduce the four-and-a-half-year prison term handed _down to him and five oth Abdullah Qadri al-Ahdal, Yunis al-Astal, Samir al-Quntar, Stephen Donald _Black, Wadgy Abd el-Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Erich Gliebe, Mike Guzovsky, _Safwat Hijazi, Nasr Javed, Abdul Ali Musa (previously Clarence Reams), Fred _Waldron Phelps Sr, Shirley Phe The least wanted: Gulf currency union faces more hurdles By Souhail Karam RIYADH, May 6 (Reuters) - Even bigger hurdles in the quest for a Gulf Arab single currency lie ahead after Tuesday's decision to base a planned regional central bank in Saudi Arabia cleared one obstacle to monetary union, analysts said. Mauritania will hold a presidential election on June 6, ten months after the overthrow of the country\rquote s first democratically elected government. None of the country\rquote s major opposition figures or parties will participate. The field is open for General Muha General Abdel Aziz and other senior military officers deposed President Sidi Ould Sheikh Abdullahi in a bloodless coup on August 6, 2008. Abdullahi had a falling out with the country\rquote s senior military leaders, culminating in their dismissal by presidentia After the coup, Abdel Aziz stated that elections would be held quickly. Initially there were hints that he would not run for president, but only govern in the interim until a new election could be held. Beginning in late December 2008, talks were held in The participation of military officers in politics continues to be controversial. Ahmed Ould Daddah, leader of the opposition Rally of Democratic Forces (RFD) party, had proposed that no one serving in the military or security services at the time of coup Abdel Aziz faces no credible challenger. In addition to junta leader Abdel Aziz, the three official candidates (compared to 20 in the 2007 election) are independent Kane Hamidou Baba, Moctar Ibrahim Sarr of the Alliance for Justice and Democracy (an Afro- Deposed president Abdullahi and 2007 presidential runner-up Ahmed Ould Daddah have reportedly urged their supporters to boycott the elections. Others who had been mentioned as possible candidates\emdash Isselmou Ould Moustapha of the small Party for Democratic C Internationally, Mauritania remains under sanction from the African Union and the European Union, which cut off aid for two years starting February 2009. Citing concerns, neither the U.S. National Democratic Institute nor the EU will send election observe The election of Abdel Aziz currently appears a foregone conclusion. Rather than marking a return to civilian rule, the June election will instead serve to continue the current state of affairs. While Western governments are keeping their distance from the is an associate in the Carnegie Middle East Program, where his research focuses on regional security challenges. As Egyptians begin to discuss prospects for the autumn 2010 parliamentary elections, speculation is already beginning about whether the outlawed but active Muslim Brotherhood will field candidates, as it did in 2005 and many previous elections. Presuming Will the Muslim Brotherhood Run in 2010? In 2005, Egypt\rquote s political system was rocked by unexpected results: in the first of three rounds of parliamentary elections, independent candidates affiliated with the Brotherhood\emdash which ran for only one third of all parliamentary seats\emdash won 34 seats, compa Since then, Egyptian authorities have sought various means to bar the Brotherhood from elections, or at least to cut dramatically the size of its participation. Municipal elections scheduled for April 2006 were postponed for two years, and when they were According to Dr. Muhammad Habib, the Brotherhood\rquote s First Deputy Chairman (and a professor of geology at Assiut University), the movement will decide whether to contest in 2010 after careful consideration of three factors: the legal framework for the elect Dr. Essam Erian, former member of parliament (1987-90) and a leading reformist or moderate Muslim Brother (albeit one no longer sitting in the Brotherhood Guidance Council) affirms that \ldblquote our principle is to participate; it is in fact to run in all electio The Brotherhood is an expansive movement with political, social, and religious aspects, and there is as yet no consensus within it about further electoral participation. There are also at least three generations within the movement. Ibrahim el-Houdaiby, B To complicate things further, octogenarian Supreme Guide Mahdi\lquote Akef announced recently that he will not run for the leadership position again when his term expires in January 2010. This will lead automatically to questions about whether the torch will now Then there is the question of how the government and NDP will manage opposition participation in 2010. Even if the Brotherhood leadership decides to participate and field candidates, Dina Shehata of the al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies says, \ldblquote we all The Brotherhood leaders in charge of deciding whether or not to participate in 2010 have many constituencies to keep in mind, from street sweepers to students to young professionals to members of the military and the business elite. Whatever missteps they Denis Sullivan is professor of political science and director of Middle East studies at Northeastern University. He is currently a CASA (Center for Arabic Study Abroad) language scholar at the American University in Cairo. UN laments choking of Bethlehem The UN has accused Israel of restricting development of the Bethlehem region in the West Bank. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said just 13% of land around Bethlehem was open for use by the Palestinian population. It said the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ was hemmed in by Israeli settlements and military zones as well as Israel's West Bank barrier. An Israeli foreign ministry official said the issue was beyond Ocha's remit. Next week, Pope Benedict is due to celebrate Mass in Bethlehem , a Palestinian governorate which is home to 175,000 inhabitants, including many Christians. Two-thirds of the governorate's 660 sq km (255 sq miles) has been under Israeli control and about 86,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the governorate, Ocha says. occupied the West Bank in the 1967 war and its Israel settlement activity is regarded as illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. Cut off Israeli measures have radically reduced the space available to the inhabitants of Bethlehem, compromising the future economic and social development of the governorate, the Ocha report says. The report says that in addition to the land put under Israeli control under past interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), 20% of the remainder is an Israeli-controlled nature reserve. Meanwhile, the West Bank barrier cuts through Bethlehem's western edges blocking off grazing and agricultural land, the report says. As a result, Bethlehem's potential for residential and industrial expansion and development has been reduced, as well as its access to natural resources, the report said. Israel says the barrier is needed to keep out Palestinian attackers, including suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab since it juts into the West Bank. Yigal Palmor of the Israeli foreign ministry said he had not seen the report but accused past reports by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of containing distorted information. Settlement drive Separately, information released by an Israeli anti-settlement group, Yesh Din, said settlement activity in the West Bank had been accelerating at the fastest rate since 2003. It cited more than 20 cases of new Israeli building on occupied territory since January, on both sides of the barrier, including a number of outposts built without Israeli permits. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the previous US administration that he would evacuate all unauthorised outposts built after March 2001, but critics say evacuations are carried out intermittently and without rigour. The international peace plan known as the road map called on Israel to halt all construction in the settlements, although observers say construction has never ceased. Israel says it is not building new settlements, but claims the right to foster natural growth within the confines of existing communities. The UN says Israel's West Bank barrier cuts Bethlehem off from its hinterland Israel says all its military activity in the West Bank is determined by security To avoid new snags that may further delay the union, initially planned for 2010, Saudi Arabia may have to counter any perceptions it is overly dominant in the region by leaving the central bank's governor job to another bloc member. 'It's not going to be a smooth ride,' said John Sfakianakis, chief economist for HBC news )'s Saudi affiliate. people HSBC Gulf Arab leaders on Tuesday chose the Saudi capital Riyadh as the base for a joint monetary council that will evolve into the Gulf central bank, although they were still undecided on when to launch a single currency. Deciding the bank's location is a show of political will for monetary union, which lost credibility after Oman decided in 2006 not to join and Kuwait severed its dinar's dollar peg in 2007, breaking a deal to keep it intact until union. But the United Arab Emirates, up to now a major candidate to host the bank, said it had 'reservations' over the decision to locate it in Saudi Arabia. In what was seen as a diplomatic slight, UAE's President Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed did not attend the sum 'Khalifa was not there which indicates his disapproval. The United Arab Emirates could be compensated by choosing a governor for the central bank,' an Abu Dhabi-based official said. Saudi commentators saw the decision as a victory for the kingdom. 'The centre of the oil industry adds a new dimension: The financial capital of the Middle East,' read a headline on leading business daily al-Eqtisadiah. Gulf policymakers have said global financial turmoil and a collapse in oil prices has made achieving monetary union more urgent. Key portions of the project could be completed in 2010 if the region is able to resolve differences over terms such as deficits, Qatar's finance minister said in newspaper remarks on Tuesday. Another challenge is the need for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to agree whether to peg the single currency amid growing concerns among emerging markets about the long-term value of the dollar, which the currencies of many of the bloc's member states The GCC needed to choose a venue before a monetary council could begin operating, but the decision has been caught up in political wrangling for the past year. 'The UAE's feedback indicates there will be obstacles ... Saudi Arabia has now to strike a delicate balance to soothe concerns that this bank does not end up being a Saudi institution. It's similar to the situation of the Germans and the rest of Europe wi SHOW OF FORCE The choice of Riyadh is a fresh sign that the kingdom is regaining some of the prominence it had lost to the UAE in finance and economics even before Oman opted out of the monetary union plan and Kuwait chose to abandon the dollar peg. Pope's address disappoints Muslim leaders AMMAN (AFP) \emdash Jordanian clerics expressed disappointment that Pope Benedict XVI in an address to Muslim leaders on Saturday failed to offer a new apology for remarks seen as targeting Islam. We wanted him to clearly apologise, Sheikh Yusef Abu Hussein, mufti of the southern city of Karak, told AFP after the pope's address in Amman's huge Al-Hussein Mosque. What the pope said (in 2006) about the Prophet Mohammed is untrue. Islam did not spread through the power of sword. It's a religion of tolerance and faith, Hussein said. The pope had in 2006 quoted a medieval Christian emperor who criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as evil and inhuman. The pontiff apologised at the time for the unfortunate misunderstanding but ahead of his visit to Jordan the kingdom's main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front, said the pope was not welcome unless he again apologised. What the pope said was not an apology, said Hammam Said, the overall leader of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and University of Jordan professor. We want the apology to be clear just like the insults to Islam were clear. He should acknowledge his mistakes. That's our position and the position of all Jordanians. The Brotherhood is represented in the lower house of parliament by its powerful political arm, the Islamic Action Front. We had hoped the pope would take into consideration the feelings of Muslims, said Sheikh Jamal Jumaah of the city of Madaba after the pope's speech in which he urged reconciliation between Christians and Muslims. He is a guest of the Muslims and we expected him to say one word. It's not too late. He can still apologise. Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, Jordanian King Abdullah II's advisor on religious affairs who hosted the pontiff during his visit to the mosque, was more conciliatory. I would like to thank you for expressing regret over the lecture in 2006, which hurt the feelings of Muslims, Ghazi told the pope. We realise that the visit (to Jordan) comes as a goodwill gesture and a sign of mutual respect between Muslims and Christians. The visit to Jordan is Benedict's first to an Arab state as pontiff and marks the first leg of an eight-day tour of the Holy Land that will also take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories. More » Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. Pope Benedict XVI has stressed his deep respect for Islam at the start of a regional tour of the Holy Land 1 day ago Back to Google News King Abdullah in Mid-East warning King Abdullah of Jordan has warned that failure to reach an agreement for peace in the Middle East will result in a new conflict within 12-18 months. In comments to the UK newspaper The Times, he said the US was finalising an ambitious 57-state solution for peace that he is helping to prepare. The king said the plan would include proposals to settle Israel's disputes with Syria and Lebanon. His comments came ahead of Middle East debate at the UN Security Council. Monday's meeting between foreign ministers is expected to underline the council's support for the Middle East peace process. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the White House next week, and Palestinian and Egyptian leaders have been invited to separate meetings in Washington. In early June, President Barack Obama is to give a major speech on US relations with the Muslim world in Egypt. BBC Diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says if a comprehensive approach really is put on the table it would be the first peace-making effort of this kind since the Madrid summit in 1991. 'Shuttle diplomacy' In his interview with the Times, King Abdullah of Jordan said that all eyes would be looking to Washington. If there are no clear signals and no clear directives to all of us, there will be a feeling that this is just another American government that is going to let us all down. He also warned that if Israel procrastinated on a two-state solution, or there was no clear US vision on what should happen this year, Mr Obama's tremendous credibility in the Arab world would evaporate overnight. If we delay our peace negotiations, then there is going to be another conflict between Arabs or Muslims and Israel in the next 12-18 months, he said. King Abdullah said what was being proposed was a 57-state solution that would include all 57 member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). What we are talking about is not Israelis and Palestinians sitting at the table, but Israelis sitting with Palestinians, Israelis sitting with Syrians, Israelis sitting with Lebanese, he said. The Times reported that a plan might offer Israel entry visas to every Arab country, the right of Israeli national airline El Al to fly over Arab territory, and the eventual recognition of Israel by all OIC members. Israel would have to respond by halting the construction and expansion of settlements, and agree to withdraw from land taken since 1967. The right of return of Palestinian refugees and the future status of Jerusalem HORIZON-1: Seized on July 8, 2009. The 34,173 dwt bulk carrier, believed to be carrying sulphate, was hijacked with 23 Turkish crew aboard. would be negotiated within the framework of the deal. Mr Netanyahu has not endorsed the establishment of a Palestinian state. His foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was at a dead end. Instead of a two-state solution backed by the US and the EU, Mr Netanyahu is calling for a triple-track peace process that includes progress on the political, security and economic front. 'Nuclear Weapons Are Not Kalashnikovs' The West is concerned about the stability of Pakistan. SPIEGEL spoke with President Asif Ali Zardari, 53, about failed peace talks with the Taliban, the possible whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and the safety of his country's nuclear arsenal. Mr. President, the Taliban is advancing deeper and deeper into the heart of Pakistan. Does your army lack the will or the capability to effectively combat the extremists? Neither the one nor the other. Swat itself has a particular nature -- its physical boundaries limit our action and capabilities. We had a similar situation in Bajaur along the border to Afghanistan. There, too, we went in with F-16s, tanks, heavy artiller The peace agreement you supported with militant Islamists in Swat Valley just failed like others before it. The Taliban didn't give up their arms as agreed to in the deal. Are deals with extremists a realistic strategy for peace? During negotiations, we try to differentiate between copycats or criminals and the hardcore. It is an ongoing insurgency which takes time to finish. We go in with our troops, we talk, we retreat, we pull back, and then the Taliban goes on a new offensive. The chief Taliban negotiator in Swat, Sufi Mohammed, claims that democracy is opposed to Islam. So what are the foundations for a treaty? When he refuses to recognize Pakistan's constitution, he is breaking the terms of the peace deal. That gives our negotiators and the populace the support they need to take him on. If the deal doesn't work, then parliament will have to decide on it again. In the meantime, the army has entered into battle against the Taliban. Is it not just a bogus operation in order to quiet a concerned West? It is a large-scale operation. Altogether, more than 100,000 Pakistani troops are operating in the region. Of course we also have a comprehensive strategy and a plan for reconstruction. The Taliban is increasingly calling on the poor to follow them and to chase away the landlords and feudal lords. Are the Islamists in the process of transforming themselves into a social movement that pits Pakistan's underprivileged against the rich elite I don't see that. In regions of the northwest border provinces, there is no feudalism because there is no land available that would be sufficient for agriculture -- it is all mountainous terrain. There are old families and there is a tribal chief system t Why don't you move some of the troop divisions you have stationed on the eastern border with India to the northwest border, where there is clearly a greater need? SPIEGEL: Zardari: Both borders are of equal importance. The fact that the Indians recently increased their troop presence on the border creates a little concern. We react appropriately and we understand our country better than outsiders. This year we have already killed ma The Taliban in Swat Valley have invited Osama bin Laden to live with them and they have offered to protect him from the Pakistani army and the Americans. What will you do if he accepts their offer? It would be a great gesture if Osama bin Laden were to come out into the open in order to give us a chance of catching him. The question right now is whether he is alive or dead. The Americans have told me they don't know. They are much better informed an The relationship between the democratic government in Islamabad and the traditionally dominant army has never been an easy one. Do you trust your army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, and the notorious ISI secret service? It is a trustful working relationship and I am well enough informed. My party, the Pakistan People's Party, and its allies have the majority and we will see things through. At the moment I see no danger of a military coup. Why do you leave the elimination of top terrorists in the Pakistani tribal areas to the Americans, whose drone attacks are extremely unpopular amongst the populace? Why don't you handle this yourselves? If we had the drone technology, then we would. It would be a plus. We have always said that we don't appreciate the way the Americans are handling it. We think it is counterproductive. But it is mostly happening in the border areas between Pakistan and Af What are you hoping will happen during your visit with US President Barack Obama this week? That is a million dollar question. And I am hoping the answer will be billions of dollars, because that is the kind of money I need to fix Pakistan's economy. The idea is to request that the world appreciate the sensitivity of Pakistan and the challenges The Americans currently view a nuclear-armed Pakistan as the world's most dangerous country. Your wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated by terrorists, feared that your country's nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists. Do you If democracy in this country fails, if the world doesn't help democracy -- then any eventuality is a possibility. But as long as democracy is there, there is no question of that situation arising. All your important installations and weaponry are always u Interview conducted by Susanne Koelbl Israel urged to back a two-state solution NICOSIA, Cyprus, May 8 (UPI) -- The U.N. International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian peace has ended with participants urging Israel to support a two-state solution. Those taking part in the U.N. gathering Wednesday and Thursday in Cyprus agreed the Israeli government should back a proposal to form two states, one Arab and one Jewish, in the historic region of Palestine in order to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Meeting participants also expressed concern regarding the current situation in the Gaza Strip, which is recovering from an Israeli invasion in December and January that left nearly 1,440 Palestinians dead. Palestinians living in the region are now facing shortages of basic and essential supplies, the Palestine News Agency said. Participants in the U.N. meeting in Nicosia also urged Israel to accept its role under the Fourth Geneva Convention and offer protection to Palestinian civilians under its occupation. The meeting participants also called on Israel to lift its blockades of the Gaza Strip and to release any prisoners currently in custody. Roxana Saberi released from Tehran jail Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been convicted of involvement in acts of espionage, has been released from Tehran's Evin prison. The release came just one day after a Tehran court of appeals reduced her eight-year jail sentence to a two-year suspended term, a Press TV correspondent reported from Evin Prison on Monday. Press TV contacted officials close to the case and learned that the suspended sentence will be automatically abolished if Saberi shows no unlawful conduct in the next five years. Saberi, 32, is a freelance journalist who was initially detained in late January for working in Iran after her press credentials had expired. She was later sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of spying for the government of the United States. However, earlier on Sunday Saberi's lawyer expressed optimism about the verdict after her case was heard in a Tehran court of appeals. Saleh Nikbakht, another one of Saberi's lawyers, on Monday said, The verdict of the previous court has been cancelled. Her punishment has been changed to a suspended two-year sentence and she will be out of prison today. Saudi judge: It's OK to slap spendthrift wives -- Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday. It is OK to slap Saudi women who spend too much, a judge has told an audience. Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Ar Women in the audience immediately and loudly protested Al-Razine's statement, and were shocked to learn the remarks came from a judge, the newspaper reported. Arab News reported that Al-Razine made his remark as he was attempting to explain why incidents of domestic violence had increased in . He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that nobody puts even a fraction of blame on women, the newspaper said. Al-Razine also pointed out that women's indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country, it added. Domestic violence, which used to be a taboo subject in the conservative kingdom, has become a hot topic in recent years. Groups like the National Family Safety Program have campaigned to educate the public about the problem and help prevent domestic abuse Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider told CNN that Saudi women routinely face such attitudes. Don't Miss Report: Saudi girl granted divorce This is how men in Saudi Arabia see women, she said in a telephone interview from the Saudi city of Dahran. It's not something they read in a book or learned from a friend. They've been raised to see women this way, that they're less than a person. Al-Huwaider added that I'm not surprised to see a judge or a religious man saying that - they've been raised in the same culture - a culture that tells them it's ok to raise your hand to a woman that this works. Another Saudi judge, in the city of Onaiza, was the source of a separate recent controversy: he twice denied a request from the mother of an 8-year-old girl that the girl be granted a divorce from her 47-year-old husband. Last month, after human-groups condemned the union, the girl was granted the divorce. I am optimistic that fundamental changes would be made to the sentence, Roxana's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, was quoted by IRNA as saying on Sunday. The verdict is to be issued this coming week. Saberi has lived in Iran for six years and has reported as a freelancer for the BBC and National Public Radio and other media outlets. American officials, including President Barack Obama, had dismissed the charges against her as baseless and repeatedly called on Iranian authorities to release Roxana. She is an American citizen, and I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort of espionage, said the US president. Following the calls, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and judiciary officials in the country urged the court to review Saberi's case with fairness and ensure the administration of justice. CS/HGH Send by E-Mail Iranian authorities have released freelance journalist Roxana Saberi after a court reduced her sentence to a two-year suspended term. Mon, 11 May 2009 12:26:04 GMT Commentary: New media, new Muslim voices Editor's note: Michael Wolfe is co-founder of Unity Productions Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has produced six documentary films for national broadcast. He edited the Wilbur-award-winning book Taking Back Islam: American Muslims Reclaim their Michael Wolfe says new media give voice to Muslims who weren't fully recognized by mainstream media. -- The media is dying. It's the title of a Twitter page and a prime topic of conversation among reporters. Enter a room full of journalists, and you'll hear constant anxious chatter about dying newspapers and massive layoffs at print publications. Just one example: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently became the first major newspaper to cease its print edition and go exclusively online, after more than 150 years of chronicling the city's history. As a writer who's been in the game for years -- over 30 and counting -- I'm challenged by all there is to learn and at times overwhelmed as I watch old media gradually head toward extinction. Yet, as a Muslim writer, I am excited by the world of new possi online world can unleash a great force to promote understanding among people. With all the focus on Islam and Muslims in the news, the voices of American Muslim civic leaders, or even ordinary Muslims going about their daily business, are too often missing in stories about their own communities here and abroad. Why is it we so often hear what this or that exp The soaring dominance of new media is an extremely important moment in the history of relations between Muslims and their neighbors. For the first time, ordinary Muslims can speak directly to their non-Muslim neighbors -- and share their views on just abo media as intermediaries selecting their talking heads, pundits and experts. Muslims should seize this golden opportunity to communicate their stories and views directly to the world. One Nation, Many Voices Take this recent example, a national online film contest called . The sponsors (Link TV and One Nation, a nonprofit initiative) challenged Americans to create their own short digital videos about what it means to be Muslim in America today. Now in its second year, the contest attracted more than 150 submissions, with close to 26,000 people voting online for their favorites. The entries provide a fascinating snapshot of what ordinary American Muslims think about the present state of their com Why do films like this matter? Because comprehending how Islamic values are expressed in Muslims' lives today is of central importance to the cause of peace and understanding and to realizing the promise of pluralism on which America and the global world is based. Now, perhaps in the nick of time, the Web offers Muslims the chance to blog in their own words, tweet their reactions to a breaking news story or further progress in their own communities by exchanging ideas through online forums. This new reality is already playing out locally and globally. Progressive American Muslim bloggers like Souheila Al-Jadda, Wajahat Ali and Eboo Patel are contributing to the marketplace of ideas online and sharing their perspectives on major breaking news Muslims in the United States and around the world are reacting in real time when events like the Mumbai attacks happen, often to condemn the violence when some mainstream media pundits are busy saying that none of them cares, or worse. But conversations aren't one-sided; they involve at least two parties. What does this mean? It means that the opportunity Muslims now have is shared with their neighbors. When a Muslim goes online to blog about why she wears a headscarf, a Christian or Je Sometimes it is geography that separates us, or sometimes we are too shy or embarrassed to ask questions or speak out when face-to-face. The Web makes all of this much easier and unleashes unparalleled potential for humans to communicate directly with the For those, like American Muslims, who have often found themselves left out of mainstream media discourse, the possibilities are now vastly improved. The ultimate impact this will have on society at large remains to be seen, but with many ordinary Muslims finally speaking for themselves, and people of other faiths taking part in the conversation, the future is looking brighter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael Wolfe. Did U.S. help Lebanon crack alleged Israeli spy rings? Yoav Stern , Haaretz Correspondent and AP U.S. Lebanon arrested five people over the weekend suspected of belonging to an intelligence cell transmitting information about Hezbollah to Israel, the most recent arrests in a two-month crackdown apparently aided by American training and equipment. Al Jazeera TV broadcast images on Sunday of a small table containing hidden communication devices, a modem concealing transmission equipment and forged passports - all allegedly used by the suspects. Hezbollah-controlled Al-Manar television reported that the suspects' job was to collect information on potential targets such as the group's installations and the homes of its leaders. The suspects are among 17 people allegedly belonging to six espionage cells who have been arrested in Lebanon in the past two months on suspicion of transmitting intelligence information to Israel. It is unclear, however, if the cells are connected. Lebanese security sources indicated that the coming days might see the arrest of other suspected intelligence agents working for Israel. The sources attribute the recent arrests to improved cooperation between Lebanon's many security agencies, saying that with the help of better-trained personnel and access to more sophisticated equipment, the Internal Security Forces have been intensifyin The Internal Security Forces have long been accused of representing the interests of Lebanese parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, son of slain prime minister Rafik Hariri, and his supporters. This organization is seen as a more reliable one than the army, which still appears to be close to Syria and Hezbollah, one of the sources said. The United States has provided $1 billion in aid since 2006, including $410 million in security assistance to the Lebanese military and police. But U.S. officials have said they would review aid to Lebanon depending on the results of the June 7 election, Israel has expressed reservations about American aid to the Lebanese army and security services, saying those organizations will ultimately be unable to contend with Hezbollah and that any aid is liable to serve Hezbollah's interests. Get Haaretz news headlines delivered daily to your inbox! Click here to sign up for Haaretz newsletter Last update\~-\~10:31 11/05/2009 maybe not enough of Arab bloggers involved in journalism and vice versa? maybe censorship encourages anonimity? Older Unfortunately we don't have any tools to confirm that the content we have now will stay online. - Evgeny says BUT, if you search it on Yahoo and other websites which do not use the same algorithms as Google, the results appear to participants. :) as a form of encouraging freedom of speech Global blogger/journalist summit starting now at AUC Cairo. Twitter If the site is removed from the Google Index, it will not appear in the google results Sami: Software like this could prove dangerous if the information on users and pages they are viewing is not disposed of correctly What's your number again? :P, you can follow us when we say finish :P How long does it take governments counter address such softwares? - Yusry asking It was a temporary takedown in google due to many-reachable pages in the website Show tweets Walid is introducing finally fulfilled his dream to talk about Qatar. Interesting :P Page 1 » No, it was a webmaster problem, check Walid is talking about Artificial Intelligence&connecting it 2 hacking&web tools Artificial Intelligence is actually about algorithms oh, don't worry, cheer up;) To my friends.. is Facebook blocked in Syria? really?! Google uses something called a crawl system for detecting online websites when it goes down. great, my tripod and lenses I was planning to bringo to gv09 . 2nd Life Event 9am NYT Sat. reg dancinginkproductions.com yes facebook is blocked in Syria! enjoying the live tweets for more info. It seems that the alkasir circumvent the censorship but filter certain content deemed undesirable or immoral. : Wow I got too many friends in Tor does not say that promotion, this is a way to promote culturally sensitive encryption to translate twitter feed out of Cairo global blogger conference into Arabic Collaborating with : Global blogger/journ summit starts at AUC Cairo. Twitter RT@ircpresident: Walid Al-Saqaf is presenting a workshop in Evading Internet Censorship, interesting. This is getting really exciting. Social translation into Arabic on moving Twitter feed Totally wish I could be at - sounds fascinating so far! now: live translating the blogger conference in cairo held by the AUC Sessions finished for today الآن على ميدان، ترجمة فورية للتويتات حول مؤتمر المدونين والصحفيين الإلكترونيين في القاهرة blogger conference at AUC ? Now enter details of encryption and servers safe anasqtieshالآن على ميدان، ترجمة فورية للتويتات حول مؤتمر المدونين والصحفيين الإلكترونيين في القاهرة Walid: this is an option for a moral culture, experimental. Are working on improving it. And above all transparency, warn Evgeny q asked what's wrong with Tor hana decided to make a different system: what gives additional Alkasir? what is missing from this project? good question... I don't know if it exists in the first place, but you can download the system from here WHen there are many offline pages in a certain website according to Google index, the website is removed from this index ? We already had one big meetup this year! Oh well, I'm just jealous ;) now at your laptop CHeck I can access it here :) I can't access Harakamasrya whatever the ISP is ia talking about that the beginning is about blocking Pornography, etc leading to blocking bloggers She is mentioning the example of when Kefaya website is down, my comment: the actual problem was a technical issue, not a block Miral is talking about blocking blogs the hard way, silencing the blogger him/herself physically. Miral Brinji from Egypt talks about another type of censorship - Apart from blocking websites, the bloggers are harassed or silenced Evgeny Morozov: another kind of censorship and intimidation is a direct attack bloguers closing pages, hack, etc.. Evgeny Morozov from Belarus is explaining new forms of censorship and how can bloggers react to it. Walid Al Saqaf (Yemen): Al Kasir ( ) for tracking and circumventing censorship interesting twitts today. What's I hope they have a screencasting in the shared slideshow link for the non-tech savvy. Walid is now showing how to set a web-based proxy. ahhhh, check us on Flickr!:) NICE Since it is in Egypt it is unlikely to report blocked websites. : Trial version of the Evading system @ , contact admin@alkasir.com for more information. : Types of censorship: Domain-base, IP based, Protocol-based, URL-based, & content-based Trial version of the Evading system @ , contact for admin@alkasir.com for more information. we will try to get hold of the slides;) : Rough transcript of morning session on Meedan.net at bit.ly (expand) Bored with all the technical presentation, I think viewing the slide is more than enough, totally bored. Walid is introducing alkasir.com الكاسر as a system for evading blocked websites. Now Walid is explaining how alkasir.com works : Rough transcript of morning session on Meedan.net at from meedan.net has multi translators working on Arabic of conf twitter feed. 'be fast and efficient, be free, be flexible, expandable' Walid Al Saquaf from Yemen Palestinians around the world commemorate its establishment as Al Nakba, or the catastrophe. Israel's foundation meant the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of refugees. This created the largest, long-term refugee population in the world. But, they should not mourn Israel's creation. They should celebrate what a failure it has been. Israel's record in the region so far has been disastrous. Far from being the light among nations its past PR personnel suggested, it earned a pariah status International legal bodies repeatedly came down against it, with its only protection being the co Despite the excruciating human cost inflicted on the Palestinians and Lebanese people, Israel has failed to be the Jewish state its ideological forefathers envisioned. More Jews live outside than in, Jews are barely, if at all, a majority in the land they It is marked by repeated invasions; hyper-militarization; attacks on the territories of Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Jordan; occupation of the territories of its four neighboring states; an active, belligerent colonization program; cou Today marks the 61st anniversary of the creation of Israel. And there's a million reasons to be upset about it. Happy Nakba Day to You! Sounds like the project is struggling more than we often think it is. Palestinians, for their part, are refusing to forget their plight. Thousands of Palestinians marched through cities across the West Bank yesterday. They carried flags, large wooden keys and images of villages razed by Zionist military forces in 1947 and 1948. The keys symbolize the homes the Palestinians lost when Israel came to be. Many refugees still hope to return one day. I came here to show that we believe that one day we will return. If not me, then my son, said Mohammad Hassan, 79. In Ramallah, demonstrators waved banners reading, The right of return is sacred, and Return, Jerusalem And Self-Determination: Our Struggle Will Continue. They gathered at the tomb of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas marked Al Nakba's anniversary by stating in a televised speech that ending the Israeli occupation, establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and resolving the refugee issue, are minimum conditions to begin to lift the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people 61 years ago. We are here, we will stay here, we are rooted in this land, Abbas said, We will remain steadfast and will remain determined to end this atrocious occupation. announced a security blockade today. It will halt West Bank traffic into Jerusalem, making public commemorations in the city more difficult to attend. Palestinian citizens of Israel are also planning Al Nakba events . Akka residents will hold a Nakba parade tonight with the slogan not another Nakba. Ahmed Awada, who is also a municipal councilor, said One of the objectives of members and Arab residents of the city is to communicate to our youths, to the members of the new generation, that they must never forget what happened to our forefathers in 1948. Hadash Panic before second life event, it will be ok though, we're in good hands. getting ready for the Second Life activity on future of blogging and journalism. Quotes from Scoble's post: resolviendo problemas técnicos con Second Life para dar inicio al tema de gripe porcina RT @ Lastoadri: .MY come hard down on bloggers, there is control on media. In Singapore no body cares what bloggers write online. Acho que nao tem nao, tem o liveblogging e : People are debating for/against having a union or some organizations for bloggers. The majority voted against Si se quiere profesionalizar la actividad de bloguear con examenes, asociaciones y eso... por qué no estudiar periodismo? Starting the second life event on Swine Flu in Blogging the future confrence. No egito, se houvesse uma associação de blogueiros ela seria banida pelo governo anyway disse um comentarista - Blogging the future conference in Cairo se hizo una votación sobre cuántos quisieran unirse en un sindicato como blogueros, y la respuesta mayoritaria fue que no. A maioria concordou que não é uma boa ideia que blogueiros se unam em sindicatos \endash nao que fossemos abrir uma Please put your slides on our event site here The NDP people, are the NDP people.. wherever they are .. Here is my presentation on how to bring together local citizen videos and global audiences notes here about 2 hours ago People are debating for/against having a union or some organizations for bloggers. The majority voted against Nasza Paula z Global Voices mowi juz na zakaczenie o tym, jak nowe technologie pomagaja rozwijac metody dziennikarskie Nuevas tecnologías le están dando a las personas una voz. 'collaboration' community, innovation key words for journalism acc. to our Paula sesja kolejna: blogowanie i media w Malazji Erik Mobrand habla de el futuro d los blogs en Asia del sureste. Protestas en Tailandia, etc. : Video on Internet freedom in Egypt by (Arabic, Eng. subtitles) : Please put your slides on our event site here on future of blogging and online journalism. Quotes from Scoble's post: RT : Here is Video on Internet freedom in Egypt by Sylwia habla de la migración del poder: del medio periodístico está pasando al periodista individual expand En la sesión 5 sobre el futuro de los blogs y periodismo en línea, y presentan :D presentation on how to bring together local citizen videos and global audiences Watching a video about Internet freedom in Egypt by -Great that it´s screened minha vez de falar - tomara que não embole muito a lingua :) about 3 hours ago jeszcze niepoprawiony post z Kairu So what's the 's slide on Future of blogging and online journalism initiative about? wiecej pozniej, jak znajde siec... says Ouvimos histórias de violações da liberdade no Egito, Irã e Tunísia. Esses blogueiros blogam de fora de seus países. Torture in Egypt: ... And journalists have to listen to blogger's feedback too! - Agora estamos explorando a blogosfera da Turquia com Reseat Calislar, que se divide em duas gerações basicamente Watching a video about Internet freedom in Egypt by Mahmoud Saber Those in Second Life, don't forget Get A First Life: sozluk.sourtimes.org jest przykladem nowej strony, lokalnie popularnej i kopiowanej about 4 hours ago Journalism need 2 b creative & innovative in presenting news to reach out the max public, b/c Internet presents new forms of media.... Resat z Turcji bedze rozmawial o nowych trendach w seci w jego kraju sobre o papel dos blogueiros no Egito Inside the trap Evgeny: how to engage non-activists into getting their opinions out. Thats the video RT: (via Inside the trap Video sobre los bloggers en Egipto Malysia come hard down on bloggers, there is control on media. In Singapore no body cares what does bloggers write online. wczesniej wspomniane wideo o wolnosci slowa w Egipcie, Realtime results for Our GVer friend Erick Mobrand talks about blogging in Asia Video sobre o papel dos blogueiros no Egito Inside the trap Victor Kaonga from Malawi will continue now Blogging is not about sharing anymore. - Sylwia Does anybody know the name of the video (and preferably youtube location) of the video that opened this session at Session 5: Future of blogging and online journalism (our friends will present.. Hip Hip Hurray!) I just realize that I still don't understand tweeter yet. What are those Victor Kaonga nos cuenta de la situación de Malawi: censura, no hay conectividad, poco acceso Session 5: Future of blogging and online journalism (our friend ? someone gimme a lesson of tweeter please! about 5 hours ago presenting.. Hip Hip Hurray!) you can join in our Swine flu second life event. Read here: Our GVO friend Victor Kaonga from Malawi is telling us 2 stories from there. So & here: chequeo de sonido para el evento de Second Life Me pasé un montón del tiempo estipulado :( Ahora me siento culpable de desordenar el horario. For transcript of today's sessions - in arabic & english, please visit and share some love Victor Kaonga z Malawi rozmawia o ich obecnych wydarzeniach obecnych na sieci For transcript of today's sessions in arabic & english please visit Second Life event is going on: : Those in Second Life, don't forget Get A First Life: Conference on swine flu on second life now. I hope that you will have a great time,pray for me to finish my matters :), was really pleased to meet you all -- I obviously missed something. What is #GV09 Rasat Calislar from Turkey is guiding us thru Self-discovery of Turkey and the Internet. I enjoyed your tweets from GV09 today. it was awesome meeting you! #gv09 - Afternoon session begins at blogging the future Are you following the : Transcript from the first day of ¨Blogging the Future Summit¨ is available Challenges in Malawi are: infrastructure, power (access to internet), knowledge how to blog, attitudes $ censorship - Victor says Was it the ERTU Egyptian guy? He is the worst! Yes, CDC follows twitter, facebook, blogs very closely. CDC collects information, analyses... A Transcript from the first day of ¨Blogging the Future Summit¨ is of course also available Question from Global Voices community: is CDC following twitter and other social media networks? : قانون فى سوريا يحكم على من يأخذ تمويلا أجنبيا بالإعدام. مزن مرشد yeah, but we \endash the same group of people \endash spent the whole day talking about it yesterday There's the guatemalan twitterer who was arrested for creating financial panic Glad I'm back home. Was a very long long day.. looking forward for tomorrow's sessions. GVO ur the best! There's always a newbie to bring that one up. finished her persentation about citizen videos, she'll make the slides free to public use. I've blogged abt it on GVO after published it on his blog btw. Its great, & was surprised by KolenaLaila page I hope we are not going to start the bloggers vs journalists debate again so sad that our friend RT @ paulissima : Now I am confused: did the korean government was elected with the bloggers' help and now arrest them? couldn't make it today to Session 4: Common problems, common solutions (our GVO friend will present. Hip Hip Hurraay!) We're covering blogging the future conference. The hashtag Now I am confused: did the korean government was elected with the bloggers' help and now arrest them? Hyejin kim says the 1st blogger was arrested last month in S.Korea, he wrote abt the economy. Gov started to take bloggers seriously. is to collect our reporting here I guess people are dying to start it.. how about going ahead ourselves فى الجزائر حالة خاصة، لان كل الناس يستطيعون المعارضة والتحدث بحرية. لكن أصواتهم لن تأثر فى شئ من قرارات الحكومة - مشارك من الجزائر : For transcript of today's sessions in arabic & english please visit RT Listening to egiptian national anthem, life on the bus. website: فى عالمنا العربى عندنا عقدة تضخم الهوية. كل ما هو من الخارج فهو مرفوض. وتطرف الحداثة - مشارك من مصر Lieberman's party proposes ban on Arab Nakba Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's party wants to ban Israeli Arabs from marking the anniversary of what they term the Catastrophe or Nakba, when in 1948 some 700,000 Arabs lost their homes in the war that led to the establishment of the state of Isra The ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party said it would propose legislation next week for a ban on the practice and a jail term of up to three years for violators. The draft law is intended to strengthen unity in the state of Israel and to ban marking Independence Day as a day of mourning, said party spokesman Tal Nahum. The initiative could fuel racial tensions stoked by Lieberman's February election campaign call to make voting or the holding of public office in Israel contingent on pledging loyalty to the Jewish state. Arabs, who make up 20 percent of Israel's population, said the allegiance demand was aimed at them and accused Lieberman of racism. Israel celebrated its Independence Day this year on April 29, in accordance with the Hebrew lunar calendar. Palestinian refugees around the world and Israel's Arab citizens mark the Nakba on May 15, the day after the British mandate over Palestine ended i Ceremonies in the West Bank were held a day early this year because May 15 falls on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. In Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians, some holding large wooden keys to symbolize the keys of homes from which they fled in 1948, took part in a rally. I came here to show that we believe that one day we will return. If not me, then my son, said Mohammad Hassan, 79. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Syria, was to make a televised address later in the day to mark the Nakba. The right-leaning government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Lieberman's party is a key ally, has not endorsed the Western and Arab-backed goal of Palestinian statehood. It also firmly opposes the division of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and Netanyahu recently introduced a demand that Palestinians, as part of any future peace agreement, recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Obama and the photos So Obama will block the release of a set of photos from Abu Ghraib . These are reportedly hundreds of photos showing graphic abuse of prisoners by US soldiers. The Pentagon had previously said it would release the pictures, but apparently some top brass weighed in with concerns, and Obama says nyet. What might those photos show? Sy Hersh has been talking about this for some time . If he's right, or halfway right, these photos would shock the world. And, if Hersh is right or halfway right, their release really could make things awfully difficult on US soldiers around the world. I mean, these photos might be really shocking. I don't know what's the right thing to do here. Yes, I'm prepared for many of you to attack my moral cowardice, as you did during the torture posts from a couple weeks back. But imagine you're the president of the United States and you're responsible for As with two weeks ago, genuine attempts to grapple with this conundrum will be particularly appreciated. I guess I'm just glad I'm not the president. And I'm glad you're not either! Obama Considers Detaining _Terror Suspects Indefinitely WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba The proposal being floated with members of Congress is another indication of President Barack Obama's struggles to establish his counter-terrorism policies, balancing security concerns against attempts to alter Bush-administration practices he has harshly On Wednesday, the president reversed a recent administration decision to release photos showing purported abuse of prisoners at U.S. military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Obama cited concern that releasing the pictures could endanger U.S. troop The decision to block the detainee photos contrasts with the administration's release last month of Bush-era Justice Department memorandums outlining the interrogation tactics used on prisoners by the Central Intelligence Agency. The release of the memos The administration's internal deliberations on how to deal with Guantanamo detainees are continuing, as the White House wrestles with how to fulfill the president's promise to shutter the controversial prison. But some elements of the plans are emerging a Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who met this week with White House Counsel Greg Craig to discuss the administration's plans, said among the proposals being studied is seeking authority for indefinite detentions, with the imprimatur of some type of nationa Sen. Graham said he wants to work with the administration to pass legislation to increase judicial oversight of military commissions, but noted the legal difficulties that would arise. This is a difficult question. How do you hold someone in prison without a trial indefinitely? Sen. Graham said. The White House had no comment Wednesday about its detainee deliberations. Live Blogging: World Economic Forum 2009 Global Changemakers At The WEF! The World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East has returned to the shores of Jordan\rquote s Dead Sea this year, and the timing may be impeccable with the global financial crisis as well as the Middle East peace process are set to dominate the agendas. Coveri watweting . The idea was to empower these young people with the tools to become active citizen journalists at an event where mainstream media reporting will likely cover only one angle; one that tends to leave youth and everyday citizen perspectives out of the equa You can follow all their work right here on 7iber! Feel free to leave a comment and engage with the Changemakers. You can also check out their interviews with some key WEF personalities. charbel nd heba lebanese represntatives r leaving today we wish them a safd trip nd we wish they d stay with us. the israeli prisedent no matter wat we r arab juwish, we al have the responsibilty to keep them safe the childern safe sry its a correction kaily we can learn alot from these youth meaning us chang makers since we were the majority in the session nd we stole al the light, 7iber team r u readn i love it when they talk about. Though it seem the elite will only get up there and follow suit to the old generations mistakes of hogging power and wealth the israeli prisedent no matter wat we r arab juwish, we al have the responsibilty to keep them safe which is ironic to say since he is kiln others childern. Conterdicting him self at closing plenary, Shimon Peres talking. The smell of rehtoric is pungent. Although he did say that the current Israeli government is commiting to the road map which includes the two state soloution... Horrray!!!! I am so happy we're back to square one.. The biggest economy in the Middle East has escaped the sort of pain that other GCC members, including the UAE and Kuwait, have suffered as a result of the global economic and financial crisis. While the Saudis have been investing their surpluses in low-risk foreign assets, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE have been snapping up stakes in global household names, such as J. Sainsbury and Citigroup This prompted Muhammad al-Jasser, the governor of the Saudi central bank, to say in February that 'now they want to kiss our foreheads'. A senior Arab diplomat said the process of choosing the location of the central bank 'was politicised'. 'The key argument was who is the biggest ... It's normal when the GCC lacks the sort of democratic institutions that the European Union has. While it (GCC) cares for the public interest, this is not paramount,' he said. ((For a FACTBOX on Gulf currency union please click on (Editing by Victoria Main) Keywords: GULFARAB MONETARY/ (souhail.karam@reuters.com, +966 1 463 2603; Reuters Messaging: souhail.karam.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Neither the Subscriber nor Thomson Reuters warrants the completeness or accuracy of the Service or the suitability of the Service as a trading aid and neither accepts any liability for losses howsoever incurred. The content on this site, including news, Rate This Story Your Rating Overall Rating KUWAIT: In a first, four women elected to parliament Some great news for women in the conservative Persian Gulf: Kuwaitis elected their first-ever women lawmakers [second item] to parliament. Voters in four districts elevated women into parliamentary jobs. It's believed to be the first time women have been elected to serve as lawmakers in any of the oil-rich Gulf monarchies. Kuwaiti women were only granted the right to vote in 2005. It's a victory for Kuwaiti women and a victory for Kuwaiti democracy, lawmaker Aseel Awadhi, a philosophy professor, said after winning a seat. New UN report warns of increasing pressures on water Istanbul, 16 March 2009 - Population growth, climate change, widespread mismanagement and increasing demand for energy could lead to a major global water crisis, according to the UN World Water Development Report. The report was released on 16 March in Istanbul (Turkey) as part of the World Water Forum, which goes on until 22 March. On the theme of 'Bridging divides for water', this year's Forum seeks to enable multi-stakeholder participation and dialogue to make w Representing the UN Environment Programme in this key gathering is a specialized team headed by UNEP Deputy Executive Director Angela Cropper. The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR), released every three years in conjunction with the World Water Forum, is the UN's flagship report on water and is a comprehensive review of the state of the world's freshwater resources. The report is a joint effort of the 26 UN agencies and entities which make up UN-Water, working in partnership with governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders. It aims to provide decision-makers with th UNEP contributed to 'Drivers of Change' section of the Third World Water Report and will also launch two publications on 18 March as part of the Forum: 'Water Security and ecosystem services: The critical connection', and 'Integrated Water Resources Manag The main issues UNEP is promoting at the Forum are water and ecosystem services, adaptation to climate change and freshwater and coastal interlinkages. The World Water Development Report provides a mechanism for monitoring changes in water resources and their management and for tracking progress towards achieving targets, particularly those of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Summit The Report also offers best practices and in-depth theoretical analyses to help stimulate ideas and actions for better stewardship in the water sector. Urgent action is needed, as illustrated by the 2009 UNEP Year Book. The expected shifts in precipitation patterns and water availability due to our changing climate are complex and have been documented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In Areas expected to be affected by persistent drought and water scarcity in coming years include the southern and northern tiers of Africa, much of the Middle East, a broad band in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, southern and eastern Australia, no RFC Online Media Creativity « Meedan is live blogging Online Media Creativity Workshop women empowerment in jordan We are a group of trainees in a workshop on creative media online. We are discussing the issue of women empowerment in Jordan. We have some questions to share with you. How can we help women in Jordan to play an effective role in decision making process? Do you believe in woman's right to work? Are Jordanian woman given equal opportunities to men? not all ill give it a 40% How can we encourage women participation in economy? As a woman, do you know your rights? Do you think that social barriers play a role in the low percentage of women in the labour force? women in Jordan have achieved a great deal in progress almost in all major sectors . Moreover , women in higher education are in the forefront in Arabic countries.Their enrollment in universities are higher than men .The same applies in schools and all ed Despite all the above mentioned facts . women still lagging behind men almost in all sectors .We believe that journalists have a great role to play in changing attitudes in the remote areas in Jordan .Similarly journalists should be the agents of change s ON LINE COMMUNITY GROUP E Aida al Taweel Majeda Ashour Rana Qassas Hashem Altal Mohammed Shamma Comments You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. looks nice! got no ideas !!! yes 100% educate, more !!!! as a man i think thaye all should know cant decide , non of my business Maybe we need to talk about skills, qualifications, benefits and opportunities - before we focus on gender. If we keep hammering on the empowering of women - it's almost immediately viewed as sexist discrimination.. a tired song... and we all know how What if we empowered people? Talked about amazing stories and remarkable people, before categorizing them in this gender or that... And a bit of reverse psychology perhaps is needed. What if we empowered men to become more tolerant about gender integration? Just wondering if it's time for a shift in the convo and tone. The Volunteer Spirit, Seen Across Cultures Posted ______on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 12:50 pm by Kim The New York Times had an article about volunteer street cleanup in Pakistan. \ldblquote The youth of Pakistan wants to change things,\rdblquote said Shahram Azhar, the lead singer for Laal, a Pakistani rock band, reflecting an attitude that is typical of this rebellious younger generation. \ldblquote The reason the Taliban is ruling Swat,\rdblquote he said referring to a valley north of Islamabad where Islamic extremists took control this year, \ldblquote is because they are organized. We need to organize, too.\rdblquote \ldblquote The only answer to Pakistan\rquote s problems,\rdblquote he added, \ldblquote is a broad-based people\rquote s movement.\rdblquote It\rquote s always interesting to look at another culture\rquote s response to the seemingly universal problems of trash and class stratification. What would an article about a similar group in the US read like? The divide between rich and poor, the comments about soci \ldblquote We have to lead by example. To change it from inside,\rdblquote one young activist claims. This reminds me of a wonderful post from Grist a few days ago. Billy Parish\rquote s Rethinking the rules of engagement is a reaction to a New Yorker article, \ldblquote How David Beats Goliath: When Underdogs Break The Rules ,\rdblquote which claims that historically, a Goliath\rquote s superior number and arms don\rquote t always equal victory. Parish draws a parallel between this idea and the odds of beating big business interests in the rapidly-looming shadow of climate change. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all Here are his four principles for winning with an underdog strategy: Make it a battle of wills, not a battle of skills Empower people to think and act in real time Attack your opponent where they are weak Defy social convention (and be ready to do what is socially horrifying) The president has often touted service as being an answer to our country\rquote s ills. It sounds like performing service isn\rquote t the only dimension of the action: it\rquote s also important to engage with the people who aren\rquote t convinced yet about the utility of voluntee HRW turns guns on UAE over rights abuses May 19, 2009 at 02:19 By Peter Harrison and Dylan Bowman Thousands of migrant workers on Abu Dhabi\rquote s $27 billion Saadiyat Island development face severe exploitation and abuse despite government measures to protect workers\rquote rights, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The New York-based advocacy group said in a report workers on the flagship cultural project - which includes branches of the Guggenheim, Louvre and New York University (NYU) - suffer a \ldblquote cycle of abuse\rdblquote that leaves them \ldblquote deeply indebted, badly paid and una HRW called on the international institutions to demand concrete assurances workers would not be exploited in the construction of the development, aimed at transforming Abu Dhabi into an international cultural hotspot. \ldblquote These international institutions need to show that they will not tolerate or benefit from the gross exploitation of these migrant workers,\rdblquote Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW. \ldblquote The vague assurances they\rquote ve received from their development partners are hollow substitutes for firm contractual agreements that their projects will be different from business as usual in Abu Dhabi.\rdblquote Abu Dhabi-owned Tourism Development and Investment Co (TDIC), which is overseeing the project, slammed the report, accusing HRW of making \ldblquote misleading assertions and false assumptions\rdblquote . TDIC also labelled HRW\rquote s methodology \ldblquote questionable\rdblquote and research \ldblquote flawed\rdblquote . The UAE government said it was disappointed by the report, which it said tried to sensationalise drawbacks in the country's labour policies without recognising the progress it had made. The UAE is particularly surprised and disappointed by HRW's attempts to sensationalise the drawbacks in the country's labour policies into media sound bites, without consideration of the rapid strides that have been made over the past few years..., Mini President of the Syrian Association for the Defense of Human Rights, Abdel Karim Rihawi, said on Tuesday that the Syrian authorities released Michel Kilo, «Having completed his term of three years». Shatha Kilo told (SNS) that her father came to his home at about / 11 / at night and his healthy and psychological situation is excellent. Kilo was arrested on 14 May, 2006 against the background of signing the - Damascus Declaration, which was signed by about 134 Syrian intellectuals and called for the correction of the Lebanese-Syrian relations and the demarcation of the border between the two countries and the exchange of diplomatic relations between them. Beirut The Second Criminal Court in Damascus has sentenced Kilo to three years in prison on charges of weakening national feeling. Syrian authorities releases Michel Kilo 20/05/2009 11:56:41 التعليقات ليس هناك تعليقات حتى الآن، كن أول من يضيف تعليقاً طباعة أضف تعليق Malath Alzoubi الكاتب: Gaza braces for next Israeli bombing mission With only months since the latest Israeli military foray into Gaza, Hamas security forces have carried out maneuvers for what they predict to be the next war on the territory. High-ranking Gaza officials said Wednesday that the military exercises -- which include an assortment of rescue operations, infrastructure protection, security defense, and combat maneuvers -- will help prepare for a forecasted Israeli bombing mission. We are performing these drills all over the Gaza strip in order to be ready for any possible emergency, we want to guarantee the safety of our citizens in every possible way. We stress that all our men are ready to sacrifice their lives to defend this la The Gaza police department says the drills are designed to send Tel Aviv a word of warning, one day after Israeli warplanes returned to the skies of the Palestinian territory to begin a new round of a large-scale military exercise. The four-day military drills, which will end on Thursday, were aimed at testing the Israeli squadron's airborne assault operations, infiltration attempts and special forces missions. Political analysts say the newly-staged military drills are a harbinger of another Israeli bombing mission on Gaza. When Netanyahu and Lieberman were elected to the new Israeli Knesset, their slogan was to put an end to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. So basically the possibility of new israeli aggression toward the Palestinians and specifically against Hamas is s Tel Aviv attacked Gaza on December 27 with the declared goal of self-defense and toppling the Hamas government. More than 1,350 Palestinians, including a large number of women and children, were killed in the conflagration. U.A.E. Economy Shows Sign of Recovery, Trade Minister Says Egyptian court: Egyptian-Israeli marriages a threat An Egyptian attorney has won a suit calling for the implementation of an old law stripping the citizenship from Egyptians married to Israelis and from their children. It is not clear, however, if the ruling will be implemented. The case underlines the deep animosity many Egyptians still hold toward Israelis, despite a peace treaty signed between the two countries 30 years ago. The court's decision Tuesday also scores a point for Egyptian hard-liners who have long resisted any improvement in ties with Israel since the signing of the 1979 peace treaty. Lawyer Nabih el-Wahsh, who petitioned the court to implement a law predating the treaty, told The Associated Press the ruling was a triumph of Egyptian patriotism. El-Wahsh had demanded the court force the Interior Ministry, which deals with citizenship documents, to implement the 1976 article of the citizenship law revoking the citizenship of Egyptians who married Israelis who have served in the army or embrace Zio The court said the measure would avert potential damage to the country's national security, the state news agency reported, but it was unclear how the ruling could be enforced or to how many Egyptians it would apply. El-Wahsh claimed there are about 30,000 Egyptians married to Israelis - whether Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs or Palestinians with Israeli passports - with possibly tens of thousands of children by now. The Egyptian government has not released any figures. The Egyptian consulate in Israel said the issue was too sensitive to comment on, while Israeli officials could not be reached for comment. An Interior Ministry official in Cairo, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Egypt doesn't have specific figures because most of the Egyptians in question live in Israel. The official added that he believed el-Wahsh's numbers are exaggerated. There is no indication that the Interior Ministry will adhere to the court's decision, but el-Wahsh said he would pursue the case and sue the interior minister for contempt of court if there was no action. El-Wahsh has gained notoriety in Egypt for an incessant stream of lawsuits over morality and patriotism against movie directors, screenwriters and even Queen Elizabeth II and Saddam Hussein. Most were thrown out. In 2005, former Grand Mufti Nasr Farid Wasel issued a religious edict, or fatwa, saying Muslim Egyptians may not marry Israeli nationals, whether Arab, Muslim, or Christian. The possibility of a Jewish spouse was not mentioned. Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's premier institution and oldest university, has said that while marriage between an Egyptian man and an Israeli woman is not religiously forbidden, the government has the right to US hails 'mood change' against Taliban in Pakistan WASHINGTON (AFP) \endash _The United States, hailing a national mood change against the Taliban in Pakistan , has offered humanitarian aid for civilians fleeing a Pakistani military offensive to crush the militants. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday unveiled 110 million dollars in emergency aid to show US support for the Pakistani people, their democratically elected leaders and opposition party leaders Pakistanis have begun to take the Taliban threat seriously, she said, since the militants took up positions just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital Islamabad , having broken out of their northwestern hub in the Swat Valley There is a real national mood change on the part of the Pakistani people (and politicians) that we are watching and obviously are encouraged by, Clinton told a press conference at the White House I think it has to do with a recognition that this is no longer about a part of their country that seems quite distant from the population centers, like Lahore or Islamabad or Karachi The US government, she said, had a duty to help Pakistan deal with a national emergency after more than two million people fled the northwest, most of them as a result of the US-backed military offensive in the last few weeks. The announcement also came as officials and analysts warned that Pakistan's economic growth for the fiscal year ending June 30 will be the slowest in more than a decade, beset by the and a manufacturing slump. Providing this assistance is not only the right thing to do, but we believe it is essential to global security and the security of the United States, and we are prepared to do more as the situation demands, the chief US diplomat said in announcing the a The United States, she recalled, gave 60 million dollars in since August last year. The new funds will be used to deliver tents, FM radios, halal meat, water trucks, generators and other supplies, Clinton said. Some of the money will go toward buying Pakistani wheat to boost the local economy, but little of the aid will fall directly int Clinton said US experts and staff from the US embassy in were now on the ground working with the Pakistani authorities to evaluate the needs for shelter and food as well as health, water and sanitation services She added that 5,000 tents and other supplies have already been flown to Pakistan. US officials said the US military is helping to fly in some of the items as the Pakistani military oversees their distribution. Other supplies are to be delivered through international aid organizations working on the ground. She said with cell phones would receive text messages informing them about the assistance program. Hailing the importance of people-to-people diplomacy, the secretary of state also urged Americans using their cell phones to text message donations of five dollars each. Husain Haqqani , the Pakistani ambassador to Washington, welcomed the US aid announcement. As Pakistan fights the terrorists, it needs help in meeting the humanitarian crisis and in rehabilitating the victims of terrorism, Haqqani said in a statement. US-based relief organization World Vision hailed the new infusion of aid as an important first step to help civilians caught in the fighting. There is no question that the situation in Pakistan is becoming more and more urgent every day, said World Vision director of advocacy and government relations Robert Zachritz. In humanitarian crises like these, there is often a finite amount of resources to go around, but with today's announcement... that will be a great 'first step' to getting the Pakistani people the help they so desperately need right now. The emergency assistance comes on top of a more ambitious aid program. A bill introduced in Congress earlier this month would triple US civilian aid to Pakistan to 7.5 billion dollars over the next five years. President Barack Obama 's administration, Clinton claimed, is taking a new approach because US policy toward Pakistan over the last 30 years has been incoherent. In the 1980s, the United States, with Pakistan as a key partner, supported Islamist militants in the fight against the occupation of by the then- Soviet Union In subsequent years, the Islamist fundamentalist gained control of Afghanistan and offered sanctuary to Al-Qaeda, which launched the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States before both were ousted in a US-led invasion. Now the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are making a comeback not only in Afghanistan but in neighboring Pakistan. Biden tying aid to votes Vice-President Biden is in town and among the tabouleh surrounding his visit he has said nothing new. The policy that US will tie aid to votes was reiterated and the standard we support no one expecpt for the people that we support..... Biden, the highest US ranking official to visit Lebanon in 26 years, stated \ldblquote We will evaluate the shape of our assistance programs based on the shape of the new government\rdblquote . Biden then did a lovely rhetorical circle by stating that \ldblquote I do not come here to Thus, the same dance between America and Iran is being played out in Lebanon. However, all we be pleased that the tempo is slower and although there is no love music the death metal has at last been put away. Debate Over Guantanamo, Detainees Continues A day after dueling high-profile speeches over the handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, legislators and administration officials continue to voice both support and opposition to President Obama's plan to close the prison camp. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, appearing on NBC's Today_show Friday in a previously taped interview, defended the president's plan,_saying that Mr. Obama had no choice but to close the prison at Guantanamo_because the name itself is a condemnation of Congressional Republicans, however, came out swinging against_the proposed plan to place some detainees in highly secure facilities inside_the United States. Most Americans don't want them in this country,_period, especially when we have a state-of-the-a No good purpose is served by allowing known_terrorists, who trained at terrorist training camps, to come to the U.S. to_live among us, said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. Guantanamo has worked very well, Senate Minority_Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after President Obama's speech. I'm_not sure this is broke and needs fixing. In response, Gates asserted that Mr. Obama has no_interest whatsoever in releasing publicly detainees who might come back to harm_Americans. He added that that we have many terrorists in United_States' prisons today, and decried fear-mongering about During his speech Thursday at the National Archives, President_Obama stressed that nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal Supermax_prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists. President Obama may find support for his efforts from two_previous rivals: Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of_South Carolina. Both have supported closing the prison. The idea that we_cannot find a place to securely house 250-pl But the debate over how to meet President Obama's January_deadline for closing the Guantanamo prison camp is unlikely to be settled in_the near future. Earlier this week, the Senate rejected an $80 million request_from the White House for funds to close t This virus is susceptible to two types of anti-viral treatments, which is a great thing to start with. This means that if the medicine is available and cases are diagnosed early on. We can minimise the fatalities. Biden: Aid to Lebanon Depends on Elections By Sam F. Ghattas Saturday, May 23, 2009 BEIRUT, May 22 -- Vice President Biden said Friday that future U.S. aid to depends on the outcome of upcoming elections, a warning aimed at the Iranian-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah as it tries to oust the pro-Western faction that dominates the government here. Confident its alliance will win, Hezbollah criticized Biden's visit as a U.S. attempt to influence the June 7 vote and held a mass rally to show its popular support. Biden is the highest-level U.S. official to visit Lebanon in more than 25 years, and the attention shows American concern that the vote could shift power firmly into the hands of Hezbollah. U.S. officials have said they will review aid to Lebanon dependin The election of leaders committed to the rule of law and economic reform opens the door to lasting growth and prosperity, as it will here in Lebanon, Biden said, adding that the United States would evaluate its assistance programs based on the composit The United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist group, and Biden's one-day visit was clearly timed to bolster the Western-leaning faction led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora ahead of the vote. I assure you we stand with you to guarantee a sovereign, secure Lebanon, with strong institutions, Biden said after meeting with President Michel Suleiman. With the election about two weeks away, Lebanon is in the throes of an increasingly abrasive campaign that has split voters into two main camps. One, made up mainly of Sunni Muslims, favors close ties to the United States, and moderate Sunni Arab countries, while the other is dominated by Shiite Muslims and backed by U.S. foes and Syria. Biden said the United States did not want to interfere in the elections, and he tried to steer clear of the political divisions by meeting with the neutral president, Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is allied with Hezbollah. But he signaled a tilt toward America's allies when he met behind closed doors with leaders of Siniora's faction at a private residence. A similar meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the month-long Hezbollah war with in 2006 was broadcast on TV and drew months of sharp condemnation from Hezbollah. Iran Vice President Biden is greeted by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at Government House in Beirut. (By Hussein Malla -- Associated Press) Israeli tourist office withdraws ads after map complaints Posters on London Underground made no distinction between Israel and occupied territories, sparking hundreds of complaints The Government Tourism Office is withdrawing a series of posters displayed in Underground stations featuring a map that treats the occupied territories as part of Israel, after the advertisements were referred to the Advertising Standards Authority The yellow map makes no distinction between Israel and the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Justice for Palestinians both complained to the ASA as well as to CBS Outdoor, which is responsible for the poster sites, and Transport for London (TfL), which said it received more than 600 complaints. The poster, which had gone up on 108 sites and was due to go up on another 42 before it was pulled by IGTO, was part of the Think Israel campaign. Last year the ASA upheld a complaint about a magazine advertisement that was part of the same campaign becau advertising practice] code. An ASA spokesman said it had received 342 complaints about the London Underground posters and it was currently assessing whether there were grounds for an investigation. He said the fact that the posters were being withdrawn would be taken into considerat A TfL spokesman said: The Israel Ministry of Tourism has requested the removal of an advert that they had placed at selected stations on the Tube network. Neither the Israeli embassy in London or IGTO responded to guardian.co.uk requests for a comment. Carole Regan, who is on the executive of the PSC, said: It's not just insensitive, it's quite provocative. We are quite angry about it. Dan Judelson, from JfJfP, said he thought the IGTO had been stupid to create such a poster so soon after the British airline BMI came under fire for omitting Israeli cities from electronic maps on flights from London to Tel Aviv. On that occasion, BMI b It's absurd to behave in the same way [as BMI]. Maps are far from innocent tools, said Judelson. The Syrian embassy also complained to TfL and CBS Outdoor, as well as to the Mayor of London and the UK Foreign Office, over the inclusion of the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 six-day war and unilaterally annexed by Israel in 1981. It's an outrageous falsification of the facts and a violation of international law, said embassy spokesman Jihad Makdissi. We have reminded everyone of the legal aspect as well as the moral aspect. Egypt's Ayman Nour reports attack The democracy activist says he suffered burns on his head when an assailant ignited a substance and a flame shot toward him. May 24, 2009 Cairo -- _A prominent Egyptian dissident said Saturday that he was attacked by a man on a motorcycle who ignited a flammable substance in his face, burning his head. Ayman Nour, one of the few liberal campaigners for democracy in Egypt, accused elements within President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party of being behind the attack Friday night. Nour said he was leaving his house in Cairo when a young man on a motorcycle called his name. When he looked toward the biker, a flame shot toward him, he said. Nour spent nearly four years in prison after challenging Mubarak in a 2005 election. He said after his release in February that he would continue his campaign for democracy. The attack came a day after Nour pledged to supporters that he would run again for president in 2011 if his party nominates him. Nour also recently petitioned Mubarak, 81, to remove restrictions on his political and civic rights and criticized a major rul This is wrong. This is the wrong message, for the wrong reason at the wrong time, Nour said of the attack. It comes two weeks before President Obama visits Egypt. The Obama administration has hinted it will not hinge its relationship with Egypt on human rights demands, upsetting some of the nation's activists. Joseph Domenech, chief veterinary office with the UN Food and Agriculture Officer in Rome, said the Egyptian order was a real mistake. this article that quotes a UN Food and Agriculture Officer regarding the killing of pigs: There is no reason to do that. It\rquote s not a swine influenza, it\rquote s a human influenza,\rdblquote he said. I wonder if there will ever be an ethical committee in the Parliament one day to stop stupid decisions like that. A pig is like a cat, rabbit or cow. And a decision like this, although popular, is unethical and violates the animal's rights. Not to mention, that lots of sectarian zeal is behind this. I am not also sure that there is a standard procedure that will ensure that pigs die in a merciful way nor a procedure to deal with the tons of corpses that will result. Which in itself might spread other diseases. The decisions to kill huge amounts of birds in south east Asia during the early outbreak of the birds flu was justified by the fact that the disease was spreading between birds, birds can fly and thus spread it quickly across the globe and the disease spr You are commenting as a Guest . You may select one to log into: Add New Comment Latest Twitter update: Tensions reignited over Rafik Hariri assasination report The German magazine Der Spiegel reported at the weekend that the international _tribunal established to find the killers of Rafik Hariri has uncovered _evidence that Hezbollah\rquote s \ldblquote special operational unit\rdblquote was responsible for the _February 2005 truck bomb A leaked report blaming Hezbollah for the assassination of a former Lebanese _prime minister has reignited tensions between Sunnis and Shias ahead of a _next month\rquote s parliamentary elections. Quoting an unnamed source, it said that Lebanese investigators had identified _some 20 mobile phones used in the planning of the attack and traced them all _to Hezbollah militants. The magazine suggested that Hezbollah\rquote s motive for _killing Mr Hariri lay The leak appeared to be a calculated move to put Hezbollah on the defensive _just as it was hoping that its anticipated election victory would earn it _some respite from international and domestic pressure to dismantle its _military wing. The Hezbollah-led opposition looked set to secure a narrow victory in the June _7 poll, allowing it to form the backbone of the next government. It could also inflame anti-Shia sentiment among Lebanese Sunnis who are still _smarting from their defeat at the hands of Hezbollah fighters in street _clashes in Beirut a year ago. Such an outcome would embolden Iran and Syria, which support the militant Shia _Hezbollah, and dismay the United States and so-called moderate Arab _countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt which fret at Tehran\rquote s rising _influence in the region. Syria has been widely regarded as the chief suspect in Mr Hariri\rquote s murder, but _Der Spiegel said that while the United Nations-led investigation has not _cleared Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, \ldblquote is no longer in _the line of fire\rdblquote . Hezbollah described the allegations as \ldblquote evil fabrications\rdblquote aimed at _\ldblquote influencing the election campaign\rdblquote and demanded a retraction from the _tribunal. Nawaf Mussawi, a Hezbollah electoral candidate, warned: \ldblquote The campaign launched _by some parties against the resistance paves the way for the assassination _operation that Israel is preparing\rdblquote against Sheikh Nasrallah. A spokeswoman for the tribunal based in The Hague refused to discuss the _Spiegel article, saying \ldblquote We don\rquote t know where they are getting the story _from\rdblquote . The Western-backed March 14 coalition, the current parliamentary majority, _appears to be reacting cautiously to the story, apparently wary of stoking _sectarian tensions ahead of the elections. A spokesman for Saad Hariri, Rafik Hariri\rquote s son and political heir who heads _the Sunni Future Movement, told The Times: \ldblquote We do not comment on any _information regarding the tribunal unless it is officially stated by the _tribunal\rdblquote . Nicholas Blanford in Beirut Times Recommends Related Links Lebanese generals 'will go to UN Hariri tribunal' Hariri tribunal divides Lebanese There are reports today that Iran has blocked : Going thru Bethlehem checkpoint Through. Checkpoint totally empty Comments are moderated, and will not appear until they've been approved. Here are the full legal terms you agree to by using this comment form. If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but you may not participate. Photos: Aseel al Awadhi is congratulated by supporters after she and three other female candidates won parliamentary seats in Kuwait's elections. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency Post a comment Borzou Daragahi in Beirut -- But after gaining ground over the last few years , Kuwait's\~Sunni Islamists actually lost bigtime during the Saturday vote as their parliamentary bloc dropped from 24 to 16 seats, according to the Many Western analysts worry that hardline Islamists would dominate free and fair elections in many Middle East countries and then establish Islamic governments. women's arrival in the parliament. Festival Blog The daily blog returns for 2009. We'll be writing every evening of the festival to keep you up to date with what's going on. Today the group split up. We had timed the festival to arrive just after university exams, but because of the assault on Gaza, schools lost three weeks and all exams dates moved forward. So we found ourselves arriving in Palestine right in the middle of So half the group headed to the Birzeit campus and the other half drove up to Jenin. The road for Palestinians to Jenin, once a direct, single one that took you through Nablus to the plains of the north, is now a winding track that creeps beneath wider, faster, Israeli-only roads that have been cut through the hills. In two hours we passe In Jenin, we split again, with Ahdaf, Raja, Suad, Suheir, Jamal and Nathalie going to take workshops at AAUJ while Michael Palin and Henning Mankell headed to the Freedom Theatre. After seeing three sketches from a play the students have in development th Meanwhile, at Birzeit, a morning panel was held with Abdulrazak Gurnah, Robin Yassin-Kassab, Claire Messud and M G Vassanji before the authors split into small workshop groups. The students had chosen the titles themselves and signed up for the classes th The Role of Fiction in Creating New Political Realities Guantanamo After Obama to In the evening we were in the garden of the Sakakini Centre again. This time without any wind issues. And the place was overflowing with people who had come to see Suheir Hammad and the Edward Said Conservatory\rquote s Sama\rquote . For anyone that has seen Suheir per Author Blog We are working on getting the new blogs up here as soon as possible. But with authors moving towns and taking workshops it can be a challenge. But they are on their way! Coming up: Suheir Hammad and Henning Mankell on Days 1 and 2. Check back very soon... Ahdaf Soueif At the Allenby Bridge we sat down and waited. Oddly, our Jordanian guide on the bus from Amman kept assuring us that we would hand over all our passports in one go, together with our \lquote manifest\rquote (that\rquote s the list of travellers with their passport numbers, rather like a bill of lading) and \lquote our neighbou In Jerusalem we had a 45 minute turnaround time to shower and get into our heels and make-up \endash well, some of us, anyway, and head for our Opening Night at the Palestinian National Theatre. We walked down Ibn Khaldun Street. The weather was brilliant, it w I saw 10 old friends in the first minute, all the Jerusalem cultural and academic set were there, a lot of Internationals, a lot of Press. We stood in the early evening light, by the tables laden with books and food and flowers, nibbled at kofta and borek Rania Elias and Khaled el-Ghoul from Yabous started calling us in. Everyone moved towards and into the foyer. Someone clapped for silence and Nazmi al-Ju\rquote beh, Chair of the Board of Yabous gave a brief welcome speech. Then we started moving towards the aud \ldblquote Who?\rdblquote Looking around \endash and there they were; the men in the dark blue fatigues, with pack-type things strapped to their backs and machine-guns cradled in their arms. I had a moment of unbelief. Surely, even if they were coming to note everything we said a \ldblquote No!\rdblquote \ldblquote Yes. They have. They\rquote ve closed us down. Look!\rdblquote Some people were already in the auditorium. The Theatre manager was telling them they had to leave. People \endash our audience, our writers \endash were surging backwards and forwards: \ldblquote let\rquote s go into the auditorium..\rdblquote \ldblquote Let them carry us out each one ..\rdblquote \ldblquote If they get you inside the auditorium they\rquote ll close the doors and beat the hell out of you ..\rdblquote \ldblquote What\rquote s happening? What\rquote s happening? \ldblquote Let\rquote s go outside and start the event on the street .. As we stepped outside and I started wondering whether we should just kick off right there on the courtyard of the theatre or whether we might actually get beaten someone said \lquote we\rquote ll go to the French Cultural Centre.\rdblquote The French Cultural Attaché was in the Throughout all this the 15 or so Israeli soldiers held their positions and their weapons \endash how they, or their leader, made their will known to the Palestinians I did not see. We started walking down Salah el-Din street towards the French Cultural Centre. I looked behind me and there was the Festival: a brightly-dressed, ornamented procession of authors and audience strolling along Salah el-Din Street, chatting and laughing and We sat on the raised patio of the French Cultural Centre and our audience sat and stood in the garden. Henning Mankell spoke of how his involvement with Africa makes him a better European. Some workmen engaged on the first floor of the house next door pau Today, my friends, we saw the clearest example of our mission: to confront the culture of power with the power of culture. BACK Henning Mankell 25 Yesterday I visited \ldblquote The Freedom Theatre\rdblquote in Jenin, together with Michael Palin and other members of the Palfest Delegation. The visit, and the work we did together confirmed what I already knew: political resistance without the support of culturally expr When the richly talented young actors \endash and acting students \endash showed us parts from their new play about life in the Palestinian refugee camp, they confirmed this to be right. It was quite an explosion of emotional and intellectual expression. In a few m The Der Spiegel article is suspicious for many reasons. Here are a few put forward by SC readers: This is true here in Palestine as it was once true in South Africa. What culture means when we talk about the final fall of the ugly, racist system of apartheid, can never be exaggerated. And this will once be true even for the Palestinian people, today What I saw in Jenin and the Freedom Theatre brings hope. What we must do is listen to the Palestinian stories and then we will understand that one day the oppression of the Palestinian people will go the same way as the wall through Berlin, and the apart Nothing is too late. Everything is still possible! Suheir Hammad 's electric set at the Sakakini center tonight has been edited, uploaded and added to our 24 ….h, i, j, k, l. between \ldblquote k\rdblquote and \ldblquote l\rdblquote no thing. air. space. a walk. a wall. a walk. raja shehadeh is a walker and a trail blazer, but not a tour leader. we walked and climbed and slid and sometimes crawled through the hills in our city slicker clothes. we held each other\rquote s hands as we made ways up and then down. thorns everywhere. set the israeli settlers from nearby colonies get to walk in these hills unmolested. the palestinians do not. the beauty and energy of the land, i imagine, has no political motivation, unless the desire to be loved and appreciated is political. it is here. i wonder if soil has heart. i wonder if blood, sweat, and tears do feed roots and flower fruit. if the earth itself has memory, and can she remember, somehow, all those who came and planted and ate here. especially, as i struggle through the climb, i t *suad amiry this evening talks about how she gets lost in the west bank, when once she knew it like her hand. so many checkpoints and detours where once there were open roads. \ldblquote space and time here is not what you think,\rdblquote she says and i understand. what *in ramallah i get to see many friends who come out for the festival\rquote s evening event. i ask them each, how has the year been, and the answers are the same, and in an order. first they respond, \ldblquote alhumdilallah\rdblquote or something like it, meaning \ldblquote thank god/all *there is a wall. here is a land. now is the time. the people are here. still. Palestine: Israeli Armed Police Disrupt Literature Festival is a traveling cultural roadshow touring across the West Bank, in Palestine, from May 23 to 28. Palestine Festival of Literature It aims to bring writers and artists from around the world to Palestinian audiences, to initiate and organize cultural festivals with international and local participation. Also, workshops with students in Palestinian academic institutions in co-operation According to the event's Because of the difficulties Palestinians face under military occupation in traveling around their own country, the Festival will travel to its audiences. It will tour to Ramallah, to Jenin, to al-Khalil/Hebron and to Bethlehem. To celebrate its year as Cu However, the festival opening didn't start as smooth as expected and the first night was shut down armed Israeli police by , from China, who took part in the festival wrote under the title \ldblquote Dan-Chyi Chua Reality Check or How to hold a festival under occupation \rdblquote the detailed story of how the Israeli security forces came with guns and closed the ceremony down. She also adds her personal thoughts on this experience: It is not a bad idea - to say the very least - to arrive in the West Bank, to set aside the ideals, causes and perceptions that we have packed along with our luggage on this trip, and instead listen to the stories of the people here. The voices of the Pal After the drama of yesterday we were well prepared for the potential tranquility of a walk in the Ramallah hills with Raja Shehadeh. We got on the bus and headed through the Wall and Qalandia checkpoint and north to Raja\rquote s house. After a brief introductor The walk was slightly more challenging than people had been expecting \endash we dropped down into the valley then slowly scrambled up the other side, finally reaching a qasr: a solid16th century stone structure that used to house workers and crops during the s We moved back down and through the valley to reach the village where the bus was to pick us up. On reaching the outskirts, we fanned out on to the new tarmac in front of us. But we are quickly called back, behind a barn. An Israeli watchtower looms on the We had a few problems checking in to the hotel, as seems to happen rather too frequently in Ramallah , but managed it eventually and people headed to the home of Dr. Saleh abd el-jawwad and Islah Jad for drinks in their garden before moving to the Sakakin The night\rquote s event was held in the garden of the centre, and though it was a windy at times, it is a wonderful setting. The night passed with an atmosphere of calm and ease that had been so missing in Jerusalem, and as with the combined comedic forces of Obama starts well with Muslims but must do more of when to talk about them felt empowering. Which shows just how totally consuming, mentally, this occupation is. We\rquote re now on the fourth day of Palfest. The skies have cleared, its as hot as I always thought it would be here, out here in lands I know only from the picture-books of the Bible. Ramallah The team set off for the border from Amman bright and early, having landed at 12.30am the night before. On arrival at the border, four were held back: Suheir Hammad, Ahmed Ghappour, Robin Yassin-Kassab and Anil Karim Vassanji were kept waiting for a total of five hours (until the border closed) before being allowed in to the country. The bus arrived in Jerusalem at 5pm, leaving just enough time for a sandwich and a glass of juice before heading out to the Palestinian National Theatre for the opening reception at 6pm. And at 6.10pm around 15 Israeli soldiers marched in, declared the event over and told everyone to get out. After a few of minutes of protest and confusion the the French Cultural Attaché declared we could move to the French Cultural Insitute \endash saving Chairs were hurriedly arranged in the garden of the Institute and a speaker system was set up but we weren\rquote t able to transfer our translation facilities. Which lost us some of our audience. For the first half hour three police vans loitered outside, but t choice my little contribution. the arabic translation is going to be up in any min now.. Best of luck! Today the physical challegnes of a festival that tries to reach so many separated places started to be felt. We set off from Ramallah to Bethlehem just after 10am. At 10.20 we arrived at Qalandia. We queued, in the bus, for an hour. We had told the driver We were, however, still subjected to the \ldblquote VIP treatment\rdblquote . The bus was pulled over and we all had to file out, ghet our bags from the hold, and queue up to present them to a young soldier. Then you have to bend down and zip open your shoddy packing and dir One hour on, we move on. Twenty minuters later we went through the Bethlehem checkpoint. This one gets busy at both 5.30 AM and PM with workers queuing to get to and from the fields the Wall divides them from. Right now it was empty. The soldier didn\rquote t ev In Bethlehem we had a hurried day but we managed to visit the old city quickly before heading to Aida refugee camp. The wall cuts right up against Aida, and we walked to a spot where Palfest authors had taken their photos last year. Now, an outdoor theatr In the evening there was a panel with Michael Palin, Claire Messud, Robin Yassin-Kassab and Jamal Mahjoub. Jamal\rquote s such a good moderator. He clearly has fun up there and his timing and feel for the audience\rquote s mood is spot on. It was a very good panel. Michael Palin leaves us tomorrow so Mr. Mankell took control of the room at dinner to say a few words before the group starts to disperse. He was, as always, powerful and to the point. He thanked the organisers, and his fellow writers, and finished saying Bethlehem 26 Most interesting part is the twitpics twitter feed in Arabic Festival blog in Arabic Author blog (Ahdaf Soueif) in Arabic translation update in three tweets The full security structure. I got in trouble for taking this one In al Khalil/Hebron.Not allowed in ibrahimi mosque with camera. Has 4 metal detectors & 3 Israeli soldiers guarding : to confront the culture of power with the power of culture. : confront the culture of power with the power of culture - Read Mickeal Palin blog frm Palestine Fest of Literature- This is really worth reading,people Michael Palin blogs from the Palestine Festival of Literature -@ .This is really worth reading Michael Palin blogs from the Palestine Festival of Literature - . This is really worth reading, people. is the greatest thing i've done on twitter! no kidding Michael Palin So, its my first time in this part of the world \endash despite having been to over 90 countries, the Middle East has been a stranger to me. When I left London I had a very clear idea of where or what Palestine consisted of. This trip has made me understand that though Palestine may not exist as a country on a map, it is a reality in the minds of 5 million people. Highlights of my journey have been walking with Raja Shehadeh in the hills around Ramallah, and learning much from him of the old land of Palestine, most of which disappeared in 1948, when the state of Israel was created. From Raja I learned some of the h Last night in Ramallah I witnessed some of the finest, most powerful poetry I\rquote ve ever heard. Suheir Hammad had both herself and the audience electrified by the passion of her work and the marvellous rhythmic delivery. She eloquently and beautifully captur This is a literary festival as well as a hourney, and the quality of the participants \endash from Jeremy Harding to Henning Mankell and from Deborah Moggach to Claire Messud and Carmen Callil and all of those that have taken part has made me quite poignantly a It\rquote s been an eye-opening experience for me, and I feel proud of my fellow writers and travellers who have shared it with me. And proud too, of the Palestinians we\rquote ve met, who care so much and work so hard to keep Palestine alive. Workshop: the role of fiction in creating new political realities at Hebron university At Hebron university audience at had many questions about how writers would respond to israeli occupation after their visit Struck by something writer Robin Yassin-Kassab said at in Bethlehem last night. settlements: the 'architecture of intimidation' Another long intense day in the Palestinian territories. Next update in 5 hours when most of Asia wakes up. . Dad will be proud. Have become known as the writer from China who s covering the RT: Now I am following the posts about on Global Voices posted on meedan to translate into Arabic The meedan translators have translated those posts on the Transbrowser of meedan Boushra, Deena and Yaser are translating comments and tweets about on meedan. closed by armed Israeli policemen The wall around Aida: - Palestine Festival of Lit) Ah I love Suheir Hammad, what I'd give to hear her read some of her poetry.. Ya reet! All the best for the festival. Suheir Hammad and Henning Mankell's blogs are now online: . Michael Palin is up next... festival blog in Arabic - latest post now human translated Talking about cultural identities at in Bethlehem's old city. We are following and the team of meedan is translation. Visit to follow the updates : سنقوم بالكتابة كل مساء عن الاحتفالية لنبقيك على اطلاع مع ما يحدث Yes we're working on translating as much of as we can. Any support gratefully appreciated! سنقوم بالكتابة كل مساء عن الاحتفالية لنبقيك على اطلاع مع ما يحدث thank you. Really appreciate any help we can collecting clippings: . Esp in other languages Palestine Think Tank: closed by armed Israeli policemen: \~_British author Michael Palin at the Second An.. And we're out. That's the day to day of Palestinian life half a minute ago I'm finding s tour of Palestine fascinating. Enlightening on just how hard it is to move around. alethe @ Bethlehem checkpoint part 11 Bethlehem checkpoint part 10 great job showing the obstacles & hardships faced by Palestinians in navigating the many, many israeli occupation checkpoints PalFest Going thru Bethlehem checkpoint Bethlehem checkpoint part 8 Part 7 palfest 's closing night tonight. Palestinian National Theatre, 6.30pm. Bethlehem checkpoint part 6 Bethlehem checkpoint part 5. It's a long checkpoint Part 4 TaraLSF it's hard to misunderstand the pictures of these checkpoints : Part two 3 (Alex: This is awful. Someone's everyday awful, too...) no it's actually quite linear. Its just very long. I know. Meant in terms of giving people an idea of the general, daily difficulty of movement. Is the Bethleham checkpoint still honeycomb style, moving from one cell to the next until completely disoriented? oh gee only half an hour *rolling eyes* hopefully weather not bad? not exactly. most palestinians in the beit lahem area are not allowed to go to al quds A checkpoint on the only way left open to the ibrahimi (Abraham) mosque. Hebron: a closed road for settlers only in the heart of the city of literature. Palestinians and Israelis needs to be connected. of literature, Palestinians and Israelis needs to be connected Palfest teams up with Palestine Literature Festival to help reach Arabic audience - @meedan View Tweet Meedan to teams up with Palestine Literature Festival to help reach Arabic audience - they're thru the checkpoint now! Follow Palestinian Fest of Literature now online Author Blogs 27.5.09 We had promised to put one up every day, but as our authors were never given more than five minutes in between the workshops and the travel and the events, things fell a little behind. But now, we have blogs by Suheir Hammad performance addded to Connect A poem from Video Corner . Auhor blogs for days 2 and 3 are to follow very very soon. Israeli army attempts, unsuccessfully, to shut down opening night PALFEST 2009 has begun in pretty dramatic fashion. It took five hours to get everyone through the border and then the Israeli army tried, unsuccesfully, to shut down the opening event.For first hand details, our video of the day, and author blog are now connect ALL EVENTS ARE FREE Pentagon: US Ready to Keep Troops in Iraq For Another 10 Years Gen. Casey Says Global Trends Going 'In the Wrong Direction' has led to considerable speculation that the US won\rquote t ultimately abide by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) deadline to have troops out of the nation by the end of 2011. That speculation seemed well-founded today, when Army Chief of Staff General George Casey said that the world \ldblquote remains dangerous and unpredictable\rdblquote and that While US officials have continued to insist that the delay to Iraq\rquote s national parliamentary elections timetable for removing troops from Iraq remains in place, a growing trend of violence and a his planning envisions leaving combat troops in Iraq for another decade \ldblquote to fight extremism and terrorism.\rdblquote Gen. Casey\rquote s planning was focused on troop rotations, and he emphasized that he wasn\rquote t responsible for making decisions about policy, but that he believed the US would need to be ready for \ldblquote sustained\rdblquote wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which he saw a simila During the campaign President Obama promised to have all troops out of Iraq within 16 months, though he abandoned that policy just days after taking office . His current policy is to declare an end to \ldblquote combat\rdblquote in August 2010, but to keep troops in the nation engaged in combat operations for an indefinite period past that . He has insisted that he still intends to abide by the SOFA deadline, however. They're not letting us in http://twitpic.com/63pw5 Still not allowed in. Getting in trouble for photos : Entrance to dome of the rock barred by Israeli police Entrance to dome of the rock barred by Israeli police Reading: Author Blog ( it deserve struggling for. : Still not allowed in. Getting in trouble for photos now we are folloiwng translation into Arabic on Forced to go through tourist entrance by wailing wall. translation meedan Now we have all been aggressively turned away. Would not give a clear reason or statement. One of us turned back for wearing a Palestinian bracelet : One of us turned back for wearing a Palestinian bracelet - Allab be with you for what you are doing Didn't he (or she) know that wearing a Palestinian bracelet is an act of resistence (and violence) against Israeli occupation? marwayehia Video of Check points &Israeli army shutting down The National Theatre in an attempt 2 cancel 'forced' to go through the tourist entrance to W.wall...why is this an issue? if we had been allowed in it would have been an issue of control; of whose auspices & authority you are made to submit to. Not v surprised - but had got permission from the waqf to enter thru a normal gate. Today's blogs will explain more this is the case everywhere in the OPT...I was just wondering about the note of surprise in the post re: access to W.wall. There are Palins & there are Palins. *Michael* Palin is touring w/ Palestine Literary Festival : Photos from 2nd night in Ramallah now up: Second night in Ramallah of @PalFest : Stopped at same checkpoint on way home. Bus boarded by armed soldier this time have made it to the Freedom Theatre, jenin and had probably the most rewarding event so far RT watch this video footage of the jordan-palestine border & Israeli forces shutting down :Speak Arabic? needs you to help translate reports from literary tour of Palestine - contact for details. Ple ... Speak Arabic? for details. Please RT All strength to you. Saddened by story in UK's Guardian newspaper about problems you've faced from Israeli security forces. Opening of West Bank ART FESTIVAL shutdown by Israeli police Checkpoint trouble : Want to see just how hard it is to get around West Bank? follow to keep up with Palestine Literature Festival on tour : Check out PalFest 2009 events in the West Bank! and follow for updates. Opening of Want to see just how hard it is to get around West Bank? - follow to keep up with Palestine Literature Festival on 7-day to keep up with Pal Lit Fest on tour : Want to see just how hard it is to get around West Bank?- follow RT@meedan Want to see just how hard it is to get around West Bank? - follow : Want to see just how hard it is to get around West Bank? - follow on one week literary tour of Palestine to keep up with Palestine Literature Festival on one-week tour Video of yesterday's events now online: New Post: Palestine Festival of Literature Opened, Israeli Police Try to Shut it Down The nation's 50-seat parliament doesn't have the power to challenge Kuwait's ruling Sabah family, but it does have the power to slow up building projects and policy changes. When the last parliament tried to summon the prime minister on corruption allegations, the ruling Emir, Sheik Sabah al-Sabah, dissolved the chamber and called for new elections. One of the winners, , previously served as Kuwait's health minister, the country's first female Cabinet member. On Sunday the Emir said he wholeheartedly supported « KUWAIT: Heading to the polls, yet again EGYPT: Obama and, maybe, a mosque » , apparently to prevent supporters of the leading opposition candidate from using the site for his campaign. Opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi Next Post » « Prior Post Written by Doug Coleman / May 23, 2009 11:14 AM __ / Good luck people of Iran! The rest of the world is watching and hoping you can win freedom online and off! has more than 5200 supporters on the popular social networking site and is said to be gaining momentum against current Islamic Republic of Iran President , Facebook is the 10th most popular site in Iran and political activists are becoming increasingly active on the site. This is not the first time Iran has blocked Facebook. In 2006 the site was banned for being illegal but was unblocked in February of The presidential elections in Iran are being held on June 12, 2009 and will be the country's 10th such election. There are 3 leading candidates right now. Incumbant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is running against Iran Reform Movement candidate and former Prime M , another Reformist candidate, also intends to run. Mehdi Karroubi Nick O'Neill puts it, unfortunately for the Iranians, they have a regime in place that doesn't support freedom of speech and would prefer to run a dictatorship. Those of us who enjoy such freedoms should do our part to make sure that censorship like th When we first learned of this story we immediately contacted Facebook to see what they had to say. They were gracious to respond swiftly with this comment from a Facebook spokesperson: We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in Iran may not have access to Facebook, especially at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions. We are investigating these reports. Facebook Response: We believe that people around the world should be able to use Facebook to communicate and share information with their friends, family and coworkers. It is always a shame when a countries' cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for sharing and expression that the Internet 5 decry jail terms in Holy Land Foundation case 11:15 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Boushra is now resuming translating tweets on www.meedan.net word on the street is that is again refusing to assert palestinians' right to cultural resistance by moving from pal nat'l theatre Israeli soldiers turn away group at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque. My sources: Jewish holiday this evening. Sensitivity & care reqd Jewish holiday tonight in Israel and the PALFEST event happens to express Palestinian solidarity. Should be interesting Carmen Callil's blog for yesterday now online: http://www. Zionist terrorist soldiers @ pal nat'l theatre trying 2 shut dow again in al quds is being shut down and moving. Don't know where yet. Zionists r very afraid of literature. Theatre closed by police & army Amazing closed again. Please follow them here and their struggle to hold a literature festival under the worst conditions. literature isreali soldiers cops tried to closedown compile a year blog entries re palestinain poetry & poets -today final one Moved to the British Council and will do final event here forced by zionist terrorist forces 2 move 2 british council. 1st french then british. Is this the new sykes picot? The show goes on. Arabic translation is available on meedan.net The five defendants in the Holy Land Foundation case were defiant Wednesday while being sentenced for their roles in funneling money to overseas terrorists, expressing disbelief that American law could criminalize the feeding of needy Hamas backers jailed in Texas Two founder members of what was once the biggest Muslim charity in the US have each been jailed for 65 years. Shukri Abu Baker, 50, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, were convicted of channelling funds to the Palestinian militant group, Hamas. Three other members of the Holy Land Foundation were jailed for between 15 and 20 years by a Dallas court. The charity was found guilty last year of sending $12m (£7.4m) to fund social programmes controlled by Hamas. The five men were convicted in November on charges ranging from money laundering to supporting terrorism. Hamas was designated a terrorist organisation by the US government 14 years ago, making it illegal to give the group money or other support. The defendants said they were only interested in helping the needy. Their supporters said no money had been used to fund violence, and the case was a by-product of what it called the anti-Islamic sentiment following the 11 September attacks of 2001. Shukri Abu Baker told the judge in Dallas on Wednesday: I did it because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas. But prosecutors argued that the humanitarian aid sent by the charity allowed Hamas to divert money to militant activities. Orphans Jurors had reached their guilty verdict last year after eight days of deliberations following a retrial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. It was the largest terrorism financing trial since the 9/11 attacks. The indictment against the group said it sponsored Palestinian orphans and families in the West Bank and Gaza whose relatives had died or been imprisoned as a result of Hamas attacks on Israel. The charity was shut down and had its assets frozen in 2001. TTP claims Lahore bombing, threatens more attacks PESHAWAR: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility on Thursday for a suicide gun and bomb attack in Lahore the previous day that killed 26 people and wounded over 100. \lquote We have achieved our target. We were looking for this target for a long time. It was a reaction to the Swat operation,\rquote Hakimullah Mehsud, a militant commander and deputy to TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed locati Hakimullah Mehsud threatened similar attacks in other Pakistani cities, the BBC reported. \lquote Residents should leave the cities of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan,\rquote he was quoted by the BBC as saying. Another group calling itself the Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab also claimed responsibility for the attack. The group took the blame in a Turkish-language communique posted on Turkish militant websites through an organisation called Elif Media on Wednesday, the SITE Intelligence Group said. The SITE cited the group as saying the attack \lquote targeted the \lquote nest of evil\rquote in Lahore, and was a \lquote humble gift\rquote to the mujahideen who suffer beneath the attacks of Pakistani forces in Swat.\rquote It specified that a vehicle laden with 100 kilos of explosives was blown up outside a security building in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province in Pakistan, destroying the building and injuring hundreds more. \lquote Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab asks Muslims in Pakistan to stay away from areas where the enemy is \lquote taking advantage\rquote of them, so that they are not harmed by jihadi attacks,\rquote SITE added. The claim could not be verified, and the militant group's relationship to the Taliban was unclear. Meanwhile, a top Pakistani security official said that while a similar claim emerged over a Shia mosque bombing that killed 22 people on April 5, investigators believed no such organisation exists. \lquote It is merely a deception. It is an extension of Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) of Waziristan,\rquote the security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. \lquote TTP wants terrorists to strike in Punjab but does not have an organisational structure \emdash Tehrik-i-Taliban in Punjab. There is no independent group like this,\rquote said the security official. The blast was the third deadly attack to rock Lahore in as many months. A senior investigator told AFP the attack was the likely handiwork of Al-Qaeda linked Taliban militants operating from Pakistan\rquote s Waziristan region. One of the attackers was shot dead by security guards as he approached the building, and two others perished in the explosion, the investigator said. Three maintained their steadfast innocence. The judge in the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history disagreed, handing down sentences to two that will likely mean they'll spend the rest of their lives behind bars for financing the terrorist group Hamas. The others wer Your function in life was raising money to support Hamas, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis told one of them in words that were repeated in some fashion as each defendant learned his fate. UPDATE 1-Obama, Saudi King to discuss oil prices WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and_Saudi King Abdullah will likely discuss global oil prices when_they meet next week in Riyadh, the White House said on Wednesday. I can only imagine that will be a topic -- yes, White_House spokesman Robert Gibbs said when asked whether the issue_was likely to come up. Rising crude oil costs are pushing up gasoline prices, on_signs that an improving U.S. economy will boost petroleum_demand. U.S. crude oil futures settled at a fresh 2009 high of_$62.45 a barrel on Tuesday at the New York Mercantile_Exchange. Gibbs was pressed on whether economic growth would be_derailed if oil prices were to continue to rise. Look, obviously, the president is concerned about anything_that raises the cost of living in a fragile economic time,_Gibbs said but declined to elaborate. Obama will visit Riyadh on June 3, an addition to his_scheduled trip to Egypt, Germany and France. You stated it was to help people, but the motive was to support Hamas, the judge said. You state that you are innocent, but the evidence shows the opposite. Army chief says US ready to be in Iraq 10 years WASHINGTON (AP) \emdash The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday. Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said the world remains dangerous and unpredictable, and the Pentagon must plan for extended U.S. combat and stability operations in two wars. Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction, Casey said. They He spoke at an invitation-only briefing to a dozen journalists and policy analysts from Washington-based think-tanks. He said his planning envisions combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade as part of a sustained U.S. commitment to fighting extr Casey's calculations about force levels are related to his attempt to ease the brutal deployment calendar that he said would bring the Army to its knees. Casey would not specify how many combat units would be split between Iraq and Afghanistan. He said U.S. ground commander Gen. Ray Odierno is leading a study to determine how far U.S. forces could be cut back in Iraq and still be effective. Casey said his Photos of Israeli police shutting down theatre online now: : Photos of Israeli police shutting down closing night theatre online now: Thank you for using flikr. I cannot seem to convince my browser to show twitpics. Just left literature event. It moved to British Consulate after Israel closed it down at Palestinian Nat'l Theatre in E. Jerusalem Videos of tonight's police and yesterday's tour of al-Khalil/Hebron are now online: Videos of tonight's : police and yesterday's tour of al-Khalil/Hebron are now online: Israeli rapper 'Shaanan Street' condemned his gov't for closing Lit events. His band = 'Dag Nachash' fish snake Check this video out -- 2009: Suheir Hammad Performs in Ramallah there is a wall. here is a land. now is the time. the people are here. still. Suheir Hammad and authors: : there is a wall. here is a land. now is the time. the people are here. still. Suheir Hammad and I'd like to draw attention to our video of al-Khalil/Hebron. This town is the key to understanding Palestine: I'd like to draw attention to our video of al-Khalil/Hebron. This city is the key to understanding the occupation: I'd like to draw attention to our video of al-Khalil/Hebron. This city is vital to understanding the occupation : : Israel may have taken everything, but not Palestinian dreams, Palestinians shall be free Who said it in the video? Thanks.. Closing night of Palestian Festival of Literature moved to British Council as Israeli army closes theatre. Via draws attention to their video of al-Khalil/Hebron. This city is vital to understanding the occupation: That's Henning Mankell speaking at the end israeli terrorist forces invade photographs maria is translating the authors blog posted by carmen callil on Maria trans authorblog Cool2! Fake Plastic Souks on the clippings page! Some good coverage going on, too... thank you yasser, you've been great. Amazing video showing the reality of Israeli settlements in Hebron for all your hard work for us still translating tweets here on al-Khalil/Hebron Carmen Callil We arrived here knowing so little! After 5 days we´ve seen sights unimaginable, learned astonishing facts and indeed, seen evil in action. It was the Israeli writer David Grossman who used the word evil to describe the activities of his state. He grieves about the effect of the brutal occupation of Palestine on the soul of the people of Israel: Hegel said that history is made by evil people. In the Middle East I think we know that the opposite is true: we have seen how a certain history can make people evil. We know that prolonged existence in a state of hostility, which leads us to act more These are real dangers that Israel must act quickly to avoid.... 27 He is right to grieve. Yesterday we were in Bethlehem, we saw the wall Israel has constructed to imprison and to spy upon the Palestinians of the occupied territory: Watchtowers stud hideous cement panels interlocked, stretching and winding for mile upo May 28 2009 (c) Everywhere there are checkpoints and Israeli soldiers, many of them young women, young girls really, all of them draped in weapons, smoking in our faces as they grudgingly allow our bus of writers to proceed from A to B. Our slow progress through Palesti The stories we hear from the Palestinians we meet pile horror upon horror. Everywhere we see Jewish Settlements crowding out the old Palestinian towns. They are everywhere. There are new settlements and the beginnings of hundreds more. Curfews, roads So much is the same. But! So much is different \endash the Palestinians we meet are remarkable people, they laugh, they sing, they charm \endash cannot fail to charm \endash all of us. Everywhere we go we meet such courage, such determination, such will to survive. T Outside Palestine, we in the west know so little. You have to come here to see the evil and brutality of the Israeli state. We could see it all on Television of course: but try to get a camera near these camps, these settlements, these guns! And our med Two things are clear to me. First, Israel has become a rogue state and the Jewish people I have known, loved, and whose history I have studied, are betrayed by, and in thrall to, this rogue state. Secondly. What I have seen is the terrifying intimidation, imprisonment and humiliation of the people of Palestine. But the truth of it is that it is the people of Israel who live in chains and who have no hope while their government inflicts these evil We are always being told that there are two stories, two sides to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Indeed there are but there is only one injustice, and that is the state of the Palestinian people imprisoned and tormented, as they are today, by the stat Global crisis 'hits human rights' The global economic crisis is exacerbating human rights abuses, Amnesty International has warned. In its annual report, the group said the downturn had distracted attention from abuses and created new problems. Rising prices meant millions were struggling to meet basic needs in Africa and Asia, it said, and protests were being met with repression. Political conflict meant people were suffering in DR Congo, North Korea, Gaza and Darfur, among others, it said. 'Time-bomb' The 400-page report, compiled in 157 countries, said that human rights were being relegated to the back seat in pursuit of global economic recovery. See region by region The world's poorest people were bearing the brunt of the economic downturn, Amnesty said, and millions of people were facing insecurity and indignity. Migrant workers in China, indigenous groups in Latin America and those who struggled to meet basic needs in Africa had all been hit hard, it said. Where people had tried to protest, their actions had in many cases been met with repression and violence. The group warned that rising poverty could lead to instability and mass violence. The underlying global economic crisis is an explosive human rights crisis: a combination of social, economic and political problems has created a time-bomb of human rights abuses, said Amnesty's Secretary General, Irene Khan. The group is launching a new campaign called Demand Dignity aimed at tackling the marginalisation of millions through poverty. World leaders should set an example and invest in human rights as purposefully as they invest in economic growth, Ms Khan said. Economic recovery will be neither sustainable nor equitable if governments fail to tackle abuses that drive and deepen poverty, or armed conflicts that generate new violations, she said. Governments are ignoring the poorest people's basic needs, Amnesty says Introductory meeting - Live coverage Sharik961.org - !يا شريك، شارك you tell us news happening in Lebanon Welcome to Sharik961 where , from Beit Jbeil to the Beka\rquote a and back. In late May, 2009 we're inviting citizen to participate in reporting for the upcoming Lebanese Parliamentary Elections (June 7, 2009). I just voted, 'Demonstrations in Baalbek near my voting ballot, just now', or 'I saw someone voting twice. It did not feel right', 'They did not let the press in'. 'I was asked whom I voted for, in Jbeil', 'I felt intimidated by all the police, Gemmayze If the federal judge, the FBI and prosecutors were expecting contriteness, they were sorely disappointed. We gave the essentials of life \endash oil, rice, flour, former Holy Land board chairman Ghassan Elashi said before receiving his 65-year sentence. The [Israeli] occupation was providing them with death and destruction. The Holy Land Foundation was to assist the Palestinians in their steadfastness against the brutal apartheid regime. I would like to declare my innocence of all the charges, he said. 108 charges Last fall, all five men were convicted on 108 charges that they funneled more than $12 million to the Palestinian group Hamas after the Clinton administration in 1995 declared it a terrorist group for sponsoring suicide bombings targe The convictions were a major counterterrorism victory for the Justice Department, which has failed to get guilty verdicts on the most serious charges in other similar trials around the country. Today's sentences mark the culmination of many years of painstaking investigative and prosecutorial work at the federal, state and local levels, David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a prepared statem Getting Everybody Talking in a Multilingual Crowd Translation of the web is all the rage these days. When you think about it, it's kind of strange that the rage didn't happen sooner, but that probably has lots to do with technical aspects of machine translation that I can't begin to imagine. The fact remains that, over the past year or so, all kinds of translation projects have emerged into public view in many shapes and sizes. A recent New York Times article , in the Business section of all places, catalogued some of them: Global Voices Lingua Project , where volunteers translate blog posts into many different languages Google Translate , which can now live directly in your email through a labs feature Yamli.com , which allows a non-Arabic speaker like me to type in a word as it sounds in Latin letters and, if I can read the results, which I sometimes can, choose the Arabic search term. Results are displayed side-by-side in English and Arabic. (Update: Oops, the TED Open Translation Project (which is based on the awesome dotsub , which the Times neglected to mention), and Meedan.net, a new site that seeks to use translation as a bridge for dialogue between English and Arabic speakers about the Middle East and other issues In a follow-up post to the article, Ethan Zuckerman, a Global Voices founder and the person who coined the term polyglot internet, mentions some translation initiatives on the edge, including Worldwide Lexicon Pootle , a translation management system, as well as the upcoming Open Translation Tools conference in Amsterdam next month, which SMEX will also attend. Can Iran's Minorities Help Oust Ahmadinejad? The presidential candidate was greeted last Monday at the airport _by a jubilant throng, chanting Azerbaijan is awake, and is supporting its _son! That slogan, shouted in the Azeri language, might sound a little _discordant, given that Mir-Hossein Moussavi is running for President not of _Azerbaijan, but of Iran. But the enthusiasm of his home-state crowd in East_Azerbaijan may help explain \emdash at least in part \emdash why Moussavi is _currently the strongest challenger to incumbent President Mahmoud _Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election. Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Amnesty International Report 2009: State of the World's Human Rights The rights and concerns of Iran's ethnic minorities are enjoying a prominence in this year's race far greater than during any previous election in the Islamic Republic. Both Moussavi and the other reformist candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, have traveled far and See pictures of Ahmadinejad visiting New York See below for highlights of the report by region Amnesty says the economic crisis has had a direct impact on human rights abuses on the continent. People came into the streets to protest against the high cost of living, Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty's Africa programme director, told the BBC's Network Africa programme. The reaction we saw from the authorities was very repressive. For example, in Cameroon about 100 people were killed in February last year. But the bulk of Amnesty's report concentrated on the continent's three main conflict zones: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan. In DR Congo, the focus was on the east where it said civilians had suffered terribly at the hands of government soldiers and rebel groups. The Hutu FDLR movement, for example, was accused of raping women and burning people alive in their homes. Amnesty said it was also the civilians in Somalia who bore the brunt of conflict, with tens of thousands fleeing violence and hundreds killed by ferocious fighting in the capital, Mogadishu. It also highlighted the killing and abduction of journalists and In Sudan, Amnesty catalogued a series of abuses including the sentencing to death of members of a rebel group, a clampdown on human rights activists and the expulsion of several aid groups following the issuing of an international arrest warrant against P A number of countries, including Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, were criticised for intimidating and imprisoning members of the opposition. And Nigeria came under fire for the forced evictions of thousands of people in the eastern city of Port Harcourt. Across the region, millions fell further into poverty as the cost of basic necessities rose, Amnesty said. In Burma, the military government rejected international aid in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and punished those who tried to help victims of the disaster. It continued campaigns against minority groups which involved forced labour, torture and murder, In North Korea, millions are said to have experienced hunger not seen in a decade and thousands tried to flee, only to be caught and returned to detention, forced labour and torture. In both North Korea and Burma, freedom of expression was non-existent. In China, the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games was marred by a clamp-down on activists and journalists, and the forcible evictions of thousands from their homes, the report said. Ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet continued to suffer from systemat Millions of Afghans faced persistent insecurity at the hands of Taliban militants. The Afghan government failed to maintain the rule of law or to provide basic services to many. Girls and women particularly suffered a lack of access to health and educatio In Sri Lanka, the government prevented international aid workers or journalists from reaching the conflict zone to assist or witness the plight of those caught up in fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. At a campaign event in Tehran last week, Moussavi blasted what he _called the current government's securitization of minorities, and said if _elected, he would allow greater official use of minority languages. He also _nodded to calls by the country's Read Will the Economy Be President Ahmadinejad's Downfall? In Tabriz on Monday, addressing a cheering crowd of about 30,000 in his_ native Azeri, Moussavi trumpeted, Azerbaijan has always stood up against dictators. Azerbaijan's champions have changed the destiny of Iran. He_cited the names of important Azeri Despite Iran's unprecedented oil income over the last four years, many _Iranians are struggling financially amid high rates of inflation and unemployment that plague most families. Thus the candidate's economic focus at his Tabriz rally. Iran is a rich In response, supporters chanted, Death to the government of potatoes, referring to Ahmadinejad's distribution of some 400,000 tons of free potatoes in villages and town across the country last month. The potatoes were snapped up in a blink, but many acc Moussavi's campaign swing through East Azerbaijan has been a sweet_homecoming. Almost everyone asked on the streets said they would vote _for him because of his past record as a wartime prime minister \emdash and, of_course, because of his Azeri background. Bu Esmail Pourshaban-Khameneh, 60, a motorbike mechanic, has set _up an actual Moussavi campaign headquarters and closed down his garage_for a month in order to mobilize support for the reformist. Pourshaban supports the candidate, not because he's from Azeris are the most integrated and influential among Iran's_ minorities. While it is rare for a Kurd or an Arab to occupy a high _office in the Islamic Republic, many of the leading figures in today's regime _are Azeri, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Read about women trying to run for president in Iran's election Folowen, A New Social Media Search Tool (Private Beta Invites) is a new social media search tool that just went live in private beta and enables users to search for the social profiles of different people and organizations on several social media sites, returning all found profiles in one search result. As his name indicates, the country's most powerful man is from _Khameneh, a breezy town northwest of Tabriz, dotted with sycamore trees, gushing streams and approximately 5,000 residents. Portraits at a local museum highlight _the small town's disproport In fact, Moussavi is not only from the same_town as Khameini, but according to locals is actually related to the Supreme Leader._Moussavi's relative Majid Motameni, 82, a gentle old man with sparkly _eyes, when asked about Moussavi's rumored family ties t Khamenei himself was actually born in Mashhad in the northeast, where _his father had been studying at a seminary. Another local relative said _that when SAVAK, the Shah's intelligence service, had been chasing the_revolutionary cleric, Khamenei had hidd Nahid Siamdoust / Tabriz and Khameneh, Iran Saturday, May. 30, 2009 Videos Former Iranian prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi, left, speaks to supporters during an election campaign in Khomain, Iran. ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH / EPA Linkedin Today in Pictures » Related stories Top Stories on TIME.com A Recent Focus on Arabic What has been particularly interesting and exciting for us at Social Media Exchange is the focus on Arabic we've seen, both with the emergence of sites like Meedan and the attention of companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook, which released an Arabic-language interface in March. But still, as a recent Meedan post notes, the Arabic Web is struggling This is because of a lack of translation into Arabic, to be sure. And to the fact, as medioriente writes, that All the qualified training programmes -particularly in media field, but also in science, engineer, etc- all across the Arab world are.. in English! Go visit all the most important universities in the Arab world and you will see that the majority is offeri But there are other factors, too, a few of which SMEX runs into quite often in translating our training materials, including the challenge of regional dialects. As the same Arabcrunch post that reported on the Arabic launch of Facebook says: Arabic is the official language of more than 20 different countries including Palestine, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, but each country has a different dialect, in which not every person from a certain Arabic dialect understand all others, Al Fusha ( الفصحى) \endash the Arabic dialect of Quran - which is the standard language used in media, publishing and other formal and religious circles. In talking with the founders of DigiActive last year when proposing to translate their Introduction to Facebook Activism , which we did, he brought up the point that even in Fusha, not all terminology relating to the Internet was commonly understood. We started playing around with ideas for posting a translation and letting people from various regions comment on the termino The Case of Lebanon In Lebanon, where many people are functional in three languages, Arabic, English, and French, and where we do most of our training, things get even trickier. Many Lebanese spend their entire educational lives in a second language, English or French. While At a training last year in Jbeil (Byblos), about 45km north of Beirut, we had prepared Arabic-language handouts for our intro presentation on the Social Internet for Social Change. Prior experience doing training outside Beirut had told us that our audien shu haida? (what's this?)\emdash and were asked to provide the training materials in English. Arabization of internet terms can feel almost as foreign to Arabic speakers, it seems, as to those of us who don't know the language at all. Even many translators we work with don't know the Arabic words for technology terms and have done extensive resear Fortunately in Jbeil, we were able to provide the materials in English, and ended up giving a kind of hybrid presentation, the spoken part in Lebanese, the written part in Arabic. When the participants posted to the blog they created, it was in English, t Where are the Arabic Web fonts? Another issue is Arabic fonts on the web. I'm wholly unqualified to lead this discussion, but I have heard many Arabic speakers and designers and coders lament the lack of a range of Arabic fonts on the web, in complete character sets. Monofont content mu Where to from here? For the time being, SMEX will continue to translate into the written Modern Standard Arabic (Fusha) as we did last year with our materials and a video we produced. Increasingly, we're considering producing video tutorials in Lebanese. For our online training-of-trainers course , which launches this Saturday, we're also going to try to crowdsource an Arabic-English tech glossary with our training participants . We'll report back on how all that goes. As great as all the translation initiatives are\emdash and I mean that, it is amazing to watch things opening up because of these tools\emdash somehow, I'm still not satisfied. I'd like to propose that we think of translation not as an end in itself but more as a catal I'm looking forward to the day when I get to read vast tracts of original Arabic Web content translated into English. Although depending on how long it takes, by then I might already be fluent in Arabic\emdash but I seriously doubt it. Lebanon charges 4 with collaborating with Israel By HUSSEIN DAKROUB \endash BEIRUT (AP) \emdash Lebanon charged four people with collaborating with Israel on Saturday, raising to 23 the number of suspected spies who have been charged in the last few months, a court official said. Since the recent crackdown began in April, Lebanon has arrested 35 people on suspicion of spying for Israel, the country's archenemy, Lebanese police commander Brig. Gen. Ashraf Rifi told The Associated Press. Lebanon considers itself at war with Israel and bans its citizens from having any contact with the Jewish state. Spying for or collaborating with Israel can be punishable by death. Military prosecutor Saqr Saqr also charged the four men Saturday with providing Israel with information about civilian and military positions and political figures, said a court official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to Israel has refused in the past to comment on the spying allegations. Lebanese army commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji vowed to continue the crackdown against Israeli spies in a speech to troops Saturday, the state news agency reported. Meanwhile, the Lebanese army sent a message to its troops warning them against Israeli attempts to infiltrate the military. Saturday's warning came only days after security officials said authorities detained a Lebanese army colonel on suspicion of spying Some of the 23 people who have been charged are still at large. Those in custody have all been accused of providing intelligence to Israel on the militant group Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon a Lebanese officials have said three suspected spies fled across the border to Israel. Hosted by By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News Holy Land prosecutor Jim Jacks noted the defiant nature of the men's remarks while arguing for maximum penalties for the charity's former leadership. There's been no acknowledgment by any of these defendants regarding their connection to Hamas, Jacks said. They haven't been deterred. Their entire sentencing presentation is they're being punished for providing charity. It's impor The government acknowledged that the former Richardson organization, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., did provide aid to Palestinians. But the evidence showed that they sent money to Palestinian charity offices controlled Hamas, the evidence showed during trial, parlayed that aid into support for its violent agenda to destroy Israel. That included funneling aid to family members of suicide bombers, ensuring a steady stream of new suicide recruits, test Plea for leniency Defense attorneys hoping for leniency fought an uphill battle with Solis on Wednesday, who repeatedly disputed arguments that the defendants broke no laws and did not support Hamas. You did support Hamas in violation of the law, Solis told Elashi. If the Holy Land Foundation did have a face, it was the face of Hamas. Nancy Hollander, attorney for former Holy Land CEO Shukri Abu Baker, tried to use the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri to persuade to judge to go easy. Al-Marri pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to provide material s This is a man who admits he came to the U.S. as a sleeper agent and the government believes 15 years is sufficient, Hollander said. Solis retorted that raising millions of dollars to fund terrorism, that's a different situation. He said that al-Marri is an example of someone who wanted to commit 'an' act of terrorism, as bad as that is. This is support over yea He sentenced Abu Baker to 65 years. Mohammad El-Mezain, former Holy Land endowments director and a Muslim prayer leader who delivered fiery speeches on confiscated videotapes in the case, spoke passionately about his devotion to charity, which he said was more importan We did it all in the name of America, said El-Mezain, who received 15 years. The Holy Land Foundation was no different than any other Jewish or Baptist charity. Reactions Dennis Lormel, who created the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations Section and now is a security consultant, said after the sentencings that the punishments were appropriate. Holy Land and the five guilty principals fully deserve the sentences handed down, he said. Anyone criticizing the U.S. government in this matter should redirect their criticism to where it's deserved. Hamas is a terrorist organizat Mark Briskman, head of the regional office of the pro-Jewish Anti-Defamation League, lauded Solis as a no-nonsense judge who gets it. The implication of this trial is significant, and the sentencing handed down by the judge indicates that seriousness. Kay Guinane, program manager for the Charity and Security Network, a project of the government watchdog group OMB Watch, predicted more trouble for U.S. charities doing international outreach, which is already suffering because of the The ... sentences handed down in the Holy Land Foundation trial indicate that this situation is likely to get worse, she said. Crime blog: Holy Land Foundation archive Archive: The Holy Land Foundation saga Also Online The aim is to make it simpler for anyone to find and follow a person or organization\rquote s social activities online, be it a Facebook profile, page or group; a Twitter account; a LinkedIn profile; a YouTube channel …etc. Currently, folowen uses Google AJAX Search API to find \~user profiles on 19 different social media sites including three Arab ones: Questler Ikbis Watwet Search is only the first piece in the bigger puzzle that folowen wants to build, and this ongoing private beta is\~concentrated on perfecting that to make sure that users are getting the right results for their searches.\~Once out of private beta, the searc Signed up users also have the possibility of having their search history saved automatically so that they can go back to them and view their results at any time. The next step after search will be to enable signed up users to link up folowen into some of the supported social services to be able to follow/connect right from folowen without having to go to that service. This obviously will only be available for serv By Maher Chmaytelli May 21 (Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates, the second_largest Arab economy, is showing signs of economic recovery,_Foreign Trade Minister Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi said. \ldblquote Positive preliminary indicators show that the U.A.E._market has overcome the impact of the global financial_meltdown,\rdblquote the official news service WAM cited the minister as_saying today in the capital Abu Dhabi. \ldblquote This is thanks to early_measures adopted by The U.A.E. economy may expand 1.6 percent next year after_contracting in 2009 after oil prices plummeted, Citigroup Inc._said on April 26. The U.A.E. in September set up a $13.6 billion fund for the_countries\rquote banks to boost liquidity. In October, it guaranteed_bank deposits and said it would add another $19 billion into the_banking system. The central bank cut its repurchase rate to 1_perce To contact the reporter on this story: Maher Chmaytelli in Dubai at Last Updated: May 21, 2009 06:08 EDT Share Nasrallah: Hezbollah cannot be disarmed by force BEIRUT \endash Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday during the commemoration of the 9th annual anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Festival in Baalbeck that, \ldblquote the Bekaa constituted the first nucleus and the base for launch Nasrallah told the Bekaa residents that their support of the resistance and Hezbollah is \ldblquote natural, patriotic and Islamic.\rdblquote He added that, \ldblquote the resistance from the very beginning did not enjoy national consensus,\rdblquote adding that, \ldblquote there are political forces since 1982 up till now did not issue a single statement sympathizing with the resistance.\rdblquote Nasrallah also said that the resistance \ldblquote faces dangerous challenges\rdblquote following their \ldblquote victory in 2000 the Zionists are working on a new strategy that was announced by Sylvan Shalom who said that they will turn the international community against Hezbollah He emphasized again that Hezbollah \ldblquote cannot be disarmed by force\rdblquote and replied to those calling them to hand over their arms.\~ Nasrallah stated that they were the first to call for a national dialogue over the defense strategy. He said, \ldblquote What made Lebanon s On the other hand, Hezbollah leader promised if the opposition wins the elections and forms a government, they will apply their program \ldblquote in strengthening and arming the army empowering it with the defense of Lebanon.\rdblquote Nasrallah concluded that following June 7 they want \ldblquote a national unity government, cooperation based on all past lessons learnt,\rdblquote adding their \ldblquote support the continuation of the national dialogue because we need a defense strategy.\rdblquote Opinion Iraqis should make friends MAINTAINING trust between Kuwait and Iraq, which vanished after the liberation of Kuwait from the invasion of the Iraqi dictator, requires a thorough analysis of certain facts, particularly the recent exchange of hostile statements aimed at disrupting the The international community took the necessary steps to help the Iraqis and protect them from the harsh regime, which controlled Iraq for almost 30 years and killed thousands of people.\~ Kuwait served as a transit point for the allied forces to enter Iraq As highlighted above, Kuwait has been helping Iraqis and it is now asking Iraq to comply with international decisions, including Article 678 on the protection of Kuwaiti rights and granting compensation for damages caused by the invasion, in addition to A However, the Iraqis shall not be deceived by the emotional tirade of their leaders over the compensation issue.\~ Kuwait deserves compensation for the damages caused by the Iraqi invasion, but money is not the priority of its people.\~ What matters now is f Iraqi lawmakers demand halt to Kuwait reparations BAGHDAD (AFP) \emdash Iraqi MPs on Monday urged a halt to reparation payments to Kuwait for Saddam Hussein's 1990 occupation, with some wanting the emirate to compensate Iraq for its role in the US-led 2003 invasion. We request a parliamentary debate to seek financial compensation from Kuwait for having allowed American forces to use its territory for the attack on Iraq and to cause damage and destruction here, Sunni MP Ezzedine al-Dawla of the National Concord Fron Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman said Iraq cannot accept the new border with Kuwait because it was imposed on us by the United Nations in 1991 after Saddam's forces were driven out of Kuwait. A senior Kuwaiti official last week called on Iraq to implement UN resolutions before the lifting of sanctions in place since 1990. We understand the Iraqi desire to exit from Chapter 7, Kuwaiti foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah was quoted as saying by Al-Qabas newspaper. But there are obligations (on Iraq) and outstanding issues that are illogical to be left unresolved, he added. The binding Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which is invoked in case of threats to international peace and security, can open the door to sanctions or even military action. Kuwaiti officials said in April that Iraq still owes the oil-rich emirate 25.5 billion dollars in reparations for its seven-month occupation of the country under the regime of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. In addition, Kuwait says Baghdad owes the emirate around 16 billion dollars in debt from loans to Saddam during Baghdad's eight-year war with Iran. The Unbearable Narcissism of the Settlers From Yedio t, further ridiculousness from settler leaders, who have no sense whatsoever about the actual threats facing Israel, and no sense at all\~ of how they sound to the world, and to their fellow Jews: The demand to prevent natural growth in settlements is unreasonable and is akin to Pharaoh's demand that all firstborn sons be thrown into the Nile River, said Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz\~ ahead of Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting. What will we say to a family living with one child, which now has four or five children? That the children will move to Petah Tikva? The Americans must understand that this is an unreasonable demand, and we must confront them firmly, he added. Where to begin with this nonsense? With the implicit accusation that Barack Obama is pharaoh (which makes Hillary his vizier, or something)? Since the United States partially underwrites Israel, it has the right to make certain demands; since this demand move to Israel . That's right. It used to be that a person could fulfill his Zionist destiny in a place like Petah Tikva, but no more: Now, it's a sin against God, apparently, to live anywhere but in a government-subsidized trailer on a barren hill in the mountains of S I don't have any problem with the American demand for a settlement freeze; the settlements are an impediment to peace, they are a security burden, and they are petri dishes for the worst sort of fundamentalist messianism (and therefore profoundly anti-Zionist, at least according to the Zionist vision of men like Herzl and Ben-Gurion). Now, of course, there should be some delineating going on here -- everyone knows that most settlements would actually become part of Israel in a final peace deal. So these settlements should probably be allowed natural growth. But only if the settlements Israel and its friends in America know that the only hope for a two-state solution come in the form of an empowered and moderate Palestinian Authority. Is there a good chance that the Palestinian Authority isn't, in fact, moderate? Is there a good chance Check it -Islam's Reformation and Obama's Speech: kaitfoley about 1 hour ago Obama's #Cairospeech June 4 should note there is no Muslim World Photo of Obama's arrival in Saudi Arabia today- lisang : Tired of the negativity re: Obama's What do we really want from Obama's visit? Another test of value of twitter -- following updates from cairo on The Speech Obama turns Cairo upsidedown RT work gave the day off tomorrow, son school off two. operation cairosiege is well underway 7 opinions from muslim world on Geeee a Yaminy prisoner dies in guantanamo. this one is on you mr. obama what about also the victims in iraq , afghanistan , palestine and pakistan الاعلام الفضائى التابع للنظام كاعاشرة مساءا و90 دقيقة والقاهرة اليوم بدأو يهللون ويروجون لاهمية زيارة اوباما i may be the only person in cairo who has to go to work tomorrow. (or at least my twitter feed makes me think so.) White house web site says at 6:10AM ET Anybody knows exactly when Obama's will be aired? to be live-streamed here: Sad that Obama will not see true Cairo tomorrow. Egyptians told to stay home. Cars will be off the roads. A ghost town awaits. Report: EReader and EBook Market Ready for Growth 48 Hours After 48 hours or even less President Barack Obama\rquote s historical visit to Egypt , it is historical by all measure considering the fact that he will be the first American President to address the Islamic World directly from C The visit will be from 10\~ AM to 6 PM The speech will be 50 minutes \ldblquote this is pretty long\rdblquote There will an international press center in Cairo University. Obama will visit : El-Kobah Palace, Al-Azhar Mosque , Sultan Hassan Mosque, Pyramids and Cairo University , I do not know if this is the real program because it can change in any time. There were helicopters all over Cairo yesterday , I saw one over Agouza in Giza\~ ,many friends saw it all over Cairo. Ain Shams and Helwan Universities are going to take the day off , from point of view the students may not be able to go to their universities for exams and from another point of view mainly Of course Cairo and Giza are being beatified for the distinguish guest, this is something I can understand , it is always done when some VIP visits the area. In case of Obama ,well things are I know that there are 5 bloggers at least are going to attend the speech including some of my friends. Ayman Nour and some MBs members are going to attend the speech, in fact the head of the MB members in the Parliament was invited by Fathi Sorror himself to attend speech. Adel Emam and Hamda Halal are going to attend to the speech !!!!!!!!!! Kafya is calling for a protest in Al-Tahrir square objecting the visit of Obama !! Yes some groups mainly from the socialists and leftists plus the Arab nationalists do not welcome the visit. There are orders given by the interior ministry to shops and businesses in Downtown area to close on Thursday and do not open up till 3 PM !! in other words it could be a day off. Of course there are thousands of CIA agents currently in Cairo and Giza. There is a crisis in CU because of the Israeli Ambassador\rquote s invitation , the CU professors refuse to let the ambassador to enter the campus. I took some shots for Cairo University\~ yesterday in a hurry , there were cars loaded with asphalt to make the road look elegant !! There are not good shots , I will upload them later. I wish that I can attend the speech in personal to be honest. The Egyptian people for real are so interested to hear Mubarak will meet Obama at Koubbah Palace only , he won't attend the speech in Cairo University according to Al-Muslamany's TV show on Dream TV 2 !!!!\~ I think his absence from the speech will raise many question marks about his condition after the death of his grandchild. The people living in Khalifa Al-Mamoun were ordered to close their shops and businesses on Thursday , find another place to park their cars and Not To Look Through the balconies or windows !!! Al-Khalifa street is big, there are malls , companies, it is v Just finished watching Bushama's booooooooooring speech, you can read the full text . My expectation that Obama would just recycle old bullshit obviously came true, and if anyone calls his speech or a new beginning they obviously have lost touch with reality. This speech was so bad I thought even from a linguistic standpoint, I mean I could come up with a more . speech off the top of my head, but then again, despite what some people say, Bus : Obama says Mubarak has decades of experience, thanks president for hospitality #cairospeech mubarak does have years of experience in obeying his american and israeli masters, he also has a lot of experience in torture #cairospeech el azaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar? whats that obama??? #cairospeech mentioned extremists within a minute of starting #cairospeech : I hate it when US presidents quote the Quran.. Give me a fucking break! #cairospeech obama will fight stereotypes against islam...er while killing as many muslims as possible #cairospeech the us is a imperial empire you dumb fuck! #cairospeech : NDP Stooges must stop clapping in #cairospeech first problem: violent extremists fuck you dumbass #cairospeech how many people has the us killed in the last 7 years? at least in the millions #cairospeech military force will not solve the problem alone...er but we will try #cairospeech Arab Students Respond to Obama Ingy Hassieb President Barack Obama, carrying the \ldblquote goodwill of the American people,\rdblquote greeted the Egyptian people in Cairo University\rquote s conference hall with \ldblquote Al Salamu Alaykom.\rdblquote He did not thank the Egyptian president for his hospitality, he did not address him directl The New York Times asked students in Cairo, Alexandria and Amman to share their thoughts on the president\rquote s speech. Here are some of their impressions: The speech that President Barack Obama gave at Cairo University was very interesting and refreshing. It was definitely a big break from the tone and style that President Bush employed in addressing the Arab world. The speech was balanced and not aggressiv Google Inc. said it plans to launch a program that will let publishers sell digital versions of their books directly to consumers, a step that would thrust the Internet search giant into competition with e-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc. Google, Mountain View, Calif., said Monday it aims to build a digital book ecosystem to allow partner publishers to sell access to their titles, even if buyers don't have dedicated book readers such as Amazon's Kindle or Sony Corp.'s Reader. The service Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in bitter TV clash with Iranian poll rival 's president has traded personal attacks and accusations with his main election rival last night in a bitterly contested televised debate seen as key to deciding the country's forthcoming presidential election. In an extraordinarily barbed 90-minute live He repeatedly tried to tie Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister and the leading reformist contender, to two past presidents, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, whose governments Ahmadinejad claimed were corrupt. Mousavi even had to defend the academic record of his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, after the president claimed she held two illegal degrees. Rahnavard, a distinguished academic, has been campaigning alongside her husband, in a break with Iran's male-dominated p lebanese election : Investing in the Lebanese Youth: Normal_0_______MicrosoftInternetExplorer4read more SawtAshabab Jun 7, 2009 08:12 PM GMT · . (HELL YES!!) : The Same Old Lebanese Elections...AGAIN!: read more hassanch Stupid elections in ...! You cannot have a drink anywhere....! Jun 7, 2009 07:40 PM GMT · mobile web can you please release a low-res (480p) version of Haniyya: \ldblquote Qalqilia incidents placed unity talks on a crossroad\rdblquote Prime Minster of the dissolved Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyya, stated that internal Palestinian unity talks mediated by Cairo are now on a crossroad due to the incidents in Qalqilia, in which two Hamas fighters were killed by Palestinian securit Haniyya added that Hamas cannot accept to hold talks while the situation in the West Bank is deteriorating and while the Palestinian security forces are targeting Hamas members and fighters. He added that this government will not block serious unity talks based on mutual trust and real actions on the ground. The Hamas leader stated that the spilling of Palestinian blood by Palestinian hands should stop, and added that his government in Gaza will not base its responses on retaliation. On Thursday, thousands of Palestinians marched towards the legislative council in Gaza, and then towards the symbolic mourning house at the Unknown Soldier Square. Mosheer Al Masry of Hamas stated that the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is targeting the resistance and the fighters. He called on all factions to take a strong stance against the actions of the Palestinian Authority, and the security coordination between the Palestinian security forces and Israel. ? (new ep) \endash having a hard time DLing large files in He accused Fateh movement of eliminating the chances of a successful national dialogue saying that Fateh is coordinating with the occupation, and acting against the resistance. Jun 7, 2009 07:11 PM GMT · ~ 58% voter turnout in . 20% higher than the 2005 elections Jun 7, 2009 06:41 PM GMT · All eyes on the TV. Election results soon. Jun 7, 2009 05:45 PM GMT · @habibh Only 12 candidates are women Nice article from AFP Women candidates sidelined in vote Jun 7, 2009 05:41 PM GMT · Interior Minister Ziad Baroud: The polling percentage throughout exceeded 52%-a rise of 35% comparing to 2005.. Jun 7, 2009 05:19 PM GMT · Show Conversation that would spell TROUBLE #lebanonelection OR lebanon OR election OR #sharek OR #sharek961 OR #LADE since:2009-06-06 near:Beirut, Lebanon within:50mi ibarazi mmm listenin to this great song , its an ad. but its about , great lyrics ! Jun 7, 2009 10:43 PM GMT · Beirut, LB VOTES -- Reuters: Leader of U.S.-backed Coalition Saad Al-Hariri declares victory in parliamentary Jun 7, 2009 10:38 PM GMT · Allah kareem khayyeh. voted what it truly wants. We'll see how it goes. Jun 7, 2009 10:24 PM GMT · Elections ended- results out- the ones who deserved to win, won... so lets kick it off- Summer 2009 in ! Come COME!! Jun 7, 2009 11:04 PM GMT · RT Happy that day went smooth; Hats off Z.Baroud, Now can we do smthing abt late nighthonking & fireworks Jun 7, 2009 11:00 PM GMT · FACTBOX: Some key issues in U.S.-European relations WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama makes his second foray into European diplomacy next week facing pressure to show his consensus-building approach to foreign policy can produce results where his predecessor's go-it-alone style failed. After initial stops in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to deliver a major address to the Islamic world, Obama will travel to Europe where he will hold separate face-to-face meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Following are some of the key issues in U.S.-European relations: * FINANCIAL CRISIS/ECONOMY - Since taking office in January, Obama has signed a two-year, $787 billion economic stimulus bill to lift the U.S. economy out of recession. The U.S. government has intervened to prop up weakened major banks. Treasury Secretary has unveiled a plan to buy bad debt clogging the books of troubled banks. Germany has passed two economic stimulus packages, one last year valued at about $30 billion and a second this year worth about $65 billion. European Union countries have authorized about $510 billion worth of economic stimulus spending, but were reluctan Europe has been slow to deal with bad bank assets. A recent IMF report showed more than half the bad assets in the global banking system belonged to European banks. U.S. banks have been more aggressive in writing down bad debt than European banks -- 70 pe * RUSSIA - The Obama administration is seeking a new start with Russia after the tensions with the Bush administration. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed in their April meeting to launch new talks aimed at reducing their number of nuclear Underlying U.S.-Russian frictions are issues of NATO expansion to countries like Georgia and Ukraine, and U.S. plans to base a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic to defend against attacks from countries like Iran. Moscow views the missile system as a potential threat despite U.S. denials. It fought a war in Georgia last year in support of pro-Russian separatists and cut off gas supplies to Europe during the winter because of a dispute with Ukraine. Obama plans to meet Medvedev for talks on nuclear arms and other issues in July and his hand would be strengthened if he could present a unified NATO position toward Russia. * AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN - Obama unveiled a new strategy for the conflict in Afghanistan that calls for a broader approach aimed at disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda and the in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He ordered 17,500 additional combat troops to join the 38,000 already there, plus another 4,000 to help train Afghan soldiers. He also planned to double the number of civilians in Afghanistan to 900 to help rebuild the country's infrastructure. Obama got words of support for his policy from NATO allies, but no offers of long-term troop deployments. The Europeans pledged 5,000 troops as reinforcements for the Afghan elections later this year plus paramilitary police trainers. * IRAN - Major European powers have negotiated with Iran for years with little success in an effort to get it to end its nuclear enrichment program, which Tehran says is for peaceful energy production but the West fears is aimed at developing nuclear arms Obama came into office saying he was willing for the United States to hold discussions with Iran over its nuclear program. The United States indicated it is willing to impose sanctions on Tehran if it continues nuclear enrichment, but other members of the The P5 plus 1 consists of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany. Russia and China, in particular, have opposed tougher sanctions, and Germany has been reluctant to impose sanctions outside the U.N. Security Council process. German exports to Iran were nearly $5 billion in 2008, much of it machinery and vehicles. Iran's nuclear program is heavily dependent upon German products and services, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. French exports to Iran we Lebanese election analysis: pro-western victory is triumph for Barack Obama The Lebanese election result provides Barack Obama with his first victory in the Middle East as the failure of Hizbollah to take power through the ballot box is a positive blow for moderates in the region. By Damien McElroy in Beirut Published: 1:05PM BST 08 Jun 2009 Lebanon is an infuriatingly intractable place. But it is also open to outside influence. In his appeal to reason over dogma last week, President Obama exposed the perils of unblinking extremism. Hezbollah accepts election results, says Nasrallah Beirut - The secretary general of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said Monday his group has accepted the outcome of the Lebanese parliamentary elections - but insisted Hezbollah would not disarm. 'We accept the results which were issued by the Lebanese Interior Ministry,' Nasrallah said in a televised address. 'I congratulate all election winners. We accept the announced results of these elections with sportsmanship and democratic spirit.' According to the ministry's official results, the pro-West majority won 71 seats in the 128-member parliament, while the Hezbollah-led opposition secured 57 seats. 'I want to congratulate the Lebanese people for this national electoral achievement, and the high turnout for it,' Nasrallah said. 'The one-day elections were a big challenge, and we succeeded in this challenge.' He said the winners 'must know that they are holding the responsibility of this representation, and they should rise to this responsibility.' He reiterated that Hezbollah, which led the resistance that saw Israel withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000 and has continued to fight Israel during offensives, will not accept demands to disarm. 'Some people in the winning camp were afraid of holding the elections while our group maintains its arms,' he said. The elections had gone ahead peacefully, and 'this proves that these arms are not being used to impose a new political reality, or to bring or exclude faces from the political arena.' The weapons 'are present because of the peoples' will, and will be left for the dialogue table,' he added. The issue of the Hezbollah arsenal has been the core of the deep division between the ruling majority and Hezbollah-led opposition. The majority has always insisted that only the Lebanese army should protect the Lebanese and the country, while Hezbollah believe that they should keep their arms to confront Israel. Lebanon had been on course to elect a Hizbollah led government but baulked at being out of step with the US president's new approach. Serge Dassault removed from mayorship because he bribed electors! We should fly him to ! Check out (Fr) Bei...RUT Jun 8, 2009 10:18 PM GMT · It seems that Michel Murr lost his bet: he said he would resign if 5 out of his 7 candidates didn't make it... Will he do it? Jun 8, 2009 09:33 PM GMT · nice comments on 's elections few minutes ago on @idesk Jounieh, Lebanon Jun 8, 2009 07:41 PM GMT · Wondering if will carry the just revealed IPhone when it unveils 3G network this fall. Jun 8, 2009 07:05 PM GMT · ANALYSIS-U.S. relieved at result: Source: Reuters * Obama hints at continued U.S. support__ * T.. Jun 8, 2009 06:43 PM GMT · Hezbollah accepts defeat: Source: Reuters BEIRUT, June 8 (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Ha.. Eh baseeta. It's definitely not the last time celebrates. :p Jun 8, 2009 06:36 PM GMT · - Fireworks during Nasrallah's speech tonight Jun 8, 2009 06:17 PM GMT · Swine flu scare at university dorm in Cairo Egyptian police have imposed quarantine restrictions on a dormitory of the prestigious American University in Cairo after an outbreak of swine flu. Two students arriving from the US have been diagnosed with the virus that has killed 130 people, mostly in Mexico, and has affected thousands worldwide. Egypt was the first African country to record a case swine flu. There are fears the airborne virus could spread quickly in its densely populated urban areas. Police, some wearing face masks stood at barriers outside the elegant seven-floor AUC dormitory in Zamalek. Pizzas were delivered to the building during the day but none of the residents were allowed in or out. The swine flue outbreak led the university to suspend classes until 14 June in line with health ministry advice, reports say. Egypt's Mena news agency said the students are Americans who came to Cairo to take summer classes. The Egyptian authorities ordered the cull of the country's 300,000 pigs to combat an outbreak, although animal welfare groups said the slaughter would have little impact. Egypt is already battling the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed an estimated 27 people there since 2006. People travelling to Egypt are subjected to tests at its airports, with some suspected cases being kept in quarantine. Iran's Mousavi vows to review 'unfair' women laws TEHRAN (AFP) \emdash Iranian presidential hopeful Mir Hossein Mousavi vowed on Saturday to review laws which are unfair towards women if he wins next month's election. In a speech to around 1,500 women at a sports complex in southern Tehran, Mousavi said he will review all laws which are deemed discriminatory and unfair to women by introducing the needed bills in the parliament. Addressing a cheering crowd of women screaming Mousavi! Mousavi!, the moderate candidate, who served as prime minister during the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, said he would work to towards taking the moral police patrols off the streets if elected in the Ju Over the past few years, such patrols have strictly enforced the Islamic dress code on women in Iran and especially in Tehran. Women who are deemed inappropriately dressed are usually hauled to a detention centre where they must sign a pledge, promising to dress properly. Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, also spoke to the crowd as people chanted: Remove the moral police!. Clad in a traditional black chador and a colourful scarf, Rahnavard said: We should prepare the ground for an Iran where women are treated without discrimination. We should reform laws that treat women unequally. We should empower women financially, women should be able to choose their professions according to their merits, and Iranian women should be able to reach the highest level of decision making bodies. The crowd was also addressed by high profile speaker Masoumeh Ebtekar, the first Iranian woman to be appointed as a vice president under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami between 1997-2005. She urged Mousavi to improve women rights in Iran. We ask you (Mousavi) to make the change, she said. Mousavi has emerged as the main challenger in the June election to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is seeking a second term in office. Mehdi Karoubi, a reformist former speaker of parliament, and Mohsen Rezai, a conservative who previously headed the Revolutionary Guards, are also standing. AUC Suspends classes for H1N1\~SwineFlu Classes suspended until next Sunday (14th).. AUC email below: UPDATE: apparently food court has been shut down, ACs turned off, masks handed out. And only one person per row is being allowed on the shuttle buses. Date: Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 1:11 PM Subject: AUC Suspends Classes and Events Until June 14 To: AUC Suspends Classes and Events Until June 14 As a result of the two confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu in the Zamalek dormitory, the university has decided to suspend classes until Sunday, June 14, 2009. As a result of this decision all non-essential personnel are not required to report to campus, and a limited bus service will be available to transport essential staff. Details of this schedule will follow later this afternoon. The university is taking this action on the recommendation of the Egyptian Ministry of Health to ensure the health and safety of the AUC community. The students who have been tested positive are residents of the Zamalek dormitory and are receiving medical treatment for the flu. The Ministry of Health has obtained samples from all residents of the dormitory and those results are expected this even The university\rquote s administration is working closely with the Egyptian Ministry of Health to effectively manage this situation and will continue to keep the AUC community informed as new information becomes available. The AUC clinics on both campuses will remain open. Anyone who experiences flu-type symptoms, such as high fever, should contact the AUC Clinic \endash contact information is below. The university will be developing plans to ensure that all academic requirements are fulfilled within the current calendar. The annual spring graduation ceremonies scheduled for June 16 and 18 are expected to be held as planned. As we receive\~further information, it will be shared immediately with the AUC community. Brian MacDougall Vice President for Planning and Administration Medical Center Contact information New Cairo Campus medical clinic (open 24 hours) 2615-4000 (on campus, dial 4000) Tahrir Square Campus medical clinic (open 8am to 5pm) 2797- 6747 Dr. Mohamed Amin, AUC medical director 012.100.5947 1% of all ballots across Thousands cancel pilgrimage amid swine flu fears Joanna Hartley on Saturday, 09 May 2009 TRAVEL BAN: The Egyptian health ministry is considering banning people from attending this year's Umra. (Getty Images) Thousands of Egyptians have cancelled their plans to travel to Saudi Arabia on their minor pilgrimage later in May due to fearts about swine flu, it was reported on Saturday. Figures from the Chamber of Commerce show that booking rates are down by 60 percent for the Umra to Makkah, according to vice president of the chamber Nasser Turki. The cancellations followed an announcement by the health minister that he was considering banning pilgrims from traveling for three weeks as part of the Egyptian government\rquote s response to the outbreak of H1N1, Turki said, according to Egyptian website Alma The Middle East has only seen seven confirmed cases of swine flu that have been limited to Israeli citizens, a number of whom had recently been in Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak. No suspected cases of the virus have been reported in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that if the virus enters Africa it could cause more deaths as the region has fewer resources to deal with an outbreak. Furthermore, mass pilgrimages to Makkah have resulted in deaths from infectious diseases before. In 2001 35 people contracted meningitis and 10 people died after attending the Hajj, which attracts millions of people from all over the world, resulting in a crowded environment where viruses can easily spread. Egypt has already stoked international controversy by culling a major proportion of its pig population in response to the swine flu threat, despite WHO saying there is no evidence the virus is passed from pigs to humans, or can be contracted by eating pig So far 17,374 pigs have been slaughtered under orders of the Ministry of the Environment, most of which were rounded up from the Greater Cairo area. Well, it is if you class many of the poors ones as Garbage Men (the so-called Zabaleen are mostly Coptic Christians). The Christian population in Cairo is mostly of the higher classes of society The size of the Coptic population of Egypt is a highly contentious issue politically. Estimate range between 6% and 20% of the population, depending on who you talk to. Jun 9, 2009 10:30 AM GMT · mood? depends which side you're on! generally a feeling of, nothing has changed.... Jun 9, 2009 09:48 AM GMT · One Vodka Ahhh another sunrise and no sleep for me yet... It felt like a Saturday with everyone up, out & partying to the good The self-conscious moderation immediately displayed after the vote count was in the spirit of President Obama's speech in Cairo. The last election in 2005 was naively portrayed as an achievement for President George W Bush. Lebanon is too imperfect for winner takes all politics - power sharing across the spectrum is a must. The winners can only set the agenda not impose a programme After winning a fierce battle with Israel in southern Lebanon in 2006, it was emboldened to take a more assertive line. Lebanese, it had said in recent weeks, must adopt a resistance mentality against Israel - an absurdity when the Jewish state had draw It would be churlish to represent the triumph of the pro-Western bloc over Hizbollah in Sunday's election as a triumph for democracy over the inevitability of strongman rule. Once its spokesmen would stress the Party of God was a Lebanese reality, an umbrella term meaning it was both a popular representative of its people and the most powerful armed faction in the country. Hizbollah had followed the twin track of politics and guerrilla resistance for decades, much as Sinn Fein and the IRA were a necessary hybrid. But the mask slipped as its appeal grew. Attacking Iran\rquote s nuclear program could destroy Israel, kill American soldiers Kung Fu Jew Many folks don\rquote t know that The Forward editor Larry Cohler-Esses lived in Iran for five years and speaks fluent Farsi. So when he and Nathan Guttman report on a new and most comprehensive analysis by one of the leading mideast military strategists and a f spells catastrophe for an Israeli military strike against Iran, we sit up and listen. The heart of the 114-page report spells the costs: a crippling rate of aircraft attrition, the opening of renewed all-out war by Arab-Muslim states against not just Israel but the United States\rquote personnel, and the weakness of Israel to defend against the Their March 14 study notes that these defenses may include a deadly, ultra-sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft system that could down 20% to 30% of Israel\rquote s attack aircraft \emdash \ldblquote a loss Israel would hardly accept in paying.\rdblquote They note reports that Russia has Meanwhile, in the event of an attack, Iran and its Shi\rquote ite allies in neighboring countries would launch retaliatory attacks against Israel, American military forces in Iraq, and Western interests regionwide, Cordesman and Toukan suggest. They predict that The report notes that Iran has taken steps to not repeat Iraq\rquote s mistake in putting all its nuclear eggs in one facility. Repeated strikes against underground bunkers still may not set back the country but a few years. Israel relies on Egypt and Jordan to I want our homegrown Iran-baiters to consider this heavily: An Israeli attack risks the lives of American personnel in Iraq, Afganistan and elsewhere. I, as an American, cannot condone this. My father was in the US Army for the first 14 years of my life. And I agree with Israeli military experts like Reuven Pedatzur, quoted at the end of the report, who say that Israel needs to accept the coming day of nuclear Iran and bolster its deterrance occordingly. \ldblquote The key, of course, is deterrence. Only a clear an The military option is no option. It\rquote s suicide for Israel and deadly for Americans. Our last day. Today the group has a day to explore Jerusalem. Last year, we had been denied entry to the Dome of the Rock on the grounds of not being Muslims. We were told that you either have to enter through the Israeli controlled gate in the Wailing Wa Chabad rabbi: Jews should kill Arab men, women and children during war Like the best Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis, Manis Friedman has won the hearts of many unaffiliated Jews with his charismatic talks about love and God; it was Friedman who helped lead Bob Dylan into a relationship with Chabad. But Friedman, who today travels the country as a Chabad speaker, showed a less warm and cuddly side when he was asked how he thinks Jews should treat their Arab neighbors. The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle), Friedman wrote in response to the question posed by Moment Magazine for its Ask the Rabbis feature. Friedman argued that if Israel followed this wisdom, there would be no civilian casualties, no children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, in fact, no war. I don't believe in Western morality, he wrote. Living by Torah values will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat because of a disastrous morality of human invention. Friedman's use of phrasing that might seem more familiar coming from an Islamic extremist has generated a swift backlash. The editor of Moment, Nadine Epstein, said that since the piece was printed in the current issue they have received many letters and Friedman quickly went into damage control. He released a statement to the Forward, through a Chabad spokesman, saying that his answer in Moment was misleading and that he does believe that any neighbor of the Jewish people should be treated, as the Tor But Friedman's words have generated a debate about whether there is a darker side to the cheery face that the Chabad-Lubavitch movement shows to the world in its friendly outreach to unaffiliated Jews. Mordecai Specktor, editor of the Jewish community new He sets things out in pretty stark terms, but I think this is what Lubavitchers believe, more or less, said Specktor, who is also the publisher of the American Jewish World. They are not about loving the Arabs or a two-state solution or any of that stuff. They are fundamentalists. They are our fundamentalists. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a regular critic of Arab extremists, said that in the Jewish community, We are not immune to having these views. There are people in our community who have these bigoted, racist views. But, Foxman warned, Friedman's views are not reflective of the Chabad rabbis he knows. I am not shocked that there would be a rabbi who would have these views, Foxman said, but I am shocked that Moment would give up all editorial discretion and good se A few days after anger about the comment surfaced, Chabad headquarters released a statement saying that, we vehemently disagree with any sentiment suggesting that Judaism allows for the wanton destruction of civilian life, even when at war. The statement added: In keeping with Jewish law, it is the unequivocal position of Chabad-Lubavitch that all human life is G-d given, precious, and must be treated with respect, dignity and compassion. In Moment, Friedman's comment is listed as the Chabad response to the question How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors? after a number of answers from rabbis representing other Jewish streams, most of which state a conciliatory attitude toward Arabs. Epstein said that Friedman was brave for stating his views so clearly. The American Jewish community doesn't have the chance to hear opinions like this, Epstein said, not because they are rare, but because we don't often ask Chabad and other similar groups what they think. The Chabad movement is generally known for its hawkish policies toward the Palestinians; the Chabad Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, rejected peace accords with the Palestinians. Rabbi Moshe Feller, the top Chabad rabbi in Minnesota, said that the rebbe Jews as a whole, they try to save the lives of others, Feller told the Forward, but if it's to save our lives, then we have to do what we have to do. It's a last resort. Friedman is not a fringe rabbi within the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was the English translator for the Chabad Rebbe, and at the rebbe's urging, he founded Beis Chana, a network of camps and schools for Jewish women. Friedman is also a popular speaker 28 We arrived at Bab al-Sbat and were met by the Waqf\rquote s representative. But, on our way in, one of the Israeli soldiers seemed to change his mind. Claire Messud writes more extensively about it in her author blog . But basically the next two hours are taken up with trying to get in to the tranquillity of the Haram. After arguing for half an hour, we walked round to the other gate, the Israeli controlled, metal detector flanked gate. We watched a group of settlers At first people can\rquote t understand why we wouldn\rquote t be allowed in to see the mosques. What security issue could there be? But it isn\rquote t security \endash it\rquote s a desire to make it impossible to relate to the Palestinians as a civilized people, to only be able to see Anyway, eventually we left. The day was spent in Jerusalem, exploring, shopping etc. We were scheduled to be on stage at the Palestinian National Theatre at 7pm. At 6pm the army arrived and shut it down. Again. So we moved to the British Council. A video can be seen here Once in the lovely garden of the British Council, the night went very well. The Basel Zayed group played in between bouts of readings, the weather was perfect, and there was no doubt that a week of cultured resistance had been achieved. Until next year…. We were, however, still subjected to the \ldblquote VIP treatment\rdblquote . The bus was pulled over and we all had to file out, ghet our bags from the hold, and queue up to present them to a young soldier. Then you have to bend down and zip open your shoddy packing and dir al-Khalil / Hebron Al-Khalil: \ldblquote the intimate friend.\rdblquote Where the mosque and burial place of Abraham, the khalil, or friend, of God lies. Now, 400 settlers occupy the centre of al-Khalil and threaten the Palestinians with actions, grafitti and song. In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish Settler opened fire on the worshippers in the mosque. He killed 29 before the people killed him. God did not These 400 settlers are protected by 1500 soldiers and 101 checkpoints that strangle the centre of this ancient, busy, holy, thriving city. The settlers, mostly from Brooklyn, do not stay for long - they are shipped in and organised in one or two-year rota What used to be the most populated Palestinian city is now a hollow shell. The streets are empty, the shops are closed down, the army moves through every street, the people, disarmed, cannot fight. Some streets are empty because only settlers are allowed And it is here that you can see the designs the Occupation has for Jerusalem, for Nablus. Here we can see the future. As settlements encircle each ancient Palestinian town, as houses in East Jerusalem are demolished and tunnelled under, as the commercia People came again, they made a circle, girls and boys dancing Today the supporters of were shouting: We don't want the dictator, nor the king nor the doctor! edbice Wow - Twitter search can let you see all the Iran election tweets from Tehran Banksy in secret exhibition stunt A look around the Banksy exhibition Graffiti artist Banksy has pulled off an audacious stunt amid tight secrecy to stage his biggest ever exhibition. A burned-out ice-cream van is among 100 works Banksy has installed at Bristol's museum, replacing many of the museum's regular artefacts. The reason the museum was closed was kept secret from top council officials. Banksy said: This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off. Staged in the council-owned City Museum and Art Gallery, Banksy v Bristol Museum features animatronics, installations and a sensory display. This show is my vision of the future, to which many people will say: 'You should have gone to Specsavers', Banksy added. The exhibition and its location have been a closely-guarded secret since October, with just a couple of museum officials in the loop. I think we may have dragged them down to our level rather than being elevated to theirs, said Banksy of the subterfuge involved in staging the show in his home city. In pictures: Banksy exhibition 'Megastar' Museum director Kate Brindley said it was a huge relief to finally be able to talk about the exhibition, and admitted they had taken a risk. Plans for the summer show were kept from Bristol City Council chiefs until Friday - the day before it was due to open. Bristol has had a love-hate relationship with Banksy since he started stencilling on the city's walls in the 1990s. There is likely to be criticism of the decision to stage an official expo of his work. We ran a bit of a risk, said Ms Brindley, but we knew that it was just the right thing for the city. Equally there's so many people in Bristol who just love Banksy, and internationally. He's a megastar. We're a gallery that wants to work with contemporary artists - he's our home-grown hero. The artist himself was involved in setting up the exhibits and came to the museum to oversee its installation, but staff were unaware who he was among the crew setting up the show. Although Bristol has seen work by Banksy adorn the city's walls, this is his first official indoor exhibition in the city since 2000. That show was held at the Severnshed restaurant on the waterfront and featured several paintings which have since gone on to sell for thousands of pounds at auction. Banksy has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Bethlehem. He became famous after a series of guerrilla stunts which saw him paint the West Bank barrier and put an inflatable figure of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner at Disney World. It was Bristol where he first made his mark though, with a series of graffiti paintings on iconic local buildings such as the city council headquarters, an M32 bridge and the Thekla floating nightclub. His work has since become highly collectable, and has attracted buyers including Brad Pitt and Robbie Williams. Ahmadinejad wins Iran presidential election Ahmadinejad declared winner of presidential election Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been re-elected as president of Iran in a resounding victory, the interior minister says. He won some 62.6% of the vote in an election marked by a turnout of more than 80%, official figures show. Reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi has also claimed victory, calling the result a dangerous charade, as backers vowed to appeal for a re-run. But Iran's Supreme Leader congratulated Mr Ahmadinejad on his win, and urged his rivals against provocations. In a statement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the high turnout and described the count as a huge success and called for calm in the aftermath of the result. Other honourable candidates must refrain from any kind of provocative and distrustful words or deeds, the ayatollah said. On the streets of Tehran, police have sealed off Mr Mousavi's campaign HQ, preventing his supporters from holding a news conference. There have been reports of police deploying on the streets of Tehran and beating people with truncheons as small groups gather to protest. One opposition newspaper has been closed down and BBC websites also appear to have been blocked by the Iranian authorities. Mr Mousavi was hoping to prevent Mr Ahmadinejad winning more than 50% of the vote, in order to force a run-off election. However, Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said his share of the vote was just under 34%. Hours earlier, the state news agency Irna declared Mr Ahmadinejad the definite winner, and his campaign manager was quoted as saying any doubts cast on this victory will be treated as a joke by the public. Danger of 'tyranny' Mr Mousavi issued a statement shortly after 1300 local time (0930 GMT) on Saturday, after the scale of the hard-line president's victory became clear. The former prime minister dismissed the election result as deeply flawed. I personally strongly protest the many obvious violations and I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade, the Reuters news agency reported him as saying. The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardise the pillars of th Mr Mousavi has already said there was a shortage of ballot papers and alleged that millions of people had been denied the right to vote. His election monitors were not allowed enough access to polling stations, he added, saying he would deal seriously with any irregularities. The head of the Committee to Protect the People's Votes, a group set up by all three opposition candidates, said the group would not accept the result, alleging fraud. They have asked Iran's Guardian Council - a powerful body controlled by conservative clerics - to cancel the results and re-run the elections. A second opposition candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, declared the results illegitimate and unacceptable. The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Tehran, says the result has been greeted with surprise and with deep scepticism by many Iranians. The figures, if they are to be believed, show Mr Ahmadinejad winning strongly even in the heartland of Mr Mousavi, the main opposition contender. The scale of Mr Ahmadinejad's win means that many people who voted for a reformist candidate in the previous presidential election four years ago have apparently switched their votes to Mr Ahmadinejad, he adds. Police presence Supporters of Mr Ahmadinejad took to the streets on Friday night as their candidate declared his own victory. Mr Ahmadinejad's supporters celebrate on Tehran's streets By Saturday morning, with the opposition angry at the formal results, police in Tehran moved to prevent protests even though there were few signs of organised dissent. There was heavy security around Mr Mousavi's campaign headquarters and reports that at least one rally for Mr Mousavi was broken up by police. The AFP news agency said police dispersed opposition supporters on Saturday morning, quoting a senior police official as saying: The time of dancing and shouting is over. One opposition supporter who gave her name as Shirin, told the BBC she still had confidence Mr Mousavi would become president. But he advised us, the supporters, not to do anything harsh or trying to... clash with Ahmadinejad's supporters, she said. Iran: Storm of protest after election Thousands of people demonstrated in Tehran, Mashhad and several other major cities in Iran to protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's proclaimed victory in the Iranian presidential election on Friday. Two different reformist rivals and their supporters insist there was election fraud at play. Mir Hussein Moussavi , the main challenger of Ahmadinejad said the results from \ldblquote untrustworthy monitors\rdblquote reflect \ldblquote the weakening of the pillars that constitute the sacred system\rdblquote of Iran and \ldblquote the rule of authoritarianism and tyranny.\rdblquote Several scenes of street fights and demonstrations are uploaded on YouTube. A demonstration in Valiasr street in Tehran where thousands of protesters demonstrated and chanted slogans against the Ahmadinejad government. Ghomar Ashegahne has published several photos showing security forces beating protesters (see photo above). The blogger writes [fa] that the repression would be a good reason not to go to streets to protest, but \lquote what can we do with all this sorrow?'. He says Karoubi and Moussavi [the Belgiran writes [fa] that Iranian Leader, Ali Khamenei , overthrew Moussavi by a coup before he even bacame president and replaced him with Ahmadinejad… He writes, \ldblquote This regime just lost the little legitimacy that it had.\rdblquote Mehrdadd on Twitter, that the Iranian Leader shows he is against the Iranian people. Now any political personality should take a position for or against people. Mehri912 on Twitter, \ldblquote If Iran sleeps tonight, it will sleep forever\rdblquote . Ahmadinejad leads Mousavi in preliminary results Official preliminary results show that Iran's incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is leading the polls with 69.04 percent of the ballots that have so far been counted. In a surprise press briefing, Iran's Election Commission Chief, Kamran Daneshjoo, announced that 19.42 percent of the votes were counted until 23:54 local time (20:24 GMT). According to Daneshjoo, Ahmadinejad is leading in the polls, followed by Mir-Hossein Mousavi who has 28.42 percent of the votes. Preliminary results show that Mohsen Rezaei has won 1.62 percent of the votes and Mehdi Karroubi has grabbed 0.9 percent. According to Press TV's correspondent at the Election Commission Headquarters, Gissoo Ahmadi, more than 32 million people have cast their ballot in the election that saw a massive turnout on Friday June 12. Our correspondent added that the briefing was unexpected and that the reporters were surprised by the announcement, which was not due until dawn. The press briefing came after Mousavi claimed victory with 54 percent of the vote in a separate news conference. Mousavi says he definite winner in Iran election TEHRAN (Reuters) - Former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi said he was the definite winner in Iran's presidential election on Friday against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I am the definite winner of this presidential election, he told a news conference in Tehran. He said that many voters had not been able to cast their ballots even after voting was extended by four hours. In the early hours all sides agreed the country would have a national government. The shock of the moment - for the victors were in gloom just days before - heralded a triumph for the middle ground. There is no disguising the scale of the challenge the result poses for Hizbollah. It faces a choice between the kind of stridency its Iranian backers appear to demand and accepting a minority role in Lebanon. If it chooses the former approach it could complain that the Lebanese political system - which gives Christians half the seats in parliament - is hopelessly skewed against the Shia Muslims it represents. The country would be plunged into a damaging power struggle if it demanded reform as the price of its continued participation. Magnanimity is rarely witnessed Beirut. President Obama may have already set the Middle East's new mood. A group of foreigners kidnapped in Yemen A group of foreign nationals, mostly women and children, have been kidnapped in northern Yemen, officials say. The foreigners -- seven Germans, a British engineer and a female South Korean teacher-- went missing in the restive Saada region on Friday while they were on a picnic. The group were members of an international relief group working in a hospital in the region. While no group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, Yemen's defense ministry immediately pointed the finger of blame at Huthi Zaidi rebels who have been fighting the government in Sanaa for five years. The rebel's spkosman, however, has denied involvement in the abduction, which came shortly after the release of 24 medical workers kidnapped by armed tribesmen in Amran province. South Korea's foreign ministry on Sunday confirmed that one of its nationals was missing in Yemen since Thursday evening, but the British and German ministries have declined to confirm reports of the kidnapping saying they are looking into the incident. Over 300 foreign nationals have been abducted in Yemen since 1991 and the majority have been released unharmed. Font size : Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:35:10 GMT Iran protests: live As the Iranian authorities continue their crackdown on opposition rallies, foreign journalists, and the internet, what next for the protest movement? Follow live updates on the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi run in the streets during protests. Photograph: Getty Images Abtahi's website is back up and running. It reads: Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former vice president during Mr Khatami's presidency and the advisor to Mr Karroubi in the presidential election had been arrested today (Tuesday). Whenever he gets released, he will write here on his website. The planned opposition rally in Tehran is underway. Stay in big groups, advises one tweet from the city. Twitter users all over the world are being urged to change the location in their profiles to Tehran, in an attempt to frustrate the Iranian authorities. It's much harder if we're all 'Iranians', tweets Peter Havens. Football update from Robert Tait: The green armband wearing members of Iran's national team appear to have been forced to remove their pro-Mousavi emblems. The team emerged for the second half of the match against South Korea with none of its members wear The match ended in a 1-1 draw, putting Iran's qualification for the World Cup in doubt. A picture claimed to be of today's opposition rally has been posted to Twitpic. It shows thousands of people marching on a flyover labelled the Krimkhan bridge. The date of the picture is impossible to confirm, please let us know if you have more information. My colleague Mark Tran has been going through various comment pieces of the Iran crisis. He picks out this by Joe Cirincione, a nuclear weapsons expert, who admits to changing his mind about the country, this is no longer Khamanei's Iran , he says. And this by Robert Dreyfuss in the Nation which says: The people who wanted change aren't going to get it. The regime is too powerful, and it controls all the levers of power: the army, the police, the Revolutionary Guard and paramilitary groups, thuggish militias, the judiciary and courts, the media, and more. Those who hope that the reformists, including Mou More than 500,000 Iranians are silently marching from from Haft-e-Tir Squre to Vali Asr Square, reports in Tehran. Many are wearing black in mourning for those killed in earlier protests. Protesters want to go to Tehran University later to mourn the killing on Sunday of students in a dormitory. One street leading to the square was packed for several kilometres, witnesses said. Reuters says that tens of thousands of people are protesting. Most of the protesters were silent and making victory signs. Some are holding pictures of those killed. The authorities say the rally is banned. (That's it from me, Matthew Weaver, my Washington colleague Daniel Nasaw will be taking over. Thanks again for your comments, please keep them coming). Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent Published June 16, 2009 Authored by Bruce Etling John Palfrey Internet and Democracy This case study is part of a series of studies produced by the Internet & Democracy project . The project\rquote s initial case studies investigated three frequently cited examples of the Internet\rquote s influence on democracy. The first case looked at the user-generated news site OhmyNews and its impact on the 2002 elections in South Korea. The second docu KEY FINDINGS We conducted a study of the Arabic language blogosphere using link analysis, term frequency analysis, and human coding of individual blogs. We identified a base network of approximately 35,000 active blogs, created a network map of the 6,000 most connecte A Country-based network view the full map ): The Arabic blogosphere is organized primarily around countries. We found the primary groupings to be: (largest, with distinct sub- and associated clusters, e.g., Muslim Brotherhood bloggers, including some women); Saudi Arabian (second largest and focused comparatively more on technology than politics); Kuwaiti (divided into English and Arabic language sub-clusters); Levantine/English Bridge (bloggers in the Levant and Iraq using English and connected to the US and international blogospheres); Syrian Maghrebi/French Bridge Religion-Focused . Demographic results indicate that Arabic bloggers are predominately young and male. The highest proportion of female bloggers is found in the Egyptian youth sub-cluster, while the Syrian and Muslim Brotherhood clusters have the highest concentration of Arabic media ecosystem : Bloggers link to Web 2.0 sites like YouTube and Wikipedia (English and Arabic versions) more than other sources of information and news available on the Internet. Al-Jazeera is the top mainstream media source, followed by the BBC and Al-Arabiya. Arabic Personal life and local issues are most important : Most bloggers write mainly personal, diary-style observations. But when writing about politics, bloggers tend to focus on issues within their own country, and are more often than not critical of domestic political leaders. Foreign political leaders are Download PDF for the full Key Findings and paper. Last updated June 16, 2009 Press freedom violations recounted in real time A hotline for journalists in danger SOS Presse, a phone hotline for journalists - - is open every day round the clock and, with the help of American Express, a Reporters Without Borders official can be quickly reached. Collect/reverse-charge calls can be made. 17 June \endash 3 pm. Revolutionary Guard warns news websites The Revolutionary Guard\rquote s Organised Crime Surveillance Centre has written to the editors of websites ordering them to suppress \ldblquote content inviting the population to riot and spreading threats and rumours.\rdblquote Carrying today\rquote s date, the communiqué says there ha BBC, Radio Farda The communiqué continues: \ldblquote These sites, created with the help of American and Canadian companies, receive the support of media that are protected by the American and British security services such as the (Free Europe) and Radio Zamaneh The Surveillance Centre adds that it will reveal important information in the coming days about these \ldblquote destructive networks.\rdblquote In a communiqué last March, the Surveillance Centre announced for the first time that it had been trying to dismantle one of these \ldblquote networks.\rdblquote Several of its young editors were arrested and their \ldblquote confessions\rdblquote were released a few days later. As well as ad I have been given the \-responsibility of telling the world what is happening in Iran. The office of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who the Iranian people truly want as their leader, has asked me to do so. They have asked me to tell how Mousavi's headquarters was wr I speak for Mousavi. And Iran The man Iranians want as their leader has been silenced. This is what he\~wants you to know Mohsen Makhmalbaf The people in the streets don't want a recount of last week's vote. They want it annulled. This is a crucial moment in our history. Since the 1979 revolution Iran has had 80% dictatorship and 20% democracy. We have dictatorship because one person is in ch . He controls the army and the clergy, the justice system and the media, as well as our oil money. There are some examples of democracy \endash reformers elected to parliament, and the very fact that a person like Mousavi could stand for election. But, since the day of the election, this \-element of democracy has vanished. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced th Now they are gathering to mourn those who have died. The people of Iran have a culture that elevates martyrdom. In the period running up to the revolution, when people were killed at demonstrations, others would gather again in the days following the deat So why do the Iranian people not want Ahmadinejad as their leader? Because he is nothing but a loudspeaker for Khamenei. Under Ahmadinejad, economic problems have grown worse, despite $280bn of oil revenue. Social and literary freedom is much more restric . The world views us as a terrorist nation on the lookout for war. When Khatami was president of Iran, Bush was president of the US. Now the Americans have Obama and we have our version of Bush. We need an Obama who can find solutions for Iran's problems. Some suggest the protests will fade because nobody is leading them. All those close to Mousavi have been arrested, and his contact with the outside world has been restricted. People rely on word of mouth, because their mobile phones and the internet have Thirty years ago we supported each other. When police used tear gas, fires would be lit to neutralise its effects. People would set their own cars on fire to save others. Since then, the government has tried to separate people from one other. What we lost People say that Mousavi won't change anything as he is part of the establishment. That is correct to a degree because they wouldn't let anyone who is not in their circle rise to seniority. But not all members of a family are alike, and for Mousavi it is u Before the revolution, Mousavi was a religious intellectual and an artist, who supported radical change but did not support the mullahs. After the revolution, when all religious intellectuals and even leftists backed Khomeini, he served as prime minister In order to neuralise his power, the position of prime minister was eliminated from the constitution and he was pushed out of politics. So Mousavi returned to the world of artists because in a country where there are no real political parties, artists can Previously, he was revolutionary, because everyone inside the system was a revolutionary. But now he's a reformer. Now he knows Gandhi \endash before he knew only Che Guevara. If we gain power through aggression we would have to keep it through aggression. That ,________ Friday 19 June 2009 19.00 BST Police beat Iran protesters in fierce clashes TEHRAN, Iran - Police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied Saturday in open defiance of Iran's clerical government, sharply escalating the most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Eyewitnesses described fierce clashes near Revolution Square in central Tehran after some 3,000 protesters, many wearing black, chanted Death to the dictator! and Death to dictatorship! Police fired tear gas, water cannons and guns but it was not imme English-language state TV confirmed that police had used batons and other non-lethal weapons against what it called unauthorized demonstrations. The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were seriously beaten by police and pro-government militia and taken to Imam Khomeini hospital in central Tehran. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strik Some protesters appeared to be fighting back, setting fire to militia members' motorcycles in streets near Freedom Square, witnesses said. Helicopters hovered over central Tehran. Ambulance sirens echoed through the streets and black smoke rose over the city. Tehran University was cordoned off by police and militia while students inside the university chanted death to the dictator! witnesses said. Police and militia barred people from entering Freedom Street, which runs from Freedom Square to Revolution Squa Amateur video showed dozens of Iranians running down a street after police fired tear gas at them. Shouts of Allahu Akbar! - God is Great - could be heard on the video, which could not be independently verified. The English-language state channel said a blast at the Tehran shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had killed one person and wounded two but the report could not be independently confirmed due to government restrictions on independent reporting. The shri Hundreds of thousands of supporters of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets for four consecutive days this week demanding the government cancel and rerun June 12 elections that ended with a declaration of overwhelming v Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sided firmly with Ahmadinejad on Friday, saying the vote reflected popular will and ordering opposition leaders to end street protests or be held responsible for any bloodshed and chaos to come. The statement effectively closed the door to Mousavi's demand for a new election, ratcheting up the possibility of a violent confrontation. Police had clashed with protesters around Tehran immediately after the vote, and gunfire from a militia compound left at least seven dead, but the full force of the state remained in check until Saturday. Web sites run by Mousavi supporters had said he planned to post a message, but there was no statement by the time of the planned street protests at 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT, 1130 GMT). Some pro-reform Web sites called for people to take to the streets. Witnesses said protesters wore black as a symbol of mourning for the dead and the allegedly stolen election, with wristbands in green, the emblem of Mousavi's Green Wave movement. Tehran Province Police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan said that police would crack down on any gathering or protest rally which are being planned by some people. The head of the State Security Council also reiterated the warning to Mousavi that he would be held Eyewitnesses said thousands of police and plainclothes militia members filled the streets to prevent rallies. Fire trucks took up positions in Revolution Square and riot police surrounded Tehran University, the site of recent clashes between protesters an All witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared government reprisals for speaking with the press. Iranian authorities have placed strict limits on the ability of foreign media to cover recent events, banning reporting from the street and The government has blocked Web sites such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence. Paris Engages With Palestinian People for Peace RAMALLAH, June 14, 2009 )WAFA(- After his visit to the tomb of President Yasser Arafat, the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë said, 'I believe that culture, law, the dignity of a people, are elements that relate Paris and all the Palestinian people in the s Dubai bans Iran protests DUBAI // Iranian protesters were this morning ordered to disperse on the fifth day of demonstrations outside the Iranian consulate. Delanoë described his meeting with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as, 'very interesting.' He added that he found his statements, direct and simple, for the creation of a viable Palestinian state, for stopping colonization, and at the same time for the Palest He also said that the city of Paris is in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and especially to act for peace. Protesters were granted permission by the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday to continue demonstrations until 7pm today. However, the 70 protesters who congregated outside the consulate this morning were refused the right to stand opposite the consulate building by members of the Dubai police and the CID. \ldblquote They had their chance [to protest] for the last four days,\rdblquote said Capt Ahmad al Mirri, from the national security apparatus of Dubai. \ldblquote They have delivered their message to the Iranian government.\rdblquote \ldblquote They are not allowed to protest anymore,\rdblquote he added, saying that they had orders to stop any future protests, received from high-level officials. Protesters said they had been granted the permission to continue protesting on Thursday. \ldblquote I personally signed the paper from the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday, and it said we had three days,\rdblquote said Sarvenaz Hashtroudi, one of the protesters who has been \ldblquote Now they are saying we are not allowed,\rdblquote she added. Last Updated: June 18. 2009 3:01PM UAE / June 18. 2009 11:01AM GMT Every Palestinian, every Israeli who want two states, two peoples, living in safety, dignity and freedom are friends of Paris, he said, and when the citizens of Gaza have been faced with tragic situations, the Paris Council voted to aid civilian populatio The mayor had discussed with the Mayor of Hebron, who is Head of the Palestinian mayors, and invited him to come to Paris to work together, all French cities and all the Palestinian cities that cooperate and are even more dynamic, more effective, accordin He stated that there will soon be a place or a street in Paris Mahmoud Darweesh, and that 'we will host Palestinian artists and more widely, we already made a very successful Palestinian week.' 'I'll count a very active cooperation with the Theater in Ramallah, in short, I believe that culture, law, the dignity of a people, are the elements that engage Paris and all the Palestinian people for peace, 'the mayor concluded. Date : 14/6/2009\~\~\~Time : 15:50 Court Sentence Boosting Vibes of Extremism and Terrorism Jordanian Poet Islam Samhan Sentenced One Year, Fined 10000 JD. ANHRI asserts that literature should only be debated on newspapers , forums and at lobbies and calls the Jordanian government not to chain words and drag poems to court which is an extremely violent breach of all International conventions regarding freedo ANHRI condemns this heavy \endash handed sentence and considers it an explicit assertion of blasphemy that may lead to shedding Samhan's blood, there by calling on all human rights organizations working on freedom of expression and opinion and requesting the Jo The Jordanian court issued a ruling the least to be called an oppressive, sentencing Islam Samhan (27 years) to one year prison and fining him 10000 JD. He was accused of ridiculing the religion and divine doctrines, offending prophets and not registering The story dates back to March 2008, when Islam published his divan Rahaqet Dhel , Gracefulness of a Shadow. He faced a campaign led by Moslem Brothers and the Jordanian Mufti accusing him of blasphemy because of some verses he wrote. The campaign result On the other hand, Samhan stated that he has registered his book in the National Library and submitted copies at the Jordanian department of printing and publishing early 2009, and that some ministries and government institutes bought copies of it. Samhan said, it is not at all about blasphemy, but because of the poem when features are that clear, describing how dim-witted intelligence people are, as they convince the Arab ruler that his own people are but a senseless pile of lumber. Cairo 21\'5C6\'5C2009 Palestinian FM says Israeli settlements are main obstacle to peace RAMALLAH, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Israeli settlement activities in the occupied West Bank are the main obstacle to peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel, Palestinian foreign affairs minister Riyadh al-Maliki said on Saturday. Everyone knows that settlement activities are the basic obstacle and the Israelis are trying to change the facts on the ground, al-Maliki said in a statement sent to the media. His remarks came in response to his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman who said he saw a good chance to resume the talks with the Palestinians and the settlements did not affect the peace process. Lieberman has a twisty vision and analysis about the settlements' issue, al-Maliki added, recalling that the settlement construction went along with more plans to seize Palestinian land and to demolish houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads an expanded coalition of extremist parties, has been rejecting U.S. demands to freeze the settlement activities in the territories designated to be the ground of the future Palestinian statehood The peace talks have been stalled since Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip in January. The installation of Netanyahu's government early in April contributed to the freezing of the peace process. Nicolas Sarkozy: burqa not welcome in France President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that the Islamic burqa is 'not welcome' in France. In a speech at the Palace of Versailles, Mr Sarkozy said that the head-to-toe Islamic garment for women was not a symbol of religion but a sign of subservience for women. The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience, he told members of both parliamentary houses gathered for his speech. He added: It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic. His comments follow an appeal last week by 65 French MPs for a parliamentary commission to examine whether Muslim women who cover themselves fully in public undermine the secular tradition in France as well as women's rights. The MPs represent parties ranging from the Communists to Mr Sarkozy's UMP. The call won instant support from members of Mr Sarkozy's centre-Right government but was opposed by the Socialists, the main opposition party. The French parliament is expected to consider both the burqa, where the eyes are covered by a fabric mesh, and the niqab, which has an eye slit. France's Muslim Council said last week that the proposal stigmatised Islam. In 2004, the country passed a controversial law forbidding any conspicuous religion symbols from state schools, including veils, which are also banned in government offices. Rallies in France, Germany, U.S. support Iranian demonstrators WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Demonstrators gathered in major cities in France, the United States and Germany on Saturday to condemn Iran's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tehran. The rallies ranged from tens of thousands of Iranian exiles and supporters who crammed a Paris, France-area convention center to the hundreds of demonstrators who braved a downpour in Washington to march to the White House. In Hamburg, Germany, protesters marched against the announced result of last week's Iranian election, which had President declared the overwhelming victor in voting that opposition groups called rigged. A threatening statement Friday by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran raised fears of bloodshed, and security forces in Tehran confronted demonstrators Saturday with clubs, tear gas and water cannons. We hope that everything stays peaceful, that the people in Iran get their rights in a peaceful way and that the will of the people will be stronger than all possible repression mechanisms, said an unidentified organizer of the Hamburg protest. In Paris, a rally that organizers called the largest gathering of exiled Iranians drew people from across Europe and the Middle East , according to a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran. It said Maryam Rajavi, identified as president-elect of the organization, praised the uprising in Iran as the real choice facing the Iranian people, rather than the illegitimate and rigged election. Rajavi said Khamenei's defense of the election and refusal to annul it signaled an imminent rift in Iran over allegiance to the supreme leader, the statement said. The religious dictatorship and all its repressive organs must be dismantled so as to enable the Iranian people to take part in a free election under the United Nations supervision, the statement said. The Washington march started in a heavy downpour, but the crowd of a few hundred swelled to about 1,500 as the rain subsided and the group reached the White House. In Los Angeles, California, protesters wore green armbands in solidarity with Tehran demonstrators. Sarkozy Distracting French Public by Crusading Against Muslim Women\rquote s Rights to Hijab With input from resident MM Frenchman, Nadim Sohail. In stark contrast to Obama\rquote s call for respecting the Muslim women\rquote s right to observe hijab , as well as the lack of any official effort in the United States to prevent a Muslim woman from chosing to wear whatever she wishes to, Sarkozy has launched a frontal attack on the Burka (the hot-button word for full niqaab). The reference of burka has another dimension to it since that is the common terminology for Afghani-style hijab/niqab, where France has recently sent troops. Thus, building the propaganda of \ldblquote fighting for womens rights\rdblquote as a means to justify its unpopular war. This French President, described in a recent book ( failed to be blocked from publication \emdash so much for free speech!) as an uncaring father and a womanizer wants to now tell Muslim women how to dress. I\rquote d like to ask Sarkozy that if he can tell us how we should dress, then under equal rights of the \ldblquote republic\rdblquote , why can\rquote t Muslims tell French women how not to dress?\~ We are even willing to donate some extra clo For a President to devote significant time to the in an important speech to the Parliament, the first one since the 19th century , is a clear indication that Sarkozy is running out of ideas to save the country from its economic and social ills . By letting the public focus on a clearly divisive issue, but one whose inherent prejudice bonds French citizens across the political spectrum, Sarkozy wants to use this \ldblquote coalition of bigots\rdblquote to distract the public from real problems. This low-level terror against minorities is not a new phenomenon. Historically, other tyrants and dictators have used anger and prejudice against minorities to help their own standing with the people. Hitler used the Jewish people as his whipping-boy. Sar On the path of this \ldblquote Frenchize\rdblquote culture would be a ban on beards. Far fetched? Think again. The French government was ready to deny entry of students who wear a beard since beards can be interpreted as a religious sign . This was only rejected because the head of the schools realized that it was too difficult to manage, not because it would be against freedom of religion. If Sarkozy thinks that he can force the will of the majority over its minority in the matter of dress choice, then he is sadly mistaken, and setting the French society up for a massive clash. It is interesting that many Europeans fled Europe for America\rquote s shores about three centuries ago to escape religious persecution . While Europe has claimed great progress in freedom of religion, time and time again, we see the rise of religious persecution. It seems that some people can never quite get it right on rights, and Sarkozy is just another stark example of what\rquote s wrong wi May Allah protect our Muslim sisters from cultural terror and religious persecution wherever it raises its ugly head, and may He protect them and allow them to wear whatever they choose to wear, when done solely for the sake of their Lord. Tiny Url for this post: How Iran betrayed its young Young Iranians horrified by the death of Neda Soltani are increasingly disillusioned with the country's supreme leader The gruesome footage of the young girl, Neda , who fell to the ground during Saturday's protest march in Tehran \endash her face covered in blood and her eyes still gazing at friends shocked by her instant death \endash was probably the most horrendous single image out of since the 12 June elections. The footage, now authenticated by Neda's fiance, encapsulates in less than one minute the brutality of a regime that cannot tolerate dissent even from the young. It also speaks of the nervous disposition of the Islamic republi Revolutionary Guards say they will crush all further rallies. Their aim in killing a young girl is clear: to frighten other girls away from coming to the streets. Young girls have always posed a threat to the Islamic establishment, which wants to deny them equal rights and imposes a strict dress code on them. Women' On Friday Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned protests in his two-hour-long speech. He praised the electoral process as fair and transparent, pronouncing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the elected president. He threatened that further demonstrations would be dealt with severely. However, as the commander-in-chief of the 30 people have been killed just for staging a peaceful protest. Surely, no one should have the right to kill even one person participating in a peaceful, unarmed rally. And if you'd like the Islamic version of the same, no Muslim has the right to kill or order the killing of anothe The Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki , claimed that a number of Britons, including secret service personnel, had entered Iran prior to voting. His spokesman claimed that Iranian Internet sites had been hacked by the US and UK. And the supreme leader said the British were the most malici By siding with Ahmadinejad, a relative junior, the supreme leader also put his own career on the line. His credibility is now linked to that of the president. Moreover, he has angered some of the powerful political heavyweights. Akbar Rafsanjani \endash probably the second most powerful man in the Islamic establishment with his own followers and network of devotees \endash was sidelined by the ayatollah. Rafsanjani is head of the assembly of experts \endash the only body with the power to remove the supreme leader Mir Hossein Mousavi , regarded for the past 30 years as an establishment figure, has now advised his supporters to continue protesting. Protesting against lies and fraud is your right. In your protests continue to show restraint, a statement on his website said. Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has played his final card. He cannot reverse his directives. There is now no possibility of a re-count or repeat elections and there will be no point in the guardian council's attempts at a whitewash. He will now be seen Young Iranians were disappointed with the supreme leader after his speech. They have conveyed their sadness in email and internet messages and through phone conversations and footage sent out despite the near-complete blackout. They no longer address Ahma By appearing on the streets on Saturday and Sunday, some of the young chose to ignore the leader's explicit directives. Their anger was turned into hatred when 10 more people were killed, Neda among them. Now, instead of dealing with the anger and distrus Reading Khamenei: The World View of Iran's Most Powerful Leader There is perhaps no leader in the world more important to current world affairs but less known and understood than Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran. In a unique and timely new study Carnegie\rquote s Karim Sadjadpour presents an in-depth political Sadjadpour argues that \ldblquote Iran\rquote s Islamic government is more powerful than it has ever been vis-à-vis the United States, Khamenei is more powerful than he\rquote s ever been within Iran, and in order to devise a more effective U.S. policy toward Iran a better under Given that the real political power of the Iranian Supreme Leader dwarfs that of the president, Sadjadpour argues, \ldblquote It\rquote s time for the world to focus less on Ahmadinejad and more on Khamenei. His speeches present arguably the most accurate reflection of Ir \ldblquote Given Iran\rquote s centrality to urgent U.S. and European foreign policy challenges\emdash namely Iraq, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, energy security, Arab\endash Israeli peace, and Afghanistan,\rdblquote Sadjadpour writes, \ldblquote the United States does not have the luxury of shunning Sadjadpour argues that any successful approach toward Iran must take into account Khamenei\rquote s pivotal role in Iran\rquote s decision-making process and his deeply held suspicions of the United States. \ldblquote Trying to engage an Iran with Khamenei at the helm will no do Click on the icon above for the full text of this Carnegie report. About the Author is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He joined Carnegie after four years as the chief Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group based in Tehran and Washington, D.C. A leading researcher on Iran, Sadjadpour has conducted Karim Sadjadpour Guardian Council: Over 100% voted in 50 cities Iran's Guardian Council has suggested that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of people eligible to cast ballot in those areas. The council's Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, who was speaking on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Channel 2 on Sunday, made the remarks in response to complaints filed by Mohsen Rezaei -- a defeated candidate in the June 12 Presidential e Statistics provided by the candidates, who claim more than 100% of those eligible have cast their ballot in 80-170 cities are not accurate -- the incident has happened in only 50 cities, Kadkhodaei said. Kadkhodaei further explained that the voter turnout of above 100% in some cities is a normal phenomenon because there is no legal limitation for people to vote for the presidential elections in another city or province to which people often travel or comm According to the Guardian Council spokesman, summering areas and places like district one and three in Tehran are not separable. The spokesman, however, said that the vote tally affected by such issues could be over 3 million and would not noticably affect the outcome of the election. He, however, added that the council could, at the request of the candidates, re-count the affected ballot boxes, and determine whether the possible change in the tally is decisive in the election results, reported Three of the four candidates contesting in last Friday's presidential election cried foul, once the Interior Ministry announced the results - according to which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner with almost two-thirds of the Rezaei, along with Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, reported more than 646 'irregularities' in the electoral process and submitted their complaints to the body responsible for overseeing the election -- the Guardian Council. Mousavi and Karroubi have called on the council to nullify Friday's vote and hold the election anew. This is while President Ahmadinejad and his Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli have rejected any possibility of fraud, saying that the election was free and Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:33:38 GMT The Guardian Council Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei Iran\rquote s Clenched Fist Election: What Next for U.S. Policy? Informed Comment Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute Friday, June 26, 2009 Michael Jackson, Islam and the Middle East Michael Jackson's sad death at age 50 has provoked an outpouring of emotion around the whole world. Because of globalization, it is an event that affects fans in Asia and the Middle East, as well. In early 2007, his brother Jermaine, a Muslim, announced that Michael would embrace that religion. In November of 2008, just months before his death press reports said that Michael Jackson had formally converted to Islam Jackson was a man of multiple identities, which helped account for his enormous worldwide popularity. It seems clear that he was deeply traumatized by his rough show business childhood, and that things happened to him to arrest his development. Just as a Jermaine Jackson explained that it was the experience of touring the Gulf that brought family members into contact with Islam. Interestingly, he found that Islam resolved some dilemmas he had about Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Just as Malcolm X had been converted by his pilgrimage to Mecca from a narrow sectarian folk religion in We can only speculate about the attractions for Michael Jackson of Islam, but likely his 2005 trial in which he was acquitted of all charges was implicated in his desire for a change. The court psychiatrist confirmed his psychological innocence, saying he Those who lived through the 80s will never forget the Michael of Thriller and other breakthrough videos. But it seems to me that the iconic later Jackson is Black or White, which powerfully makes the points above about the fluidity of identity in a globalized world, and underlines the common humanity of us all, something that the eternal boy could see thro Here are the lyrics of Black or White . Given the stereotyping of Gulf Arabs as medieval and fanatical, and given the hurtful prejudice against their very form of clothing in the West, it is only right that they should have the last word here on Michael Jackson's universal appeal: I think burkas are crazy, and I always look at the woman wearing it (if I can) and wonder why is she wearing it. I even felt like throwing a question at a student working with me once just out of interest to see if she truly believes that me seeing her fa French president Nicolas Sarkozy said in a speech last week that burkas are not welcomed in France. The Parliament is preparing for a law that bans the wearing of burkas in France. I have a major problem with that. First, they are banning something because they do not like it. A woman who is shopping or walking down the street is not taking away the freedom from anyone else. She is minding her own business. We should not lock people up because we don't like how they Secondly, they're doing the same thing that the religious police is Saudi Arabia and Iran is doing, chasing women and giving them a fine or locking them in jail because of something they are wearing (or not wearing for that matter). It's exactly the same Abuse is another excuse the French have for banning the burka. They assume every woman wearing the burka is being forced to do so by her husband. This is actually true in a few cases. However in France a woman can get a divorce is she is being abused by h Integration into the society is another concern, but you cannot enhance that by forcing a woman by law into wearing what you want her to wear. Besides, passing such law would cause many women covered with burkas to stay home rather than go outside their h If you want them to be integrated you have to influence the way they think, if possible, by many other methods that do not violate personal freedoms. It has to be their own decision to put on or take off whatever cloth they want. You will not suddenly ope Do not treat a cough by a cough suppressant. Treat it with excising the cancer that's causing it. It did feel to me as quite ridiculous. Let them wear what they want, even if you think it is dehumanizing. Not everyone is hot on tattoos, but they're not banned in the Arab world And now it's Sarkozy's turn to want to liberate the subservient Muslim women?? Who has appointed him to be the mouthpiece for every Muslim women donning the burqa in France? ... Oh well, the long history of Orientalist justifications of wanting to contr I have to say that Sarkozy is really wrong, BUT (a very huge but) On the other hand, the muslim Imams should start detecting this out-of-time tradition and find the reasons behind it, and maybe ask women not to do it anymore. because it is just wrong if i If it is just a way to keep the sun away then its ok to keep it, but to represent islam with it is not nice at all. maybe this is why I hope Sarkozy will come out with a law preventing it. maybe because I know Imams wont do their job. Ban the burqa? Or ban such bans? Neither France nor Iran should dictate religious garb. By the Monitor's Editorial Board It may be hard for an American to fathom \endash this idea that government would dictate a religious dress code. That goes too far in so many ways. It violates the separation of church and state. It suppresses religious freedom. And in a broader sense, it squelches identity \endash for isn't fashion (religious or not) a means of self-expression? The American view has its sympathizers in other countries, but also its strenuous opponents. In France, for example, President Nicolas Sarkozy this week endorsed the idea of a ban on the burqa. This is the conservative Islamic head-to-toe covering with me Mr. Sarkozy called the burqa subservience, not religious garb. In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity. A parliamentary panel will study whether a ban is warrante Still, many women in Iran have chafed against the cover mandate \endash as they have against many other restrictions on women. They came out in full force to protest the June 12 reelection of Mr. Ahmadinejad, widely seen as fraudulent. In Iran, the Islamic government takes just the opposite view. Women must be mostly covered \endash hair, neck, and loose-fitting clothes on the body \endash as a sign of religious morality. A spring thaw from 1997 to 2005 under a reformist president allowed a liber In France, Muslims \endash even moderate ones \endash are also unhappy with Mr. Sarkozy's antiburqa stance. They say it threatens religious freedom. The fact that certain publics in both countries are not happy with dictates on religious dress \endash dictates that have opposite aims \endash says quite simply that government has no business deciding what adults should wear. And it indicates that perhaps those who would make covering decisions for others are perhaps using this issue to cover their own fears. In Iran, it must certainly be the fear that allowing the choice not to cover will corrupt religious practice \endash and by extension, Iran's theocracy will fall. The first fear is groundless. Look at Pakistan. It has no religious police, yet it has no shortage Might not French politicians \endash for Sarkozy is hardly alone in his views \endash be fearful of Muslim-otherness and its influence on French society? France has the largest Muslim population in Europe and has failed at integrating this group. In 2004, France bann A ban on burqas would not even pertain to a public institution \endash only being out in public. Focusing on an issue that admittedly affects a minority of Muslims in France (only about 100,000 women wear burqas out of a total Muslim population of about 5 milli When President Obama visited Normandy earlier this month, he was asked about his views on the French ban on head scarves. He reiterated what he had said in his speech in Cairo, that in the United States our basic attitude is that we're not going to tell Other European leaders have refused to be cowed by the anti-Muslim backlash. Britain sees no need to ban the burqa or the head scarf. Its democracy, its equality is not in danger for lack of laws on religious dress. Meanwhile, Belgians recently bucked t The fears in France and Iran can't be swept under a rug, but neither can they be papered over with a ban. Banning something as individually sensitive as religious garb leaves the banees feeling repressed \endash look at Turkey (unhappiness over a constitution Such an attitude could go a long way in healing this issue. The Sounds of Silence on Iran Do you hear the silence from the Arab world over events in Iran? Let's start with Arab leaders, who are experts at vote rigging -- if they hold elections at all. What could they possibly say about the Iranian election, or the allegations of vote fraud, without sounding hypocritical? Nor would they rush to congratulate Let's look at the Arab world's legacy: A succession of Arab leaders were known simply for standing up to America and Israel. It did not matter what they did to their own people, the human rights violations, the mass graves, the stifling of the media and m The Arabs are quiet, but their silence is surely tempered with discomfort. The demographics of most Arab nations mirror those of Iran: The majority of Arabs are young. It's likely that many young Arabs watching thousands of Iranians demanding to be heard, For some, the silence is the sound of despair, for in Iran we are seeing the implosion of the politics of cutting off our nose to spite our face. IRAN was accused of intimidation tactics yesterday after the arrest of nine _British Embassy staff. The workers, all Iranians, were rounded up by police after being allegedly _seen at post-election riots in Tehran. Cops claimed they had a considerable role in recent unrest after President _Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed win. But it is a sign the regime has hardened its stance against the West to divert _eyes from the dodgy result. Foreign Secretary David Miliband last night condemned Iran's behaviour and _threatened strong actions if detentions continued. He said: It is harassment and intimidation of a kind which is completely _unacceptable. The idea the British Embassy is somehow behind protests in _Tehran is wholly without foundation. Meanwhile riot police clashed with 3,000 protesters chanting Where is my _vote? in northern Tehran yesterday. Cops used tear gas and clubs to break up the crowd in the country's first _major unrest in four days. Witnesses said some protesters suffered broken _bones and police beat an elderly woman. In that sense, Ahmadinejad is a familiar figure. And Saddam Hussein is gone. Libya's Moammar Gaddafi has gone from U.S. foe to friend. The region is full of U.S.-supported dictators, from President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to the kings of Jordan and Saudi A Standing up to America and Israel fell to non-state entities such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and their money trail leads to Iran. Ahmadinejad is simply the latest leader whom Arabs have lionized and forgiven for cutting off our nose to spite our face. Little did the repressions visited upon Iranians matter, even though the hardships they endured were often mirrored in Arab cities cheering on Ahmadinejad. Iran supported the Palestinians, and Ahmadinejad regularly railed at the United States and threaten \lquote How do we know what to translate?\rquote Notes from OTT09, Amsterdam If there\rquote s one thing the participants of last week\rquote s Open Translation Tools conference in Amsterdam agree on, it is surely that a polyglot web means a richer, more diverse, more equitable web where access to knowledge and resources is more equally spread. To quote Ethan Zuckerman on the power of the polyglot web For the the Internet to fulfill its most ambitious promises, we need to recognize translation as one of the core challenges to an open, shared and collectively governed internet. Many of us share a vision of the Internet as a place where the good ideas of But unpacking the broad idealism of the translation agenda at the conference poses two slightly distinct motivations. One is about absolute need: making sure that web users are not completely excluded because of their language, or as Zuckerman puts it, \lquote making tools and knowledge accessible to a global audience\rquote . Dwayne Bailey\rquote s , for example, seeks to translate open source software that many English speakers take for granted into the 11 official languages of South Africa. Without localization of core knowledge and tools to navigate and contribute to the web, users from minority languages will have little option but to learn a language with global reach, like English or Chinese. But beyond the localization of core knowledge and tools is a broader agenda to enable what calls cultural \lquote bridging\rquote . This is where sees its role in the evolving polyglot web. It is about sharing perspectives, experiences, a broader sense of \lquote knowledge\rquote . As Ethan Zuckerman notes : \lquote If you want to know what people around the world are thinking and feeling, you need help from a translator.\rquote But this kind of translation is not only challenging in terms of scale and scope, it is challenging simply by virtue of the apparent paradox it presents. As Ed Bice asked a discussion group on the subject at OTT09 , how do we aggregate audience demand when readers don\rquote t understand content in order to choose? There surely has to be some form of pre-selection of content going on. The dominant model is for publishers to determine what should be translated.\~ For commercial outfits, this is way of reaching new markets. Sa'ad al-Hariri poised to become Lebanon's prime minister Son of murdered former Lebanese PM holds talks with Hezbollah to discuss new national unity government Sa'ad al-Hariri, the Sunni Muslim leader of Lebanon 's parliamentary majority and head of the western-backed Future movement, is poised to become prime minister tomorrowafter seeking to mend fences with the Shia movement Hezbollah. Hariri, 39, a billionaire businessman and son of the murdered former premier Rafiq al-Hariri, held rare talks yesterdaywith Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary general, to explore the prospects for a new national unity coalition government. Under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing constitution, which divides senior political positions between the country's main religious groups, the premiership must be held by a Sunni while the president is a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament a But while the 71 MPs from Hariri's coalition could appoint him prime minister, he has reached out to Hezbollah and other rivals in the opposition March 8 bloc in an attempt to guarantee a smooth transition to a new administration. In a joint statement, Hariri and Nasrallah hailed the calm and diplomatic atmosphere reigning in the country and underlined the importance of dialogue and co-operation. Hezbollah is closely allied to Iran and to , which is widely believed to have been behind his father's assassination in a massive Beirut car bombing in February 2005. The talks were held at an undisclosed location because Nasrallah apparently fears assassination by Israel. Yesterday Hariri backed Nabih Berri, the veteran leader of the mainstream Shia Amal movement, for re-election as parliamentary speaker in a gesture of reconciliation. Amal is part of the opposition coalition, which includes Hezbollah and a Christian-led g Hezbollah and allies want a continuation of the government of national unity that was formed last summer after armed clashes between the two rival blocs raised the spectre of a new civil war. President Michel Suleiman, a former army commander, is expected to make his choice of Hariri public when consultations at the Baabda Palace end tomorrow. Hariri's majority bloc has insisted it will only accept a new unity government if the Hezbollah alliance surrenders the veto powers it enjoys in the outgoing cabinet. The key issue facing any Lebanese government is the demand that Hezbollah disarm. Hezbol By replacing Fouad Siniora, Hariri is set to come to power as the regional picture is changing \endash not least with the Obama administration seeking to improve ties with Syria. This week the White House said it was sending an ambassador to Damascus after a fo Hariri, like his father, enjoys the support of Saudi Arabia, the other Arab country that wields significant influence in Lebanon. Analysts say that to function successfully as prime minister he may need to distance himself from the UN tribunal investigati Endowments ministry distributes book on harassment CAIRO: As of this week, the Ministry of Endowments began distributing a book titled, \ldblquote Sexual Harassment: Causes and Solutions,\rdblquote among imams at mosques nationwide. The book was written by the Minister of Endowments Hamdi Zaqzouq and Salem Abdel Geleil, deputy minister of religious endowments for preaching. \ldblquote The main objective behind this book is to educate the imams and raise their awareness to contemporary problems and issues in the Egyptian society,\rdblquote explained Atef Galal, head of the public relations department at the ministry. The book defines the meaning of sexual harassment and discusses its prevalence in today\rquote s society. It outlines the possible motives behind harassment, but it also criticizes how some girls may be asking for harassment by the way they are dressed or by the The book also condemns music videos with offensive content TV content. Sexual harassment in Egypt has been making headlines worldwide, attracting a lot more attention than it did before. During the past few years the media has been exposing the issue with headlines reading \ldblquote Egypt\rquote s Sexual Harassment Cancer\rdblquote on BBC News and \ldblquote Women\rquote s rights organizations are making headway combating the issue. The Egyptian Center for Women\rquote s Rights (ECWR) has conducted several studies revealing that 48.4 percent of Egyptian and 51.4 percent of foreign women of all ages are subjected to sexual Findings also showed that 88 percent of the sample witnessed a harassment incident. A study titled \ldblquote Clouds in Egypt\rquote s Sky\rdblquote is part of the ECWR\rquote s \ldblquote Making our Streets Safer for Everyone\rdblquote campaign, also found that 2.4 percent of the male sample surveyed confirmed that they have perpetrated and/or continue to perpetrate one or more forms of Last October, a landslide court verdict had Sherif Gomaa Gibrial, a driver, sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor and fined LE 5,001 for harassing Noha Roushdy in broad daylight in June 2007. Kuwait eyes deportation of 500,000 workers on Monday, 29 June 2009 Andy Sambidge The Kuwaiti government is considering deporting about half a million foreign workers for violation of residency law and for lack of required skills, it was reported on Monday. Most of these workers are jobless and are causing many problems to the Kuwaiti government, Kuwait-based Al Rai daily added citing people familiar with the situation. The number of foreign workers in Kuwait is more than 2.35 million, or 71 percent of the local population, according to recent statistics, the daily reported, according to newswire Dow Jones. Just about 18 percent of these workers are highly-qualified and have technical skills while about 8 percent of them are illiterate, which means that it is possible to dispense with large numbers of them since they don't meet employment requirements, the p Last week, it was reported that Kuwait was likely to arrest and deport close to 100,000 expatriates for being registered with bogus companies. High ranking security sources in the state told the local Al Watan daily: A relatively large number of private firms have been issued commercial licenses but do not actually have offices or business activities in the country. The sources added that it was likely that the owners of the licenses brought expat manpower into the oil exporting country in return for money, without giving them the promised jobs in return. DEPORTATION PLAN: Kuwait is reportedly planning to deport half a million expat workers. (AFP - for illustrative purposes only) Sponsorship system is behind this crisis Posted by Mir Shahriar Ahmed, Dubai, UAE on Tuesday 30 June 2009 at 10:28 UAE time Sponsorship system is behind this crisis. Poor unskilled Asians fall for the trap of better life & support family in lieu of high pre-payment and return empty hand with mounting dues. Again thanks to Bahrain for understanding the reality & scrapping the s Kuwait to deport 100,000 expats - paper Prolonged massive repression by the regime may prove difficult, given past evidence that the IRGC rank and file are sympathetic to reformists and cannot necessarily be relied upon to perpetrate wide-scale violence against the Iranian people. Over the long-term, this division among elites\emdash often the most important factor in regime transitions\emdash may herald the beginning of the end of the Islamic Republic as it is today. New Phase for the Opposition Dwindling crowds in the street after a week of violent repression do not necessarily signal the demise of the opposition. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the movement\rquote s de facto leader, has shown tremendous fortitude in refusing to back down to the regime and is unlikely to reverse course soon. The opposition is entering a new phase with calls for a nationwide strike. It will begin targeting the economic pillars of the regime\emdash the powerful merchant class and the oil industry. U.S. Should Continue Cautious Response For now, the United States should let events in Iran unfold. If the administration inserts itself into Iran\rquote s internal drama it risks playing into the regime\rquote s attempt to paint the demonstrations as the product of foreign agents. But the administration sh \ldblquote President Obama has handled this crisis superbly. He has not received enough credit for how thoughtful, measured, and serious he has been,\rdblquote Burns concluded. \ldblquote If we insert ourselves into this crisis we hurt the reformists and help Ahmadinejad.\rdblquote Resources for this event Tuesday, June 23, 2009 President Obama provided his strongest condemnation yet of the violence in Iran at his White House press briefing on Tuesday. As the president spoke, Carnegie hosted leading Iran experts Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Abbas Milani, and Karim Sadjadpour to dis June 12 Elections Were Conducted Under a Cloud of Improprieties Emerging data overwhelmingly indicates that the presidential elections were fraudulent. Ayatollah Khamenei, his son, and the senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) planned and orchestrated the stolen election, according to Milani. The involvement of the IRGC reflects the growing militarization of Iranian politics. The vast majority of government positions are now held by senior members of the IRGC. But with thousands in Ahmadinejad's own country filling the streets, effectively saying that it's not enough to simply stand up to America and Israel, what now for those Arabs who lionize Ahmadinejad? Especially now that George W. Bush is gone? Where is t Silence. That silence is the sound of hearts breaking over the dream of political Islam. When the 1979 revolution swept away the U.S.-backed shah and his injustices, Iran held out the tantalizing mirage of rule by Islam, even for countries that were not majority S What's happening in Iran is not about the United States or Israel. It's not about Ahmadinejad or Mir Hossein Mousavi. It's not even about the poor or the rich in Iran. The demonstrations are about people who feel their will and voice have been disregarded By Mona Eltahawy Thursday, June 25, 2009 This Story Leaving Iraq What will happen when U.S. combat troops withdraw? By Fred Kaplan So, is all hell about to break loose in Iraq? By June 30, all U.S. combat troops are scheduled\emdash in fact, they're required\emdash to be withdrawn from all of Iraq's cities, towns, and villages. Many Americans and Iraqis fear that the progress achieved in the last couple of years\emdash the dramatic reduction of violence and casualties, the growing sense of security in areas that were once soaking with dread and bloodshed\emdash will be eroded and reversed, pe The rise in spectacular suicide bombings in the last few weeks\emdash as U.S. soldiers have stepped up their retreat to large bases in the outskirts\emdash is widely seen as the shape of thin礀瑳 However, three things are worth noting: government's insistence. The Iraqis are the ones who wanted, and ordered, us out. Even if John McCain had won the 2008 election, we'd still be pulling out of Iraq's cities by next week. Iraqi First, the withdrawal is not the doing of President Barack Obama. Rather, it was negotiated during the Bush administration, at\emdash more to the point\emdash the Second, due to a deliberate finessing in the language of this negotiated withdrawal, a fair number of U.S. troops (nobody is saying how many, but almost certainly several thousand) will remain in the cities. These troops\emdash which are support troops, not c Still, these troops will no longer be engaged in direct, deliberate combat or in actively protecting the population on the ground. Their missions will be more supportive, their presence will have a much lower profile. If Iraqi factions and militias end up jumped substantially since January and February of this year, when shootings and suicide bombings receded to their lowest levels since the war began six years ago. However, the rising incidence of deadly attacks in May and June\emdash the subject of all the alar Does the current spurt in violence mark a momentary crest on an undulating trend line\emdash or the first steps toward a return to the era of extreme dread? It's too soon to tell, either way. Third, the violence, at least so far, has not escalated to the degree that some news reports suggest. It If the violence does continue to escalate, its causes\emdash and perhaps consequences\emdash appear to be quite different from those of a few years ago. According to the Anthony Shadid Washington Post 's (one of the few deeply knowledgeable journalists who has stayed in Iraq as attention has drifted to Afghanistan), the current clashes are driven not so much by sectarian seething as by political power struggles. The objective of the savage suicide bombings in the last couple of weeks, Shadid reports, is to demonstrate that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki does not really run the country, that he's a mere stooge of the Americans, that he and his security forces Israeli peace activist faces jail over homes demolition protest Ezra Nawi expects sentence of up to 18 months for resisting 'dehumanisation' of Palestinians A prominent Israeli peace activist is expected to be sentenced to several months in jail tomorrow in a high-profile prosecution which began after he tried to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. Although activists who challenge the Israeli occupation are often arrested or detained for short periods, Ezra Nawi, a plumber from Jerusalem, is expecting a sentence of up to 18 months. He said he would lodge an immediate appeal, which may keep him out o In March he was convicted by a judge at a Jerusalem court of taking part in a riot and assaulting a police officer, charges he denies. The incident happened when the Israeli military sent bulldozers to demolish Palestinian shacks near the settlement of Ca Nawi, who is in his 50s, has worked with vulnerable Palestinian families in the hills around Hebron for at least eight years. But he is an unusual figure, even among 's shrinking circle of leftwing activists. Born to a Jewish Iraqi family from Basra, he speaks Arabic and lives on the modest earnings of his plumbing work, not a typical story for leftwing activists. Instead, he said, most Israelis from his Middle Eastern background have strong rightwing views an He is also gay and has frequently faced homophobic taunts from Israeli police, soldiers and settlers in Hebron who, by now, are used to his regular presence in the area. He is motivated, he says, by a will to resist the dehumanisation of the Palestinian I have seen the checkpoints, the barriers. I've seen everything with my own eyes and I think any decent person cannot sit indifferent to this. It is beyond the issue of Jews and Arabs, he said. Here everybody sees it, but not everybody refers to it … t His trial has sparked a broad campaign of support from academics, musicians and artists. You have here the whole misery and cruelty of the occupation in a nutshell, David Shulman, a Hebrew University professor and activist with the Israeli-Palestinian p Inside the occupied Palestinian territories is a shadow state where the only real law is the law of the gun, where land is being taken away from its rightful owners every day, and where the very few who stand up to protest, without violence, like Ezra Nawi, are sent to prison. Another Hebrew University academic and peace activist, Amiel Vardi, who teaches classics, said: I don't know of anyone as dedicated as Ezra. Vardi, too, said Nawi was different from most. We are others. Even for those who work with us for years and per The case against him relies on the testimony of two border police officers who allege Nawi punched them during the demolition. The demolition was videoed, but the alleged incident took place inside one of the shacks and is not caught on film. Nawi admits Neither officer mentioned any punch in their initial statements, but Judge Eilata Ziskind said their testimonies were still reliable. In her verdict she said: Freedom of speech is not the freedom to act in an inciting manner or to take steps to prevent o Once he has been arrested and cuffed, the video shows Nawi sitting in the back of a border police van as the officers laugh at him. He tells them: Yes, I was also a soldier, but I didn't demolish houses. There's a big difference. The only thing that will Diplomat hails a breakthrough in US-Syria ties ABU DHABI // Washington\rquote s decision to dispatch an ambassador to Damascus after a four-year diplomatic absence marks a breakthrough in US-Syrian relations, according to Jeffrey Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs. Last Updated: July 02. 2009 9:05PM UAE / July 2. 2009 5:05PM GMT Jeffrey Feltman, on a visit to Abu Dhabi, also offered US congratulations on the selection of the UAE as headquarters for Irena. \ldblquote Having an ambassador in Damascus is something that is in the US interest to help promote channels of communications, dialogue and diplomacy with the Syrians,\rdblquote Mr Feltman said on a visit to Abu Dhabi. President Barack Obama has repeatedly demonstrated his conviction that diplomacy can be used in approaching major, even rogue, Middle East players, to achieve a comprehensive peace in the region. Syria, Mr Feltman said, is one of these players. Speaking in an interview with The National, Mr Feltman emphasised, however, that democracy was \ldblquote not something soft\rdblquote . \ldblquote We have some sharp differences on a variety of factors,\rdblquote he said. The Syrian regional role in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories has been under US scrutiny since the assassination in February 2005 of the Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. It was also one of several factors that helped improve the security Mr Feltman arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, after visiting Kuwait, at a time of unrest in Iran, stemming from suspicion over the results of the recent presidential election. For now, he said, the US still considered it advantageous to engage the Iranian r \ldblquote At the same time we have to stand on the side of principles of freedom of expressions, and we\rquote re very concerned about the use of violence, intimidation and fear to try to quiet the Iranian people\rquote s questioning of the credibility of the election,\rdblquote Mr Felt The Tehran regime has accused the American government of interfering in Iranian affairs, but Mr Feltman rebuked that assertion. \ldblquote We fully respect Iranian sovereignty, and the Iranian election should be about Iran, not about the United States. Iran wants the respect of the international community, but the first thing they need is to respect their own people.\rdblquote He said the US would need to monitor the Iranian situation in the coming days to determine how best to balance competing interests. The Obama administration, meanwhile, has made the Middle East peace process its top foreign policy priority, Mr Feltman said. The American and Israeli administrations are still clashing over US demands for a freeze on building Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In 2003 the Israelis and the Palestinians accepted the \ldblquote road map\rdblquote of objectives and obligations. When asked if the US demand on the settlement freeze was negotiable, Mr Feltman said: \ldblquote It\rquote s clear there are obligations on both sides. Palestinians need to perform a security that stops incitements. And the Israelis need to stop settlement activities incl \ldblquote We have a good understanding of both sides\rquote domestic politics, and each side is going to need to address its domestic constituency. But in the end the Palestinians deserve and want a viable state \endash a state that the Palestinians would be proud to call hom In 2000, at an Arab Summit in Beirut, King Abdullah, crown prince of Saudi Arabia at the time, introduced the Arab Peace Initiative, which calls on Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories in exchange for natural relations with its Arab neighbour \ldblquote The spirit of that initiative, I think, should guide us,\rdblquote Mr Feltman said. \ldblquote All of us have a responsibility to help create that right atmosphere that would lead to successful conclusion and negotiations.\rdblquote King Abdullah II of Jordan has been chosen to carry an effort on behalf of the Arab leaders involved in this conflict, to work with Mr Obama on the peace process. Mr Feltman urged the Arabs to look for ways to signal to the Israeli public that they do hav \ldblquote A two-state solution is the best and only outcome that meets the demand of the people most involved, the Palestinians and Israelis,\rdblquote he concluded. BM News: Update: Egyptian woman killed in Germany over veil; police say hate\~crime Posted by bikyamasr on 04/07/2009 Update: Egyptian woman killed in Germany over veil; police say hate crime Bikya Masr CAIRO: German police have said that the murder of a 32-year-old Egyptian woman on Wednesday outside a Dresden courtroom was inspired by a deep hatred of foreigners. The man was reported to have acted alone and was not affiliated with any far right organiz Information pertaining to exactly what occurred in, or outside, the Dresden courtroom continues to flow in, but with each report comes contradictory statements. The Egyptian woman was stabbed to death on Wednesday after she had won a defamation case against the man, Egypt\rquote s Youm El Saba\rquote a newspaper reported late Thursday. According to security sources in the German city, Marwa Al Sherbini, was stabbed inside the The Associated Press ran a brief article on the killing and in the story said police had not released Sherbini or her husband\rquote s identity. Local Egyptian news reported that Sherbini was three-months pregnant at the time. Her husband, Elwi Ali Okaz, who was finishing a scholarship at a German institute in genetics, was also shot outside the court, moments after the verdict had been handed dow Other reports say police shot him accidentally. It is unclear his status, with some reporting he was killed and others saying he is in critical condition. Dresden prosecutor Christian Avenarius said Friday that authorities believe the man was \ldblquote acting alone\rdblquote and that the husband was injured in the fray. \ldblquote It was very clearly a xenophobic attack of a fanatical lone wolf,\rdblquote Avenarius said. Magdi al-Sayed, the press officer at the German Embassy in Cairo, echoed the prosecutor\rquote s sentiments, adding that the incident did not reflect German attitude towards Muslims. \ldblquote It is a criminal act. It has nothing to do with persecution against Muslims,\rdblquote Sayed said. The man remains in detention and prosecutors have opened an investigation on suspicion of murder for stabbing the woman. Sherbini had filed a case against her killer, Axel, a 28-year unemployed German of Russian descent \endash or possibly Russian national of German decent, according to some reports \endash in August 2008, after he had called her a \ldblquote terrorist\rdblquote on a Dresden street becau He was fined 2,800 Euros for the insulting remarks. The murder comes as Europe is in the midst of a battle over what Muslim women can wear. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said recently that the Niqab \endash the full covering of the face \endash is \ldblquote not welcome in France. The body will be flown back to Egypt for the burial and while the Egyptian foreign condemned the incident, the Egyptian Ambassador to Germany attempted to downplay the incident. In a statement to Youm El Saba\rquote a, Ramzy Ezz El Din denied the murder was part of a an organized hate movement against Arabs and Muslims, calling the murder \ldblquote a regular incident, as terrorism exists all over the world.\rdblquote As of Saturday, no foreign major news outlet except the AP had reported on the incident. The victim of terrorism in Germany was three months pregnant: will the silence remain? �They killed her because she was veiled�, these were the first words of Tarek El-Sherbini brother of Dr. Marwa al-Sherbini Will Egyptian Diplomacy Intervene to Bring Back The Rights of The Murdered Muslim? . She was the wife of an Egyptian envoy in Germany who died after being stabbed in Dresden Court in Germany this morning. In his first press statement to �Alyoum Elsabe� El Sherbini claimed that Marwa,\~ his only sister had a son Mostafa who was three and a half and was also three months pregnant.\~ The last time she visited Egypt was six months ago. He added that she called h Tarek said his sister was thirty years old and had received a Degree in Pharmacy in 2000. Marwa was working as a pharmacist in Germany. Her husb He stressed that �the Germans kept the crime a secret because it had taken place inside the court where Marwa was murdered because of her headscarf� he added �we want nothing but her rights back, because she was killed for\~ practising Islam even before sh Dr. Mohamed Gaber Abu Ali, Head of the Cultural Affairs and Missions in the Ministry of Education stated that Marwa El-Sherbini, the wife of the Egyptian envoy Elwi Ali Okaz and lecturer in the Genetic Engineering Institute, of Monoufeya University, had a Egypt expels 20 French suspected Islamists CAIRO (AFP) \emdash Egypt has expelled about 20 suspected French Islamists over the past month, an Egyptian security official told AFP on Saturday. About 20 French Muslims detained in the investigation into the Cairo attack in February that cost the life of a French girl have been expelled, little by little, the official said, declining to be named. He said that no charges were filed against the French nationals but they were considered religious extremists and undesirable in Egypt. A French consular official told AFP a certain number of French nationals were detained along with other foreigners after the attack and asked to leave Egypt at their own expense and without any legal case against them. A French teenager was killed on February 22 in a bomb attack in Cairo's famed Khan al-Khalili bazaar, in the first deadly violence against Westerners in Egypt since 2006. Peace process cannot handle more failure, Egypt warns In Morocco, an Alternative to Iran RABAT -- If you want an antidote to the photographs of police officers beating demonstrators and girls dying on the streets of the Iranian capital, take a drive through the streets of the Moroccan capital. You might see demonstrators, but not under attack Welcome to the kingdom of Morocco, a place which, in the light of the past two week's events in Iran, merits a few minutes of reflection. Unlike Turkey, Morocco is not a secular state: The king claims direct descent from the prophet Mohammed. Nor does Mor The result is not what anyone would call a liberal democratic paradise. One human rights activist painted for me a byzantine portrait of electoral corruption, involving mediators who organize votes on behalf of candidates. Others point out that if the Jordanian king names 15-year-old son as heir Find God, win a trip to Mecca (or Jerusalem, or Tibet) Turkish gameshow enlists imam, Greek Orthodox priest, rabbi and monk to try to convert atheists, with pilgrimage as reward It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you put a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and 10 atheists in the same room? Viewers of Turkish television will soon get the punchline when a new gameshow begins that offers a prize arguably greater than that offered by Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Contestants will ponder whether to believe or not to believe when they pit their godless convictions against the possibilities of a new relationship with the almighty on Penitents Compete ( Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor in Turkish), to be broadcast by the Kanal T station. Four spiritual guides from the different religions will seek to convert at least one of the 10 atheists in each programme to their faith. Those persuaded will be rewarded with a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of their newly chosen creed \endash Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians and Jews, and Tibet for Buddhists. The programme's makers say they want to promote religious belief while educating Turkey 's overwhelmingly Muslim population about other faiths. The project aims to turn disbelievers on to God, the station's deputy director, Ahmet Ozdemir, told the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review. That mission is attested to in the programme's advertising slogans, which include We give you the biggest prize ever: we represent the belief in God and You will find serenity in this competition. Only true non-believers need apply. An eight-strong commission of theologians will assess the atheist credentials of would-be contestants before deciding who should take part. Converts will be monitored to ensure their religious transformation is genuine and not simply a ruse to gain a free foreign trip. They can't see this trip as a getaway, but as a religious experience, Ozdemir said. The programme, which is scheduled to air in September, has been criticised by commentators and religious figures for trivialising God and faith. Mustafa Cagrici, provincial head of the state-run religious affairs directorate for Istanbul, said: I don't find it right to discuss religion translation in such environments. Others may see the show as fuelling a widespread intolerance of atheism in Turkey, where a large majority profess a deep religious belief despite the state's officially secular character. Jordan's King Abdullah II named his eldest son as heir to the throne Thursday, ending five years of speculation over his successor. Abdullah's move is aimed at avoiding the uncertainty over succession that dogged his father, King Hussein. This photo released by the Jordanian Royal Palace in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, July, 2, 2009, shows Jordan's Prince Hussein, eldest son of King Abdullah II. Photo: AP Israel & Region In 1999, Jordanians were baffled to see Hussein - on his death bed struggling with cancer - strip his brother, Prince Hassan, of the crown and give it to Abdullah. Hassan had been groomed for the Hashemite throne for more than three decades. By naming Prince Hussein Bin Abdullah crown prince, Abdullah can groom the 15-year-old for the throne from a young age. Hussein's appointment came in a royal decree released by the palace. It said the crown prince will hold the title and enjoy the rights Under the constitution, the crown prince has a largely ceremonial role, representing the monarch in ribbon-cutting ceremonies and carrying out other symbolic functions. He has no official political post. Thursday's move was widely expected once the position became vacant in November 2004, when Abdullah removed the title from his half brother, Prince Hamzah, in a sudden palace shake-up. Hamzah, 29, had held the post when Abdullah first ascended to the throne in February 1999 following the death of their father. At the time, Abdullah said Hamzah's position as crown prince was in line with his father's wishes, but later stripped him of the title because it restrained his freedom to study, travel and live a normal life. Under the constitution, the crown is automatically ordained to the king's eldest son, unless the monarch decrees otherwise. Prince Hussein - a high school student in Jordan - is the eldest of King Abdullah and Queen Rania's four children. Like his father and other members of Jordan's ruling Hashemite dynasty, Hussein claims ancestry to Islam's Prophet Muhammad. By Jailan Zayan \endash CAIRO (AFP) \emdash The Middle East peace process cannot handle another failure, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned on Tuesday, telling his Israeli counterpart his country would have to make difficult decisions. There is an increased need now for a political will from the Israeli side, a political will which has the courage to take difficult decisions, Mubarak told journalists after talks with Shimon Peres in Cairo. The peace process cannot handle another failure, the veteran Egyptian president said, calling on hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to believe that peace and only peace can open a new page in the history of the Middle East. Should there be Palestinian elections? Abu Mazen calling for elections (screen capture: al-Arabiya) under international and Arab supervision. He further called for the results of the election to be honored, and promised to surrender power in the event that Hamas should win. This could represent a breakthrough in the stalled and deteriorating intra-Pales my colleague Brian Katulis recently noted in a guest post here, Prime Minister Salam al-Fayyad had been one of the only major Palestinian politicians supporting holding the elections. If Abu Mazen is now on board, then the ball will go into the courts of both Hamas and Fatah. Let's hope so, because intra-Palestinian politics have been getting worse recently. Tension between Hamas and the PA is particularly high over a series of mutual accusations of alleged armed groups operating in their respective territories. Palestinian Au have been rounding up alleged Hamas operatives in the West Bank, seizing cash and making arrests. Hamas officials in Gaza, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, have countered with allegations that the PA has been setting up a network of saboteurs to cause trouble in Gaza (r Meanwhile, the talks in Cairo seem endlessly stalled over the deep, fundamental disagreements between Hamas, Fatah, and the PA (and don't assume that Fatah and the PA represent the same interests these days). The last round of talks broke up after less th boycotting the selfish, bickering Palestinian leadership on both sides, while the Jordanian liberal Jamil al-Nimri suggests simply that the We have clear bases for a just and comprehensive peace, he said, referring to the 2003 internationally-drafted roadmap and a 2002 Arab peace plan offering normalisation in exchange for Israel returning occupied Arab land. Arabs impose a reconciliation deal on the dueling Palestinian factions since they can't achieve one themselves.\~ The roadmap, adopted by world powers in 2003, requires a complete freeze of all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land, including natural growth, and the dismantling of all settlements built after March 2001. Abu Mazen's interview may signal the possibility of achieving a minimal agreement on a caretaker government charged with preparing for new elections -- an idea which has been around for a while. That may be the only way to move forward, at this point, sin But this in turn would only work in the context of clear progress towards a two-state solution. Suggestions to postpone Israeli-Palestinian talks until after the Palestinian elections should be absolutely rejected. Without clear evidence of progress, Hama Holding such elections wouldn't be easy, as this new paper from IFES makes clear. And it would carry serious risks for all sides, including of course the possibility that Hamas would win again. But without them, I fear we are drifting towards a bloody civil war and endless political stalemate. Such elections may be the onl FACTBOX-Ships held by Somali pirates July 8 (Reuters) - Pirates hijacked the Turkish ship Horizon-1 on Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden, Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said. Here are details of some ships believed to be under pirate control an MASINDRA 7: Seized on Dec. 16, 2008. The Malaysian-owned tugboat, was seized with a barge off the Yemeni coast. The tug has 11 Indonesian crew. The White House has repeatedly demanded that Israel halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank in order to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians, who have refused to meet Netanyahu without a complete freeze. Netanyahu has said his government will not allow new settlements to be built but that the natural growth of existing settlements will continue. Peres, whose role as president is largely ceremonial, echoed Netanyahu's position that Israel would remain a Jewish state. The solution is one of two states. A Palestinian people on one hand, an Israeli people on the other. Israel will be a Jewish state and the Palestinians will have an Arab state, and discussions on that matter have ended. Israel has no intention to control the Palestinian people, to create more settlements, to confiscate more land. We must overcome all difficulties and undertake a real political march for a new Middle East in which no country controls another. We move forward in the interest of all parties and our children in the future. Peace talks were revived to great fanfare at a US conference in November 2007 but have been on ice since Israel's war on the Gaza Strip in December and January. Mubarak also said on Tuesday that an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza-based militants more than three years ago is in good health and that he hoped he would soon be freed. I believe (Gilad) Shalit is fine, said Mubarak, whose intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has been mediating negotiations aimed at a securing prisoner exchange between Israel and the Palestinian militants holding the soldier. I hope the issue will end soon. Shalit was captured by militants from Hamas and two smaller groups who had tunnelled out of Gaza on June 25, 2006 and attacked an army post, killing two other soldiers. Shalit is believed to be held somewhere inside the Gaza Strip, which has been run by Hamas since the Islamist movement seized power in the Palestinian enclave two years ago. Israel and Hamas have held months of indirect talks through Egyptian mediators on a prisoner swap that would see hundreds of Palestinian detainees set free in exchange for Shalit, but no deal has been struck. Israeli President Shimon Peres (left) and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak Dutch gov't returns stolen antiquities to Iraq By MIKE CORDER \endash THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \emdash The Dutch government turned over dozens of antiquities stolen from Iraq to Baghdad's ambassador on Thursday and urged other countries to clamp down on the illicit trade of artifacts. The 69 pieces include cylindrical stone seals older than 2000 B.C. and a terra-cotta relief depicting a bearded man praying. These things should not be bought and sold, said Diederik Meijer, an archaeologist with the Dutch National Museum for Antiquities, which will display the treasures before they are returned to Iraq. Meijer declined to put a value on the artifacts, saying it could encourage illegal trade. Despite efforts to stop the looting of historical sites, such theft is still happening in Iraq. Meijer showed an aerial photo of an official archaeological dig surrounded by a landscape pockmarked with illegal excavations. Dutch Education, Culture and Science Minister Ronald Plasterk said the ancient artifacts were surrendered by Dutch art traders after police informed them they were stolen. U.S. customs authorities and Interpol had alerted Dutch officials that the items we Plasterk said the artifacts came from the cradle of civilization, the area between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates that once was known as Mesopotamia. Among other items Plasterk handed to Iraqi Ambassador Siamand Banaa was a sawn out fragment of a flagstone with an inscription of King Nebuchadnezzar dating from 570 B.C. and a decorated nail from 2100 B.C. that would have been used to anchor a building's We should cherish and honor the start of civilization in Iraq, Plasterk said, and consider it the responsibility of the world to make sure it stays there. These objects lose a lot of their value if they are stolen from their site. Banaa praised the Netherlands for tracing and returning the stolen goods and said he hoped other countries would emulate the Dutch example. Looting in Iraq earlier led to an outcry when American troops largely stood by as thieves carried away priceless antiquities from the National Museum in the chaos that followed the 2003 capture of Baghdad. About 15,000 artifacts were stolen from the museum, and the lead U.S. investigator said last year that trafficking in those items helped finance al-Qaida in Iraq as well as Shiite militias. Eventually, about 8,500 items were recovered in an international effort that included culture ministries across the region, Interpol, museum curators and auction houses. Jordan, Syria and Egypt were among countries which returned stolen objects to Baghdad The U.N. cultural body UNESCO has said that of the roughly 7,000 pieces still missing from the museum about 40 to 50 are considered to be of great historical importance. It was not immediately clear when the antiquities being returned by the Dutch were looted. Extremist group announces split from al-Qaeda A North African extremist group, whose senior leaders were crucial allies of Osama bin Laden, has denounced terrorism and become the first organisation ever to leave al-Qaeda. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which once sought to overthrow Col Muammar Gaddafi, dealt a blow to bin Laden by reversing a decision made in 2007 to join al-Qaeda. A statement from the LIFG leadership criticised indiscriminate bombings and the targeting of civilians, saying that violence did not achieve the aims of the group in removing oppression. Al-Qaeda has come under mounting pressure in recent months. Missile attacks executed by American drones in Pakistan's Tribal Areas have taken a heavy toll on its core leadership. Meanwhile, there are tentative signs of a backlash against bin Laden's ideology in the wider Muslim world. A former extremist leader, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, better known as Dr Fadl, has condemned al-Qaeda from inside an Egyptian prison. The LIFG appears to have judged that the balance of advantage lies with leaving al-Qaeda. Officials doubt whether this will, on its own, have a significant impact on al-Qaeda's ability mount attacks. But one official pointed out that LIFG figures had graduated to become major players in al-Qaeda and the group's withdrawal amounted to a moral blow to the network. Abu Yahya al-Libi is among the battle-hardened Libyan members of al-Qaeda's core leadership. He won renown by escaping from an American detention centre at Bagram air base in Afghanistan in 2005 and regularly appears on al-Qaeda's propaganda videos, most Another LIFG veteran, Abu Laith al-Libi, organised a suicide attack at Bagram in 2007 which left 23 dead and coincided with a visit to the base from Dick Cheney, then US vice-president. Al-Libi was killed in Pakistan last year by an American drone. In 2007, he announced that the LIFG had joined al-Qaeda. But the latest statement from the group's leaders, appearing on several extremist websites, said this had taken place without the agreement of the majority of its ruling council. The decision to join bin Laden's network had been invalid, said the statement, and the LIFG had no link to the al-Qaeda organisation in the past and has none now and we demand that those parties remove the name of the Fighting Group from those lists. Al-Qaeda's core leaders have attached great importance to allying with existing groups of violent extremists, especially in North Africa. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which has waged a brutal campaign in Algeria since the 1990s, announced For the first time, al-Qaeda has now lost an affiliate. The LIFG's leaders were forced out of Libya in the 1990s and escaped to Afghanistan. They were compelled to scatter after the Taliban regime's downfall in 2001. The LIFG has been holding peace talks Life term for French Jew's murderer The leader of a Paris gang\~has been jailed for life\~for the kidnap, torture and murder of a young French Jew. Youssouf Fofana, 28, was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years behind bars before he can be considered for parole after he was found guilty by a Paris court of abducting and killing 23-year-old Ilan Halimi in 2006. Twenty-four others, including eight women, received jail terms ranging from six\~ months to 18 years after being found guilty of charges relating\~to\~the crime. The gang abducted 23-year-old Halimi and\~tortured him for\~more than three weeks as they attempted,\~unsuccessfully, to extort a $600,000 ransom from his family. He died on his way to hospital\~shortly after he was found naked, severely burned and handcuffed to a tree by a railway in the Essonne region south of Paris. Fofana pretended to applaud, then smiled and stuck his thumbs up when the verdict was read out on Friday. The murder led to mass protests againt anti-Semitism\~being held across France. Anti-Semitic violence Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull said the killing was one that horrified the nation. [It] raised the spectre of anti-Semitism among western Europe's largest Jewish community, he said. Most of the trial took place behind closed doors. With the verdict now out in the open, there are concerns it may spark a new wave of racial tension. Halimi had been befriended by a female member of the gang in a mobile phone shop where he worked and lured to an empty apartment in the suburbs of Paris in February 2006. He was attacked by the gang on his arrival and drugged. A month after the start of the trial, Fofana admitted to having stabbed and\~poured flammable liquid over Halimi setting him alight. Fofana, a\~28-year-old\~of Ivorian origin\~who led the self-styled Gang of Barbarians, expressed no remorse and expressed defiance throughout the trial. He smirked at Hamili's relatives, shouted God is greatest! and at one point threw shoes at lawyers during the trial. Variety of charges The defendants were convicted on a variety of charges, including kidnapping by an organised group, sequestration that resulted in death or failing to assist a person in danger. Two defendants were acquitted, including one young woman who was told by the presiding judge she could seek indemnities for spending three years in jail before the trial. Francis Szpiner, the family's lawyer, said: I am pleased that the Paris court of assizes has recognised the anti-Semitic character of this crime. It was because he was Jewish that Ilan Halimi was killed and tortured. No one can challenge this judicial truth. 'Lenient sentences' But Szpiner said he was disappointed at the leniency of sentences handed to some of Fofana's accomplices and asked the justice ministry to seek an appeal. The trial, which began April 29, was held behind closed doors in a juvenile court because two of the defendants were minors at the time of the attack. Critics said police initially ignored the possibility of anti-Semitic motives in the killing, which, as the case wore on, prompted fears of its resurgence in France. Scores of police, some in full riot gear, took up posts around the Palais de Justice in central Paris on Friday. The victim's family was not present for the verdict. SERENITY: The catamaran sailing for Madagascar from the Seychelles with three people aboard, was seized in March 2009. INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER: Seized March 2009. The 35-metre boat was built in Hamburg as an oceanographic research vessel. It accommodates about 12 passengers. Pirates have freed the seven crew. HANSA STAVANGER: Seized April 4, 2009. The 20,000-tonne German container vessel was captured about 400 miles off the southern Somali port of Kismayu, between the Seychelles and Kenya. The vessel had a German captain and three Russians, two Ukrainians and WIN FAR 161: Taiwanese tuna boat, seized April 6, 2009. SAMARA AHMED: Seized April 10, 2009. The Egyptian fishing vessel was detained with 16 crew. Syria Increases Minimum Sentence for Honor Killing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree last week that increased the penalty for honor killing to a minimum prison sentence of two years. The law previously limited the maximum sentence to one year. According to the , activists believe about 200 women are the victims of honor killings every year, murdered by male family members who suspect them of committing adultery. In a statement to a Syrian news agency, Justice Minister Ahmad Hamoud Younes said, The number of wife killing has increased recently on the pretext of adultery, and the canceled article number 548 of the penal law pardoned those crimes. The new law reads, He who catches his wife, sister, daughter, or mother by surprise in the act of committing adultery or having unlawful sex with another and then unintentionally kills or hurts either of them can benefit from attenuating circumstances, p Women's rights groups in Syria are acknowledging the new law as a small step in the right direction, while maintaining that it does little to discourage honor killing. The group Women of Syria released a statement saying, This is only a small contributio Deutsche Presse Agentur Obama says he's 'troubled' by Syrian behavior US President Barack Obama is troubled by Syria's behavior but is hoping for progress in boosting ties with Damascus. In an interview to be screened Sunday on Sky News, Obama was asked by the British television channel if he would accept an invitation for direct talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus. We've started to see some diplomatic contacts between the United States and Syria, Obama said in the interview recorded during his visit to Ghana on Saturday. There are aspects of Syrian behavior that trouble us and we think that there is a way that Syria can be much more constructive on a whole host of these issues. But, as you know, I'm a believer in engagement and my hope is that we can continue to see progress on that front, Obama said. In late June, the US State Department praised Syria for its constructive role to promote peace and stability as it announced plans to return an ambassador to Damascus after a four-year absence. The announcement represented a considerable warming in relations between the two countries, as the US has rejected the policy of isolation employed by the Bush administration in favor of one of engagement. A significant amount of the Sky interview was devoted to speaking about Africa, on which Obama said, At some point despite [its] tragic history… we have to say that the days of colonialism are over, that Africa has the resources and the talent necessary And for those of us in the West, he went on, I think our obligation is to on the one hand say we are committed to working with you and we will provide you assistance where possible. On Afghanistan, the US president called for the creation of an Afghan army, an Afghan Police, and said that the US should work with the Pakistanis effectively, so that they are the ones who are really at the forefront of controlling their own countries U.K. hits Israel with partial arms sanctions over Cast Lead Britain has slapped a partial arms embargo on Israel, refusing to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa'ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Britain's Foreign Office informed Israel's embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified telegram to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, said the decision stemmed from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human The embargo followed a government review of all British defense exports to Israel, which was announced three months ago. In total, the telegram said, Britain reviewed 182 licenses for arms exports to Israel, including 35 for exports to the Israel Navy. Bu The British said the embargo was imposed because these ships participated in Operation Cast Lead. In so doing, the British claimed, they violated the security agreements between Britain and Israel, which specify what uses may be made of British equipment. Last week, Britain's foreign and defense ministries informed the relevant companies that they would have to cease their planned arms deals with Israel's navy. Israel soldiers speak out on Gaza A group of soldiers who took part in Israel's assault in Gaza say widespread abuses were committed against civilians under permissive rules of engagement. The troops said they had been urged to fire on any building or person that seemed suspicious and said Palestinians were sometimes used as human shields. Breaking the Silence, a campaign group made up of Israeli soldiers, gathered anonymous accounts from 26 soldiers. Israel denies breaking the laws of war and dismissed the report as hearsay. The report says testimonies show the massive and unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians was a result of Israeli military policy, articulated by the rules of engagement, and encouraged by a belief the reality of war requires them to shoo One soldier is quoted saying: The soldiers were made to understand that their lives were the most important, and that there was no way our soldiers would get killed for the sake of leaving civilians the benefit of the doubt. Another says: People were not instructed to shoot at everyone they see, but they were told that from a certain distance when they approach a house, no matter who it is - even an old woman - take them down. Many of the testimonies are in line with claims made by human rights organisations that Israeli military action in Gaza was indiscriminate and disproportionate. Amnesty International has accused both Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in charge in Gaza, of committing war crimes during the 22-day conflict which ended on 18 January. Israeli officials insist troops went to great lengths to protect civilians, that Hamas endangered non-combatants by firing from civilian areas and that homes and buildings were destroyed only when there was a specific military need to do so. Soldier testimonies appear to contradict official Israeli statements From Paul Wood, BBC Middle East correspondent: Until now, Israel always had a ready answer to allegations of war crimes in Gaza. Claims were, they said, Palestinian propaganda. Now the accusations of abuse are being made by Israeli soldiers. The common thread in the testimonies is that orders were given to prevent Israeli casualties whatever the cost in Palestinian lives. The Israeli military says past allegations of wrong-doing in Gaza were the result of soldiers recycling rumours. But Breaking the Silence has a long - and to many, credible - record in getting soldiers to talk about experiences which might not reflect well on the army. Breaking silence on abuses Our last day. Today the group has a day to explore Jerusalem. Last year, we had been denied entry to the Dome of the Rock on the grounds of not all being Muslims. We were told that you either have to enter through the Israeli controlled gate in the Wailin In the evening we were in the garden of the Sakakini Centre again. This time without any wind issues. And the place was overflowing with people who had come to see Suheir Hammad and the Edward Said Conservatory\rquote s Sama\rquote . For anyone that has seen Suheir per * PIRACY KEY FACTS: -- In 2008 there were 293 incidents of piracy against ships worldwide, 11 percent up on the year before. Attacks off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden almost trebled. -- In 2008, there were 111 incidents including 42 vessels hijacked in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. So far in 2009, there have been 31 successful hijackings from 143 attempted attacks. -- Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden PLO official: did Abu Mazen conspire to kill Yasir Arafat? During a meeting with journalists in Amman conspiring to kill Yasir Arafat .\~ The PLO , Fatah veteran and head of the PLO's political bureau Farouq Qaddoumi accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of has lashed back , denying the allegations and accusing Qaddoumi of inflaming fitna (divisions, internal strife). The Jordanian and Palestinian press is certainly aflame, as is al-Jazeera and a bunch of the Palestinian-oriented forums. What's really at stake is not so much the truth about Arafat's death, but the future of Fatah and the P According to press accounts, Qaddoumi claimed to have evidence that Abbas conspired in early 2004 with Mohammed Dahlan, Ariel Sharon, Shaul Mofaz, and an American delegation to assassinate the aging Palestinian President, then-Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz al- Nor do I need to, because the facts surrounding Arafat's death aren't the point in this controversy.\~ It's about the power struggle inside of Fatah and the PLO, which has been brewing for a long time and which seem to be rising to a crescendo with the lon Yasir al-Za'atra argues, Qaddoumi's bombshell reflects the_growing internal resistance within Fatah to the Abbas/Dahlan faction. The growing tension between Fatah and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority has been apparent for some time, one more element of internal Expect these internal battles to continue as the Fatah conference approaches, and as the pressures to achieve a Palestinian national unity government continue.\~ How those battles are resolved will matter a lot for those who want to see a push towards a tw Nine Serbian tourists die in road accident in Egypt Source: EMportal, Beta Nine Serbian citizens and two Egyptians were killed, and eight Serbian tourists were injured, in a road accident near Luxor, the Serbian Foreign Ministry in Belgrade stated. Nine Serbian citizens and two Egyptians were killed, and eight Serbian tourists were injured, in a road accident near Luxor , the Serbian Foreign Ministry in Belgrade stated. The accident took place in the morning of July 16, on the Luxor-Hurghada route, when a tour bus collided with a truck. The Serbian citizens were in Egypt on a trip organized by the Perla Tours agency of Novi Sad. There were 17 passengers on the bus, including children. Some of the injured are in critical condition. The ministry is attempting to obtain information, in coordination with the Egyptian authorities, about the number of victims and their names. Two Egyptians died in the crash - the bus driver and the tourist guide. The Serbian ambassador to Egypt, Dejan Vasiljevic, told the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS) that the injured are being treated in one of the best clinics in Cairo, where they were visited by an envoy of the Egyptian president. According to Vasiljevic, a consular delegation is expected to arrive from Belgrade in order to secure help to the injured and organize the transfer of bodies of those who were killed to Serbia. Serbian President Boris Tadic, who is staying in Egypt for the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, said that all participants in the summit were horrified by the news of the accident and that he had received messages of condolence from representatives of The Serbian government declared July 17 a day of mourning for the deceased Serbian tourists in Egypt. Conservative pressure shuts Saudi film festival Jeddah film festival is halted before even opening following pressure from powerful Islamic conservatives. RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's only film festival was halted before it even opened on Saturday, festival sources said, as powerful Islamic conservatives battle a popular push for more entertainment in the country. Organisers of the Jeddah film festival were told late on Friday by the city authorities they could not go ahead, even though the event had been heralded as a highlight of the city's summer festival launched on Thursday, they said. The week-long festival was to have featured a competition between eight Gulf feature films -- two from Saudi Arabia itself -- and show dozens more shorts by local and regional filmmakers. It had gone through a laborious process of receiving permission from key ministries and regional and local officials before being officially announced, organisers said. The festival's cancellation was a clear setback for film fans and entertainment companies hoping to reverse a three-decade ban on public screenings of films. Hardliners in the country's senior Islamic clergy regard film, music and other entertainment as violating Islamic teachings, and have fought to block a revival of movies backed by popular demand. People knowledgeable about the festival's cancellation said they believed the order had come from high up in the Saudi government. It's cancelled. So we go backwards a step, said a dejected sponsor who declined to be identified. The festival was being underwritten by the Rotana group, the regional entertainment vehicle of Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. It was to show an Islamic film from an Islamic cable television network, and also planned was a film workshop sponsored by the British Council, Rotana public affairs chief Ibrahim Badei said in an interview Wednesday. Directors of the featured films were also slated to appear at the opening, he said. But Rotana's several tentative showings of its comedy feature Menahi in Jeddah and Riyadh in the past seven months provoked the ire of conservatives. While few were willing to criticize a member of the royal family openly, Alwaleed's own brother Prince Khalid bin Talal lashed out, attacking Alwaleed for violating Islamic principles. On Friday afternoon, witnesses said, Prince Khalid appeared on a religious television channel and strongly denounced films and the film festival, insisting they should be banned. Iran: Rasfanjani to discuss crisis with high-ranking\~clerics Rasfanjani to discuss crisis with high-ranking clerics Former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani will discuss the current crisis with senior clerics in the religious city of in north-eastern Iran, state media reported Sunday. \ldblquote I will hold talks with the high-ranking clerics over the current developments,\rdblquote Rafsanjani told Mehr news agency upon arrival in the Mashad airport. Rafsanjani\rquote s speech at the Friday prayer ceremony in the Tehran university provoked controversy within Iran\rquote s political circles. UAE foils daring $42 bln central bank theft Abu Dhabi sets up financial crime agency Police in the UAE\~arrested five suspects\~who tried to withdraw 154 billion dirhams ($41.93 billion) from the country's central bank using forged documents, the state news agency said on Sunday. Rafsanjani\rquote s remarks that the country was in a crisis angered many conservatives, who accused him of misusing the Friday prayer ceremony to back the opposition led by Mir-Hossein Moussavi. His comment that no Islamic rulership could be established without popular consent was interpreted by conservative clerics as criticism of the country\rquote s One senior cleric and member of the constitutional oversight panel accused Rafsanjani of ignoring Islamic principles. Posted by bikyamasr on 19/07/2009 Princess facing Saudi death penalty given secret UK asylum Woman feared she would be stoned after giving birth to an illegitimate child in Britain A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has secretly been granted asylum in this country after she claimed she would face the death penalty if she were forced to return home. The young woman, who has been granted anonymit Her case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia which are not openly acknowledged by either government. British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect be to highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Ar The woman, who comes from a very wealthy Saudi family, says she met her English boyfriend \endash who is not a Muslim \endash during a visit to London. They struck up a relationship. She became pregnant the following year and worried that her elderly husband \endash a member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia \endash had become suspicious of her behaviour, she persuaded him to let her visit the UK again to give birth in secret. She feared for he She persuaded the court that if she returned to the Gulf state she and her child would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law \endash specifically flogging and stoning to death. She was also worried about the possibility of an honour killing. Since she fled Saudi Arabia, her family and her husband's family have broken off contact with her. The woman has been granted permanent leave to remain in the UK after the Immigration and Asylum tribunal allowed her appeal. The Home Office yesterday declined to discuss the case. A spokesman for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London said that he would call back but subsequently became unavailable. Relations between the UK and Saudi Arabia have been strained in recent years and were brought to a head in 2006 when Tony Blair intervened to end a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) inquiry into alleged kickbacks paid in a multibillion military aircraft deal bet The Saudi royal family was deeply concerned about the idea that the investigators might try o open up their Swiss bank accounts, it was alleged at the time. This led the Saudis to threaten to restrict the sharing of intelligence relating to terror activity if the prosecution went ahead. They also threatened to pull out of other highly-lucrative arms deals. Last year, the House of Lords ruled that the SFO's decision to drop the corruption investigation into the £43bn Saudi arms deal with BAE Systems was unlawful. In a hard-hitting ruling, two High Court judges described the SFO's decision as an outrage. One of them, Lord Justice Moses, said the SFO and the Government had given into blatant threats that Saudi intelligence co-operation would end unless the probe into corruption was halted. No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice, he said. It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court The Middle East state has been shrouded in controversy over oppressive policies against women and homosexuals. Secrecy surrounds much of the Saudi legal system, but in a recent report on the use of the death penalty in the kingdom, the human rights group Adulterers face public stonings and floggings and, in the most serious cases, beheadings and hangings. The high numbers of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2007 continued into 2008. There were at least 102 executions of men and women last year \endash at an average rate of two every week. Amnesty is aware of at least 136 individuals currently awaiting execution. Last week, Saudi Arabia's religious police were blamed for the death of two sisters who were murdered in what was deemed an honour killing by their brother, after the sisters were arrested for allegedly mixing with men to whom they were not related. The Society for Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia said that the religious police had arrested the two sisters, aged 19 and 21, thus putting their lives in danger. Their brother shot them dead in front of their father when they left a women's shelter in Riyadh on 5 July, according to Saudi news reports. In 2007, in a case that shocked Saudis, a woman from Qatif was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after being gang-raped. She offended cultural expectations because she was unaccompanied when she got into a car with a former boyfriend. The man had agreed to hand back a photograph of the woman who was about to marry another man, but as they drove along a street they were stopped and seized by seven men who raped them both. The woman was originally sentenced to 90 lashes but the sentence In 2007, King Abdullah II of Saudi Arabia was jeered during a state visit to Britain as dozens of demonstrators turned out to protest at his country's human rights record. Saudi princess 'given UK asylum' Eight-month jail sentence for message posted on Facebook A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has been granted asylum in the UK, the Independent newspaper has reported. It said the married woman was allowed to stay after telling a judge that her affair left her at risk of being stoned to death in her home country. The woman, who has been given anonymity by a court, is married to a member of the Saudi royal family, the paper said. The Home Office declined to comment on the case. The Independent says the woman is one of a small number of Saudi Arabian citizens whose asylum claims are not acknowledged publicly by either country's government. Public executions are held in Justice Square in the Saudi capital Riyadh Sharia law She was convicted on 4 July of \ldblquote disturbing public order\rdblquote under article 121 of the criminal code, which states that \ldblquote anyone stirring up rebellion by means of speeches in public places or meetings, or placards, posters or written texts is punishable as if t The woman reportedly began a relationship with a British man - who is not a Muslim - during a visit to London and later became pregnant. Reporters Without Borders condemns the eight-month jail sentence that a Tunis court has imposed on 69-year-old academic and human rights activist After giving birth secretly in the UK, she took a case to the Immigration and Asylum tribunal, it is claimed. for posting a message on the social networking website Facebook in May referring to widespread rumours about children being kidnapped in Tunisia for their organs. Under Saudi Arabia's Sharia law system, adultery is punishable by public flogging or execution. In 2008, the country's courts ordered the execution of 102 people, according to human rights group Amnesty International. \ldblquote This conviction has no legal basis,\rdblquote Reporters Without Borders said. \ldblquote Tunisia has no Internet laws and this is the first time a Tunisian court has issued a decision concerning a Facebook post. All Arfaoui did was post an already-existing message. She was The latest case appears to echo that of another member of the Saudi royal family, 19-year-old Princess Mishaal bint Fahd, who was executed in 1977 after admitting adultery. One of her lawyers said: \ldblquote This case cannot be prosecuted because it is not covered by any law. If there is no law, there can be no crime. This conviction is senseless. The trail was staged in order to put a stop to the rumour.\rdblquote When a controversial film about the case, Death of a Princess, was shown in the UK, Saudi authorities responded by expelling the British ambassador in Riyadh. Under article 121 of the Tunisian criminal code, disturbing public order is punishable by six months to five years in prison and a fine of 120 to 1,200 dinars (72 to 720 euros). It forbids the distribution, sale or display, or possession with a view to di Article 21 applies to public spaces whereas Facebook is regarded as a private space. The indictment itself violates the confidentiality of correspondence. This is guaranteed by article 9 of the constitution, which says: \ldblquote Domestic inviolability, the confid Facebook is very popular with Tunisians aged between 15 and 25. Access was blocked on 24 August 2008 but the ensuing outcry forced President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to restore access nine days later. Khedija Arfaoui Arfaoui\rquote s lawyers will try to get the jail sentence suspended on appeal. No date has so far been set for the appeal hearing. Arfaoui teaches English, American civilisation and human rights at La Manouba University, near Tunis. Arfaoui had no idea she had been charged until she read in the newspapers on 31 May that her trial was due to begin on 6 June, and she got no formal notification until 5 June. She was represented by lawyers at a second hearing, held on 27 June, but they w Anti-trafficking law only allows relatives to donate organs Saudi man marries Filipino woman for kidney 5th worst spot for organ trafficking The World Health Organization named the Philippines the fifth worst spot for organ trafficking in 2005 DUBAI (Al Arabiya) A Saudi man who married a Filipino woman was hoping to exchange a kidney in addition to wedding vows, Philippine officials said Monday. But his wedding bliss was cut short as authorities caught on to the scam and blocked the planned transplant. The wealthy foreigner proposed to the woman, whose name was not given, in an attempt to bypass the Philippines' strict regulations set up to fight the country's widespread organ trafficking. Foreigners are banned from receiving organ transplants from local donors and organ sales are punishable by up to 20 years in jail. Exceptions are made for family members. Clearly it was not a donation. It was actually an organ sale Meedan @ TED Global 2009 Live blogging from TED Global 2009 in English and Arabic July_____ 20,_____ 2009 Esperanza Cabral, Social Welfare Secretary TED Global Day -1 The theme of this year's TED is The Substance of Things Not Seen--more on that as the week unfolds. What is pretty evident, however, is just how well TED is weathering the global economic crisis. I haven't seen the numbers, and I don't have previous exp The Saudi man, however, did not succeed in marrying the woman to circumventing the rules. Hospital officials noticed the couple spoke no common language and had wed only very recently. The government-run hospital refused the transplant despite the foreigner's claim the donor was indeed his wife and that the donation was voluntary. Clearly, it was not a donation. It was actually an organ sale, Esperanza Cabral, Social Welfare Secretary, told a news conference Monday, adding that the case was refused two months ago but no charges had been filed against either party. Officials offered no details about the man's identity or why he needed a transplant. The World Health Organization named the Philippines the fifth worst spot for organ trafficking in 2005. The doctors' group Philippine Society of Nephrology said that 81 percent of 1,046 kidney transplants performed in 2007 were from living, non-related do Asia Against Child Trafficking, a private group that tracks down underprivileged donors recruited by organ trafficking syndicates, has located more than 195 kidney donors in the past year from communities southeast of Manila. Amihan Abueva, the group's regional coordinator, said that at least two donors have filed cases against the organ traffickers for paying them less than promised. The Philippines allows organ trafficking cases to be filed up 10 years after the crime was committed for small scale cases and up to 20 years for the larger ones. I, myself, am a beneficiary of its success. This year TED awarded 25 Global Fellowships--the chance for bright, young, yet impecunious, sparks to attend the global conference in Oxford(which normally costs a couple of thousand dollars), as well as trainin TED proper kicks off tomorrow, but there have already been a number of interesting presentations. Today, there was a recording of the BBC World Service's discussion programme, Forum, featuring three participants from TED--an astronomer, a cyber-culture sp Ali Khamenei warns of 'collapse' after Iran referendum calls Julian Borger , diplomatic editor 's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, warned today that continuing divisions would lead to the collapse of the country's ruling elite, after a former president called for a referendum on the government's legitimacy. H1N1 prompts hajj restrictions Arab health officials have agreed to restrict certain groups from performing the annual Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia this year amid growing concerns about the H1N1 flu pandemic. Those considered high-risk such as the elderly, young children and the chronically ill have been advised to avoid making the hajj or the lesser umrah pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. But Abdullah al-Rabeeah, the Saudi health minister, said on Wednesday the kingdom has no plans to restrict the number of visas it issues for pilgrims, though numbers are expected to be lower. We did not change the percentage of any country, we changed certain rules, he said after a meeting of Arab health ministers and representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO). It's up to the country to replace [applicants who fall under the restrictions] with other pilgrims. The move to keep the vulnerable groups away from the pilgrimage is expected to be ratified by the respective Arab governments. Hussein Gezairi, the WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean region, said he expected Riyadh to ratify the recommendations, adding there was a consensus among the health ministers at the meeting. The Saudi government will make [these conditions] a requirement... No one will get their visa unless these requirements are fulfilled. Gezairi said the Saudi government was well equipped to deal with communicable diseases among the large number of annual pilgrims. [Our] government has a very long experience now... because Saudi Arabia every year receives between 25 and 30 cases of cholera and no epidemics are happening. Around three million Muslim pilgrims from over 160 countries head for the holy city of Mecca in western Saudi Arabia each year in one of the world's biggest religious gatherings. Travel warnings In June, Saudi Arabia called on elderly, ill and other unfit Muslims -\~including pregnant women -\~to postpone their pilgrimages to Mecca because of the threat of H1N1. Oman issued a similar warning on July 6. This year the hajj will take place in November, while the umrah can be performed at any time but is popular during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts in August. On Monday Egypt became the latest country to warn vulnerable Muslims against the pilgrimage to Mecca, after an Egyptian woman returning\~from Saudi Arabia succumbed\~to\~H1N1 - the first\~death in the Middle East and Africa. Egyptian health officials have said all returning pilgrims will be quarantined. We are separating patients who are positive for avian flu in hospitals, said Hatem el-Gabali, the health minister in the most populous Arab country. In Iran, a health ministry official repeated calls on Tuesday for elderly Iranians and children to avoid travelling to Saudi Arabia for the\~pilgrimage as the number of confirmed\~H1N1 cases in the Islamic republic rose to 16. Tunisia earlier this month suspended umrah pilgrimages because of the virus, while reserving judgement on whether the main hajj pilgrimage should be undertaken in November. The airborne H1N1 virus has now been diagnosed in tens of thousands of people worldwide, and has killed more than 430 people, according to the WHO. Arab governments are expected to ratify the conditions for this year's pilgrimage [AFP] Should hajj 2009 be cancelled? Swine flu is threatening to turn this year's hajj into a viral hot zone. Are fever-detecting cameras enough ensure pilgrims' safety? Swine flu has hit the hajj and the Saudi health ministry is telling the unfit to stay away to avoid catching it, but performing the pilgrimage is an obligation for Muslims. What should they do? Earlier this week Saudi health minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah called for the old, the infirm, the pregnant and the very young to stay away from the hajj in order to minimise their risk of being exposed to swine flu The announcement follows a prevention and precaution workshop in Jeddah ahead of a busy pilgrimage season, kicking off with Ramadan next month and then going full throttle in November with hajj. Thrillingly, there are at least a dozen fever-detecting cameras at Jeddah airport, the kingdom is boosting its reserves of Tamiflu and encouraging people to have a seasonal vaccination before the pilgrimage season Off the top of my head, I don't know that Muslims would rather stay at home, instead of exposing themselves to swine flu, catching it and taking the illness back with them. I got really ill while I was out there and I was a young and healthy women dosed u fifth and final pillar they will go to heaven. I have read that people should not pray to die on hajj. While some of you will not care for Muslims or hajj, despairing at people's fascination with superstitious ritual, there are interesting ethical questions involved. It might be blasphemous to suggest this, but in the interests of global health, perhaps ha MOMTAZ 1: Seized April 10, 2009. The Egyptian fishing vessel was detained with 18 crew. BUCCANEER: Seized April 11, 2009. The Italian tugboat, owned by Micoperi Marine Contractors, was carrying 10 Italians, five Romanians and a Croatian, and was seized towing two barges while travelling westbound through the Gulf of Aden. IRENE E.M.: Seized April 14, 2009. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Greek-owned bulk carrier was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. Its Filipino crew of 22 was unharmed. ARIANA: Seized May 2, 2009. The Ariana was seized north of Madagascar en route to the Middle East from Brazil. The 24-strong Ukrainian crew were said to be unhurt. The ship, flying a Maltese flag, belongs to All Oceans shipping in Greece. A Ukrainian ship News Release of the Press Briefing on the Opening of CCTV Arabic International Channel 2009-07-24 11:29\~BJT China Central Television owns four international channels which present programs in Chinese, English, Spanish and French. CCTV will officially launch its Arabic International Channel on July, 25th. The new 24-hour Arabic Channel is a solid step in terms o The new Arabic Channel will reach the Middle East and North Africa via signals on Arabsat and Nilesat. It will also reach the Asia-Pacific region by Chinasat 6B. Nearly 300-million people in 22 Arab countries will be able to watch programs from China's Ar CCTV's Arabic Channel's main audience will be people in Arab countries and regions. The channel will be news-focused and complemented by cultural, service and entertainment programs. The Channel will produce 9 programs which fall into 4 categories. These China and Arab countries all have long histories and splendid civilizations and their friendship dates back to ancient times. As their financial cooperation increases, the China Craze in many Arab countries is also increasing. The new Arabic Channel wil Why Kurds vs. Arabs Could Be Iraq's Next Civil War Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, left, and Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, attend a launch rally for the region's parliamentary campaign season on June 25, 2009 With a projected capacity of about 40,000 bbl. a day, the new oil refinery inaugurated on July 18 by the Kurdish regional government of northern Iraq is modest even by the standards of Iraq's dilapidated oil industry. But its significance shouldn't be und Until recently, Iraqi Kurdistan had no refineries of its own, and though the area is sitting on a huge pool of oil, it had to rely on gasoline supplies from elsewhere in Iraq, Turkey or Iran. Fearful of giving Iraq's ethnic Kurdish minority any control ov Hunger strike in Montreal continues Friends and members of the Iranian community are hungry for change and have gathered in at Peel and Rene Levesque St.s as part of a two-day hunger strike, which began Friday at 9am. The protest, organized by the Montreal Iranian Group for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran, will end this evening at 7pm. The end of the protest will be marked by four concerts by local artists starting at 6pm. Today is the International Day of Action for Human Rights in Iran and this morning, roughly 20 protesters, with painted faces and Iranian flags, had gathered at Place du Canada . Last night, the number of protesters peaked to roughly 120 people said Bijan Jalali of the Montreal Iranian Group for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran. Bijan said protesters were asking for the immediate release of all political prisoners, a ban on For more information on protest around the world for the International Day of Action in Iran see the United for Iran website. Gaza judge: Female lawyers must wear headscarf GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip \emdash Gaza's top judge said Sunday that he has ordered female lawyers to wear Muslim headscarves when they appear in court, the latest sign that the Islamic militant group is increasingly imposing its strict interpretation of Islamic law Supreme Court chief justice Abdul-Raouf Halabi said female lawyers will be required to wear a headscarf and a long, dark colored cloak under their billowing black robes beginning September. Halabi said his order was designed to ensure that women dress in accordance with Islamic law, which requires women to cover up in public, wearing loose garments and only showing their hands and faces. Showing a woman's hair is forbidden (in Islam), the Hamas-appointed Halabi told The Associated Press. We will not allow people to corrupt morals. This (dress code) will improve work in the courts. Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007 and vowed never to impose its conservative values on others. But it has taken a series of steps in recent months that appear to be aimed at forcing residents to accept its Islamic-oriented social agenda. Police have pressured store owners to cover scantily clad mannequins, and men relaxing on the beach have been ordered to cover up. One secondary girls' school has made wearing a Muslim headscarf and loose robe a mandatory uniform in the upcoming school ye The Hamas government formally says it is not imposing Islamic law on the territory's 1.4 million residents. Instead, it says it is simply ensuring that residents behave in line with the territory's own conservative culture. Most women already wear the headscarf, and life in the Mediterranean strip comes to a complete standstill on Fridays as men gather for communal prayers in mosques. Juma, who does not wear a headscarf, said the point wasn't the number of women, but that freedoms were being eroded. Subyiya Juma, a female lawyer, said the judge's decision would affect only 10 or so lawyers \emdash since the vast majority of the 150 registered female lawyers already cover their hair. This is dangerous \emdash it's a clear violation of the law, it is taking away our personal freedoms \emdash and by whom? The very person who is meant to defend our freedoms, Juma said. Britain 'should approach Hamas' The UK government has come under rising pressure from MPs to start making contact with Palestinian group Hamas. A Foreign Affairs Committee report also said it was regrettable UK-supplied military items were almost certainly used by Israel in the Gaza conflict. The cross-party group, which monitors foreign policy, called on the EU to make relations with Israel conditional on its peace-making efforts. Hamas was also criticised for its use of rockets on Israeli civilian targets. 'Ineffective strategy' But committee chairman Michael Gapes said the committee saw few signs that the current policy of non-engagement with Hamas was effective. He added that the government should urgently consider engaging with moderate elements within Hamas as it had with the political wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon earlier this year. The wide-ranging report condemns Israel for the continuing growth of settlements and for its blockades around the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. It was unacceptable, said Mr Gapes, to deny unrestricted access for humanitarian assistance. And the report also called for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to declare whether it considered war crimes had been committed during the December 2008 to January 2009 conflict in Gaza and southern Israel. Hamas came into criticism for its rocket attacks, but MPs concluded that Israel's military action in Gaza was disproportionate. Mr Gapes said: Rocket fire from Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian groups on civilian targets in Israel is unacceptable. It generates the risk of a renewed escalation in violence, and constitutes a central obstacle in the way of Israeli willingness to move forward towards a two-state settlement. The report welcomed the endorsement by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a two-state solution to the conflict. The committee added that the split between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank was a central obstacle to creating a united and democratic Palestinian state, and called for elections that could be accepted by all parties. Former prime minister Tony Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, was commended for making an important contribution to Palestinian economic and institutional development. But movement, access and administrative restrictions on the West Bank continued to represent a major obstacle to further Palestinian economic development, it added. Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation. Analysis: forcing Taleban into negotiations Talking to the Taleban as a way of bringing an end to the war in Afghanistan _is now moving up the agenda after the recent offensives in Helmand province _involving 3,000 British troops and 6,000 US Marines. This is not a new issue. Attempts have already been made to persuade elements _of the Taleban to give up violence and enter into political dialogue with _the government of President Karzai. The most high-profile moves towards reconciliation took place under the _auspices of the Saudi Arabian authorities. Talks have been held in Saudi _Arabia, but the principal players on the Taleban side were former members of _the deposed government in Kabu The speech by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, at Nato in Brussels is _timed to coincide with the completion of the British-led Operation Panther\rquote s _Claw. The offensive had, over a period of more than a month, established _security zones in the area As the campaign against the Pro The Taleban are in no sense defeated and no one is expecting the hard-core _insurgency leaders, based in Pakistan, to start talking peace. But with _sufficient Nato troops stationed in areas once dominated by the Taleban, _there may be an increasing numbe VICTORIA: Seized on May 5, 2009. The Antigua and Barbuda- flagged cargo vessel was hijacked by eight pirates in the Gulf of Aden on its way to the port of Jeddah. The 146-metre ship had a crew of 10. CHARELLE: Seized on June 12, 2009. The 2,800-tonne cargo ship carrying about nine crew, was attacked 60 miles south of Oman. Lloyds reported the vessel was owned by shipping firm Tarmstedt International. (For main story click on [ID:nL8546514]) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;) Sources: Reuters/Ecoterra International/International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre/Lloyds List/Inquirer.net news is provided by 08 Jul 2009 10:28:39 GMT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces hardline revolt in Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was facing a revolt by furious Iranian hardliners on Monday after he sacked a key conservative minister in an act of revenge. By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent The Iranian leader found himself at the centre of bitter infighting within the _ Iranian establishment when he dismissed his intelligence minister after his _ choice for vice-president was overruled by the country's Supreme Leader. The backlash intensified when another minister offered his resignation in protest at Mr Ahmadinejad's move at the weekend. The tit-for-tat exchange between feuding elites threatened his already _ embattled grasp on power after his disputed election victory in the _ presidential election last month which provoked street protests and _ allegations of mass fraud at the ballot Under fire from both reformers and ultra-conservatives, Mr Ahmadinejad's _ position has become increasingly perilous in the run-up to his inauguration _ for a second term on Aug 6. The latest tensions were triggered when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme _ Leader, spearheaded demands for the resignation of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, _ who Mr Ahmadinejad chose to be the first vice-president. The order _ represented a deep blow The president and the man he wanted at his side are politically and personally _ close and Mr Mashaie's daughter married the president's son last year. Mr Mashaie's resignation after a tenure of just days was inevitable but Mr _ Admadinejad's subsequent decision to appoint him as his chief of staff in _ the presidential office fuelled anger among conservative ministers close to _ Ayatollah Khamenei. Mr Mashaie had provoked outrage last year with a claim that Iranians and _ Israelis could be friends, a statement against the official orthodoxy that _ the Jewish state is a villainous imposition on the Middle East. Mr Ahmadinejad sacked Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje, the intelligence minister, _ at the weekend. Matters became more farcical after it emerged that the _ president had also told two other ministers to stand down but relented when _ it appeared the scale One of the ministers, Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi, declared that he would _ not be returning to government. Newspapers reported the chaos at the heart of government in unusually strident _ terms. A chaotic day for the government, said a front-page _ headline in the conservative Emrouz newspaper. One MP was quoted _ calling on Mr Ahmadinejad to control his nerves. Opposition supporters meanwhile continued to press for the election result to _ be overturned and the release of supporters rounded up in the harsh _ crackdown by the security forces. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the president's main opponent who claimed he won the _ election, formally applied for permission to stage a mourning ceremony to _ mark the 40th day since militias and police killed dozens of demonstrators _ in mass street protests The country's regime has no choice but to return to the principles of _ the constitution and if it does not, then people will force it to return, _ Mr Mousavi said. The more people you arrest, the more the movement _ will spread. The killings and ar The authorities have banned all large-scale gatherings except by special _ permission but by publishing the venue and the date Mr Mousavi has all but _ guaranteed people will assemble even if permission is denied. The _ application was accompanied by a The protest movement led by Mr Mousavi has influential backers within the _ regime, most notably former president Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was yesterday _ reported to have made a fresh demand for an official climbdown. Mistakes _ by a party, a person, a The judiciary appeared to be ready to end a crisis over thousands of prisoners _ held in the country's disease ridden jails, setting up a committee to review _ the merits of individual detentions. The head of Tehran's prison _ administration admitted t Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said that the US believed Iran would _ respond to an offer of talks on its nuclear programme before the autumn _ meeting of the United Nations general assembly in September. The editor of the book, Michael Luongo, holding a copy of Gay Travels in the Muslim World. [Arab Diffusion, 2009] © The Advocate Senate Panel Debates What to Do with Guantanamo Detainees By Cindy Saine Washington 28 July 2009 The Senate Judiciary Committee has held a hearing on what to do with detainees at Guantanamo Bay when U.S. President Barack Obama closes the prison next January.\~ Republican members of the committee argued the detainees should be tried in military commiss After a House committee hearing on detainee issues last week, a Senate panel took up the fate Tuesday of the 219 detainees who remain at Guantanamo Bay. Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona made clear he strongly prefers that detainees be tried under a military commission system, saying that trials in civilian U.S. courts pose a risk to national security.\~ He said U.S. military commissons have proven the Military commissions have been used for over two centuries to bring justice to war criminals, and they have done so in a way that is fair to the accused, said Senator Kyl. Senator Kyl also expressed concern that President Obama would either need to postpone his announced closing of Guantanamo, or bring a large number of detainees to the United States for trial. President Obama has issued an arbitrary deadline for closing Guantanamo by January 22, 2010, less than six months from now,\~\~ but thus far, we know precious little about how he intends to do it, he said. Assistant Attorney General David Kris told the panel a task force created by the president has already reviewed more than half of the cases of the remaining detainees, recommending more than 50 for transfer to other countries.\~ He said the task force is o The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee showed a strong preference for trying the remaining detainees in U.S. civilian federal courts.\~ Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois pointed to the low number of convictions by military commissions sin For seven long years, the Bush administration failed to convict any of the terrorists who planned the 9/11 terrorist attack, said Senator Durbin. And for seven long years, only three individuals, three, were convicted by military commissions at Guantan Senator Durbin cited a study that says 145 terrorists have been convicted and sentenced in U.S. federal courts since the September 11 attacks. The two top government lawyers at the hearing, Assistant Attorney General David Kris and the Defense Department's General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson argued that both military commissions and civilian trials should be used to try Guantanamo detainees, wit Beethoven to the rescue Northern residents upset at loud Arab music from nearby village respond with classical tunes Secret weapons - Beethoven Officials at a northern Israel community found an original way to protest the unbearable noises coming from weddings in a nearby Arab village: Bombarding their Arab neighbors with classical music. If you happened to be in the Kfar Vradim area Thursday night you would have been able to enjoy Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mozart's Requiem and Puccini's opera Tosca. The pieces were played at high volume in Kfar Vradim and were heard miles away. \~ Magazine Israelis go to war with a new weapon \endash Beethoven Fatah faces divisions within and without As members of the Palestinian political party head to Bethlehem for the first Fatah congress in twenty years, the organisation is struggling to heal its own divisions and revive its credibility as the voice of Palestinian nationalism. Healthcare The Respect MP accused the Israeli government of using a Nazi tactic, _ conducting a brutal apartheid-style occupation and committing war crimes _ in various editions of his discussion programmes broadcast during the Gaza _ conflict in January. The Elders announce visit to the Middle East The Elders are supportive of current peace efforts but have no intention of intervening in that process. Rather, the objective of their visit is to meet a wide cross-section of Israeli and Palestinian society including grassroots organizations, young peop The Elders \endash a group of eminent global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela \endash have announced plans to visit Israel, the West Bank and Gaza at the end of August. The Elders\rquote delegation will be led by former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and will also include Ela Bhatt, Gro Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu. They will be joined by business leaders Richard Branson and Jeff Skol Further details of The Elders\rquote visit will be available in coming weeks. To keep up to date with all of their activities please go to our media contact form page. Media representatives who wish to be kept informed are kindly asked to use the ABOUT THE ELDERS The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. Based on an initiative by Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of The Elders in Johannesburg on his 89th birthday in 2007. The Elders are Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson, Desmond Tutu (Chair) and Muhammad Yunus. Lieberman 'facing 31 years in jail' as corruption probe winds up By Steve Weizman in Jerusalem Monday, 3 August 2009 Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman could face up to 31 years in prison on a string of corruption charges Israeli police said yesterday, announcing the end of a long investigation into the far-right politician. But the country's attorney general must approve the police's recommendations _ before Lieberman can be charged. It could be weeks or months before a _ decision is taken. If approval is given, Lieberman may have to stand trial _ on a slew of corruption The police statement said the investigation began in 2006 and covered events _ going back to 2000. Lieberman denies wrongdoing and says police have been _ hounding him for 13 years. In a statement released by his office last night, _ he maintained that In March, Lieberman petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court about the _ investigation, which subsequently ordered police to quickly wind up their _ inquiries. There was no serious reason to open the investigation _ against me and if the suspicions had an One of the most controversial politicians in the country, Lieberman's family _ emigrated to Israel from Moldova in 1978. Among his hotly discussed ideas _ are the re-drawing of the border between Israel and the West Bank to include _ large Jewish settl He most recently sparked controversy when he instructed Israeli embassies to _ circulate a photograph of Adolf Hitler meeting the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, _ Palestinian cleric Haj Amin al-Husseini in 1941, a Palestinian nationalist _ who led violent c A Dog Named Anwar Sadat The Egyptian blogosphere \emdash namely Egyptian Chronicles \emdash is starting to raise objections to the name of a dog in the Hollywood film, \lquote I Love You, Man.\rquote The dog\rquote s name is Anwar Sadat. A character explains the dog is named for his resemblance to the former Egyptian president (not, thankfully, out of admiration Let\rquote s not get carried away though. The bloggers are offended though for different reasons. Masrawy puts it in the context of anti-Arab portrayals in Hollywood, which tends to depict Arabs as terrorists or barbarians. Egyptian Chronicles focuses more on the insult it is to an Egyptian natio These are certainly interesting points but I disagree. I have often seen anti-Arab racism expressed through name-calling, but rarely are they called dogs in the United States. Actually, \ldblquote dog\rdblquote in the United States is not really an insult. It is actually a term of endearment (spelled \ldblquote dawg\rdblquote ). Even the old derog It should be noted that in the United States, people treat their dogs better than they treat their children. This is why someone here will demean another by calling him a \ldblquote child.\rdblquote Naming dogs after people is often seen as an honorific. So there can be cul In this movie, though, it is clearly to mock Sadat and elicit cheap laughs. But I am not sure it is intended to demean Arabs. I am not even sure if most viewers know that Sadat or Egyptians are Arab. Also, their arguments are weak because overall Hollywood has championed Sadat for making peace with Israel. Thus, Sadat was the subject of a 1992 bio-pic . He was played by Louis Gossett Jr. Seriously. Another reason I am not offended is that many Arabs have called Sadat \ldblquote kelb,\rdblquote I am sure, and I have called him worse names. Is this a case of \lquote we can trash them but other cannot\rquote ? Sadat is a hero only among a very small number of Arabs today, so I doubt this will explode in any kind of controversy. As the for the film, I still doubt I will see it unless maybe it is offered on a flight and I have nothing else to do. [tarboush tip: Kamilia] Share and Enjoy: I Do Not Love You, Man !! I did not see the film \ldblquote I love you Man months ago in the United States of America, I do not like that sort of comedy. Now despite it has been screened from several months , it will cause an uproar in Egypt after its deliberate insult to late President . In the film the hero Peter Klaven \ldblquote Paul Rudd\rdblquote walks with his new friend \endash to- be his best man in his wedding Sydney Fife \ldblquote Jason Segel \rdblquote asking him about his dog. Fife who is a total mess tells him that his dog\rquote s name is \ldblquote Anwar Al Sadat \rdblquote !! When Klaven wonders why he named after President Sadat and whether he admired his policy, Fife boldly tells him that he named after his dog looked like President Sadat !!!! May be it is funny in the States but for us this is a huge insult even if it were not for an icon like Sadat ,so you can imagine it when it comes to one of our rulers. Honestly if it were not for Masrawy.com I would not have not known. Cutting off this scene from the film to be screened in Egypt did not hide our mistake and insult against this man , if this film was truly screened in Egypt , then Ali Abu Shady , the head of censorship should apologize to the Egyptian people and the fami Abu Ghazla whom the censorship protected him from Charlie Wilson\rquote s war \ldblquote For the record I respect Abu Shady yet I am extremely angry from him\rdblquote This is not simply by cutting the dance scene from the film in Egypt !! \ldblquote by the way the film will be shown next Wednesday on Movie Channel 1 at night on Showtime Arabia network\rdblquote Where is the Egyptian Embassy in the United States from this insult ?? Where are our Egyptian community from this insult against our President ?? Or they only move when it comes to Mubarak !!?? I swear I will be as angry as now if they call it Nasser or Naguib or even Mubarak. It is not an overreaction or over sensitivity , yes East is East and West is West , I remember that many Americans did not like when that company produced a monkey doll on the shape of Obama . This is the same issue. You know what is really provoking in this whole ?? It is the fact that in the past months I found reviews about \ldblquote I love you man\rdblquote in the Egyptian lifestyle magazines !!!!?? I highly doubt that Steven Spielberg has an anti-Egyptian agenda! I mean come on, Hollywood is all about business, how much money a movie will make. Aren't we over the conspiracy theories alreay? I know arabs are often protrayed in the worst way possible In the end it's all about making the big bucks. One more thing, our rulers are not prophets, and they are not iconicnal characters cannonized beyond mistakes, being a ruler is a high ranked governmenta job. A ruler is a civil servant.. As arabs we know that our worst enemies are our rulers, why are we still defending them? Who owns the Nile? On a river that flows upward, Egypt lives downstream ... but that doesn't mean it goes thirsty. Theodore May - GlobalPost Published: August 6, 2009 13:17 ET CAIRO, Egypt \emdash Egypt, these days, seems to be defying gravity. While Iraq, situated at the delta of the Euphrates, has suffered water shortages at the hands of Turkey and Syria, which siphon off what they please, leaving only the dregs for the battered Babylonians, Egypt by contrast has turned the natural order on it Iraqis speak of random killings committed by private Blackwater guards Guards employed by Blackwater, the US security company, shot Iraqis and killed victims in allegedly unprovoked and random attacks, it was claimed yesterday. A Virginia court also received sworn statements from former Blackwater employees yesterday alleging that Erik Prince, the company\rquote s founder, \ldblquote views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe\rdblquote . They also accused the company of following a policy of deliberate killings and arms dealing and of employing people unfit or improperly trained to handle lethal weaponry. In Baghdad yesterday, some Iraqis said they believed that the case was a last chance for justice and an opportunity for America to divorce the behaviour of its military from the private guards. Farid Walid, who was shot in Nisour Square two years ago during a massacre that killed 17 Iraqis, said: \ldblquote Everybody here knows of cases where Blackwater guards shot innocent people without a second thought. They are a symbol of the occupation. Nobody will Mr Walid is among several Iraqis behind an attempt to take Blackwater to court in the US, helped by an American lawyer, Susan Burke, and her local legal team. Umm Sajjad, whose husband was allegedly shot by Blackwater guards, said: \ldblquote The US forces have come to our neighbourhood many times and they never harmed anybody. It was Blackwater that wanted to harm people.\rdblquote Her husband was working as a security guard at the Iraqi Media Network, a state broadcaster, when a Blackwater convoy passed them one day in 2007. She says that without warning, the Iraqis were fired upon and three of them were killed. The Blackwater conv Umm Sajjad said: \ldblquote I was told that there was no exchange of fire or any other reason to provoke them to shoot at my husband and his colleagues. They were on a high building but they didn\rquote t have weapons in their hands.\rdblquote Other families have tales of shootings allegedly committed by Blackwater, which has since changed its name. Abu Suhad lost his daughter in 2007 when she was driving her car near the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in central Baghdad. He said: \ldblquote Eyewitnesses told me that four white Blackwater cars went by her. Three were already past when the last one shot her in the head Mr Walid remembers the Nisour Square shooting on September 16, 2007 \emdash for Iraqis one of the blacker days of the US occupation. Claiming to have come under fire, Blackwater guards stopped in the middle of a large roundabout and began shooting in all direct \ldblquote I left my car and ran away to hide in a petrol station, which was made of concrete. The shooting was so heavy it was like rain,\rdblquote he said. \ldblquote I saw lots of people getting shot. The driver who had been in front of me died and his wife fell out of the car. He Iraqis still find it hard to believe that companies such as Blackwater were given such free rein. Until the start of this year its employees were immune from prosecution in the country. In another alleged incident involving the company, Ali Husamaldeen was walking in Wathba Square, central Baghdad, on September 9, 2007, when he was felled by a single gunshot. Passers-by reported a Blackwater helicopter overhead, from which they say the f Leqaa al-Yaseen, an MP, said: \ldblquote I believe the US authorities have the main responsibility for what happened because Blackwater came to Iraq with their permission. Regarding Blackwater smuggling weapons into Iraq, that suggests the US forces didn\rquote t know abo \ldblquote The tragedies that happened to our Iraqi people at Nisour Square and other places are not separate from the US forces in Iraq. The US Government is trying to avoid responsibility by blaming private companies.\rdblquote Officials in Baghdad have told that they are continuing to investigate allegations similar to those made in the US against Blackwater. Major-General Fathel al-Barwari, commander of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, said he was gathering evidence of illegal weapons trading by the company. As a result, Blackwater could also face criminal prosecution in Iraq, where it is now banned, but Tahseen Al-Shekhli, for the defence ministry in Baghdad, said: \ldblquote If the allegations of illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq are proven, the Iraqi authorities will definitely take legal measures against this company.\rdblquote The Iraqi Government has tightened up rules for private security companies in recent years. The Nile is one of only a handful of rivers on earth that flow north, meaning the North African country lies downstream of 10 other Nile-fed nations. The situation stems from 1929, when colonial Britain, speaking for its sub-Saharan colonies, gave Egypt veto power over any Nile water-sharing agreements. In 1959, Egypt and Sudan entered an agreement, in place today, by which Egypt would be allowed 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually, while Sudan would take 18.5 billion cubic meters. The problem? Total Nile flow is only about 84 billion cubic meters annually, leaving little for the other countries. In the natural order of things, that would mean water shortages and drought for Egypt. But Cairo has long used its colonial \ldblquote rights\rdblquote to reserve the lion\rquote s share of Nile waters for its own use, with other Nile basin states powerless to stop it. Iraq google wedding UN Eman Mohammed Government internet filtering increases in the Middle East and North Africa Cambridge, Mass. - August 12, 2009 - 14 countries in the Middle East and North Africa out of 18 countries surveyed filter Internet content using technical means, according to new studies released by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI: http://opennet.net), a part Our latest research results on Internet filtering and surveillance in the Middle East and North Africa confirm the growing use of next generation cyberspace controls beyond mere denial of information, said Ron Deibert, ONI Principal Investigator and Dir Internet censorship in the region is increasing in both scope and depth, and filtering of political content continues to be the common denominator among filtering regimes there, said Helmi Noman, the OpenNet Initiative's Middle East and North Africa lea Examples of issues ONI research revealed include: Qatar's blocking of online educational health content such as the Web site of the Health Promotion Program at Columbia University; Syria's blocking of apolitical Web sites such as Facebook; the UAE's block But even as Egypt scrambles domestically, it looks poised to keep its hands firmly around the necks of its sub-Saharan Nile neighbors. Cairo is rushing to compensate for the impending water shortage by looking into desalinization options, talking about charging Egyptians for water use, and trying to encourage farmers to grow crops that require less water. The 2008-2009 Middle East and North Africa regional overview and country profiles can be accessed at http://opennet.net/research/regions/mena. Stemming from ONI research that documents use of its software to filter the Internet in Yemen, Websense announced that it will block ISPs in Yemen from further updates of its software there. Today's release of new data and analysis follows the ONI's May 2007 release of its first global survey, and the subsequent publication of Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering (MIT Press, 2008). In the coming months, the ONI About the OpenNet Initiative The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) is a collaborative partnership between the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the Advanced Network Research G Time Out N Time Out New York Art review: \ldblquote The Seen and the Hidden: [Dis]covering the Veil\rdblquote A show about this controversial head covering isn\rquote t quite revelatory enough. By Kate Lowenstein (Critic\rquote s Rating: Three Stars) Nuns, peasant grandmas, Orthodox Jews, bridezillas… Many females in our contemporary world wear veils of various kinds, though none as controversially as Muslim women. The current show at the Austrian Cultural Forum presents 15 emerging artists whose work Human Rights Watch denies allegations about fabrication in Human Rights Watch\rquote s Latest Gaza Report Submitted by editor on August 15, 2009 - 19:48 On August 13, 2009, Human Rights Watch released a report, White Flag Deaths: Killings of Palestinian Civilians during Operation Cast Lead, documenting serious violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead. Instead of respond Instead of seriously addressing the findings of human rights groups in Gaza, the Israeli government is waging a propaganda war against them, said Iain Levine, program director at Human Rights Watch. If the Israeli government wants to silence critics, i •Human Rights Watch is relying on the testimony from people who are not free to speak out against the Hamas regime. Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, in an interview with the BBC, August 13, 2009. •The Human Rights Watch report which claims that IDF soldiers killed 11 Palestinian civilians holding \lquote white flags' is based on unreliable witness reports. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement, August 13, 2009. Both claims are false. Human Rights Watch methodology does not rely only on the accounts of victims and eyewitnesses. We examine medical records such as hospital and autopsy reports; forensic evidence left over from attacks, such as bullet casings, tank t Jewish is fine, Zionist is not. By Joharah Baker Thursday, Aug 13, 2009 Not many Palestinians were familiar with the name Uri Davis until yesterday when the media reported that the Jewish member of Fateh had been nominated for a spot on the movement's Revolutionary Council. Davis, recruited into Fateh in the 1980's by assas Obviously, Davis did not adopt his parents' ideologies, calling himself a Palestinian Jew. An academic, Davis has been an avid proponent of human rights, Palestinian especially, and an opponent of the nature of Israel as a Jewish state. In 1987, he wrot Needless to say, Uri Davis is not your average run-of-the-mill Israeli. Now he has been nominated for one of Fateh's highest decision-making councils. The Revolutionary Council, which comprises of 80 seats, is the second most important body in Fatah after Whether or not Davis wins a seat on the Council or not is largely beside the point. He is already a longstanding member of Fateh and even an observer member of the Palestine National Council. In short, he has made his point and has left no question of whe However, people like Uri Davis, Jewish American academician Normal Finkelstein and many others, prove this theory wrong and are willing to go up against a tidal wave of criticism to make their voices heard. They are called self-hating Jews, despised by If the matter is taken from this perspective, it is clear that Zionist Jews are principally to blame for creating such a tight link between Judaism and Zionism. It was not the Palestinians or the Arabs or anyone else who established this relationship. Hen His position also makes a very strong statement about the Palestinians, one which needs to be brought to light more often. Palestinians have never been opposed to Jews per se. As a monotheistic religion, Palestinians respect Judaism and its followers as For years, Israel has played the religion card to create splits among the people of the region and not only with the Jews. Back in the early nineties, when the first Intifada was in its prime, Israel tried to bait Palestinian Muslims and Christians by cla Having said this, Palestinians will not deny they are opposed to Zionism, to which most of their current problems can be traced back. Dispossession, occupation, discrimination and oppression of the Palestinians have all been directly caused by the Zionist This is what people like Uri Davis believes and why he chose not to follow in the footsteps of his parents. He obviously realized the injustices done to the Palestinians in his name and so wrongly in the name of Judaism. That is, he has refused to allow I In this sense, Fateh must be commended for breaking a social and psychological barrier and making a very important point. Anyone, regardless of religion, race or creed, who supports the Palestinians' legitimate right to liberation and freedom from oppress The example of Fateh member Uri Davis is a perfect one. It brings to light one fundamental point that encapsulates the tangled relationship between Palestinians and Israelis. Jewish is all right. Zionist is not. Hey Dictator! Watch Me Confess! Iran Election Diary A new website is using video satire contributed by participants around the world as a tool to embarrass the Iranian government. The all-volunteer project Watch Me Confess ! aims to show the world how ridiculous the false confessions propaganda really is, the website explains. The concept plays off recent high-profile confessions from some of Iran's leading reformists, such as former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, now facing trial along with more than 100 other defendants. Abtahi reportedly testified that opposition leaders conspired in advance to misrepresent the June vote and prompt people to protest. Many believe Abtahi's and others' public confessions were forced. In an August 4 editorial, \ldblquote \rdblquote compares the trial of Iranian reformists to the Soviet Union\rquote s show trials of the Stalin era. Using humor to lay bare the absurdity of the case, \ldblquote Watch Me Confess!\rdblquote invites viewers to send their own recorded confessions to the Iranian state media, and publicize them via Twitter, Facebook, and other green movement hotspots. In one sample confession , a young Israeli woman tells viewers: I am a Jew, I live in Israel.... I marched millions of Iranian people on the streets just to make the Supreme Leader feel uncomfortable.... Don't give Abtahi the credit for my great work! The new website also owes something to a wildly popular video by humorist Ebrahim Nabavi, who plays Abtahi as he gives a forced confession. The video, recorded before the trial, turned out to be a prescient piece of satire. (An English translation is available Nabavi, playing Abtahi, tells his viewers what's really going on with all the upheaval in Iran. On one occasion, while walking in the street, we saw everything was green: cars had green flags and girls wore green shawls, and everyone had a green bracelet After a slew of sound effects suggesting a beating, Nabavi/Abtahi revises his story: \ldblquote We started our cooperation with Musavi\rquote s gang. Every single night we would hold a rally in the streets. I even imported green velvet from England and Israel. We were in He ends humbly: I confess that during one of my trips to Beirut I wore short pants and as Mr. Interrogator reminded me, this was an act against national security. He is right. I want to say in fact that in fact what I wore was not short pants but loose p An incognito confession from Germany August 04, 2009 -- Kristin Deasy and Golnaz Esfandiari Egypt warns pharaohs' tombs could disappear By Riad Abu Awad_(AFP)_\endash LUXOR, Egypt \emdash The ornate pharaonic tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings are doomed to disappear within 150 to 500 years if they remain open to tourists, the head of antiquities has warned. Zahi Hawass said humidity and fungus are eating into the walls of the royal tombs in the huge necropolis on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor, which is swamped daily by several thousand tourists. Poor ventilation and the breath of the hordes of visitors are causing damage to the carvings and painted decorations inside the tombs, he told journalists on a tour of the royal necropolis on Monday. The tombs (in the Valley of the Kings and nearby Valley of the Queens) which are open to visitors are facing severe damage to both colours and the engravings, Hawass said. The levels of humidity and fungus are increasing because of the breath of visitors and this means that the tombs could disappear between 150 and 500 years. The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, where pharaonic royalty was mummified, is home to the tombs of legendary pharaohs such as the boy king Tutenkhamun and Queen Nefertiti. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities have taken a series of measures to protect the tombs, including setting up new ventilation systems, restricting the number of visitors and closing some tombs. Hawass said the authorities have also decided to close some tombs definitively to tourists and replace them by identical replicas, including those of Tutenkhamun, Nefertiti and Seti I. A team of experts is currently using laser technology to examine these tombs in order to build the replicas... which would then open to visitors in a place near the Valley of the Kings, Hawass said. King Tut's tomb caused an international sensation when it was first discovered in 1922 by Briton Howard Carter and has not ceased to fuel the imagination because of the fabulous treasures that emerged from it. The mummy of the boy king, who was made pharaoh at the age of nine, was found in an ornate sarcophagus his face covered by a solid gold burial mask encrusted with semi-precious stones. The 18th dynasty pharaoh reigned reigned 1333 and 1324 BC and died mysteriously at the age of 19. Some experts say he was assassinated, other blame the death on a gangrened leg. His ancestry is also a mystery and Hawass said in June that DNA testing would be conducted to determine his parentage. The pharaoh Akhenaten was thought to have fathered King Tut and his mother could have been Nefertiti, a foreign princess, or his wet nurse Maya. Nefertiti, renowned as one of history's great beauties, was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, remembered for having converted his kingdom to monotheism with the worship of one sun god, Aton. But in March German researchers in Berlin said they have uncovered a second, hidden face within an iconic bust of Nefertiti, which indicates she may not have been the flawless beauty depicted on the bust's exterior. The bust is on display in Berlin's Altes Museum and has been at the centre of a row with Egypt which has repeatedly demanded its restitution. Seti I was one of ancient Egypt's greatest rulers and a formidable military commander from the 19th dynasty, whose tomb in the Valley of the Kings is the largest ever discovered but archeologists have yet to tap all its mysteries. Hero Or Mass Murderer? and happy Ramadan, here Ramadan starts tomorrow and as usual Libya starts Ramadan a day earlier and insists they are right and everyone else got it wrong! Ramadan Mubarak returned yesterday to Libya, I too was hoping his return to Libya would be a low key event but he was I do not know if he is guilty of this horrible crime but this man was convicted of killing 270 innocent civilians yet the Libyan authorities showed how distasteful they are at a time when the victim's families were watching in pain, to most of them this i as a hero! received protested his innocence for 10 years then few days ago he dropped his appeal and therefore accepted his guilt, I know he is ill and dying but if he is innocent he should have stuck to his appeal to the end, his family were never prevented from visiting hi was working for the Libyan intelligence and I do know from people that worked for Libyan Airlines in the 1980s that he was feared and was involved in many nasty acts against Libyans, this does not make him into a hero, what about the thousands of Libyans he did this crime or not, Al- Megrahi whether Jahmi and the hundreds that were killed in Bu prison and many others... they were the real Sleem heroes The Scottish government did take a courageous step by releasing Al- to spend his last days with his family, reasons or purely for business is for you to decide. they did it for compassionate If he was innocent, he should have stayed and died fighting to clear his name and the Libyan authorities have embarrassed themselves yet again Somali president calls on fighters for truce in Ramadan Somalia's government has called on warring parties in the conflict-torn horn of Africa nation to stop fighting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Somalia's government has called on warring parties in the conflict-torn horn of Africa nation to stop fighting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a spokesman for the presidency said on Saturday. President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a former fighter, said the ceasefire call was motivated by the need for peace during the religiously significant month. The president made this call since it is necessary to not stop people going to Islamic centres, worship Allah any time without fear, and we hope the opposition will accept it without condition, Abdulkadir Osman told Reuters by telephone. Opposition groups said they would discuss the ceasefire call. The President's Western-backed government has been facing a stubborn insurgency from the al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam rebels. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. As a time to purify the soul, refocus attention on God, and practice self-sacrifice, every day during this month, Muslims around the abstain from food, drink, and other physical needs during the da Every physically and mentally able adult Muslim is obliged to perform the absolute dawn-to-dusk abstinence from food and drink, and even sex, as the Koran says: O! Ye who believe: Fasting is prescribed unto you as it was prescribed unto those before you Exempted from fasting are persons suffering from serious illnesses, women in their menstrual period, the elderly and children below 13, and travellers at least 40 miles away from home. On Saturday clashes continued, as insurgents attacked a government-controlled Mogadishu checkpoint in the early hours. Al Shabaab men have attacked our positions in Ex-Control Afgoye (checkpoint). We repulsed the attackers and killed more than 10 men, Abdifatah Shaweye, deputy mayor of Banadir, told Reuters by telephone Al Shabaab's information office denied the claim and said they took control of the base and killed nearly 10 soldiers from the government side. Al Shabaab also said they had agreed to work together with Hizbul Islam fighters in the South Western region of Gedo. About 100 people died last week in different parts of the country as pro-government militias and insurgents engaged in various battles. Egypt delays alleged Hezbollah operatives' trial to October 24 Cairo: An Egyptian emergency state security court on Sunday adjourned until October 24 the trial of 26 Arabs allegedly recruited by the Lebanese group Hezbollah to\~destabilise Egypt. The Cairo-based\~tribunal's decision to postpone the trial was in response to a request by the defence lawyers to allow them time to look into the case documents, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported. The suspects pleaded not guilty\~in the fir The defendants, including four fugitives, are charged with planning to carry out terror attacks and spying for a foreign organisation - allegedly Hezbollah. Under Egyptian law, these charges are punishable by life imprisonment or death. The fugitives include Mohammad Qablan, a Hezbollah intelligence official whom the Egyptian authorities accuse of entering the country and recruiting the alleged operatives before leaving. Egypt has reportedly asked the Interpol to track down and arrest Qa According to official Egyptian television, the detainees had confessed to having been hired to mount terror acts on the Egyptian territory.\~They reportedly admitted that leading officials from Iran-backed Hezbollah had visited Egypt to recruit operatives Investigations with the defendants - two Lebanese, five Palestinians, one Sudanese and 18 Egyptians - revealed that they had planned to attack Israeli\~tourists in the Sinai Peninsula and ships using the Suez Canal, Egyptian TV also quoted legal official a Defence lawyers have said the confessions were extracted under torture, a claim denied by the Egyptian authorities. Tensions heightened between Egypt and Hezbollah after the latter accused the government of President Hosni Mubarak of\~collusion in\~Israel's devastating war in the Gaza Strip early this year. \ldblquote Despite Egypt\rquote s population growth being stable at 1.9 percent annually, its natural resources have been gradually coming under pressure, presenting more challenges to the government in securing food and water, among other items,\rdblquote wrote Reham ElDesoki, an Compounding the problem for Nile communities is a recent Egyptian government report indicating that domestic water demand would likely soar past supply. According to the report, overall supply was likely to increase to 71.4 billion cubic meters per year b I can see water wars in the future when the upstream countries start taking their due share of the Nile waters. david wayne osedach Posted by on August 6, 2009 15:03 ET Updated: August 8, 2009 12:36 ET Boats sail on the river Nile in Cairo, March 9, 2009. Two pyramids are seen in the background. (Asmaa Waguih/Reuters) Welcome to the first Elders blog. As part of our visit to the Middle East, we are trying something new and will be recording our impressions and thoughts through blogs and videos as much as we can. We will also invite those we meet to join and continue th This is one of the main reasons we are here. At this important time, as efforts are underway at the highest diplomatic level to restart negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders \endash the Elders feel it is especially important to listen to the aspi We believe that to enhance the possibility of peace, there must be the belief that peace is something that can be achieved. We know that the majority of people, both Israelis and Palestinians, support a two state solution to end the conflict. But we also We are looking forward to meeting young people from all over Israel and the West Bank, as well as business leaders, civil society leaders and people from all walks of life. We hope to share some of their stories here so you can read and hear them too. Unfortunately we will not be able to visit Gaza this time but hope to do so very soon.\~ Even though we cannot go there, we plan to speak to people in Gaza via video link \endash and will make sure we highlight the very serious human rights and humanitarian situ Fernando Henrique Cardoso, delegation leader for the Elders visit to the Middle East, August 2009 Welcome to The Elders' Blog The Elders - Fernando H Cardoso Pick up any newspaper and you\rquote ll find plenty to read about the political situation in the Middle East: who\rquote s talking to whom? What stage are the negotiations at now? Which plan should be the blueprint for talks? You won\rquote t be short of material. But it strikes me that key voices are often missing from the debate: those of the Israelis and Palestinians whose daily lives are affected by this ongoing conflict. Their support and belief is critical to the outcome of negotiations \endash but the harsh realit It is clear that peace is never going to be achieved unless people start reaching out to each other, get to know each other and listen to stories that they may not have heard before. This is why I\rquote m really excited about our online project for The Elders\rquote visit to the Middle East. Over the coming days and weeks, we\rquote re hoping to show how the internet can be used to begin to transcend the barriers that divide this region. That\rquote s one thing that Peter Gabriel, one of the founders of The Elders has always said to me: \ldblquote We\rquote ve got the tech On this visit, we\rquote ll be using blogs, videos and photos to hear from people from all walks of Israeli and Palestinian life and see how their lives are affected by the conflict. The Elders will blog too and share their thoughts and experiences as part of th People might disagree with each other; they might share experiences that others may not have heard about before; they might find their own ideas and preconceptions challenged. The most important thing is engaging in a discussion. The Elders have always stressed that listening is job number one. We hope our website will provide a platform for the voices so often unheard in this conflict, yet so vital to be understood if peace is ever to be achieved. I\rquote m looking forward to being part of this online conversation and I know that the Elders are too. Please join the Elders for a live webcast with guests from Israel and the Palestinian Territories on Friday 28 August at 09:30 GMT; 10:30 BST; 12:30 Jerusalem/Tel Aviv/Ramallah; 05:30 EDT. I am looking forward to visiting the Middle East again. Since my young student days and then my first visits to the region in the 1970s, long before the Oslo Accords when I was Prime Minister of Norway, I have followed events in the region closely and it LIVE ELDERS WEBCAST: We are not coming to get involved in the negotiations \endash that is not our role. While we are very supportive of the efforts, we are coming primarily to hear from ordinary people on all sides. We want to speak with people about daily realities of life and wh Despite the many setbacks of the past 15 years and since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin which I feel was the real blow to hope for peace, we should remember that what happened in 1993 was essential for where we are today, in the sense that the recogni I share Henrique\rquote s disappointment that we cannot visit Gaza this time and we will still try to speak to people there. We also hope to speak to representatives of Hamas. As Elders, independent of any government, I believe it is necessary to speak to all th Looking to listen and learn The Elders - Gro Brundtland JERUSALEM (AP) - A group of elder statesmen and former world leaders on Thursday visited a family evicted by Israeli police from their house in east Jerusalem and told them to not give up hope of one day being able to return to their home. The dignitaries, including Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, visited 17 members of an Arab family forced out after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled their house belongs to Jews, who took their place. The group, called The Elders, expressed hoped Israel would reverse its action. It's a political issue. I don't think there is any doubt about that. It's an attempt by Israel to take over east Jerusalem, which is part of Palestine, said Carter. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and annexed it, a move not recognized by the international community. Palestinians want it as a capital for a future state, and the issue is a major sticking point in peace talks. Sharihan Hannoun, 20, was camped out across the street from the house along with other members of the evicted family. We have no answers from anyone. There is no help for us. We hope the international community will help us, will know the answer, said Hannoun, a college student. Members of the Elders brought baskets of food for the nightly dinner that breaks the fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Tutu said the scene was reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa. And now freedom has come to South Africa, and we want to say to you that justice will prevail in your own situation as it has prevailed in other situations. So do not give up hope that you will be able to live securely in your homeland, Tutu said. The group winds up its four-day trip to Israel and the West Bank on Friday. Other members of The Elders delegation are Ela Bhatt, a women's rights activist from India, former Irish President Mary Robinson and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The group was joined by tycoon Richard Branson, who originated the AP Mobile Maher Hanoun, left, who was evicted from his house talks to The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders, from second left to right: South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro B By JEN THOMAS Published: Yesterday Story user rating: Elders: Evicted Palestinians should return home Get AP Mobile for your phone at Muslim woman sues judge in headscarf incident A 32-year-old Muslim woman from Dearborn Heights filed a federal lawsuit today against a Wayne County judge, claiming he forced her to take off her hijab, an Islamic headscarf, during a court appearance in June. \ldblquote I felt very discriminated and humiliated,\rdblquote Raneen Albaghdady said at a press conference in Southfield at the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit. \ldblquote I was hurt…I was really, really scared and terrifi Albaghdady said she is a native of Iraq who works as a fashion designer and is part Shi\rquote ite and part Sunni. She was in court before Wayne County Circuit Judge William Callahan in Detroit on June 16 to change her name. She said she had previously changed her name because her family had fled oppressive rule under Saddam Hussein and was scared of retaliation. Her attorney, Nabih Ayad, said at the press conference that it \ldblquote is very demeaning\rdblquote for a Muslim woman to be asked to remove her hijab in public. Muslim women who wear hijab don\rquote t usually reveal their hair to men outside their family. A woman who answered the phone today at Callahan\rquote s office referred calls about the lawsuit to Elizabeth Kocab, general counsel for Wayne County Circuit Court. Kocab did not comment. An assistant to Callahan said the video clip released by the Muslim group stopped short and didn't include the part where Albaghdady removed the headscarf and apparently said: It's OK, it doesn't matter. The assistant said the judge wouldn't ask someone to remove a hijab if it was worn for religious purposes. Albaghdady said she sued in part to help other Muslim women. She said she was disappointed by the judge because America is a land of...freedom. The lawsuit charges that Callahan violated the First Amendment right to freely practice religion. Ayad said the group wants an apology and a ruling that forbids judges from asking women to take off their hijabs in court. Today's lawsuit comes after the Michigan Supreme Court adopted a new court rule on Tuesday that gives judges \ldblquote reasonable control over parties\rquote and witnesses\rquote appearance.\rdblquote That decision stems from a case involving a Hamtramck woman, Ginnah Muhammad, who we The judge in that case, Paul Paruk, asked her to remove her niqab so he could see her face while she testified, which Muhammad refused to do. Why Arab women need to break the glass ceiling When Angela Merkel was first elected to Germany\rquote s highest office in 2005, she was dismissed as a dowdy, uninspiring politician \endash a former chemist from the eastern part of the country with a doctorate in physics, hardly the sort of back story that gathers Ms Merkel was this week named the world\rquote s most powerful woman by the American business magazine Forbes, a list she has topped each year since her election. It is a curious list, including several female heads of state, but given the magazine\rquote s readership, With the exception of Ms Merkel, no one in the top 10 is a household name; even some of the companies they head are little known. Who outside their industries has heard of Temasek, Areva or Sunoco? And there are some odd choices \endash Yelena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and wife of Moscow\rquote s well-connected mayor, surely warrants an appearance ahead of the woman who runs the feminine care division at Procter & Gamble. There is no one from China a Even so, the list raises an important question: why are there so few Arab women named? Or to ask a more useful question \endash why are there so few Arab women to choose from? Asked in that way, the question becomes not one about access to education for women \endash Wait, wait, I know what you\rquote re going to say. Whenever I raise this question, the same three arguments are put forward. That there are women in politics and business all across the Arab world, women such as Sheikha Lubna and Queen Rania (who made the list) Or that many Arab countries are still developing, that the state-run nature Or that, even in European and North American countries, women often find less opportunity than men and that big western countries such as Britain, France and America still lag considerably behind the smaller Scandinavian nations when it comes to gender eq But none of those arguments addresses the fundamental point, which is that, across the region, there are so few women in positions of power \endash especially women who do not owe their power to patronage or acquired wealth. When Arabian Business magazine compi The answer, unfortunately, is that women are held back by something they can\rquote t see: the expectations of others. Across the Arab world \endash and elsewhere too, of course \endash there is an expectation that women have a particular role to fulfil, that of a wife and In the West, feminist empowerment philosophy has gone hand in hand with the idea of individualism, of placing your needs and desires as an individual ahead of other societal concerns. That idea has, by and large, not found huge resonance in the Arab world But there is not simply one type of feminism and it is certainly not a solely western creation. If the individualistic model is not right for the Arab world, other versions might be. But it cannot be doubted that change \endash and in some countries radical cha This was partly the conclusion reached a few years ago by a UN report on the status of Arab women. The Progress of Arab Women 2004 report pointed out that female empowerment was being hindered not only by a lack of economic opportunity, but by the \ldblquote deep q Thinking about themes such as society and attitudes \endash especially pontificating about them in a newspaper column \endash is often an intellectual exercise rather than a practical one. In that regard, even laws can go only so far. When, for example, the Syrian go Yet here, curiously, the Forbes list has an answer and is instructive because it highlights one way to change entrenched attitudes. Work. The list is dominated by businesswomen not simply because of the magazine\rquote s focus, but because women in corporate roles do not have to face the public\rquote s prejudice in the way female politicians do; the bottom line shows their competency clearly. Historically in the West, it has been the world of work that has opened equality doors to women. It is no coincidence that it was only in the aftermath of the First World War, when women had played a significant role in the war effort, that Britain, and l The lesson in there is that ideology matters less than work; if you get the work right, the ideology will follow. One of the grand philosophical projects of the modern Arab world is how to marry the push for change from a youthful population, and the outs That, indeed, was how Angela Merkel, having taken over from the hypermasculine Gerhard Schroeder, set about changing minds. She proved you don\rquote t have to be a particular gender to do the job \endash you just have to get the job done. Faisal al Yafai was the winner of the best journalist category at the 2009 Muslim Writers Awards Lebanon town makes mincemeat of world record EHDEN, Lebanon \emdash The small town of Ehden in north Lebanon gained an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records on Saturday for producing the largest ever kebbe -- a dish of minced meat and cracked wheat. A representative of Guinness World Records was on hand to certify that the giant meal prepared in a festive atmosphere by 25 women in the town square measured up before presenting the official paperwork. To create the giant circular 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) kebbe they had to mix 120 kilos of mince, 80 litres of olive oil, 80 kilos of cracked wheat, five kilos of salt and a mere kilo of pepper. After the huge dish was cooked the certificate was officially handed over to Rima Franjieh, wife of MP Sleiman Franjieh. Lebanese women cut the biggest kebbe dish after entering the Guinness World Records in the town of Ehden in Lebanon The painting will be examined in Baghdad. The security official hinted that the Prime Minister\rquote s office had more information on looted artwork and could swoop again soon. When Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait, Saddam\rquote s regime promised to return its booty of airliners, gold and art, even requesting the help of the UN. Much of the spoils ended up in private hands and when the Kurds and Shias rose against Saddam, the qu In this case it may have been overzealous. The Art Loss Register in London said that it had no record of paintings missing from the Kuwait National Museum and no record of this painting as missing at all. The Picasso Museum in Paris and the French nationa , said: \ldblquote Picasso did all kinds of funny things when he was a child but they don\rquote t look like this. In his youth he did paint a number of academic nudes but they are completely different in character and style. It just doesn\rquote t look like him in any single re John Richardson, the author of A Life of Picasso To this day the Iraqi looting of two decades ago is a painful issue for Kuwaitis. Baghdad residents said that after Saddam was overthrown in 2003 Kuwaitis drove to the capital to loot buildings in revenge. Time and adventure had not been kind to the painting. It was folded rather than rolled and seemed to have been cut out of its frame. \ldblquote The painting was slightly damaged as he had folded it at least four times,\rdblquote the security official said. : \ldblquote The painting was originally inside a house but we didn\rquote t like the idea of a raid because we feared the suspect might burn the painting. An ambush was set up outside and he was lured into the city, where he was arrested in the middle of the road.\rdblquote A security official told The reality took the gloss off what was otherwise a brilliant operation. The would-be seller, 33, was given it by his father just before he died. He was said to have asked for a \ldblquote down payment\rdblquote of $450,000. It must have seemed like the artistic find of the decade \emdash a Picasso looted from Kuwait when Saddam Hussein\rquote s forces invaded in 1990 and found in southern Iraq when someone tried to sell it for a handsome sum. The canvas even said \ldblquote Picasso\rdblquote on it. , said yesterday that it went missing from the al-Ahmadi Hall of the Kuwait National Museum after the Iraqi invasion that started the Gulf War. The son of a former soldier in al-Hillah, 60 miles (100km) south of Baghdad, had tried to sell it recently, ask Security officials who showed off the painting, The Naked Woman There was widespread looting after Iraqi troops flooded into Kuwait City in August 1990. Baghdad street markets filled with second-hand cars, televisions and antiques. Here was proof of Iraq\rquote s success in tracking down some of that loot. When the art world took a closer look, however, doubts began to emerge. Was it the strange proportions? Was it the tag on the back that read \ldblquote the Louvre; to the museum of Kuwait\rdblquote , even t Painting The Naked Woman is seized by Iraqi security forces - but is it a Picasso? Oliver August in Baghdad Or was it that, in the words of an expert, \ldblquote it bears absolutely no relation to any Picasso that I can think of\rdblquote ? Young Iranian to show vote protest film at Venice festival Young Iranian film director Hana Makhmalbaf is to preview her film about protests that followed Iran's disputed June presidential election at the Venice Film Festival, organisers said Monday. The footage is already in Italy and the young director is finishing the editing and post-production at a secret location thereby avoiding strict Iranian censorship, one of the festival's spokesmen told AFP. Green Days, using a mix of raw footage from the protests and fictional sequences about the position of women in Iran, will show outside of competition at the 66th Venice Film Festival, which runs from September 2 to 12. The film shows Iranian society going through a revolution, with all its hopes and doubts through the story of a depressed young Iranian woman caught up in the political events, a statement quoted Makhmalbaf as saying. Makhmalbaf, 21, is from a well-known Iranian filmmaking family and won the Crystal Bear at last year's Berlin Film Festival for her Buddha Collapsed out of Shame. Her first feature-length film Joy of Madness was screened at the 2003 Venice Film Festival when she was just 15 years old. Her director father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is also a spokesman for the losing candidate during June's presidential election, the former post-revolution prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. The disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triggered massive street protests in Tehran and other cities, with dozens killed and thousands arrested during Iran's worst crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Morocco: Four Perspectives on Sexual Harassment Sexual harassment is defined by intimidation, bullying, or coercion of a sexual nature and is, by all accounts, something that happens the world over.\~ Although cases of sexual harassment in Egypt have received global media attention of late, bloggers in Morocco have been assessing the situation closer to home.\~ The bloggers, both male and female, foreign and Moroccan, offer a variety of perspectives on the issue. , a Fulbright scholar working in Agadir, in southern Morocco, compares her experiences in the United States, Egypt, and Morocco in this excellent blog post .\~ Of her experiences in Morocco, she remarks: My experiences with sexual harassment in Morocco have been 99.9% verbal. Unlike in Cairo, where I was often physically grabbed on the street, here the harassment comes mainly in the form of catcalls. It can be anything from a man whispering \ldblquote Ca va?\rdblquote as I The blogger notes her realization that sexual harassment is about power struggle rather than sex itself, linking to another excellent post on the matter and, assessing how the paradigm relates to her country of residence, states: How do these ideas apply to the Moroccan context? Firstly, it's hard to argue with the assertion that Arab states, Morocco included, are patriarchal. Family is perhaps the paramount social institution (often, multiple generations live together under one r Kandiyoti refers to as the \ldblquote patriarchal bargain\rdblquote : younger women buy into a social structure that restricts and subordinates because someday, as older matriarchs, they will be able to restrict and subordinate the wives of their sons. is a blog written by a Dutch anthropologist living in Rabat, Morocco's coastal capital.\~ In a lengthy post documenting her feeling of otherness , the blog's author assesses how that otherness affects her treatment on the street as a woman: Israel to consider renegotiating price of Egyptian gas First Published:\~September\~2,\~2009 CAIRO: The Israeli government has set a three-week deadline to decide on an Egyptian proposal to renegotiate the price of exported natural gas, according to Israeli press reports. The Israeli Electric Company (IEC), which imports Egyptian gas from the Egyptian-Israeli consortium EMG, announced Tuesday it would consider an Egyptian request to renegotiate the price of the deal. Ibrahim Zahran, the petroleum expert for the campaign, previously told Daily News Egypt, \ldblquote The Egyptian people pay the difference [in gas prices], why are we subsidizing the Israeli consumer? How is that in our interest?\rdblquote However the Israeli press reported that in the end it was the Israeli government that would decide whether to renegotiate, firstly because IEC is government-owned and also because the \ldblquote state has a strategic interest in the supply agreement with Egypt, whi The new terms being sought would see a 40-60 percent increase in the price to $4-4.50 per million BTU (British Thermal Unit). The initial agreed upon price in the deal was $1.50 per million BTU. In June the Egyptian press had reported \emdash quoting an unnamed petroleum ministry official \emdash that Egypt had increased the volume of gas exported to Israel after agreeing an increase in the price. In July a new gas deal was announced between EMG and the Israeli company Dorad Energy subject to an agreement that was initially struck in 2007. The terms of the new deal were that EMG would supply around 12.5\endash 16 billion cubic meters of gas to Dorad Energ The gas deals with Israel have been met with vehement local opposition, especially because of the initially favorable price. The opposition was spearheaded by the popular campaign to prevent the export of Egyptian gas.\~ He added that Egypt sells gas to Syria for $5.25 per thermal unit because \ldblquote Syria is our enemy apparently while Israel is our friend.\rdblquote The popular campaign is not the only opposition to the gas deals. Last July, former Grand Mufti Nasr Farid Wassel said that exporting gas to Israel was religiously prohibited and called for a total economic boycott of the Jewish state. \ldblquote You cannot support a country that fights Islam and Muslims and occupies the land of Palestine. In fact you must cut all economic ties with it,\rdblquote he had said in a seminar in Alexandria the day after the deal with Dorad Energy was announced. When I think of my trial, I pray my fight won't be in vain For wearing trousers, I face 40 lashes. This is the brutal reality of Sudan: we live in fear of those who should protect us Next week I will stand trial in a Sudanese court, charged along with \endash wearing trousers in a public place. I will face up to 40 lashes and an unlimited fine if I am convicted of breaching Article 152 of Sudanese law, which prohibits dressing indecently in public. As an employee of the UN I was offe 12 other women with committing an indecent act It will seem absurd to many people that a woman could face this situation in a country that claims to be the Dubai of the Nile. Much international media coverage of Sudan in recent years may have focused on issues of conflict. But at the same time my co And my case is far from an isolated one. In fact the director of police has admitted that 43,000 women were arrested in Khartoum state in 2008 for clothing offences. When asked, he couldn't say how many of these women had been flogged. And it's not just a In many such cases the court consists of just one policeman and a single judge \endash with the policeman acting as the complainant, prosecutor and sole witness. And in a growing number of cases, the accused don't even reach court. One man, in dread of what mig The laws under which we live have not modernised with our economy. Despite a new constitution in 2005, a comprehensive peace agreement and the protocol of human rights, women are still constrained \endash not only in their freedom of dress but also their freedo This is not new: Sudan has a proud and sad history of courageous men and women who have had to fight against repressive laws. They taught me that we should not hide behind privilege but that we should speak out for those who cannot find their voice. My tr British New York Times journalist freed by Nato forces in Afghanistan Stephen Farrell, a British journalist who was working for the New York Times _ when he was kidnapped in Afghanistan four days ago, has been freed during a _ special forces operation. Farrell, who holds dual British and Irish citizenship, and his colleague _ Sultan Munadi went missing on Saturday in the northern province of Kunduz, _ where a NATO air strike killed civilians and dozens of Taliban insurgents. \ldblquote Last night in a US special forces operation in Chardara district, they _ managed to free Stephen Farrell but the Afghan journalist Sultan Mohammad _ [Munadi] was killed by Taliban during the operation,\rdblquote said Mohammad Omar, _ the Kunduz governor. An Afghan journalist who spoke to villagers in the area reportedly said that _ civilians, including women and children, were also killed in the firefight _ to free the men. The New York Times website reported that in a brief telephone call at about _ 7:30pm New York time on Tuesday, Farrell told Susan Chira, the foreign _ editor of the paper: \ldblquote I\rquote m out! I\rquote m free!\rdblquote Chira said Farrell told her that he had been \ldblquote extracted\rdblquote by a commando raid _ carried out by \ldblquote a lot of soldiers\rdblquote in a fierce firefight with his captors. _ Farrell said he had also called his wife. In a second phone call to a New York Times reporter in Kabul, Farrell gave an _ account of what happened when he and his captors heard the thump-thumping of _ approaching helicopters, the paper's website reported. \ldblquote We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid,\rdblquote Farrell _ said. \ldblquote We thought they would kill us. We thought should we go out.\rdblquote Farrell said as he and Munadi ran outside, he heard voices. \ldblquote There were _ bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices.\rdblquote Farrell said _ Munadi went forward, shouting: \ldblquote Journalist! Journalist!\rdblquote but dropped in a _ hail of bullets. \ldblquote I div Farrell said he heard more British voices and shouted, \ldblquote British hostage!\rdblquote Farrell said he then saw Munadi lying motionless on the floor. \ldblquote He\rquote s dead,\rdblquote he _ said. \ldblquote He was so close, he was just two feet in front of me when he dropped.\rdblquote A media blackout had been in place while the men were missing. The Ministry of Defence refused to confirm whether British special forces were _ involved, citing its policy of not commenting on the activities of special _ forces. A spokeswoman said: We do not comment on special forces. All we can say _ is that it was a Nato operation. The Foreign Office said: Efforts have been under way to secure the _ release of two hostages in Afghanistan. We can confirm that Isaf forces have freed one of the hostages. Stephen Farrell, a reporter for The New York Times Islamic finance rides the storm More moves expected in effort to stabilize financial system By WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks moved in concert Wednesday to slash key interest rates as part of an ongoing effort to quell financial turmoil that has threatened to flatten the international economy. In moves announced simultaneously before the opening of U.S. markets, the Fed cut its key lending rate by half a percentage point, to 1.5%. The European Central Bank trimmed its key rate to 3.75% from 4.25%, and the Bank of England cut its benchmark rate to 4.5% from 5%. The Bank of Japan sat out the move but issued a statement backing the action. The Bank of Canada, the Swiss National Bank and the Swedish Riksbank cut rates as well. The move was hailed by economists, but did little to provide lasting support for tumbling equity markets. European indexes rebounded strongly but soon returned to the downside. U.S. stock index futures spiked higher, but then dove back into negative terri See full story. See Market Snapshot. U.S. stocks turned positive after an initial sharp selloff. Trading was very volatile. Incoming economic data suggest that the pace of economic activity has slowed markedly in recent months, the Fed said in a statement. Moreover, the intensification of financial market turmoil is likely to exert additional restraint on spending, partly b Economists welcomed the action, but they said it wouldn't be enough on its own to remedy a deepening and severe financial crisis. The move is to be applauded, but there is more to come, said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y. The playbook to avoid depressions says rates need to be as close to zero as possible, banks have to be resc The International Monetary Fund forecast a sharp global economic slowdown in a new report Wednesday. The Fed move was unanimously approved by the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. And its statement indicated the Fed stands ready to move again whenever warranted: The committee will monitor economic and financial developments carefully and will See full statement. Coordinated rate moves are extremely rare. Some economists had anticipated such action, however, warning that mounting financial turmoil threatened to turn a likely global economic slump into a historically deep downturn. The Fed also approved a half-point cut in the discount rate, to 1.75%. 'Easy move' The action suggests that the authorities are now fully awake to the scale of the financial crisis in the markets, said Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of the London-based Center for Economics and Business Research. Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc., said the rate cuts were a relatively easy move to make. Trickier will be dealing with the ongoing need for aggressive fiscal policy measures, particularly in Europe where a central fiscal authority does not exist, he said. The move comes on the same day the British government unveiled a plan to use as much as 50 billion pounds ($87 billion) in taxpayer money for recapitalizing some of the nation's biggest banks and stabilize the reeling financial sector. European governments have scrambled in recent weeks to rescue a number of troubled banks, but European Union officials have struggled to come up with a unified plan to deal with failing institutions. In the United States, the epicenter of the global crisis, President Bush last week signed into law a $700 billion financial-rescue plan that centers on the government buying up toxic debt. THE FED Arab shares see partial recovery US warns of further bank failures . Yet this is what the government is calling for state school teachers like me to be; government guidance published today will ask teachers to monitor pupils' behaviour and inform the authorities \endash including police \endash if they suspect teenagers are being dr Wednesday October 08 2008 17:20 BST Article history Of all the roles I thought I might play as a classroom teacher, it never occurred to me that I might be called upon to be a spook. Social worker, surrogate parent, cleaner, technician, crowd controller, salesman for the damaged goods of the national curri budding terrorists As with much of the guidance that the government provides teachers, it is highly contradictory. On the one hand, it encourages teachers to discuss the issues surrounding terrorism \endash the threat from extreme Islamist groups, al-Qaida, and other fanatics hel This begs a couple of questions. Surely, if pupils know that teachers are obliged to report them if they articulate their extreme views, then they'll be very cautious about saying anything that might incriminate themselves? Furthermore, won't it inhibit a Spooks in the classroom The government's plan for teachers to monitor their pupils for signs of extremism stifles debate and encourages secrecy I am currently teaching Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart , which is about an African man's violent and ultimately suicidal response to British colonial rule in Nigeria in the 19th century, and fielding all sorts of left-of-field comments from my sixth formers, some of whom are suggesting that the African is rig Perhaps even more pertinently, I have taught pupils after 9/11, and during the Iraq war, who have expressed sympathies for both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. On both occasions, this has provoked a furious response from the rest of the class and a li Ed Balls , wants lots of teachers to conduct throughout the country. However, I am pretty sure that they wouldn't have happened if the pupils who provoked the discussions with their defence of al-Qaida and the former Iraqi dictator knew that I would have to report However, I have come across some characters at school that I have suspe This has made me think that perhaps teachers need to be properly vetted before we turn our attention to the pupils. After all, one of the 7/7 bombers was a primary school assistant; it is possible, he could well have been rooted out if properly questioned A thriving financial sector sounds like an oxymoron these days. Even Australia's banks - among the most profitable in the world - kept a fifth of this week's interest rate cut to cushion their margins. But there is one sector that has tongues wagging in t While the Western world's financial system has been imploding, this small but rapidly growing share of world capital has weathered the storm. Financial crisis not an excuse to ignore hunger, says Annan Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that the global financial crisis cannot be used as an excuse for inaction in the worsening battle against wrenching hunger across the developing world. Speaking in Dublin at a major international conference hosted by Concern Worldwide to mark World Food Day, Mr Annan urged political leaders to maintain their resolve to ending a situation where nearly one billion of the world's population do not have enough food to eat on a day-to-day basis. More than 200 Irish and international policy-makers and influential figures drawn from government, business, academia and major NGOs are attending the conference at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin. They heard Mr Annan, who founded the UN Hunger Task Force and now chairs the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, call governments to task over their slow response to the problem of global hunger in comparison to the swift reaction to the current tu The food crisis of recent months is now compounded by a global financial crisis. While national governments and international lenders scramble to inject hundreds of billions of dollars into failing banks - the developing world goes hungry....this is simp Saying the world was at a critical juncture, Mr Annan continued: The world food crisis awakened the global community to the need for agricultural development to end hunger and spur growth in Africa. Yet today commitments to that goal are on shaky ground. The financial crisis cannot be an excuse for inaction. We must maintain our resolve. We can end hunger and poverty. Doing so is critical to Africa and to a healthy and resilient global food system. Mr Annan added that the potential of Africa's agricultural sector is languishing as a result of 'decades of neglect'. He called for a comprehensive programme of support to Africa's smallholder farmers. On both national and international levels, we must reverse the policies of abandonment. We must help Africa's smallholder farmers to attain what has eluded them for so long: fully productive and profitable farms. Africa can feed itself and rejoin the league of agriculture-exporting nations. Special Advisor to the UN Secretary and author or the best-selling book, An End to Poverty, Prof Jeffrey Sachs, told the conference he was honoured to celebrate Concern\rquote s 40th anniversary and the work of chief executive Tom Arnold, who he maintained was respected all over the world. Commenting on this week's Budget, Prof Sachs said: \ldblquote I very much appreciate that the Irish Government followed through on its aid commitment in what is no doubt the most difficult project in living memory in this country. \ldblquote The Government has made it very clear it is not going to pretend to balance the crisis on the backs of the world\rquote s poorest people because this is a tendency we may see in some of our Governments and Ireland said no, it remains committed to its developmen \ldblquote The only way we are going to find security in what is clearly an insecure world is through following up on our commitments to address the poorest of the poor,\rdblquote he added. Other speakers at today's conference include former president and ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and Sheila Sisulu of the World Food Programme Powell Rejects Islamophobia On NBC's Meet the Press this weekend, former Secretary of State Colin Powell formally endorsed Barack Obama in this year's presidential election. Pundits will spend the next few days debating whether or not this endorsement matters. In truth, his endorsement of a politician matters less than his strong rejection of the Islamophobia that has tainted this race and that continues to exist unabated in In a moment that would have made Tim Russert proud, Secretary Powell firmly renounced the divisiveness that has been perpetuated by his own party. During his interview , Secretary Powell exhibited a gravitas that has been unmatched thus far by politicians and pundits alike when it comes to an honest discussion of the state of a presidential race that has increasingly gone negative. Since the beginning of this way-too-long presidential campaign Americans of conscience have longed for someone of such stature to repudiate the blatant bigotry towards Muslims. On Sunday Colin Powell lived up to his billing as senior American statesman. I know I was not the only one moved to tears by the following remarks of Colin Powell: I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said. Such things as 'Well you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well the correct answer is 'He is not a Muslim, he's a Christian, he's alway I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo-essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery an It is important that Secretary Powell's statement not be minimized to a political endorsement. It was so much more. But despite the powerful imagery and language used by Secretary Powell, there are two unfortunate facts that accompany his statement. First, the fact that I was so moved by his statement highlights the fact that the many calls for denouncing bigotry towar Now, given today's political climate, not holding or seeking office makes denouncing Islamophobia a lot easier. Furthermore, it should be noted that Islamophobia is not something that exists only within the Republican Party. After all, the man who has bee certainly allowed the Obama-is-a-Muslim whispers to continue. Obama has frequently denied the claim that he is a Muslim only by presenting the fact of his Christian faith and not addressing the crucial subtext of the claim: that there is something wrong with being a Muslim. With his endorsement coming largely as a result of Obama's ability to transcend party and race, Secretary Powell has raised the bar for whoever does win this historic election. Politicians of either party have been unwilling to denounce Islamophobia for fear of appearing both weak and willing to 'pal around' with 'terrorists.' By unequivocally attacking the bigoted tenor of the campaign, he struck at the heart of what politicians have for this entire political season felt a taboo subject to address. In addressing the Powell endorsement in the coming days, one can only hope that both candidates Obama and McCain see it more as a rejection of heightened bigotry than as a mere endorsement of any one politician. Abed Z. Bhuyan is a recent graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he studied International Politics and Muslim-Christian Understanding. Posted by Abed Z. Bhuyan on October 20, 2008 10:47 AM A Critical Stage in Iraq Iraq hasn't gotten much attention recently in the American presidential campaign, thanks to the reduction in violence there, but U.S. policymakers are increasingly worried about what's ahead. . With a Dec. 31 deadline approaching, Baghdad and Washington seem to be running out of bargaining room. The Iraqis are determined to assert their sovereignty through legal jurisdiction over U.S. forces, while American officials are demanding broad protec U.S. officials are warning that if the talks remain stalled, there isn't an easy Plan B, such as a new resolution to replace the one that expires at year's end and now provides the legal mandate for American troops. Reported from Faw, Iraq -- Some days, fisherman Aoun Saleh loves life on the seas: the friendships, the jokes, the singing, especially when they have a big catch. But some days he rues the day he first walked onto the docks. How young is too young to learn about sex? Now primary schools are going to have to teach children where babies come from. Shouldn't parents have some say? All children \endash from the age of five up \endash are going to have to learn about sex and relationships as part of the curriculum, much to the delight of sexual health charities and others. Ministers are making personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) classes \endash which include sex and relationships education (SRE) \endash a statutory subject in all schools in England \endash and at all ages. No longer will sensitive parents be able to insist their children are spared the classes at any stage. Should they be able to? No, as far as the Sex Education Forum is concerned. It represents 50 organisations including children's and sexual-health charities as well as parents and governors' groups, and says young people, teachers and parents all support the move. But do you? Should all children learn about the context of sex and relationships rather than just the biological mechanics of how babies are made? Some fear the worst. Christian Voice, a prophetic ministry, believes more sex education will simply encourage fornication. Of course, five-year-olds won't be taught how to have sex \endash rather they will learn about healthy relationships, what to call body parts, and that animals have babies. They won't be taught the mechanics until seven. But are you happy for that to happen? Does raising the issues with young children sexualize them too early? A headteacher is going to produce guidance on how sex education should be taught. How easy do you \endash as a teacher or parent - find it to talk to children about sex and relationships? Iraqi fishermen face tough times They complain of smaller catches, and harassment by the coast guards of Iran and Kuwait. But consider a cautionary tale. A group of Israeli journalists prepared for a visit to the Netherlands last year by sending questions via e-mail to the Dutch Foreign Ministry. After online translation from Hebrew to English, the first question reportedly Like the time, he says, the Kuwaiti sailors stopped his boat in midwinter and forced the entire crew to swim in the cold waters. Or when the Iranian coast guard held him and other fishermen captive, forcing them to cook and clean for them. More recently, Saleh thinks the lack of respect is a sign of how far Iraq has fallen since Saddam Hussein was overthrown five years ago. They didn't dare to do that during Saddam's time, he bristles. Now we don't know who can protect us -- the British? The Americans? The government? Or none of them? Indeed, at least eight Iraqi fishermen have been killed this year by gunfire from Kuwaiti or Iranian naval ships, according to statements from the Iraqi police and navy. The attacks have taken place, Iraqis say, in Iraqi waters and border areas as well as The fishermen press on with their work if only because they have to eke out a living in a woeful economy. Each day, they travel the tiny 37-mile coastline, a legacy of boundaries drawn in the early 20th century by Western nations as the Ottoman Empire col One Iraqi fishery official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attacks were motivated by a desire for revenge over Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and its war with Iran during the 1980s. He said the neighbors are able to pressure Iraq at sea b The official did fault the fishermen for crossing into Iranian or Kuwaiti waters on occasion because Iraqi waters yield fewer and fewer fish. For its part, the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad denied that Iranian sailors had ever harassed Iraqi fishermen. Kuwai Zuhair Badran, 36, began fishing when he was 19. Whereas he once felt he could make money in the trade, now he feels like a pauper. Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the state sold 18 barrels of diesel for $13. Now his crews never have enough Yet fuel prices are the least of Badran's worries. He too complains about the Iranian and Kuwaiti coast guard crews who he says threaten Iraqi boats in neutral waters. A year ago, Badran says, he was briefly detained by the Kuwaitis. They arrested me for hours, confiscated everything on my dinghy and started to torture me for more than six hours, breaking my arm and two ribs, Badran says. He says that an Iranian sniper shot two fishermen to death this summer. We were near the place where the fishermen used to gather after their return from fishing, and an Iranian sniper killed two of them, Badran says. Saleh, 38, visits the local employment center every day, hoping to find an alternative to fishing. He has found nothing. We have no other way to get our livelihood, Saleh says. Fishing is the only job people can find in this city. Believe me, if there are any other jobs, I would never look at the sea again! When he is fishing, in a boat crammed with 13 or 14 men on a small deck, Saleh spends long nights watching the nets and then hauling in the catch. Sometimes, the fish are sick and worthless. His colleagues remember when a good haul could bring in $150. Now they are happy to finish a trip with $50 in their pockets. Some of Saleh's friends have joined the security forces, but he says he is too fat for the army or police. He's tired of the cramped quarters and the way the eastern winds tear at his skin -- though at least when there is bad weather, he says, it keeps th That is better than nothing. he says. Yousif Yaqoub, 48, who owns seven fishing boats, has also thought about walking away. This summer, he says, the Kuwaitis detained him for several days and forced him to hand over up to $3,330 worth of fish. He finds the Iraqi government inattentive. He sa We will continue this job not only because it is the only job in this city but because we love it, he says. We love the sea. Raheem Salman is a Times staff writer. Times staff writer Usama Redha and a special correspondent in Basra, Iraq, contributed to this report. Saudi Gazette last week. The elections are scheduled for 2009, but the sources said they might postponed while the government conducts a study to evaluate the previous cycle. Sounds like a lame excuse, if you ask me. Why is it only now that they are think voted Saudi Arabia\rquote s upcoming municipal elections are likely to be put off for at least two years, informed sources told When I back in 2005 I thought I was making history. But shortly after the municipal councils were formed, disappointment quickly replaced excitement and pride. News emerged on how religious leaders manipulated elections using so-called \ldblquote golden lists .\rdblquote We found the councils to be powerless, handicapped by rigid regulations. Appointing the other half of council members seemed to harm more than help. When public frustration over the performance of the councils made its way to the media, elected members Earlier this year, five members of Hail municipal council resigned because they felt it was useless to occupy seats with virtually no power. But the resignation which attracted more media attention was that of Abdullah al-Suwailim, member of Riyadh munici violations of Islamic rules during this year\rquote s Eid Al-Fitr festivities in the city, namely: the lack of segregation of single men from families, non-Muslims entertaining audiences and live music that was played in one of the theatrical productions. It is true that the previous elections were far from perfect and suffered from many notable shortcomings, but putting off the elections is not the answer. Postponing the elections raises serious concerns over the country\rquote s commitment to reform and democra Riyadh Bloggers\~Meeting Race and issues The military situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, the financial crisis and global warming are the three main issues the new US president would face as soon as he takes up office, the survey showed. While Europe would like to see a positive outcome in Iraq Barack Obama is best placed to treat these issues, according to a majority of the people surveyed. However, most people interviewed consider McCain more credible on questions regarding security and reducing terrorism. On these two issues, McCain enjoys a Finally, this is the first time that a person of colour could actually become the president of the United States. This survey\~ was conducted online among a total of 6,276 adults (aged 16‐64) within France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain andthe United‐States; and adults (aged 18‐64) in Italy, from 1st to 13th October 2008. In the 6 European countries, a majority of respondents (71% of Germans and 54% of Spanish) felt this would have a positive effect on the United States, but 14% of Americans surveyed said they believed it would have a negative impact. Obama landslide in Europe As the election of the next US president draws closer, the latest FRANCE 24 / Harris Interactive poll, in partnership with the IHT, revealed some surprising results about what most Europeans and Americans expect from the Nov. 4 vote. As the election of the next US President approaches, the latest FRANCE 24 / Harris Interactive poll, in partnership with the International Herald Tribune, revealed some surprising results regarding expectations in Europe and the United States. While most Europeans interviewed said they were following this election closely (85% in Germany), nearly one in two British respondents (47%) said they were not interested in the vote. The 5 largest European countries (78% in France and 72% in Germany) would like to see Democratic candidate Barack Obama elected because of his personality and his capacity to bring about a change from current US policy. For most respondents, Obama would d Republican candidate John McCain\rquote s rating, meanwhile, is extremely low. If they could vote, only 1% of French, 5% of German and 8% of Spanish respondents would elect John McCain. Three-way suicide Instead of joining forces in face of grave threats, Livni, Barak, and Bibi led by their ego Eitan Haber There are quite a few people around here who still refuse to face up to reality: Israel\rquote s three leading political movements have gone bankrupt. They finished their role and are facing a liquidation sale. Kadima, Labor, and Likud no longer have something t What can the Likud sell? Israeli presence on the two banks of the Jordan River, as its old slogan suggested? And what can Labor offer its voters? Mahmoud Abbas\rquote suffering? The collaborative vision of collapsing kibbutzim? Socialism that has not adapted it And what about Kadima? What did it ever have to sell? Its members are mostly Likud refugees who realized, even if late, that Likud no longer has anything to offer: We are not the Goliath of the Middle East, but rather, its David. We will never raise the I En route to the painful realization that there is no choice but to make very difficult concessions in order to secure a peace agreement, Likud members made a stop in Kadima, a party that had nothing to sell with the exception of goodwill and a leader \endash Ar Most voters in Israel want \ldblquote center\rdblquote \endash yet the \ldblquote center\rdblquote of Likud refugees is apparently a little different than that of Labor refugees, who all joined Kadima. And what about the Likud? Uri Savir revealed a few days ago that Benjamin Netanyahu was willing t National emergency government needed The best people, in terms of personal qualities, are in Kadima today. Leftovers of appropriate ideology can be found in Labor. Meanwhile, Likud has some good and hard-working field people. So what can be done? How do we leave behind the great confusion an The large parties are facing an ideological and leadership crisis not seen since the State\rquote s establishment. Had Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak, and Benjamin Netanyahu been able to put aside their huge ego for a while, we would have an intermediate solution, whic Had it been possible, for the next two years at least, to establish a national emergency government with Livni, Barak, and Netanyahu, the political establishment would calm down and seek solutions to the most severe diplomatic and security problems since However, Kadima, Labor, and Likud decided to commit political suicide. And all of us are just standing there and applauding them. We always loved our bread and entertainment. We face an ecological credit crunch far greater than the global financial crisis, warn leading environmental groups. say the Earth's natural resources are being depleted so quickly that the equivalent of two planets would be required to sustain current lifestyles by the mid-2030s. In the latest Disastrous 'eco crunch' threatens planet Controvery over American school and cultural center in Damascus is nothing new Syria\rquote s ordered closure of the Damascus Community School (a.k.a. the \ldblquote American School) and the American Cultural Center in Damascus is only the latest episode in a bizarre campaign by the Syrian government against US interests in Syria over the last two y In the summer of 2007 \endash following high profile visits by Democratic legislators to Damascus that spring and meetings between Sec of State Rice and her counterpart, Walid Mouallem \endash the Syrian embassy in Washington ironically denied visas to American teach Then last summer, as relations seemed to be improving following the Doha Agreement in Lebanon and the launch of indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel, the Syrian Ministry of Education suddenly refused to accredit DCS \endash a school that has existed in The cultural center's reported closure (diplomats in Damascus tell me its still operating) not only hinders recently enlivened US public diplomacy out of the facility, but also effectively shuts down US educational outreach in the country. In November 200 After a few months testing services were moved into the American Cultural Center in Damascus, allowing educational services to resume. If the center is closed, students will once again have to go to Lebanon or Jordan to take their entrance exams. In the weeks leading up to the raid, two US Fulbright students were abruptly deported from Syria without a clear reason, other than that their visas could not be extended for Security reasons. What\rquote s mind-boggling about the closures is that they actually hit Americans who are actively working to engage Syria the hardest. According to reports, the State Department (which operates the embassy in Damascus) is reconsidering its Syria policy. The c The Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance will not have the prominent Holocaust remembrance theme of its L.A. counterpoint because that would duplicate Israel's memorial, Yad Vashem. Instead, Hier said, the goal is to create a great landmark promoting the princi Hier told The Times that, with $115 million raised for the Jerusalem museum, construction could resume immediately upon a go-ahead from the Supreme Court. Asked whether he was concerned that the project could become a new flashpoint in the ever-volatile A interview last month, In an Ran Boytner, an Israeli-born archeologist who is director of international research at UCLA's Cotsen Institute for Archaeology and heads a cooperative Arab and Israeli effort to protect ancient sites, said last month that he was concerned approval of the Photos: Top, artist's rendering of Frank Gehry-designed Center for Human Dignity-Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem; bottom, rendering of the museum's grand hall. Credit: Simon Wiesenthal Center -- Mike Boehm Israeli court OKs Museum of Tolerance's controversial branch A Frank Gehry-designed museum can rise in Jerusalem on a site that was once a Muslim cemetery, , clearing the way for L.A.'s Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a Holy Land counterpart to its Museum of Tolerance on Pico Boulevard. Israel's Supreme Court ruled today The $250-million project had been delayed since early 2006, when builders unearthed bones. Arab leaders in Israel sued to stop the project and were supported, in an unusual alliance, by some ultra-Orthodox Jews with firm beliefs against disturbing graves. , said in a statement Wednesday that moderation and tolerance have prevailed. But Zahi Nujidat, a spokesman for the Israeli Islamic movement, decried the ruling as clear religious and ethnic oppression, according to the Associated Press. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Wiesenthal Center The Supreme Court's ruling requires museum builders to consult with Israel's Antiquities Authority on how to rebury any remains unearthed during construction and on creating a barrier between graves and the building's foundation. The court found that the The Wiesenthal Center had argued that Muslim religious authorities declared the cemetery abandoned in 1964. Opponents of the project questioned whether the abandonment was legitimate. Controversy over the project stirred as early as 2004, when a ceremonia Obama, inshallah! Arabs are anticipating a Democratic victory on November 4 with enthusiasm tempered by scepticism, writes Ian Black Like millions of people all over the world, Arabs are awaiting the outcome of the US presidential election with excitement and anticipation to see if the new man in the Oval Office turns out to be any more favourable to their interests than George Bush ha Polls conducted from May to August in six predominantly Muslim countries showed interest in who wins ranging from high in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon to very low in the Palestinian territories and Pakistan. Those who did express a preference preferred Barack Reports of the slogan Obama, inshallah, or God willing, appearing in the Gaza Strip - and even some organised telephone campaigning for the Illinois Democrat - look like vivid but untypical examples of active mobilisation on his behalf. Still, even a brief survey of comments from across the region underlines the sense of qualified hope that, should he win, Obama will turn out to be different - even if the only certainty is that he could not be worse than Bush. Feelings of indifference an McCain recently provided a painful reminder that Arab expectations of America begin from a very low base when he defended his opponent against the charge that he was not an Arab but a decent man - as if the two categories were somehow mutually exclusi But if US citizens are uneasy at electing a black president whose middle name is Hussein and who was brought up partly in Indonesia, others see huge potential for transformation. It's easy to demonise Bush's America if you are a Muslim, commented one pu Probably the biggest immediate hope in the Middle East is that Obama, emphasising diplomacy and dialogue, will be more likely than McCain to avoid war with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, has explicitl Endorsements of this kind do not necessarily help Obama. Yet McCain can hardly be pleased by the support he received via an Islamist website from an al-Qaida supporter who said a Republican victory on November 4 was desirable because likely continuity wit Obama's stance on Iraq - having opposed the 2003 invasion he now backs an ambitiously speedy withdrawal - is distinct from that of McCain, though he shows no signs of any second thoughts about Afghanistan. Strikingly, even some of America's fiercest Arab critics acknowledge that Obama's big theme of change is a powerful one. Colin Powell's endorsement of him had nothing to do with political party, commented the London-based paper al-Quds al-Arabi, but cam For most Arabs there is no doubt that the biggest long-term question is whether Obama will be able to crack the nut of Israeli-Palestinian peace, and optimism is hard to detect. Observers wearily note his unblemished voting record for Aipac - the powerful And Senator Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, is a self-described Zionist who believes that there can only be progress in the Middle East when the Arab nations have known that there is no daylight between us [the US] and Israel. It may be that energy and commitment - of the kind shown far too late in the day by Bill Clinton - will matter more than any substantial shift in policy. The appointment of a high-profile, heavyweight Middle East envoy could be one way of demonstrating th Another key factor could be Obama's promised new approach to Syria, coaxing Bashar al-Assad in from the cold as he cleans up his act in Lebanon and resumes peace talks with a new Israeli government. This weekend's US special forces raid across the Iraqi b Beyond the specific issues on the table there has been much positive comment about the new atmosphere Obama could conjure up. The Arab-American blogger Ghassan Michel Rubeiz described a dream for the future in which the Democrat could be a catalyst for For the US to vote in an African-American progressive liberal would certainly mark a departure from the hyper and violent conservatism of the Bush-McCain camp, observed Al-Jazeera's Marwan Bishara. The rest of the world would certainly embrace a less fearful and more open post-9/11 America, according to the Egyptian intellectual Mona Makram Obeid. Choosing Barack Obama, a symbol of hope, would do more to restore the image of the United States in Sensibly, some have hinted too at the danger of exaggerated expectations. It is only natural for Arabs to lean towards supporting a black candidate with roots in Africa on the basis that he understands the concerns of the developing world and is aware th 'Bold action' needed The report finds that more than three quarters of the world's population lives in countries whose consumption levels are outstripping environmental renewal. It warns that reckless consumption of natural capital is endangering the world's future prosperi WWF's international director-general James Leape says world leaders must put ecological concerns at the top of their agenda and ensure the environment is factored into all decisions about consumption, development, trade, agriculture and fisheries manageme If humanity has the will, it has the ways to live within the means of the planet, but we must recognize that the ecological credit crunch will require even bolder action than that now being mustered for the financial crisis, he says. Emissions from fossil fuels are among the top culprits for placing excessive demands on the planet cited by the three environmental groups. Yet, these could be , due to be agreed by member nations of the UN at the end of 2009. regulated by a successor to the Kyoto protocol The report's conclusions echoed those of the UN Environment Programme's fourth (GEO), published a year ago. Global Environment Outlook Planetary debt , the world's global environmental footprint now exceeds the planet's capacity to regenerate by 30%. Last year's Living Planet Report According to the GEO-4 report said the human population needs 1.4 Earths to sustain the average lifestyle In 2002, WWF and its partners found that humanity was overusing the Earth's resources by 20% and that we would need two planets by 2050 (see Humanity's massive overdraft with Earth The Global Footprint Network records the date humans go into planetary debt each year by using up the resources that Earth can regenerate in one year. In 2008, Earth Overshoot Day came on 23 September. According to the latest report, the US and China have the largest national footprints. The picture is different, though, when China's population of 1.3 billion is taken into account: per capita, the US and Australia rank among the five countries with the The lowest five nations are Bangladesh, Congo, Haiti, Afghanistan and Malawi. The only regions to remain within their biocapacity are non-EU Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean WWF , the Zoological Society of London Global Footprint Network and the We are acting ecologically in the same way as financial institutions have been behaving economically \endash seeking immediate gratification without due regard for the consequences, says Jonathan Loh of the Zoological Society of London, comparing the cost of The consequences of a global ecological crisis are even graver than the current economic meltdown, he says. New Scientist staff and Reuters Q&A: Barclays' Middle Eastern funds Muxlim Pal to be world's first Muslim-themed virtual world For the last couple of years in Second Life, there have been reproductions of Islamic holy sites, including a\~ virtual Mecca (with a virtual Kabaa), and a small handful of virtual mosques , including replicas of the Hassan II mosque in Morocco, the Chebi mosque replica of the Mezquita mosque in Cordoba, Spain), Istanbul's \~and a few others. Blue mosque (a But as anyone who has encountered a flying penis knows, Second Life isn't exactly specifically geared toward Muslims. However, within the next few months, says Ashar Saeed , complete with its own currency and culture. , a vice president at Muxlim.com , the Internet will receive its first Muslim-themed virtual world, not unlike Second Life Saeed asserts that Muxlim.com, based in Finland and the United Kingdom, is the world's largest online Muslim community. The new virtual world will be called Muxlim Pal, and Saeed told me in a phone interview that this is something that's the first of its kind in the Muslim world. So how will a Muslim virtual world be different from a non-Muslim one? Saeed says there won't be very much difference at all.\~You will have everything from clothes to restaurants on this virtual world, he says. People will be able to create their own r Saeed adds that Muxlim Pal is meant to create an open community for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Further, Muxlim.com and Muxlim Pal are designed more as vehicles to explore Muslim culture -- particularly the culture of minority, English-speaking Muslims One-fifth of the world's population is Muslim, and you have to [ask yourself] if they're different than everyone else? he says. I would say not. The only thing distinguishing them is certain preferences in terms of their lifestyle. They may prefer to p The whole idea is opening up the Muslim world and showing the [rest of the world] that Muslims are no different than anybody else. The picture that is shown in the media is rather derogatory, rather scary and rather unrealistic. It's a really, really gre So will there be a virtual call to prayer in Muxlim Pal, as there is in many Muslim communities around the world? While there will be religious spaces (as there are in Second Life), Saeed says that Muxlim Pal isn't really designed for that.\~It's a virtual world, which is not a religious platform; it's for people who are religious and not religious, he says. Now while I'm fascinated by the idea of a virtual world geared toward a particular religious group -- even though Saeed says that it won't be all that religious -- I do wonder how much of a general community for non-Muslims a site or virtual world whose . But it's still not clear that African-Americans on the Internet (or anyone else for that matter) are going in droves to use Rushmore Drive instead of Google. I'm guessing that it will be the same for Muxlim Pal -- its makers have quite a hill to climb, TechCrunch UK (Via ― Cyrus Farivar Read the Tribune's editorial on the election of Barack Obama as president and tell us what you think. Then flip through of Obama's life, from childhood to his presidential acceptance speech. And take a look at photos from Obama' Grant Park rally in Chicago. On Feb. 12, Americans will celebrate the birthday of their most important and most beloved president. Abraham Lincoln entered the world on that date in 1809 in a cabin near Hodgenville, Ky. our photo gallery His bicentennial would be an important occasion under any circumstances. But it will carry even greater symbolic significance because of something scheduled to happen three weeks earlier: the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States. Obama\rquote s victory is one of those events that reveal how far the nation has traveled. When he was born in 1961, African-Americans risked death merely to register to vote in some Southern states. The pivotal civil rights and voting rights laws had yet to be There are other reasons to celebrate the election of this citizen of Chicago\emdash the only one ever elevated to the White House. Obama won by appealing to a deep yearning for national reconciliation and unity that spans partisan divides. From the moment he cap Skeptics often questioned his approach, insisting that it made him look weak and was doomed to fail. But even when he was losing primaries to Hillary Clinton, even when Republicans painted him as an anti-American socialist, Obama retained the composure an Obama and America While ably defending himself and pointing out his opponents\rquote shortcomings, he declined to descend into angry invective. By winning, he raises the hope of a more civil polity. His moderate tone may also ease the pain felt by John McCain\rquote s supporters, who w The electorate chose Obama partly because he offers a different approach from the incumbent president\emdash such as leaving Iraq, raising taxes on high-income earners, expanding health-insurance coverage and helping distressed homeowners. It would be a mistake, Most Americans are ready to give Obama a chance to show he can deliver needed improvements. The financial crisis has also made them open to ideas they would not have considered before. But their motivation is pragmatic, not ideological, and the new presid In that way, 2008 is reminiscent of 1980, when the American people took a leap of faith on Ronald Reagan in disenchantment at the failures of his predecessor. As Reagan did, Obama offers a temperament and deportment that help to defuse worries about his i America\rquote s political rancor won\rquote t instantly disappear. Pollster Peter Hart recently found that one-third of each candidate\rquote s supporters have come to \ldblquote detest\rdblquote McCain or Obama so thoroughly that they couldn\rquote t accept him as president. Hart asked a Wall Street Journal reporter, \ldblquote How do you knit a nation back toge That remains a challenge. But Obama could not have dared to run for president if he didn\rquote t believe his fellow citizens could overcome the pitfalls of the past and the present to achieve a better future. Rainbow coalition of voters sweeps Obama into office Iraq danger, challenge persists Obama to face task of careful withdrawal while maintaining cease-fire, security November 6, 2008 By David Wood WASHINGTON - White-hot public anger over the war in Iraq, coming to a boil 18 months ago, initially helped propel But as much of the ugly violence and heavy casualties have faded, so have many of the demands to Bring the Troops Home Now! Now what? According to Obama's own plans, and the assessments of senior officers and others, the White House will be engaged in a long process of carefully sequenced troop withdrawals, delicate management to keep today's cease-fires in Iraq in place, and maintainin In other words, a continuing headache. surveys this week that indicated that only one in ten voters chose on the basis of Iraq and six in 10 acted on economic issues. Iraq will occupy much of Obama's first presidential term. As he declared this summer, ending the Iraq war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A narrow path leads up from the mountain town of Jibla, through century-old houses, and turns into a mud track before reaching the door of Arwa's home. The nine year old child lives with her parents and six brothers and sisters in a humble, two-roomed house overlooking the mosque built by her namesake, Queen Arwa, who ruled Yemen 900 years ago. She knows nothing of wealth and power but, in her own way, she has helped make history. Arwa is the youngest of three Yemeni girls who recently went to court complaining they were married against their will and asking for divorce - an astonishing display of defiance that has prompted the government to review its law on early marriage. The child's dark eyes shine from a pale face framed by her black headscarf. Her expression is eloquent yet she struggles to find words for what she's suffered. Arwa is making history by requesting a divorce aged just nine Earlier this year, her father announced she was to be married, ignoring her tears of protest. She claims to have forgotten her husband's name and all she will say about him is that he seemed tall and old. Coming in from the street where he's been digging drains, Abdul Mohammed Ali takes up the story. He describes how a stranger, a man in his mid forties, approached him in the market asking if he knew of any marriageable girls. After visiting their home and seeing Arwa and her 15-year-old sister, he opted for the younger child. Abdul Ali says the man promised he would wait for the girl to reach puberty before calling her to his house but then changed his mind and came to live wi So why did he sell his daughter to a stranger? Sold off He gave me 30,000 rial ($150, £90) and promised another 400,000 ($2,000). I was really in need of money and thought it was a solution for the family, he explains. For seven months, Arwa's husband shared the small room where the family eat, play and sleep. When Arwa fought off his advances, she was beaten. The torment only came to an end when her husband and father quarrelled and Abdul Ali gave her permission to seek outside help. At this point in the narrative, she finds her voice again, describing how she went looking for a neighbour who could lend her money for the journey to court where the judge took pity on her and granted her freedom. A medical examination showed that she had been sexually molested but was still technically a virgin Arwa's audacity in seeking a divorce was inspired by the example of Nujood, another young girl from the capital, Sanaa, who has become a national celebrity. Prophet's example A third girl, Reem is still waiting for the court's decision and says her two ambitions are to get a divorce and go to college. Married at 12, she describes the moment when her 30-year-old husband insisted on sex. When she resisted, he choked and bit her and dragged her by the hair, overwhelming her with force. She was imprisoned for 11 days in his house and tried to kill herself with a kitchen knife before being rescued by her mother. Although Yemen has a law stating that 15 is the marriageable age, it is frequently flouted, particularly in poor rural areas where society is run along tribal lines. Members of Parliament have recently been debating an amendment raising the age limit to 18, but progress has ground to a halt in the face of strong opposition from conservatives. Reem wants a divorce and then a college education Sheikh Hamoud Hashim al-Tharihi is general secretary of the increasingly influential Vice and Virtue Committee and a member of the Islah Party. He cites the example of the Prophet Muhammad who married six-year-old Aisha but waited for consummation till sh Because this happened to the Prophet, we cannot tell people that it is prohibited to marry at an early age, he argues. Moreover, he claims it would harm society by spreading vice. Bitter fight ahead Yemen's Minister for Social Affairs, Professor Amat al-Razzak Hammed, recognises that the government needs to compromise and would personally opt for a legal age of 16. She emphasises the importance of a legal framework enabling courts to punish fathers who marry their children off early and officials who sign the marriage contracts, and says the government has consulted Islamic scholars to ensure that it can be done in With parliamentary elections next year, President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government may be reluctant to alienate the growing forces of Islamic fundamentalism, so women's rights campaigners are preparing for a bitter fight. They are concerned that, with the At her home in Jibla, Arwa is putting the past behind her and returning to childish games of hide and seek in the narrow passageways near her home. But, without a firm lead from government, her father Abdul Ali may be tempted a second time to take money for his daughter's hand in marriage, curtailing her childhood once and for all. Arwa hopes that money will not tempt her father to marry her off again BBC World Service, Assignment By Jenny Cuffe Child marriage and divorce in Yemen The World Sees Obama's Victory As a New Beginning for America An Iraqi soldier in the southern city of Basra takes a break from his duty to read the morning newspaper featuring the image of US-president elect Barack Obama. Print For world leaders tripping over themselves to salute their freshly-minted colleague Barack Obama, just as for news anchors across the globe struggling to put Obama's victory into context, only one word seemed to do the trick: historic. Repetition of that portentous adjective could have dulled its impact. But the sheer scale of the worl acknowledged the international impact of the poll in his acceptance speech at Chicago's Grant Park, referring to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces [and] those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten co Former British Prime Minister once enjoyed such popularity stateside that Americans bemoaned the accident of birth that made him ineligible for a White House run. Westminster is far less diverse than Washington but if Obama's birth certificate were unexpectedly to reveal him as a Brit Tony Blair hardened into political hostility during the Iraq war, confirmation of the Republican rout instantly brought revellers onto the streets to honk horns and shout out their contentment. This is an important victory for all of us. Mostly, of course for Ameri That sentiment is reverberating around the world, but there are dissenters. A majority of Israelis would have felt more comfortable with a Republican President. Bush gave Israel generous military aid, supported the government during the controversial 2006 Efforts to anticipate Obama's foreign policy priorities are eclipsed only by concern over the stuttering global economy. The U.S. is undeniably one of the most important economic entities in the world, and with the ongoing financial crisis, people want s Yu Jing, a 32-year-old single mother who works at a state-owned oil company, also applauded Obama's victory. I remember Obama's promise to withdraw the troops from Iraq, and I think it's about time. Why? It's all about the economy. Without the war, I'm h From curing economic ills to ending the war in Iraq, expectations of Obama among some of his foreign fans are stratospheric. Many Britons have been schooled in disappointment: they elected Blair and his Labour government in a burst of goodwill in 1997 but with reporting by Bruce Crumley / Paris, Lin Yang / Beijing and Tim McGirk / Jerusalem The Skeptic الشكاك this morning.\~ Of course, the United States should continue to find, fight, capture, detain, and kill terrorists.\~ We should step up efforts to take away their funding and ensure that governments provide no refuge to them.\~ No one here, in fact, argues ot But should we make \ldblquote the war on terror\rdblquote the principal focus of America\rquote s external relations?\~ No.\~ Terrorists can kill Americans, but, without the support of others, they do not pose an existential threat to either the United States or the international sy \ldblquote Will the \lquote war on terror\rquote continue once the Obama administration is in office?\rdblquote asks Washington Post the Ending the \ldblquote War on Terror\rdblquote President Bush deserves credit for preventing terrorist incidents on American soil after September 11, yet he has allowed greater dangers to gather.\~ He has, in prosecuting the \ldblquote war on terror,\rdblquote enlisted the support of nations that wish us ill, legitimized Obama may not \ldblquote pal around with terrorists,\rdblquote but his reports that Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois congressman, the inspiration for the character The paper also calls Emanuel an Israeli. I would be surprised to learn that dual-nationals can serve as congressmen, but I\rquote ve been surprised before. Or perhaps , Emanuel\rquote s appointment would also confirm Republicans\rquote suspicions that Obama\rquote s talk of bipartisanship is hollow.) just got carried away, and meant \ldblquote son of an Israeli.\rdblquote Perhaps they will change the headline. I have no doubt Emanuel is an intelligent and competent man, however many passports he holds. I assume he has the respect of at least the Clinton people Obama will choose to staff the White House. And Emanuel\rquote s father\rquote s mistakes may not reflect his own be Regardless, the appointment of the son of an militant to such an important office will confirm many Arabs\rquote worst suspicions about the United States before the ink has dried on the headlines announcing Obama\rquote s historic victory. (Incidentally, if what the BBC\rquote s correspondent says is true Ha\rquote aretz Obama never said he would change U.S. policy with regard to Israel and Palestine, and he did say he would appoint Clinton advisors. And presumably the U.S. policy of condemning the deliberate killing of civilians for any reason, including \ldblquote national libera Perhaps it shouldn\rquote t be necessary, given that Emanuel was never a member of Irgun, nor could he have been at his age. Perhaps it\rquote s unfair, perhaps Emanuel has no love for the Irgun, Hamas, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, or any other group that seeks an independent sta Alternatively, he could contribute to the future President Obama\rquote s efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by declining the job. I\rquote m sure there are other qualified candidates. These days, terrorists without weapons of mass destruction are essentially nuisances.\~ Yet the Bush administration has allowed adversaries to support states that could arm terrorists with nuclear devices.\~ Mr. Bush almost never raised his voice against Ru A nuclear North Korea is the result of the \ldblquote war on terror,\rdblquote and, in all probability, so will a nuclear Iran.\~ We need, therefore, to rethink our assumptions and try something new.\~ Should we fight terrorists?\~ Yes.\~ Should we make them the focus of our fo »Back to Contentions Damascus' ten demands to receive Obama Syria's state-run newspaper Al-Thawra ran an article today saying that Syria extends its hand to President-elect Barak Obama. Meanwhile, Editor-in-Chief of the pro regime monthly Forward Magazine, Sami Moubayed, who also serves as a member of the US- must do in order for Damascus to be willing to open its arms and receive him in Damascus. If this is what Damascus is truly thinking (which it might to an extent), it indicates that engagement with Syria could be far more difficult than many analysts predict. The long list of demands outlined in the article are particularly ironic, given presi According to Moubayed, Syria can use its weight in the region to moderate the behavior of non-state players like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, and find solutions for the US standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. In return, What the Syrians are expecting 11 weeks from now when Obama is sworn in as president is the following: Appointment of a US ambassador to Syria. The post has been vacant since Margaret Scooby was withdrawn when relations plummeted over Lebanon in 2005. This would be accompanied by greater room to maneuver for Syria's ambassador to the US, Imad Mustapha, who An end to the anti-Syrian rhetoric coming out of the White House and State Department since 2003. That would automatically reduce the anti-Syrian sentiment in the US media. Recognition of Syria's cooperation on border security with Iraq. Cooperation with Syria to deal with the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria. Lifting - in due course - of the sanctions that were imposed on Damascus and abolishment of the Syrian Accountability Act. Willingness to sponsor Syria's indirect peace talks with Israel, currently on hold in Turkey. That is something Bush curtly refused to do since the talks started in April 2008, claiming that Syria was more interested in a peace process than a peace treaty Recognizing that no problems can be solved in the Middle East without Syria with regard to the Palestinians, Iraqis and Lebanese. Bush launched his famous roadmap for peace between Israel and Palestine, but bypassed the Syrians. If another roadmap were Help Syria combat Islamic fundamentalism that has been flowing into its territory from north Lebanon and Iraq. The deadly September 27 attack in Damascus - which left nearly 40 Syrians dead and injured - should have been a wake-up call for the Americans t An apology, compensation and explanation for the air raid on Syria that left eight Syrian civilians dead in October 2008. Help normalize relations between Syria and America on a people-to-people level, which have been strained since Bush came to power in 2001. That would include giving visas to Syrians wanting to study or work in the US. Where Women Are Treated (Almost) Equally The Madness of King Jerry Yang Kate Pickert Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 World Economic Forum ; 181 pages The Global Gender_Gap Report The Gist: It's not just about equality anymore. A country's economy, health and productivity increase as its gender gap_narrows, according to the authors of this study published by the World_Economic Forum, the Swiss non-profit that hosts an annual meeting in Davos The end result is a ranking that quantifies which countries are making the_best progress in giving women equal standing in society with men. The_results are not what you might think. Highlight Reel: Nordic Supremacy: The top four countries in terms of gender_equality are Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland \emdash which also nabbed the top spots in the 2007 edition of this report. Norway is on top, in part, thanks to a law that requires the boards of publi Progress, but not everywhere: Of those countries surveyed in 2007_and 2008, 87 narrowed their gender gap, while the gap widened in 41. While_24 countries have closed the gender gap in education, no country in the_world has true gender equality across all The greater standing women have, the more everyone benefits:_Industrialized countries can still grow their economies substantially by_elevating women. Closing the employment gender gap would have huge economic_implications for the developed economies, bo Female leaders inspire whole societies (and help pad the numbers):_The authors assigned heavy points to countries where women were in charge of_government. Countries with female presidents or prime ministers include: #2_Finland, #5 New Zealand (Prime Mini America still working on it: The U.S. is ranked #27 in this year's_report, up from 31 in 2007 but down from 23 in 2006. America ranks highest in_economic participation and opportunity at #12 and educational attainment_where it's tied for #1. The U.S. Amid all the talk about the US military surge in Iraq, little has been said about the accompanying surge of Iraqi prisoners, whose numbers rose to nearly 51,000 at the end of 2007. Four years after the Abu Ghraib scandal, occupation forces are holding The Surge of Iraqi Prisoners Detainees are held by the US command in two main locations -- Camp Bucca, a 100-acre prison camp near Um Qasr and Camp Cropper, inside a massive U.S. base complex near the Baghdad airport. The number of Iraqis held in these facilities has steadily risen s In October 2007, the US Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to expand Camp Bucca's capacity from 20,000 to 30,000. While easing notorious crowding, the contract suggests Washington is preparing for even more detentions in the future. Camp Cropper c Indefinite Detention US forces are holding nearly all of these persons indefinitely, without an arrest warrant, without charge, and with no opportunity for those held to defend themselves in a trial. While the United States has put in place a formal review procedure that supp These conditions are in direct violation of international human rights law, though Washington claims that such legal constraints do not apply, because the United States considers its forces to be engaged in an international armed conflict. The human rig The detention facilities are closed to human rights monitors like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, or the International Federation of Human Rights. Even the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, mandated by the Security Council to provide h Iraqi Government Prisons In addition to the U.S. detainees, the Government of Iraq is holding over 26,000 prisoners. Some of those held in Iraqi facilities have been convicted of crimes, but many others are being held in unlimited detention without charge. Some have even been tri Recent UN reports have also said that the facilities are severely overcrowded and that they have dire sanitation and hygiene conditions. Further, there were said to be continuing reports of widespread and routine torture and ill-treatment of detainee Time to Speak Out On February 13, 2008 the Iraqi Parliament passed an Amnesty Law that could apply to many thousands of detainees. The US command has also recently announced a program of detainee releases. But despite this public relations offense, detainee numbers have de If a government like Iran or Syria held US citizens in detention without charge or trial, imagine the worldwide clamor for justice! It is time for the public in the United States and around the world to face the sordid reality of post-surge Iraq and do so About the Author: Ciara Gilmartin is the Security Council Program Coordinator at in New York. This article was published simultaneously by Foreign Policy in Focus. By Ciara Gilmartin Country-by-country changes: France made the biggest jump in the_rankings, moving from #51 in 2007 to #15 in 2008. Trinidad and Tobago was_the highest ranked Latin American country. Guatemala's gap widened_considerably, with the country falling from #61 in The authors of the study don't take into account the overall economic_development of a country, only the access that men and women have to_resources. This levels the playing field between economic powerhouses like_the U.S. and third-world nations like Eth The Verdict: Skim The Lowdown: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines is one of a handful of female heads of state helping close the gender gap worldwide Jerry Carual / AFP / Getty Google.org joins CDC in battle with flu --_Combatting flu outbreaks hinges on warning potential victims early enough so that they can get a vaccine. (11-11) 18:09 PST Google Inc., through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, is trying to help U.S. authorities fight the flu by introducing a new tool Tuesday that can spot potential epidemics in near real-time. Flu Trends, as the product is called, tracks the number of searches by Google's users for flu-related terms like thermometer and cold remedies. A spike in the number of such queries may indicate a flu outbreak in a particular state as people try to fi Last year, a test showed that Google's tool highlighted flu outbreaks about two weeks faster than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's tracking, which relies on reports from local hospitals and state health departments. Getting a quicker heads The sooner we have indication that flu is in a community, the earlier public health officials can take action, said Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman. Google unveiled the product at the start of the flu season, which, according to its data, doesn't seem to have yet had much of an impact on California. Most people who catch the illness recover without much trouble, but it nevertheless manages to kill up To check the accuracy of Flu Trends, Google compared five years worth of its previous flu-related search data with CDC's reports. The comparison showed that the tracking from both sources coincided, but both parties acknowledge that more testing is needed Google, a perpetual target of complaints by privacy groups, doesn't make personally identifiable information available in Flu Trends. Aggregated statewide information is as detailed as the service gets. The new tool is an iteration of an existing Google product, Trends, that shows the relative popularity of specific search terms over time. Such information, also available through Yahoo, is typically used by marketers to determine the buzz around particul , offers graphs showing the rise and fall of flu-related search queries. Users can get a view of activity in all 50 states (as of Tuesday afternoon, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine and Hawaii are the only ones with moderate flu activity) or the ent Flu Trends, at google.org/flutrends Flu is the only illness tracked by Google, though more may be added in the future. E-mail Verne Kopytoff at Learning to Talk - Meedan featured in NY Times Year in Ideas 2008 Gaydamak lost the race, now losing all his property The new mayor of Jerusalem is Nir Barkat , who gained more votes than Haredi contender Meir Porush Arcadi Gaydamak came third with merely 3% of the votes. In Tel Aviv, Gaydamak\rquote s faction (Social Justice) won a single seat in the city council. But apart from losing the race in Jerusalem, Gaydamak is rapidly losing all his possessions Photo by Lisa Goldman in the Israeli economy. He walked out of Radio 99FM, without paying salaries to its 80 employees. And creditors have taken away control of his companies It\rquote s unclear how he suddenly lost much of his money \emdash as it is unclear how he initially gained it. The only major possession he still owns is the soccer club Beitar Jerusalem , although he may be forced to sell it soon. Tell everyone... Related posts Emmanuel and public diplomacy The appointment of Rahm Emmanuel as Obama's chief of staff offers an interesting lesson for the future of public diplomacy.\~\~\~ Emmanuel was almost certainly chosen because of his relationship with Obama and for his reputation for hard-nosed efficiency in the Arab media instantly overwhelmingly focused on his Israeli origins and some really unfortunate comments made by his father about Arabs.\~\~ News spread incredibly fast. \~ Before I had even seen the pick confirmed in the American media, I saw angry denunciations on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya and from Palestinian sources.\~ Do The selection of Emmanuel was almost certainly not intended as a signal of Obama's likely Middle East policy -- when he has not yet named any of his senior foreign policy personnel, much less his Middle East policy personnel -- but that's how it was recei The Arab reaction to Rahm Emmanuel's appointment was entirely predictable, and had there been a 'public diplomacy' representative at the table it could have been anticipated and the ground better prepared to mitigate negative impacts.\~ It would have been That's a lot to ask of a campaign now intensely focused on the mechanics of transition.\~ But it's not too much to ask from a government.\~ This has been one of the most common recommendations made by the countless task-forces dedicated to improving America the outrage is generated.\~ The position of Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy could and probably should fill that role at the highest levels, though I'm agnostic about the bureaucratic details. Just something to think about.... « Jerry Yang Plans to Step Down \emdash For Real By Fred Vogelstein Jerry Yang has always been viewed as one of the great visionaries in_Silicon Valley. Thirteen years ago he started a company with a funny_name that changed the world, became a billionaire, and always seemed_smart enough to leave the actual running of the He took the reigns of Yahoo himself and quickly made a bad situation_created by ousted CEO Terry Semel worse. He talked about taking the_company back to its roots in technology, about giving Yahoo the reboot_that it had sorely needed for years. But instea When business is about business and not about religion these can_actually be happy endings. Stockholders inside and outside the company_get a price for their shares they probably wouldn't see for years, and_every one moves on to the next phase of their li But when business is about religion as it clearly has been at Yahoo,_the end is typically not bittersweet but just bitter. Yahoo, whose_stock is trading at around $12 could have sold to Microsoft for $33 a_share 9 months ago. But Yang, who started Yahoo i Yahoo says it is looking for a successor to run_the company. But that seems to be more spin than reality. With its_search business decimated by Google, and its display ad business_gasping thanks to the global financial crisis, it's hard to see how_anyone And so now Jerry Yang is out of the company he cofounded looking_anything but a visionary, but instead as yet another high tech_entrepreneur, a la Ken Olsen of Digital Equipment a generation ago, _who\~ didn't realized that time had passed him by. Iraq withdrawal plan offers a ray of hope All sides will have to compromise to make the proposal work. November 18, 2008 Finally, we think we see light at the end of the Iraq tunnel. Over the weekend, the Iraqi Cabinet approved a plan hammered out by the government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and U.S. officials to restrict U.S. combat operations starting Jan. 1, pull Ame If those leaders have been wise to grasp this moment of opportunity, it is not because they are naive about the challenges. Indeed, the agreement presents problems for all parties in Iraq. Maliki risks looking too pro-American ahead of upcoming provincial Precisely because it is difficult and requires compromise, passage of the so-called status of forces agreement would be a huge step toward ending the U.S. occupation and fostering an Iraqi culture of governance. It would put an end to negotiations that ha The agreement sends two important messages to the international community: First, the United States truly does not plan a permanent military presence in Iraq, and second, it will not launch attacks on neighbors from Iraq. The accord bans U.S. cross-borde An event that might really deserve to be called a breakthrough Colin Blakemore Scientists don\rquote t like the word \lquote breakthrough\rquote . It tends to produce the_response: \lquote Hype!\rquote . But the first transplant of a whole, complex organ,_engineered specifically for a particular patient, might really deserve the_\lquote b\rquote word. Stem cells and immature cells are already being used to treat blood cancers,_to repair skin and the cornea of the eye. Trials are underway for the use of_stem cells to help repair damaged hearts and to prevent type 1 diabetes._Insulin-producing tissue can The trachea was a particularly good candidate for tissue engineering because_of its non-living matrix - a collagen structure that can form the perfect_scaffold for cells to be grown on it. Stem cells derived from the patient,_put into a donor\rquote s trachea, What does this mean for the future? Well, we are not going to be able to_produce custom-made replacements for the most complex organs in the body \endash _hearts, brains, kidneys \endash any time soon. But other potential targets for_this kind of tissue-engineering te Researchers are trying to create artificial matrices for sculpting cartilage_and bone and the extent to which they are successful may determine whether_or not we can expand these techniques to other organs, or make this kind of_transplant more cost-effect At the much earliest steps on the ladder to treatment, researchers are now_trying to grow entire organs \endash hearts, kidneys, pancreases \endash from embryonic_stem cells, in test tube conditions. The capacity of embryonic stem cells to turn into virtually any other kind of_cell obviously gives them the most potential for organ and tissue_replacement. But there is much to learn about how to grow and control them_and prevent them being rejected, bef I\rquote m trying to avoid the \lquote b\rquote word and trying not to give false hope. The_fairytale developments are likely to take decades rather than years. But_advances such as this trachea transplant are the kind of encouragement that_we need to have hope that stem cel Colin Blakemore is Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford and Warwick, and is_a former chief executive of the UK Medical Research Council Islam, virginity, and public outrage in France Yesterday\rquote s Herald reported on a case in France in which a requested marriage annulment made by a Muslim man after he discovered that his wife was not a virgin was overturned. The article states that: Public outrage at April\rquote s annulment ruling forced the Government to order the case be reviewed, against the wishes of both spouses. The groom, a Muslim engineer in his 30s whose name was not made public, sought the annulment after realising his bride was not a virgin on the night of their marriage in a civil ceremony in July 2006. His wife, who admitted to him she had had premarital sex, said she accepted the annulment. The case is extraordinary both because the annulment was reversed due to public pressure and because it was done against the wishes of both Buthaina Shaaban: Syria-Israel deal is close -\~exclusive Buthaina Shaaban - adviser to the Syrian president, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee - has revealed the country is closer to a peace-deal with Israel than it has ever been. The fact that in all the outrage about this case the views of the bride were ignored also speaks volumes. I am reminded of discussions of \ldblquote the veil\rdblquote in which the opinions of veil-wearing Muslim women themselves tend to be excluded because it is assumed t The case would seem to suggest that Muslims in France are subjected to a higher level of public scrutiny of their private dealings than most people would expect. It would also seem to suggest that gender relations within the Muslim community form a privi spouses. Reading the article, I asked myself why a case like this would generate so much outrage while other cases involving a breach of trust between newlyweds would not register a blip on the public\rquote s radar. I can only assume that the case fitted neat This year, Syria has had a series of indirect talks with Israel, on the return of the Golan Heights. It is the first time the two countries have talked since Shepherdstown in 2000. started \ldblquote At Shepherdstown the problem was just the demarcation of the 1967 line (the future border),\rdblquote she told a packed audience at the Diplomatic Academy of London. \ldblquote Now, we by trying to describe the 67 line, so the feeling is better than after Madrid.\rdblquote The two countries are on the final hurdle before a peace-deal.\~\rdblquote Now we need the will of the world to embrace the negotiations,\rdblquote she said. American attack on Syria In a wide ranging talk, Shabaan said she hoped the American attack on Albu Kamal was the act of an administration on the way out. She speculated that Bush ordered the invasion to boost McCain\rquote s chances before the election. And expressing optimism for a change under Obama, she said: \ldblquote Let\rquote s hope this will be classified as She called Obama\rquote s election win \ldblquote a extremely welcome change\rdblquote . Shabaan is convinced it is the beginning of a new stage in Syrian-American relations. Working for peace Shabaan welcomed the visit of Britain\rquote s Foreign Minister David Miliband, as well as French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the EU\rquote s Javier Solana. She said Syria wants to work with the world to make the Middle East a safer and more stable place. \ldblquote We are between Iraq and Lebanon, how can we want anything but peace in these countries.\~We don\rquote t need lectures from across the ocean,\rdblquote she said, referring to American allegations of Syrian trouble-making in Iraq. She wasn\rquote t given an easy ride by the audience, which asked her whether Syria had failed the Palestinians. There has been no cohesion in the Arab position on Palestine, she admitted. \ldblquote In Britain, we are being treated as \lquote Arabs\rquote - if they see you in the str Shaaban claims the future of the Arab World will be in a regional group. South East Asia, Europe and America have free-trade areas like Asean, the EU and Nafta. \ldblquote Arabs have more in common than any other region in the world.\rdblquote \ldblquote It\rquote s not what you say. It\rquote s who is listening,\rdblquote Shabaan said, amid accusations Syria hasn\rquote t explained what was going on at a suspected nuclear reactor, in 2007. Suddenly, the concern of the world was not Israel\rquote s attack on Syria - but can Syria please explain what was in this building. Shaaban\~admitted Syria has failed to sell itself to the West. She\rquote s calling for a whole new media strategy. Shaaban, one of the government\rquote s modernisers, says Syria has been talking, but the West doesn\rquote t want to listen. \ldblquote Arab cultures believe, if you have a right, you will get it … \lquote if the West doesn\rquote t want to understand, let him\rquote , they say.\rdblquote \ldblquote We need a satellite channel, in English. We are three hundred million people,\rdblquote she said, \ldblquote forget politics, even just to show our culture.\rdblquote But Shaaban complained that Syria couldn\rquote t afford to do it on its own - the richer Arab countries need to be convin November 25, 2008 Danger in Dubai Superlatives alone cannot shield the Middle East's financial hub from crisis The biblical portents for houses built on sand were never good. Nor are they out of date, if Dubai is any guide. Last week, as the major economies shed jobs and marked down growth forecasts, a South African billionaire hosted the \ldblquote party of the decade\rdblquote to But elsewhere on the island, villa owners were being told that their properties had lost 40 per cent of their value in two months. Construction of another colossal artificial island was quietly being shelved, and speculation grew that Dubai as a whole, fo Yesterday the Government of the United Arab Emirates was forced to confront that speculation. The chairman of a committee set up to lead the UAE's response to the global downturn said that Dubai's debts were dwarfed by its assets and that \ldblquote the Government A year ago the UAE was fondly regarded by Western governments and bankers as a potential saviour of capitalism. Like Singapore and China, it had accumulated prodigious reserves in sovereign wealth funds whose search for a steady return appeared to complem A month ago, Dubai still boasted property prices and returns high even by Central London standards. The Dubai bubble has not quite burst since then, but it has shrivelled dramatically: a property boom fuelled by loans for speculative off-plan purchases ha As Dubai's skyscrapers add yet more storeys, prices for their penthouses plunge. As landlords fail to refinance, their brokers send mass text messages to advertise distressed sales at swingeing discounts. One result, engineered by the Finance Ministry in Dubai's rise has been a spectacle of unmatched enterprise - and hubris. But its troubles should give no one satisfaction. With no significant oil reserves of its own, this is the emirate that diversified in order to compete. It borrowed heavily to do so, The party in the Gulf's most vibrant market economy is over. But it remains the region's best hope as a laboratory of political as well as economic pluralism, and there are signs that the downturn is forcing Dubai's rulers to take seriously investors' dem Dubai is too much hype and gloss. Witness traffic now at a standstill, metro that won't work. poor construction standards, buildings having short shelf life. Qatar much better placed. Steadier growth. Huge gas wealth. Small population. Abu Dhabi too, better placed than Dubai. Leigh Vernier, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Have your say A Night Out In Mumbai (Updated) This is turning out to be one crazy night. A friend of mine had an opening of her art exhibition a few hours ago, so we ventured to South Bombay for that. We attended the exhibition, sipped the litchee juice, nibbled on party snacks, and then six of us he One of the hotel employees rushed out and told us to get back in. \ldblquote There must have been an encounter,\rdblquote he said. \ldblquote Get back in, you\rquote ll be safe inside.\rdblquote We followed him in. We waited in the lounge-bar upstairs for a while. The big screen there was showing cricket. India won. Then someone changed the channel. Twitter Feeds Stopped by Media That\rquote s when we realised that this was much more than a random police encounter, or a couple of gunshots. We heard that terrorists with AK-47s had opened fire outside Leopold\rquote s, the pub down the road. We heard there was firing elsewhere in the city as well Uptil this point, these are the things we know from TV: A bunch of terrorists opened fire in various parts of the city using AK-47s and suchlike. Some of them, it was reported, captured a police jeep and went around shooting people in that. Terrorists captured parts of both the Taj and the Oberoi. There have been bomb blasts at both hotels. (We heard the second one at the Taj from our window in the Gordon House Hotel.) It is rumoured that foreigners have been taken hostage. It is reported th At least four top police officers have been killed. Some members of parliament are reported to still be trapped inside the Taj. terror attacks November 27th, 2008 @ 10:35 AM There has also been attacks on the Marriott in Juhu, as well as the Ramada. There was an attack on VT Railway Station. There were blasts in Santa Cruz and Vile Parle. There was an attack on Cama Hospital, and, I\rquote ve just heard, Bombay Hospital. A petrol pump was blown up in Colaba, a couple of minutes walk from where we are. And, just a minor statistic, no doubt, amid the horror of today: a diner was shot while coming out of Indigo Deli, where we were standing minutes earlier. have been blasting away with dozens of updates every single minute. These were used by many of the networks to show streaming news on their news channels on TV.\~ Twitter feeds Livni's Aides Want Olmert to Quit Twitter users were asking people to stop sending updates and there were rumours that the Government and/or the Military had asked the twitter channel #mumbai be shut down. However there is no official record of this and Dina Mehta clarified this on twitter. She reports that the news channels have stopped carrying twitter feeds on their TV broadcasts. (IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni plans to speak with the Kadima party caucus in Petach Tikva Thursday amid calls by her cap for outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down following indications that he will be indicted. Attorney General Me Mazuz's announcement came as concerns grew in the Livni camp that Olmert's conducting the affairs of the government even though he officially has resigned is costing her at the polls, which show the Likud winning a large plurality of the Knesset seats in Ship that allegedly brought in terrorists intercepted Mumbai, Nov 27 (IANS) An Indian Navy ship Thursday gave a chase through high seas to intercept a merchant vessel that is suspected to have brought 10 terrorists to Mumbai for staging Wednesday\rquote s synchronised attacks that rocked India and brought Mumbai to \lquote As of now, all that can be confirmed is that the vessel has been intercepted,\rquote an Indian Navy officer here said. The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) had also deployed two fast patrol vessels and two aircraft to look for merchant vessel, an ICG official said. \lquote The coastline from Gujarat to Mumbai is being currently patrolled to look for the MV Alpha,\rquote an ICG official in Mumbai had told IANS on telephone shortly before the vessel was intercepted. The most audacious terror attack in Mumbai began Wednesday night when militants attacked high profile landmarks, including the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, the Oberoi Trident Hotel, the Metro Theatre and the Chhatrapati Shivaji (formerly Victoria Ter At least 101 people, including a foreign tourist and four top police officers, were killed and over 250 injured in the attacks. Bookmark with: The Mumbai cops who died in the line of duty More from India Four Delhi cops slapped with torture case in Ghaziabad `Terrorism mad violator of human rights\rquote Terror ordeal continues in Mumbai; 101 killed, hundreds remain trapped (Evening Roundup) EU parliamentary delegation in Mumbai safe Goa follows Deshmukh\rquote s advice, increases marine surveillance Major fire breaks out at second hotel Agro Tech-2008 to draw increased foreign participation Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Indian troops raid hotels to free hostages MUMBAI, India \endash Black-clad Indian commandoes raided two luxury hotels to try to free hostages Thursday, and explosions and gunshots shook India's financial capital a day after suspected Muslim militants killed 110 people. A top Indian general says about 10 to 12 gunmen remain holed up inside a pair of luxury Mumbai hotels and a Jewish center. Maj. Gen. R.K. Huda told that the rest of the gunmen appeared to have been killed or captured. New Delhi Television Authorities say 110 people were killed and 300 injured when suspected Islamic militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai. Rescue efforts continued throughout the day amid sporadic gunfire, with some hostages escaping and others rescued by police. Several bodies were carried out of the five-star Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, one of 10 sites seized by gunmen on Wednesday n More than 300 were also wounded in the highly coordinated attacks by bands of gunmen armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and explosives. Flames burst from the hotel's top floors and dome shortly after the attack began Wednesday night, and erupted again after commandoes raided the building Thursday. After dusk Thursday, the soldiers ushered several dozen captives out of the Oberoi hotel , another Mumbai landmark. One of the freed hostages who did not give his name told reporters he had seen many bodies inside the hotel. He refused to give more details, saying he had promised police not to discuss the rescue while it was ongoing. The Maharashtra state home ministry said 45 captives had been freed from the Oberoi and 35 were still trapped inside. Police said they were going slowly to protect the captives. The safety of the people trapped is very important, said A. N. Roy, a senior police officer. It will take time but it will be completed successfully, he said. Among the dead were at least one Australian, a Japanese and a British national, said Pradeep Indulkar, a senior government official of Maharashtra state, whose capital is Mumbai . An Italian and a German were also killed, according to their foreign ministries. Police said 104 people were killed and 314 injured. Officials said eight militants were also killed. The most high-profile target was the Taj, a landmark of Mumbai luxury since 1903, and a favorite watering hole of the city's elite. Soldiers outside the hotel said the operation would take a long time as forces were moving slowly, from room to room, looking for gunmen and traps. In the afternoon, bodies and hostages slowly emerged from the building. At least three bodies, covered in white cloth, were wheeled out. About a dozen people, including foreigners, were also evacuated from the hotel and whisked into a waiting ambulance. Several of them carried small pieces of luggage. One older man was carried into the ambulance by police. The attackers, dressed in black shirts and jeans, had stormed into the hotel at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday and opened fire indiscriminately. I was in the main lobby and there was all of a sudden a lot of firing outside, said Sajjad Karim, part of a delegation of European lawmakers visiting Mumbai before a - European Union summit. India Suddenly another gunmen appeared in front of us, carrying machine gun-type weapons. And he just started firing at us ... I just turned and ran in the opposite direction, he told The Associated Press over his mobile phone. The shooting was followed by a series of explosions that set fire to parts of the century-old edifice on Mumbai's waterfront. Screams were heard and black smoke and flames billowed, continuing to burn until dawn. Dalbir Bains, who runs a lingerie shop in Mumbai, was about to eat her steak by the pool at the hotel when she heard the sound of gunfire. She said she ran upstairs, taking refuge in the Sea Lounge restaurant, with about 50 other people. They huddled beneath tables in the dark, trying to remain as quiet as possible while explosions were going off. We were trying not to draw attention to ourselves, she said. The group managed to escape before dawn. The gunmen also seized the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch. Around 10:30 a.m., a woman, a child and an Indian cook were seen being led out of the building by police, said one witness. Chabad spokesman Moni Ender in said there were eight Israelis inside the house, including Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife. Israel Dozens of Indian commandoes surrounded the five-story building, where heavy curtains hung behind windows broken by gunfire. Outside the center, thousands of people stood in the narrow alleyways watching the standoff. Among those foreigners still held captive in all three buildings were Americans, British, Italians, Swedes, Canadians, Yemenis, New Zealanders , Spaniards, Turks, a Singaporean and Israelis. At least three top Indian police officers \emdash including the chief of the anti-terror squad \emdash were among those killed, said Roy. The United States and were among the countries that condemned the attacks. Pakistan In Washington, President George W. Bush offered Singh support and assistance as he works to restore order in the populous and growing Southwest Asian nation, according to White House press secretary Dana Perino The motive for the onslaught was not immediately clear, but Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamic extremists , including a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people. claimed responsibility for the attacks in e-mails to several media outlets. There was no way to verify that claim. Magnus Ranstorp , a terrorism specialist with the Swedish National Defense College, said there are very strong suspicions that the coordinated Mumbai attacks have a link to al-Qaida. He said the fact that Britons and Americans were singled out is one indicator, along with the coordinated style of the attacks. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed external forces. The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of panic, by choosing high profile targets and indiscriminately killing foreigners, he said in address to the nation. Later Thursday, the Indian navy said its forces were boarding a cargo vessel suspected of ties to the attacks. Navy spokesman Capt. Manohar Nambiar said Thursday that the ship, the MV Alpha, had recently come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan , on the western coast of Arabian Sea , is home to splendid Victorian architecture overlooking the British Raj built during the and is one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million crammed into shantytowns, high rises and crumbling mansions. Among the other places attacked was the 19th century Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station \emdash a beautiful example of Victorian Gothic architecture \emdash where gunmen sprayed bullets into the crowded terminal, leaving the floor splattered with blood. They just fired randomly at people and then ran away. In seconds, people fell to the ground, said Nasim Inam, a witness. Other gunmen attacked Leopold's restaurant, a landmark popular with foreigners, and the Gunmen also attacked Cama and Albless Hospital and G.T. Hospital, though it was not immediately clear if anyone was killed. in southern Mumbai, the area where most of the attacks took place. police headquarters ___ Associated Press writers Ramola Talwar Badam, Erika Kinetz and Jenny Barchfield in Mumbai, Raphael G. Satter in London and Cristian Salazar in Share Toronto Survivor Of Mumbai Massacre Reveals How He Got Away A Toronto businessman caught amidst the flying bullets and burning buildings of Wednesday's terrorist attacks in Mumbai is telling his story for the first time. Raynor Burke was just checking into the Taj Hotel when gunfire first erupted at the luxury tourist spot. They just came in and started dropping people, they were't more than 17 years old, he told I literally saw a guy's arm come off. At that point I realized they were just killing people at will. Burke could have easily been one of those claimed in violence that killed more than 100 others. Only he wasn't, somehow escaping through the hotel and hiding in an alleyway while the bloodshed carried on for hours. I ran towards the pool and then I hit the breaks and I fell and there was blood there then because that's what I fell in, he recalled. I dove through a window. On the other side of that window was the pile of garbage where Raynor lay in wait, somehow avoiding capture or injury. I just kind of got into a dark spot, it was just filth I've probably got hepatitis now, he said. I ended up having to pay some guy 10,000 rupees just to get me out of there. It's like the worst video game of all time and you're living it. To hear Burke tell his harrowing tale, click on the video link. Global AIDS crisis overblown? Some dare to say so Looking ahead to a Clinton State Department, Israelis and Arabs retool their expectations Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near the town of Ramallah. Hillary Rodham Clinton was an early advocate of the barrier separating Israel from the West Bank. President-elect Barack Obama has yet to voice support for it. Israel is applauding her nomination as a check on Obama, while the news has damped Arabs' hopes of a swing away from Bush policies. By Richard Boudreaux, Jeffrey Fleishman and Paul Richter Reporting from Cairo, Washington and Jerusalem -- Nearly a month after Barack Obama's election, his decision to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of State is causing Arabs and Israelis to readjust expectations of his administration's policies During the campaign, Obama carried the hopes of many Arabs for a new brand of diplomacy more open to their views, one that would revive America's power and prestige in the region and end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. BLOG: Obama likely to name Hillary Clinton to Cabinet. But wait! Can Barack Obama has a head start on working with Congress Presidential transitions, past and present Sen. Hillary Clinton Israelis viewed Obama as a less reliable friend than John McCain, his Republican rival, or Clinton, who touted a deep affinity for the Jewish state in her bid for the Democratic nomination. Cautiously, Israelis are now applauding Clinton's nomination as a sign that Obama can be trusted to act firmly against Iran's nuclear ambitions and to refrain from pressing Israel to accept a weak, violence-prone Palestinian state on its borders. Arabs and especially Palestinians, on the other hand, say the news has damped their optimism that Obama will veer from the Bush administration's hawkish policies and from what they call America's long-standing pro-Israel tilt. I was frankly surprised by this choice, said Manar Shorbagy, an expert on American foreign policy who teaches at the American University in Cairo. Obama's talking about bringing diplomacy back to a U.S. foreign policy that has been militarized under Pr The Palestinian Authority, which is engaged in a U.S.-backed effort to negotiate peace with Israel, has refrained from such criticism. The peace process is a bipartisan issue in American politics, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. We hope that M Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said last week that there would be no official comment before Obama announces his choice, which came today at a news conference in Chicago. Clinton is widely viewed in the region as a likely heir to President Clinton's unfinished Middle East business: the all-out push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that eluded his administration. Those efforts were resumed by Secretary of State Condole But analysts on both sides say it's unclear how much responsibility or leeway Obama would give Clinton to conduct Middle East policy. They note that other officials, including Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who has extensive foreign policy experience, an Because Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq pose more immediate problems, it is also uncertain how swiftly the administration will pursue an Israeli-Palestinian accord, a goal often portrayed as the key to peace in a region where that conflict is used as justifica Criticism of Obama Nonetheless, Clinton's long record of public pronouncements on the Middle East is being studied across the region for clues about America's diplomatic direction here. As first lady and as New York's junior senator, she has taken positions, some at odds with Obama's, that appeal to Israelis and Jewish voters at home. She was an early advocate of the barrier separating Israel from the West Bank (Obama has yet to voice su Like Obama, she has said the United States should not negotiate with Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group that runs the Gaza Strip. During the primary campaign she criticized Obama's willingness to negotiate with Iran and declared that the United Stat Her friendship and support of the Jewish people and Israel is second to none, said Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States. The Arab world sees two Hillary Clintons: one, the first lady who famously got ahead of U.S. policy a decade ago by advocating Palestinian statehood and remains at least verbally wedded to the goal of a U.S.-brokered peace deal; the other, a politician wi My impression is that before agreeing to take the job, she fought quite hard for a real role in formulating American policy, said Mouin Rabbani, an independent analyst based in Amman, Jordan. But she'll be acting with at least one eye on her own politi Speculation about Clinton's views may be beside the point, some experts contend. It really doesn't matter, said Aaron David Miller, who has advised six secretaries of State on Middle East issues and is now a public policy specialist at the Woodrow Wilso Even so, Israelis say they're more comfortable about Obama with Clinton on the team, an added reassurance after the appointment of Rahm Emanuel, a Jew whose father once had links to a militant Zionist organization, as White House chief of staff. Next\~\~» Single Page Mumbai has proven to be a soft target for terrorists. It would be disgraceful on the part of India if their intelligence now fails to unearth the groups of terrorists and their mastermind who perpetrated this dreadful and heinous attack on the innocent pe The attack has stalled games and seriously affected the city's commerce and tourism industry. Cricket matches have been shelved, tourists have cancelled their trips and expatriates have closed their shops and offices. Players, travelers, and businessmen h Mumbai, which was known as a liberal city open to all and sundry, will have to close its wide open doors. Visitors will now have to stand in long queues and enter places one by one through arches equipped with metal detectors. This romantic city of Bollyw The whole region of Indo-Pak-Bangladesh subcontinent is now in a state of severe vulnerability and as such has to be on red alert to deter future terror attacks. Bag and body checks have to be introduced in all the soft targets in all the big cities. Poro Bangladesh may be a tiny country compared to India. But some of our achievements are huge in dimensions. One such feat is a commendable job our elite force RAB did in netting the whole ring of a terrorist group known as JMB. As a member state of SAARC Ban Terrorism is a pandemic disease. If unchecked, the disease is bound to spill over to the next door neighbors and then engulf the whole world. It is high time SAARC must form an elite force of its own with personnel recruited from its member states and dep The whole world would now be watching how Muslims react to this act of terrorism by some idiots bearing some Arabic names. If millions of Muslims take to streets when someone in Denmark insults their religion many more millions of Muslims should now come Silence of Muslims at this hour of peril in India, I am afraid, may be construed as a nod of consent to terrorism. Inaction of Muslim-dominated countries in the face of further possible attacks by errant Muslims may be misunderstood as their approval for As I was viewing the scenes of carnage in Mumbai on the 27th November night the only fear that was sending a chill down my spine was of reprisals. I could imagine how TV viewers in India were clenching their teeth as elite Indian commandos were fighting r The questions that are gnawing minds of observers all over the world: In reprisal of what the terrorists had killed 195 and injured another 320 unarmed civilians? What fate will now befall the next innocent people in India? Will Muslims be the scapegoats? A doped up assassin at the moment of pressing the trigger of a gun is completely shut out from all his human feelings as his brains are kept numb under the drug influence, his sense of judgment entirely blacked out. Such an assassin should not be judged a Whenever there is an attack anywhere in the world there is a propensity for some countries to blame Muslims within ten minutes of the attack. It is assumed that the terrorists came from Pakistan, though there is no raison d'être on the part of the democra If Pakistan were behind this shameful act their intelligence must have presaged beforehand what could be the outcome when a captured assailant on interrogation would disclose to Indian authorities. Can Pakistan authorities afford to be such a bunch of foo But a big mastermind like a huge organization---as big as a state---must have provided trainings, logistics, and weapons to these terrorists who seem to be trained in military style precisions. These terrorists killed three celebrated police officers incl In this age of DNA analysis when no criminal can escape the omnipotent searchlight of the defenders of law and sovereignty, we are confident a power like India will soon be able to declare, with smoking gun evidence in hand, who, the mastermind, actually The blame game may heighten tension in the border areas between India and Pakistan and in the neighborhoods where Hindu and Muslim communities are cohabiting. But it would be a terrible mistake if any quarter takes anger on Muslims. It would be unwise to They are Terrorists, not Muslims Maswood Alam Khan Swedish Researchers Experiment Full Body-Swap Illusion The concept of swapping our body with that of another person may sound science-fictional, but it is actually the latest subject for discussion in the scientific community. A recent experiment conducted by Swedish researchers from the Department of Neurosc The study revolves around one essential question that psychologists found hard to answer: how come we are able to perceive our body as part of ourselves? According to researchers, we experience our body as our own as an adaptive function, possibly correla Vote this story As they attempted to better understand our centre of awareness, the researchers realized that focusing on bodily self-perception will provide them with invaluable information. In order to do this, they\rquote ve conducted several experiments in which they demons In one experiment, the scientists used a life-sized mannequin equipped with two CCTV cameras which recorded the events from the mannequin\rquote s eyes perspective, and a set of head mounted displays (also connected to cameras), worn by the participants. This scenario is however broken by some pathological cases, in which frontal and parietal lobe conditions could trigger the failure to recognize our body as our own. Furthermore, damage to frontal, parietal or temporal regions has also been associated wit The participants were asked to tilt their heads down as if they were looking at their own bodies, but in fact, the headset created the illusion that they were looking at the mannequin\rquote s body. Experimenting with simultaneous strokes on the mannequin and th A second experiment focused on the psychological evidence for owning a new body, based on threatening the artificial body with a knife, which caused the participants to respond as if the mannequin\rquote s body was in fact their own. But the most exciting experiment of all was the body-swap experience, in which a participant and an experimenter stood face to face, wearing the specially designed, camera-equipped helmets. They were asked to hold each other\rquote s hand as if to shake it, and The conclusions of the experiment were amazing, with the participants describing the sensation of the squeezing of the hands as if it had originated from the experimenter, and not from their own hand. The researchers explained that the body-swap illusion was possible even if the mannequin or the other person in the experiment was not the same gender as the participant. The conclusion of the experiment was that matching the multisensory and motor signals from the first person perspective was enough to create the sense of ownership of one\rquote s body, thus opposing the theory according to which body perception is a direct resu Image Credit: PLoS One Tags: body illusion bodyswap Share the News: Other News in Science For news industry, troubles only accelerate The Tribune Company's bankruptcy may signal a trend toward a new kind of newspaper journalism. | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the December 10, 2008 edition Mark Trumbull Reporter Mark Trumbull discusses some of the reasons for the Tribune Company declaring bankruptcy this week. The Tribune Co.'s move into bankruptcy this week is the most prominent signal \endash but just one of many \endash that a tumultuous revolution in the news industry is accelerating. It's a predicament similar to that of the US auto industry. A long reliable business model is under threat. For newspapers, it's because consumers are migrating increasingly to the free content zone called the Internet, while traditional revenue from ads and other sources is sagging. Then come some unexpectedly sh One difference, ironically, is that the media troubles are getting a lot less media attention than Detroit's bailout bid. But they are every bit as real. •The New York Times Co., following a road traveled by the carmakers, now sports a below investment grade credit rating from Standard & Poor's. •The Newark Star Ledger is cutting its staff nearly in half \endash headlining an industrywide wave of downsizing. •From broadcast to book publishing, other media companies are retrenching in tandem with newspapers. Few expect newspapers, any more than cars, to suddenly disappear. But an already difficult industry transition now looks harder. More bankruptcies seem likely, and some papers will simply shut their doors. This perfect storm of events has sucked in every player in the industry with astonishing speed, says Paul Gillin, a Boston-area media analyst and consultant. Yet he predicts that out of the chaos will emerge a new kind of media, a new kind of journalis That doesn't mean there's an easy path forward. The next year could see more staff cuts and consolidation, including mergers in cities with two daily newspapers. Readers may have fewer stand-alone sections to flip through. In Denver, the Rocky Mountain News may close altogether if a buyer isn't found i The mix of a lean economy and changing business models isn't limited to newspapers. The stock of broadcaster CBS has lost about three-quarters of its value this year just like Gannett, a more print-centered conglomerate. Even Yahoo, a leading destination for online news, is on the ropes. For newspapers, advertising revenues have been falling since 2006, and the most recent quarter saw a record percentage decline of 18 percent, according to industry figures cited by the Associated Press. Even online ad revenue has declined a bit in the pas Debt and a credit crisis deepen the challenge. The same things are happening to all newspapers, but it's magnified at the companies that were shortsighted enough to take on debt in recent years, says John Carroll, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company would be exhibit A. Sam Zell, builder of a real estate empire, saddled the company with $13 billion in debt when he bought it a year ago. At the time, he expressed optimism about a turnaround for a firm whose flagships are the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Bankruptcy buys the company some time to restructure and perhaps sell assets. The New York Times, while not as debt-burdened as Tribune, also feels the impact of tighter credit markets. With one credit line set to expire next spring, it plans to borrow against its valuable Manhattan headquarters building. Media companies see the Internet as an opportunity, not just a threat. It has opened the door to new formats and a more interactive role for news consumers, and to more rapid updating of breaking news. But online, the business partnership of advertisements and news content hangs in doubt. It's not really clear ... what the new equilibrium will be, in terms of revenue to support the labor-intensive process of news gathering, says Lee Rainie, who heads the Pew Internet and American Life Project. For now, Mr. Carroll says the bottom line is that many papers can no longer take on ambitious projects. We have fewer reporters on the streets. Related Stories Auto bailout: Congress gets closer to a decision E-mail newsletters ShareThis Republish Letter to the Editor RSS E-mail a friend Print this The idea for a virtual world focused on the Islamic lifestyle began five years ago, when CEO Mohamed El-Fatatry moved from Dubai to Finland in order to attend university. Raised in Dubai, El-Fatatry wanted wider horizons and a chance to see more of life. Muxlim With €300 and an uncertain future, he took a job delivering newspapers to make some extra cash as he studied. The entire journey was a trip into the unknown for El-Fatatry, but after doing it, he found that he now had the guts to take more risks. By 200 , a social networking and community site for Western Muslims. Living in Finland was the first time El-Fatatry had been in a Muslim-minority country, and the experience taught him more about the importance of community. Muxlim tries to reach not westernized Muslims who have resettled from Islamic countries, but ful Heroes . And, while the site does feature areas to discuss theology, the focus isn't on religion per se, but the Islamic lifestyle that includes food, clothing, and entertainment (like CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie , for instance). After two years of operation, Muxlim now has venture funding, employs 20 people, reaches hundreds of thousands of users, and has 65 to 70 percent of its audience logging in from the US and the UK. Not bad for a Finnish startup with a young CEO. The specific idea to add a virtual world as a new community feature arose in 2007, and Muxlim hired an artist to do a mockup that was later published on the site. It proved so popular that development was farmed out to a Finnish design house; after six mo Muxlim Pal launched to testers this week. It's a simple virtual world at this point, one where visitors can drop in on the beach cafe, the arena, Muxlim offices, and more, but the only thing to do at the moment is chat with other people in each area. The world is Flash-based, runs on Amazon's clo Surgeons in Spain have carried out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant - using a windpipe made with the patient's own stem cells. Fireworks Light Up Dubai as Gaza Sleeps in Darkness By Nadia W. Awad Dubai was the center of attention again last week as it spent $20 million on an exorbitantly lavish, all-night party to celebrate the opening of its latest hotel, the Atlantis Palm Jumeirah. Described as the party of the decade, no expense was spared. Two $20m firework party of Dubai's latest resort, The Atlantis, on the man-made Palm Jumeirah island at Dubai. But before you start wondering whether you\rquote ve wandered onto the wrong site or are reading an article from The Insider, rest assured - this descriptive introduction does have a point! I don\rquote t believe I was the only person to read about the party and its co However, this article is not a criticism of capitalism, or the activities of the world\rquote s rich. There are plenty of other people who are better adept at doing that job. Rather, my argument is with Dubai itself, as an emirate of the UAE and a member of the Earlier this year, controversy erupted when Dubai announced it had allowed the diamond magnate, Lev Leviev, to open two retail stores in the Gulf emirate , including one just opened in the Atlantis. What it did not announce was that Lev Leviev is an Israeli billionaire and a major funder of illegal settlement construction in the Palestinian Territories, including infamous settlements such as Har Homa and M To donate millions of dollars in assistance to the Palestinians and then to profit from business dealings with a primary funder of Palestinian land theft is hypocrisy at its best. The lavish hotel opening last week was just another example of Dubai\rquote s lack Palestinian children living in darkness as Israel block fuel deliveries. To say Palestinians feel a bit betrayed is an understatement. We definitely need humanitarian aid, but more importantly, we also need Arab and other international nations to stand by us morally and politically, shoulder to shoulder, in the face of an ever British Foreign Secretary David Miliband infuriated the Israeli government when he informed them of his intention to press for EU tariffs to be imposed on produce and products coming from Israeli settlements. Londoners demonstrated outside a large superma Islamic art museum marks cultural shift in Gulf • Qatar unveils spectacular centre on artificial island • 800 treasures from three continents on display The new Museum of Islamic Art illustrates 1,100 years of culture. Photograph: Maneesh Bakshi/AP The Gulf states are famous for their shopping malls and skyscrapers, but now they are intent on promoting their cultural heritage with an ambitious plan to open a string of museums after Qatar unveiled a spectacular showcase for Islamic art at the weekend The collection housed in the Museum of Islamic Art may not be the biggest in the world but it is a contender for being the most impressive. Built on an artificial island on reclaimed land, the museum, designed by one of the world's leading architects, IM Pei, holds 800 artistic and historical treasures from three continents and illustrates Islamic culture spanning 1,100 years. The inauguration was attended by heads of state and celebrities, including the Hollywood actor Robert De Niro, who will bring his long-established Tribeca film festival to Qatar next year, it was announced yesterday. Georgina Adam, from the Art Newspaper, described the museum as fabulous. It's got that Pei finish. It is elegant and simplistic. The display rooms are dark and it is like a treasure chest. The collection is very good and for one that was assembled so rapidly it is remarkable, she said. She added that Gulf states were beginning to see culture as a missing part of the puzzle. They have the ritzy airports, big towers and financial institutions, but they want to get culture and they're very competitive. Qatar wants to distinguish itself from Dubai, which is seen as brash, and it has got in there first. New money does not have art. There was a time when America was new money and it went around buying art. The Russians have done it and so have the Chinese. It is also a question of pride - pride in being Arab. The oil-rich state has enlisted other top architects - Jean Nouvel and Santiago Calatrava - to design museums for its capital city. Sheikha al-Mayassa, arts patron and daughter of the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, told journalists: We want to show that Islam is a peaceful civilisation, which has always called for tolerance and coexistence among different peoples. Her mother, Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser al-Missned, is also helping to promote Qatar as a cultural destination by opening an Arab Museum for Modern Art. It will give an overview of contemporary artistic genres in the Arab world, bringing together the works of the Maghreb Arabs of north-west Africa alongside those of the Mashriq eastern Arabs, and will comprise more than 5,000 paintings. There will be a sp John Martin, director of contemporary art fair Art Dubai, the biggest event of its kind in the Middle East, said the Gulf was inventing itself as a home for Islamic art. Doha and Dubai represent a new type of city and culture, they don't have the cultural baggage, he said. Nobody has written any rules and anything can happen. Sheikh who shopped The Islamic Museum of Art might never have opened were it not for Sheikh Saud Al-Thani, the former chairman of Qatar's National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage, whose billion-pound shopping spree led to his arrest, downfall and omission from recent London bankers fly in to help Dubai rescue By Jim Giles a social-networking site with automatic translation bolted on. That\rquote s Meedan, a gathering place for English and Arabic speakers who want to exchange thoughts on Middle East issues. Comments are translated automatically and instantly; Nebraska can now chat Palestinian Perhaps that is an unfair comparison. Maybe there is something especially challenging about Hebrew-to-English translation. Well, there is \emdash but it is a problem that will also affect Meedan. Computers are taught to translate using pairs of documents that h and on relational Israel Holland.\rdblquote That\rquote s the problem with translation Web sites: they tend to be funnier than they are useful. English-to-Arabic translation has its own quirks. Arabic is a \ldblquote head initial\rdblquote language: verbs are often placed at the beginning of a sentence. Subject and object usually follow, although not always in that order; Arabic speakers use context and meaning to (books). It is usually straightforward for a reader to judge which meaning is intended, but humans do so by drawing on something that computers lack \emdash an understanding of the meaning of the text. Given those hurdles, the translations on Meedan are surprisingly good. One Arabic speaker asked a question that appeared as: \ldblquote Has Pakistan has [sic] become a hotbed of terrorist groups?\rdblquote Not bad, considering that the original question included the word , can dodge many problems because it has had plenty of practice. The company hired some 20 professional translators to create a collection of English-Arabic parallel documents containing more than half a million words. The Meedan software would have seen Harvard University I.B.M. Meedan\rquote s software, which was developed by The site\rquote s translators will monitor activity, so that when the computer slips up, they can adjust the translation. So can users; each human-made change will also be noted by the I.B.M. software and, at least in theory, the error will become less likely to Will Meedan live up to its Arabic meaning of \ldblquote gathering place\rdblquote ? It depends on how you look at it. The translations are certainly not perfect. But translations need only be good enough to satisfy those using them, says Jennifer DeCamp, a machine-translatio \ldblquote Languages play a huge role in putting barriers between groups of people,\rdblquote says Stuart Shieber, a computational linguist at . \ldblquote The question is not whether [Meedan] is ideal, it\rquote s whether it\rquote s better to have it than to not.\rdblquote But when the subject is Middle East politics, even a minor misunderstanding can tip polite debate into angry argument. As with any dispute, language matters. Terrorist or freedom fighter? Martyr or murderer? Human editors and translators often wrestle wit Jim Giles is a freelance writer based in San Francisco. translated as \ldblquote hotbed\rdblquote in news articles about terrorism within the corpus. Since the word \ldblquote terrorist\rdblquote appeared in the user\rquote s question, the software could guess the context and choose the appropriate, nonliteral translation. martaan , an expression that literally means \ldblquote fertile ground.\rdblquote Context-dependent meanings are the bane of translation engines, but Meedan translated it appropriately as \ldblquote hotbed.\rdblquote Meedan headlines - December 02 - It\rquote s a lovely idea: , which means \ldblquote he wrote.\rdblquote This is normally written as Computers can also be stumped by the ambiguities in written Arabic. Take the word kataba ktb , as are the words kutiba (it was written) and kutub logged in to post a comment. You must be Leave a Reply Yahoo: Greater Privacy for Our Online Lives In an unprecedented move to address the growing concerns of privacy advocates, Yahoo announced that they will be reducing the length of time they retain personally identifiable search records from 13 months to 90 days. \~The company\rquote s two biggest rivals, G Still, Yahoo thinks this maneuver will accomplish two things - removing them from the heated discussion surrounding these privacy issues and handing them a clear advantage amongst users that wish to ensure greater online anonymity.\~ Under the new policy, Yahoo will delete the last eight bits of the Internet Protocol, or I.P., address associated with a search query after 90 days. I.P. addresses are digital tags that can identify a specific computer. Yahoo will also hide cookie data re The rationale given by search engine companies for saving this data in the past has always been that it was the most effective way to optimize targeted ads and provide relevant searches for their users, publishers and advertisers but Yahoo believes that t Though a step in the right direction, some advocates feel that Yahoo\rquote s decision to remove only part of the IP address, doesn\rquote t offer any real guarantee that these records will no longer be traceable. \~Echoing this criticism, Microsoft has stated that they We\rquote ll be curious to see if and how this measure changes the playing field as we move into the year ahead.\~ NY Times: Yahoo Limits Retention of Search Data Several things separate Muxlim Pal from other worlds like Second Life. For one thing, it's family friendly; you won't see two furries engaging in some extremely intimate behavior here, and the plan is to empower community members to flag offensive speech Trying to 'teach Hamas a lesson' is fundamentally wrong Channel 1 television broadcast an interesting mix on Saturday morning: Its correspondents reported from Sderot and Ashkelon, but the pictures on the screen were from the Gaza Strip. Thus the broadcast, albeit unintentionally, sent the right message: A chi But the assault on Gaza does not first and foremost demand moral condemnation - it demands a few historical reminders. Both the justification given for it and the chosen targets are a replay of the same basic assumptions that have proven wrong time after Israel is striking at the Palestinians to teach them a lesson. That is a basic assumption that has accompanied the Zionist enterprise since its inception: We are the representatives of progress and enlightenment, sophisticated rationality and morality, The bombing of Gaza is also supposed to liquidate the Hamas regime, in line with another assumption that has accompanied the Zionist movement since its inception: that it is possible to impose a moderate leadership on the Palestinians, one that will a Advertisement As a corollary, Israel has also always believed that causing suffering to Palestinian civilians would make them rebel against their national leaders. This assumption has proven wrong over and over. All of Israel's wars have been based on yet another assumption that has been with us from the start: that we are only defending ourselves. Half a million Israelis are under fire, screamed the banner headline of Sunday's Yedioth Ahronoth - just as if the It is admittedly impossible to live with daily missile fire, even if virtually no place in the world today enjoys a situation of zero terror. But Hamas is not a terrorist organization holding Gaza residents hostage: It is a religious nationalist movement, Most dangerous of all is the cliche that there is no one to talk to. That has never been true. There are even ways to talk with Hamas, and Israel has something to offer the organization. Ending the siege of Gaza and allowing freedom of movement between Ga At the same time, it is worth dusting off the old plans prepared after the Six-Day War, under which thousands of families were to be relocated from Gaza to the West Bank. Those plans were never implemented because the West Bank was slated to be used for J Rumsfeld blamed in detainee abuse scandals A bipartisan Senate report calls decisions made by the former Defense secretary a 'direct cause' of inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. Other Bush officials also are faulted. December 12, 2008 By Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes Reporting from Washington -- A bipartisan Senate report released Thursday concludes that decisions made by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were a direct cause of widespread detainee abuses, and that other Bush administration officials were t The report, endorsed by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the most forceful denunciation to date of the role that Rumsfeld and other top officials played in the prisoner abuse scandals of the last five years. The document also challenges assertions by senior Bush administration officials that the most egregious cases of prisoner mistreatment were isolated incidents of appalling conduct by U.S. troops. The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own, the report says. Instead, the document says, a series of high-level decisions in the Bush administration conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody. The document aims its harshest criticism at Rumsfeld's decision in December 2002 to authorize the use of aggressive interrogation techniques at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Although the order was rescinded six weeks later, the report describes it as a direct cause for detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay, and concludes that it influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques, including military working dogs, forced The report also criticizes President Bush, although less harshly. In particular, it cites a presidential memorandum signed Feb. 7, 2002, that denied detainees captured in Afghanistan the protections of the Geneva Conventions, which ban abusive treatment o Bush's decision to bypass an international law that had been observed by American troops for decades sent a message that impacted the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody, the report says. That message was bolstered by a series of memos from the Justice Department, the report says, that distorted the meaning and intent of anti-torture laws and rationalized the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody. The Senate report represents the culmination of an 18-month investigation by the committee's staff. It is the latest, and in many respects the most comprehensive, in a series of government investigations started after photographs surfaced in April 2004 of Those abuses cannot be chalked up to the actions of 'a few bad apples,' said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, referring to a line used by former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz in an attempt to downplay th Levin said it was both unconscionable and false for Rumsfeld and others to blame troops and escape accountability. Even so, the report does not call for further investigation or punishment. The findings were approved last month by the 17 committee members in attendance, indicating the report had the support of at least four of the panel's Republicans. Committee officials did not identify which senators on the 25- person panel were not presen Among the panel's members are several GOP senators who have criticized the administration's conduct on detainee matters, including John McCain of Arizona, John W. Warner of Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Levin said the committee had reviewed thousands of documents and conducted interviews with more than 70 people, and received written responses from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The investigation did not focus on the CIA's treatment of detainees, or the agency's operation of a network of secret prisons. But the inquiry turned up new information showing that the Defense Department had consulted with the CIA on interrogation matters, and that White House officials had reviewed CIA methods earlier and in more detail than previously acknowledged. Most of the findings had been disclosed in the panel's interim reports or in other investigations. But the report released Thursday traces the origins of aggressive interrogation techniques to U.S. military survival training programs. It follows the use o The techniques -- based on practices detailed in military courses on survival, evasion, resistance and escape, known as SERE -- included stress positions, the removal of clothing and the exploitation of phobias, including fear of dogs. One month after Rumsfeld issued his order approving such methods at Guantanamo, they were part of a presentation witnessed by Army Capt. Carolyn Wood at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, the report says. Wood has been criticized by human rights groups for h The committee said the Afghanistan techniques eventually became standard procedure for all U.S. forces in Iraq. And by summer 2003, Wood, then serving in Iraq, proposed that the practices become the interrogation policy at Abu Ghraib. After Wood proposed extending the use of the techniques and pressure mounted to acquire intelligence about the insurgency, the top commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, authorized interrogators on Sept. 14, 2003, to use stress positions, slee A month later, he rescinded permission to use the techniques. The new policy, however, contained ambiguities with respect to certain techniques, such as the use of dogs in interrogations, and led to confusion about which techniques were permitted, the Senate report says. Miller and Barnes are writers in our Washington bureau. A bipartisan Senate report released today concludes that decisions made by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were a direct cause of widespread detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay. For sixth straight year, Iraq deadliest nation for press was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in December 18, 2008 \emdash For the sixth consecutive year, New York Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history. Worldwide, CPJ found that 41 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2008, down from 65 last year. It is investigating another 22 deaths to determine whether they were work-related. , where deaths dropped from a record 32 in both 2007 and 2006. The decline in media deaths is consistent with an overall improvement in security conditions in The decline in the worldwide death toll was largely attributable to , journalists told In interviews with CPJ, journalists and analysts pointed to a variety of factors: the increase in U.S. troop levels that began in 2007; the turning of Sunni tribal leaders against al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters in Anbar province and elsewhere in west , journalists told CPJ. All of those killed in Iraq were local journalists working for domestic news outlets. The victims included Shihab al-Tamimi,\~head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, who died from injuries suffered in a targeted shooting in . Soran Mama Hama,\~a reporter for Livin during the year. Since the beginning of the war in March 2003, 136 journalists and 51 media workers have been killed, making it the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history. Three reporters were killed in civil strife in The 2008 death toll reflected a shift in global hot spots, as high numbers of deaths were reported in restive areas of Afghanistan Sri Lanka and the Pajhwok Afghan News service, was slain in , after reporting on the local drug trade. together claimed the lives of 13 journalists, found. Abdul Samad Rohani, a correspondent for the province, in the dangerous area bordering Helmand \rquote s Two media support workers also died in Thailand Georgian . Another three died in just five days of fighting between . Stan Storimans, a cameraman for the Dutch broadcaster RTL Nieuws, was killed during bombing in the central Georgian city of , Russian, and local forces over the disputed region of South Ossetia Gori More than 90 percent of those killed were local journalists covering the news for local, regional, and international news outlets. They included Nasteh Dahir Farah, a Somali reporter for several local and international outlets, who was gunned down by insurgents in the port city of Kismayo Murder remained the leading cause of work-related deaths: Twenty-eight of those killed in 2008 were targeted. Ivo Pukanic, owner of the hard-hitting , was killed when a bomb exploded under his car. The paper\rquote s marketing director, Niko Franjic, also died in the attack. Croatian political weekly\~ Nacional research over 17 years shows that the radio journalists, Dennis Cuesta and Martin Roxas,\~were slain in 2008 after reporting on local controversies. Philippine Two have been among the deadliest nations for the press\emdash and among the worst in solving the murders. Philippines recorded two work-related deaths in 2008. One of the victims was Magomed Yevloyev,\~owner of the popular news Web site\~ to seek justice in journalist murders, focusing particularly on the has undertaken an , who was shot in the head while in police custody. tank shell while filming in the Gaza Strip. The tank fired on Shana, killing him and eight bystanders, even though the cameraman was wearing a flak jacket marked \ldblquote Press\rdblquote and had gotten out of\~a sport-utility vehicle marked \ldblquote TV.\rdblquote Israeli military authoriti Seven journalist deaths came in combat situations. Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed by an Six journalists died during dangerous assignments such as riots and street protests. Among the victims was Indian cameraman Javed Ahmed Mir, who was shot by security forces as he was preparing to cover a protest in , one journalist was killed in direct relation to his work, found. Gunmen shot Alejandro Zenón Fonseca Estrada, a radio host who had waged an anticrime campaign, on a main street in also made the list of places with journalist fatalities this year. CPJ, founded in 1981, compiles and analyzes journalist deaths each year. CPJ staff applies strict criteria for each entry on the annual killed list; researchers independently investigate and verify the circumstances behind each death. CPJ considers a case If the motives in a killing are unclear, but it is possible that a journalist died in relation to his or her work, CPJ classifies the case as \ldblquote unconfirmed\rdblquote and continues to investigate. CPJ\rquote s list does not include journalists who died from illness or were A list of journalists killed for their work in 2008, with reporting on each case, is available online. Also online are capsules for the . A final list of journalists killed in 2008 will be released in early January. is still investigating, and capsules for By Jim Giles - It\rquote s a lovely idea: Griefers attack Muslim virtual world already awash in users A more subtle but also more interesting change is that the character one controls in Muslim Pal isn't an avatar who represents the user; it is more of a virtual friend (as the world's title suggests) that the user controls. El-Fatatry tells us that some Apart from some architectural design elements, the world itself isn't especially Islamic (though characters will be able to do their prayers and wear headscarves). El-Fatatry says the site is open to anyone, and he has no desire to segregate Muslims ins Within hours of opening its virtual doors this week, though, Muxlim Pal was already hit by griefers of the sort well known to virtual worlds users and online gamers. 10 people had an intent to disrupt the site and caused problems for half an hour or s But El-Fatatry says that the biggest problem was popularity; with widespread media coverage of the launch, thousands upon thousands of people started logging in, but few were site regulars. Muxlim wants initial feedback from its community members, since Just like any business, Muxlim needs to make money. Most of the site is blanketed in traditional advertising (Some insurance policies appear complete... but are they halal?), but Muxlim Pal also provides a way to purchase coins that can be used to upg It's an improbable story, a Finnish company run by an English-speaking, Dubai-born CEO who aims to reach British and American Muslims. But Muxlim has seen terrific success so far in its two-year history, and the attention given to Muxlim Pal suggests that Nate Anderson | Published: December 11, 2008 - 11:07AM CT JERUSALEM/GAZA, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Hamas has approved for the first time the establishment of a new bank in the Gaza Strip under its authority, a move that could open a door to bypass a financial blockade imposed by Israel and its Western allies. Will Obama's Stimulus Package Work? How do you stimulate a stumbling economy? For decades, the consensus among economists was that this was a job best left to the Federal Reserve and to such automatic fiscal stabilizers as unemployment insurance. Passing laws in Congress to cut taxes or boo See a bailout report card. That consensus has unraveled in the face of the current recession, which appears likely to be the worst in the U.S. in three quarters of a century. When President-elect Barack Obama arrived in Washington at the beginning of week and began lobbying for $77 Read Obama's full remarks. Yet this pro-stimulus consensus \emdash élite groupthink, as one of the dissenting minority, libertarian econo-blogger Arnold Kling, puts it \emdash has its limits. Economists have neglected the subject for so long that their theories of how stimulus works are shoc Obama's stimulus plan is partly the product of campaign promises and political compromises See pictures of Barack Obama's family tree. . But it's also a good reflection of the current muddled state of economic thinking on stimulus. ( The biggest split is over whether stimulus should take the form of tax cuts or government spending. The main argument for spending over taxes is that, at a time when American consumers have turned suddenly frugal, they're more likely to save any extra cas Tax cuts have the advantage, though, that they can be put in place quickly. There's also the more ideological, if still possibly valid, argument that they don't encourage the growth of bureaucracy. And recent empirical research \emdash some of it by Christina R Then there's government spending. One argument is that if you're going to stick future generations with added debt, you might as well put the money into something that will leave them better off \emdash infrastructure, alternative energy, etc. But these project Is it the right mix? Who knows. But if it's any solace, the intellectual godfather of all economic stimulus plans, economist John Maynard Keynes, didn't think the specific content mattered all that much. It would be better to do something sensible with See the financial-crisis blame game. See pictures of the global financial crisis. this story Connect to this TIME Story President-elect Barack Obama Jim Young / Reuters Justin Fox Friday, Jan. 09, 2009 U.S. Nationwide Cell Phone Ban for Drivers Urged SUNDAY, Jan. 11 (HealthDay News) -- A leading consumer safety organization is calling for a nationwide ban on drivers using all cell phones and other messaging devices. While there are a few state and local laws banning drivers from using hand-held cell phones, the National Safety Council (NSC) believes it's time to make it unanimous. The NSC plans to lobby in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., for laws that ban both hand-held and hands-free cell phone use as well as texting while driving. The council also plans to work with the U.S. government to develop incentive programs and sancti The problem is of an enormous order of magnitude, and it's only getting worse, said council president and chief executive officer Janet Froetscher. We are at the point where the science is really clear that driving while you are on your cell phone is h Many people know that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous, but they don't know how dangerous, Froetscher added. And it's legal. It's legal to do something on the road that endangers your life and endangers the life of other folks around you, s Froetscher is sending letters to all governors and state legislative leaders, urging them to adopt statewide bans. Achieving and enforcing bans in all states is a challenge, but the NSC has successfully overcome challenges in the past, such as seat belt e We have found ways to enforce those laws, and this is no different, Froetscher concluded. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association Web site, only five states -- California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Washington -- plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands have laws that prohibit driving while talking on han But even those states that require hands-free devices for cell phones while driving or ban texting while driving don't enforce their laws consistently, Froetscher noted. According to Froetscher, the data clearly shows that cell phones and other devices cause many accidents because drivers pay more attention to their conversation or text message than where they are on the road. She cited a study from the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis that found cell phone use while driving accounts for about 6 percent of crashes each year nationwide. That's 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries, 12,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths, she said. Another Harvard study put the cost of cell phone-related crashes at about $43 billion a year. By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter Sunday, January 11, 2009; 12:00 AM United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is in Cairo at the start of a Middle East trip aimed at bringing about a truce in the Gaza Strip. He is to hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, before going on to visit Israel and the West Bank, an UN's Ban arrives in Cairo for Gaza talks We believe in resistance, not revenge Hamas is demonised to justify Palestinian suffering in Gaza. But we have no quarrel with Jewish people, only the actions of Israel Basim Naim Sixteen days into Adrian Hamilton: It's too early to start losing faith in President Obama If nothing else he is committed to a break with the Bush past strip from F16s, Apache helicopters, ships and tanks. Weapons used against our people include white phosphorus rockets, made in America, which burn the skin black and destroy human soft tissue completely. Now we can hear , Israel continues to bombard all areas in the its attack We've had the period of excessive hope for Barack Obama. We've been through the time when the critics have pointed out the limitations of what he can be expected \endash or is likely \endash to achieve on the international stage. So maybe it's time to express a bit o The reasons for caution are clear enough. You only had to watch the appearance _ of his nominee as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, at the Senate _ confirmation hearings on Tuesday to sense the constraints. In search of _ experience on internationa Yes, said Mrs Clinton to the committee, she would be adopting a more _ responsive and consensual approach to foreign affairs: the marriage of _ principles and pragmatism, not rigid ideology, as she called it. But _ whenever it came to the practical a Michael McCarthy: The 44th President \endash and the first serious hope for our climate And yet it is far too soon and too easy to dismiss Obama with a shrug of _ resignation that he will be more of the same. If nothing else, he represents _ and is committed to a break with the Bush past. That is revolution enough. Although much has been written about the efforts of _ Condoleezza Rice to moderate Bush's diplomacy in the last year of his _ presidency (an illusion of change savagely exposed by Israel's invasion of _ Gaza), the reality of In the end, George Bush did not lose the regard of the American people because _ of his policies abroad, but because they lost confidence in his competence _ at home. But the quagmire of Iraqi occupation, the fruitless confrontations _ with the nations Merely by withdrawing from his predecessor's positions, Obama will radically _ improve America's standing in the world and give Washington the space to _ develop new alliances and different policies. To expect him to use this _ space to develop some gr Bush came to power as the commander-in-chief of a country which was clearly _ the winner of the Cold War and the progenitor of economic growth for the _ world at large. He left it having exposed all the limits of that _ exceptionalist vision. Obama can \endash and will \endash start with few if any of those illusions. He is a _ nationalist, certainly, and also one who knows that his major task is to _ sort out the economy at home rather than fix the problems of the world at _ large. His rhetoric is sti That may fall apart when it comes to the hard decisions as to what to do about _ Iran's nuclear programme, whether to include Hamas in Middle East talks, how _ far to confront North Korea and deal with Pakistan. But, in the meantime, it _ does imply th It will also, I feel, leave him relatively open to the development of regional _ associations and power balances outside of US influence. Not for him the _ desire to dominate all, nor the interest in bilateral close alliances _ (Gordon Brown be warned) Events may force him otherwise, of course. They will certainly test his _ judgement. But for the moment the world should breath a deep sigh of relief _ that one activist period is over and a period of openness is starting. And _ for that we should all Use Twitrans To Twitter In A Variety Of Languages A new free service called launched today that allows Twitter users to quickly translate any short message to a variety of languages. The translation is farmed out to humans using the OneHourTranslation platform and results are Twitrans in a few minutes. promised Here\rquote s how it works. You send a Twitter message to @twitrans followed by the translation requested (English to Chinese would be en2zh). A \ldblquote @twitrans en2zh Testing out twitrans, a new Twitter translation service.\rdblquote message I sent: test The service uses humans, so it\rquote ll presumably yield better results than Google Translate or similar automated translation services. While I waited for a response the service sent me a saying message \ldblquote Human translation started. You\rquote ll receive the translation here in a few minutes. Thank you! \ldblquote (they sent that to the wrong Twitter account, but I\rquote m guessing they\rquote ll fix that). Ten minutes later they sent to them in Chinese and asked them to translate it to English. If I translate this message back and forth enough times with the service, I\rquote m betting I\rquote ll get some crazy results. message back to me: \ldblquote 尝试一下twitrans吧，一种新的翻译服务\rdblquote I have no idea what that means, but I\rquote m hoping it\rquote s a decent translation. Just to be sure I this sent it back Messages can be translated to/from Arabic-ar, Chinese-zh, Dutch-nl, English-en, French-fr, German-de, Greek-el, Hebrew-he, Hindi-hi, Italian-it, Japanese-jp, Portuguese-pt, Russian-ru, Spanish-es. 28 Comments Michael Arrington on ______January 14, 2009 Chilling developments in Dubai A refrigerated swimming pool and an artificially cooled beach - Dubai's latest excesses are enough to make conservationists weep. Leo Hickman reports Leo Hickman The Guardian, A beach in Dubai, where development is still geared to luxury rather than sustainability. Photograph: Jochen Tack/Alamy runs the world's reserves of hyperbole dry. But in the meantime, we continue to draw a sharp intake of breath each time a new construction project is announced. We have had ski domes built in the desert, seen vast artificial islands rise from the sea and There will surely come a day when This week, it was reported that the Palazzo Versace hotel - the Emirate's latest offering for those still in the market for exorbitant luxury - will boast, when completed in 2010, a refrigerated 820sq metre swimming pool and a beach with artificially cool We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on, said Soheil Abedian, founder and president of Palazzo Versace, a hotel group with plans for a further 15 luxury hotels around the world to add to the one that already exists on Aust The energy required to run this project can only be guessed at (when questioned, Hyder Consulting, the British company hired by the hotel to build these facilities, said it has signed a confidentiality agreement with Palazzo Versace and therefore couldn't and a global economic recession, Dubai's grandiose plans might seem short-sighted to some. Is it really wise to be building at all, let alone on this scale, in a place that the United Nations describes as one of the most water-imperilled environments on Of course, in a place like Dubai, this kind of audacious project goes relatively unnoticed, among the many others currently underway. To pick just one other example, 30,000 mature trees are scheduled to be shipped to Dubai to help landscape a new Tiger Wo It's grotesque that while the world's poorest people face the loss of their homes and livelihoods, as well as disease and starvation, because of climate change, the world's richest people think it's acceptable to waste precious energy so pointlessly on t Dubai's ruling elite insists it now places sustainability at the heart of its plans for existing and future projects. Last year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai's ruler, spelled out the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 in a speech. He explained These latest plans for an artificially cooled beach may be causing ripples around the world, but why isn't there more vocal opposition by environmentalists within Dubai? The simple answer is there are no environmentalists in Dubai; not in the sense of a c The one place where dissent does seem to be allowed - or is harder to police - is the internet, where people can hide behind their anonymity. Discussion forums are a popular way to vent criticism about the direction Dubai is taking, as are blogs such as S But while Dubai's citizens fight for Sammy to be freed, its leaders refuse to be diverted from realising their vision. At the United Nations climate talks, held in Poland earlier this month, Dr Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahad, the UAE's minister of environment and Comment: David Miliband's argument is flawed Times Foreign Editor says the Foreign Secretary may not want to call this a war - but Osama bin Laden certainly does David Miliband showed bad judgment and poor taste when he chose the Taj hotel_in Mumbai to take a last swipe at George Bush in the dying days of his_presidency. With the blood barely dry on the reception walls, the Foreign Secretary made_his stand against Mr Bush in the city\rquote s most famous landmark and memorial_site to the 164 dead from November\rquote s terrorist attack. Mr Miliband said that the War on Terror was \ldblquote misleading and mistaken\rdblquote and may_have done more harm than good, that the threat posed by militant Islam_cannot be defeated by force of arms and that there is no single enemy in_this fight. His points have been rehearsed by British ministers before but Mr Miliband_chose to set them out more bluntly than ever, just five days before the US_leader steps down. He separately praised the incoming Obama Administration_whose \ldblquote values and priorities\rdblquote On substance his argument is flawed. As Osama bin Laden made clear in his_statement this week, the al-Qaeda leader, his No 2 and his global_organisation are alive and well. Bar some inauguration surprise, the_fugitive Saudi terrorist is likely to see off Mr Miliband cited General David Petraeus, whose tactics are credited with_turning around the situation in Iraq, as a commander who understood that_America could not kill its way out of the problems in Iraq. That is true. But what America did do under Mr Bush and General Petraeus was_commit tens of thousands more troops to the battle and win over the support_of key elements in the local population. The Americans, with their new Iraqi_allies, then dismembered Clearly if there are moderate, biddable elements in the Taleban, in Hezbollah,_in Hamas or among other militant groups around the world, then the_governments concerned should act to engage them. But let us not kid_ourselves about al-Qaeda and its allies. The shortcomings of Mr Miliband\rquote s arguments are largely beside the point. The_Taj hotel in Mumbai is a place where visiting foreign leaders should pay_respect to the dead and praise the courage of those who defied the_terrorists. Mr Miliband appears to have followed the advice of one of Mr Bush\rquote s_predecessors in the White House, who was fond of saying that you should_never hit a man when Instead, the Foreign Secretary should have acted some time during the past_seven years when his words would have mattered, not on the eve of Mr Obama\rquote s_inauguration and not in Mumbai. November 30, 2008 - 11:58am AP Medical Writer By MARIA CHENG LONDON (AP) - As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs. They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease's spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted. AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies, said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University. Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of Grenada, goes further. He argues that UNAIDS, the U.N. agency leading the fight against the disease, has outlived its purpose and should be disbanded. The global HIV industry is too big and out of control. We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake, ... too many relatively well paid HIV staff in affected countries, and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fa Paul de Lay, a director at UNAIDS, disagrees. It's valid to question AIDS' place in the world's priorities, he says, but insists the turnaround is very recent and it would be wrong to think the epidemic is under control. We have an epidemic that has caused between 55 million and 60 million infections, de Lay said. To suddenly pull the rug out from underneath that would be disastrous. U.N. officials roughly estimate that about 33 million people worldwide have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Scientists say infections peaked in the late 1990s and are unlikely to spark big epidemics beyond Africa. In developed countries, AIDS drugs have turned the once-fatal disease into a manageable illness. England argues that closing UNAIDS would free up its $200 million annual budget for other health problems such as pneumonia, which kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. By putting more money into AIDS, we are implicitly saying it's OK for more kids to die of pneumonia, England said. His comments touch on the bigger complaint: that AIDS hogs money and may damage other health programs. By 2006, AIDS funding accounted for 80 percent of all American aid for health and population issues, according to the Global Health Council. In Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and elsewhere, donations for HIV projects routinely outstrip the entire national health budgets. In a 2006 report, Rwandan officials noted a gross misallocation of resources in health: $47 million went to HIV, $18 million went to malaria, the country's biggest killer, and $1 million went to childhood illnesses. There needs to be a rational system for how to apportion scarce funds, said Helen Epstein, an AIDS expert who has consulted for UNICEF, the World Bank, and others. AIDS advocates say their projects do more than curb the virus; their efforts strengthen other health programs by providing basic health services. But across Africa, about 1.5 million doctors and nurses are still needed, and hospitals regularly run out of basic medicines. Experts working on other health problems struggle to attract money and attention when competing with AIDS. Diarrhea kills five times as many kids as AIDS, said John Oldfield, executive vice president of Water Advocates, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes clean water and sanitation. Everybody talks about AIDS at cocktail parties, Oldfield said. But nobody wants to hear about diarrhea, he said. These competing claims on public money are likely to grow louder as the world financial meltdown threatens to deplete health dollars. We cannot afford, in this time of crisis, to squander our investments, Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO's director-general, said in a recent statement. Some experts ask whether it makes sense to have UNAIDS, WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Fund plus countless other AIDS organizations, all serving the same cause. I do not want to see the cause of AIDS harmed, said Shiffman of Syracuse University. But For AIDS to crowd out other issues is ethically unjust. De Lay argues that the solution is not to reshuffle resources but to boost them. To take money away from AIDS and give it to diarrheal diseases or onchocerciasis (river blindness) or leishmaniasis (disfiguring parasites) doesn't make any sense, he said. We'd just be doing a worse job in everything else. (Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) In this Nov. 28, 2007 file photo, a social worker displays earrings and pendants made using the AIDS awareness symbol at a counseling center in Chennai, India. As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, Dec. 1, 2008, some experts are growing more outspoken in 30 Comments Crunch 'cost Arabs $2.5 trillion' The global economic crisis has cost Arab countries $2,500bn (£1,690bn) in the last four months alone, according to Kuwait's foreign minister. Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah told reporters in Kuwait City that oil-rich Gulf Arab states had postponed or cancelled 60% of development projects. He did not give details for his figures, which were released days before an Arab Economic Summit. Stock market falls and a low oil price have contributed to the losses. The biggest loss was an estimated 40% drop in the value of Arab investments abroad, which had previously totalled around $2.5tn, AFP news agency reports. The Arab world has lost $2.5 trillion in the past four months, Mr Sabah said after meeting fellow foreign and finance ministers. Kuwait City is due to open a two-day Arab Economic Summit on Monday, the first of its kind. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa earlier described the meeting of 22 heads of state as the largest and most important Arab event of 2009. Kuwait City's stock exchange lost 38% of its value last year The rapid-fire spread of a close-up photo of the US Airways plane that crashed in the Hudson River Thursday resulted in the service that hosted the picture going down. Photo of Hudson River plane crash downs TwitPic TwitPic, an application that allows users to take pictures from their mobile phones and append them to Twitter posts, went down after at least 7,000 people attempted to view the photo of the airplane taken from a commuter ferry by Sarasota, Fla., resident Janis Krums According to Noah Everett, the founder of TwitPic, who still runs the service by himself, after the photo of the plane was re-tweeted by a large number of people and then picked up by several news sites, including , the resulting traffic was too much for the site's servers. Everett called it a snowball effect. In fact, Everett said this wasn't the first time someone had used TwitPic to post a photo of an airplane accident. He explained that a passenger on a Continental Airlines plane that went off the runway in Denver in December used the service to post a phot Perhaps because of the national interest in an airplane accident taking place in direct view of Manhattan, the traffic produced by Krums' photo was higher than in the case of the Denver accident, Everett suggested. And while the circumstances of Thursday's accident were unfortunate--though, miraculously, no one died in the crash--Everett admitted that the fact that Krums' photo got so much attention was validation of the utility of TwitPic. We haven't gotten so much press coverage before, Everett said. It's shocking, and it's a good feeling--though (also) not a good feeling because it's bad news, Everett said. He also said that he's got additional servers that are soon going to be in place. In a month's time (something like) this will not affect us anymore, he explained. We're working to be able to handle our growth, but this is definitely a wake-up call showing the power of breaking news and TwitPic. Everett said that there had been about 7,000 views of the picture before the site went down, and that there were about 500 additional requests to view it every 15 or 20 seconds. He also said that while he couldn't be immediately sure, it was likely that Krums had used an Apple iPhone to take the picture, given that it was 600x800 pixels, the average size of an iPhone picture. By 2:35 p.m. Pacific, about two hours after the photo was taken, TwitPic was back up. Everett said, I hope it stays up. I'll be working on this through the night. This photo, of the US Airways jet that crashed into the Hudson River Thursday, brought so much traffic to TwitPic that the site, which allows users of several mobile phones to post pictures to Twitter, saw its servers get overloaded. Click image for large تدفق الحشود إلى العاصمة لمشاهدة أوباما و هو يؤدي اليمين WASHINGTON \emdash Before daybreak this morning, flag-waving crowds bundled up against the cold began pouring into the National Mall to witness the swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of the United States. The press of war and recession aside, the most immediate challenge for the incoming president \emdash and as many as million onlookers \emdash is running the gauntlet of freezing temperatures, a logistics nightmare and a rigid schedule dictated by the Constitution to c At 6. a.m., a sharp wind and 19-degree temperature did little to hold back the crowds pouring out of the Metro stations. Lines at security checkpoints leading to the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route began forming before 4 a.m. Althea Rainge, of Bowie, Md., showed up at 4:30 a.m. at one of the security posts leading to the route, and stood for the next two hours wrapped in a Behind her, the crowd was mostly quiet. Volunteers in red coats shouted directions to crowds trying to navigate across the route to the Mall. Tara Graham, 38, of the Bronx, arrived at 5:30 a.m. It's just really wonderful, she says. It's just an honor to be here. To see the first family, she said. I'm glad to be a part of history. She shrugged off the freezing temperatures: It's all about Tammy Robinson, 44, an African- American from Los Angeles, said she had never cared about inaugrations in the past, but this time traveled halfway across the country with her 9-year-old daughter Morgan. I always felt like an outsider, she said. Now I feel like I kind of belong. This is my country, too, Robinson said. I'm not just someone living on the fringe. The apathy is over, she said. It cost us too much. The first arrivals pushed up as close as possible to the barriers near the western front of the Capitol, still well outside the area where 250,000 ticket holders will get a close-up glimpse of the ceremony. Many people crowded around television broadcast booths, waving American flags as robotic cameras swirled above the burgeoning groups of onlookers. Early signs indicated that the crowd may well exceed the record 1.2 million from Lyndon Johnson's inauguration in 1965, dotting the National Mall and lining the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route to the White House. For Barack Obama, the two-year journey to the White House ends, and the journey of a new presidency begins. The president-elect, his wife Michelle, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and his wife, Jill, attended services this morning at St. John's Church, across Lafayette Square from the White House. The Obamas, who are staying nearby at the Blair House, will make the short ride to the White House at 9:55 a.m., where they will be greeted by President Bush and the First Lady. After coffee, they will then travel to the Capitol where, as required by the Constitution, the former Illinois senator will follow the path taken by 43 predecessors to take the oath of office at noon. Obama, 47, will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts, who at 53 also represents a new generation of American leadership. Biden will be sworn in by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's senior member. Hovering above it all will be the ghosts of presidents and preachers past: Abraham Lincoln, whose Bible will be used for the first time since his presidency. Franklin Roosevelt, the last incoming president to face an economy in such disarray. John Kennedy, whose youth and relative inexperience Obama shares. And Martin Luther King Jr., whose 80th birthday was celebrated Monday; he was assassinated when Obama was 6. Center stage will be Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, who rose from the obscurity of the Illinois state Senate in 2004 to the most powerful job in the world. What an incredible testimony this is to both him and to the possibilities of America, says Yale political science professor Stephen Skowronek. There is no historical parallel. The inauguration simultaneously marks the end of George W. Bush's eight-year tenure at the White House and Obama's nearly two-year quest to take his place \emdash one that moved from quixotic to complete as the man who came to be known as No-drama Obama metho Bush, as usual, was in the Oval Office early today, stepping in for the final time as president at 6:55 a.m. The 43rd president took a moment to leave the traditional note for the incoming president. Dana Perino, the White House press spokesman, said Bush took a last walk around the South Lawn. He's spending the morning with his family, getting ready for the inauguration she said. Perino said we're all a little bit sad, but also looking forward to the next phase of their lives. Since winning about 67 million votes on Election Day for a 53% mandate, Obama has chosen a centrist Cabinet, paused briefly for a Hawaiian vacation and jumped with both feet into the two biggest economic issues facing the nation. Last week, he won congres Americans have high expectations. A majority of those surveyed in a USA TODAY/Gallup survey last week predicted that Obama will be able to achieve every one of 10 major campaign promises, from reducing health care costs and increasing coverage to withdraw On Monday, Obama spent his last day as president-elect visiting injured troops, performing community service projects and hosting three bipartisan dinners to honor Biden, McCain and former secretary of State Colin Powell. He switched from dark gray jeans, After the season of campaigning has ended, each of us in public life has a responsibility to usher in a new season of cooperation built on those things we hold in common \emdash not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans, he said at the McCain eve Obama's relatively brief inauguration speech was ready for delivery. Today it goes into the history books, and the man known for being an eloquent speaker turns to governing. I am making a commitment to you as the next president that we are going to make government work, he said Monday. But I can't do it by myself. ... We're going to have to take responsibility, all of us. Share this story: By Richard Wolf and Douglas Stanglin USA TODAY Record crowds expected for the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20 as the 44th president of the United States. What does the inauguration mean to you? For Obama, tough decisions from the start TELL US: KING HOLIDAY: Speech mixes promises with rebuke of Bush WASHINGTON \emdash In the opening lines of his inaugural address, President Obama turned toward predecessor George W. Bush and thanked him for his service to our nati In the 18-minute speech that followed, however, Obama delivered what amounted to a searing indictment of the Bush presidency. From the economy to national security, the use of science to the distribution of wealth, he promised that a new day with sharply That we are in the midst of crisis is now well-understood, Obama said as Bush sat a few feet away from him on the Capitol platform. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America. And in a line that brought a gasp and applause from the enormous audience on the National Mall, Obama declared: As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Obama and Bush have differed on anti-terrorism policies including the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay and enhanced interrogation techniques that the Obama team views as torture. In his first week, Obama will sign an executive order to close Guantanamo, pr American Speeches: Political Oratory from Abraham Lincoln to Bill Clinton There was also a swipe at the bitter partisan battles that have shaped Washington politics. Obama proclaimed an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics. Brown University historian Ted Widmer, editor of . called Obama's language a robust rejection of Bush's policies. In the speech that launches his tenure in the Oval Office, Obama offered a stern assessment of the nation's plight and the time and effort it will take to recover. His tone was more cautionary than triumphant, the language plain-spoken, the sentences shor He didn't offer specifics on what that would involve. There was no laundry list of legislative proposals \emdash that is likely to come in a speech to Congress in a few weeks \emdash or details about the difficult trade-offs ahead. He did make it clear that any turna Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, he said. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met. Obama didn't strive for any verbal pyrotechnics, says Davis Houck of Florida State University in Tallahassee, author of Rhetoric as Currency: Hoover, Roosevelt and the Great Depression . Perhaps rhetorical excess could be considered a luxury when what the country needs is some hard truth-telling. Obama sat down before Thanksgiving with speechwriter Jon Favreau and other top aides to discuss the speech. He told them he wanted to describe the moment that the country finds itself in, noting that Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy had done just that i Drafts of the address were passed back and forth between the speechwriters and Obama for weeks. In an interview with USA TODAY last week, Obama said he spent much of the weekend of Jan. 10-11 in his Washington hotel finishing a version that was polished i Those who have written presidential speeches were listening for echoes of earlier voices. There were moments I heard Kennedy; there were moments I heard FDR, says Widmer, a former Clinton speechwriter. 'Swift action on the economy,' that was pure FDR. There were no direct references to Lincoln, a fellow Illinoisan whom Obama often cites as an inspiration. Still, his reference to our better history was reminiscent of Lincoln's reference to our better angels in his first inaugural address. Obama ment Obama's language was often visual. To despots abroad, he said, We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. He said the United States had tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation. The nation's diversity, he said, was ou Only indirectly did he refer to the breakthrough that his own swearing-in represented, the first African American to serve in the nation's highest office. God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny, he said. This is the meaning of our liberty and ou The trajectory of Obama's political career has been shaped by his abilities as a writer and orator, from his best-selling memoir to the speech at the 2004 Democratic convention that made him a national figure. In the interview last week, Obama said that when he sits down to write I'm hearing certain voices in my head, among them civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Lincoln. I'm just not as good as them, but I hear them, he said. Not since Franklin Roosevelt rebuked Herbert Hoover in 1933 \emdash The money-changers have fled, Roosevelt told Americans struggling through the Depression \emdash has the incoming president offered such a stinging critique of the outgoing one in his inaugural add The economic crisis is a result of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, Obama said at one point. At another, he said the success of the economy depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product but on the reach of our prosperity \emdash INAUGURATION DOWNLOAD Obama Calls for Plan on Withdrawing US Troops from Iraq U.S. President Barack Obama has told military leaders to draw up any additional plans necessary for a responsible U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Mr. Obama called for the measure during a meeting with his national security team on Wednesday. The new president has vowed to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. He also supports a plan to nearly double the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, where violence has increased in recent months. In a statement, Mr. Obama called Wednesday's meeting productive. He said he planned to consult military leaders in the coming days to review the situation in Afghanistan, in order to develop a comprehensive strategy for the entire region. Separately on Wednesday in Iraq, a Sunni politician escaped unharmed after an attack on his convoy just north of Baghdad. The bombing killed four students. Ziyad al-Ani heads Baghdad's Islamic University and belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party, a large Sunni Arab faction in parliament. The attack came ahead of Iraq's provincial elections on January 31. Two politicians have already been murdered, and Iraqi security officials fear more violence in the days leading up to the vote. Barack Obama tackles Middle East, Guantanamo Bay and economy on first day President Barack Obama has kept his promise to hit the ground running _ on by tackling the Middle East, Iraq, Guantánamo Bay and the economy during _ his first hours in office. By Alex Spillius in Washington In his first full day as president, he spent half an hour at the Oval Office _ from 8.35am, after just a few hours' sleep following a night on the town _ attending inaugural balls. After a prayer service at the national cathedral that signalled the formal end _ of his inauguration, he immediately set to work, telephoning four Middle _ Eastern leaders and so signalling what a strong priority the region would _ be. He also drafted an order to close the Guantánamo prison within a year and _ summoned his economic team and war council to move ahead with plans for _ rescuing the economy and withdrawing from Iraq. Middle East In his first phone calls, Mr Obama spoke to President Mahmoud Abbas of the _ Palestinian Authority, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Ehud _ Olmert of Israel and King Abdullah of Jordan. Robert Gibbs, the new White House press secretary, issued a statement saying _ that the President had underlined his commitment to consolidating the recent _ ceasefire in Gaza. Mr Gibbs said Mr Obama used this opportunity to communicate his _ commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the _ beginning of his term. A spokesman for the Palestinian leader said Mr Obama told Mr Abbas that he was _ the recipient of his first call as the 44th US president. President Abbas urged him to work towards peace based on international _ resolutions, he added. A close Abbas aide admitted surprise at the speed with which Mr Obama moved, _ even if he knew how serious the President was about resolving the _ Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The speed of the call is a message signalling to all concerned parties _ that the Palestinian people has one address and that's President Abbas, _ said Yasser Abed Rabbo. Sources said Mr Obama had also asked George Mitchell, the former Senate _ Democratic leader and broker of the Good Friday agreement in Northern _ Ireland, to be a special envoy to the Middle East. American officials have insisted the vote Saturday must prove credible -- that is, relatively free of fraud, with its results acceptable to most of its participants -- if elections are to begin taking root as a mechanism to transfer power in a country tha Mr Obama later called in the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Adml Mike _ Mullen, the defence secretary, Robert Gates, and other military advisers, _ including Gen David Petraeus, the head of Central Command, which oversees _ the wars in Iraq and The President is going to get an update about what is going on in _ Iraq,'' said Mr Gibbs. He will ask for planning to redeploy combat _ troops within 16 months.'' Mr Obama previously said that on his first day in office he would give _ commanders there an order to end the war. Guantánamo Bay Fulfilling a campaign promise, Mr Obama's aides circulated a draft executive _ order that would close the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba within _ a year. Within hours of his inauguration, the President called for a 120-day _ suspension of military commissions, prompting judges to suspend the trial of _ five alleged plotters in the September 11 attacks and Omar Khadr, a Canadian _ accused of killing a US The special military tribunals for Guantánamo inmates were established in 2006 _ by the Bush administration to try terrorist suspects under separate rules _ from regular civilian or military courts. They have been widely criticised _ for failing to mee Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, called Mr _ Obama's decision very positive. The 120-day suspension has the practical effect of stopping the process, _ probably forever, said Navy Lt Cmdr William Kuebler, Khadr's defence _ lawyer. War crimes charges are pending against 21 men being held at Guantánamo, _ including the six whose cases were suspended yesterday. However, officials within the Obama administration, including his choice for _ attorney general, Eric Holder, have pointed out that there are many _ obstacles to closing the prison. The most obvious question is where to put _ the detainees, some of who Some will have to be moved to the US mainland, where they are likely to be _ kept on a military base. A new legal framework may have to be devised to _ bring them to court. Economy Mr Obama met his economic advisers for half an hour to discuss the progress of _ his proposed $825 billion stimulus package, which has already been presented _ to Congress, and the infusion of $350 billion left over from the bail-out _ package agreed i Taking over the White House with 11 million Americans out of work and _ trillions of dollars wiped off the value of stock market savings, Mr Obama _ said turning around the limping economy was his first and greatest priority. Congress is fast-tracking the economic stimulus Bill. Meanwhile, Tim Geithner, Mr Obama's choice as treasury secretary, faced _ several awkward moments during his Senate confirmation hearing, apologising _ to members of the finance committee for failing to pay his taxes for a time _ when he worked for the Senator Charles Grassley from Iowa, the senior Republican on the committee, _ noted that as treasury secretary Mr Geithner would be in charge of the _ Internal Revenue Service. Replying that he had paid more than $30,000 _ (£20,550) in back taxes, Mr G After the IRS audited Mr Geithner in 2006 it found that he had failed to pay _ taxes in 2003 and 2004 because he had incorrectly believed that they were _ deducted at source by the IMF. China to execute two over poisoned baby milk scandal Boss of melamine workshop and associate handed death penalty while Sanlu dairy chief gets life sentence in Guangzhou Tania Branigan A Chinese court has condemned two men to death and sentenced a company boss to life for their roles in the production and sale of poisoned milk that killed at least six children and made almost 300,000 sick. But angry parents said that jailing Tian Wenhua, the former head of Sanlu, was too lenient and she should have been executed too. More than 50,000 infants were hospitalised with kidney problems after drinking Sanlu baby formula tainted with melamine, a chemical normally used to make plastics and fertiliser. Investigators said middlemen who bought milk from farmers and sold it on to dairies had watered it down and mixed it with the chemical, which creates the appearance of higher protein levels in quality tests. The intermediate people's court sentenced 40-year-old Zhang Yujun to death for making and selling over 600 tonnes of protein powder laced with melamine. Prosecutors said during the trial that he was fully aware of the harm it created. Geng Jinping was given the death penalty for producing and selling toxic food. The official A third man received a suspended death sentence, which is usually commuted to life in prison. The heavy sentences reflect the outrage across China caused by the case, not only because children were affected and because it taps into potent food safety fears, but because local officials covered up the problem for at least a month after Sanlu alerted Dozens of police today guarded the courthouse in Shijiazhuang, the industrial city south of Beijing where Sanlu was based. Activists said officers detained two parents to stop them attending the trial. Families say they have been put under pressure to drop a compensation suit. The verdicts and sentences were closed to the public, but a court spokesman briefed reporters outside. Tian, the most senior official charged, pleaded guilty to producing and selling fake or substandard products. During her trial in December she admitted having known of problems with her company's products for months before telling authorities. Parents had contacted the company to complain as early as the end of 2007. But the scandal was not exposed until September 2008. Tian was fined 20m yuan (£2.12m) while Sanlu, which has been declared bankrupt, was fined 50m yuan. State media said the charges against her did not carry the death penalty. Zheng Shuzen, who said her granddaughter died of kidney failure after drinking Sanlu milk formula but was not included in the list of victims, told Reuters that Tian should have been shot. So many children died but they kept the official number down so that she could get life [in jail], not death. Zhao Lianhai, who has set up a website for parents whose children fell ill, told the Associated Press: We think Tian Wenhua's sentence is just the beginning. As victims' parents, we want justice for our children and we will call for it through reasonable Courts sentenced a total of 21 people involved in the scandal today. Two more defendants received life sentences and three former Sanlu executives, including one who uses a wheelchair after a failed suicide attempt last year, were given between five years Earlier this week, state media reported that the parents of the first Chinese child killed by the tainted formula had given up their right to sue in exchange for 200,000 yuan. Sanlu and 21 other dairy companies involved in the scandal have proposed a 1.1bn yuan (£115m) compensation plan. But more than 200 families are suing, saying that the money offered is insufficient and that they want to guarantee their children long-term t Zhao said several families would travel to Beijing tomorrow to deliver a petition to the ministry of health because the compensation offer did not include enough long-term help. The scandal led to the screening of more than 20m babies for kidney problems, officials have said. It triggered a spate of product bans or recalls around the world after melamine was detected in exports such as chocolate, yoghurt and sweets. Profile: George Mitchell George Mitchell, a retired US senator, served as special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Clinton administration and brokered the landmark Good Friday accord in 1998 that ended decades of bloody violence in the conflict. He is no stranger to Middle East affairs, having chaired a 2001 committee tasked with investigating the events leading up to the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising in 2000. A Maronite Christian son of a Lebanese immigrant mother and a father of Irish descent, Mitchell, 75, has also been an army intelligence officer, a trial lawyer and a federal judge. Mitchell Report In 2000, Bill Clinton, the former US president, asked him to compile a report on the causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Mitchell Report was submitted only after George Bush, the former US president, took office. Mitchell's report called for the Israelis to freeze construction of new settlements and stop shooting at unarmed demonstrators. It also called for the Palestinians to prevent attacks and punish those who perpetrated them. The report's findings eventually became the basis of the so-called road-map to Middle East peace. A liberal Democrat, he spent 14 years as a US senator representing Maine. He was also majority leader in the US senate, where for six consecutive years his peers voted him its most respected member. He left the senate in 1995 and declined a nomination to become a Supreme Court judge, but remained active in public life. Skilled diplomat In the 1990s Clinton named him special envoy to Northern Ireland, where he was tasked with taming the sectarian violence that had claimed thousands of lives. In 1998, Mitchell cemented his reputation as a skilled diplomat by brokering talks that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement that led to stopping the long-standing conflict there. Alistair Crooke, a former EU adviser on the Middle East, told Al Jazeera that Mitchell was different from other envoys. He is very, very patient and he is extremely good at understanding that it is a choreography of building confidence that is actually the main part of building a peace process, he said. Crooke said that Mitchell is a person who uses non-confrontational, non-aggressive language and he is a great listener. After Northern Ireland, Mitchell chaired an investigation into Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Olympic games and in 2007, he led an investigation into steroid use in the US baseball league. He has already been honoured with the chancellorship of Queen's University, Belfast, and America's highest civilian award - the Medal of Freedom - among others. Mitchell's first challenge as the Middle East envoy would be dealing with the crisis in Gaza, in which more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed. Anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders faces trial over controversial film The limits of free speech and Dutch tolerance are to be tested in a court case after judges ruled yesterday that a right-wing MP who compared the Koran to Mein Kampf should be put on trial for inciting hatred and discrimination. Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), will face charges for his outspoken anti-Islamic comments and his film Fitna, which juxtaposed the Koran and terrorist attacks including the September 11, 2001, attacks and the London Tube and bu Mr Wilders said that it was a black day and an attack on freedom of expression after the Amsterdam appeals court overturned a public prosecutor's decision not to pursue a case. Gerard Spong, a lawyer who joined Islamic groups in pushing for the prosecution, said: \ldblquote This is a happy day for all followers of Islam who do not want to be tossed on the garbage dump of Nazism.\rdblquote Mr Wilders, 45, has become the chief voice speaking out against immigration and what he calls the Islamisation of the Netherlands. His party won nine seats in the Dutch parliament as a backlash grew after the murders of Pim Fortuyn, the right-wing politic \ldblquote I have had enough of Islam in the Netherlands, let not one more Muslim immigrate,\rdblquote he once wrote in the national newspaper De Volkskrant. \ldblquote I have had enough of the Koran in the Netherlands: forbid that fascist book.\rdblquote The 17-minute film Fitna, which means strife in Arabic, was called \ldblquote offensively anti-Islamic\rdblquote by Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, after its release on the internet last March. Its screening prompted protests in Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia and Afghanistan. No date has been set for the trial of Mr Wilders, nor are the precise charges yet determined. However, it is certain to inflame tensions again in the Netherlands, where the Government has begun to reverse the open immigration policies that led to large numbers of arrivals from Morocco and While judges in the Netherlands generally are loathe to become involved in public debate, the court said that it was making an exception in this case. \ldblquote The court considers this so insulting for Muslims that it is in the public interest to prosecute Wilders,\rdblquote a summary of the decision said. \ldblquote By attacking the symbols of the Muslim religion, he also insulted Muslim believers. In a democratic system, hate s Mr Wilders said: \ldblquote It is a black day and an attack on the freedom of speech in the Netherlands. I am convinced that it can only lead to an acquittal.\rdblquote In a statement on his website he added: \ldblquote Participation in the public debate has become a dangerous activi If the story hadn't said Netherlands I would have assumed he was being prosecuted in England. What is insulting is that a Dutch court gave into such political correctness. Shame! It is about time. Mr. Wilders is a disgrace to our country, Scott, Durham, NC, USA Hannah, Schagen, Netherlands DR Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda arrested General Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the main rebel group in the eastern _ Democratic Republic of Congo, has been arrested by the Rwandan army. Gen Nkunda was arrested as he fled into Rwanda while trying to resist a joint _ Rwandan-Congolese military operation, the operation's joint command said. He has been leading the rival CNDP Tutsi insurgency since 2004. Wars, rebellions and ethnic violence since 1998 have killed more than five _ million Congolese, holding back the development of the huge former Belgian _ colony in central Africa, which is rich in minerals like copper, cobalt, _ coltan, gold and uraniu Ex-general Laurent Nkunda was arrested on Thursday, January 22 at 2230 hours _ while he was fleeing on Rwandan territory after he had resisted our troops _ at Bunagana with three battalions, Congolese and Rwandan military _ commanders said in a state A Congolese minister said Congo's government would ask Rwanda to extradite _ Gen Nkunda. A Congolese army colonel, who asked not to be named, said Gen Nkunda and _ rebels loyal to him had fought against Rwandan and Congolese troops when _ they arrived at Bunagana, a town on the border with Uganda in Congo's North _ Kivu province. His leadership of his Tutsi rebel National Congress for the Defence of the _ People (CNDP) group had been challenged this year by dissident rebel _ commanders who last week ended hostilities with the Congolese government. The commanders' statement urged Tutsi fighters loyal to Gen Nkunda to disarm _ and integrate into the Congo government army. In the joint operation, more than 3,500 Rwandan troops have crossed the border _ into Congo to join Congolese government forces in trying to disarm Rwandan _ Hutu FDLR rebels. The operation, marking unprecedented cooperation between the Great Lakes _ neighbours after years of mutual suspicion and hostility, follows _ international pressure for an end to more than a decade of conflict in _ Congo's eastern borderlands Dutch MP to be tried for views on Islam Party leader who made film linking Koran to Nazism accused of inciting race hate By Vanessa Mock The Far-right Dutch politician who gained global notoriety with a film claiming links between the Koran and terrorism is to be put on trial for his public statements against Islam. Geert Wilders, the leader of the extremist Freedom Party (PVV), said he was surprised that the Amsterdam Appeals Court is to allow his criminal prosecution for inciting hatred and of discriminating against Muslims by comparing their religion to Nazism. Mr Wilders' views constitute a criminal offence. [He] has insulted Islamic worshippers by attacking the symbols of the Islamic faith, the court stated, referring to his comparison of the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. Mr Wilders, who sports a peroxide-blond shock of hair, said he was stunned by the judgment. This was the last thing I expected. The fact that I can no longer speak openly but have to go before the court makes this a very black day, not just for me but The politician is a household name in the Netherlands thanks to his frequent pronouncements on the country's Muslim minority and his calls to ban the Koran on the grounds of being fascist. He became notorious last year after the release of his short fil The decision by the Amsterdam Appeals Court, the second-highest legal authority in the country, overturns an earlier ruling by the Dutch Prosecution Service, which last June dismissed hundreds of complaints against Mr Wilders on the grounds that his utter But yesterday, the appeals court argued that the criminal prosecution did not conflict with Mr Wilders' right to freedom of expression and said it based its decision on the standards set by the European Court of Human Rights. This is my finest hour, sai Obama Moves to Let States Set Own Rules on Emissions President Barack Obama plans to call on the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to consider allowing states including California to regulate automobile greenhouse-gas emissions, said people familiar with the administration's thinking. The move will signal a major policy break from his predecessor on an issue that has divided key Democratic Party constituencies. Mr. Obama's announcement is almost certain to spark a war between two key Democratic constituencies: environmentalists and sta Mr. Obama also plans to direct the Department of Transportation to complete automobile fuel-economy standards by March so that they can take effect for the model year 2011. Mr. Bush's administration had pledged to take such a step before the end of his te Mr. Obama's plans were described to The Wall Street Journal by three people familiar with the administration's thinking, including one administration official. Mr. Obama was expected to outline his plans in directives to the agencies to be released at a W Mr. Obama's memorandum to the EPA wasn't expected to direct the agency to allow California to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, but rather to undertake the legal process to reconsider a 2007 decision by the EPA's then-administrator, Stephen Johnson, to b The directive on fuel-economy standards won't change federal policy, which already calls for tougher mileage standards. But it assures that those new standards will be in place for the 2011 model year. Environmental advocates welcomed the planned moves. President Obama, with these actions, will have done more for oil independence in one week than George Bush did in eight years, said Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at th Mr. Obama's directive to the EPA will set in motion a process that could ultimately require auto makers to produce cleaner-burning vehicles to sell in states that adopt the tougher standards. Seventeen states, including California, have already signaled t The planned moves come less than a week after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally asked the president to let California enforce a 2002 state law that its officials estimate would require that vehicles achieve mileage equivalent to 35 miles per Mr. Obama expressed support during his campaign for California's bid to regulate automobiles' greenhouse-gas emissions, so called because they trap the sun's heat in the earth's atmosphere, contributing to global warming. But he had not said publicly how Under a 2007 Supreme Court decision, Mr. Obama's administration must determine whether greenhouse-gas emissions endanger public health or welfare, the legal trigger for regulating them under the federal Clean Air Act. Technically, both decisions will fall to the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson. Ms. Jackson supported an effort to adopt an emissions law modeled on California's when she headed New Jersey's environmental agency from 2006 until 2008. At a Senate hearing last week, she promised to immediately revisit the 2007 decision that blocked Cal A decision in favor of the request would clear the way for more than a dozen other states to enforce laws they modeled on California's. But it also would risk antagonizing the United Auto Workers, which has complained that the law unfairly discriminates a STEPHEN POWER LAURA MECKLER Write to Stephen Power at and Laura Meckler at Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4 Emirs of the Gulf to plant offshoot of Britain\rquote s Eden Project THE emirs of the Gulf have transplanted ski slopes, golf courses and the_finest art from the West in their search for an instant tourist paradise._Now they want to give it a green tinge by importing their own version of the_Eden Project. The attractions are likely to include tropical rainforests and a low-carbon_village just 25 miles from some of the world\rquote s most important oil fields. The desert biomes will include recreations of the Malaysian and west African_jungles, packed with mahogany trees, ferns, orchids and banana plants and_teeming with tree frogs, geckos and birds. The expected site for the first foreign outpost of the Eden Project is_alongside offshoots of the Louvre and the Guggenheim on Saadiyat Island,_which is connected to Abu Dhabi city by motorway. The project is one of five proposed offshoots of the Eden Project, based in_Cornwall. Three of them, all in early negotiations, would be in the Gulf. Tim Smit, chief executive of the Eden Project, said he had insisted it should_have an Arab identity. \ldblquote The thing has to be infused with Arab tradition and_motifs, poetry and art,\rdblquote he said. \ldblquote They found that an alien concept_initially, but there\rquote s a growing Chris Gourlay January 25, 2009 President Obama's decision to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay within a year is being hailed as a necessary step in restoring the good name and moral hygiene of America. Fundamentally, it tests the proposition that self-esteem can be a for Guantanamo Is No Blot on U.S. Honor Rafei is a special correspondent. Lebanon's storied Daily Star shut down Reporting from Beirut -- _The Arab world's most storied English-language daily newspaper has suspended publication because of financial woes, the publisher said Thursday. The Daily Star, which until 2006 was distributed throughout the Middle East alongside the International Herald Tribune, has been in trouble for years. But nobody expected such an abrupt fall for the Lebanon-based daily. One morning last week, without any notice, the Daily Star was not available on newsstands. It has not been published since, and the website has not been updated. The shutdown was ordered by a court after months of negotiations with a Lebanese bank over debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the publisher and editor in chief, Jamil Mroue, told The Times. There were no indications that the sometimes-controversi Mroue said that he had been discussing his financial troubles with the bank for months and was taken aback by the swiftness with which the court stepped in and ordered the newspaper to shut because of its unpaid debts. The newspaper offices were sealed wi On-and-off for decades, the Daily Star had been a unique English-language source of information in the Arab world. In the last few years, however, websites began challenging the newspaper's reign. The Daily Star's fate is also a symptom of the tough business environment for independent newspapers in the Middle East. Most news publications depend on generous contributions from wealthy political figures or parties. Others are owned by political group Newspapers such as the Daily Star, where opinion pieces by neoconservatives run side-by-side with articles by radical Islamists, struggle to cover expenses by selling advertisements. Mroue said Lebanon had suffered through nearly four years of assassinations, political intrigue and wars, which hurt the newspaper's revenue. He complained that these factors were not taken into account by bank officials judging the company's solvency. The newspaper's staff members said they were shocked when security officials suddenly showed up Jan. 15 and ordered them to leave immediately. They said they were not even allowed to remove their personal laptop computers. By Raed Rafei Nobody ever actually liked Guantanamo. It was a strange growth on the body of American law, made necessary by extraordinary circumstances that existing institutions were ill-prepared to handle. Even Donald Rumsfeld had reservations: In his excellent memoi The sometimes controversial outlet for differing opinions, which was read across the Middle East, is lost as the English-language paper is abruptly closed by court order over debt issues. January 23, 2009 Obama Mideast Watch: The al-Arabiya\~Interview President Obama is continuing what has become a dizzying reach-out to the Muslim world and the Middle East. Having used his inaugural speech to promise Muslims a \ldblquote new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,\rdblquote he gave as president\emdash on only his sixth full day in office\emdash to an Arab channel, the Saudi-backed, Dubai-based al-Arabiya. The interview follows the appointment of an Arab-American, former Sen. George Mitchell, as the Obama administration's Middle East envoy. All too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues -- and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen…. What we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs… his first television interview It's important for Americans as well as the people of the Middle East to understand how very significant Obama's early moves are. He's now made it clear that he has every intention of taking a new approach to the region. Here's what we learned in the al-Arabiya interview: Obama is critical of past U.S. Middle East policy, including insensitivity to the perspectives of the people in the region. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect. But if you look at the track record, as you say, America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years Obama is not kidding when he says he intends to plunge into peacemaking immediately. We cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what's best for them. They're going to have to make some decisions. But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result People are going to judge me not by my words but by my actions and my administration's actions. We're not going to wait until the end of my administration to deal with Palestinian and Israeli peace, we're going to start now. It may take a long time to do, but we're going to do it now. Obama seems to see the need to address the legitimate interests of Arabs in the Middle East conflict, but he's going to judge their position based on their actions and not merely their words. I might not agree with every aspect of the [Arab peace plan sponsored by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in 2002], but it took great courage to put forward something that is as significant as that. I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side. Obama seems intent on winning over the Arab world, to bolster U.S. credibility in pushing his Middle East policy, by leveraging his personal popularity on the Muslim street based largely on his Muslim roots and underdog image and by effectively campaignin My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries. My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We're going to follow through on our commitment for me to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital. We are going to follow through on many of my commitments to do a more effective job of reaching out, listening, as well as speaking to the Muslim wor To the broader Muslim world what we are going to be offering is a hand of friendship. As part of his endeavor to show respect, Obama seeks to assure Muslims and educate Americans about the distinction between Muslim extremists and Muslims who disagree with American policy. He's saying that the war on terrorism is not a war on Islam, that n My job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives. hat we need to understand is, is that there are extremist organizations -- whether Muslim or any other faith in the past -- that will use faith as a justification for violence. We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence th And so you will I think see our administration be very clear in distinguishing between organizations like al Qaeda -- that espouse violence, espouse terror and act on it -- and people who may disagree with my administration and certain actions, or may hav --By Scott MacLeod/Cairo Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East at Saatchi Gallery Unveiled, the new Saatchi Gallery's second show lays bare the Middle East in all its raw and quirky glory Charles Saatchi clearly enjoys his role as the art world's grand provocateur._His Sensation! show at the Royal Academy was just one of many to have_provoked outrage at what might constitute contemporary art. Now he has put_together an exhibition of contem But the best case against Guantanamo was always inherently odd. It came down to the view that its benefits as a holding pen for the world's most dangerous men could not outweigh the inevitable PR disaster of removing such men to an exotic locale, a step r Yet however combustible it may turn out to be, Saatchi has good reason to put_on this top-notch survey of Middle Eastern contemporary art. News of the_Middle East today is dominated by images and reports of death and_destruction, of terrorists and refugee Young artists in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and many other nations of the_region are graduating from art school, travelling abroad, building_perspectives on their own experiences, and turning out art works that speak_of what they have grown up with. Some In its second show since moving to the King's Road, the Saatchi Gallery offers_us a major survey of recent Middle Eastern painting, sculpture and_installation. Nineteen artists are represented, most of them in their_twenties and thirties, from Iraq, Iran, These nations have had long and rich visual arts traditions going back several_centuries, but in the last hundred years, governments and rulers have_invested in building museums and filling them with national collections,_establishing art schools and send This is a large show of almost 90 works, mostly large-scale paintings, with a_selection of sculptures and installations. It is noticeable that the_installations avoid the tricks and high-tech gimmicks beloved of Western_artists. Perhaps their message is t One of the most arresting pieces is Ghost by Kader Attia, a French Algerian_living in an immigrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Paris. Ghost is a_room full of supplicant Muslim women wrapped in silver garments, row upon_row of figures kneeling in dev Rokni Haerizadeh, an Iranian from Tehran, paints epic tableaux so vibrant with_colour, movement and energy that you expect them to give off their own_high-intensity noise and heat. In Typical Iranian Funeral he depicts the_scene of the burial with crowds Haerizadeh's brush is brutal and his satire sharp, but his treatment of his_flawed world is broadly sympathetic. Ahmed Alsoudani, on the other hand is_more bitterly direct about his life's experience. An Iraqi from Baghdad, he_fled to Syria before claimin One of the most deliberately controversial bodies of work is that by_Haerizadeh's brother, Ramin, who has also been embraced by Saatchi, and has_produced a series of manipulated photographs of two semi-naked men entitled_Men of Allah. Based on photographs Shirin Fakhim, an Iranian living and working in Tehran, is similarly_provocative with her series of humorous makeshift sculptures of Tehran_prostitutes fashioned from everyday objects and items of clothing. She makes_her life-size figures from footballs, I would be prepared to bet that Hayv Kahraman, another Iraqi from Baghdad, has_studied early Chinese art and the masterpieces of Renaissance Florence, as_well as Islamic miniatures, because her depictions, particularly the_diptych, Carrying on Shoulder 1 There are so many powerful, authoritative and insightful works in this show_that I cannot mention them all; but I have at least briefly to include Shadi_Ghadirian, whose work has been seen in the UK as part of the Veiling,_Representation and Contemporary This is a richly fascinating survey and anyone with an interest in the region,_at any level, would do well to take a look at these revelatory views from_the inside. Carter: 'Independent Palestine' Critical for Middle East Peace Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says establishing an independent Palestinian state is critical to peace in the Middle East. In interviews about his new book, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land , Mr. Carter says he still believes that it is necessary to have a two-state solution, in which Arab countries recognize Israel's right to exist. As part of a peace plan, Mr. Carter says Israel must withdraw from most of the land it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. He also told U.S. public radio, NPR, that U.S. President Barack Obama's appointment of a special mediator to the region, former Senator George Mitchell, holds good promise that something is going to be done. Mr. Carter told The Associated Press that Israel will face a catastrophe unless it revives the peace process and allows an independent Palestine. Mr. Carter met with Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal twice last year, before the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, about a peaceful resolution between Israel and the militant group. Hamas rules Gaza and does not recognize Israel's right to exis The former president says Meshaal agreed in talks to live in peace with Israel in exchange for the free flow of supplies into Gaza. Mr. Carter has been a long-time advocate for peace in the Middle East. As president, Mr. Carter mediated the 1978 Camp David Accords which paved the way for peace between Israel and Egypt. He has since taken positions critical of some of Israel's polici In a 2006 book, Mr. Carter described Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories as a system of apartheid. Some information for this report was provided by AP By VOA News 27 January 2009 New political era? Same as the old one Reporting from Washington -- _Democrats talked about the jobs to come from modernizing the electric grid, weatherizing homes, and repairing roads and bridges. Republicans too had ideas for reviving the economy, focusing on tax cuts and carefully targeted As the House on Wednesday gave President Obama the first big legislative victory of his term, it was clear that his efforts so far had not delivered the post-partisan era that he called for in his inauguration address, when he proclaimed an end to the pe The fault lines of past ideological wars were in view during the fight over the $819-billion stimulus package, with shots coming from well-known conservative warriors such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Matt Drudge. The familiar machinery of partisan politics, a fixture of the Clinton and Bush eras, kicked into operation undaunted as Republicans began running a TV advertisement in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, charging that his suppor In a series of news releases, GOP campaign operatives challenged Democrats on why a bill aimed at an economic crisis also contained money for education programs on sexually transmitted diseases -- a question posed all day atop the Drudge Report website th And despite Obama's high approval ratings and his efforts to court Republican support for the measure, the old tactics seemed to have some effect. Not a single Republican voted for the stimulus package, and even a few conservative Democrats and some fresh It's a very conservative district, said one rookie Democrat, Rep. Walt Minnick, describing his Republican-leaning constituency in Idaho. Minnick, sitting in the still-undecorated House office that he moved into two weeks ago, said many people in his di The vote Wednesday, while clearly a victory for Obama, also marked a victory of sorts for Limbaugh and other conservative opinion leaders who have spent days admonishing Republican lawmakers not to be co-opted by the Democratic president. They said Obam In the end, Republicans didn't waver, choosing to use the vote to try to regain their old brand as the party of small government -- a brand they lost as spending ballooned during the Bush years. It was a calculated risk at a time when polls show broad support for having the government take action to save the economy. But the nay votes from Republicans and a dozen conservative Democrats signal challenges for the president, who has made it clear si Obama is attempting to mold his massive grass-roots campaign network into a force that can be called upon to pressure lawmakers to support his ideas, and to work against those who don't. That network is still in the planning stages. White House officials hope it will be active in time for battles over healthcare and energy, but Wednesday's party-line vote showed that Obama, despite repeated meetings with GOP leaders, has not presented a c The Democrats' wide margin in the House, and the fact that the GOP caucus has been reduced to a collection of core conservatives representing the reddest Republican districts, diminished that challenge in the short run. But as he fights for future legisla Conservative opposition to the stimulus bill began building over the weekend, with websites raising questions about provisions that would spend millions on putting sod on the National Mall and funding condoms for the poor. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Limbaugh said Republicans were at risk of voting for a big-government bill that was designed to keep Democrats in power for as long as we live. The power of the conservative machinery was evident when Democrats agreed to remove the landscaping and contraceptive provisions. Limbaugh's influence among conservatives -- and his power to influence GOP lawmakers -- was on display Wednesday when a Republican congressman from Georgia apologized for comments critical of the talk radio host. In the course of defending House leaders, Rep. Phil Gingrey had been quoted as saying that Limbaugh and other commentators were in an easy position that allowed them to stand back and throw bricks, and that they were living well. Gingrey said he had received a high volume of complaints after his comments appeared in the publication Politico. In a statement on his congressional website, Gingrey said, I see eye to eye with Rush Limbaugh on conservative values. I regret and apol Democrats familiar with White House strategy think many Republicans and conservative Democrats -- known as Blue Dogs -- will wind up voting for a later version of the stimulus plan as it moves through the legislative process, largely because mounting job White House officials also have sought to calm nerves among squeamish Democrats. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met this week with leaders of the Blue Dog caucus, and he agreed to the lawmakers' demands that the administration support enacting future budget The caucus, numbering about 50, consists of many members who won seats in the last two election cycles by defeating Republican incumbents. A new survey by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg of 40 of those congressional districts shows that, at the mome Whatever doubts they have about the specifics, they want to give it a shot, he said. That's how Rep. Steve Driehaus, a freshman Democrat from conservative southeast Ohio, sees it -- even as his constituents hear the drumbeat from critics. The noise machine will be the noise machine, he said. But I have to be responsible. I have to legislate. . . . Rush Limbaugh doesn't concern me. Minnick, the Idaho Democrat, said he voted against the bill because it contained unnecessary projects that would not necessarily create jobs. He said his office was receiving hundreds of calls, overwhelmingly from people opposed to the measure, though he House Passes $819B Stimulus Package President Obama's plan to revive the economy cleared its first hurdle when House members passed their version Wednesday on_ an $819 billion stimulus package. Wednesday, January 28, 2009 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gestures during a news conference on stimulus legislation Wednesday on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo) The House of Representatives approved an $819 billion economic stimulus package Wednesday, dealing the new Obama administration_ a legislative victory but also giving Republicans a chance to show their resolve as the opposition party. The final_ vote was 244-188, mostly along party lines. All Republicans who were present voted against the bill. They were joined in their_ opposition by 11 Democrats. The largely partisan vote undercut Obama's push for bipartisan support for the bill after_ he had argued that a new style of politics is needed in Washington. Even so, passage of the House bill was a victory_ for Obama, who had visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to push for his plan. The Senate, meanwhile, plans to significantly alter_ the package and raise the price tag. The House legislation includes an estimated $544 billion in federal spending and_ $275 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses. It includes money for highway construction and mass transit. Not_ everyone was convinced the legislation was the right move for the economic crisis. Freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil, D-Md.,_ called it wasteful spending while Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., was applauded by fellow Republicans for standing up to Obama_ during a meeting. Mr. President, I\~think our obsessive borrowing has fully mortgaged my kids and my grandkids,\~Bartlett_ told Obama, according to statement from Bartlett's office. Now we're working on mortgaging my two great-grandkids. Mr._ President, I think it's more than a little bit selfish to try to solve our economic problems which we created by burdening_ future generations yet to be born, he added. But ahead of the vote, Democratic congressional leaders brushed aside_ any concerns Republicans had, stressing their comfortable majority in the House. If there is somebody who is disgruntled,_ so be it. But we will have an overwhelming vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a talk with reporters. She and more than_ a half-dozen other Democrats touted the bill and chided Republicans for pus The Republicans are talking about process. I think when you lose the argument_ on substance, on policy, what do you do? You talk about process and you talk about personality,\~she said. Meanwhile,_ House Republican leaders were standing firm in their opposition to the stimulus plan.\~Just ahead of the House vote, they_ \~insisted that their own plan, focusing on tax relief, would create twice as many new jobs -- 6.2 million -- as But the House defeated their plan Wednesday with a vote of_ 286-170. The House measure had been estimated to cost $825 billion, but the Congressional Budget Office updated the_ bill's price tag to $816 billion after accountants recalculated the cost. That total rose by $3 billion when the House approved_ on a voi Earlier Wednesday, Obama tried to assure skeptics who say the_ package is too costly and contains too many measures that will not stimulate job growth. He called for bold and_ swift\~action and said that the stimulus package before Congress will make critical investments in the private sector_ as well as the national infrastructure. ] are being killed simply for being women, says Nadje Al-Ali when I meet her at her home in south London. In Basra in 2008 a reported 133 women were killed for not 'being Islamic' enough. And these are only the ones that made it to be officially counted Vatican-Israel tensions rise over\~Pius By Rachel Donadio Tensions heightened this weekend between the Vatican and Israel after a Vatican official said that Pope Benedict XVI had halted the beatification of Pius XII, the pope during World War II, for fear of repercussions from Jewish\~groups. The official, the Rev. Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit priest who is directing beatification efforts, also told the ANSA news agency on Saturday that the pope would not visit Israel until a plaque criticizing Pius was removed from the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum i Pius, who was pope from 1939 until 1958, has been criticized as not speaking out enough against deportations during the Holocaust. On Sunday, Italian newspapers carried front-page interviews with a former leader of Italy's Jewish community, Amos Luzzatto, Last year, a Vatican decree recognized Pius's heroic virtues, a key step toward sainthood, but Benedict has not yet approved it. Earlier this month, Benedict said that Pius had worked secretly and silently to save Jews and that he hoped the beatificat After Father Gumpel's remarks, Vatican spokesmen took pains to ease the situation. Benedict's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope was studying the decree. It isn't right to submit him to pressures on one side or another, he said. He ne Father Lombardi said that the Vatican had raised its displeasure with Israel over the plaque at Yad Vashem but that it was not the determining factor in whether the pontiff visited\~Israel. In 2000, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit Israel. In his three years as pope, Benedict has not taken that\~step. Iraq's Diyala Province Puts Power of Ballot to the Test Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, February 1, 2009; Page A01 , Jan. 31 -- In Iraq's receding but still entrenched sectarian struggle, perhaps the most important votes in the provincial elections Saturday were cast in Diyala, a sometimes picturesque province known for its orange groves and its killing fields. In Diyala, credibility would mark a watershed moment, both for this troubled province and for Iraq itself, where power has long been monopolized by a party or man. In 2005, the Sunni Arab majority here largely boycotted the vote, delivering nearly two-thirds of the seats on the old provincial council to Shiite Arabs and Kurds, and helping ignite a struggle that stands as one of the bloodiest theaters of Iraq's secta But perception may prove an obstacle in Diyala, where 638 candidates vied for 29 seats in a province that was so tense party activists hardly ever ventured across sectarian borders, a candidate and his two aides were kidnapped and executed, and leaflets s On Saturday, it felt changed. Only the most dangerous neighborhoods seemed besieged. Elsewhere, children played soccer in the streets, parents pushed their children in strollers and elderly men shared cigarettes under a winter sun. Yet in Saturday's vote, no one, neither Sunni nor Shiite, seemed prepared to lose. And that raised the prospect that in defeat, neither would acknowledge the other's victory. A new dawn, God willing, said Sabah Bashir Hassan, known as Abu Talib, who leads thousands of former insurgents and others in the Popular Committees, the name here for the U.S.-backed Sunni militia that fought the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. To me, the elections represent the point between darkness and light, the Sunni leader said. Everybody wants to turn a page on the past. We're turning a new page over today. Raad Abbas, a Shiite member of the old council and a candidate, also felt certain of triumph over his rivals. He predicted his group, the Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, would capture a third of the seats. With other Shiite candidates, they If this is the result of the vote, how can anyone be angry? he asked hopefully. Some residents like to call Diyala a miniature Iraq and, indeed, much of its turmoil reflects the country writ small. Northeast of Baghdad, its fertile land of dates and citrus, watered by the Diyala River, stretches to the Iranian border. Its Sunni Arab At the peak of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed, al-Qaeda in Iraq controlled swaths of the province, its bombings stoking more sectarian strife. Villages became islands, roads from them too dangerous to travel. The council barely functioned; eight of its member Sukhna was the word often used to describe the province. It means hot. Iraqis often lament what they see as a culture that embraces a strongman. One resident in Diyala called it a state of mind. In some ways, it is nostalgia for an order some believe the days of Hussein represented. But it also speaks to the coups and revo Politics are still existential in Diyala. A party's background, whether Sunni or Shiite, determines the Iraqi flag it displays -- the new one brandished by Maliki's government, or the old one, emblazoned with three stars, borrowed from Hussein's era. and arguably Iraq's most ardently sectarian party. Abu Talib puts the number of officers loyal to Badr at 70 percent. To him, they are no more than a transparent cover for plots from Iran, which Diyala borders. You have to repay the person who raised you, he said darkly. Sunnis complain that security forces in the province, their ranks filled with Shiites and Kurds, are still directed by the Badr Organization, the ostensibly disbanded militia of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, created in After voting Saturday, his finger stained with purple ink, he said those forces were still holding more than 1,000 of his men, detained in an offensive by Maliki's government last year that he said unfairly targeted his forces and Sunni regions. Even with Definitely not, he said. The obstacle that faces Iraq now is Badr. Shiites worry that the Popular Committees loyal to Abu Talib are infiltrated by former insurgents, who are eager to become part of the security forces but still bent on sectarian strife. A new government, some warned Saturday, could ensure their entry, wi Then again, our security also depends on doing what we can to keep the likes of Mr. Shihri -- far from the most dangerous of Gitmo's prisoners -- away from his would-be victims. To do so is neither a violation of conscience nor a blot on our national hono In his inaugural address, Mr. Obama noted that our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. All this is obviously true. There will also be those who argue that the death of innocents is the price free societies pay for freedom. They will argue, too, that the price is actually a bargain, since the moral stature gained by shutting down places like Guantanamo earns us the kin Women In her new book, Nadje Al-Ali shows how the US invasion has set Iraqi women's rights back as much as 70 years. She speaks to Sara Wajid Al-Ali's new book, What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq, analyses how Iraqi women have fared since the US invasion of March 2003. The news, unsurprisingly, is grim. Written with the political scientist Nicola Pratt, the book is based Al-Ali, 42, is a second-generation Iraqi immigrant whose extended family has seen the sharpest end of both Saddam Hussein's regime and the post-invasion chaos. An established author and academic at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, she In her book she highlights the fact that, as a result of consecutive wars, the Iraqi population is now disproportionately female - with some estimates putting the ratio of women to men at 65/35. There are 300,000 impoverished widows in Baghdad alone, forc According to Al-Ali's interviewees, women are being bullied back into the home. So, for instance, she focuses on the story of Sarwa Abdul Wahab Al Darwish, a 36-year-old television journalist from Mosul whose high profile led her to receive death threats. The fact that George W Bush depicted the invasion of Iraq as a path to women's empowerment makes the situation even more outrageous. In her book, Al-Ali meticulously explains how Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush were deployed to reassure the world that the How has such posturing in Washington affected women's lives in Iraq? It helped to legitimise the invasion in the first place, says Al-Ali. But surely no one really believed that the war was about liberating Iraqi women? There's an imperialist brand of Does she see the establishment of a 25% quota for women in the Iraqi parliament as a sign of progress? Yes, she concedes, but who are the 25% in practice? They are the sisters, daughters and wives of the male conservative leaders. They've no political The book repeatedly suggests that extremist Islamist groups are forcing Taliban-like conditions on Iraqi women - surprising given the cultural differences between Afghanistan and Iraq, where women have typically been well educated. How real is this threat -segregated classes. Now, article 41 in the new Iraqi constitution effectively repeals the existing, and relatively progressive, laws governing marriage and divorce. When I point out that throughout the book Islam only ever appears as a destructive force Al-Ali is rattled. Her use of the slippery term Islamists at times seems interchangeable with terrorist insurgents, and progressives are invariably tagged with th gender Al-Ali was born to a German mother and an Iraqi father who had moved to Europe to study. She grew up in a non-religious household in Germany, and it wasn't until she attended university in Tucson, Arizona - where she met a circle of confident second-gener In 2000, she established Act Together - Women's Action for Iraq - a group opposing economic sanctions against Iraq, and then against the invasion. This was followed, in 2007, by her book Iraqi Women - Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present, a social his The short description of the night of Salima's death - when one of her male relatives went out into the neighbourhood, risking his life to find oxygen - fizzes with fury. The family had already coped with one of Al-Ali's uncles being executed under Saddam Al-Ali treads a difficult path with caution. Like many, she believes that Iraqi women can never be liberated by western military intervention, but by speaking out against the Iraqi resistance, she has often alienated those in the anti-war movement. Ulti Israel's chief rabbinate severs ties with Vatican JERUSALEM \endash Israel's chief rabbinate severed ties with the Vatican on Wednesday to protest a papal decision to reinstate a bishop who publicly denied 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust . The Jewish state's highest religious authority sent a letter to the Holy See expressing sorrow and pain at the papal decision. It will be very difficult for the chief rabbinate of to continue its dialogue with the Vatican as before, the letter said. Chief rabbis Ashkenazi of both the Sephardic Jews were parties to the letter. and The rabbinate, which faxed a copy of the letter to The Associated Press, also canceled a meeting with the Vatican set for March. The rabbinate and the state of Israel have separate ties with the Vatican, and Wednesday's move does not affect state relation Pope Benedict XVI , faced with an uproar over the bishop, said Wednesday he feels full and indisputable solidarity with Jews and warned against any denial of the full horror of the Nazi genocide. The remarks were his first public comments on the issue since the controversy erupted Saturday. The Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi Benedict said Wednesday he had lifted the excommunication because the bishops had repeatedly shown their deep suffering over the situation. , said the Vatican hoped that in light of the pope's words, the can be subjedifficulties expressed by the Israeli Rabbinate cted to further and deeper reflection. Lombardi expressed hope that dialogue between the two parties can continue fruitfully and serenely. Oded Weiner, the director general of the chief rabbinate's office, welcomed the pope's remarks, calling them a big step toward reconciliation. With his comments, the pope reached out to Jews angered by his decision to rehabilitate bishop Richard Williamson , who told Swedish TV in an interview broadcast last week that evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews being deliberately gassed. He said 300,000 Jews were killed at most, but not one of them by gassing in a gas chamber About 6 million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II . Many were gassed in death camps while others were killed en masse in other ways, including shooting and starvation. About 240,000 Holocaust survivors live in Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee Simon Wiesenthal Center and Israel's quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, denounced the Vatican for bringing a denier back into the fold. The Vatican quickly distanced itself from Williamson's comments and said removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared his views. Williamson and three other bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after a movethey were consecrated by an ultraconservative archbishop without papal consent \emdash the Vatican at the time called an act of schism. The German-born Benedict expressed his full and indisputable solidarity with Jews. He recalled his visits to the Auschwitz death camp \emdash including as pope in May 2006 \emdash and the brutal massacre of millions of Jews, innocent victims of blind racial and religious hatred. The Vatican and the rabbinate launched formal relations in 2000 when Pope John Paul II Jerusalem visited . Since then, delegates from the Holy See and the rabbinate have met twice a year to discuss religious issues. This is the first time ties have been severed. The Vatican and the state of Israel have had their own relationship since establishing diplomatic ties in 1993. Associated Press Writer Alessandra Rizzo in Vatican City contributed to this report. By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer Wed\~Jan\~28, 5:27\~pm\~ET Peres: Outburst won't hurt Israel-Turkey ties DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) \emdash Israeli President Shimon Peres said Friday his heated public exchange with Turkey's prime minister was not personal and ties between the two nations won't change. Peres defended his unusually passionate speech at a session of the World Economic Forum Thursday night as called for in response to the verbal assaults on Israel over its war in Gaza against Hamas. The remarks raised the emotions of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who stalked off the stage after a moderator insisted on cutting off his attempt to respond. Peres said he spoke afterward with Erdogan who returned to Turkey early Friday to a rousing welcome. I called him up and said, 'Yes, I do not see the matter as personal ... and the relations can remain as they are, Peres said. My respect for him didn't change. We had an exchange of views \emdash and the views are views. He explained his outburst as the result of hearing Israel repeatedly criticized for its Gaza operation, which Israel sees as the fault of Hamas for continuing to shoot rockets into Israel and causing its citizens to sleep in fear. They try to make the Israeli policy an ugly story, he said, still sounding frustrated. Israel is a democracy. It is fighting one of the most dangerous, terroristic, dictatorial groups. All of a sudden to be a humanitarian is to support dictators, to su Late Thursday, Erdogan stressed he left the stage not because of a dispute with Peres but because he was not given time to respond. Erdogan also complained that Peres had 25 minutes while he was only given 12 minutes. I did not target at all in any way the Israeli people, President Peres, or the Jewish people, Erdogan told a news conference afterward. I am a prime minister, a leader who has specifically expressly stated that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity By JOHN DANISZEWSKI \endash There's fear, said Saif Amr Shaker, a 21-year-old student outside a polling station in Hawaider, which lost hundreds of residents in the fighting. The majority of them are al-Qaeda, and we know that. If they come, we're going back to square one. Nearly all the parties in Diyala, whatever their religious background, go to lengths to avoid sectarian language. Each sensing victory, all can afford to. The key players, on the Sunni side, are a group aligned with Saleh al-Mutlak, a deputy in parliament who has courted the still-substantial support of Hussein's Baath Party, and a coalition built around the Iraqi Islamic Party, an heir of the Muslim Brothe It's democracy. It's a political process. It's not a war in which you have to surrender. It's about the peaceful transfer of power, said Abdel-Jabbar Ibrahim, an Islamic Party candidate, sitting in an office adorned with beach scenes and party slogans. His headquarters felt like a fortress. Days before, a man riding a bicycle carried explosives that Ibrahim said he believed were intended for the underside of his car. The man was shot to death. Unrattled, Ibrahim promised to move Diyala beyond the vocabu They can't keep the political and military power they have, Ibrahim said. But his own language suggested otherwise. He spoke of taking control and imposing policies. He envisioned 20 seats on the new provincial council for Sunnis, leaving six for Shiites and three for Kurds. Even the office suggested the war was not over. Graffiti scrawled on a checkpoint before the village of Hawaider pleaded, Patience, my beloved Iraq. And, indeed, some politicians urge that. Time, they say. Elections aren't a magic wand that will change everything, said Ali Mehdawi, a candidate on Mutlak's list. It's simply not going to change the situation 100 percent. We're inheriting a past that we've had to endure, he said. It's a heritage. But Saturday, among residents bearing ink stains, patience was not the conversation. Soldiers still crouched, fingers on triggers, at the checkpoint of Gatoun, a neighborhood in Baqubah that was once a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq and is still too dangerous for any Shiite candidate to enter. The rubble of houses bombed by U.S. forces ca This is the last chance to create trust between the government and people, said Mohammed Majid, a 21-year-old resident, standing with friends outside a store there. If we lose, we'll conclude this was all theater, Thaer Zaidan Khalaf said. Another friend spoke up. It means that democracy is a lie, Abdel-Wahid Ahmed said. If it doesn't grant me my rights, then I'll take them another way. Call it what you want. I'll take them with my hand, with a stick, with a gun or by any other means. Half an hour away, in the Shiite town of Hawaider, where a monument is inscribed with the names of 232 people killed in Diyala's bloodshed, two youths stood outside a polling station. One bore scars of a drive-by shooting while he was on his way to Najaf They can't do anything to us, said one of them, Hassan Jassem. Nothing. We won't sleep at night to make sure that we do. He offered expletives about the sisters and mothers of Gatoun's men. His friend, Nouhad Safa, soon joined in. We'll take care of them, he insisted. It's about to get harder to edit a Wikipedia entry. That is unless those who oppose the concept can come up with a better idea. Who among us hasn't encountered some false information on the site at one time or another. The goal here is to make Wikipedia, which is one of the most popular sites on the web, a more reliable place for obtaining accurate information. That can't be a bad However, out of users, 60% want to see the tightening of controls, while 40% still don't. After all, Wikipedia was built on a philosophy that allows anyone to add information. Study disputes 'hybrid' embryos Cow, mouse and rabbit eggs failed to produce human embryonic stem cells in cloning experiments, researchers reported Monday. The Cloning and Stem Cells journal report echoes earlier failed attempts to produce hybrid human embryonic stem cells as a way t In the study, led by Young Chung of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., researchers inserted human cell DNA into the animal eggs and then cloned the combination, as well as cloning 49 human eggs donated from fertility clinic patients. The (animal) hybrids just fail to express the genes needed to develop properly, compared to human egg-derived embryonic cells, says senior study author Robert Lanza of ACT. Echoing past results, the findings call into question the potential use of thes We biologists refrain from using\~ terms like 'impossible',\~ 'inconceivable', but it seems an extremely remote possibility to establish embryonic stem cells using (cloned) embryos unless the two species are close relatives, says stem cell biologist Zeki By Dan Vergano Posted at 02:05 PM/ET, February 02, 2009 in Life sciences and health Like this story? Share it with Yahoo! Buzz By posting a comment, you affirm that you are 13 years of age or older. Times change though. Sites evolve. Wikipedia gets ranked high on Google for many, many searches. People looking for information want accuracy. A lot of us know that we can't always trust everything we read on Wikipedia. But how often does this phase the c It's not like users can't still submit edits. It should just be a little less chaotic this way, and ideally more useful in the long run for the majority of the site's users. The process is called Flagged revisions, and has already been in place at the German-Language version of the site . If they come up with something better, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales will consider it. according to ITWorld . That seems to be the way it's going to go, but those opposed can share their ideas with management Don't Get Too Attached To Editing Wikipedia At Least Without Flagged Revision Five Facebook facts for its 5th birthday Many happy returns 4 February 2009 0:41 GMT / By Stuart Miles Happy birthday to Facebook. 5 years ago today, the site was launched by Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin. To celebrate its 5-year anniversary, here are five Facebook facts: What's in a name? Turns out Facebook wasn't always called Facebook. It originally launched as TheFacebook on thefacebook.com with Zuckerberg claiming he was Founder, Master and Commander, Enemy of the State. It didn't become Facebook.com until 2005 when the fledgling sit Not for everyone? Facebook might have around 150 million users today, but when it first started the site was restricted to an elite few. If you were a student of Harvard College then you were lucky. Within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Har A place to make friends and influence people? The limit's 5000, but Facebook states the average person has 120 friends which they can then subject to drunken pictures and status updates. Over 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States with all those people spending a whopping 5703 years (3 b It's not for sale? We're not really looking to sell the company. ... we're not looking to IPO anytime soon. It's just not the core focus of the company, Zuckerberg said in 2007. The company still remains independent, however that hasn't stopped it selling stakes in the co More than just a social network? Hoping to become a platform in its own right, Facebook has 52,000 applications currently available created by more than 660,000 developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries. Get past the apps and it's become a major destination on the web too Related links Yesterday, Google announced a new mobile location-aware application Latitude , which lets you track your friends' whereabouts using your mobile phone. called The move will have major ramifications to the current mobile social networking market which was just beginning to get off the ground. The question we must ask now is this: did Google just validate mobile social networking ...or did they just kill all the Will Latitude Become the De Facto Mobile Social Network? With the rise of smartphone-based computing, applications like Brightkite Loopt , and others were slowly growing their user base, letting friends share posts, photos, and other information with each other as they moved from place to place out in the real world. Accessed via mobile applications or SMS, these sorts of networks provided However, it was too soon to determine whether mobile social networking was a space that would ever really take off. As studies showed , the social networks that most people accessed on the go were not specialized mobile networks, but the usual ones - Facebook MySpace Aribert Ferdinand Heim, the notorious SS doctor named Dr Death by his Nazi concentration camp victims, is thought to have died, aged 78, in Egypt under the name of Tarek Hussein Farid. Aribert Heim: the senior Nazi known as 'Dr Death' By Bruno Waterfield After Alois Brunner, the most senior aide to Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust, Dr Heim was the second most wanted Nazi war criminal. Dr Heim fled Baden-Baden, Germany, in 1962 probably after a Nazi sympathiser tipped him off to a police investigation into his horrific war crimes carried out in the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Mauthausen camps. He then disappeared, via an underground Nazi network in Spain, to Uruguay where he continued his post-war occupation as gynaecologist before moving on in 1983. He is then thought to have gone, via other Latin American countries, to Egypt where he converted to Islam in Cairo's famous Al Azhar mosque. It now seems that his last decade was spent as the apparently benign figure of Uncle Tarek, who passed his leisure time playing tennis on the roof of the Kasr el Madina hotel with the children of its owner. His new Egyptian friends were surprised that Tarek, a keen amateur photographer, who was always with a camera, would not allow himself to be photographed. Dr Heim spent his last years obsessively working on a theory to deny the possibility of anti-Semitism by proving that Jews had an ethnic origin outside Israel or Palestine. He planned to send his paper, written in English and German under another pseudonym of Dr Youssef Ibrahim, to world leaders. Dr Heim, was born in Bad Radkersburg, Austria-Hungary, the son of a policeman, in 1914. He studied medicine in Vienna before volunteering to join the Waffen-SS in the spring of 1940. In October 1941, Dr Heim, SS number 367744, was sent to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, where he performed nightmarish medical experiments on prisoners. He quickly earned the sinister nickname of Dr Death for carrying out lethal injections on Jewish inmates, following in the footsteps of the Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele. One former Mauthausen camp inmate Karl Lotter described how Dr Heim had killed to war crimes investigators compiling an arrest warrant in 1949. In 1941, an 18-year-old Jewish athlete was sent to Dr Heim with a foot infection. Instead of treating him, the SS doctor anaesthetised him, cut him open, castrated him, took apart one kidney and removed the second. The victim's head was removed and the flesh boiled off so that Dr Heim could keep it on display. He needed the head because of its perfect teeth, said Mr Lotter. Of all the camp doctors in Mauthausen, Dr Heim was the most horrible. . Having to recreate a friend graph on new mobile social networks was not something everyone was up for...at least it hadn't been not so far. Google's Potential to Dominate Without any easy way to import MySpace and Facebook friends to these newer mobile networks (like via Facebook Connect for example), our mobile social networks were filled only with an odd mix of friends: some early adopters and maybe a handful of tech-obs Now that Google has come onto the scene, friend graphs already intact, one has to wonder about the impact this will have on these smaller networks. How will they survive? Google is already a mainstream service and Latitude was just covered by the Wall Street Journal . Needless to say, any mainstream users out there intrigued by mobile social networking will now just go try Google's service. Yet where the smaller networks had the cozy feel of you and handful of friends, any service maintained by a behemoth such as Google immediately has a Big Brother feel to it. No matter how many opt-out features and privacy controls they offer, some peopl According to Martin May, Brightkite founder, though, Google didn't even come close to killing his service. With Brightkite, he says, we are primarily focused making meaningful connections with people you didn't necessarily know yet, around places. Lati Wait...Our Real Friends Aren't on Google What's strange about the mobile social networking market, though, are the missing players. The major missing players. Where is Facebook? Where is MySpace? Why is it that the biggest social networks on the planet have decidedly shunned any attempt to add proximity and mapping to their mobile services? If anything our real friends are here, not on Google, whose friend network includes random people from our Gmail accounts, interesting folks from our RSS readers, and the occasional visitors to our blogs (thanks to the Google Friend Connect widget ). Those may be people who we work with, people who wanted to share feeds with us, or fellow bloggers, but they aren't necessarily our real-life friends. And since they're not, why on earth would we want to share our locations with them? The ability to connect to all our real-life, real-world friends and family - friends that include mainstream web users, mom, dad, and the kids - is something that just isn't here yet. No matter which mobile social network you end up using, including Googl would be creepy, so we sort of hope it never happens. British Council pulls out of Tehran after 'intimidation' Times Online The British Council says it has been forced to suspend operations in Tehran_after the intimidation of local staff by the Iranian_authorities. The Council, the overseas cultural arm of the British Government, said that it_had \ldblquote no choice\rdblquote but to act after the authorities summoned most of its 16_local staff for \ldblquote interviews\rdblquote in December and \ldblquote suggested to them that they_should resign from their post Two members of staff also had their passports confiscated after they tried to_leave the country to go to a meeting, the Council said, prompting it to_suspend all operations in Iran on January 31. \ldblquote These actions by the Iranian authorities are unacceptable,\rdblquote Martin Davidson,_the British Council chief executive, said in a statement. \ldblquote They are designed to pressurise our staff with the clear intention of_stopping our cultural and educational work in the country. At the British Council we know that maintaining open and constructive_dialogue between countries is vital during difficult times. That is why we_continue to work in places as challenging and varied as Iraq, Burma,_Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. I am now looki While officially an independent non-profit charity, the British Council_receives a large part of its funding from the Foreign and Commonwealth_Office. Last year it fell foul of the Russian authorities amid a diplomatic stand-off_between Britain and Moscow, triggered by the death by radioactive poisoning_in November 2006 of the Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko. The authorities in Moscow shut down all but one of the Council's Russian_offices in January 2008 amid accusations of tax evasion. It first set up an_office in Iran in 1942, but closed in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution. It_reopened in 2001 at the reques I want to stress our commitment to building stronger cultural and_educational ties between Iran and the UK, said Mr Davidson. At the British Council we know that maintaining open and constructive_dialogue between countries is vital during difficult times. That is why we_continue to work in places as challenging and varied as Iraq, Burma,_Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. I am now looking for the opportunity to discuss with the Iranian_authorities an agreement that will allow us to resume our work there in the_future. Israel attacks Lebanese boat and beats passengers Thursday, 05 February 2009 17:08 Written by Greta Berlin One of the Free Gaza volunteers was on this boat, the TALI, and Free Gaza organizers helped in Cyprus to get the boat inspected, then sent on to Gaza. Please make your outrage heard as, once again, Israel, the bully of the Eastern Mediterranean, gets away Abu Dhabi banks to get cash boost By Robin Wigglesworth in Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, said yesterday it would inject $4.3bn (€3.3bn, £3bn) into five of its banks to shore up capital and help insulate the emirate's banking system from further contagion from the global debt crisis. Although bankers and analysts welcomed the decision, many said the unilateral move by Abu Dhabi's government raised questions over the coherence of federal efforts to bolster the UAE's economy and financial sector, and risked exposing the banks of other e Doubts Remain Over Presumed Death of Nazi War Criminal An international Jewish human rights organization said Thursday it had serious doubts about whether former Nazi Aribert Heim, dubbed Dr. Death, died in Cairo in 1992. that Heim passed away in Egypt 17 years ago could not be proven because the whereabouts of his body remained unknown. The New York Times The Simon Wiesenthal Center said reports Wednesday by German TV broadcaster ZDF and ZDF was set to air a 45-minute documentary Thursday evening making the case that the SS doctor lived incognito in Cairo off rents from his Berlin apartments. The documentary asserts that he converted to Islam and died at 78 of cancer in a hotel room with Investigative journalists from ZDF and the showed photos of Heim's dusty old satchel of documents from the hotel. Times said they also had Heim's death certificate, his assumed Arabic name, Tarek Hussein Farid, and his correct date of birth, June 28, 1914. ZDF\~and the Doubt remains The Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office has a mandate to hunt former Nazi war criminals like Heim. Efraim Zuroff, director at the office, said there was no doubt Heim had resided in Egypt after he fled Germany when the Nazis were crushed. But the question is whether he died in Egypt. We have serious doubts about that, Zuroff said. There's no grave, there's no body. We can't do any DNA testing. Heim was given the name Dr. Death for injecting concentration camp inmates with gasoline and performing surgery and removing organs without using anesthesia. He is alleged to have killed hundreds of Jews at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria and is the most hunted surviving member of the Nazi regime that killed 6 million Jews during the war. He has been missing since 1962 after escaping a search by G Germany, Austria unconvinced Zuroff said the Simon Wiesenthal Center had not closed the book on Heim, adding that German police had told him they had also not taken as truth the reports of his Cairo death. Joachim Riedel, deputy head of Germany's national office on war crimes, told German news agency DPA: I'm still not convinced that this finding is correct. It could be that somebody is supposed to be fooled by this. Riedel added it was a proven fact that other Nazi war-crimes suspects had planted false evidence of their own deaths. German police said they were considering beginning a search for Heim's grave. Austria's Justice Ministry said it would further investigate the reports of Heim's death before deciding whether to end its own search. The search will remain open until it has been verified that he is dead, a spokesman from Austria's Criminal Intelligence Service said. A criminal case against Heim for murder and genocide has been pending for years in Austria. Historians: Heim not lone Nazi in Egypt But Heim's son, Ruediger, told ZDF his father died of cancer of the rectum on Aug. 10, 1992, after having lived in Cairo 30 years under an assumed name. ZDF's website contained a two-hour interview with Ruediger Heim describing in detail the suspect's final years and death. Historians say that Heim was not the only Nazi to seek refuge in Egypt after World War II, and that it is common knowledge that several Nazis were employed by the Egyptian government after 1956 to generate propaganda against Israel after its establishment Johann Von Leers, who had close associations with Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, was made head of the anti-Zionist propaganda service at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said Nazi era historian Kurt Tauber. Tauber said Egypt's post-war ministries of information and defense hired former SS and SA officers such as Louis Heiden, Walter Bollmann and Wilhelm Bocker. Research Breakthrough: Human Clones May Be Genetically Viable For the first time since Hwang Woo-Suk's cloned stem cells were revealed as fakes, human cloning \emdash for medical purposes, or even for reproduction \emdash appears to be a realistic possibility. We show for the first time that the same genes turned on in normal human embryos are the same genes turned on in human clones, said Robert Lanza, scientific director of Advanced Cell Technologies and co-author of a study published Monday in Cloning and Stem Cells , Vol. 11 No. 2, Feb. 1, 2009. Lanza's team inserted human cell nuclei_into hollowed-out egg cells from both humans and animals, then stimulated them into development, a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), or more informally, cloning. When compared to a normal human em The research is the first step toward therapeutic cloning \emdash making embryonic stem cells from a patient's own DNA capable of replacing diseased tissue, failing organs and even lost limbs. And, theoretically, the same technique could be used to produce a cl In 2001, Lanza's team claimed to have made cloned human embryos, stoking public hopes that cloning would soon produce thousands of embryonic stem cell lines \emdash one for every common genetic group, capable of replacing diseased tissue, failing organs and los Four years later, researchers led by the now-infamous Woo Suk Hwang claimed to have actually harvested embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos. The findings again raised public hopes, only to be revealed as fraudulent. Hwang now works for a controversial However, even if the scientific challenges of so-called therapeutic cloning are overcome, ethical problems remain. Harvesting human eggs requires women to take ovulation-inducing hormones, a process that is arguably dangerous and inarguably arduous. As a Research on these hybrid embryos \emdash as well as chimeric embryos, formed by mixing actual human and animal DNA \emdash was approved last year in the United Kingdom. But that approval came after bitter public debate in which opponents raised the specter of sentien The latest findings suggest that hybrids are incapable of growing to a medically useful stage, much less sentience. But both cloning and induced pluripotency \emdash a recently-developed procedure in which adult cells are transformed into an embryo-like state \emdash Science has a way to go with both of these, but we will soon have a way to create a bank of stem cells to expand the range of stem cell therapies, said Lanza. His team compared the gene expression of a human embryo produced_through in vitro fertilization with clones that incorporated human,_cow, rabbit and mouse eggs. Several thousand genes were active in the_fully human clones, but almost completely silent in Among these were the genetic targets stimulated during induced_pluripotency, in which adult cells are returned to an embryo-like_state. Their silence suggests that animal eggs will not be useful in_making clones capable of generating embryonic stem cells, You can never say never, said Lanza, but we've been at this a_very long time, and despite literally thousands of these attempts,_we've never seen one of these hybrids advance further than what we're_reporting here. And though negative results don't oft But the fully human cloned embryos could produce stem cells and, if permitted, perhaps grow into a person. The DNA resembles the DNA of a normal human embryo, which raises the question of human reproductive cloning, said Lanza. However, New York Medical College cell biologist Stuart Newman_disagreed with Lanza's assessment. Though the paper shows that_interspecies SCNT is a bust, he said, there are still substantial_differences between fully-human cloned and IVF embryos. But even if Lanza's embryos cannot develop, other scientists may_come up with a more effective process. And though reproductive cloning_has not yet been attempted, some experts say it's inevitable. The procedure is illegal in the United States, but a global ban_proposed in the United Nations fell apart after the U.S. insisted that_therapeutic cloning be banned as well. Virtually every country agreed, but President Bush held it hostage, said Lanza. President Barack Obama has promised to overturn President Bush's_moratorium on federal funding of most embryonic stem cell research._Lanza hopes he will abandon Bush's position at the U.N. as well. Reproductive cloning is unsafe and unethical, he said. This raises the urgency that those laws need to be passed. Citation: Reprogramming of Human Somatic Cells Using Human and_Animal Oocytes. By Young Chung, Colin E. Bishop, Nathan R. Treff,_Stephen J. Walker, Vladislav M. Sandler, Sandy Becker, Irina_Klimanskaya, Wan-Song Wun, Randall Dunn, Rebecca M. Hall,\~ Jing Image: Cloning and Stem Cells / Each top-and-bottom image is a_pair; from left to right, a human-mouse embryo; human-cow;_human-rabbit; human; and a human embryo produced through in vitro_fertilization. See Also: By Brandon Keim February 02, 2009 | 1:42:23 PM Stem Cell Research Wanted: Thousands of shoes for Palestinian-British play about civilian suffering in Gaza After a week of heavy snow, Londoners may well be reaching for those old sneakers long since discarded at the bottom of the cupboard.\~ But now a theater group has come up with another use for them - as the backdrop to a play\~ highlighting the civilian suf A joint Palestinian-British troupe this week launched an appeal for thousands of pairs of second hand shoes to form part of the set design for a its production, \lquote Go to Gaza - Drink the Sea\rquote . Zeitgeist and Passion Pit Theatre company said it was setting up a network of collection points manned by volunteers around the capital to bring in the shoes. \lquote If you have spare shoes, whether in pairs or not, whether old or new, of all sizes, please donate them to this appeal,\rquote the group said in an email. \lquote Please do come and deliver - and stay for a cuppa!\rquote The company says the shoes will send a powerful message to theater-goers who see the play, representing\~ \lquote people both dead and alive\rquote who suffered during 22 days Co-written by the Palestinian and British dramatists Ahmed Masoud and Justin Butcher, the play is also being billed as a collaboration between actors, artists and film-makers. The duo hope that the set, replete with shoes and goodwill messages from contributors, will travel to Gaza as an art installation and a message of hope after the London play\rquote s short February run in the Theatro Technis. The play is being supported by the Amos Trust and Jews For Justice For Palestine and opens on February 19. arts culture \lquote Beyond the Gaza earthquake\rquote : Rival Palestinian factions debate future as uncertainty hangs over reconciliation \lquote Passengers of Lebanese aid boat returned after being held by Israel\rquote - Al Jazeera translated Hamas prepared for 1-year truce with open borders By SARAH EL DEEB \endash 5 days ago CAIRO (AP) \emdash Hamas officials said Tuesday they are ready to commit to a cease-fire with Israel for at least a year in exchange for a full opening of Gaza's borders, as the group began a new round of truce talks with Egyptian mediators. At the same time, foreign ministers of pro-U.S. Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, met in the United Arab Emirates in a show of unity in support for Egypt's efforts to forge a long-term truce and against Iran, Hamas' most important ally. Egypt is trying to mediate a durable cease-fire in place of the temporary and increasingly wobbly truce that ended the Gaza war last month. It has set a Thursday deadline for the Islamic militant rulers of Gaza to accept a deal. But the complicated details of an accord appeared unresolved with border security arrangements a key obstacle. There is an agreement in principle about a calm for one year, said Ahmed Abdel-Hadi, a Lebanon-based Hamas official. But the movement could show flexibility regarding the time ... if there are guarantees and commitments to lift the sanctions and open t Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the Palestinian group is open to extending the cease-fire for 18 months. Abdel-Hadi said Hamas rejects a gradual opening of the border crossings or linking a truce deal to a release of Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit, held by Hamas-allied militants in Gaza since June 2006. We are going to deal with all the issues as one package, because we are going to avoid the trap of gradual implementation, he said. Hamas demands that any truce include the opening of borders into Gaza, which Israel and Egypt have largely kept sealed since the group seized control of the territory from the rival Fatah faction in 2007. Hamas also wants a role in administering the border crossings in recognition of its power in Gaza. Israel says it won't ease the 20-month blockade of the densely populated and impoverished coastal strip without international guarantees that Hamas will be prevented from smuggling more weapons into Gaza. It does not want any deal to give Hamas a role in Hamas remains committed to Israel's destruction and refused to renounce violence. Both the U.S. and Israel consider it a terrorist group. Egypt is also pressing Hamas to start reconciliation talks with U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a unity government that can negotiate peace with Israel. Abbas, a moderate, runs a rival Palestinian government in the West Bank that h But past attempts to broker a power-sharing deal among the rival Palestinians factions have failed. Prospects remain dim, with Hamas increasingly entrenched since its takeover of Gaza. So Egypt has focused on what may be a more limited goal \emdash installing forces loyal to Abbas at the border crossings. Egypt's proposals would include some form of symbolic Hamas presence at the crossings along with European monitors. Barhoum said the key to any truce is that Egypt open its crossing with Gaza, but added that the details of running the crossing into Gaza are open to discussion. In the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi, foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Mideast nations gathered Tuesday for a hastily convened meeting that represented a more assertive effort by pro-U.S. Arab governments to push Hamas toward an Egyptian-m It made starkly clear the split in the Arab world between U.S. allies and the pro-Iranian camp, particularly Syria, which backs Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Syria was not invited to the meeting \emdash nor was Qatar, which has taken an incre We have to ensure with our unity that unwelcome, non-Arab parties do not interfere in our affairs in an unneeded manner, the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister, Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said in a clear reference to Persian Iran. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and allied Arab nations accuse Iran of using its alliance with Hamas to increase its influence in the region and gain a foothold on Israel's doorstep. Iran gives millions of dollars to Hamas and is believed to supply the militants with Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Yemen and Abbas' Palestinian Authority also attended the meeting. Associated Press reporter Barbara Surk contributed to this report from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (This version CORRECTS Corrects name of UAE minister.) Hamas: The idea to form factional reference body does not obliterate PLO Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, stated yesterday that a plan to install a factional reference body does not derogate the Palestine Liberation Organization, but rather allows other factions to be represented in the Palestinian struggle. Barhoum confirmed that his party's call for a body that represents Palestinians inside and outside the Palestinian homeland, came at a time when many Palestinian resistance factions are not represented in the PLO. Barhoum criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for what Barhoum considered Abbas's attempts to foil all efforts aimed at a reconcilliation between Hamas and the Fatah party of Abbas. Yesterday in Cairo, Abbas stated that he will not initiate any d The Palestinian president does not wish a successful national Palestinian dialogue, but rather wants to commit Hamas to external agendas that have undermined the Palestinian people's choice, the Hamas spokesperson said. The Abbas-chaired Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed peace accords with Israel in 1993. Since coming to power after parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas shunned peace with Israel until Israel ends its occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank Asteroid bound for Earth! Warn your grandchildren AN ASTEROID that had initially been deemed harmless has turned out to have a slim chance of hitting Earth in 160 years. While that might seem a distant threat, there's far less time available to deflect it off course. was discovered a decade ago, but it was not considered particularly worrisome since it has no chance of striking Earth in the next 100 years - the time frame astronomers routinely use to assess potential threats. Asteroid 1999 RQ36 Now, new calculations show a 1 in 1400 chance that it will strike Earth between 2169 and 2199, according to Andrea Milani of the University of Pisa in Italy and colleagues ( ). With an estimated diameter of 560 metres, 1999 RQ36 is more than twice the size of the better-known asteroid Apophis , which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2036 , 12 July 2008, p 12) . Both are large enough to unleash devastating tsunamis if they were to smash into the ocean. New Scientist Although 1999 RQ36's potential collision is late in the next century, the window of opportunity to deflect it comes much sooner, prior to a series of close approaches to Earth that the asteroid will make between 2060 and 2080. The window of opportunity to deflect the asteroid comes much sooner than the potential collision Asteroid trajectories are bent by Earth's gravity during such near misses, and the amount of bending is highly dependent on how close they get to Earth. A small nudge made ahead of a fly-by will get amplified into a large change in trajectory afterward. I But after 2080, the asteroid does not come as close to Earth before the potential impact, so any mission to deflect it would have to nudge the asteroid off course by several tens of kilometres - a much more difficult and expensive proposition. That's worth thinking about, says Clark Chapman of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. As is often the case, more precise calculations enabled by future observations will most likely rule out a collision. But Milani's team says that routine monitoring of asteroids should be extended to look for potential impacts beyond the 100-year time fra Browse past issues of New Scientist magazine and get 4 free issues. Artist's concept of a catastrophic asteroid impact with the early Earth. An impact with a 500 kilometre diameter asteroid would effectively sterilize the planet. The Earth may have experienced such gigantic impacts in its youth, but fortunately today ther 09 February 2009___________ by David Shiga Magazine issue For similar stories, visit the Will Israel make the right choice? The likely outcome is another centre-right coalition \endash unless ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman redraws the political map What's at stake in the Start with the nothing. The battle to be prime minister comes down to two candidates, former PM Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu of Likud and current foreign minister Tzipi Livni of Kadima. Israeli election ? Everything and nothing. , with the last polls showing only a two-seat gap between them, the pair have scrambled to define themselves more sharply. Livni at last let the word peace come out of her mouth, says Aluf Benn of the liberal daily Haaretz , while Bibi planted a tree in the Golan [Heights] and went for a walkabout in East Jerusalem. As the race between the two In those moves, Livni and Netanyahu were both acting out age-old roles, the peace candidate doing battle with the hawk. But no one seriously believes that Livni is about to deliver an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, just as no one kids themselves that B has tightened Instead, in the words of one senior Israeli official, Whoever wins, it will be more of the same: convergence on the pragmatic centre. If Livni were somehow to pull off a double upset, emerging with both the most seats and a presidential invitation to fo a Palestinian state. But were he to return to the prime minister's office, few believe he would maintain that hard line. First, he will look leftward for coalition partners, preferring to be the hawk in a centrist government than the centrist in an Netanyahu's rhetoric has been different, ruling out any compromise on Jerusalem and still refusing to accept ultra-hawkish one . He knows that his relationship with the US \endash which matters more to Israeli leaders than almost anything else \endash will be doomed if he becomes the prisoner of rightist parties, constantly demanding settlement expansion and the like. The result will be that Netanyahu, too, will stay on the Annapolis track, continuing to negotiate with the PA. The tone will be different from Livni's \endash though some say Netanyahu might even end up yielding more than she would. First, because he will be an of the man set to claim third place and the role of kingmaker: Avigdor Lieberman. A nationalist to his friends, a racist to his enemies, the Russian-born Lieberman poses as an Israeli Putin, the strongman saviour Israel is crying out for. His signature pr Hence the impression that there's not much difference at the top \endash and next to nothing at stake. And yet, others say something very profound is on the line in this election, their angst stirred by the rise and rise Asked what's at stake in this election, one scholar at Tel Aviv University answered instantly: Israel's soul. Will Muslims Respond to Barack Obama\rquote s Overtures? that Muslims from the Middle East will not respond to Barack Obama\rquote s friendly overtures until they see him taking sides with Palestinian rebels against Israel. Alaa Al Aswany says I found a combination of glowing enthusiasm for Mr. Obama, a comparison between the democratic system in America and the tyranny in Egypt, the expectation of a fairer American policy in the Middle East, and then severe disappointment after Mr. Obama\rquote s fai Al Aswany, who considers Israel\rquote s recent action in Gaza \ldblquote a massacre\rdblquote , is duly impressed with the U.S.\rquote s ability to overcome racial discord in electing our first black president and openly states that the Middle East would be a better place if Egypt and ot Many would disagree.\~ For instance, PA negotiator: Neither Kadima nor Likud can make peace with Palestinians Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that Israel's next Robert Ellis wrote that increasing democracy in Turkey would radicalize that country\rquote s political process and alter its stance decidedly toward a more Islamic, theocratic way of thinking and interacting with the world at large.\~ He quotes Omer Dincer, Prime Minister Erdogan\rquote \ldblquote I believe that the republican regime in Turkey should be replaced by a more participatory one, and the principle of secularism should be replaced with integration with Islam. Therefore I believe that it\rquote s time, and absolutely necessary, to replace all th We can reasonably assume similar feelings and outcomes in other Islamic nations should matters be put to the popular vote.\~ Are we to believe Al Aswany\rquote s assertion that what\rquote s missing in Egypt is a fully democratic election system? Hardly, since the one predictable outcome of such elections would be weak governments more under the sway of Muslim clerics and susceptible to the mad desires of radical fundamentalists. Al Aswany\rquote s view of the Israeli action in Gaza is indicative of the greater problem - the combined Muslim/Arab rejection of Israel as a nation.\~ An important measure of the Middle East\rquote s maturity will be taken when - and if -\~ the general populace is fina Until such time there\rquote s little good that can come from unbridled democracy in the Middle East, all wishful thinking aside.\~ Barack Obama presumedly knows this, explaining why his friendly overtures toward the Middle Eastern Muslims have been only oratoric The truth is that Americans of all walks of life would like to be friendly with Muslims and Jews, Eqyptians, Iranians, and Israelis alike.\~ But the process of getting from here to there will not be an easy one as it requires what President Obama called an Could that be achieved by democratizing Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran?\~ Only in the sense that Turkey, with its precarious balance between government and military, and Iraq, with a similarly supported elected government, are democratic. A level of social maturity is required before democracy can be considered a positive form of self-rule.\~ Al Aswany is wrong if he thinks it has been reached, whether in Egypt or in Gaza, as the Fatah/Hamas civil war demonstrated beyond dispute. Washington Post Goes After Michael Steele; Accuses him of Violating Campaign-Finance Laws Share and Enjoy: February 9th, 2009 By: marc moore | Tags: government, whether led by centrist Tzipi Livni or rightist Benjamin Netanyahu, would be unable to forge peace with the Palestinians. Regardless of the coalition formed by any Israeli prime minister, the next Israeli government will be unable to deliver the requirements of peace, Erekat said after election exit polls showed Livni's Kadima party with a narrow 2-seat lead over Netanyahu If the new Israeli government continues to expand settlements, place roadblocks and obstruct a two-state solution, we have no option but to consider it a non-partner in peace, said Erekat, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority said in an official statement earlier Tuesday that it would work with any government Israel elects, as long as it is committed to the peace process. Off the record, however, senior PA officials said they are worried by the apparent strengthening of the Israeli right. If, as seems likely, Netanyahu becomes prime minister and Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu greatly increases its representation, thi PA officials were therefore hoping that Kadima chair Tzipi Livni and Labor chairman Ehud Barak will form the next government. Ordinary Palestinians, in contrast, seem to have little interest in the elections. Palestinian commentators explained that after being disappointed by governments led by all three major Israeli parties - Labor, Kadima and Likud - the public has stopped ho This view was echoed by Hamas officials, who said there is no difference among the Zionist parties. But Palestinian pundits said they believe Hamas would prefer the Israeli right, which would allow it to make substantial gains. Hamas: Little chance of long-term Gaza deal with Likud Meanwhile, an official from Hamas said Tuesday that the group was waiting to see how the outcome of the Israeli elections would affect the negotiations over Gaza. A delegation from Hamas' leadership in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday crossed into Egypt to continue cease-fire negotiations in Cairo as Israelis went to the polls in an election whose outcome could influence the talks. The four-member delegation, which includes the movement's spokesman, Ayman Taha, will join other Hamas negotiators who have been meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials to hash out a deal to establish a long-term ceasefire and open Gaza's borders. It all depends on the ouctome of the Israeli elections, Osama Hamdan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa from Lebanon on Tuesday. If the right-wing Likud party wins, I don't think that the current government will be able to reach an agreement regarding a long-term truce in Gaza. If the current government wins, they could reach an agreement, he said. Egypt is brokering parallel, indirect talks between Hamas and Israeli negotiators to establish a lasting cease-fire. Egyptian intelligence officials are trying to get Hamas to agree to a deal that would end Palestinian arms smuggling into Gaza, a key Israeli demand, and re-open the coastal enclave's border crossings, one of Hamas' key demands. Hamas officials said Monday that it had narrowed the gaps with Israel over a longer-term truce in the Gaza Strip and could begin implementing a deal within days. Related articles: Fatah rooting for Livni, says Netanyahu win will boost Hamas By Haaretz Service and News Agencies Last update\~-\~23:10 10/02/2009 Monday, February 09, 2009 Could Khatami be Iran's Obama? You have an economy in shambles, increasing international isolation, the danger of further wars, an unpopular millenarian president who thinks God put him in office to reshape the world, and an alarmed public across the board. And you have a liberal chal Sound familiar? I am talking about Iran. in the election slated for June, against the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khatami served briefly as culture minister 1989-1992, and was popular among youth because he wanted to open up Iran's closed society. He was fired for trying to go too far. Then in 1997 he ran for president as a liberal dark horse and won 70% of the vot Khatami was head of the Islamic Center in Hamburg and a counselor for Iranian students in Germany in the 1970s and while there learned German and later studied the thought of sociologist Jurgen Habermas. He later applied Frankfurt School critical theory Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami has decided to run for president again Khatami remains popular in opinion polls in Iran, and despite the failures of his previous 8 years in office, many Iranians are nostalgic even for his era of half-hearted reforms. Since June of 2005, Iranians have suffered with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose antics have made Iran a laughingstock on the world stage, and whose forceful rhetoric against Israel has given Iran's foes a pretext to call for attacking it and/or doing regime ch Ahmadinejad has been a poor steward of the economy, in which inflation reached nearly 30% last fall, and while it has fallen a bit from that high, it is still running 24 percent and will remain high for months, perhaps years. High inflation especially hurts persons on fixed incomes, such as students, salaried employees without a good pay-raise program, and pensioners. Remember that a high inflation rate in the United States in Ahmadinejad had a big oil income in 2008 and assiduously put the money into the economy. But increasing the money supply rapidly like that, without accompanying gains in productivity, causes inflation. Although Ahmadinejad has benefited the rural popula his high-inflation policies have also hurt farmers, whose income is less dynamic than that of the urban sector. Khatami has criticized Ahmadinejad on the inflation issue , and pointed to much lower rates during his own era and to better economic progress then even though Iran's oil income was a fraction at that time of what it was in 2008. Most Iranian politicians agree that social justice and taking care of the poor and improving the lot of the little people are an essential part of revolutionary Iran's ideology, and so Khatami argues that Ahmadinejad's inflationary excesses threaten a key Ahmadinejad's economic policies have been bad for the bazaar,the nexus of artisans, money-lenders, shopkeepers, import-export merchants, and Khomeinist industrialists that is close to the clerical rulers. Therefore, a lot of conservatives have distance Not only has the quirky president pumped too much money too suddenly into the economy, but his pugnacious attitude to Iran's civilian nuclear enrichment program and his stated conviction that Israel is on the verge of collapsing (which his enemies have be Those sanctions and the prospect of more have had a big impact on Iran's economic advancement, since by last May they had scared away Royal Dutch Shell and Total from helping develop Iran's vast gas fields. (Natural gas is a high-technology field and few Ahmadinejad has brought relations with the United States to lows not seen since the 1980s. In contrast, Khatami had called, when he was in office, for people-to-people diplomacy between the publics of Iran and the US, which Roy Mottahedeh of Harvard like In 2004, Khatami even agreed to a temporary suspension of nuclear enrichment activities , a step that could usefully be implemented once again to kickstart negotiations with the Obama administration. The Iranian hard right is most of all afraid that Khatami, if he is reelected, will establish good relations with the US. Ahmad Jannati , a hardliner and chairman of the Council of Guardians (kind of a clerical Senate) told the reformist paper ' The people do not want a non-Islamic element to come to power in this country. He added: The person who wants to become the next president should in the first place be Islamic, and enjoy the characteristics required for Islamic governance, namely ori E'temad last week: He went on say: At the moment, with the change in the American administration, a number of members of grouplets (hostile opposition groups), who should really be in prisons, have been exploiting their freedom in the Islamic Republic, and have gone to Ame He then explained that supporting the underprivileged is another key feature of Islamic governance, and emphasized: This revolution is the revolution of the underprivileged, and in view of that fact, the country's officials must always think about ways o (- Iran top cleric slams reformists' 'pro-American' stance, E'temad Online, Wednesday, February 4, 2009 trans. USG Open Source Center But aside from extreme hard liners such as Jannati, most Iranian conservatives have come to dislike Ahmadinejad and to become more positive toward Khatami. Even conservatives such as Ali Larijani gradually broke with Ahmadinejad. Larijani had been Iran' Khatami is a cleric whose father was close to the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and although the Iranian hard right hates him, he is teflon in that regard and he might attract Larijani-supporters. Lots of questions are yet to be resolved. It is possible that Mohammad-`Ali Qalibaf, the conservative former governor of Tehran, might run, and might split the conservative vote with Ahmadinejad, benefiting Khatami. At the moment,there is another libera Khatami has many flaws. He is at base a Khomeinist and so supports a regime that has a poor record on human rights. He may have high principles himself, but so far he has been relatively ineffectual in getting them implemented. His unwillingness to ris Still, a Khatami presidency would be a great improvement. If Ahmadinejad passes from the scene in June, to be succeeded by Khatami, that could avert a growing crisis between Washington and Tehran, or at least give the two sides breathing room in finding a End/ (Not Continued) Election aftermath Wooed by Kadima and Likud, Lieberman agrees to more talks with Livni Lily Galili , Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies Israel Elections , Israel News After an inconclusive general election Tuesday seemed likely to send Israel into political limbo, Kadima leader met with Yisrael Beiteinu head Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem on Wednesday in a bid to build a coalition. Kadima won 28 of 120 Knesset seats in Tuesday's vote, putting it narrowly ahead of the rightist Likud, which garnered 27 seats. Both Livni and Likud chairman claimed victory Tuesday night, each arguing the right to form and lead the next government. The two parties began intensive efforts Wednesday to form rival coalitions. The far-right Yisrael Beiteinu came in third place, winning 15 seats with its anti-Arab, anti-religious platform, and securing the position of kingmaker in the formation of the next government. The once dominant Labor, led by Ehud Barak, came a dismal fou Livni told Lieberman on Wednesday that the people had made their choice for the next prime minister, and it was her that they had chosen. She said that now was the time for unity, and for the Yisrael Beiteinu leader to advance his agenda. The pair agreed to hold further talks. Speaking before the meeting, Livni vowed to fight to become the next prime minister. The people chose me in droves. I feel a great responsibility to translate the power that has been given to me into action, to advance the country and to unify the people, said Livni from her Tel Aviv home. Kadima's narrow lead makes it uncertain whether Livni will be able to put together the 61-seat bloc needed to form a government. Netanyahu has a better chance of forging a coalition because of gains by right-wing parties, his natural allies. Early Wednesday, Lieberman said he was leaving his options open, indicating he could jump either way. Yisrael Beiteinu was to convene later Wednesday to discuss its coalition options. The outgoing coalition chairman, Kadima MK Yoel Hasson, said Wednesday morning that a team would begin negotiations immediately in order to forge a Livni-led coalition. Netanyahu, meanwhile, was also due to meet Wednesday afternoon with Lieberman, after talks with Shas leader Eli Yishai, whose ultra-Orthodox party received 11 seats. Yishai on Wednesday morning told Army Radio that, We committed ourselves before the election to recommend Benjamin Netanyahu to the president. The people's choice is a rightist government. This, of course, doesn't rule anything out. The Shas leader was referring to President Shimon Peres legal obligation to consult with all the parties as to who they prefer as prime minister, after which whoever is recommended by more Knesset members is given the nod. Hence if the religious and right Peres will meet next week with party leaders to hear their recommendations, and around February 20 expects to assign the task, presidential spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch said. Yisrael Beiteinu sources: We won't rule out joining coalition with Shas Sources in Yisrael Beiteinu said Wednesday their party was not ruling out joining a coalition that included Shas. The announcement came despite Lieberman's pledge Tuesday that he would not forget Shas' attacks on his party and himself. On Saturday night Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said that, Whoever votes for Lieberman gives strength to Satan. Should the two rightist parties succeed in putting their antagonism behind them, Netanyahu would likely find coalition-building significantly easier. We aren't making an ultimatum, said a senior Yisrael Beiteinu official. It also doesn't matter from our point of view that Bibi's first meeting is actually with Shas. Everything depends on the fundamentals. Although most of the ballots were counted by Wednesday morning, the final results may not be known until Thursday afternoon, when election officials finish counting the soldiers' votes and other absentee ballots. There are about 150,000 eligible absentee voters, so if the race remains close their votes could be decisive. In past elections, the soldiers' vote has often leaned rightward. 1 day ago Continental Flight 3407 reported 'significant icing' before crash that killed 50 The flight crew of the Continental Express plane that crashed into a Clarence Center home Thursday night faced significant icing problems as it approached the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. All 49 persons aboard the plane were killed, as well as The National Transportation Safety Board revealed the icing findings this afternoon following initial review of Flight 3407's flight data and cockpit voice recorders. The crew discussed significant ice build-up \emdash ice on the windshield and leading edges of the wings, said the NTSB's Steven R. Chealander. While he stressed no conclusion has been reached as to whether the ice build-up played a role in the crash, Chealander confirmed ice can play havoc with aircraft. Significant ice build-up is an aerodynamic impediment. Airplanes are built with wings that are shaped a certain way and ice can change the shape, Chealander said. The NTSB's preliminary analysis of the plane's so-called black box and flight crew conversations also noted that the Bombardier Dash-8's anti-icing system had been activated. However, at this time there is no indication as to whether the system was func The recorders also detected the plane's landing gear were engaged one minute before the crash. Approximately 20 seconds later, when the plane was 2,200 feet off the ground, it aircraft experienced severe pitch and roll \emdash violent sideways and up and down The flight recorders were removed from the wreckage of the plane this morning and flown to the NTSB's laboratory in Washington, D.C. More detailed information is expected to be gleaned from the equipment as it undergoes more intensive analysis. Chealander said the quick audition of the recorders found that in the last half hour of the doomed flight, the crew reported visibility was 3 miles and there was snow and mist in the air. On its descent to the Buffalo airport the crew subsequently reported hazy conditions and asked the air traffic control tower for permission to drop down to 12,000 feet. Moments later it requested a flight path at 11,000 feet to dodge the weather conditi Chealander said despite early determinations the flight faced weather challenges, the NTSB has not ruled out criminal or terrorism activity in the crash. Nothing has been ruled in, nothing has been ruled out, Chealander said. The transportation safety agency is asking anyone who observed anything unusual about the flight prior to the crash to call the FBI's information line at: 856-7800. Late today, federal investigators began the grim task of locating victim remains at the crash site. The pain-staking process involves flagging remains amid the badly burned crash debris and removing them for identification. Authorities said the effort is expected to take many days. The plane crashed into a home on Long Street in Clarence Center. Names of the dead began trickling out at midday, giving a window onto the group of passengers aboard the flight from Newark to Buffalo that crashed at about 10:15 p.m. The names of victims emerging from families and friends included Alison Des Forges, a noted historian and human rights activist who documented the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Also killed in the crash was Susan Wehle, cantor at Temple Beth Am in Amherst, and Zhaofang Guo of Amherst, the husband of researcher Ping Wang at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. As the victim list began to grow, a fact of the tragic plane crash became apparent: like Buffalo itself, the group of people killed in the incident ranged from the obscure to the famous, and included parents, spouses and employees returning from a busines It's not fair to have another loved one [killed] in that kind of fashion. It's pretty shocking, said Cynthia Blest, sister-in-law to one of the prominent victims, Beverly Eckert, widow of a Buffalo native killed on 9/11. Unfortunately, there was a town resident in one home that perished, and two people escaped from that home with minor injuries, County Executive Chris Collins said. The man has been identified as Douglas C. Wielinski, 61. His wife, Karen Wielinski, 57, a They confirmed they were in the house when the plane hit, Kaleida communications chief Michael P. Hughes said. Onlookers \emdash and authorities \emdash were amazed that more homes were not destroyed. It's in that yard, basically, said Chealander. It was a very compact area. Eyewitnesses said the plane sounded odd before it crashed and seemed to strike directly into the home on Long Street. Chavez to opponents: Accept public will Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:53:29 GMT Hugo Chavez urges opposition to acknowledge the public will in upcoming Feb. 15 polls, saying he won't hesitate to recognize results. If approved, the amended constitution is going to give the Venezuelan President endless terms in office. I would like to hear the same from the opposition leaders. Let's recognize the results and continue the march. It is my call and compromise, Chavez said during a TV interview, reported Xinhua on Tuesday. We believe in people's will, Chavez stressed. We must recognize the results and keep on marching. If Chavez loses the referendum, he would immediately recognize the results, said the president. The Venezuelan leader also asked opponents of the constitutional amendment to avoid violence and acts against citizens like blocking streets, setting trees on fire and attacking cars of public security (personnel). The National Assembly on Jan. 14 approved by an around 84 percent vote the constitutional amendment. But in order to take effect, the new charter needs the approval of people in a general referendum. Chavez says in order to push his socialist ideals he needs more terms in office. But some believe his long stay in power could end in corruption. A just and efficient democracy can't develop, said Ignacio Martinez, a 19-year-old economics student at the Metropolitan University in Caracas. Approval for the amendment stood at 51 percent in January - up from 38 percent a month earlier - the independent Venezuelan firm Datanalisis reported. The January poll of 1,300 likely voters had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points. Chavez's supporters say he needs to stay in power to oversee the completion of his socialist project, which they say has given the poor access to affordable food, education and health care. Chavez Reports Alleged Coup Plot 12 February 2009 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is reporting a new coup plot against his government, just days before a referendum on allowing him to seek re-election. In an interview on state Wednesday, Mr. Chavez said some active duty soldiers were arrested after collaborating with a Venezuelan soldier who, he alleged, is on the run in the United States. He said the troops were trying to infiltrate his palace and that they had sent messages to military units in areas governed by the opposition. The Venezuelan president gave few details about the alleged plot, but said officials had confiscated military weapons, including several different kinds of explosives. Mr. Chavez was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup and frequently tells of alleged plots to remove him. The Venezuelan leader is finishing a campaign to amend the country's constitution to allow the president and other politicians to run for re-election as many times as they like. Venezuelans will vote on the issue in a referendum Sunday. Before regional elections late last year, the president said there was a plot within the Venezuelan military to assassinate him and carry out a coup. Arabs watching the Israeli elections I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon watching al-Jazeera's coverage of the Israeli elections.\~ I've also been reading editorial commentary and news coverage from across the Arab world. I'd like to be able to say that Arabs are on the edge of their s the true winner will be Ze'ev Jabotinski and his doctrine of the Iron Wall. The skepticism bridges today's great divide in Arab politics. There's little difference between the coverage in al-Quds al-Arabi (the most conservative / moderate camp Saudi paper). The Saudi station Al-Arabiya (the most populist / rejection camp of the major Arab papers) and al-Sharq al-Awsat leads with the rise of Israeli extremists (mutatarufin, the same word used to described al-Qaeda extremists). Al-Sharq al-Awsat describes the election as the choice between the right and the extreme right. Neither Barak nor Livni is seen as offering a particularly better choice after Gaza.\~ The waiting for Lieberman, marveling that Netanyahu finally succeeded in finding someone worse than himself -- and arguing, as many do, that Lieberman would be the best winner since he would show Israel's true face. Much of contemporary International Relations theory argues that the superiority of democracy lies in its transparency, as a free press and political competition and elections allow other countries to more accurately assess its intentions.\~ In this case, t It was a bad, bad impact. It was hot, and the explosion was massive, said Clarence resident Tony Tatro, who was driving nearby at the time of the crash. I couldn't see anyone surviving it. The sickly glow from the burning wreckage could be seen for miles. Names of the passengers on the plane were not being released immediately by the airline. The 50 dead included four on-duty crew members on the Continental plane, one off-duty crew _member, as well as 44 people traveling toward Buffalo on business and pleasure trips, and one man on the ground. Among the crash victims was Beverly Eckert, the widow of Sean Rooney, who was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Eckert was traveling to Buffalo for a family celebration of what would have been her husband's 58th birthday. Family members and friends identified two people believed to be on the plane as Ellyce Kausner, a graduate of Clarence High School and Canisius College, and Maddy Loftus, a Buffalo State College graduate who lives in New Jersey. The crew members were identified as Capt. Marvin Renslow, pilot of the plane; Rebecca Shaw, first officer of the flight; and flight attendants Matilda Quintero and Donna Prisco. Another employee of the airline, Capt. Joseph Zuffoletto, a Jamestown resident who was off-duty at the time, was also killed. Sources at Northrop Grumman Amherst Systems, a defense contractor on Wehrle Drive in Williamsville, have confirmed four of its employees were aboard the Continental Connection flight No. 3407 that crashed in Clarence last night. All four were returning ho Names of the four victims have not yet been released. The fiery crash \emdash which stunned onlookers by its intensity and heat \emdash is the deadliest U.S. airline crash since November 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587, taking off from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, crashed into the Belle Harbor neigh Gov. David A. Paterson arrived in Buffalo at about 10:30 a.m., and made his way to the Erie County Emergency Operations Center in Cheektowaga, which earlier in the day had been turned into the base of operations for emergency personnel. Paterson, wearing a jacket with a New York State Police logo and a grim expression, met with FBI and NTSB officials at the center. He left without making any statements to reporters. Paterson's next stop was the Cheektowaga Senior Center, where he went to meet with family _members of the victims. The Rev. Angel L. Gauthier, of Prince of Peace Christian Church in Buffalo, was inside the Cheektowaga Senior Citizens Center, where he found what appeared to be more than 100 family and friends of people who perished in the plane crash. Walking in there was like being in the valley of suffering, said Gauthier, who is also a chaplain with the Buffalo police and fire departments. I was sharing a thought with a family member who lost a grandson and he couldn't stop weeping. All I did was I tell you, Gauthier said, It's going to be a day of mourning for all of us in Western New York, and all over the nation. Jaimeelynn Trujillo, a Clarence resident who lives directly behind the crash site and was evacuated by police in the moments after the crash, saw the immediate impact of the plane's hit first-hand and called it horrifying. She was also one of the few to see at least one of the occupants of the Long Street house \emdash the site where the plane crashed \emdash fleeing to safety. Trujillo said she was watching the house and saw one of the two women inside the home run outdoors, in a state of panic. I saw her start saying, 'It's my house, it's my house, it's my house.' And then she fell to the ground, Trujillo said. Family members and close friends who were at the airport or arrived from out of town were taken to the Cheektowaga Senior Citizen Center early this morning. We're trying to do everything we can for these people, Cheektowaga Police Capt. John Glascott said. Right now they're grieving. Friends said Loftus was heading here for a weekend reunion of Buffalo State women hockey players. You never think this is going to happen to you, Kausner's aunt, Susan Leckey, also from Clarence, said at Buffalo Niagara International Airport. It always happens to somebody else, and you see it on TV. Kausner's family lives roughly a quarter-mile from the crash site. There was little communication between the plane and the tower before the crash, according to Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer. Crew members aboard the flight from Newark Airport had not reported mechanical problems I was told by the tower the plane simply dropped off the radar screen, Hartmayer said. The crash occurred at 6038 Long St., not far from the Clarence Center Fire Hall on Clarence Center Road. Three people were in the home at the time of the crash \emdash including one man who was killed. About 12 other nearby homes were evacuated. Several sustained fire damage, and witnesses reported that the acrid smell of burning fuel permeated the crash scene. We had a significant amount of fuel left in the aircraft, said Dave Bissonette, emergency coordinator for the Town of Clarence. It was a hazmat situation. Flight 3407 Crash Aftermath Video of eyewitness accounts Video from the scene of the crash Video from the 4 a.m. news conference By Charity Vogel, Phil Fairbanks and Brian Meyer News Staff Reporters Two volunteer firefighters also were treated at Millard Fillmore Suburban, with injuries not believed to be serious. The site right now is too hot for anyone to start the investigation, Collins, the county executive, said during a 4 a.m. news conference._ At 3:15 a.m., the wreckage continued to smolder. Several parts of the site were burning hot _and dangerous. Goodrich Road resident Tatro, 35, was driving east on nearby Clarence Center Road just before the crash. He saw the plane, just above him, heading north, which seemed to be in the opposite direction it should have been heading. It was [flying] nose down, hardly above the treetops, and its left wing was tilted slightly down, Tatro said. I did not see any landing gear. I saw the underbelly of the plane fairly well. There was nothing burning on the plane and no physical damage. The sound of the plane was labored and unusually loud just before the crash, some witnesses said. Tatro didn't see the crash, but he had no trouble hearing it, even with his car windows _closed. He immediately feared the worst \emdash that no one would survive such a deep impact and fiery inferno. No chance, Tatro replied. Beverly Eckert, the widow of Sean Rooney, a Buffalo native who had been killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, had been headed to Buffalo for a weekend that was to include a commemoration of her late husband's 58th birthday. The weekend was also to include awarding of the Sean Rooney Scholarship at Canisius High _School. Chris Kausner, of Clarence, whose sister Ellyce was aboard the flight, said that after he _heard about the crash, he called another sister who had gone to pick her up at the airport to _see if her plane had landed. She said that they told them the plane had landed and was taxiing, but that was not the _case, he said. Kausner said Ellyce was a law student at Florida Coastal University in Jacksonville and was _coming home to visit. The dead included five crew members of Pinnacle Airlines, the parent company of Colgan Air, _which was operating the flight. Capt. Renslow, who joined the airline in September 2005, had flown 3,379 hours with the carrier. First officer on the flight was Rebecca Shaw, who joined Colgan last January and had flown 2,244 hours with Colgan. Flight attendants were Matilda Quintero and Donna Prisco, who both began flying with Colgan in May. The off-duty crew member killed in the crash, Jamestown resident Capt. Joseph Zuffoletto, was a fifth employee of the airline on board the flight. A nurse at Erie County Medical Center said the hospital's second shift had been ordered to _stay late, in order to treat survivors. They were finally sent home, at midnight, when the _bodies didn't come in. Heading up the NTSB's investigation in Buffalo, officials said, will be Lorenda Ward. Ward _has investigated several other plane crashes during her tenure at the agency, including the _crash in the fall of 2007 that claimed the life of New York Yankees pi Two planeloads of NTSB investigators touched down in Buffalo early today, for a total of 14 _federal officials on the ground to work on the site. Chealander, who is one of the national board's five members, also arrived on the scene and _described the work ahead as a process of retrieving perishable evidence from the disaster _area. Federal investigators will be interviewing local people who witnessed or heard the crash, _Chealander said. We're just trying to gather facts, we're trying to get witness accounts, he _said. Officials were being tight-lipped about the plane's passenger manifest. Local authorities had received a copy of the manifest of passengers aboard the ill-fated flight early today, but that list has not been released. Officials said that it would not be made public until all families of the victims were notified. Clarence resident Kathleen Dworak lives about a quarter mile from the crash scene. Her home is beneath an airplane flight path, so she said she's accustomed to hearing planes all the time. But the noise she heard Thursday night was quite different. It sounded like an airplane sputtering. It was a totally different sound, she said. A short time later, she went outside and saw nearby trees lit up. There were flames 50 to 100 feet high. It was just a massive ball of fire. And you couldn't even tell there was a plane on the ground, she said. Dworak added that it's amazing the plane didn't do damage to more homes. Emergency services officials say the one home at 6038 Long St. was destroyed, and only one other nearby home sustained some damage. David Luce, who lives with his wife Mary Jane about 150 yards from the crash scene on Goodrich Road, said he wasn't surprised to learn that there were so many deaths. I can't imagine that anyone survived it, he said. If you heard that explosion, and you saw how fast the whole area was on fire, it was pretty clear that it was jet fuel burning. I would guess that everything disintegrated on impact, he added. Just before the crash, Luce heard the plane and noticed that it sounded a little funny. It sounded quite loud, and then the sound stopped, Luce said. Then one or two seconds later, there was a thunderous explosion. I thought something hit our house. It shook our whole house. There was the initial boom, and then these cannon shots \emdash these loud secondary explosions, and they went on for about 10 minutes. Within 5 to 10 seconds, Luce said, he saw flames 40 or 50 feet high. His wife Mary Jane Luce said, There was just a big ball of fire. She said that after she realized how terrible the crash was, her thoughts flew to the families and friends of the victims. One or two minutes after the crash, Luce had walked to a spot that gave him a clearer view of the scene. The house was already flattened. There was no house, just a pile of rubble and still burning. According to the Luces, their tenant saw the plane coming down at a strange angle. The tenants went to call 911, but by that time the crash had already occurred. David Luce said he heard screams following the crash, but he doesn't know whether they came from injured people or from neighbors. Almost two hours after the crash, Luce said he still saw flames shooting from the crash site, but they were not as high as before. Buffalo News Staff Photographer Harry Scull Jr., who lives in Clarence, said he heard a fire alarm at 10:20 p.m. Thirty seconds later, the phone rang, and I knew it was something big, he said. It was my neighbor. He said 'a plane hit a house, look out your window.' I'm two miles from there, and it was a ball of fire. Scull said he went to Long Street to take pictures and found a chaotic scene as firefighters attempted to run hoses to fight the flames. Scull noted that after dark, he has noticed that incoming flights pass lower overhead. It scares you, they come in so low, Scull said. You can smell the jet fuel burning. I knew it was just a matter of time. Valentine's Day only for Western world - survey As the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian governments threaten Valentine\rquote s Day bans, a survey has revealed 58% of Arabs believe the celebration is meant only for the Western world. The second annual Maktoob Research Valentine's Day was conducted from January 31 to February 5 among 3195 Arabs who are married or involved in a serious relationship. The survey included residents of 11 GCC, Levant and North Africa countries. The study found that 46% of participants felt that celebrating the day went against their religious beliefs, while only 42% disagreed when asked whether the occasion is meant only for the Western world. Tamara Deprez, research director at Maktoob, said while the survey revealed the majority of Arab resident enjoyed receiving traditional gifts, many respondents did not support the celebration. \ldblquote We\rquote ve received feedback from a large number of respondents who say that they will not be celebrating the occasion as they believe that it goes against their religious beliefs.\rdblquote Despite the majority of participants stating the celebration was meant only for Westerners, 47% believed that the day should be an occasion for the religious and non-religious alike, the survey found. The study also revealed 72% of Arabs consider themselves to be romantic, an increase of 10% from the 2006 study. Respondents from the GCC were willing to spend the most on Valentine's Day presents, followed by the Levant and North Africa. At nearly 30%, the majority were willing to only spend $50 or below on gifts, 16.1% were prepared to spend $51 to $100; 6.4% would spend $101 to $150 and 10.7% of respondents were willing to spend more than $151 on romantic presents. At 15%, flowers were ranked as the most exciting and romantic gift, followed by gifts (13%), romantic phone calls (11%), a dinner date (10%) and Valentine\rquote s cards (9%) Going to a hotel or on a trip, a dinner date and jewellery featured more prominently in GCC wish lists as compared to other regions, while poetry recitation ranked higher in Levant wish lists. The Kuwaiti government warned on Wednesday that Valentine's Day celebrations that contradict Islamic teachings and values will be banned, while Saudi\rquote s religious police are currently enforcing a red rose ban in the capital Riyadh. Long term impact risk for (101955) 1999 RQ36 The potentially hazardous asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 has the possibility of_collision with the Earth in the latter half of the 22nd century, well beyond_the traditional 100-year time horizon for routine impact monitoring. The_probabilities accumulate to Even for asteroids with very precisely determined orbits, a future close_approach to Earth can scatter the possible trajectories to the point that the_problem becomes like that of a newly discovered asteroid with a weakly_determined orbit. If the scatteri Nissan to Slash Payroll, Pare Japanese Output TOKYO -- Nissan Motor Co. Monday announced plans to slash more than 20,000 jobs world-wide, shift production out of Japan and seek government assistance from Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere, part of a broad new effort by the Japanese car maker to weather th Japan's third-largest car maker by sales also is suspending its goal of 5% annual revenue growth until 2012, which had been a key commitment of its current management plan. Nissan's broad, new recovery program comes as the car maker -- reeling from falling demand world-wide, a global credit crunch and a soaring yen -- ... , a patent pending text reading technology that allows users to define the questions they want to ask, and crawl the blogosphere (or any text-based source) for fast, accurate answers. The technology was created under the aegis of Harvard University Profes Conflict Early Warning and Early Response Crimson Hexagon: Early Warning\~2.0? February 17, 2009 The future of automated textual analysis may be Crimson Hexagon Gary King I met with the company\rquote s CEO a while back\~ to learn more about the group\rquote s parsing technology and underlying statistical models. Some UN colleagues and I were particularly interested in the technology\rquote s potential application to conflict monitoring and ana ). Unlike VRA\rquote s tool, EMM is based on a key-word search algorithm, i.e., it uses a search engine like Google. EMM crawls online news media for key words and places each article into a corresponding category, such as terrorism. Crimson Hexagon is of course not the first company to carry out automated textual analysis. Virtual Research Associates ( ) and the EC\rquote s Joint Research Center ( ) have both been important players in this space. VRA developed GeoMonitor , a natural language parser that reads the headlines of Reuters and AFP news wires and codes \ldblquote who did what, to who, where and when? \rdblquote for each event reported by the two media companies. According to an independent review of the VRA parser by Gary King and Will Lowe (2003), The results are sufficient to warrant a serious reconsideration of the apparent bias against using events data, and especially automatically created events data, in the study of international relations. If events data are to be used at all, there would no However, as Gary King mentioned during one of my meetings with him, VRA\rquote s approach faces some important limitations. First, the parser can only parse the headline of each newswire. Second, adding new media sources such as BBC requires significant investme The JRC has developed the European Media Monitor ( EMM The potential for improving conflict monitoring and analysis is, in my opinion, considerable. Imagine parsing Global Voices in real time, or Reliefweb and weekly situation reports across all field-based agencies world wide. Of course, like any early warning initiative, the link to early response will dictate the ultimate success or failure of this project. In addition, the system has returned highly reliable results even when using less than 10 samples, and even when the actual blog entry had less than 10 words. Finally, the parser is by no means limited to blog entries, any piece of text will do. Crimson Hexagon is truly pioneering a fundamental shift in the paradigm of textual analysis. Instead of trying to find the needle in the haystack as it were, the technology seeks to characterize the hay stack with astonishing reliability such that any cha The advantage of this approach over VRA\rquote s is that EMM can parse thousands of different news sources, and in different languages. The JRC recently set up an \ldblquote African Media Monitor\rdblquote for the African Union\rquote s Continental Early Warning System (CEWS). However, t Google.org is also pursuing text-based parsing. This initiative stems from Larry Brilliant\rquote s TED 2006 prize to expand the Global Public Health Information Network ( GPHIN ) for the purposes of prediction and prevention Rapid ecological and social changes are increasing the risk of emerging threats, from infectious diseases to drought and other environmental disasters. This initiative will use information and technology to empower communities to predict and prevent emerg Larry\rquote s idea led to the new non-profit InSTEDD . I wouldn\rquote t be surprised if Google.com were to express an interest in buying out Crimson Hexagon before year\rquote s end. Hexagon\rquote s immediate clients are private sector companies who want to monitor in real-time their brand perception as reported in the blogos 115 million blogs, with 120,000 more added each day. As pundits proclaim the death of email, social web content is exploding. Consumers are generating their own media through blogs and comments, social network profiles and interactions, and myriad microco The accuracy and reliability of Crimson Hexagon is truly astounding. Equally remarkable is the fact that the technology developed by Gary King\rquote s group parses every word in a given text. How does the system work? Say we were interested in monitoring the Ir recent study If we were interested in liberal bloggers and their opinion on riots (hypothetically taking place now in Tehran), we would select 10-30 examples of pro-democratic blog entries addressing the ongoing riots. These would then be fed into the system to teach The Crimson Hexagon parser uses a stemming approach, meaning that every word in a given text is reduced to it\rquote s root word. For example, \ldblquote rioting\rdblquote , \ldblquote riots\rdblquote , \ldblquote rioters\rdblquote , etc., is reduced to riot. The technology creates a vector of stem words to characterize A Muslim woman's journey I wanted to write about my experiences \endash not of oppression, or turning away from religion \endash but of love I sometimes wonder what someone who has never met ordinary Muslim woman thinks we are like. Perhaps they see us all as black-veil-wearing creatures in voluminous cloaks. Certainly those who search for images in Google under Muslim women are likely to th Perhaps if you've never met a Muslim woman you might think we are all failing to integrate, whatever that means, or to communicate with the people we live amongst, as Jack Straw would have us believe. It's possible that they think we are all opposed to If you walk into any bookshop you will find stories of Muslim women with words like oppressed sold or kidnapped in the titles. Their tales of horror rightly need to be told, and the abuses which have been perpetrated need to be stopped. However, thi It is hard to tell whether publishers illustrate their books in this way because it reaps easy commercial rewards. Or is it that they themselves cannot see the complexity and variation amongst Muslim women, or are simply too lazy or cowardly to bring us n , a memoir of growing up as a Muslim woman. I was fed up of seeing the same old stories told all the time, and wanted to share one from the inside, and in a way that itself was groundbreaking. I speak from experience \endash today sees the publication of my first book Love in a Headscarf So I chose to write a humorous and light-hearted tale. I wanted to tell a story that touches each of us as human beings, looking at questions of love, life and meaning that we all share, but through the eyes of a Muslim woman. Most of all, I wanted to exp I took the book to a number of publishers whose commissioning editors loved the story, but couldn't see it fitting with the existing mould of books about Muslim women. We need an 'alias' of a book that is already out there so people understand how it rel With such black and white views about the stories that Muslim women are permitted to tell, how can it ever be possible to create an understanding of our diversity and complexity? I hope my book brings a fresh perspective to the discussion about Muslim women. But there is a serious question to be asked \endash will it provoke the Muslim community to look into itself and wonder why these lazy stereotypes exist? Sometimes as Muslims we lac We need to connect to those around us at that very fundamental level of human experience. Today, on Valentine's Day, let's do it with love. , Saturday 14 February 2009 10.00 GMT Shelina Zahra Janmohamed Hot dates and headscarves Shelina Zahra Janmohamed was tired of seeing miserable books about Muslim women's lives, so she decided to write her own story - a chick-lit memoir of her arranged marriage. She speaks to Laura Barton spirit21 Buses roll by outside, the day unfolding in a succession of sirens and shouts, and in her small flat in west London, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is discussing how she came to find her husband. Janmohamed is better known as , a blogger who has provided a unique perspective on the life of a British Muslim woman over the last three years, addressing issues that range from the political role of Turkey to Jack Straw's comments about who wear the veil. She is also now author of Love in a Headscarf, a book that hovers somewhere between chick-lit and memoir, as it follows Janmohamed's journey through the process of arranged marriage. The memoir is irreverent and feminine: perhaps not the most conventional tone for discussing this topic. I love chick lit, she says. I noticed when I started reading it that it was very much about 'How do you find the prince?' And what I wanted to do w Janmohamed was always aware that her marriage would be arranged, and is frustrated by the common misconception that such unions bypass the desires of the bride and groom. The Islamic view on marriage is that the man or woman should make an active choice Introductions are usually organised by parents and a designated matchmaker, but there was, she recalls, a lot of frank discussion about what I would want in a partner beforehand. She credits this with helping her to make an informed choice and teaching In her memoir, Janmohamed focuses on the intersection between the cultural representations of love and the reality. The big question I ask is, 'What is love?' she says. Because we all watch lots of Hollywood films, and it's always Prince Charming and y In the book's opening chapter, Janmohamed is introduced to her first prospective husband, and her expectation is that he is destined to be Mr Right - that the arranged marriage can exist in tandem with the rom-com. But as her search continues, she begin Guantanamo detainee freed after 4 years in prison on Monday, saying his seven years of captivity and torture at an alleged CIA covert site in Morocco LONDON \endash The first Guantanamo detainee released since President Barack Obama took office returned to Britain went beyond his darkest nightmares. Binyam Mohamed's allegations \emdash including repeated beatings and having his genitals sliced by a scalpel \emdash have sparked lawsuits that could ensnare the American and British governments in protracted court battles. , Mohamed, who once was accused by U.S. authorities of being part of a conspiracy to detonate a bomb on American soil, stepped off a charter plane and was whisked away by police, border control agents and immigration officials. as the Obama administration weighs what is needed to shut the facility, thanked Britain for its cooperation in the case. The 30-year-old Ethiopian refugee, who moved to Britain as a teenager, was freed after four hours of questioning. Looking frail from a hunger strike The friendship and assistance of the international community is vitally important as we work to close Guantanamo, and we greatly appreciate the efforts of the British government to work with us on the transfer of Binyam Mohamed, he said. Attorney General Eric Holder , who traveled Monday to Guantanamo Bay Lawyers for Mohamed are seeking secret U.S. intelligence and legal documents they say will prove the Bush administration sent Mohamed to Morocco, where it knew he would be tortured. They claim the documents also prove Britain was complicit in the abuse. Unlike in the U.S., Britain's leaders don't have a past government to blame \emdash Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party has been in power for more than a decade. But the case is also a test for Obama. While he has promised Guantanamo's closure and an end to torture, he has not yet publicly explained how his government will change the process of extraordinary renditions, which involve sending terror suspects to for CIA Director Leon Panetta has told Congress renditions could continue, but that prisoners won't be handed over to countries where they are likely to be tortured \emdash which has always been the stated U.S. policy. The Bush administration's extraordinary rendition program was much criticized, in part because some prisoners were handed over to countries with documented histories of human rights abuses . Morocco was one such country, according to an Amnesty International report. The United States refuses to account for the 18 months Mohamed says he was in Morocco. In a statement released Monday by his attorneys, Mohamed said: I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal torture was an abstract word to me ... It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next and tortured in medieval ways all orchestrated by the United States government . He said he would not make any media appearances until he had recovered from his ordeal. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was pleased with Mohamed's return. The British government has been fighting for his release since 2007. Mohamed has few remaining ties to , and authorities say there's no guarantee he'll be allowed to stay since his residency expired in 2004. He will have to report regularly to police and volunteered to other restrictions that will limit his foreign travel. Mohamed's parents are back in and his siblings live in the United States. His sister, Zuhra Mohamed, traveled to Britain for her brother's release and said: I am so glad and so happy, more than words can express. It is unlikely any of Mohamed's accused interrogators will be prosecuted because the worst abuse allegedly occurred in and Morocco. But any British or American officials found to have known about his rendition or any mistreatment could face civil or criminal charges. Mohamed has said he was interrogated by at least one British security agent from MI5 in Pakistan and that British intelligence officials fed material about his time in Britain to his interrogators in Morocco. Many have been complicit in my own horrors over the past seven years, his statement said Monday. The very worst moment came when I realized in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence According to Mohamed's account, which The Associated Press obtained from his lawyers in 2006, he converted to Islam in 2001 and went to and Pakistan, where he said he wanted to experience a traditional Islamic society and get away from a bad circle of friends in as he tried to kick a drug habit. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 for trying to return to Britain on a false passport and held in Karachi for three months, during which time he said he was beaten, hung by his wrists from a leather strap and questioned by at least one MI5 agent. Mohamed claims the Americans then sent him to Morocco, where he endured 18 months of torture, including the genital mutilation. He was then sent to another alleged CIA detention site in Afghanistan before arriving in Guantanamo in 2004. He was charged in May 2008 with conspiring to fill U.S. apartments with natural gas and blow them up \emdash charges he said he only confessed to after more than two years of torture. The charges were dropped without explanation in October 2008 \emdash but only after the prosecutor in his planned military trial quit and accused the U.S. government of withholding evidence. Lawyers in Britain filed a lawsuit for the disclosure of 42 secret U.S Two British judges have reopened the case and Britain's attorney general is investigating whether there was criminal wrongdoing on the part of Britain or the MI5 agent who interrogated Mohamed in Pakistan. Several other lawsuits are under way in the United States against a Boeing subsidiary that allegedly supplied planes for rendition flights to Morocco and for the disclosure of Bush-era memos on renditions and interrogation tactics. Some criticized Mohamed's release, saying Monday that no detainees should have been freed before their status was reviewed under an executive order Obama issued last month. President Obama ordered a 180-day review to determine the status of the detainees, so it's unclear to me why Mr. Mohamed has been released without such a review, said retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold who was in charge of the when it was attacked by suicide bombers Everyone is interested in the rights of detainees but where are the rights for the families of my 17 sailors who were killed? Associated Press Writer Pam Hess contributed to this report from Washington. Abbas urges int'l community not to boycott new Palestinian unity gov't Palestine-Israel\~Conflicts STOCKHOLM, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on _Tuesday urged the international community not to boycott a new proposed national _unity government to be formed by the two Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas. Speaking on his arrival in Stockholm at the start of a two-day visit to _Sweden, Abbas said forming a new unity government between Fatah and Hamas would _be the only hope for Palestinians. Efforts to form a unity government have failed in the past, partly because _key powers, including Israel and the United States, refused to accept a _coalition that included Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to _exist. However, the two movements have recently showed willingness to join hands. _They will try to bridge their differences in the two-day talks starting in Cairo _on Wednesday. Such a unity government must fully honor the commitments accepted by the _PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), Abbas said in an interview with the _Swedish news agency TT. Hamas and Fatah can refuse to respect the commitments, but the unity _government must respect them. We have no choice, he said. The two movements have been in conflict since Hamas ousted security forces _of Abbas from the Gaza Strip in 2007 and seized control of the territory. Abbas has previously visited the Czech Republic and Norway as part of his _European trip. He is set to meet Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and _Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildton Wednesday. Universal Flu Drug Stops All Flu Types 'Antibody Cocktail' Would Protect Against Pandemic or Seasonal Flu Feb. 23, 2009 -- A new kind of drug cocktail kills all types of flu bugs and_could protect against pandemic or seasonal flu. I certainly believe that a therapy for all kinds of influenza may be_within our grasp, study researcher Robert Liddington, DPhil, director of_infectious diseases at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif., said at a_news conference announcing the find The treatment is based on new monoclonal antibodies that attack flu viruses_in a shared Achilles heel. Of the many different subtypes of flu, there are_only two basic patterns for this vulnerable, essential part of the flu_virus. Reviewed by At the core of the breakthrough was the finding that the vulnerable part of_the flu virus is not the part attacked by current flu vaccines. Universal Flu Vaccine? In mouse studies using a deadly strain of the H5N1 bird flu, mice were_protected even when given the antibodies three days after infection with an_otherwise lethal dose of the virus. The finding suggests that the treatment_could be used to snuff out the e If a pandemic flu variant arose in, say, Asia next week, many or most_of these procedures could be greatly expedited. That would be my hunch,_Liddington said. While monoclonal antibodies against flu are new, a wide range of drugs are_based on this technology. That means the new, fully human anti-flu antibodies_could become new human drugs relatively quickly, study researcher Wayne_Marasco, MD, PhD, associate pr We hope these antibodies are in clinical trials during the 2011-2012_flu season -- maybe earlier, Marasco said. This really is an_important advance in the field of antiviral therapy. The possibility of having_a universal therapy for flu is made more re While full testing and approval of the new treatment will take time, it's_possible that the process would move much faster if a flu pandemic appeared_imminent. Louise Chang, MD Daniel J. DeNoon WebMD Health News N.Korea Will Have to Pay for Missile Test The North's Korean Committee of Space Technology claimed Tuesday it was preparing to launch an experimental communications satellite named Kwangmyongsong-2 by means of delivery rocket Unha-2 at a launch site in Hwadae in the northeastern part of the count Missile or satellite, this is the first time that North Korea has given advance notice of such a move, apparently to get the international community, including the United States, to pay attention. Pyongyang may believe that a display of its military power During her Asia tour, Clinton mentioned the uncertainties posed by the generational transfer of power in North Korea and urged the North to engage in dialogue with South Korea. Clinton also hinted at the possibility of Pyongyang-Washington talks. The impe A missile test would also pose obstacles for participating countries in the six-party talks in giving aid to the North. The World Food Programme estimated North Korea's grain output to total 4.21 million tons, leading to a shortage of 836,000 tons. As was Venus Williams hails 'brave' Peer after winning UAE tourney By The Associated Press Venus Williams hailed 'brave' Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer after winning the Dubai Tennis Championship on Saturday. Peer was denied entry into the United Arab Emirates for the tournament. I felt like I had to talk about her, Williams said. I thought it was brave of her to come here and try and play despite knowing that it is not going to be easy for her. My dad grew up in an area where if you spoke too much, it was your life. So I felt Williams earlier beat Virginie Razzano of France 6-4, 6-2 in the final of the championship to claim her 40th singles title. She added: I am not here to rock any boat or upset people, I am just here to do things that are right, and I think right things are already happening next week and right things will happen next year. Obviously, Andy Ram got his visa, so I'll be happy to come and defend next year. If everyone is not given the equal opportunity to play, I'd rethink but I love this tournament. They really care about the players. Earlier Saturday, the director of Dubai's tennis tournament said Israeli player Andy Ram will have all the security he needs to play in the ATP Tour event starting Monday. Salah Tahlak told reporters that Dubai is a safe place and organizers will make sure Ram has the necessary security to participate in the men's tournament. Organizers cited security concerns for the decision to deny Peer a visa, which prompted protests from the Women's Tennis Association and fellow players. UAE authorities granted Ram permission to enter the country on Thursday. Ram is ranked No.7 in the world in doubles. WTA fines Dubai organizers $300,000 for denying Peer visa The WTA fined Dubai Tennis Championships organizers a record $300,000 Friday after Peer was denied a visa by the UAE. The Women's Tennis Association also took steps to compensate Peer and ensure she and other Israeli players won't be shut out of future tournaments in the federation. Organizers said at the time that they feared fan anger over Israel's recent military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip would spill into riots if Peer were to play. The UAE and Israel do not have diplomatic relations. Part of the fine - more than double the previous largest levied by the WTA - will go to Peer and doubles partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany to make up for the prize money they could have won at the lucrative tournament. I think what we hope with this decision is that we're sending a very clear message that we're not going to tolerate discrimination of any kind, tour CEO Larry Scott told The Associated Press. We wanted to send a clear signal that this is the most egreg As important, Scott said, was requiring the organizers to post a $2 million performance guarantee - something normally not required by established, financially sound events like the Dubai Tennis Championships. There's never been any significant issue with them before, Scott said. The WTA was able to hold the tournament accountable in part because of its association with Dubai Duty Free, a government enterprise, Scott said. The event's Web site includes the statement that it is Under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashi Peer, who will receive $44,250, was also given 130 ranking points, equivalent to the ones she earned in the same week last year. She'll keep them until she plays in another tournament that offers a chance at the same amount she could have won in Dubai. Groenefeld will get $7,950, roughly equivalent to her average doubles take from last year. The balance of the fine will go to a charity that will be chosen by the tour and Peer. Dubai organizers also must confirm that qualifying Israeli players will get visas at least eight weeks in advance to remain on the tour schedule for 2010. Additionally, Peer will be guaranteed a wild-card entry if she doesn't qualify. Jordan, Russia keen to boost peaceful nuclear co-op AMMAN, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Jordan and Russian on Thursday inked an initial cooperation deal on peaceful nuclear energy development, Xinhua correspondent reported at the occasion. Khaled Touqan, head of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), told the press afterwards that areas of cooperation within the agreement include the construction of electricity generating and water desalination plants, establishment of research center The agreement, which is a basic pillar for Jordan's nuclear program for peaceful uses, was reached on fair and transparent bases that are in line with all international laws, added the JAEC head. For his part, Nikolay Spassky, Deputy Director General of the Russian Rosatom state corporation, also hailed that the agreement forms a new frame for cooperation between the two countries in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Russian Ambassador to Jordan Alexander Kalugin also said the agreement will open new horizons for cooperation between the two countries and enable Jordan to acquire modern Russian technology. An official agreement is expected to be signed in Moscow next month after taking necessary constitutional measures, said concerned officials. According to Touqan, Jordan will also sign next April a similar agreement with Romania, which will be followed by another one with Britain. Unlike its oil-rich neighbors, Jordan faces grave energy challenges. Currently, about 96 percent of its energy needs were met by imports at a cost of some 20 percent of its gross domestic products. In a drive to reduce the country's dependence on imported hydrocarbons, the government mapped out a nuclear energy program in 2007, under which Jordan will have its first nuclear reactor up and running by 2016, with more to be built in the years leading u So far, Jordan has inked similar cooperation agreements with countries including France, Canada, China and the Republic of Korea. Editor:_ Yan War of the spies as Israel and Hezbollah prepare for confrontation A barrage of rockets at the weekend and the recent arrests of alleged spies_have exposed a deadly covert war waged between the Jewish state and_Hezbollah, Lebanon's militant Shia organisation. Two rockets launched from southern Lebanon on Saturday ruptured an uneasy calm_that had reigned along the border since the month-long conflict between_Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. Only one missile reached Israel, wounding a_woman. Israel responded by fir Even before the flare-up, Hezbollah and Israel had been busy making plans for_what many believe will be an inevitable fresh confrontation. Israel's_efforts focus on penetrating Hezbollah's notoriously tight security to learn_of the group's battle plans an Lebanese newspapers reported last week that an employee of Middle East_Airlines, Lebanon's flag carrier, who went missing nine days ago, allegedly_had links to Israel. Yussef Sader was thought to have been kidnapped on his_way to work at Beirut airport. Two Lebanese newspapers have claimed that Mr Sader is in the custody of_Lebanese military intelligence, although the army denies that it is holding_him. It also emerged last week that another suspected Mossad agent was arrested_when military intelligence officers raided a petrol station near Nabatiyah_in south Lebanon. Marwan Faqih, the owner of the garage, was reportedly_detained by Hezbollah last month He had won the trust of Hezbollah officials in Nabatiyah by donating money to_the organisation's charities and providing cars for Hezbollah. Hezbollah's highly effective counter-intelligence unit is responsible for most_discoveries of Mossad cells in Lebanon. Last November Beirut newspapers_reported the arrest of a Lebanese man who had been spying for Israel since_the early 1980s. The covert war works both ways, with Hezbollah building up a network of_espionage cells in Israel and even recruiting Israeli soldiers. Report: EU may order Microsoft to bundle other browsers The EU hasn't formally stated what it intends to do if Microsoft is found guilty of abusing its monopoly position to drive Internet Explorer's market share, but the unofficial word is that the company may be forced to bundle other Web browsers. In a marke The European Union's antitrust investigation team has released preliminary statements on how it will rule on the question of whether Microsoft abused its __dominant market position to push the adoption of Internet Explorer; the remarks are not encouraging Jonathan Todd, spokesperson for the EU Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes, gave the website Unbiased, in this case, means bundled. Under the proposed penalty, Windows would prompt the user to choose one or more browsers to install and query which __browser should be set as default. This query could occur at first boot (as described), or coul a peek into what the commission is planning in the __event that Microsoft cannot successfully answer the EU's questions. If the Commission's preliminary conclusions as outlined in the recent statement of __objections were confirmed, Todd said, the Comm Technically, there's no reason why this plan wouldn't work. Browser install packages aren't particularly large, the installations tend to be quick (particularly __on a brand-new OS installation where there's nothing to import), and it shouldn't be too har , download updates (or redirect to appropriate update websites) and then exit. Asking users to install a browser of their choice is less complex and more attractive than, say, forcing Microsoft to sell a version of Vista or Windows 7 without a media playe with Internet Explorer. Firefox makes the cut without question, as does Safari, but those three browsers account for 97.37 percent of the browser market according to The problem with the ship your competitor's browser approach is that it requires the EU to define which browers are and aren't considered competitive . If we assume that Marketshare's numbers are at least ballpark-accurate, that other 2.63 percent are split between a number of other options, including Chrome (1.12 percent), Opera (0.57 percent) and Netscape (0.57 percent). Below that, we have other a The EU's proposed remedy could create enormous customer confusion if it isn't deployed carefully, and it runs the risk of harming future browser development. Microsoft may have initially gained market share by taking advantage of its near-monopoly in the NetApplications choices EurActiv Facebook to let users give input on policies NEW YORK (AP) \emdash Facebook is trying its hand at democracy. The fast-growing online hangout, whose more than 175 million worldwide users could form the world's sixth-largest country behind Brazil, said Thursday that those users will play a meaningful role Facebook is trying to recover from last week's policy-change blunder, which prompted tens of thousands to join online protests. At issue was who controls the information, like photos, posts and messages, that people share with their friends on the site. As Facebook becomes an integral part of its users' daily lives, a place to muse about everything from relationships to root canals, they understandably worry about who gets access to their private information and whether it could end up in the wrong hands On Thursday, founder Mark Zuckerberg sought to reassure users that they own their information, not Facebook. And in a broader step, the company also said its users will get a hand in determining the various policies \emdash such as privacy, ownership and sharin If more than 7,000 users comment on any proposed change, it would go to a vote. It would be binding to Facebook if more than 30 percent of active users vote. Based on Facebook's current size, that would be nearly 53 million people. By comparison, a group As people share more information on services like Facebook, a new relationship is created between Internet companies and the people they serve, Zuckerberg said in a statement. The past week reminded us that users feel a real sense of ownership over Fac Zuckerberg said the purpose of Facebook is to make the world more transparent by giving people the power to share information, and as such Facebook itself should be transparent as well. It is unusual, but not entirely unprecedented, for companies to let users help shape their governing policies. LiveJournal, a social diary site that's part blog, part social network, let users share their thoughts on a proposed set of user policies last y Earlier this month, the site quietly updated its terms of use \emdash its governing document \emdash sparking an uproar after popular consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com referred to them as We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever. After tens of thousands protested, Facebook decided to revert to its previous user policies while it figured out how best to update them. The latest controversy was not the first time Facebook angered its users, who have come to expect a sense of privacy even as they share things with friends. From its start as a college students-only site five years ago, Facebook has always billed itself a In late 2007, a tracking tool called Beacon caught users off-guard by broadcasting information about their shopping habits and activities at other Web sites. After initially resisting, the company ultimately allowed users to turn Beacon off. A redesign Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook is privately held. Microsoft Corp. bought a 1.6 percent stake in the company in 2007 for $240 million as part of a broader advertising partnership. Israel's Netanyahu Fails to Bring Moderates into Coalition Two weeks after Israeli elections, negotiations on forming a moderate national unity government have failed to achieve a breakthrough. Israel's hawkish Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu met with his moderate rival, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, but failed to persuade her to bring her Kadima party into a government headed by him. Livni, who has served as chief negotiator with th This meeting has ended without agreements on issues that I see as substantial, Livni said. Mr. Netanyahu opposes the creation of a Palestinian state on grounds that it would threaten Israel's security, but he said he is ready to compromise for the sake of unity. Mr. Netanyahu said he intends to continue peace talks with the Palestinians, though he did not elaborate on what approach he would take. He said a broad unity government is necessary to confront the serious security and economic challenges facing Israel. Without Livni, Mr. Netanyahu may have no choice but to form a right-wing government with smaller parties that support settlement expansion in the West Bank and oppose territorial concessions to the Palestinians. While Mr. Netanyahu may sympathize with those views, that is not the government he wants because it could put Israel on a collision course with the United States, which is hoping to help Israel and the Palestinians forge a peace agreement. How to survive a plane crash Flying may be the safest form of transport, but many of the three million people who take to the air each day are terrified of crashing. Now more than ever, though, it's possible to survive a plane crash. Clinton urges Hamas to end violence as it pursues reconcilation WASHINGTON (AFP) \emdash US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that talks to reconcile Palestinian factions will only produce results if Hamas agrees to recognize Israel and other international terms. Clinton made the remarks as she prepared to travel to the region after Fatah and Hamas agreed Thursday to work together to set up a unity government during Egyptian-sponsored talks aimed at ending factional feuding. In an interview with Voice of America radio that was distributed by the State Department, Clinton backed the idea of Palestinian unity. I believe that it?s important, if there is some reconciliation and a move toward a unified authority, that it?s very clear that Hamas knows the conditions that have been set forth by the quartet, by the Arab summit, she said. With Arab backing, the diplomatic quartet of the United States, the European Union, United Nations and Russia have laid out three conditions that any Palestinian partners in peace talks with Israel must meet. Clinton reiterated those conditions, saying: They must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and abide by previous commitments, such as the Oslo peace accords. Otherwise, I don?t think it will result in the kind of positive step forward either for the Palestinian people or as a vehicle for a reinvigorated effort to obtain peace that leads to a Palestinian state, Clinton said. A State Department official said Clinton and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, which currently holds the presidency of the Group of Eight wealthy nations, backed those conditions during a meeting here Friday. The official told reporters on the condition of anonymity that the two had a mind meld and agreed on the need to send a united message on Hamas after Frattini said some unspecified members of the European Union were willing to yield. The official said President Barack Obama's administration would not deal with any unity government that included a Hamas contingent which rejected the conditions. But he was not ruling out dealing separately with Mahmud Abbas, a Fatah leader who is the president of the US-backed Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, if he ends up heading a unity government with Hamas. He also said that aid for the people in Gaza is very clearly not going to be funnelled through Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and which fought Israel in a three-week war ending in a fragile truce on January 18. Clinton is due Monday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to join an international conference aimed at raising money for the Palestinians to rebuild the war-battered territory. The United States is reportedly ready to contribute 900 million dollars, but Clinton suggested it depends on how well the Palestinians meet the conditions of the quartet. I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted, she told Voice of America. Livni refuses Netanyahu's appeal to join Israeli coalition Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu failed to convince Kadima party Leader Tzipi Livni on Friday to join a unity government, forcing the hawkish Likud party leader to look to right-wing and religious parties to form a coalition. Netanyahu said he offered Livni two top cabinet posts in his government as an equal partner, but was turned down. It is clear that unity requires compromise, said Netanyahu, who was invited by Israeli President Shimon Peres to form a government, despite Livni's centrist Kadima party winning one more seat in this month's general election. I was prepared to go a very long way toward achieving unity. For her party, Livni, who served as Israel's foreign minister under the previous government of outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert, insisted the differences between the two parties following the talks were still too great to overcome. The meeting ended without agreement on issues that I believe to be fundamental for joining this government, she said. Split over peace negotiations Among the issues dividing the two leaders, Livni and Netanyahu have differed greatly in what direction they believe Israel should take in peace talks with the Palestinians. Livni has called upon Netanyahu to announce his support for a two-state solution and the timeframe for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations reached in 2007 at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Md. Two states for two peoples is not an empty slogan \emdash it is the only way Israel can keep its existence as a Jewish, democratic state, Livni said after their meeting. Just as I cannot accept vague statements, neither can the world. This is a matter of principle, not semantics. The U.S.-educated Netanyahu has campaigned against any territorial concessions to the Palestinians and has dismissed the latest round of U.S.-backed negotiations as a waste of time. He said he plans to promote Palestinian economic prosperity instead of st The Feb. 10 election gave 28 seats in the 120-member Knesset to Kadima, while the conservative Likud won 27 seats. Avigdor Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beteinu party had a strong showing, gaining four seats to finish with 15 seats. But ultra-Orthodox parties have in the past refused to sit with secular parties such as Lieberman's Yisrael Beteinu, which calls for reforms in Israel's civilian marriage laws. Lieberman, a potential kingmaker, is even less inclined to support a two-state solution. His party calls for redrawing Israel's borders in a way that would transfer areas with large Arab concentrations into Palestinian jurisdiction. By Milla Harrison BBC Horizon Most people believe that if they're in a plane crash their time is up. In fact the truth is surprisingly different. In the US alone, between 1983 and 2000, there were 568 plane crashes. Out of the collective 53,487 people onboard, 51,207 survived. The advances in science and technology now mean over 90% of plane crashes have survivors. And there are many things you might consider to increase your chances of surviving such as: • how to survive the moment of impact • the life and death decisions you should make during the evacuation • what to do if there is a fire onboard • how to survive if your plane ditches into water • statistically where you should sit to increase your chances of surviving. World leading aviation safety expert Professor Ed Galea, of the University of Greenwich, has studied over 2,000 survivor reports and compiled a unique database. The important thing is to get your upper torso down as much as possible Tom Barth Surviving an aircraft crash is not a matter of fate. You can help yourself getting out of an aircraft quickly, and so there are things you can do to improve your chances of surviving, says Professor Galea. He has discovered what all these survivors were doing that got them off the plane alive and his findings are extraordinary. Time and time again many of the passengers struggled to undo their seatbelts. People tend to try and press a button on the seatbelt because in this emergency situation, they revert to normal behaviour. And what's normal behaviour for most people? Well, they experience a seatbelt in their car and in their car, it's a push-button sy This seat belt is different to what's in your car; it's a latch that you've got to pull. If your plane is about to crash, you may be told to adopt the brace position - an important step, says Tom Barth from AmSafe Aviation, an expert in how to survive an impact. The brace position is a position that will offer you the best chance to survive in a crash because it stops you from flying forward and striking the seat or interior in front of you, says Mr Barth. The important thing is to get your upper torso down as much as possible, limiting the 'jackknife' effect from impact forces. His team in Phoenix, Arizona, has developed the first airbag ever to be put onboard commercial aviation seats. It's a technology that has saved thousands of lives every year in the car industry and he's hoping it will do the same in the aviation world. It Look around you and see where your nearest cabin crew are - they'll tell you what to do Helen Muir The airbag is folded up in the seatbelt itself and deploys away from the occupant, making it safe for children and adults. The airbags inflate very rapidly in about 30 milliseconds, which is much faster than you can blink your eye. Many plane crashes have a post-crash fire but it's not the flames that are likely to kill you, it's the toxic smoke. Smoke onboard is lethal; in just a few breaths you can pass out. And if you had to evacuate in smoke, finding your exit is very difficult. But there is one simple step you can take which could increase your chances of getting off in the presence of smoke, says Professor Galea. I count the seat rows from my seating position to the exit. So in the event of smoke or if emergency lighting fails and it's very dark, I know the number of seat rows and I can feel my way to an exit. By counting the seat backs I'll know when I've reache Professor Helen Muir, of Cranfield University, who studies the behaviour of passengers during evacuations, believes how you behave in those last few minutes can make the difference between life and death. She has her own one simple step suggestion. If you want to survive an aircraft accident, even though they're very infrequent, every time you get on an aeroplane you want to sit down and then make a plan, she says. In other words, look around you and see where your nearest cabin crew are, because they're the people who will tell you what to do and will make a huge difference. Then look where your nearest exits are, both in front, behind and across, and work out how But what about the one question that everyone wants to know - the Holy Grail in aviation safety is where to sit on a plane to increase your chances of staying alive? Mercedes Johnson survived the American Airlines Flight 965 which crashed into a Colombian mountain in 1995. Out of 159 onboard, only four lived and Ms Johnson believes where she sat played a role in her survival. The location where we were sitting was over the wing which was near the exit row and I've heard on numerous occasions that those rows are one of the safest areas to sit in because it's the most reinforced with metal, says Ms Johnson. But sitting over the wings isn't always the best place, because you don't know how your plane is going to crash. I'm often asked, 'well, where should I sit in an aircraft to have the best chance of surviving?' says Ms Muir, and, sadly, I haven't got a good answer. They're unpredictable events, so you never know whether it's going to be a crash landing or whether you're going to have a fire in one of the engines. And this means you can't say where's the best place to sit. Horizon: Survivors Guide to Plane Crashes is on BBC Two at 2100 BST on Tuesday 3 October. Watch video highlights at I felt like I was on a or something In the Aftermath of Gaza, Hamas Becomes Harder to Ignore Andrew Lee Butters When Senator John Kerry visited Gaza last week, he made certain to emphasize that he had no contact with Hamas, and demanded that the militants stop firing rockets into Israel. Still, Kerry's visit \emdash one of the first to the coastal strip by an American Of more concern to Israel, perhaps, is the fact that Kerry's visit highlighted the crumbling of the U.S. and Israeli effort to isolate Hamas inside its Gaza ghetto. Not only did the Islamist organization survive the Israeli incursion aimed at smashing its mop up what remains of its rival Fatah movement in Gaza. And as the international effort to rebuild Gaza gathers momentum, it confronts the inescapable political fact that nothing can be done in Gaza without the consent and cooperation of Hamas , which remains firmly in control of the territory. Like Kerry, a growing cadre of politicians and statesman \emdash most recently, E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Friday \emdash have visited Hamas-controlled Gaza to survey the wreckage. And while most wil View images of life under Hamas in Gaza Hamas isn't invited to the Gaza aid conference set for the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, but its control of the territory is an inescapable fact for those attending, including Secretary of State Clinton. Although the U.S. insists tha reconciliations talks between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo. Egypt's hostility to Hamas has not diminished, but Egyptian leaders have recognized that the organization is an intractable political fact in Gaza. And the purpose of the unity talks, to which both sides have agreed, is the creation of a nationa On Thursday, a group of former senior diplomats issued a public call on the U.S. and Israel to engage Hamas. Whether we like it or not, Hamas will not go away, wrote the group , which included Israel's chief negotiator at the Camp David talks, former fo Indeed, the brutal reality laid bare in the aftermath of Gaza is that it is Fatah \emdash the longtime ruling party of the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose moderate leadership is backed by the U.S. \emdash rather than Hamas that may be headed the way of the D Related Rift Between Hamas and Fatah Grows After Gaza Israel and Hamas Prepare for the Next Gaza War More Related The Gaza Strip Hamas Victory a Blow to U.S. Policy Abbas Moves, Too Late to Save Gaza Palestinians walk past the rubble of a building in the devastated area east of Jabaliya in the northern of Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009. Amenhotep III statue rises again One of Egypt\rquote s most noted Pharaohs is once more standing tall and looking out_across the Nile Valley, by the efforts of an international team and a little_help from the British Museum. A colossal statue of Amenhotep III,_grandfather of Tutankhamun and rul The red quartzite statue, one of a set that stood around the courtyard of his_funerary temple at Kom el-Hettan, near Luxor, fell centuries ago. In the_early 19th century the British collector Henry Salt acquired its head,_together with a second head from The statue was one of a set that stood on the north side of the peristyle_court of the temple, and shows Amenhotep III (reigned 1386-49BC) wearing the_red crown of Lower Egypt. The south side of the court had similar statues,_but wearing the white crown o The raw material for the northern statues came from Gebel el-Akmar in northern_Egypt, that for the southern ones from the red granite quarries of Aswan in_the far south. Both types showed Amenhotep III with arms crossed and holding the insignia of_rulership. \ldblquote Since the start of our work at the temple we have collected and grouped large_parts of the torsos with thousands of smaller fragments,\rdblquote Dr Hourig_Sourouzian, of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, reports in Egyptian_Archaeology. \ldblquote In 2008 we added parts of Michael Nielson, of the British Museum, made the replica head, which was then_transported to Egypt and repositioned on top of the restored torso with the_permission of the Egyptian authorities. The project, which has already_assembled large portions of ot (AFP) Amenhotep III Special court opens to prosecute Hariri assassination suspects An international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the slaying of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri opened in the Netherlands on Sunday with officials observing a moment of silence. Those attending the tribunal's inauguration ceremony, in Leidschendam outside The Hague, paused to reflect on the deaths of Hariri and 22 others in a February 2005 suicide bombing in Beirut. A small group of Lebanese gathered outside the Special Court for Lebanon to show their support. One of them waved a small piece of paper bearing the words Thank you Holland, written in Dutch. Four pro-Syrian generals are being held in custody in Lebanon in connection with the truck bombing. None of them has been charged formally with Hariri's murder. Canadian Daniel Bellemare, the court prosecutor, said Sunday in a television interview that he expects to ask within weeks for Lebanon to hand over the generals to the court. The request, will be made as soon as possible, Bellemare told pan-Arab al-Arabiya satellite TV channel. I have no reasons to believe that the Lebanese authorities will not respond in a timely fashion to the request, he added. Lebanon's justice minister, Ibrahim Najjar, has said Lebanon will co-operate fully with the UN tribunal. In a letter published in Lebanese papers on Saturday, Bellemare said the tribunal is committed to help the people of Lebanon find the truth. We will not be deterred by the obstacles or the size of the challenge. We are persistent. We will go wherever the evidence leads us. We will leave no stone unturned, he wrote. 'If you commit a crime, you will pay the price' In an exclusive interview with the CBC's Nahlah Ayed, Bellemare spoke about the challenges he faced during more than a year in Lebanon acting as the chief UN investigator in the Hariri case, including constant concerns about his security. I think that to put an end to impunity, to allow the Lebanese people to believe in a system of justice that, if you commit a crime, you will pay the price, I think this is an ideal that's worth fighting for, he said. The court was set up by the UN Security Council in 2007 and comprises both foreign and Lebanese judges. It is based in the Netherlands to ensure the safety of staff and an impartial trial. It will have four Lebanese and seven international judges and will use Lebanese law. The court does not have power to use the death penalty. As prime minister, Hariri, a billionaire businessman, was credited with rebuilding downtown Beirut after the 1975-90 civil war, and with trying to limit Syria's influence. Many in Lebanon believe Syria was behind the assassination, although Damascus denies any involvement. After the assassination, mass street protests in Lebanon and international pressure forced Syria to withdraw its troops from its neighbour after a 29-year presence. With files from the Associated Press Atletico and Barca play out classic Atletico Madrid did arch rivals Real Madrid a huge favour after claiming a stunning comeback victory over Primera Liga leaders Barcelona on Sunday night in a breathtaking encounter at the Vicente Calderon. Atletico fought back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 before Sergio Aguero pounced in the 89th minute to earn the Rojiblancos an unlikely victory and leave Barca with just a four-point lead at the summit. Barca, who had beaten Atletico three times already this season in league and cup - including a 6-1 hammering at the Nou Camp, had been 12 points ahead of Madrid a fortnight ago but they now have a real fight on their hands. It was a frenetic start to the match with Atletico going close through Aguero and having a John Heitinga goal ruled out for a marginal offside, while Barca striker Samuel Eto'o was denied by Leo Franco at the other end following some sloppy defending. All that was in the opening six minutes and although the game settled down a bit, it was no real surprise to see the deadlock broken early on as Barca took an 18th-minute lead through Thierry Henry. The ball fell kindly to the Frenchman on the edge of the area and his first-time shot curled over Leo Franco and into the far top corner of the net. That goal came against the run of play, and it was to get worse for Atletico 12 minutes later when Lionel Messi made it 2-0 after dancing through the home defence and coolly sliding the ball home. In the space of a dozen minutes all the early enthusiasm and belief appeared to have been sucked out of both the Atleti team and the capacity crowd, who must have been fearing another heavy defeat at the hands of the Catalan team. However, a stunning strike from Diego Forlan two minutes later set the stadium rocking again as the Uruguayan's 25-yard shot out of nothing flew into the far corner of the net with Victor Valdes barely moving. Atletico then laid siege to the Barca goal and Simao and Aguero both tested Valdes while Maxi Rodriguez drilled a shot wide. Barca were not without their chances either though and Eidur Gudjohnsen and Messi both missed great opportunities to make it 3-1 towards the end of the half. It was a hugely entertaining opening 45 minutes and, after a low-key start, the second period followed suit with chances galore. Eto'o had a decent opening in the 53rd minute when he was put through on goal but he sliced his shot high and wide, and that proved to be a costly miss as 60 seconds later Atletico were level. Barca centre-back Rafael Marquez failed to deal with a ball forward and Aguero took advantage to fire a low shot past Valdes. Atletico, who had won only once in 11 competitive matches in 2009 prior to this match, then enjoyed a one-sided 20-minute spell that saw Forlan (twice) and Aguero go close. Barca weathered the storm though and, once again against the run of play, re-took the lead in the 72nd minute through Henry. Gudjohnsen broke the Atletico offside trap and drew out Leo Franco before unselfishly laying the ball across to Henry who tapped into an empty net. The pendulum had now swung back Barca's way and Eto'o came close to making it 4-2 only to be denied by Leo Franco before Messi put the rebound wide. Atletico refused to roll over, though, and they were handed a chance to get back on level terms when they were awarded a penalty after Florent Sinama Pongolle was sent crashing after trying to get on the end of a cross. The referee initially chose not to give the kick but he changed his mind seemingly on advice from his assistant and Forlan ensured the opportunity was not spurned, firing his kick to the right of Valdes. That was not the end of the drama though as Atletico still manage to summon up a late winner. Carles Puyol failed to clear the danger and Aguero pounced to drill home a low shot, sparking wild scenes at both the Vicente Calderon and no doubt at the Bernabeu as well. That was not the end of the drama though as Atletico somehow managed to summon up a late winner. In the space of a dozen minutes all the early enthusiasm and belief appeared to have been sucked out of both the Atletico team and the capacity crowd, who must have been fearing another heavy defeat at the hands of the Catalan side. Sophos stops new version of Koobface social networking worm Our friends at Trend Micro are in the news today talking about a new variant of the Koobface worm which is capable of spreading via Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and other social networking sites. It's the typical fare - a message apparently sent by a friend of yours on the social networking site invites you to check out a video. However, when you click on the link you are taken to a website posing as YouTube that encourages you to download an upd Of course, that downloaded file is in fact a Trojan horse. Sophos proactively detects it as without requiring an update. What's perhaps more interesting to me is that in an interview with the BBC today, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says that they will not be introducing a system of vetting before allowing third-party applications to be added to the site. This news comes in the wake of incidents we have seen in the last week or two where third-party Facebook applications like Error Check System F a c e b o o k -- closing down !!! have used underhand tactics to gain users and access to individuals' profiles. I think it's a little impractical to expect Facebook to check every single application that its users upload to its site, in the hope that they might uncover some mischievousness, but that doesn't mean Facebook should do nothing. My proposal would be that Facebook application developers would need to jump through several hoops before they were approved to unleash their applications on the networks' 150 million plus users. The first thing would be that anyone wanting to write a Facebook application would have to their identity and contact details. Yes, you heard me - not just an email address! And then they sign an agreement with Facebook, accepting their terms and conditions, before they can become an authorised Facebook third-party developer. After all, I remember writing an application for Facebook as an experiment and was amazed that within minutes it was available for the whole world to run, without Facebook having to know anything about me other than a webmail address. You could even stagger roll-outs. So, if you are a brand new third party developer on Facebook your application is only available to x% of users for the first y% of days, and slowly the percentage of people who can run your application slowly builds up. My suspicion is that an authorised developer system would have other benefits besides giving the authorities more of a trail when an app goes bad - it could also perhaps improve the quality of the average Facebook app! Olmert threatens strong response to Gaza rockets By MATTI FRIEDMAN \endash JERUSALEM (AP) \emdash Israel's prime minister threatened uncompromising retaliation against Gaza militants Sunday as Palestinian rocket fire persists six weeks after Israeli forces halted an offensive meant to end the attacks. Ehud Olmert met with his Cabinet to decide how to respond now that it appears clear that the goal of ending the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip was not achieved. The military says Palestinians have launched over 110 rockets and mortar shells at Israel since the offensive ended Jan. 18. Many Israelis believe the Gaza operation ended too soon, leaving Hamas in power in Gaza and seemingly undaunted, and the continuing rocket fire has brought renewed calls for tougher military action. If the rocket fire from Gaza continues, it will be answered with a painful, harsh, strong and uncompromising response from the security forces, Olmert said, speaking at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Israel and Hamas have failed so far to reach a long-term truce through Egyptian mediation, and sporadic violence has persisted. So far, Israel has responded to the near-daily rocket fire by striking smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border through which Hamas has smuggled some of its weaponry. The heightened possibility of renewed hostilities in Gaza came ahead of a week of intense \emdash and possibly crucial \emdash diplomatic activity. Monday will see top diplomats from around the world convene in Egypt for an international conference on the strip's reconstruction, with the Palestinians seeking $2.8 billion in aid to repair the devastation left by the Israeli offensive. A string of high-profile foreign visitors has visited Gaza since the offensive, in a sign of increasing international involvement in the long-isolated territory. Former British prime minister Tony Blair, currently an international Mideast envoy, was touri Last week European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana made his first visit to the territory since Hamas' 2007 takeover there, and U.S. Senator John Kerry toured Gaza the week before. International aid will not be able to move ahead without a firm truce between Israel and Hamas but the Egyptian-mediated talks between the sides have yielded no results so far. Hamas wants Israel to open Gaza's blockaded border crossings, without which any major rebuilding will be impossible. Israel says it will do so only after Hamas releases an Israeli soldier it has held since 2006. Another stumbling block is the feud between Hamas and the more moderate West Bank-based government of President Mahmoud Abbas. Most of the international community shuns Hamas as a terrorist organization and will not funnel aid through the group, preferring instead to deal with Abbas. The billions of dollars in donor funds hanging in the balance have served to spur new talks between the two Palestinian factions in an attempt to reach a power-sharing agreement. Those talks are currently under way in Cairo. Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement have been at odds for years, a spat that culminated in Hamas' bloody rout of Fatah in Gaza and its takeover of the territory. The new U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is making her first Mideast visit to attend the Gaza donors' conference, at which the U.S. is expected to pledge $900 million. She will then continue to Israel and the West Bank. Clinton will arrive in Israel at a time of political uncertainty. Olmert is currently a caretaker prime minister in the aftermath of last month's national election, which saw gains by hard-line parties and marked the end of the road for Olmert's governmen His replacement will be Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the hard-line Likud Party, who is trying to cobble together a new coalition \emdash one that might set him up for a clash with Clinton and the U.S. administration. Netanyahu has tried to convince his centrist rival, Tzipi Livni, to join him in a broad coalition. But with Netanyahu unwilling to support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Livni has said she will stay out, leaving Netanyahu with no option but to rule with a narrow alliance of hard-line and Orthodox Jewish parties opposed to si Guinea-Bissau factfile: drugs, guns and slaves Carnival celebrations and gumbe music are rare distractions from poverty and bloodshed in the small west African country Jenny Booth The tiny, low-lying republic of Guinea-Bissau on the West African coast has_become an important conduit for South American cocaine smuggled via Africa_to Europe. The cocaine trade generates more than 10 times its gross domestic product. The_UN Office on Drugs Crime says it has the worst drug-trafficking problem in_Africa and is in danger of becoming a 'narco-state' - a country whose_politics and economy are domina Ethnically diverse, with many distinct languages and cultures amongs its mere_1.6m population, in ancient times Guinea-Bissau was part of the kingdom of_Gabu in the Mali empire. Its Bolama archipelago is one of the few places in_the world run by a matriar During its days as a Portuguese colony it was known as Portuguese Guinea. Its_other nickname came from its main economic activity - the Slave Coast. Tribal rulers, made rich and powerful by the slave trade, confined European_colonists to the fortified settlements along the swampy coastline where_trading took place. In 1956 the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde_(PAIGC) began a rebellion against Portuguese rule, and backed by arms from_Cuba, China and the Soviet Union soon controlled most of the savanna_interior. The independence war wrecked Guinea-Bissau's legitimate economy, which still_depends mainly on farming, fishing, and the export of ground nuts and_cashews. The PAIGC declared independence in 1973 and a revolutionary council took_charge. Portugal, distracted by a military coup at home in 1974, made little_effort to hang on to its former colony, and hundreds of thousands of local_troops who had fought alongsid In 1980 Joao Bernardo Vieira took power in a bloodless coup within the PAIGC. Mr Vieira was elected president during Guinea-Bissau's first multi-party_elections in 1994, but in 1998 - after 19 years in power - he was ousted in_a bloody army uprising and civil war broke out. Kumba Iala became president after fresh elections in 2000, but he was arrested_and deposed by the army in September 2003. Generals accused him of being unable_to solve the problems. In 2005, after a year of uprisings, mutinies and abortive elections, Mr Vieira_was returned to power in a fresh poll. During parliamentary elections in 2008 Mr Iala accused Mr Vieira of being the_country's biggest drug trafficker. On November 23 2008, dissident soldiers fought their way into the presidential_palace in a three hour gun-battle, but did not reach the room where Mr_Vieira was hiding. U.S. Pulling Out of \lquote Durban II\rquote Conference Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA)\emdash The Obama administration has decided to boycott the so-called Durban II conference out of concerns for anti-Semitism. Multiple sources on a conference call with the White House on Friday told JTA that the Obama administration had opted not to attend any further preparatory meetings ahead of the planned U.N. conference against racism in Geneva in April. The conference reprises the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa that devolved into an anti-Jewish free-for-all. Canada and Israel have opted not to attend the conference, and some U.S. Jewish groups had been pressing the United States to do the same. Preparations for a draft document so far have seen Iran leading a coterie of nations blocking inclusion of anything that might guarantee Jewish protections \endash including mention of the Holocaust \endash while inserting draconian language guarding Islam against \ldblquote i The State Department sent a delegation, including a senior staffer from the American Jewish Committee, to this month\rquote s preparatory talks. The delegation\rquote s conclusions were that the anti-Israel and anti-Western tendencies were too deeply entrenched to exci Now that the United States is withdrawing from the conference, European nations are expected to follow. Speaking for the White House on Friday\rquote s call were Samantha Power and James Warlick, who handle international organizations for, respectively, the national security council and the State Department; and Jennifer Simon, an adviser to Susan Rice, the U.S. e Bashir arrest 'to be outside Sudan' The International Criminal Court prosecutor has said that if judges issue an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, he will be arrested soon after he leaves the country. As soon as Bashir flies outside of Sudan he could be arrested, Luis Moreno Ocampo, who is seeking to prosecute al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide in the western Sudanese\~province of Darfur, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. There is no immunity from international law. Ocampo\~said\~that no one will try to arrest Mr Bashir in Sudan, although he said that international law would require the Sudanese government to act if an arrest warrant was issued. The ICC is expected to announce its decision on Wednesday. Al-Bashir has dismissed the charges against him and refuses to recognise the ICC. UN officials say that as many as 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict since 2003, while Khartoum says only 10,000 have died. A further 2.7 million people are estimated to have been uprooted by the conflict, which began when mostly non-Arab fighters took up arms against the government, demanding better representation and infrastructure for their region. Braced for backlash In Sudan, Alain Le Roy,\~the head of UN peacekeeping operations,\~said that\~UN forces were preparing for possible violence if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, but that he did not expect UN forces to be targeted. We have contingency planning to try to react to any situation,\~he said on Monday. Le Roy\~said\~that the two UN missions in Sudan\~-\~one in Darfur and the other monitoring\~a 2005 north-south peace deal -\~would neither move nor change their normal patrolling activities whatever the ICC judges ruled. We have contingency planning to try to react to any situation, he said. A decision which might affect the president of the country might have an effect on the ground, so it's important for us to be ready to answer ... We'll have to see how we'll react. I cannot give you the detail of what we are going to do, he said. Neither of the UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan have\~a mandate to arrest al-Bashir, Le Roy said. But one of Darfur's main rebel groups has offered to assist any arrest effort. Bashir must go before the ICC, whether voluntarily or against his will, Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said. 'Violence and crime' Ibrahim has accused Sudan's government of planning riots if ICC issues an arrest warrant, and said that his group would respond to any government orchestrated violence. They are planning demonstrations ... I expect there may be violence and crime. I warn the government that any such action will be met with counter-measures, even in Khartoum. Violence will be met with violence, Ibrahim said. Any loss of lives or property is their responsibility. China, the African Union and the Arab League have warned it could destabilise the region and threaten a troubled peace deal between north Sudan and the semi-autonomous south. Foreign ministers for Arab countries\~will discuss their possible response\~to an arrest warrant\~for al-Bashir at a meeting in Cairo. Some Western embassies have warned their citizens of the potential for violent protests if al-Bashir is charged. I warn the government that any such action will be met with counter-measures, even in Khartoum. Violence will be met with violence Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement to arrest al-Bashir if a warrant is issued [EPA] The\~UN\~missions in Sudan\~do not have a mandate As soon as Bashir flies outside of Sudan he could be arrested, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who is seeking to prosecute al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide in the western Sudanese\~province of Darfur, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. Moreno-Ocampo\~said\~that no one will try to arrest Mr Bashir in Sudan, although he said that international law would require the Sudanese government to act if an arrest warrant was issued. The decision of the judges is set to be announced at 1300 GMT at\~a press conference in The Hague, the seat of the court. If the warrant is granted and an arrest carried out, the\~ 65-year-old al-Bashir would become the first head of state to be hauled\~ before the ICC since the court opened its doors in 2002. Strong evidence Moreno-Ocampo also told reporters that strong evidence had been compiled against al-Bashir. We have strong evidence against Bashir,\~he said. Indonesia's economy and the election The president has quite a good crisis Will Africa Let Sudan Off the Hook? (Desmond Tutu) It\rquote s worth remembering that more than 20 African countries were among the founders of the International Criminal Court, and of the 108 nations that joined the court, 30 are in Africa. That the court\rquote s four active investigations are all in Africa is not be Source: New York Times opinion piece by Desmond Tutu March 2, 2009: Will Africa Let Sudan Off the Hook? (Cape Town) The expected issuance of an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan by the International Criminal Court tomorrow presents a stark choice for African leaders \emdash are they on the side of justice or on the side of injustice? Are Because the victims in Sudan are African, African leaders should be the staunchest supporters of efforts to see perpetrators brought to account. Yet rather than stand by those who have suffered in Darfur, African leaders have so far rallied behind the man In response to news last July that Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court\rquote s chief prosecutor, was seeking an arrest warrant for President Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the African Union issued a communiqué to the United Nations Secur More recently, the Group of 77, an influential organization at the United Nations consisting of 130 developing states and including nearly every African country, gave Sudan its chairmanship. The victory came after African members endorsed Sudan\rquote s candidac I regret that the charges against President Bashir are being used to stir up the sentiment that the justice system \emdash and in particular, the international court \emdash is biased against Africa. Justice is in the interest of victims, and the victims of these cri African leaders argue that the court\rquote s action will impede efforts to promote peace in Darfur. However, there can be no real peace and security until justice is enjoyed by the inhabitants of the land. There is no peace precisely because there has been no j The issuance of an arrest warrant for President Bashir would be an extraordinary moment for the people of Sudan \emdash and for those around the world who have come to doubt that powerful people and governments can be called to account for inhumane acts. Africa Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. For Art\rquote s Sake: the Arabesque Arts\~Festival Posted by Yusra in Art/Theater All week, all I and my Arab and Arab-friendly friends (fellow Near Eastern studies graduates) have been talking about is Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World , being held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.\~ It is the largest congregation of Arab artists ever. As a new Washington, D.C. resident, my status as an expatriate is two-fold: I\rquote m not only an Arab outside ancestral terrain, but I\rquote m far away from my niche, far away from the Arab household I was raised in and the community I grew up around. Needless to sa ) some falafel-flavored conversations (spicy) and Kunafah-esque affirmations. Give me some Arabesque! hukrun , Kennedy Center! , \~ features 800 artists from around the Arab world: actors, dancers, musicians, writers, filmmakers, etc. Finally,\~ a diverse representation\~ of Arab culture! Finally, Arab women celebrating their own talent! Finally, Arabs in America as artists boasting , our calligraphy; these are our own Arab men and women succeeding together. As points out, this is huge! Diwan The three-week festival, presented in cooperation with The Washington City Paper Local Washington, D.C. papers like gave some love. Check out their of two Bahraini girls playing the \lquote oud (pictured right). It\rquote s short, but sometimes shorter is sweeter\endash and more effective. The headline reads, \ldblquote Arabesque Festival Starts off with Grrl Power.\rdblquote Without even reading the article, you\rquote ve already connected the w , another local paper, calls the art a cultural treasure, which shows that, contrary to other media accounts of death and destruction and intolerance in the Middle East, its people really do value art, and are concerned with preserving its significance in The Examiner . My Google search only returned a To my surprise and disappointment, I found nothing at article from 2008, which only mentions the festival in general terms of the Kennedy Center\rquote s upcoming season.\~ I thought for sure Al Jazeera would have a full-length preview at least, but I found no reports even mentioning the festival. Only did. One of the most detailed articles was a was circulated in a couple papers. It\rquote s good, but I was expecting more articles previewing the individual artists. Afterall, this is the largest congregation of Arab artists the world has ever seen, Associated Press article . There are 800 of them, instead of lumping their work together under the scope of the festival, I would have preferred to see a few individual profile pieces. Like the piece with the female Bahraini \lquote oud musicians, only longer. with Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser from The Online News Hour at PBS. Mr. Kaiser says it\rquote s not just about the art: \ldblquote I believe that this festival is going to help people to understand Arab people, to understand their aesthetic tastes, to understand their hospitality and their generosity and their passion, and we\rquote ll start to understand them not just as political beings, The Post had it on their front page of their online website, I\rquote m not sure if it was on the physical paper. The Examiner is usually strong anti-Arab/Muslim, I\rquote m surprised they carried any coverage. I wish I had been back home and seen this! I had no idea the Examiner hated my kind :d. I couldn\rquote t tell they had any political slant actually, but then again I don\rquote t really read it. DANCE: 'Arabesque' immersion Festival's first week mostly fine Jean Battey Lewis 's wide-ranging Arab arts festival \emdash with dance, drama, song, acrobatics, whirling dervishes, slapstick, oud players, a children's choir and hip-hop artists all offered in just the first of its three weeks \emdash is a savory feast of performing arts from throu One of the most dramatic sights was Friday evening's Millennium Stage performance by Somali-born hip-hop artist K'Naan. The crowd, the most closely packed I've seen there, stretched all the way down the Great Hall. Under the spell of his rhythmic poetry, Three nights earlier, a radiant performance of Byzantine, Muslim and Arab songs by the Al-Farah Syrian children's choir (all ages; most looked to be early to midteens) was captivating. Though part of the center's free year-round Millennium Stage program, When it came to the ticketed performances of the festival, called Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World, there was more of a mixed bag. There's an element of chance in choosing what to see and hear among these mostly unfamiliar works. Sometimes it comes a cropper, as did something Friday night billed as a dance performance with whirling dervishes. Three whirling dervishes made a brief app There was plenty to digest in the other two dance events last week. A Moroccan group, Cie2k_far Contemporary Dance Company, springs from a witty and sophisticated urban sensibility with lots of non-sequiturs. At the same time, this group can be childlike, with all sorts of silly sight gags. The four male dancers have a re UAE introduces Arabic domain names Vineetha Menon on Monday, 02 March 2009 The United Arab Emirates will now allow Arabic domain names for websites, which was previously restricted to using only English characters. The proposal was put across by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority as part of a national strategy to manage Arabic language on the internet. It was officially approved by the Ministerial Council for Services yesterday and will pave the way for fut Presently, most websites in the country use the \lquote .ae\rquote English domain address, which is regulated by the TRA's .aeDA department that was established in 2007. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) extended top-level domain names in July last year, approving the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) written in Arabic and Chinese scripts. According to national news agency WAM, the decision to introduce Arabic domain names will \ldblquote contribute to increasing the number of surfers to Arabic sites and further promote and strengthen the UAE's identity.\rdblquote ICC charges Sudan president with war crimes Protesters demonstrate outside the Sudanese embassy in central London today. Members of the Darfur community gathered to remember the victims of crimes committed in Darfur. The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, accusing him of 'intentionally directed attacks against . . . the civilian population of Darfur.' By Edmund Sanders March 5, 2009 Reporting from Khartoum, Sudan -- _In a challenge to one of Africa's most defiant strongmen, the International Criminal Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president on charges of war crimes in Darfur, a quest for justice that immediat A three-judge panel found that President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir intentionally directed attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of Within minutes of the court's announcement, thousands of Bashir supporters poured into the streets of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, carrying banners condemning the U.S. and ICC. About the same time in Darfur, several displacement camps erupted in celebrations, despite a strong show of force earlier in the day by Sudanese soldiers, United Nations officials said. Government officials reiterated their refusal to turn over Bashir to the court, which they consider a tool of the U.S. and Europe. We will not be humiliated by the international community, said Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein. This is just another attempt to destroy Sudan. Experts said the court's legal action could result in renewed bloodshed in the country and further interfere with efforts to stop the violence and suffering in Darfur. Several humanitarian organizations said after the announcement that the Sudanese govern U.N. agencies and foreign embassies in Sudan remained on high alert amid rumors that militias, both for and against the government, might use the announcement as an opportunity to attack foreigners or government institutions. Bashir was expected to address the country at a giant rally this morning. In the much-anticipated ruling, ICC judges accused Bashir of seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from his government's counterinsurgency campaign in the nation's western region of Darfur. Charges of genocide -- which the U.S. alleges has taken place in Darfur -- were dropped by the judges for lack of evidence. According to the court, 35,000 people were killed in Darfur and at least an additional 100,000 died from disease and starvation. Mo The United States is not a signatory to the ICC, but State Department officials said the arrest warrant can be a helpful step in resolving the crisis. The Obama administration urged restraint by all parties to avoid further violence. A spokesman said President Obama supports efforts to help displaced people. Human rights activists heralded the ICC decision as a victory against impunity. This message should be heard loudly and clearly around the globe: If you kill, maim and rape your own citizens, there will be a cost, said John Norris, executive director of the anti-genocide group Enough Project. There was no consensus on whether Bashir would be damaged, or strengthened, by the charges. Bashir will keep his job, predicted Eltayeb Hag Ateya of the Peace Studies Institute in Khartoum, because Sudan's ruling party is unprepared to select a replacement and many worry the country could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists or the military Bashir will not be able to continue as a normal president for long, Ateya said. He'll become a burden to everyone around him and this will snowball, leaving him crippled. The real issue is not Bashir, Ateya said. It's the succession question. U.S. and European officials are hoping the warrant will either force Bashir to make reforms or drive him from power. But political experts here say such hopes are misplaced. It's wishful thinking, said Alfred Taban, editor of an opposition newspaper. If anything, the ICC is going to entrench Bashir rather than weaken him. On Tuesday, Bashir, 65, who seized power in a 1989 coup, struck a defiant tone at the opening of the $2-billion Merowe Dam, which he boasted was built without help from the Western world. Dancing, smiling and waving his walking stick, Bashir said the inte His government has silenced most opponents, either through payoffs or intimidation, diplomats said. The ICC has also stirred nationalist and anti-Western sentiments, with many Sudanese, even those against Bashir, viewing the case as an attack on the count The only political party strong enough to challenge Bashir's power is the former southern rebel army, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which thus far is supporting the president. That's largely because southerners worry that Bashir's arrest or repl Bashir is also benefiting from a divided international community. Russia, China and many Arab and African countries have called upon the U.N. Security Council to defer the ICC case for a year to give peace talks more time in Darfur. The U.S., France and B African Union Chairman Jean Ping said Wednesday that he was deeply concerned about the arrest warrant's effect on regional stability. Egyptian officials called for an immediate Security Council meeting to halt the case. Some African countries are report African leaders have been voicing growing concern over the fact that all four current ICC cases involve African countries: Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Critics have dubbed the ICC the African Criminal Where was international justice during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing of Gaza, and the crimes committed in the prisons of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib? Bashir said last weekend during a rally in Khartoum. Blairon said the ICC is investigating cases involving Colombia, the Palestinian territories, Georgia and Afghanistan, but that the initial cases have focused on Africa because African governments were the first to refer their cases to the court. It's not The quality of the ICC's work has also come under scrutiny. Last year a Congolese defendant was almost freed after a judge ruled prosecutors had withheld evidence. In another case, a key prosecution witness recanted his testimony during his first day on t ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said this week that he has strong evidence against Bashir, including dozens of witnesses. But Sudanese expert Alex de Waal, a program director with the nonprofit Social Science Research Council, issued a scathing critique of Moreno-Ocampo's evidence, citing a pattern of mistakes and flawed legal theories. He said there's a strong case to be ma De Waal said the case, particularly the genocide charges that the judges threw out, would be completely shredded by a good defense counsel. It's a very poorly put together case. Paul Richter of our Washington bureau contributed to this report. Bulldozer driver's relatives: It was accident; Police: It wasn't Relatives and neighbors of Beit Hanina resident Mar'i al-Rdaidah insist that the 26-year-old freelance construction worker did not intend to commit a terrorist attack when he was called to a job Thursday afternoon. He went to make a living for the children in his extended family, said his uncle Amin Mahmoud al-Rdaidah, 33, from a home where more than 20 male relatives gathered late Thursday evening to pay their condolences at the uncle's house on the outskirts of Al-Rdaidah, who had a West Bank ID and was not allowed to cross into West Jerusalem, simply had a car accident, they said. One of his neighbors suggested that the incident may have happened after he panicked from seeing police in the area. He was not political or anything. He didn't even deal with these kind of things, his uncle said. It was a car accident and nothing more. The family is originally from the West Bank village of Abadiya, near Bethlehem, but they had lived in Beit Hanina for about 40 years, he added, insisting that the family was not interested in political affairs. But Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said there is no doubt that al-Rdaidah clearly, intentionally rammed [the bulldozer] into the police car and tried to slam that police car afterwards onto a bus. Police obtained footage of the incident, which was captured on closed-circuit television. It was very clear the intentions of the terrorist and the motives, Rosenfeld said, noting the attack was about 500 meters from the largest mall in Jerusalem. Police took the suspected attacker's wife, his father, another uncle, and two brothers into questioning on Thursday, the uncle said. The suspect had one son, who is a year-and-a-half old. He loved all of us... He loved his neighbors. He loved people. It's normal, al-Rdaidah's uncle said. Neighbor Khaled al-Natshe agreed, saying al-Rdaidah didn't have any nationalistic inclination. He became slightly annoyed and reprimanded a reporter who asked several guests whether they believed it was an attack or an accident. You can see the modest situation they were living in, he said. He is a man who went to work, came back from work... he was in an accident. The bulldozer used by the terrorist in attack on police car on Golomb Road near Malha, Thursday. Can Michael Jackson really recapture the old Thriller? By Peter Willis, Who Reported On The Legendary 1988 Bad Tour Feverish excitement may have greeted Jacko's comeback announcement yesterday, but can he ever recapture the old magic? Although it was 21 years ago, it feels like only yesterday that I watched spellbound as he launched his Bad tour in Rome. And Jackomania hit Europe. That night, May 24, 1988, Michael Jackson sealed his status as one of the world's greatest showmen. It wasn't rock'n'roll, but pure theatre. From tightly choreographed dance routines to a series of illusions and explosions, he delivered two hours of sheer exuberance. Technically superb and emotionally exhilarating, it was a spectacle not to be missed. By the time he arrived in Britain that summer, the whole country was captivated. So much so it became my job as a reporter to stay in the same hotels as him, travel with him and cover his show more than 15 times (all identical, right down to his handful of words to the audiences: I love you all.) His was the hottest ticket of the decade. More than a million people - including Princess Diana - went to pay homage to the King of Pop at sell-out concerts all over the country. He set records which have never been broken with seven concerts at Wembley S At one show, at Aintree racecourse, so many people scaled fences to see him that hundreds were crushed in the melee. Everywhere he went there was hysteria. Crowds camped outside the Mayfair Hotel, which he and his entourage had taken over, and his visits to Hamleys or HMV would stop traffic. On one occasion, he invited me to join him on his tour bus as we were given a police escort from his hotel to a stadium. He sat at the front, his face partially covered by a surgical mask, giggling, waving and blowing kisses to the crowds lining the route What struck me most was that the fans were of all ages, not just young people. Everyone seemed intrigued by him. When I mentioned that he had actually said hello to me and that his voice was deeper than you'd think, people questioned me like I had met an alien. And in many ways, he did seem out-of-this-world. A combination of him looking bizarre and painfully shy, obsessions with childhood heroes such as Peter Pan and outlandish rumours, such as sleeping in oxygen tents, made him the world's most fascinating man Two decades later, he may still be telling us he loves us, but much has changed. The mystique has long been stripped away with child-abuse allegations, fly-on-the-wall documentaries and TV interviews defending himself. Sadly, I don't believe he can ever recapture the Thriller that he was. But, like many of Frank Sinatra's farewell concerts, Michael Jackson's final curtain call will still be the event of the year. Hamas praises tractor's attack in Jerusalem GAZA, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement praised on Thursday the tractor's attack in Jerusalem, during which two Israelis were injured and the driver was shot dead. Gaza Hamas lawmaker Mushi el-Masri told reporters in a press statement that the attack in Jerusalem is a natural response to the Israeli decision to demolish dozens of houses and to the military aggression on Gaza Strip. Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza Strip overnight in two Israeli airstrikes on Islamic Jihad militants in response to ongoing makeshift attacks carried out from Gaza at southern Israel. The Jerusalem attack is a natural response to the military aggression against our people, said el-Masri, adding that the Zionist enemy is held responsible for displacing our people in Jerusalem. He added that the enemy is carrying out daily killings against our people in Gaza and West Bank. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Hamas movement's spokesman in Gaza Fawzi Barhoum considered the latest two airstrikes on Gaza as a serious escalation that shows the future bad intentions of the enemy. It's Good To Talk - To Hizbollah Tim Marshall Foreign Affairs Committee at Westminster. He didn't roll his sleeves up, which was a shame, as it would have completed the metaphor for a reversal in British policy, some hard work ahead, and a fresh start with Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell took his jacket off and reversed himself into a seat in front of the Hizbollah Mr Rammell announced that Her Majesty's Government will, henceforth, talk to Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shia movement, described and proscribed by the United States as a terrorist organization whose military wing is a banned organization in the UK. Which begs the question why? The answer seems to be that the British are facing up to reality. Hizbollah may be blamed for a spate of murders, political assassinations, kidnapping and bombings, it has have targeted thousands of rockets at Israeli homes in 2006, but it is also a significant presence in the Lebanese parliament, has a minister in the powerful force in the country. If you want to have influence in Lebanon, and the UK does, you'd better talk to Hizbollah. Mr Rammell made it clear the UK will not be talking to the military wing of Hizbollah, no, that would be beyond the pale. This is to an extent sophistry as everyone knows the military and political wings of the 'Party Of God' are so closely linked you cou I'm told HMG will be talking only to 'carefully considered contacts' within the political sector of Hizbollah which should be enough to keep the fig leaf of respectability from curling up too much and revealing all. A blogger on the exellent Harry's Place website takes a dim view of these contacts, but HMG seems to be playing a bigger game. Why now? Because the UK wants calm in Lebanon and seeks to influence Hizbollah to help keep the peace. Because there are efforts at rapprochement with Syria, and relations with Hizbollah helps that. Because Hizbollah is partially controlled and funded by Mr Rammell was adamant in his evidence that talking to Hizbollah in Lebanon in no way changes the UK's policy on talking to Hamas in Gaza. That will not happen he said. He didn't add 'for now' - but don't rule it out, after all 'Time is a great legalizer, even in the fields of morals' H.L. Mencken. EURASIA INSIGHT IRAN: TEHRAN STILL AN IMPORTANT PLAYER IN IRAQ Kamal\~Nazer Yasin 3/05/09 Iran\rquote s current diplomatic mission to Iraq, led by former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, aims to bury the mutual hostility that was generated by the 1980-88 war between the two neighboring states. If successful, Iran will retain its influenc The five-day visit by the Iranian delegation began March 2. At a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on the visit\rquote s opening day, Rafsanjani called for the withdrawal of foreign military forces, adding that the Iraqi people were capab The al-Hashimi snub tacitly highlighted the overarching objective of the Iranian mission: Tehran wants to show Baghdad that it comes in peace; that it wants to drawn a line under the enmity of the past, and move forward in a new, mutually beneficial relat For a variety of reasons, this is a significant visit, a Tehran-based Iranian academic told EurasiaNet. Firstly, it is one of the largest official [Iranian] delegations to visit Iraq since the US invasion [in 2003]. Secondly, it is highly symbolic because on Iran\rquote s side it is led by Rafsanjani . . . and Mohsen Rezaii who was the commander of the Revolution This means the two countries are finally burying the bitter memories of the war, continued the Iranian academic, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Beyond the symbolism, the visit should be a reminder that contrary to the claims about a loss of Iran\rquote Iranian policymakers have had to scramble over the past year to retain their influence, however. For several years prior to 2008, Iran used Iraq for forward defense, fostering disorder in the country in order to keep US officials preoccupied with keeping Baghdad stable, and thus unable to hatch plans aimed at promoting regime change in Tehran. Give Everything started to change for Iran in the spring of 2008, when the Iraqi military moved against Sadr\rquote s militants, and neutralized their ability to create havoc. Then, earlier this year, the ISCI suffered a disastrous defeat in Iraq\rquote s local elections. Iranian leaders detected a changing mood in Iraq early on, and took immediate action to adjust their own policies. Tehran sought to promote harmony among contending Shi\rquote a factions in Iraq, while promising al-Maliki that it would no longer support radical Iran is keen to see Shi\rquote a groups retain their influence in Iraq amid the US military withdrawal. To accomplish this aim, not only do Shi\rquote a political forces in Iraq need to be more unified, Sunni suspicions need to be eased. The coming months promise to be filled with uncertainty in Iraq, when the country could be vulnerable to another spike in violence. Iran, like Washington, is anxious not to see that happen. Tehran is interested in a stable transition, in which the current : Kamal Nazer Yasin is a pseudonym for a freelance journalist specializing in Iranian affairs. Editor's Note UK restores links with Hezbollah Britain says it is re-establishing contacts with the political wing of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah. The move follows positive political developments in Lebanon, officials from the UK Foreign Office said. It comes about 10 months after Hezbollah signed a unity accord in Lebanon and joined the government. Only last year, the government put Hezbollah's military wing on a list of proscribed organisations over its alleged training of insurgents in Iraq. We are exploring certain contacts at an official level with Hezbollah's political wing, including MPs, said a spokesperson for the Foreign Office. The spokesperson said the UK was doing all it can to support Lebanon's unity government, of which Hezbollah's political wing is a part. Our objective with Hezbollah remains to encourage them to move away from violence and play a constructive, democratic and peaceful role in Lebanese politics, in line with a range of UN Security Council Resolutions. The spokesperson said Britain would continue to have no contact with Hezbollah's military wing. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah remains popular in Lebanon Turkey-U.S. Relations Multidimensional and Strategic: President Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Saturday that relations between Turkey and the United States were multidimensional and strategic relations, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. Gul made such remarks while receiving U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently paying a working visit to Ankara. Bilateral relations, fight against terrorism and recent regional developments were high on agenda of their meeting, the report said. The president highlighted importance of maintaining the cooperation between the two countries in fight against terrorism, especially against the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Meanwhile, Gul thanked the U.S. administration for supporting Turkey's EU process, saying that Turkey has made a series of significant reforms in human rights and democracy in recent years concerning its desire to join the EU. Clinton said she appreciated Turkey's key role in the regions of Middle East and Caucasus and particularly in energy safety. Turkey and the United States released Saturday a joint statement in which they reaffirmed their determination to continue close cooperation and consultation on issues of common concern. Clinton arrived in Ankara early on Saturday aiming to boost bilateral relations and try to rebuild a better image for the Obama administration in order to remove a wave of anti-Americanism that rose after the U.S. invasion in Iraq in 2003. She revealed in the press conference held with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan that U.S. President Barack Obama would pay a visit to Turkey within a month. 2009-03-08 02:40:55_ \~\~\~_ Xinhua\~\~\~\~\~\~Web Editor: Zhang Jin 'You don't have a house any more' One Palestinian family's encounter with Israel's bulldozers in East Jerusalem Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem The bulldozer came for the Abbasi family house just before 10am on Monday, grinding up the steep, narrow hill in the district of Silwan, in East Jerusalem. Dozens of policemen and security forces surrounded the house and then banged on the metal front doo They pushed me and shoved me. I was terrified, said Ghadir al-Abbasi, who was in the house with the three youngest of her six children. I told them, 'This is the only place we have, where else are we going to live?' They shouted back to me: 'Silence. Y She persuaded them to let her collect her identity card, then the police removed some of the family's furniture, including a red sofa which was dumped in the street. Moments later the bulldozer demolished the single-storey, breeze-block house. Now Ghadir Since 2004 around 400 houses have been demolished in East Jerusalem. Israeli authorities say the demolitions are the result of a strict legal process because so much Palestinian construction in the east of the city is done without a permit. The municipali But is difficult for Palestinians to obtain permits and strict zoning laws leave little space in East Jerusalem for Palestinians to build \endash even though Jewish settlements in the east continue to expand. Mahmoud al-Abbasi, 40, admitted he had no permit for his house, which he finished building a year and a half ago at a cost of £30,000 on land inherited from his grandfather. He applied for a permit but was refused, and applied again after the house was built. Most of his neighbours have also built without permits. Some are forced to pay fines, others are ignored; all hope they will never face demolition. The Israelis don't want the Arabs here in this area, said Abbasi. That's why they are removing us. They are destroying us, putting pressure on us to leave this country. But we will never leave. This is our land, our home. Jeff Halper, an anthropologist and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, said the combined effect of settlement growth and house demolitions in East Jerusalem was to extend 's matrix of control and to fragment the Palestinian population in the city. It has two effects. One is to Judaise the entire city, in other words to eliminate the idea that there is an East Jerusalem, to create one unified, Jewish Jerusalem. Israel sees this as one urban area, he said. The second is to isolate this Jewish Jeru Kuwait to establish nuclear energy commission A French firm is studying the plan Kuwaiti programme aims to save large quantities of fuel consumed by power, water desalination plants. KUWAIT CITY - The cabinet of the Gulf state of Kuwait on Monday approved legislation to establish a national commission for nuclear energy uses, an official statement said. The commission, to be headed by the prime minister, will design policies needed for a peaceful nuclear programme in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, a statement by the cabinet said. The legislation must be passed by parliament and signed by the emir to become effective. Last month, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said that a French firm was studying a plan by the Gulf state for a civilian nuclear programme to produce power. He did not name the company but French state-controlled Areva is one of the world's largest manufacturers of nuclear power reactors. Sheikh Sabah also said the purpose of the programme is to generate power to save large quantities of fuel being consumed by power and water desalination plants. Kuwait is a member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which has decided to develop a joint nuclear technology programme for peaceful use under international rules. Besides Kuwait, the group includes Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In January, the UAE signed a deal with the United States to cooperate in civilian nuclear energy. House Demolitions in East Jerusalem Could Spark More Mid-East Violence 40-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud al-Abbasi stands amid the rubble of his home after it was demolished by the Jerusalem municipality in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Photograph: Gali Tibbon. East Jerusalem Settlements Ratchet Up Tensions By Helena Cobban / March 6, 2009 JERUSALEM - As the fires of human misery continue to smolder in Gaza, the situation in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem is emerging as another potentially explosive issue in, and far beyond, the Middle East. The long-term governance of the city is considered an issue of prime importance to both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as to their supporters around the world. Jerusalem-related tensions have been sparked several earlier rounds of violence between the In September 2000, it was a visit by opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem's Temple Mount - accompanied by 1,000 armed security people - that sparked the Second Intifada. Now, Israeli and Palestinian peace activists warn that the provocative actions Some 220,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, which until 1967 was the commercial and administrative hub of the whole West Bank region, of which it is an integral part. Since Israel occupied the city in 1967, successive Israeli governments have implan Now, around 200,000 Israeli settlers live in those settlements, which surround the Palestinian-peopled core of the city. And for some years now settler activists, most of whose money comes from supporters in the United States, have also been building webs Two current areas of concern are Silwan, where the Jerusalem municipality recently issued demolition orders to the owners of 88 Palestinian homes, to establish a Jewish-history theme park there, and Sheikh Jarrah, where a massive armed police force last N That latter eviction occurred at 3:30 a.m. The man of the house, Abu Kamel al-Kurd, was already chronically sick. He and his wife, Um Kamel, moved into a tent on a vacant lot nearby and a few days later Abu Kamel had a heart attack and died. Um Kamel has Her campaign to stay in the tent until her home is restored to her has emerged as a potent rallying point of nonviolent resistance to Israel's plans to continue colonising East Jerusalem. Israeli police have dismantled her tent six times, most recently on Tents like Um Kamel's have been evocative symbols of the eviction of Palestinians from their homes ever since 1948, when some 750,000 Palestinians were evicted or fled from their homes in what became Israel. (None have been allowed back, despite United Na Most recently, many of the displaced Palestinians in Gaza - most of them descendants of refugees from 1948 - have once again been living in tents. And across Jerusalem in Silwan, local residents protesting their latest eviction orders, which will affect s Horses and_History or The Dog May Be Man's Best Friend, but It Was the Horse that Built Civilization! by Melinda Maidens History was written on the_back of the horse, according to an inscription at The Horse Park in Kentucky. Horse_lovers do not need to be reminded how much human beings owe to equus caballus , but_to the general population, civilization's debt is perhaps not immediately apparent. A_comparison of civilizations that had horses with civilizations that did not soon makes it_clear that human history, at least in Eurasia, would have been profoundly A prime example is the entire_Western Hemisphere, which was horse-free as of 30-40,000 years ago for reasons as yet_unknown. One of the consequences was that its native populations remained scattered,_sparse and overwhelmingly in the hunter-gatherer stage conquistadores Other horseless parts of the_world, such as Australia and sub-Saharan Africa, provide similar examples of restricted_human mobility and development. Israeli writers urge end to Palestinian evictions JERUSALEM (AFP) \emdash Twenty Israeli recipients of the country's top honour urged the government to rescind orders to evict people from their homes in annexed, mostly Arab east Jerusalem, media reported. In a letter addressed to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat the group of writers and researchers, all winners of the Israel Prize, stressed the distress of families that can any day find themselves without shelter after the destruction of their homes, the Haare The signatories also slammed the low number of construction permits handed out to Palestinians in east Jerusalem, which forces them to build without authorisation. The city authority's policies over the past decades have created a situation in which thousands of people are not able to have a roof over their heads in land that belongs to them, they wrote. Such policies violate the obligations that Israel has toward civilians under its control and elementary human rights, said the letter, whose signatories included famed writers Amos Oz and David Grossman. Over the past several weeks, Palestinian owners of 88 houses in the Silwan neighbourhood have received notices saying the structures will be destroyed because they were built or expanded without the necessary permits. The move would affect about 1,500 peo Silwan, which abuts the Old City, is home to 10,000 Palestinians. Sixty Jewish families also live in the neighbourhood around the City of David archaeological park, which Israeli authorities say was the capital of the ancient Israelite kingdom. Israel, which considers the whole of Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital rarely grants building permits to Arabs in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to make the capital of their promised state. According to the Israeli B'Tselem human rights organisation, Israeli authorities have demolished some 350 houses in east Jerusalem since 2004, saying that they were built without permits. Fayyad's resignation may help, but no guarantee for unity gov't RAMALLAH, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's resignation may help form a unity government between Fatah and its vehement opponent Hamas, but can't ensure its lasting success, analysts say. Fayyad said Saturday that he had submitted his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas to secure the success of reconciliation dialogue between Fatah and Hamas scheduled for March 10 in Cairo. The first round of the talks was held there late February. The two factions, locked in full confrontation after Hamas' bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, are attempting to form a unity government to start reconstruction in Gaza, a city devastated by the weeks-long Israeli major offensive late last De Abbas said he had asked Fayyad to continue with his work until we see the results of the Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks. Fayyad said his resignation will take effect as soon as a unity government is formed with a time limit to the end of March. Husam Hamdan, a senior political analyst in the West Bank, told Xinhua that Fatah and Hamas, confronted with the urgent task of reconstruction, have no other choice but to form a unity government through dialogue. The international community has pledged 5 billion U.S. dollars in aid for the reconstruction in Gaza. Hamdan noted that Hamas, which is currently ruling Gaza, lacks the international acceptability enjoyed by Abbas, yet reconstruction can hardly get started without its participation. The two sides have no other choice but make compromise to cooperate. Fayyad was hand-picked by Abbas to form a government to consolidate his rule in the West Bank in June 2007 after his security forces lost Gaza to Hamas in bloody street fighting. During his tenure as prime minister, Fayyad, a former World Bank economist who received education in the United States, has gained popularity among Western and Israeli leaders for spearheading political and economic reforms and launching a security crackd So far, Hamas does not seem very enthusiastic about Fayyad's resignation, saying Fayyad's government is illegitimate and illegal and his resignation has nothing to do with reconciliation process among the Palestinians. Analysts noted that even if Hamas and Fatah agree to form a unity government at the upcoming Cairo talks, 2010, Fayyad's resignation could not settle their feud and ensure the formation of a stable coalition government. The Palestinians formed a unity government in March 2007, but it collapsed only less than three months later due to Hamas' full occupation of Gaza. Hamas, which advocates violent struggles against Israel, has adopted a policy on Israel that is vastly different from moderate Abbas and his followers, who insist Palestine and Israel should solve their rifts through dialogue and concessions. Hamas and Fatah are likely to continue their fierce wrangle within the unity government if it is formed, observers say. But if the talks in Cairo fail, Fayyad probably will stay in office as prime minister, said Saud Abu Ramadan, a veteran journalist in Gaza. killing 14 people and critically wounding a government minister, officials said. Facebook launches Arabic version , the world's most successful social networking site, has officially launched in Arabic, tapping into a potentially huge market in the Middle East and beyond, the company has announced. Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, already has large numbers of users in the Arab world: in Egypt, where the site has 900,000 users, it has become a highly effective tool for political mobilisation, with mass demonstrations against the goverment or In Saudi Arabia the site has more than 250,000 users and in Lebanon more than 300,000. Arabic, spoken by 250 million people \endash and Hebrew, spoken by 7 million \endash will now be available from a drop-down menu at the bottom of the homepage. It's the first time Arabic speakers will be able to use Facebook in their own language, said Ghassan Haddad, the Facebook director of localisation. It's potentially huge. , but Arabic only makes up 5% of global web content. Fifty million of the world's 250 million Arabic speakers already use the internet There are 700,000 active users \endash people aged over 18 who have returned to the site within the past month \endash in Israel. Facebook asked users of a trial version to translate the site over the past month - a cost-effective scheme that has proved popular with users who translated the site into other languages. After providing suggestions, users discussed and voted for the best translations. Facebook said 850 Arabic speakers and 870 Hebrew speakers had helped with the project. Arabic and Hebrew, semitic languages that are both written from right to left, posed special challenges. For example, while the verb write in English is the same regardless of whether the person doing the writing is a male or female, different translati Facebook developers built a mechanism to detect the gender of the user and select the translation that matches it and used Modern Standard Arabic, which is used in the media and other formal and religious circles. The mix of characters between languages written in different directions makes it difficult at times for Web applications to determine the correct direction to display the language in, said the Lebanon-born Haddad. Design is another challenge, since a web page laid out from right to left looks like a mirror image of an equivalent English page. All components on the page must be changed for right-to-left languages including text alignment, ordering of tabs on pages, Facebook is now available in 40 languages with more than 60 others in development. The company said that 200,000 people had helped with translations. Although Facebook has been accessible in English across the Middle East since it opened beyond the US college network in September 2006, its Arabic language version puts in in more direct competition with popular regional sites including Jeeran, Maktoob, •\~To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. N. Korea Threatens War to Protect Long-Range Missile By Rebecca Croft __ - 12 Mar 2009 North Korean government officials threatened to proclaim war if a communications satellite is shot down during testing. The North Korean communications satellite is planned to be launched into space later this month or early April, according to Pyongyang government leaders in a news release. However neighboring governments, including the United States, said the communications satellite is most likely a cover for a long-range, nuclear missile, according to the Associated Press. \ldblquote Whether they describe it as a satellite launch or something else makes no difference,\rdblquote said Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korean policy, according to the Deseret News. Both the satellite and the long-range missile would violate the United Nations Security Council resolution banning North Korea from ballistic activity. The suspected long-range missile would have the capability of reaching as far as Alaska. North Korea released a statement through the official Korean Central News Agency, threatening war if the test satellite was shot down. \ldblquote Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war,\rdblquote according to the statement. In the same news release, the North Korean military was reported to be \ldblquote fully combat\rdblquote ready. \ldblquote The only reason North Korea cannot attack or invade South Korea is because of the U.S. Army,\rdblquote said South Korea resident Hong Jeong Hui. The United States has approximately 28,500 soldiers stationed in South Korea, conducting regular training and routine exercises with the South Korean army. Both South Korean and the United States governments say the exercises are routine and are \ldblquote not tied in any way to any political or real world event,\rdblquote the commander of U.S. troops, Gen. Walter Sharp, said in a news conference. However, the primary goal is to en-sure the command is ready to defend the [Republic of Korea] in the event it becomes necessary, Sharp said. South Korean government officials have terminated all communication lines between North and South Korea creating even greater tension during the current cease-fire, according to a United Nations news release. According to estimates from the AP, both North and South Korea have stationed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on each side of the border making the North and South Korean border one of the most heavily armed borders in the world. Pakistan police break up major anti-government demonstration Mohammed Hussain Mehanti, a leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami party, is arrested during a protest in Karachi. In Karachi, police arrest opposition leaders and prevent several hundred lawyers and activists from leaving on a planned 'long march' to a protest in Islamabad. By Mark Magnier March 13, 2009 Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan -- _Police overwhelmed anti-government protesters Thursday in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, arresting opposition leaders and preventing several hundred lawyers and activists from leaving for a planned demonstration i The government of President Asif Ali Zardari contends that public gatherings could serve as a focal point for terrorists and otherwise endanger property and lives. Authorities also banned public gatherings in two key provinces and blocked major roads into Islamabad, the capital, with barriers and paramilitary vehicles. The government has resorted to raiding the houses of the leaders of political parties, said Farooq Tariq, an official with the Labor Party. I've been underground for the last three days. Lawyers were at the forefront of demonstrations against the government of then-President Pervez Musharraf, who incurred their wrath in part by firing dozens of senior judges in 2007 in an apparent bid to head off legal challenges to his rule. The attorney In other news Thursday, a missile believed to have been fired by a U.S. drone aircraft hit a house in northwestern Pakistan that officials said was occupied by militants. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll at seven to 10 people. Their identities were The Pakistani government's crackdown is aimed at quelling demonstrations in major cities that are being held as part of a several-day long march -- actually a long drive -- to Islamabad leading to a planned sit-in Monday. The growing political instability is raising concern that the armed forces could intervene, as they have repeatedly in this nuclear-armed nation prone to military coups. If the politicians can't settle their differences, the military will come back in, said Zulfiqar Ahmed, general manager of the Islamabad Marriott. They'll try not to, they don't want to, but as a last resort they will. Political analysts said it remained to be seen whether the government's heavy-handed tactics would prove effective. Some said the moves had succeeded in blunting the public appetite for protest, at least in the short term. Others said it would have been better, particularly for a democratically elected government, to let the demonstrations go forward as long as they remained nonviolent. The strategy would bank on the hope that the movement would eventually lose steam, as a In a democracy, even one as battered and messy as ours, citizens have the right to peaceful protest, Ejaz Haider, op-ed editor of the Daily Times, wrote Thursday in the paper. Thursday morning, paramilitary forces and police surrounded Karachi court buildings in which lawyers had assembled. Several hundred black-suited lawyers broke through the cordon, however, and left the buildings on foot, joining political activists carryin The race to host World Cup 2018 When Bobby Moore wiped his hands on his shorts before collecting the World Cup trophy from the Queen at Wembley, he provided one of the most iconic images in British sport. That was more than 42 years ago, and England fans need no reminding that it was the last time their team lifted the World Cup or, indeed, any major tournament. But it is not only the England team that suffered many a painful World Cup exit. The Football Association was also left with a bitter taste in its mouth after Germany won the right to stage the 2006 tournament ahead of England. The FA is mounting a strong campaign to host the 2018 World Cup and recently put the finishing touches to its bid team. Fifa has gone for a more Olympic-style bidding war for 2018, with its 24-man executive committee to make its decision in December 2010, when the world governing body will also choose the 2022 hosts. Of the 18 World Cup tournaments held since 1930, 10 have been staged in Europe, six in Latin America and one each in the United States and Asia. With South Africa and Brazil to host the 2010 and 2014 competitions respectively, Fifa has said no African countries can bid for the 2018 showpiece while South America must wait until 2026 for the chance to bid again. Successful hosts must meet certain conditions if they are to win the right to stage the World Cup, providing at least 12 stadiums with minimum capacities of 40,000, with the final to be held in a stadium with a capacity of at least 80,000. BBC Sport profiles the opposition England faces if it is to host the tournament again. Fifa World Ranking: Main Stadium: England Wembley, 90,000 (London) Last World Cup hosted: 1966 Originally installed as favourites, by the British bookies at least, it will be 52 years since Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley by the time 2018 comes around. Bringing football home is part of the government's proposed decade of sport, which includes the London 2012 Olympics, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Prince William and former England captain David Beckham will be Stadium-wise, England, who staged the European Championships in 1996, should have a very strong case, with Wembley the potential venue for the 2018 World Cup final. Several clubs have expressed an interest in extending their stadiums to put themselves for Bid chief executive Andy Anson said: Our intentions have obviously been well known for some time but there's a real sense of significance and excitement in the fact that we're now acknowledged as an official bidding nation. We believe we have a very strong case to bring the tournament to England and the challenge now is to put together a compelling presentation to showcase to the world. Indonesia 144 Bung Karno Stadium, 88,000 (Jakarta) n/a In a bidding war full of heavyweights, no-one can criticise Indonesia for not thinking big. With a population of 235m, it does fulfil one of the major requirements for hosting the world's most-watched sports event: it has a stadium capable of holding at least 80,000 spectators for the opening match and final. Jakarta boasts the government-owned Bung Karno Stadium, which has a capacity of 88,000 and staged the 2007 Asian Cup final, when Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 1-0. Indonesia became the first Asian team to play at a World Cup at the 1938 tournament in France, appeared under the colonial name of the Dutch East Indies. Finding a dozen 40,000-seater stadiums, sufficient policing and transport links within the country may prove a problem and would require some serious infrastructure planning. Indonesia Football Association secretary general Nugraha Besoes said: 10 years are enough for us to build, renovate or expand our stadiums to meet the requirement. This seems like only a dream for us now, but we must dare to dream big. : All right, we\rquote re here today with the illustrious Ethan Zuckerman , who is going to talk a bit about a product that will be launching on Wednesday of this week. Ethan : Tomorrow, I think. : Tomorrow. [This video] won\rquote t be posted until tomorrow, so…you know. : Well, that\rquote s fine. Launching today is good as well. : Exactly. Tell us about it. What is it that you have launched, and what was the impetus behind it? : Well, let\rquote s start with the impetus behind it, then we\rquote ll get to where we actually are. We\rquote re here at the Berkman Center today, and one of the arguments that often happens at the Berkman Center is about the relationship between mainstream media and citiz Do we think that citizen media is derivative of mainstream media? Do we think citizen media is leading mainstream media, the stories that they would never find? Do we worry that citizen media is an echo chamber, where all we talk about is American politic These are really tough questions to answer, in part because the way that we tend to argue about them is that we have dueling anecdotes. I come up with my favorite anecdotes to make my point. You come up with your five. We go back and forth. Maybe we regroup and find another five. No one\rquote s found a really good way to answer these questions quantitatively yet. And that\rquote s what we\rquote re trying to . It is a very large set of data, as well as some simple tools for playing with it, obtained by subscribing to and processing hundreds of American blogs and a couple hundred newspapers in English from around the world. The idea behind this is that we subscribe to the feeds of these newspapers and these blogs. We grab every single story that they publish. We then pull the story text out of the , which is an interesting hack. We throw the story text into a bunch of different tools that help us determine what the stories are about. So we\rquote re able to get topic information. We\rquote re able to get information on people mentioned in the stories \emdash what\rquote s ca And then we file this all off in a database. So if you then want to find out what the stories were on Fox News for a given week, we can tell you what their top-10 topics were. We can also go levels further and say: When a news source reported on a topic, We can track these things over time. We can track them between different sets of media: How did the blogs cover something differently from newspapers? The key on all of this is that we\rquote re building both the tools and the data to be an open platform for research. So we wanted it to settle the arguments we have around here, but what we really want to do is make it possible for anyone who\rquote s studying media t : So you\rquote re making lives infinitely easier for a lot of journalism researchers, as well as a lot of citizen\rquote s who\rquote d like to have answers to some of these questions. : I think at the moment, we\rquote re making life easier for those, because we\rquote re really early on in the project. The tools that we\rquote re releasing on the website are pretty basic. But they are really fun. And they\rquote ll let you see the sorts of questions you might ask about this. In the long term, the goal is for this to be an open research platform where not only the tools, which we\rquote re releasing today under the GPL , but also the data is fully accessible. And we want to make it accessible via an , so the people can play with it. At this point, you can access the data through the site. We\rquote re also working one-on-one with a lot of scholars out there to give them access to the data. : OK. Well let\rquote s take a look at what we\rquote re going to see on the site if we go there now. : Absolutely. So let\rquote s make it a little bigger. So what we\rquote ve got on the front page is sort of an image of what we call a pivot table. So we\rquote re looking at the term \ldblquote Pakistan\rdblquote within Fox News. What\rquote s most closely associate with Pakistan? The United States, What we might do is compare: How is Fox News looking at Pakistan versus how some other media sources are looking at it? Just looking at a couple of things that we\rquote ve gone through, this is just a top-ten chart \emdash what are the top ten topics coming up on the BBC, on Fox News, on The New York Times? Pretty similar actually, the first couple of them between Fox News and the New BBC is almost entirely different, some of which are explicable, some of which aren\rquote t. NHS, the National Health Service, comes up there. Wales. Christmas \emdash I have no idea whether that\rquote s an artifact or whether there\rquote s in fact a story about Christmas. was once a British colony, right? : Well, but what we would probably do is we\rquote d drill down on that and try to sort of figure it out. One of the things for me that\rquote s very useful is that we\rquote ve built tools to do world mapping. And this is something that I\rquote ve done a lot of in the past. This You can see that despite the fact that the BBC has got a great reputation for Africa reporting, it\rquote s still comparatively light. : A hole in the Congo area. Latin America\rquote s very light. : Yeah, we see that Congo hole almost all over the place. But let\rquote s scroll down and do some comparisons. New York Times has that same hole. Actually not all that different a distribution between those two. Fox News ends up with the U.S. even darker. Sort Thirteen whole countries decided it was worth their time to submit a letter to FIFA by February 2 expressing interest in hosting the world\rquote s biggest sporting event in either 2018 or 2022. (Belgium and The Netherlands, however, submitted a joint letter of interest. I bet the Belgians made the Dutch write the letter, in 5 languages.) I can\rquote t imagine the trouble these countries went through to draft the letter. Dear Herr Blatter, We are interested in hosting the 2018 and/or 2022 World Cup. Sincerely, The US of A. Without further ado, the complete list of countries submitting letters of interest\emdash Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, England, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, Spain and Portugal, and the United States. Now let\rquote s handicap these potential suitors to the Golden Orb. Since it\rquote s early on, I\rquote m just going to put them into tiers. Tier 1: \endash The motherland for soccer has to be high on the list for everybody. It would certainly be well attended and much of the infrastructure is already in place to support the event and given the current economic situation, it may be difficult to come up with fait accompli \endash 1994 was a huge success and I think the soccer world still wants to try and develop the soccer market in this country. Plus, the infrastructure is there to have a hugely games at every venue. In 1994, this country was just getting to know soccer. With t Who Will Host World Cup 2018? 2022? \endash North America will likely get one of these bids since, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America have all hosted since 1994. Also, CONCACAF President and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner wants to bring the World Cup back to North America and will likely pl Tier 2: \endash FIFA is always trying to increase it\rquote s footprint and Asia is one of the main places it has been focusing its efforts. Now, Australia isn\rquote t technically Asia, but it\rquote s geographically close. It\rquote s also the one inhabited continent that has never hosted a Wor \endash Who doesn\rquote t want to go to the Netherlands (or Belgium, I hear it\rquote s nice)? The upside to this bid is that it is in Europe and easily accessible to millions, strong soccer infrastructure, and it\rquote s not one of the big European countries. Downside: Not big E Belgium and Netherlands Australia \endash Another European destination with infrastructure and warm climes. Given Spain\rquote s recent soccer success, some may be inclined to bump them up to Tier 1. I thought about it, but I just see this as a three-horse race for the two spots. They could play the s Spain and Portugal \endash This is a tough one to place. The corruption in Russia is rampant and seeing how it is going in South Africa, I can\rquote t see FIFA wanting to battle that again. Plus, the economic crisis has severely affected Russia\rquote s wealth at the moment, so getting stuff Russia Tier 3: \endash Just co-hosted in 2002. Not a big enough country to host again so soon. Japan \endash Ditto. South Korea \endash One of my cohorts thinks Qatar should be higher because they have dumptrucks full of cash to line the pockets of FIFA executives. That cash would also come in handy when building state-of-the-art stadiums. Downsides: While Qatar is safer country than so Qatar Tier 4: \endash No way in hell. I\rquote m sure they have no infrastructure. Plus, they have some issues with Islamic extremists. I don\rquote t think that would sit well with some of the FIFA power players. The most important question that I did not take into account was which country will give us the best female footie fans. The answer to that would have to be Spain/Portugal with the Netherlands/Belgium a close second followed by Russia. More evidence arises for future iPhone models in latest beta Yet another plist file in the iPhone OS 3.0 beta references four different unknown products. They could be new iPhones, new iPod touches, or even crazier things like a Mac tablet or an iPhone nano. As developers begin downloading and installing the beta of the next-gen iPhone SDK, clues continue to surface about future iPhone and iPod touch models. Yesterday, we reported on a file that described what might be a new iPod touch model with AAC encoding capabilities. One developer discovered a file with references to two new iPhone models, a possible new iPod touch model, and two mystery products simply referred to as iProd and iFPGA respectively. The file, /System/Library/AppleUSBDevice/USBDeviceConfiguration.plist, lists details about the USB configuration of the various iPhone and iPod touch models, as well as the device ID and product names. The same file in iPhone OS 2.2.1 lists the original i turning up in web server logs as far back as October 2008. In addition to these references, USBDeviceConfiguration.plist in iPhone OS 3.0 beta contains references to iPhone3,1; iPod3,1; iFPGA; and iProd0,1. All of the products are assigned unique productID numbers, though all are assigned a productString of iPhon The iPhone3,1 and iPod3,1 are clearly references to next-gen hardware version of those products (perhaps Apple is skipping iPhone2,1?). Smith suggests that the iFPGA could be a prototype device that uses field-programmable gate arrays, a type of programma How far along any of these products might be in the development cycle isn't known, but it's clear that support for them is in iPhone OS 3.0. Of course, what the mystery iProd could be is anybody's guess\emdash iPhone nano, tablet Mac, or just some very early tes Girl\~Talk… Posted by Ethar in \ldblquote Audio blogging\rdblquote is the new \lquote it\rquote thing in Egypt. Cheap and censorship-free in a country where the airwaves are controlled by the government, it\rquote s not hard to understand its appeal. There are out there, but perhaps one of the most interesting is , Girls Only, which began streaming their broadcasts over the internet in July 2008. many new web radio stations , and although a little busy and uses images of women that are in no way representative of Egyptian women (Muslim or otherwise), it has had over 25,000 unique visitors in less than four months. And with over 2,000 members on their , they must be doing something right. slogan is \ldblquote The first station \lquote for girls only\rquote in the Arab world.\rdblquote On their \ldblquote About Us\rdblquote page (which is titled \ldblquote Why girls in particular?\rdblquote ) the station\rquote s founder, 25-year-old Computer Science graduate Amani El-Tunsi, writes: \ldblquote I wish I can talk to people who understand me and speak to my mind. Who treat me as an independent entity who feels and thinks and dreams. In the street I want to hide from the eyes of men. Sometimes I feel that I am being punished for being a girl. In t In big bold letters they write: \ldblquote This is not a way to live!!\rdblquote with the English-language It is this frustration with the double standards of Egyptians society and the apathy of many Egyptian women to change their situation that drove El-Tunsi to start the station. In an Daily News Egypt \ldblquote I wanted to reach out to other girls after witnessing how superficial a lot of them have become. They are only interested in hijab styles and make-up. It seemed that girls don\rquote t work on improving themselves and consider marriage to be the ultimate goal. And although her statement lumps Egyptian women into one category, there is something to be said for her critique. Tayeb! Wellad we Bas There are currently 30 people working at the station, and 10 of them are men. Two of them have a counter show titled \ldblquote \rdblquote (Fine! Boys Only) to respond to the rest of the show\rquote s programming. Out of almost two dozen programs, the most popular ones are \ldblquote This is not a way to live!\rdblquote \ldblquote Screw you all,\rdblquote and \ldblquote [Equivalent to] 100 men.\rdblquote And even though some programs may seem frivolous to some (example: \ldblquote How to be a model\rdblquote is a show dedicated to Muslim women who wear the headscarf, advising them on how to become a \ldblquote Hijab Model\rdblquote ), with the station shying away from the sensitive trio (Relig And just like there are shows about fashion and how to tell if a boy really likes you, there are also shows that vent about the patriarchal society Egypt is, and how to change it. I would like to see the station try and tackle some more thorny issues though. According to El-Tunsi: \ldblquote We are not qualified to talk about these issues. As for politics we don\rquote t discuss it but we will discuss its social implications; regarding religion, I wanted the station to be for both Muslims and Christians and I felt we will not be able to present bot But even though they\rquote re not taking the initiative with regards to \lquote tricky\rquote subjects, they are in other ways. The station has launched a \ldblquote We don\rquote t have unemployment\rdblquote campaign, which aims to provide youth with contacts to training centers that provide them So what has the media reaction been like? and both have been pretty positive (though the title of the latter :\rdblquote The station tackles Rosa Le Youssef IslamOnline I\rquote ve seen a couple of articles, one at and one in the controversial topics\rdblquote raised my hackles). \lquote Eib* I called up El-Tunsi (who very kindly answered her phone just after midnight) and she told me that the media has been surprisingly positive. I asked her what media outlets have covered the stations and I was stunned by the list. Three out of Egypt\rquote s four main news programs on local and satellite channels have featured the show ( Can the cluster bomb treaty be more than a symbol? December 3, 2008 Sam Wollaston News Sober and objective, yet deeply moving Army says 45 trucks of food, medical supplies to pass through on Tuesday because of day-long lull in attacks emanating from Strip Israel reopens crossings with Gaza to aid, fuel Associated Press has reopened its crossings with Gaza to shipments of humanitarian aid and fuel. International journalists are also being allowed in. The Israeli military says 45 trucks of food and medical supplies are to pass through on Tuesday, along with shipments of cooking gas and fuel for Gaza's power plant. The military says cargo and passenger crossings were reopened because of a lull Monday in attacks by Gaza militants on Israel. The reopening of the crossings also means international journalists can again enter Gaza. This is just the second time reporters have been allowed in since fighting erupted on Nov. 5. The violence has left a 6-month-old truce in doubt. Wednesday 10 December 2008 Craig Ewert, 59, whose death in an assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic will be broadcast on British television. Photograph: Sky Real Lives/PA 'I love you sweetheart, so much, Mary Ewert says to her husband Craig. Have a safe journey, and see you sometime. At first glance, these could be the words of a wife saying goodbye to her husband going to work. But there's a clue in the uncertainty of when they'll see each other again - some time. In fact they are Mary's final words to Craig. A few moments later he This is just a small part of Dying with Dignitas (Sky Real Lives), by film-maker John Zaritsky. Craig, who had motor neurone disease, is one of three people who feature in the documentary about assisted suicide and the Swiss organisation. The other two - a man with a heart condition and his wife who is healthy - are refused help. This observational film is a sober and clear-headed look at how these decisions were reached, and also about what drove the three to want to end their lives. Craig, who was a university professor, speaks beautifully about it. You can watch only so much o The film is not just about his death, but also about his life - and the lives of the other couple. And because we've got to know Craig, his death, when it comes, is deeply affecting. If this what it's like after knowing Craig for 90 minutes, what must it It's this moment that will cause the fuss: the first time an assisted suicide has been shown on British TV. It is uncomfortable, as well as moving. But the film retains its objectivity: it is not Dignitas propaganda. Craig's death, as deaths go, doesn't look like a bad one. The medication appears to cause him some discomfort, and he has to have a few sips of apple juice. Then he calls for music - Beethoven's ninth, the choral symphony - and sets off on his migration, Tribune correspondent Though the top users opted out, supporters of a ban hope its moral force will deter the use of munitions that kill innocents years after the shooting stops MAARAKE, Lebanon \emdash When Israel dropped a vast number of cluster bomblets on southern Lebanon during its 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas, it helped rekindle a long-simmering global campaign that could change the way the weapons are used in the future On Wednesday, representatives of more than 100 nations will gather in Oslo to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a treaty that would ban the use of cluster bombs\emdash munitions that contain dozens or hundreds of smaller bomblets designed to kill or inju Critics say the bomblets frequently fail to explode, and often kill or maim civilians years after they were dropped. According to the UN, 20 people have been killed in southern Lebanon and 197 injured by cluster munitions in the two years since the war en Significantly, most of the world's major military powers and biggest users of cluster bombs will not be signatories, including the U.S., Israel, Russia, China, India and Pakistan. Military commanders consider them an important weapon that provides a tacti But organizers of the ban are hoping the treaty will stigmatize use of the weapons so that it becomes more difficult for militaries to use them, much in the way that the acclaimed 1997 ban on land mines resulted in a sharp reduction in the use of those we In the 11 years since 1997, there's been a de facto ban on land mines. We think that will happen again with cluster bombs, said Thomas Nash, coordinator of the Cluster Munitions Coalition, which spearheaded the treaty. The moral stigma is going to be so powerful we think cluster bombs also will quickly become a thing of the past. Others are not so sure. It's a waste of time, John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said of the ban. If you look at who's signing and who's not signing, it's the countries that fight who aren't signing. The U.S. military has little need for land mines in its overseas wars, but it is unlikely to abandon use of a weapon that offered a proven advantage in some circumstances, as was the case in Afghanistan against the Taliban and against the Iraq army in 200 The Air Force would have a hard time figuring out how to fight a war without them and so would the Army, Pike said. The U.S. military is in the business of winning America's wars, not winning popularity contests. The Pentagon says cluster bombs are necessary to protect the lives of American soldiers, but U.S. officials recently promised to restrict use of cluster bombs to those that have a failure rate of less than 1 percent after 2018. Human-rights campaigners cr occasionally mentioned the subject during his campaign, and arms-control advocates hope his administration will change U.S. policy. In 2006, he was one of 30 senators who voted in favor of legislation that would have restricted the use and sale of cluster On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Obama's transition team said he will carefully review the new treaty and work closely [with] our friends and allies to ensure that the United States is doing everything feasible to promote protection of civilians. The treaty's proponents are particularly pleased that among the signatories is Britain, one of America's closest allies and the third largest user of cluster bombs over the past decade, after the U.S. and Israel. The campaign to ban cluster bombs dates ba But it was the large-scale use of cluster bombs by Israel in 2006 that most galvanized support for the ban, according to Nash. Israel's bombardment is the most massive use of cluster bombs we have seen in modern history in that space of time in such a small area, said Dalya Farran, spokeswoman for the UN's Mine Action Coordination Center, which oversees the munitions clearance The UN estimates that a few million bomblets were dropped over the olive groves and banana plantations in the mostly agricultural area, almost all of them in the last three days before a cease-fire was called. One of them, tangled in a bush of thyme, blew off Rasha Zayoun's leg, irrevocably changing the life of the 15-year-old girl. She still has nightmares about the moment she reached into a bag of herbs gathered by her father, only to detonate the bomblet. I used to play with friends, but I became too ashamed to go outdoors. I didn't like people looking at me, explained Zayoun, now 17, at her home in the southern Lebanese village of Maarake. Israel will not sign the treaty because it believes negotiations for a ban would be more suitably conducted under a protocol being discussed at the UN, said Andy David, a spokesman at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. David added that the Oslo treaty for Cluster bombs are used by many other countries, he said. When to use them or not are operational considerations. This is not an international discussion. But the use of cluster bombs in the Lebanon conflict also drew criticism within Israel. The Winograd Commission, which investigated Israel's handling of the Lebanon war, found faults in operational discipline, supervision and control in the use of clust Zayoun, who was fitted with an artificial leg five months ago, said she hopes her experience will help others avoid her fate. It would be good if nobody else gets injured or dies, she said. But it's too late for me. Peter Nicholas of the Washington Bureau and Tribune correspondent Joel Greenberg in Jerusalem contributed. By Liz Sly general to testify about the situation in Iraq Al Quds said that the military wing of Jihad fired rockets - though they did not cause injuries. This was in response to the assassination of its leaders in Nablus, the northern West Bank, by occupation forces. Pakistani President Pervez Musharaf announced in a television speech on Monday that he would resign from office, before an imminent parliamentary action to remove him from his position, ending 9 years as president of Pakistan. An official source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, Syria presented its condolences to Lebanon, adding that Syria is confident that such crimes that target Lebanon's security and stability will not succeed in achieving their goals. Ibrahim Hassan, head of emergency services in the province of South Sinai, stated that the victims of the accident of foreigners are from the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine, without to provide further details on the nationality of each victim. International condemnation of Egyptian journalist imprisoned for his handling of Mubarak's health Chief editor of Egyptian newspaper jailed for two months for publishing false news about Mubarak's health Hajar said his Highness, in charge of the office of the Middle East and North Africa in the organization : that the provision was a political message from the Egyptian authorities to make prison, Ibrahim Eissa an example for all independent journalists in US President George W. Bush said that the plan to save the economy, worth 700 billion dollars, will need time to take effect to create confidence in the market, which witnessed a sharp decline in Monday. A summit hosted by France brought together leaders of Germany, Britain and Italy. French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that the summit decided to support the European financial institutions affected by the crisis. An appellate court ordered the imprisonment of an Egyptian newspaper editor in chief of the Constitution ( CIS ) Ibrahim Isa for two months in a case in which he was accused of publishing rumors on the health of the President Hosni Mubarak. The human The journalist protection group Reporters without Borders has condemned a judge's decision in Egypt to sentence the editor of Al Dostour newspaper, Ibrahim Issa, to prison for the publication of an article addressing rumors about the health of the Egyptia Hamas calls for comprehensive 'one stop' resolution to all outstanding issues The Occupied Territories - News agencies Hamas chief Mahmoud Al-Zahhar has said his movement's delegation, who arrived in Cairo yesterday and will be meeting Egyptian officials today, will work to ensure the success of dialogue and the restoration of former realities, though not at any cost. T For his part, chairman of the Fatah delegation at the Cairo talks among Palestinian factions, Nabil Shaath, said that the details of the Egyptian proposal centered on the formation of a government of national consensus with five immediate tasks, the most Trials in Riyadh 'expected' Washington threatens to resort to the Security Council if Iraq refuses to agree on the security pact. Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels struck back against a major government offensive Wednesday with suicide attacks on merchant ships off the island's northern coast, defence officials said. an oasis of public dialogue Zibari : Iraq amendments do not affect the contents of the convention Ambassador Mumin arrives in Baghdad as he waits for his papers Municipal elections … experience and goal US admits to Syria strike to pursue terrorist network but the White House refuses to comment Your Red Police File The passport officer at John F. Kennedy Airport security in New York asked for my help in interpreting his conversation with a Syrian man. I was optimistic and thought the tough looking man trusted me so much, the officer I mean not the Syrian guy, and th One minute later, the officer showed up as I was so much upset, standing arrogantly, waiting for my papers to be quickly checked…I need to drink some coffee before heading to the plane…I need some rest…I'm a VIP you know..The officer inspected my papers a We stepped into a dull room where we found two Egyptians, one Jordanian, a Sudanese, the Syrian man and probably a Lebanese young woman who looked under 20 years old. Welcome to the Arab unity room! After that, a veiled woman, who was onboard with us, ent Nevertheless, some Latinos, a Mexican young man, a Turkish, a Canadian and a Polish Jew and his wife, an Israeli rabbi and two Israeli young men came in consecutively, changing the room's composition on both the levels of race and religion. After four hours of interrogations, reports and deportations, they decided to set Nagi free. I was suffering from a terrible headache and pain in my left eye to the extent that I could hardly see but I partially pulled myself together. They decided to release me too. I went to the nearest bathroom. I searched for my baggage but it was lost. I looked for it everywhere in vain. I went to more than one office; and each transferred me to another till I had my bag restored from somewhere based on the par code on my ticket. I had a problem with the ticket to Syracuse and another when the taxi driver was about 20 minutes late in the middle of the night while the snow was falling. I was confused and totally drained. The day was so bad from the very beginning. I went to the hotel to find no reservation! I tried more than once to find a way out. We revised many papers till they made sure I had a reservation. I went upstairs to my room where I attempted to switch on the television but I failed. There was something wrong with the remote control. I threw it O Islam! So many crimes are committed in your name! Sunday, November 2, 2008 Abdullah Alsadoon The most dangerous aspect of the religion issue is the fact that some clergymen transform it into an authority through which they exercise whatever benefits their worldly narrow interests. There are so many of those so-called religion guards in our Ar Those muftis forget, or pretend to forget, Israel and what it does day and night in Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa mosque. For those muftis, the priority is given to Mickey Mouse and its threat on the youth of this nation. They prioritize also the Internet and One of the most recent atrocities of the «so-called religion guards», along with some extremists in our Arab and Islamic countries, is what happened recently in Somalia, this ravaged country, the poorest and most miserable among all countries. As some v Witnesses said that the woman was stoned to death late at night last Monday, in front of hundreds of people in the southern Somali port of Kismayu, which was seized by radical Islamists last August, and turned into a part of their territory, where prevail A resident of Kisamyu, named Abdullah Aden, described the murder scene that was committed in the name of religion, and told International press verbatim: A woman wearing a green headscarf and a black veil was brought in a car, and while we were waiting t the very Jihadis in the sake of God started firing in their direction, and they killed the child on the spot. Later on, one of the very Jihadis in the sake of God commented on the scene saying: This adulteress deserved stoning to death, but we regret the loss of the child, and we will punish the person who is responsible for his death. Yes! These are the new assets of the nation... They are the ones carrying the message of Islam, and through their radiance, our Islam will succeed, and its light will prevail again... What a misery! How despicable! What a major loss! How did our enemies i Barack encourages the truce despite the Israeli raid ... «Hamas» threatens Israel after 6 militants were killed: the attack is a violation of the truce and an attempt to hit the national dialogue Cairo, Gaza - Al-Hayat - 06/11/08 Six Palestinian militants were killed on Tuesday night, during an Israeli incursion and bombardment in southern Gaza Strip, to which the military wings of Palestinian factions responded by dozens of rockets in the most serious breach of the truce since Ju Medical sources said that five militants were killed in two raids in the east of the village of Al-Qarara in the southern Gaza Strip, and a sixth militant was killed during an incursion east of Deir Al-Balah.Izzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wi Israeli officials said that Palestinian militants fired about 50 missiles from Gaza Strip towards southern Israel, just before dawn yesterday. The Israeli army spokesman did not mention if these missiles killed any victims. Obama begins forming his new Administration and nominates a Jew for chief of staff to the White house After winning the post of the President of the United States as the first African American, Barack Obama starts forming his new administration which is dominantly consisting of names that served in the administration of the former president, Bill Clinton. Senior Democratic official, Steny Hoyer, stated, day before yesterday, that Rahm Emanuel, who has close ties with Obama and who served as a political counselor in Clinton\rquote s administration, is nominated for the post of the Secretary General to the White Ho In a similar context, the CBS news said that the Republican candidate, Sarah Palin, denies her responsibility for her loss and that of McCain\rquote s in the presidential elections, ascribing it instead to the economy crisis. As for the economy, Wall Street stocks ended its worst fall in its session that followed the presidential elections two days ago. Major stock indexes went down by over 5 percent after it had reached its highest throughout its transactions during the last Writes Moetaz al-Hadi and news agencies \endash Washington Obama starts the formation of his administration team and appoints a Democrat of Israeli descent chief of the White House staff Obama with Rahm Emmanuel Palestinian Committee: Gaza power station will shut down completely this evening because of fuel shortage Monday, November 10, 2008 \endash Jerusalem - DPA \endash A Palestinian committee concerned with lifting the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip said today, Monday, that the sole power station in Gaza Strip will shut down completely at 6pm, local time, this evening if it\rquote s not supplied by Israel Palestinian deputy Jamal Al-Khudri, president of the Popular Committee Against Siege, said during a press conference held in the generating station in the center of Gaza, in the presence of a delegation of European parliamentarians who are supporting Gaza Al-Khudri considered that the shut down of the station will be a humanitarian disaster and a strong hit for various aspects of daily life in the Gaza Strip, which has been under a tight Israeli siege for nearly a year and a half now. He pointed out that t The president of the Popular Committee Against Siege also said that Gaza strip \ldblquote is expecting a hard reality in the coming hours if there is no pressure on the Israeli occupation from all concerned organizations and the international community to provide t Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, had decided today to keep Gaza Strip crossings closed for the sixth day in a row, on the pretext of the continuation of launching Palestinian missiles on the south of Israel. He said that he will consider providing Ga Armed clashes between security forces and al-tarabin tribe in Sinai where 25 officers and soldiers were detained for several hours maher Ismail salah and the virtues of Al Snoussi and agencies Clashes erupted again between tribes in northern Sinai and the security forces, following the killing of a citizen and the injury of another by the fires shot in an ambush by the police on the Baghdad-Al-Husna Road. The clashes, which took place yesterday Four members of the tribes were injured too. Clashes escalated after the tribes had kidnapped 25 policemen including the commander of the Central Security forces in North Sinai, who were taken as hostages in a hidden area. A French news agency reported th The incident started late in the day before yesterday when an ambush by the police on al-Husna road shot fire on a 4X4 where Awda Suliman, 29, and Mohamed Suleiman, 25, were riding and were attempting to escape the ambush. Meanwhile, a statement by the Mi 150 members of al-Tarabin tribe rallied in 35 4X4s in an area near the border, protesting the killing of Saad Awda Suleiman. According to the security, protesters shot fire, burnt car wheels and hit the fuel tank of a police car which led to its explosion Al-Tarabin people continued armed protests yesterday where they besieged one of the points along the international borderline and caused injury of 3 soldiers and officers. Reports by Reuters and the French, German news agencies and Al-Jazirah and the BBC Major General Muntaser Shueib, head of the security in northern Sinai, said that the driver who was killed and his colleague were drug and weapon smugglers. They carried modern weapons in their car ready to be smuggled abroad, taking advantage of the rela Emanuel is a descendant of an Israeli family. His father was born in Jerusalem; and he was a member of the Argun zionist militia that was active during the British Mandate of Palestine. Rahm Emanuel… The top of Obama's list is of Israeli origins The American president-elect chose Rahm Emanuel to be the White House Chief of Staff, which caused a lot of controversy because of the Israeli origins of Emanuel, and his position regarding Middle East related issues since he was a senior adviser to former president Bill Clinton. Baghdadis Support US-Iraqi Security Pact Several Iraqis from the capital Baghdad voiced their support to the conclusion of a security agreement with Washington as a means of providing Iraq with economic and military protection. __Others, however, expressed concerns that the agreement was likely Twenty-one year old student Saad Khalil, who lives in Saadoun neighborhood, believes that \ldblquote the US-Iraqi Security Pact is beneficial to Iraq.\rdblquote \ldblquote I support the conclusion of this agreement,\rdblquote he told Voices of Iraq. Though the number of soldiers in the Iraqi army is roughly considerable, Khalil added, it doesn\rquote t have the potential qualifying it to defend the Iraqi borders in case of being attacked by the neighboring countries. _Khalil said that the Iraqi army needs a The Iraqi government had unanimously agreed Sunday on the US-Iraqi Security Pact, transferring the issue to the Parliament for voting. \ldblquote If the US military doesn\rquote t sign the agreement, it will remain in Iraq,\rdblquote he told Voices of Iraq. \ldblquote But the Iraqi government managed to seize the US\rquote approval of withdrawing from the US not later than 2011, which even those against the American existence wo Abu Thar explained that Iraq had two choices. The first is to pass the security agreement with the US and accept the existence of the US forces in Iraq, while the second is (the potential) intrusion of the Iranian forces into Iraq either directly or indir But 32-year old So\rquote aad Rahim from Saadoun area, who works as a civil servant, has a different opinion. \ldblquote I haven\rquote t read the details of the agreement; but I heard there are terms influencing the national sovereignty (of Iraq),\rdblquote she said. This is normal since the agreement will be concluded between an occupied country, which is Iraq, and the US occupying forces.\rdblquote _Nevertheless, 40-year old journalist Alaa Al-Howayjil considers approving the agreement as \ldblquote a proof of the high political skill The Iraqi Government, Al-Howajil said, succeeded in making Iraqis and most political groups and coalitions convinced with the agreement after months of secret and public negotiations. The government, he explained, revealed to the Iraqi people how this pac The Iraqi negotiator, Al-Howajil added, did not succeed in mobilizing public support. \ldblquote The negotiator has just managed to realize an adequate American satisfaction after making many unprecedented concessions for such an external US agreement,\rdblquote he said. _ Four Al-Nasser Salahuddin Brigades\rquote activists killed Four activists from Al-Nasser Salahuddin Brigades were killed and two people wounded in an Israeli reconnaissance aircraft raid on Al-Qubba area, east of Gaza city. _Al-Nasser Salahuddin Brigades is the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees. Medical sources said that the \ldblquote martyrs\rdblquote were carried to Al-Shefa medical complex in Gaza as scattered body parts and burned corpses. The two injured men were hit by splinters of a missile in different parts of their bodies, the sources added. Abu Ataya, the spokesman of Al-Nasser Salahuddin Brigades, noted that the \ldblquote martyrs\rdblquote were in a \ldblquote Jihadi\rdblquote (holy) mission when they were bombed by the Israeli aircrafts. The \ldblquote martyrs\rdblquote are: 23-year old Talal Hussein Al-Amoudi and Mohamed Hassuna, Ahmad Al-Helw and Basil Al-Af; all were in their early twenties. Abu Mujahed, another brigades\rquote spokesman, threatened to respond to the Israeli crimes, calling on all factions to join forces for the sake of this cause. In response to the new Israeli bombing, Hamas confirmed that such Israeli violations would be answered back by the resistance factions. \ldblquote The pacification will not make us helpless. We will act in response to the Israeli attacks and violations,\rdblquote Hamas faction spokesman Ismail Radwan said. Radwan held Israel responsible for jeopardizing the truce, an act they will be responsible for its consequences. \ldblquote Our people have the right to defend themselves,\rdblquote he reflected. Meanwhile, Israeli security sources said two missiles fell Sunday morning near Kibbutz in western Negev with no injuries on the Israeli part. In another development, Israel decided today to maintain the closure of Gaza crossings under the pretext that rockets were being constantly fired on towns and Israeli sites in western Negev and the area around the Gaza Strip. Israeli sources reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided to keep the crossings between Israel and the Gaza strip closed. A series of discussions will be held tonight to confer the issue of opening the crossings.__Barak had said yesterday evening Barak did not exclude the possibility of carrying out a wide scale military operation due to the persistence of the Palestinian violation of the pacification. But Barak thought that \ldblquote speeches and rash decisions do not replace a policy that requires looking thoroughly into the situation as a whole.\rdblquote Most of the Maysan yen link bombing yesterday to sign security agreement Missan, Voices of Iraq - Most citizens and officials of Missan (in southeastern Iraq) believe there is a connection between the car bomb attack erupting in the province Monday morning and the government\rquote s approval of the US-Iraqi Security Pact. Only a few Deputy Head of Missan Provisional Council Ali Kazem said the blast was a message directly linked to the security agreement approved one day before the incident. The Iraqi government had unanimously agreed Sunday on the long-term US-Iraqi Security Pact. Kazim told Voices of Iraq that \ldblquote Missan is one of the relatively secure provinces.\rdblquote He added that the incident seemed a bit weird, especially after the Operation Bashaer Al-Salam had been put into force and the arrival of new Iraqi troops equipped with the According to Kazim, despite the figure of these troops, there is a clear deficiency in advanced equipments detecting explosives. \ldblquote What proves this is that the explosion scene is 100 meters away from the Iraqi army headquarters,\rdblquote he argued. __Political act Al-Yasri pointed out that the agreement was the sole resort to get rid of occupation and currently the only possible way to achieve absolute sovereignty and security. Iraqi press syndicate head for the Missan branch noted that the explosion came concurrently with the agreement signing with the US forces, which was a clear message to the US troops in the province. \ldblquote What is sad about such a message is that it targeted helpless, innocent civilians like the case with the blast in Tigris Street in central Missan last year, killing more than 30 people and injuring 180 others,\rdblquote he told Voices of Iraq. Al-Darweesh held the security forces responsible for what happened, describing them as being big in number but ineffective. The Iraqi security forces in the province, he said, reached more than 14,000, whether those of the military or the police. But according to him, they are not in harmony. On his part, Missan Tribal Salvation Council Leader Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sudani said the council informed the committee for the follow-up and implementation of national reconciliation that the police performance in Missan had been deteriorating due to major Al-Sudani noted that such security breaches could be handled through \ldblquote boosting the intelligence bodies because these entities have the capacity to prevent incidents before taking place.\rdblquote Al-Sudani excluded any relation between the accident and the security agreement being approved by ministers belonging to most politically active parties and the parliament.\rdblquote Chairman of the Missan Security Committee Abdul-Latif Abboud agreed with Al-Sudani that \ldblquote signing a security agreement with the US forces had nothing to do with the attack, which was a usual accident occurring every day in the (Iraqi) provinces.\rdblquote Abboud thinks that \ldblquote the purpose of the bombing is to target the US forces existing in Missan after Operation Bashaer Al-Salam, arresting a large number of citizens in the province. What proves this point, he added, is that the incident broke out almost 10 As to the security plan that will be applied by the security forces in the province, Abboud pointed out that a deal was reached with the Missan Police Chief regarding the status of a new security plan for preventing the recurrence of such incidents. And Monday\rquote s car bomb is the second similar incident the province witnessed. A double car bomb detonated also in Tigris Street, killing more than 30 people and injuring 180 others in the end of 2007. A security source in Missan told Voices of Iraq Monday that the blast occurred near the area where Al-Sadr used to have an office before the Operation Bashaer Al-Salam broke out last June. Several people, mostly civilians, were wounded in the operation. T Readers comments Emanuel worked as a civil volunteer in an Israeli military base during the first Gulf war in 1991, and he was the only Democrat member from Illinois State in the Congress to vote for the Iraq war in 2003. Emmanuel worked as a civil volunteer in a military base of the Israeli army, during the first Gulf war. Israeli attention: For all the mentioned above, it wasn't surprising that Israeli media dedicated large spaces to speak about Emanuel and emphasize his Israeli origins. In this regard, the Haaretz newspaper mentioned in its edition of Thursday (11/06/2008) that Banjamin Emanuel, Rahm's father, immigrated with his family to the United States, in the 60s, and established in Chicago. In 1997, Emanuel had his military service for a short time in Israel, as the Haaretz newspaper mentioned. He also volunteered in a recruitment office for the Israeli military before the Gulf war on 1991. Haaretz and Maarif newspapers also mentioned that he worked for two months in a unit of armor repairing near the Northern borders with Lebanon. The beginning of their acquaintance On how Rahm Emanuel first met Obama, Haaretz mentioned that it happened in Chicago, when Emanuel was leading the midterm elections team in 2006, in which the Democrats regained the majority of seats in the Congress. The Maarif newspapers described Emmanuel as our man in the white house, as it appeared in a title of an article covering this subject. It's worth mentioning that the White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranked officer in the White House, and he works as the closest adviser to the President, and he can make decisions regarding who can meet the President, and he also develops administ Since 2006, Emanuel worked as the fourth highest leader of the Democratic Party as a chairman of the party conference, and a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives setting tax policy. Moreover, Emanuel was recently considered as one of the most prominent negotiators for the legislation of the financial rescue plan for Wall street, valued at 700 billion dollars. Emanuel was known by some for his direct and blunt style during his work in the Congress. House GOP leader John Boehner criticized Obama's choice for the White House Chief of Staff saying that it was an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promi The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranked officer in the White House, and he works as the closest adviser to the President, and he can make decisions regarding who can meet the President, and he also develops administration policies. What do you expect from a Muslim's son? And he wasn't even blessed with the grace of Islam! Without people like Rahm Emanuel, Obama could never have won. They helped him through victory. Now he is returning the favor. It's the least thing he can do. The British Independent newspaper mentioned, in an article by Leonard Doyle, that according to the Maarif Israeli newspaper, Rahm's father, Dr Benjamin Emanuel said he was convinced that his son's appointment would be good for Israel. Why wouldn't he Ali Muhammad This is the right answer to Arabs and Muslims. Obama wants Jerusalem to be the capital of Jews, he wants to isolate Hamas and Hezbollah, narrow the grip on Iran, and fight the Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bush was better than him, because at leas Zaki Mohamed Zaki The actions of the new President of America is a known fact for the penetration of the Zionist lobby in the policy of the U.S. President, regardless of his race or orientation. Jamal Fares Obama is a product of the Jews. Why would you seek honor from them? Honor is with God, His Messengers and the believers. Let's get back to God -There is No Help except from Allah: and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise..-. He helps whoever helps Him. Let's Muhammad D.S.T And he is still working for the Mossad. Mohammad Ali bin Saleh Al Mujber I don't know what was so optimistic about Obama running for presidency and what new things will be added to the scene? Is Obama even one of our fellows? Or did he make a serious promise about releasing the nation from its heavy burden? This is surprising! Abu Seyah Hares I am telling all Arabs and Muslims in a unquestionable way: Arabs, do not bet on anyone, bet only on yourselves. Don't expect from an American President, even if he was a Muslim, to liberate an inch of Palestine of give a blink of hope, if you see what I Abu Bakr Sayed Ahmad And what does that mean? Of course nothing! Because Obama himself has Muslim origins. What a disappointment! We were happy for you, Obama, and you made us sad by choosing Rahm Emanuel. Isn't there anyone else respectable in the country but him? You chose the worst, and by doing this you antagonized Arabs and Muslims and even many Americans Lawrence Fahd Al-Arab The downpour starts with a drop. Then I think that it's a flood that is coming. Bikr Al-Attar That wasn't a successful choice, Obama. You will repeat and even increase the problems that you inherited from Bush and Cheney and others who destroyed this world. You will add to America's disaster by gathering Zionists and Jews from the Republican party And were we expecting anything else from a man who removed Hussein from his name? Hani Abbas Israel has been ruling the US for a long time now - it doesn't matter who the president is, he is just an image. As for being optimistic about him being black, Haykal was right when he said that Obama is just another white president in the skin of a black Barack Obama : Al-Lahaibi: Al-Maliki statements are provocative and create gaps on the national level. Baghdad 19 / 11 /. MP Taha al-Lahibi of the Iraqi Accord Front described the statements by Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday as one of the provocative statements that contribute to creating more gaps on the national level Al-lahibi said today, Wednesday, that the statements made by al-Maliki were full of accusations, which he decried as irresponsible, to the people embracing the other opinion (according to him). Al-Maliki had said in a televised speech on Tuesday, What surprises us is that some are adopting double standards in their political positions of the withdrawal of the occupied forces agreement. What they reiterate in the media totally contradicts what they say the official meetings. They also mislead the public opinion and cause confusion by claiming that some items of the agreement allow the United States to have control over the ministries of defence and interior as well as Iraq's oil and natural resources Al-Lahaibi also pointed out that the statement highlighted the lack of statesmen in power who are capable of generating national consensus on major issues, not to mention that these statements are considered a continuation of the exclusion and marginalization approach, which was used by the current authority so that IDB will abound on others to express their opinions on major national issues He added that what is rather stranger is the accusation of being unpatriotic, despite the fact that the position of the opponents of the agreement is in the core of the Iraqi nationalism and that the items of the agreement defend the interests of the Iraqi people Police, sex and crime There is certainly a major misunderstanding behind sexual activity recently escalated by the Egyptian police. It seems that the ones who caused it are those who demanded the police to exert more effort to face the phenomenon of sexual harassment , and those who kept repeating that bloggers and activists are the ones who broke the silence surrounding this phenomenon and revealed it here on the Internet and debated it before the media did. The police understand that their role is to curb the Egyptian\rquote s sexual activities. In view of the difficulty of this task, they used the same overwhelming technique: the Internet, the place where unseen Phenomena are unleashed. Usually, policemen watching over the people and the homeland, spend a good enjoyable time surfing forums and chat pages where the bad ones have fun. They also watch a considerable number of fishy movies before the turn up with serious issues that catches The case, known as the swapping of wives The story of the popular star Saad al-Sagheer and the indecent belly dancer in a wedding party As for the wives exchange issue, the name reminds me of stamps exchange, I do not think it interests me in any way. Not even those who rode in the same microbus with me along the line Imbaba-Giza who are only concerned about the driver who refuses to go Yet the police do not prefer working on such boring cases, and would rather chase after swappers to their dins. I personally prefer haunting Stamp Exchange amateurs. At least those brats, who\rquote ve been getting on my nerves since I was a child, pay visits to As for the video clip of the song by Saad al-Sagheer, I think it's an unthought-of step by the police. It may have seemed to them a step towards an inexhaustible supply of videos for cases of singers and belly dancers, prospects of pop singers or show sta popular wedding party, using any search engine or video download websites to know what I\rquote m talking about. But on the other hand, some might get tempted to call on the police to catch the offenders red-handed, which means having to raid on people's wedding parties in the jungle Beit Al-Sahel Water Corporation in Gaza: We won\rquote t manage to purify water in the strip as of today Gaza \endash Beit Al-Sahel Water Corporation in Gaza warned Monday from a serious humanitarian disaster in the strip as of today. The corporation is no longer able to provide the Chloride required for purifying water due to Israel\rquote s constant closure of the cros \ldblquote We warn from a humanitarian as well as an environmental disaster because water contamination may occur, leading to the spread of diseases and epidemics among the Gaza Strip residents,\rdblquote Corporation Director Mondher Bushlak said in a Gaza press conference Bushlak pointed out that the corporation suffers from diminished capabilities to operate and set up the water equipment in the strip. These problems, he said, resulted from the continuous power cut and the closure of the crossings, depriving Gaza from the The corporation director complained of the ongoing refusals and constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities against facilitating these needs to the Gaza water and sanitation sector. \ldblquote The last act was preventing the delivery of some chemical substances Bushlak called on all international humanitarian organizations to interfere and request Israel to allow the entrance of the required substances, especially chloride, and stop targeting this sector, which is vital for the Palestinians\rquote life in Gaza. Israel has been closing the Gaza Strip for the past 20 days under the pretext of responding to the Palestinian factions\rquote hitting of neighboring cities by locally made rockets. A Dubai appeal court calls off 3-month sentence after sex-on-beach conviction . Al-Arabiya.net A Dubai appeal court suspended a three-month conviction against a British couple for having sex on the beach; and they will be deported to Britain, the defense lawyer said Tuesday. Their lawyer in London said the appeal court in Dubai called off the verdict against Michelle Palmer, 36, and Vince Acors, 34, both from London, freeing them. They would be deported and were ordered to pay a fine of 170 ($255), the lawyer noted. A Dubai court had earlier sentenced the couple to three months in prison, convicting them of public indecency and having unmarried sex. They were ordered to leave the country and pay 1000 Dirhams for drinking alcoholic beverages. \ldblquote The judge canceled the verdict and the two (convicts) are now free…it\rquote s fabulous,\rdblquote said lawyer Hassan Matter, who represented the couple in the court today. The public prosecutor began investigating the case on July 6th, interrogating the convicts after they had been arrested by Dubai police forces. They were accused of acting obscenely in a public beach in Jumeirah area. _However, Palmer, who works as a sale Nassiriya intellectuals welcome SOFA, praise \ldblquote voting atmosphere\rdblquote Welcoming the Iraqi Parliament\rquote s Thursday approval of the U.S. security deal, a number of intellectuals from the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya have described the atmosphere surrounding the voting process, starting from early disputes and controversy th Razzaq al-Zaidi, the head of the Union of Littérateurs and Writers in Thi-Qar, considered the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement as a \ldblquote landmark sign and a significant shift in contemporary Iraqi history, as it paves the way for a U.S. troop pullout from Iraq \ldblquote The road map outlined in this agreement will avert potential danger coming from Iraq\rquote s neighbors that have always been after its wealth, protect Iraq, by means of partnership with the most powerful country on earth, and paves the way for a clear future,\rdblquote \ldblquote Surrounding uproar and dialogue inside and outside the Parliament is a pleasant thing and a healthy sign. Today and throughout the past days, we have witnessed a defeat for dictatorship in Iraq following the emergence of differences of opinion among bloc On Thursday, the Iraqi Parliament approved the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement with a majority of 144 votes to 35 during a session where Sadrist parliamentarians raised anti-pact banners and shouted opposing slogans. The passage of the pact, also known as the Status-of-Forces Agreement (SOFA), which regulates the presence of foreign troops in Iraq after the expiry of a UN mandate by the end of the current year, is expected to put an end to a wide-scale political contr \ldblquote As of today, we should be proud that these things can happen in Iraq now. We will be the first in the region to practice democracy in a correct manner, as we have always been in all fields throughout history. All Iraqis, regardless of their affiliations, Meanwhile, Yasser al-Barak, a theater critic and director, said: \ldblquote The Iraqi Parliament\rquote s approval of the security deal is part of the democratic process that is currently taking place in the country.\rdblquote _\ldblquote Divided over the matter, the Parliament\rquote vote is a According to him, \ldblquote the major gain is not the clauses of the agreement itself, but rather the atmosphere surrounding the voting process. Opponents have expressed their anti-stance by means used in parliaments of the world\rquote s democracies and the matter ended \ldblquote If we use the same mechanism in handling other national issues, all pending national problems among politicians in the Parliament will soon be resolved. The real gain is the progress made in the democratic process in Iraq,\rdblquote he added. Ali Abdelnabi al-Zaidi, a writer, said, \ldblquote There are many positive aspects in the agreement with regards to Iraq\rquote s future, but there are also negative points in some of its clauses.\rdblquote \ldblquote What is cheering here is that a majority vote reflects an advanced stage of democracy, despite the fact that some have opposed the pact, as we have seen on satellite TV channels,\rdblquote Zaidi added. \ldblquote On the other hand, the vote could have been given more time, without any time restrictions. The issue should have been thoroughly studied, especially that it concerns Iraq\rquote s future, not only the present,\rdblquote Zaidi said. Baghdad, Aswat Al-Iraq \endash An Iraqi psychologist said male dominance is one of the major reasons behind violence against women._On the other hand, Head of Al-Amal Association, which works on fighting violence against women, Hanaa Edward, believes that the u Psychologist Qassim Hussein Saleh told Aswat Al-Iraq that one of the major factors behind violence against women is that leadership and decision-making have always been the man\rquote s job in the most democratic systems. Even in the United States, there was no Mahmoud Amin Mahmoud What is happening is normal ... they skillfully managed to drive a wedge between us. We, the Arabs, skillfully managed to remain backward. Political corruption and its grave consequences reigned over the Arab community as a whole. Congratulations from the A Muslim Egyptian Israeli navy intercepts Libyan aid ship on its way to the Gaza Strip The people of Gaza eagerly wait for the arrival of the first ship to break the siege imposed on the Strip (Aljazeera - Archives) The Israeli navy prevented a Libyan cargo ship carrying 3000 tons of food supplies and medicine from reaching Gaza harbor, while the city lived in complete darkness last night following a power cut due to the lack of fuel in the power station. Al-Jazeera correspondent in the Gaza Strip said the Israeli navy intercepted the Libyan Al-Marwa aid ship, forcing it to return to the Egyptian Al-Arish city. The Israeli foreign ministry confirmed no confrontations broke out between the Israeli navy and the ship. \ldblquote They realized the navy was there and decided to change its course. We have a specific policy about the blockade that is frequently being announced,\rdblquote According to Al-Jazeera correspondent, the Israeli foreign ministry said in the past few days it won\rquote t allow any ship to reach Gaza under the pretext that this violated the international sovereignty. The correspondent quoted international experts as sayin As for the ship\rquote s options, the reporter said its crew was thinking of heading to Larnaca port in Cyprus then to Gaza port like what European ships which broke the blockade before did. Or the crew may resort to transporting the humanitarian supplies to the The ship started its journey five days ago from the Libyan port carrying onboard a 15-member crew and three journalists. The Israeli interception came as a Turkish aid ship is waiting to move toward Gaza in the coming days. Complete darkness All the comments talk about Egypt and the Egyptians, what about the rest of the Arabs? What about the Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, these countries that pay large amounts of money to the US and the troops for peacekeeping? Is it only Egypt that should b About one and a half million Palestinians are living in complete darkness due to a power cut, which threatens dozens of patients whose lives depend on electrical equipment at hospitals. The power cut threatens patients' lives in Gaza The Palestinian energy authority said the power station in the Gaza Strip totally stopped working after it ran out of fuel because of the closure of the crossings by Israel. The station stopped working after it had partially resumed its operations using local, alternative spare parts as the occupying forces refused to let any original equipment enter the city. On November 5th, Israel intensified the blockade by closing all crossings leading to the Gaza Strip. The strip has been under siege since June 20007. Source: May God support Hamas and the resisting people of Gaza and those under blockade. Latest news / Center for Human Rights condemns collective punishment practiced by Israel on civilians in Gaza Palestine Today - Gaza In a report received by « Palestine Today », the center says that the current closure of the Gaza strip consists one of the most severe collective punishments that affect civilians, which is a total violation of the provisions of international humanitaria The report pointed out that Israel continues to deprive about 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza strip from their right of freedom of movement, and keeps them imprisoned within the sector that suffers from deteriorating humanitarian conditions because o As for basic food goods, the center said that the Israeli occupation forces didn\rquote t allow any flour deliveries into the Gaza strip for a whole week, while the current stock will be enough only for less than three days, which forced 5 out of 6 mills in the The Palestinian Center for Human Rights denounced today all forms of Israeli attacks on civilians in the Gaza strip, expressing deep concern over the continued closure of the border crossings of the strip, which are being closed by the Israeli occupation The center also explained that the patients that need urgent treatment in hospitals outside of the Gaza strip face numerous obstacles, as only 17 patients are currently allowed out of the strip on a daily basis, to receive urgent medical treatment in Isra The report considers the closure imposed recently on the Gaza strip crossings \endash which are mainly used for population movements and commercial purposes \endash a part of the continuing occupation by the Israeli forces for the Gaza strip, and a part of the genera Also, the report indicates that the economy of the Gaza strip is on the brink of collapse, as the Israeli occupations forces do not allow the exportation of Gaza strip goods through the five border crossings, on which it imposed its direct control. 76% of In this context, the center confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces have pushed the sector to acute poverty, making its population one of the most dependent communities on foreign aid. It adds that the current closure imposed on the Gaza strip is creating a real humanitarian crisis in the sector, as a part of a wide range of violations perpetrated by Israeli occupation forces against the civilian population of the Gaza strip. The center also confirmed that Israel is the occupying power of the Gaza strip, and that even if the current closure was lifted, the siege imposed on the Gaza strip will continue as long as Israel maintains its occupation of the sector. India ... Pakistan and organized terrorism ! The current tensions and arms race between Indian and Pakistan add dangerous factors to any incident. The Mumbai incident created an atmosphere of a psychological war influenced by the same circumstances. The disagreement between the two countries lies in Terrorists struck Pakistan in the heart and outskirts. Perhaps the current government is not responsible for the long-term accumulated factors that led to the establishment of training hubs for terrorists. Also maybe the overlapping of borders with Afghan The accident is horrible, shaking the safety of any state at the chore on the commercial and security levels. The incident has definitely caused more outrage after being exposed to a security case having an impact on the country\rquote s dignity. But any develop The operation was accurate and substantial, which means a different development in the management of terrorist attacks. As long as any of the two countries gets exposed to such terrorist elements, the solution lies in reconciliation, ending the Kashmir co We have been here before her ancestors thought of coming to the country, Mujadla says responding to Livni\rquote s racist statements Palestinian Minister of Sports, Culture and Science Ghalib Mujadla commented on what Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni said about Arabs living in Israel. Mujadala said Livni\rquote s statements were likely to stir tension in the relations between Arabs and Je The minister called on the Arab Kadima Party members to withdraw from the party as a means of protesting against Livini\rquote s statements, which were directed to them more than anybody else._\ldblquote Arab Kadima party members should stand up now and shout loudly in th Mujadla is currently in a visit to Greece to attend an Olympics conference for the world sports ministers where he represents the Israeli mission. He gave a speech, stressing on the importance of investing in sports to establish a sound, enlightened socie The growth rate rose to 5,5 percent He said Ambassador Maged Abdel Fattah, Egypt's permanent representative to the United Nations : that the draft resolution comes in response to the Egyptian demands, and represents a positive step to support the peace process between the Palestinians and I The Iraqi government said on Monday, it is about to allow doctors to carry individual weapons in order to protect themselves. Hundreds of doctors have been targeted and killed since the invasion of the country led by the United States in 2003. Associated Press Agency quoted a statement issued by the Iraqi council of ministers saying that the government had instructed the Ministry of Health to start the construction of residential complexes for doctors from surrounding areas. He said that the pop star owes him 7 million dollars Threatened to move could be catastrophic that did not achieve their demands observers : Most workers in prostitution come from Arab countries The judge said Abdul Sattar Al-Berkdar l ( of Iraq ) that the number of the released since the application of the law of the general amnesty in a month last February, on Tuesday, was 129408 people \rdblquote . Baghdad, Voices of Iraq : Trade minister Abdel Falah al-Sudani discussed on Tuesday with the UAE ambassador in Baghdad economic and trade cooperation between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, according to a ministry statement. The statement which Aswat al-Iraq received a copy of quoted al-Sudani as saying during his meeting with UAE ambassador Iraq seeks further cooperation with the UAE in all fields through the activation of the mechanisms of the joint UAE-Iraqi committee, to Al-Sudani added: The UAE was the first state to reduce Iraq's debts, stretching out a helping hand since the first day of the fall of the regime. It will not abandon its authentic Arab role in helping the Iraqis \rdblquote . Al-Sudani added that the coming period will see more bilateral cooperation between Iraq and the UAE in all fields of trade and the economy. Psychologist: Male dominance, one of the main reasons for violence against women Saleh explained that the psychology of leadership is dominated by conditions including control and the appearance of a strong man who is always obeyed, while exercising his power on his victim. Yesterday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women. On that occasion, Iraqi Women\rquote s Association held in cooperation with Fine Artists without Borders an exhibition in central Baghdad near Abu Noas Gardens across the French C . The woman, Saleh said, across ages has always been the victim as men made a dependent of her on the levels of protection and economy. \ldblquote Men, including the cultured ones, are culturally and behaviorally immature in the way they deal with women,\rdblquote he added. According to Saleh, there is a third factor related to the woman herself. \ldblquote The image she has about herself is similar to the one the man has about her,\rdblquote he argued. \ldblquote She looks at herself as a weak creature who is socially, culturally and politically inferi In addition, \ldblquote the law, social values and tribal traditions are all in favor of the man when it comes to his relationship with the woman.\rdblquote As for the influence of the external violence in the Iraqi society on the family, Saleh pointed out that men are overloaded with numerous frustrations like unemployment, which causes him to have feelings of lose and that he hasn\rquote t got his right, creating Even the man who has a job, Saleh said, he is usually full of fear and frustrations, the road hazards, etc. All this cause him to need a kind of purge. \ldblquote The nearest victim at him is usually the woman.\rdblquote The issue of violence against women throughout the recent years, according to Edward, is directly related to the current security situation in Iraq. \ldblquote We found out that the escalating hostility against women is linked to the aggression spread in the societ Edward explained that throughout the short period when the woman restored her right to act and express herself, she faced a fierce campaign of terrorism, anger and extremism. \ldblquote Through some kind of action, women defied such attacks; and in return, she gave up a lot (and went through a lot) like displacement and abduction,\rdblquote she said. Unfortunately, Edward added, these phenomena are going though they decreased. \ldblquote We have programs for violence through which we seek to spread the gender culture and human rights among judges as law enforcers to help them better understand violence against women,\rdblquote she concluded. . Obama and Hillary, a never-stopping conflict Omani Al-Watan By Khalil Al-Anani Obama\rquote s victory represented hope, while the challenges he goes through internally and externally are incomparable to what George W. Bush encountered after his election in 2000. That\rquote s why it is logical now for Obama to face a conflict. This conflict is pa We can now talk about two priorities (on Obama\rquote s agenda), starting with a fierce challenge, which is a complicated economy file. The other file is that of the external policy. The question now is with which one he will start. In my opinion, the economic c The economic file had an impact on the formation of the expected Obama administration. Throughout last week, he began assigning a number of officials the economic file. The appointed officials include Timothy Geithner, President and CEO of the Federal Res Also Lawrence Summers was appointed as the top White House Economic Adviser and the Head of the National Economic Council. Summers held the position of the Secretary of Treasury during Clinton\rquote s term. _New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was appointed as As for the second priority, the external policy file, it can be said that the frequent talk about selecting Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State means that Obama had already made up his mind, putting the economic file on top of his priorities over ot The question now is will Obama totally leave the external policy file to Hillary with no interference? Of course it is currently hard to predict an answer to this question. _However, there are three indicators revealing that Obama will be away from the fi That\rquote s why it is expected that Hillary will manage the external US policy. Reports said she wished to communicate directly with Obama in case she accepted the post,⸀ In other words, the choice of Hillary to hold this post indicates that her conflict with Obama is not over yet, and that we will witness more rounds between them but in the corridors of the White House. Nevertheless, the selection of Clinton for the post comes as part of the internal \ldblquote hidden\rdblquote struggle inside the Democratic Party. _Through this choice, Obama can attain three gains. The first is to handle the internal conflict inside the Democratic Party a Iraqis agree on executing Al-Majid, disagree on fate of others Basra, Salahaddin, Missan, Aswat Al-Iraq \endash Citizens from Basra and Tikrit considered the Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court\rquote s sentences issued Tuesday against the defendants in the Shia uprising named Al-Intifada Al-sha'abanyia as fair. _Others think the verdic Mostafa Karim, a 44-year civil servant from Basra told Aswat Al-Iraq that the verdict against Al-Majid is a slap in the face to all those who committed any harm against the Iraqi people. \ldblquote Al-Majid was like the Hitler of his era. The verdict against him is Fifty-three year old businessman Ali Salman, another citizen from Basra, agrees with Karim that it was a just verdict due to what Al-Majid did of killing hundreds of innocent people in the north and south with no fair trials. \ldblquote Everybody saw him on TV hitt The court sentenced Al-Majid, Sadam Hussein\rquote s cousin, to death by handing in his capacity as the former commander of the military forces section in the southern area and a member of the dissolved Revolution Command Council. The court also issued the same Tikrit university professor Hussein Al-Obaidi said the sentences were expected but they were kind of surprising regarding some decedents. He pointed out that Al-Majid deserved the sentence to death._Al-Obaidi added that most of the convicts were soldiers However, retired military brigadier Abdullah Jassem Mohamed, a Tikrit inhabitant, told Aswat Al-Iraq the sentences have a political inclination so as to nail senior Iraqi officers who served at the time of the war with Iran. Mohamed further described the . Al-Obaidi added that most of the convicts were soldiers obeying orders. \ldblquote It\rquote s illogical to condemn them for crimes committed by politicians,\rdblquote he said. The Supreme Criminal Court sentenced to life imprisonment Ibrahim Abdul-Sattar Mohamed, commander of the second corps in Basra, Eyad Fatih Al-Rawi Republican Guard commander at that time, Hussein Mohamed Rachid Al-Tikriti, deputy army chief of staff and A The court sentenced the following to 15 years imprisonment: Sabawy Ibrahim Al-Hassan, ex-director of intelligence as well as Abdel-Hamid Mahmoud, Walid Hamid Tawfik Al-Nasser, who all belonged to the republican gaurds, and Sultan Hashim Ahmed, the former Al-Kasseb Al-Basry Saad Al-Saayye said he believed the punishment was predetermined before the trial was over. \ldblquote The case of the former regime figures is merely personal and revengeful. Many people who were in charge after the invasion of Iraq committed cr \ldblquote Maybe Al-Majid deserves this verdict; but what about those who were also sentenced to death. Did they deserve that?\rdblquote he wondered. Thirty-year old Missan resident Moulim Adai Abdul-Khalik said the TV contributed to acquainting the public opinion with facts about the trial. \ldblquote It explained with clear evidence that Chemical Ali (Al-Majid) was the major perpetrator of several violations a . Another Missan resident, Abbas Fakher, considered the day when Al-Majid was sentenced to death as \ldblquote the justice day.\rdblquote He told Aswat Al-Iraq that \ldblquote what Chemical Ali and those with him behind bars got is the fair verdict.\rdblquote \ldblquote He deserves the sentence. We now need to forget about this phase of our people\rquote s life after punishing every unjust person through the people\rquote s court,\rdblquote he added. \ldblquote At the same time, we can\rquote t leave the criminal free like the case now.\rdblquote Abdul-Khalik believes \ldblquote There should be a punishment for all killers and criminals who made the people extremely suffer,\rdblquote he said. Fakher said the day of the verdict was a happy day for Iraqis and a victory for those whose blood was shed without committing anything wrong other than being honest Iraqis. Bahaa Nasser, a university student form Basra, noted that the death sentence is the least Al-Majid should get after the crimes he committed against humanity, especially how he made the Basra people suffer during the 1991 uprising. Al-Intifada Al-Sha'abanyia refers to the uprising that broke out after the withdrawal of the Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. It mainly erupted in the southern provinces, especially Basra. In the meantime, the court declared innocent Sufian Maher Hassan, commander of the second armored brigade of the former republican guard, Latif Hamoud Al-Sabaawy, ex- brigadier in the army and former member of the security in Basra and Eyad Taha Shihab, t Civil servant Marawn Samy, a Tikrit local, expressed his concerns toward the possibility of intensifying the sentences of those who were cleared during other stages like the appeal. Israa Mahmoud, a teacher from Tirkrit, said the death sentence against Al-Majid was expected due to the crimes he committed. \ldblquote What hurt me is the death sentence against the old man Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafour only because he was in command (at that time),\rdblquote Nevertheless, Haidar Al-Saedi, a media person from Missan, believes the court decision was fair to the victims of the mass graves and the thousands of young people, who were the victims of the former regime\rquote s policy. \ldblquote The decision was fair and just,\rdblquote he s The proof, according to Al-Saedi, is that the court declared a number of convicts innocent as seen on TV._Another Missan resident has a different opinion. \ldblquote The court cleared some convicts and sentenced some to reduced sentences, though they all took part . Lifting of the state of preparedness in the West Bank in anticipation of violence committed by settlers Tunisia - culminating in the works for 17 major Algerian joint committee concluded its work Tunisian capital on Thursday chaired by Tunisian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and his Tunisian counterpart Mohamed Ghannouchi signed eight agreements and memorandu Sent by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Al-Sabah sent a congratulatory message to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand friendly expressing my sincere congratulations on the anniversary of his country's National Day French President Nicolas Sarkozy on huge government investment plan to help the housing and auto sectors at a cost of 26 billion euros (32.84 billion dollars). Several observatories information called for the release of the journalist and Adel Hussein, a doctor, who was sentenced to 6 months for writing about homosexuals in the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq._He was sentenced Adil Hussein in Novemb Dr. Ahmed Darwish was Minister of Administrative Development and Chief of Mission official of the Hajj, ‮ ‬ shortage of preachers in ‮ ‬ missions pilgrimage, ‮ ‬ ‮ ‬ complaints and the disappearance of pilgrims preachers despite the urgent need to ‮. ‬ Th Misdemeanor Appeal Agouza issued its ruling on the resumption of the four editors Parliament discuss the situation in Saudi Arabia and Egyptian doctors developments in the Almjloddin Badhdh warns of recurrence of the pilgrimage each year Shen Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia late yesterday, Wednesday, the national festival of heritage and culture of Saudi (Janadriyah 23) the launching of the annual camel race village Paljnaderip People in Riya Khenchela girl and a shock cut and run student, was studying in Khenchela Baptdaiip to a collision by a car driver fled the scene immediately the accident, was transferred to the schoolgirl Investigations revealed to the interests of fraud control and suppression of the Ministry of Commerce of the Spanish company to provide Algerian enterprises industrial equipment allows the blending of large quantities of sugar with the coffee powder way t The Director of the European Union's external relations, Haig Mngarelli on Monday evening, Dec. 1 to meet the current European Union, Embassy of Tunisia brought together representatives of the European Union officials of the Tunisian League for the Defe Oouturai between Oran, Chlef and expanding the port to a capacity of 18 thousand containers «Justice» denies filed on the cemetery «Gentlemen» Informed sources linked in Egypt and Saudi Arabia between President Hosni Mubarak's visit to Saudi Arabia on the participation of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in launching the phrases «Cairo» and «Riyadh», and the presence of indicators of t Union: received HE President Jalal Talabani at his residence in the city of Sulaimaniya, a telephone call from U.S. President George W. Bush congratulated President Talabani during the occasion of the signing and ratification of the Convention on the with Make family-term, dear readers to mark the Eid Al Adha showered congratulations and blessings and wish to return them to their families, security and good blessings, and on this occasion obscured by the paper from publication on Sunday and is back publica The return of the differences between Arbil and Baghdad to the forefront with the continuing problems of Kirkuk and the Peshmerga and oil contracts .. As many had expected, the Israeli occupation forces prevented (2/12/2008) vessel Libyan access to the port of Gaza, carrying to the people of the besieged sector, medicine and milk and food, after near death from starvation, and in the darkness, especi Kamal Jumblatt was not the first political leader of the Lebanese Syrian regime assassinate him, after the Syrian nationalist assassinated the first leader of the Lebanese independence hero Riad al-Solh, and nationalists and the Syrian national belief and Kamal Jumblatt was not the first political leader of the Lebanese Syrian regime assassinate him, after the Syrian nationalist assassinated the first leader of the Lebanese independence hero Riad al-Solh, and nationalists and the Syrian national belief and Dr. Nabil new tastes: reconciliation * Ibiza is the concerts during the summer. Young Europeans dancing to the sound of electronic music in night clubs such as Space, Omneja, sailing and rock star and models to the nearby island of Formintera Sangria for a drink with lunch and rent-rich famili * The dialogue of religions ends its support of the values of tolerance Speaking spontaneously, and expressed one way or another for fear of what is happening, and told us the dream in Lebanon Accelerated the movement of oil prices heading below $ 40 a barrel, with the expectations of a sharp decline the request with the entry into the global economy is in recession and likely investment bank Merrill Lynch said oil prices continue to decline ov Turning to the Almighty have mercy on fellow journalist Issa Raja at the age of 86 years after a lifetime of giving the media in Jordan and Palestine. And mourned the chairman of the Press Syndicate colleague Abdel-Wahab Zgellat journalist Raja Essa quali In December 2000, participated and colleagues_Journalists from Lebanon in the training course_Investigative journalism in the United States_Organized by the International Press Institute in Washington._A term of a new way of the press is envisaged_In-dept Resentment and condemnation of the attack on Amin Gemayel weapons of the resistance Geologists suggests pegging the price of gasoline and direct support to Kaz, gas oil and gas Home Welcome Zairna decent, if this first visit of the Forum, please kindly visit our instructions, J, there is a section of the creators had their share of fame, the top of the cultural and media scene, and other submerged consented housing in the margin, although the Tktens their creativity in what may exceed the quality, by some well-known names. . W Is not correct to say that there is no out_Winner of the financial crisis sweeping the world, the erosion of people's savings and livelihoods. For_Over the decades of years in succession the establishment of the so-called financial companies and banks_Inv Muslim: telecommunications companies claim consumers about the past While all signs that the real-time indicators of the state budget would go a major setback as a result of the repercussions of the global financial crisis, which began its guidelines in the first announcement of the postponement of the same five-year plan Transfer control to them instead of fashion Scathing criticism in the meeting Siniora awaiting the general debate soon .. The House of Representatives: procrastination in completing the file of government wages He predicted the destruction of relations between Baabda and Hillock Search the horizon of cooperation between the Ministry of Finance Baktaatha with a delegation of French companies operating in the sectors of finance and customs, banks and insurance The capitalist and exploitative to destroy_His country .. Because the profit is his homeland Channel avoided Arabia as well as ‮ »‬ mother ‮ ‬, ‮ ‬ me ‮. ‬ CNN ‮ «‬ deal with the Libyan News vessel ‮» ‬ Almrop ‮ «‬ ‮ ‬ which went to the port of Gaza ‮ ‬ ‮ ‬ loaded with food and medicine to people ‮ ‬ ‮ ‬ ‮ ‬ sector who are subjected to a cripplin ._Libyan brothers of the Palestinian_Affirms: tracking boats_Israeli military ship to Libya_Almrop piracy is clear The Chinese official quoted at the beginning of the meeting, the greetings of Chinese President Hu Jintao to the Leader of the Revolution, he looked forward to China by the Leader has close second visit .. For daily Newsletter Yahoo! Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreement Friday to build a new nuclear power stations to generate energy in India. He said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a joint news conference held Thank you very much on this magnificent site and thank each of the two brotherly help us in resolving their opinion is not ... Gaza staff deprived of their salaries because of a lack of liquidity The representative of the United Nations Population Fund that was completed a draft action plans for the new country program (2007-2011 m), indicating that the number of those who expressed a desire to work within the program amounted to (39) on the gover Convention security crisis produce housing and raise the price of real estate to unprecedented levels in Baghdad Security in violation of campus police and abusing the simple factor, and 25 deputy commander demanding the appearance of the Central Security to Parliament Ahmed al-Amiri, the idea of the program revolves around traditional dishes Bahrain, a Bahraini society, where a large number of Bahrainis Tabakhien. When constructed of Ptolemy I and re-construction in the new format and beautiful dress ... Invited 41 players for the national football team Weather inspect Iraqi areas every day and send us pictures Jamal left Iraq. Tastqubl Mr. Saleh Bin Mohammed Al Marri, Head of Mission of haj country and Mr. Jassim Al-Kubaisi, deputy chief of mission yesterday representatives of the delegations Amiri Mecca pilgrims from Lebanon, Bulgaria, Poland and Togo and Benin The auspices of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Excellency the President of Egypt .. Jeddah Islamic Port receives a gift Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Search Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his brother His Excellency President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the prospects for cooperation between the two countries and ways of strengthening t Hajin injury and Red Crescent medics in a Mecca JERUSALEM - A source with a bank early Friday that the banks acted Gaza tomorrow, Saturday, part of the salaries of personnel, including availability Oil rich and producing countries can agree in the next Arab economic summit to allocate half a dollar from each oil barrel to support the Palestinians. This will end up with USD 3.5 billion dollars annually for use in building the Palestinian economic fo The worst in Gaza is the Arab political use of it, not against Israel but against themselves. The worst thing in what happened is that all the bloodshed and bodies and pain were used to attack and accuse each other. Despite the volume of the massacre, the Where is the battle?! . Thus we find anger, sadness and pain dominating the Arab street, while the reaction of leaders, presidents and kings seems much weaker. In fact, when the Arab street demonstrated and protested in anger, Arab leaders, kings and presidents were attacking each other, even more than they attacked Israel. They seized the massacre as an opportunity to settle their accounts and as a meansto stri Egypt in absencia Frederick Kanoute raising his hands to thank God the Almighty Frederick Kanoute shows his support for Palestine in all the languages of the world Moheet - Khaled Zalat Kanoute, Sevilla's player When you read a news story about the international Malian football player Frederick Kanoute, the striker of the Spanish team of Sevilla, you feel a strange curiosity to know everything about him, not only in the stadium, but also in his personal life that In a great humanitarian gesture, Kanoute showed great courage during his team's match against Deportivo La Coruna in the Spanish Champions Cup, when he expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, which is being subjected to continued Israeli The Malian striker wanted to show the whole world by this act what the Palestinian cause meant to him, by showing solidarity with the people of Gaza who are subjected daily to various types of Israeli missiles that caused over 700 deaths among the Palesti This is not a new thing for Kanoute, this Muslim man who is committed to humanitarian issues and charitable projects, as he had payed before the amount of half a million dollars from his own money to prevent the demolition of a mosque in the city of Andal What was nice about this act of the Malian player was that he did not provide that amount through an intermediary or another person, but he presented the money himself without any shame or embarrassment to be affected by the lights of fame and stardom, as Frederick Kanoute, Sevilla's player, reading Al-Fatihah before going to the stadium Sevilla's player was able to gain the respect of his colleagues during the whole period that he spent with them in the Spanish team, as he kept maintaining his customs and traditions that he was brought up with, besides his great success in the Spanish league. He would interrupt the exercises daily, go to the locker room, and perform prayers, and then he returns normally to complete his training, which resul There is also a famous incident that happened last year, and which has made some affirm that the departure of the Malian player from the club is close, after he refused to wear the t-shirt of his team, unless if it was clear of the logo of the sponsoring Among the things that drew everyone's attention was when Kanoute scolded a journalist after the match against Real Madrid in the last season, as the journalist asked him sarcastically about his religion: what do you know about the Islamic religion that y The Malian striker said: When a simple-minded asks you a question like that, your response will inevitably be tough. He does not know the Islamic religion and what it carries of noble teachings and mercy, and above all he questions sarcastically and iron The match witnessed at that time a bright success of Kanoute, as he scored the equalizing goal for his team, and he raised his hands thanking God as he does in most of his matches, which prompted the Spanish journalist to ask Kanoute that question after t One of the most important characteristics of Frederic Kanoute is his strong physical structure, as he is good at penetrating defenses. He also often wins against his opponents in physical combats, and he is of a great discipline in the stadium. He is Kano Frederic Kanoute was born in September 2, 1977 in Lyon, France. He is a Malian football player. He started his career with the club of Lyon in 1997, and played with them until 2000; he had participated with them in 40 games, and scored 9 goals. In 2000, h Gaza\rquote s men do not want your crumbs We do not know how many children and women Israel needs to kill and dismember their bodies with the rockets of its tanks and aircrafts, before it quenches its thirst, and stops its current brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip. It seems that the number of v And we do not know either how much time will the Arab leaders need to act and save their dignity, or what\rquote s left of it, if anything is left that is, before responding to the calls of the bereaved, the moans of the injured, and the cries of frightened chil The Egyptian government has been negotiating an offensive initiative with its Israeli counterpart for 20 days, to help the aggressors achieve all the goals they are looking forward to, and they are still coquetting, and asking for more concessions and blo We were looking forward to a crucial Arab summit, to reflect an official Arab movement that uses the potential of this nation, which is important and influential, to stop this aggression, and we ended up with 3 summits, at once. The first one was already Countries that have nothing to do with Arabism, and that do not belong to the Islamic faith, answered the calls for help of the victims in the Gaza Strip, and took the initiative to immediately cut their ties with the Jewish state (Venezuela and Bolivia), Whoever wants to move, does not need the convening of Arab summits, whether ordinary or emergent, you only need to take practical steps, depending on your capabilities, to translate your words into actions, and exonerate yourself, before God and your citi We thought that the magnitude of the tragedy in Gaza will be a factor of unity of Arabs and Muslims, and how optimistic and naïve were we, as it was used by some in a horrible way to strengthen this axis to confront that, or just the opposite, which has e Mrs. Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, said that they are waging this war on behalf of the moderate Arab camp, and to serve their goals of getting rid of the 'terrorism' of the movement of \lquote Hamas\rquote and other factions, and it seems that she is right b The resistant residents of Gaza do not want their coffins to be sent to them by their brothers in their luxurious capitals, nor bread, nor a few drugs, they rather want weapons, and manly practical attitudes, what will they do with bread while they are fa Arab leaders prefer to travel to the economic summit of Kuwait, to agree on how to invest their money and residuals in a more profitable way, and to coordinate positions in order to ensure better prices for their oil, as for the blood of children in Gaza, The Western world that supports Israel and provides a legal cover for its continued aggression, does not understand but the language of interests. And its interests are limited to two basic things only, which are its security and its pocket, and it is reg Mr. Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, criticized the inability of the moderate Arab leaders, just like us writers and commentators, but we do not have submarines, missiles and revolutionary guards like him, and we can not close the S We are well aware that they are being targeted, and that the aggression on Gaza is a prelude to the aggression coming to them, and we do not want them to fall into the trap of Israeli provocation, but there must be cards in their hands that can be used ef We have the right to ask the Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz if he watched the remains of the bodies of Gaza\rquote s children, like us, on TV, and if he watched them then what is he waiting for, as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the closest ally of t We are asking the same question to the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, whom we believe is fully convinced that the role of the mediator that he is playing now is the best that he can do, forgetting as a commander of the Air Force during the glorious Oc As for the national authority in Ramallah, it has started acting like one of the cantons of the former apartheid regime in South Africa, watching things from afar, and only sending food and medical aid to the strip, and supporting the Egyptian initiative They are talking in Ramallah about their opposition to the separation of the West Bank from the strip, and they confirm that they will not return to Gaza on Israeli tanks, so let them prove that in practice, and make concrete steps to confirm their intent The Gaza Strip fell under the Israeli occupation twice, and this is the third attempt, causing thousands of victims and martyrs, and it came strong out of it every time, victorious and stubborn in its attachment to resistance and its national principles, The coming Palestinian generations raising from the rubble of this destruction will certainly be different, and may not accept what the current generation is accepting, and it will seek revenge against all those who let their fathers down, and connived wi Harbors……will they stop the aggression? The aggression on Gaza or the nation has never been over. What ended was just a phase. Had the Zionist entity got rid its aggressive tendency, the most objective condition determining its survival and existence would have been compromised. _I think whoeve I don\rquote t think that Olmert and his military leaders have satisfied their thirst of the martyrs' blood in Gaza or elsewhere in Palestinian areas and cities. They are definitely preparing for another phase, a fact realized by the persistent resistance that a The assault is a profoundly ingrained feature in the Zionist entity. That's why the resistance factions should get ready for the upcoming stage. The entity is likely to resort to the United States and other Western powers to combat what they describe as w What I'm hoping for is that the regional, Arab system would reinforce itself and get over the state of division it has been going through lately. The attack on Gaza didn\rquote t target Hamas, the resistance or the Palestinian people. It was rather directed to t The last line is: Don\rquote t send me destructive winds from your eyes as I'm haunted by your everlasting ardent. Be a field of wheat satisfying my thirst to you and giving me back the fields of presence. This week's Al-Arabiya.net book review presents the book prepared and edited by Mohamed Ali Al-Basyouni, entitled: The State of Facebook. The book contains selected contributions of Egyptian groups on Facebook.com, and presents samples of their feeds with The State of Facebook: Silent majority in search of a_ role inside a virtual world Al-Arabiya.net weekly book review The State of Facebook: Social community finds space for expression Mohamed Al-Basyouni, Egyptian writer of the book entitled The State of Facebook and published by Dar El Shorouk in Cairo, does not claim to provide an academic study about the world of Facebook. This website appeared on the Internet in 2004 by the Ameri After his rapid introduction about the possibility and freedom of expression provided by the Internet, through both blogs and Facebook, Mohamed Ali Al-Basyouni focuses on collecting, selecting and electing samples of Egyptian groups on this website, and c The most important detail that the reader notices in the samples suggested by Mohamed Ali Al-Basyouni in his book The State of facebook, concerning the Egyptian groups on this website, is that they provide a different image of the Egyptian citizen and s In addition to the level of awareness and unbridled desire to participate in public issues, which were demonstrated by the groups selected by the author, there is an interesting level of writings, especially those with a sense of sarcasm. With some effort Finally, the author can be blamed for 3 things: firstly, not studying the samples provided in his book to draw some conclusions, although he claimed not doing it. Secondly, his caution of political censorship which made him ignore the political opposition Title: The State of Facebook Author: Mohamed Ali Al-Basyouni Publisher: Dar El Shorouk, Cairo First edition 2009 He shut down Guantanamo and no one paid attention to him Barack Obama probably thought that after he signed the decision of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, he will be welcomed with demonstrations praising his brave initiative, and commending his message to the world, and Arabs in particular. As closing a pri Guantanamo has become history, but upcoming cases are the future of the world, and are also more serious than just a bunch of prisoners in a remote island. The United States is amid a conflict that will not stop only because a President is gone and replac The White House party will not last long before Obama will have to deal with the more serious dispute on Iran\rquote s activities regarding the enrichment of uranium and building its nuclear weapons. Will he accept that? It is a very unlikely thing to happen! So The closure of a prison took an hour of Obama\rquote s time, and can not be compared to facing the biggest problem between Israel and Arabs. At least Obama assured the region that it is his priority, despite the seriousness of the American financial crisis, and What about Darfur trials? Is the new American President ready to go all the way to sue the Sudanese President accused of war crimes, even if that costs the burning of the capital Khartoum? It is not surprising that President Omar Al-Beshir will use civili The decision of closing the Guantanamo prison was a good step by the new President, because the prison was originally a circumvention of rules, and one of the most abusing things for the reputation of the United States in recent history, as the Guantanamo After closing the prison and starting to deport prisoners, how will Obama deal with serious cases, while there are wild free forces in the region awaiting his first steps to pounce on him? Comments Tarek Ismail, «United States of America», 27/01/2009 Yes, Guantanamo was a circumvention of rules! But why? Because the system was not designed to deal with events such as September 11! For example, what would Obama do if U.S. forces arrest Bin Laden or Al-Zawahiri in Pakistan or Afghanistan? The mistake of Baqer Ibrahim, «Norway», 27/01/2009 Yes, he shut down Guantanamo, and no positive reaction was emitted, as that was considered a political decision based on a former political opposition. The most surprising thing is that some of the released terrorists from Guantanamo returned to their old Dr. Emad Al-Mansouri, Pediatrics adviser, «Canada», 27/01/2009 Professor Al-Rashed, Palestine was occupied five decades before the birth of Hamas. The barbaric tripartite aggression on Egypt, and on my beloved city of Port Said, happened before my birth, and before the birth of Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyeh. When the Zionists killed Egyptian war prisoners, and occupied Sinai, there was no Hamas and no Hezbollah. When the Zionists invaded Lebanon and committed the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, there was no Hamas, and no Hassan Nasrallah. There was only Mahmoud Abbas and his associates. The highness of the International Criminal Court wants to proceed to the trial Zahid Al-Omary,, «France», 27/01/2009 Hamas resisted and won, just like Hezbollah before it did, as the Israelis themselves admit… Saddam was a unique man, and time has been proven that, as he had warned people from the Persians and their menace for Iraq… Saddam had said that Iraq will triump Khaled Al-Ghamdi, « Kingdom of Saudi Arabia», 27/01/2009 Brother Al-Rashid, what you wrote about the possibility of Sudan to sacrifice the people of Khartoum as human shields for Al-Bashir was not a successful deduction. The sacrifice will not be for the President being Bashir, or Said or whatever name. The sacrifice is to defend dignity. Does the U.S.A have the right to jail anyone just because they disagree with its policies? Does the U.S.A apply the same scale it is using in Darfur in other areas such as Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo? Don\rquote t all these acts require Cairo International Book Fair has witnessed a hot symposium about \ldblquote Blogs\rquote literature: Is it just a number of screams or scattered papers?\rdblquote The symposium was run by the novelist, Youssef Al-Qaeed, in the presence of Shaban Youssef, the poet, and the young Sharp criticism of the Egyptian culture in the Cairo International Book Fair - 27 January 2009 Tuesday 01 Safar 1430 IslamToday/Agencies Thinkers and intellectuals have criticized the level of the Egyptian culture and its current situation. During the conference on \ldblquote Cultural services, between service and profit\rdblquote which was held at the Cairo International Book Fair, participants considered t Dr. Said Allawandi (international relations expert at Al-Ahram Foundation) says that the Egyptian culture is currently suffering from a severe malaise, and that it no longer holds the position is used to. He added that the proliferation of visual media He said that the current situation of the different media outlets has contributed to the negative impact on the Egyptian culture, to the extent that it affected the latter significantly. Dr. Allawandi also said that the Arabic passion for the Egyptian culture it no longer like it was in the past, when it had illuminating figures, many thinkers and creators were inspired by it, and now that these figures no longer exist, the Egyptian cult He criticized the lack of interest towards culture and intellectuals in Egypt, as well as the decrease in the number of scholars sent abroad in educational missions. He also urged not to focus on the terms the leading Egypt, the nation of Egypt\rdblquote . He considered not promoting such terms as a good thing, since Egypt is not currently keeping a permanent position at the global level, in terms of culture, politics and media. Dr. Allawandi blames some of the concerned authorities for the absence of cultural awareness. Dr. Medhat Al-Jayar, the writer who conducted the conference, agreed with Dr. Allawandi, emphasizing that he is indeed feeling the suffering expressed by him, an Dr. Allawandi reiterated that while some Arab countries are preparing for full volumes of Taha Hussein and Abbas Al-Aqqad among others, Egypt is not showing interest in these figures. As for Dr. Fatima Al-Boudi (chairwoman of the board of the publishing house Dar Ayn), she criticized the Egyptian media which hosts writers and asks the guests not to mention the name of the publishing house they belong to. She confirms that this is wrong She also said: 50 years after creating the Ministry of Culture, it should have become an authority that has the responsibility of enriching the Egyptian culture, but what happened is a different story, it caused a lack of culture, leading to a lack of cu She criticized some journalistic organizations that could have contributed to giving priority to ads on the cultural pages, by cancelling the latter if ads were brought in, which means a lack of awareness of the value of culture, and the role of the cult The Vast Majority of Blogs\rquote Readers is In Qatar; Kuwait Comes Second! Bloggers Scream: We Are Searching for a Real Outlet for Our Thoughts, Away from Surveillance! In a symposium held at Cairo International Book Fair: Cairo- Al-Rayah Newspaper \endash Raymaa Abdel-Ghafoor: Furthermore, she referred to the fact that there are 60 thousand blogs currently launched and that the number of blogs\rquote visitors is rapidly increasing. In addition, she considers blogs honest words spoken from the heart, and are capable of being published Ghada Abdel-Aal further added: \ldblquote when I started to write my thoughts in blogs, I imagined that I was going to be vulnerable to youth \lquote s attack; especially because I have focused in my blog on making guys get to know about a girl\rquote s feelings and emotions dur Then, Al-Qaeed has asked Mai Khaled, the novelist, to speak; she introduced the novels, \ldblquote Sahar El-Trekwaz\rdblquote , \ldblquote Maqaad Fe Qaet Eward: A Seat in Eward Hall\rdblquote . She also wrote a novel about bloggers; at the beginning of her speech, she said: \ldblquote I came to learn abo Then, she said: \ldblquote when the writer Jihad El-Khazen wrote about blogs, they began to gain popularity; what contributed to this as well was when the great writer, Mohammed Hasanein Heikal spoke about blogs, mentioning that he is a faithful reader of \ldblquote Bahia\rdblquote b Then, she said: \ldblquote when the writer Jihad El-Khazen wrote about blogs, they began to gain popularity; what contributed to this as well was when the great writer, Mohammed Hasanein Heikal spoke about blogs, mentioning that he is a faithful reader of \ldblquote Bahia\rdblquote b Moreover, Al-Qaeed invited the young blogger, \ldblquote Shady Asslan\rdblquote , to start his speech. Shady emphasized: \ldblquote there are a lot of things to be explored in the blogging world, and we need to take a chance to do this.\rdblquote Asslan revealed the fact that there are specia In an interposition by the poet, Shaban Youssef, he illustrated that, from his own point of view, blogs appeared as a result of persecution which writers face, the matter which made them resort to seeking an outlet for themselves by writing on the interne In an interposition by the poet, Shaban Youssef, he illustrated that, from his own point of view, blogs appeared as a result of persecution which writers face, the matter which made them resort to seeking an outlet for themselves by writing on the interne However, blogs are blamed of making literature devoid of its profound value, and it has rendered literature into some imaginary presumed stories that are totally far from reality. _The great writer Youssef Al-Qaeed then commented that bloggers\rquote literature Culture of the state: Renaissance is gone, and police remained Significant improvement this year, and novels sweep the market British Rick Jerome and Huff Morgan in the Pink Bags exhibition at the book fair The Cairo International Book Fair didn\rquote t retain anything of the golden age except some superlatives. While waiting for a real revival of the cultural institution to happen, and for what it needs of diverse intellectual and political conditions to be, th Mohammed Khir Pages of thousands of novels in the \ldblquote Cairo International Book Fair\rdblquote - even in fictional novels and detective stories \endash didn\rquote t make it to describe such a scene: Happy children in a sunny winter morning, race their parents to colourful gates, but soon run i It is unfair to not consider the positive aspects of the 41st edition of the famous book fair, which no longer has from its golden age but superlatives (the oldest, the biggest), while it plummeted to the bottom in matters of organization and management. In any case, the current edition, which has been extended to the 8th of next month, will be the last to have the current image of the book fair. The next rendezvous will be in the big conference room adjacent to the exhibition. Assuming that the demolitio But the most important difference has nothing to do with the management, but with the market: gradually, the nature of headlines changed ... and the nature of buyers changed, apart from the religious books market that maintained its \ldblquote prosperity\rdblquote . The most In light of a new reality that witnesses how political books are affected by the domination of satellite channels that catch analysis instantly, in a way typing machines fail to keep up with…When can writers analyse deeply, to write, print and sell? Liter It seems that those who predicted the \ldblquote death of poetry\rdblquote will have to wait a long time. Egyptian publishers are back with a number of poems publications. One of the important ones is \ldblquote the poet and the Sheikh\rdblquote , by Helmi Salem, inspired by his experience of The issue of Wednesday, January 28, 2009 In spite of the unequivocal domination of novels, there was a lack of \ldblquote new\rdblquote titles, meaning those that were issued mainly right before the book fair, or during it. That could lead to the conclusion that the popularity of novels lasts throughout the year, Cloning between religion and science... and controversy over organ cloning June, 05, 2005 Amman Net - Mohammed Shama Cloning is still subject to a broad controversy among scientists, clergymen and decision-makers in the world. While some religions prohibit cloning, the Jewish religion allows it. Controversy within the medical community about the legality of the cloning Did the world really start to apply the Arab proverb if an arrow is launched, it can not go back to its place, despising all religious views that reject cloning or that call for a debate? There is no contradiction between religion and science Dr. Kamel Al Ajlouni, the President of the National Center for_Diabetes Endocrinology and Genetics, says that there is no contradiction between scientific achievements and the Quranic text, because religion is an invitation to reflection, and it does not On the concept of cloning, Al Ajlouni explains that the clone is not an identical copy of the cloned, as the genetic material that is originated from the nucleus is identical for the clone and the cloned, but the genetic material which is originated from Al Ajlouni, the author of the book (Cloning, between science, religion and beliefs), finds that what scientists do in matters of human cloning is an application of the laws of God, and an objective evidence on the ability of God in creation, and that He Father Bassam Shahatit says that there is no contradiction between true science and religion, as both stem from one source which is God. If there is a contradiction, then there is either a misunderstanding of religion, or a misunderstanding of science. W Scientists' views on cloning are divided into three directions: The first approves cloning, whatever the consequences, because they have special interests. The second rejects cloning categorically, because it is opposed to religion and morality. And the t Cloning is irreversible Sheikh Izz al-Din Al-Khatib Al-Tamimi says, there is no doubt that cloning is a unique event in human history, and it was a historic human surprise in the world, and the issue has taken a great stride in scientific, popular, media, and religious communit Father Shahatit believes that the issue of cloning is irreversible, that's why scientists should be guided to match religious requirements... I analyzed religious and scientific references, and tried to understand this phenomenon, and I realized that a n Islamic and Christian religions show a lot of reservations on cloning, namely that it's a danger to the natural family, consisting of a father, a mother and children, as sex will be separated from procreation, and pleasure - with or without love - will b Father Shahatit wonders if a clone baby will have all the legal rights that a legitimate child can have, does he have the right to inheritance! And he continues... reproduction is like a ticking bomb, in the sense that its pros and risks are equivalent to Sheikh Izz Al-Din Al-Tamimi believes that most available studies and views on reproduction are still controversial, researches that appeared worldwide on cloning, its realities, methods, goals, objectives, effects on people's lives, and religious opinion Christianity is in accordance with Islam in many points related to reproduction, particularly with regard to the dignity of the human being and family, the child's right to life, and having the process of life and death in the hands of God solely. The maj It is noteworthy that the sheep Dolly was the first living organism to be reproduced, and the moment scientists revealed details of the cloning, a huge controversy was created. An adult (Fin) sheep's mammary glands were taken, and a nucleus was taken fr Beyond the Gaza Earthquake Written by : Engineer Ibrahim Ghosheh member of the Political Bureau of Hamas movement On the Palestinian level, there is no turning back to the Oslo Accord and there is no national unity for those who do not hang on to the Palestinian established facts and those who do not believe in the armed resistance. Those gloomy faces must disappear On the Arabic level, focus should be on ending the aggression and liberating the land from the Strip to the West Bank as well as all the sacred land of Palestine with Jerusalem in the heart of it. The blockade should be ended and crossings should be opene On the international echelon, with Obama taking over as the new president of the US, we have not so far seen any changes in the US policies in what relates to the Palestinian cause. Throughout the barbaric Zionist war on the Gaza Strip, Obama did not utte In five consecutive years, only 20 Zionists were killed by the al-Qassam rockets versus 1400 martyrs and about 6000 injured by the American arms in only 22 days. So, there is no hope in new American or European stances. Yet, there are noticeable signs of changes in the stances of the European peoples, and somewhat the American as well. (…) a clear change in the attitude of the free world in every place and solidar The National Partnership in the face of the occupation and against the coup Hamada Fara'nah In an article published in Al-Majd of Jordan, February 2, 2009, titled \lquote Zilzal Gaza Lahoh Ma ba\rquote doh\rquote , Beyond Gaza\rquote s Earthquake\rdblquote , Ibrahim Ghosheh, member of the Political Bureau of Hamas movement, summed up the facts and the outcome of the battle of the Please note the lack of accuracy in the narration of the facts, and the slandering of history and even twisting it with the spirit and mindset of a fundamentalist party that denies the continuing sacrifices and perseverance of the Palestinian offerings wh Ibrahim Ghosheh is deliberately and selectively ignoring and the steadfastness of Jenin and its camp, Ramallah and the province, Nablus, Hebron, Tulkarm and all the cities, villages and camps that were subject to the massacres and attacks by occupation ar The struggles and the sacrifices against the Israeli Defensive Shield Battle did not take place decades ago, they happened in no more than five years ago. The heroes in that battle were Fatah, popularity, democracy, the Communists, the Nationalists What follows the elections? The recent elections of the provincial councils were held successfully despite the low turnout rate, as sources from the commission confirm that the general turnout across Iraq was 51% ... But what is important in these elections is that they were another But the question remains the title of this article. Iraqis have heard a lot of promises, all of which emphasize on building the country and providing services to citizens, but there are also doubts in our country about the slogans raised and their propaga These questions -among others- are dashing like waves in our minds, but in any case, we are moving towards awareness, and citizens are able to pull the rug from under the feet of many, but through elections only, and nothing else. The return of the passengers of the Lebanese \lquote al-Ukhwah\rquote aid boat after being held by Israel Al-Ukhwah boat anchors at the Asdod port after being held by Israel Al-Jazeera correspondent in Lebanon, Bushra Abdul Samad, reported that eight Lebanese including Al-Jazeera correspondent Salam Khidr, and photographer Muhammad Aliq, were on board of the Lebanese boat, al-Ukhwah, to break the siege imposed on Gaza. They a The passengers of boat were attacked by the Israeli soldiers who smashed their equipment and confiscated their communication devices, before they redirected the boat to the port of Asdod, to prevent it from delivering the humanitarian aid it carried to th After her arrival at the Lebanese territory on Friday morning, Salam Khidr said that the boat had been intercepted by the Israeli boats in the territorial waters of Egypt. She added that the Israeli soldiers physically assaulted the people on board and had opened fire in the direction of the boat before they head to the port of Asdod. Al-Jazeera Correspondent also spoke of the sufferings the occupation soldiers put them through, and said that they were repeatedly interrogated in private. On his part, Muhammad Aliq said that some camera equipment was confiscated, including films of the pictures he took during the breaking into the boat by the Israeli navy. The eight Lebanese passengers were met by their families and Lebanese, Palestinian and Arab activists. Israel had transferred them to the Naqoura crossing handcuffed. Likewise, the Syrian-born Archbishop Hilarion Capucci and five other activists who were on board of the ship, arrived at the Syrian lands after having been transferred to the Golan. They too were met by a number of Syrian government ministers and leaders Khidr had pointed out earlier that two Israeli boats came close to theirs and chased after it in the international waters until it entered the Palestinian waters across from Gaza where they started climbing on board. The Israeli attack took place after the Lebanese boat declined the orders of the Israeli military boats to turn back with their cargo to where it came from. In a phone call with Al-Jazeera, the owner of the Lebanese boat, Mohamed Al-Youssef, confirmed that occupation soldiers opened fire during the climbing. He also confirmed that the soldiers destroyed all the communication devices, causing them to completel Condemnation The Lebanese Prime Minister, , expressed his condemnation of what he decried as blatant aggression on the boat. We grew accustomed to Israel ignoring all the legal and humanitarian standards, he said. In Beirut, journalists and activists working for civil society bodies staged a sit-in in front of al-Jazeera office in protest to Israel\rquote s interception of the Lebanese aid boat. Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi, who described what happened in Tel Aviv as a No Weapons The occupation army admitted after inspecting the ship that they did not find any weapons or ammunition on board. It is worth mentioning that the boat carried over sixty tons of food and medical aids offered by Lebanese civil societies. Academics and researchers : Arab fear of the Iraqi situation will continue . He opined that there is a \ldblquote complete paralysis in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and similar institutions that failed to communicate with Iraqis outside the country. How can they reach the minds and consciousnesses of the people of this country, after the Baghdad, Voices of Iraq : A number of Iraqi academics and researchers agreed that the Arab fear of the situation in Iraq will persist, despite \ldblquote positive indicators\rdblquote from the Iraqi provincial elections, and their views were proven by the coverage of these Dr. Hashem Hassan, a professor of media philosophy at the School of Media at Baghdad University, told Voices of Iraq that these elections played upon regional and Arab fears and indicated the Iraqi consensus to all parts of the democratic project. This wa Hassan concluded that there is a \ldblquote set of indicators that were apparent in the elections a few days ago, among them that Iraqis proved their commitment to the choice of democracy, a relative increase in awareness, as well as the emergence of indicators sho Abbas describes the siege-breaking boats as a silly game Moheet: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said that Hamas's boycott for the Palestinian dialogue which was planned to be held in Cairo in November, was not because of the justifications put forward by the movement, including the prisoners in Abbas said in an interview with the London based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, published on thursday, that the reasons behind Hamas's boycott for the dialogue are first, that Khalid Mashaal (chairman of the Political Bureau of Hamas Movement) should sit d He added: Arab foreign ministers, in their meeting in Cairo, retreated on their promise to punish the party that is hampering the dialogue. In response to a question on his assessment of the siege-breaking boats that reach Gaza, he said : This is silly game called breaking the blockade... Ships tart their trips from the Cypriot port of Larnaca, right? Firstly, the Israeli Embassy takes the p He continued: But then, if you want to send aids to Gaza, why don't you send them via Egypt or Jordan... Egypt delivers everything, and so does Jordan. Thus, this is a false, cheap and exaggerated propaganda with no need. So the ones that arrive from Lar On being accused of falling under the influence of an American and Israeli veto, he said: This is not true, but they take orders over the phone to do this or not do that, referring to Hamas. He added: There was the Damascus summit, and half of the Arab countries refused to attend it, each for their own reasons. I personally was exposed to severe pressures until one day before the summit. Dick Cheney (U.S. Vice President) was visiting me, and ._Egypt had declared on the eighth of November that it will postpone the Palestinian National Dialogue, which was initially expected to be held in Cairo, for an indefinite period, as Hamas announced that it will not participate in it. Biggest Nazi criminal lived and died in Egypt under a false name Bethlehem - Ma'an - German TV channel ZDF reported that the Nazi criminal Aribert Heim, known by the nickname Dr. death and by using a human skull as a paperweight on his desk, had lived and died in Cairo after he converted, used a new identity and gave h According to the sources, the Nazi criminal arrived to Egypt in 1962 after he succeeded to escape from a prison of West Germany, with the help of some of the prison guards. Historical sources accuse the abovementioned criminal of killing hundreds of Jews and other prisoners while assuming the post of a doctor in the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen in Austria, by injecting fuel or toxic substances into the hearts of the The TV channel, which published the story of the Nazi criminal after a joint investigation conducted in cooperation with the American newspaper The New York Times, added that Aribert Heim died in Cairo in 1992 at the age of 78, after staying there for 3 how many hate these statistics? 120000 sexual harassment incidents in Egypt every year A recent study by Dr. Adel Aamer, researcher at Al-Jabha center for economic and social studies, revealed that sexual harassment has become phenomenal in Egypt. In recent time, 120000 incidents are observed annually of which the majority occur in public s Dr. Aamer describes the sexual harassment phenomenon as a social parasite considering that not only does it touch the women dressed in too tight or too short clothes but also the ones wearing veils or niqab. The thing that requires intervention of the aut The researcher referred to a study by the National Centre for Women's Rights, which confirmed that the majority of men who admitted committing sexual harassments reached 62%, while the rate of women who said they were subjected to such practices amounted On her part, Dr. Rabab Hussein, Professor of sociology at the National Center for Social and Criminological Research, stressed the gravity of this phenomenon in the Egyptian society especially that it has been spreading disquietingly due to the absence of 23 comment Note: In the case of having a comment or objection to any of the comment hereunder please pressure click (report) Women are the first and last reason If they dress up decently, I suspect anyone will harass them. Sexual harassment does not mean \ldblquote touching\rdblquote because it rarely happens, but it means verbal abuse of women. For instance, if a woman is wearing a short dress some guys would say things like \ldblquote that must have been the last piece of cloths she had, so she could And they want us to have movie theaters here!! A wise one would learn from other\rquote s misdeeds. May Allah right the wrongs for Muslims everywhere. I believe that it is exaggerated. The social study centers look for eye-catching results on the expenses of the authenticity of statistics to be attractive enough for the Egyptian media What good would such ones do if they don\rquote t get examined, analyzed and solutions were found for them? Islam commands women to stay at home. It commanded her to wear the Islamic abaya that covers all of her body including her face and hands should she needs to go out. 120000 is of course a small number since some of them are seeking to be harassed, they don\rquote t mind it and would keep silent about it. I assume this is a monthly number of incidents not an annual one. We do not wish for Khatami to win the presidency There is a feeling of enthusiasm and anxious joy since former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami announced his intention to run for the elections in Iran. For many, Khatami is an example of the moderate peace-loving Iranian politician, after a long series For a character such as the current President Ahmadinejad, he actually belongs to the ruling regime, he belongs to the Revolutionary Guard which has become more powerful than ever and more involved in domestic and external affairs, and he is more close to The elections in Iran are not as they are called, real elections, but they embroidered according to the needs of the fundamentalist regime that prevents those from outside it to run for the elections. Its extremism went as far as narrowing candidates\rquote cir As we appreciate the attitudes and views of reformists like Khatami, with their liberal spirit and the possibility of agreeing with them realistically on all issues, including difficult ones such as the nuclear issue, the foreign presence, and strained di Although reformist Islamists are the best option, but their access to the presidency in the elections next spring - if it happens - will not please us very much, because they are doves without wings. If there must be an agreement, or not, it should be wit Dr. Samer Ismail, France, 08/02/2009 Professor Abdul Rahman, what you are looking for in your article? Whether we are with or against Iran, it's a country that has all the elements for a state of the future, and it knows what it wants. As for democracy, it's just an illusion for the weak tha Babiker Abbas - Sudan, «Canada», 08/02/2009 Iranian elections can not be described as fake, as Iran has a real democratic system, and there is a proper constitution and stability since the revolution, and there a periodical rotation of presidency, contrary to our Arab world, in which power is inher Abdullah Al-Abdullah, «France», 08/02/2009 Although I am one of the peaceful Saudis, but I call for strong vigilance regarding what is being plotted around us. We are not done yet with seditious terrorists and the problems they caused between us and the others, and now extremists in Iran began pla Mahdi Al-Otaibi, «France», 08/02/2009 Whoever follows Iran from within, and the way it takes its major decisions, knows that their real policies are made in an institutional way, and they are not often affected by the President. In the previous period of Khatami's rule, in spite of his discre Omar Albany, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , 08/02/2009 Barack Obama has overcome the complexities of the Persian regime when he announced his intention to meet the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Republic during his candidacy for the presidency of the U.S., and deal with the Iranian decision maker directly with Ahmed Alhajri, The United States of America, 08/02/2009 You are right about the Iranians. Iranians are revolutionary, and they do not want a leader who is not like them. As for Ahmadinejad, he is a statesman with a strong personality, and he is loved by people. In fact, I think that Ahmadinejad is a man who st Zaina Kayed Shehab, Kuwait , 08/02/2009 When Obama made it to presidency, the most important thing that analysts repeated there was that the change is an international matter, and that its effects will reach the entire planet, and not just America. And that's what Obama pointed out more than on This evening the preliminary results of the public Israeli elections will be announced, announcing along the preponderant side in the frantic conflict between the ruling Kadima party and the opposition Likud, as well as the political traits which will lea Barring any big surprises, and according to the opinion polls that have been carried out for months about the advancement of the opposition Likud, which makes it likely that its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu will form the new government, the important questi Observations of the election battle in the last few days, and before they were even held, have shown a number of internal political developments in Israel. The most significant of them is that related to the centralization of political powers within the b Since that time, i.e. since the Labour Party headed by Benjamin Ben Eliezer joined forces with the Likud Party led by Sharon, political weight was added to the Right, and the central political map is swinging between the Central Right Kadima, the Right li In the case of the Likud winning the largest number of seats, Netanyahu will face one of two options: either to form an alliance between the government of the Right with his party which means the Likud, the extreme Right Israel Beiteinu and other parties, While in the case of the victory of the Kadima party, options for Livni would be more complicated; it is either to choose to continue the coalition with the Labor Party, which seems to be difficult to achieve since the estimates do not suggest that of Kad Those elections point out, perhaps, a fact that has become evident in the political map of Israel: that Israel is a Rightist state par excellence, which poses the first challenge to the new US Administration under the leadership of the Democrats, who drea With the fading out of the Israeli Left, the Arab\rquote s interest in Israel's elections shrank; it is not expected that the Arabs maintain their current seats which in the first place account for less than half their deserved quota according to the percentage The horizon of the political process is likely to narrow up, despite the presence of Barack Obama in the White House. Netanyahu was submitting the economic solution in the West Bank, while pledging to bring Hamas down in Gaza, not to division Jerusalem an This trend which Israel adopts poses a challenge to the Palestinians to immediately work on their unity. The management of the conflict on the Palestinian side is rather fragile and weak due to the severe internal fraction, as well as the mismanagement of Rajab Abu Surayyah Israel: a Rightist state Attorney Khader Shkirat: A few more days and Marwan Barghouti will be released Published yesterday (Last update) 16/02/2009 at 09:57 Jerusalem - Maan's report - Hebrew Israeli media were preoccupied with the prisoner Marwan Barghouti, convicted in the occupation courts for life imprisonment five times, plus a forty years sentence. Barghouti has been jailed for 6 years, after he was cha The Israeli tenth channel stated that close sources from Marwan Barghouti reported that he could be among them, in Ramallah, in a few days, and that the moment of his release is approaching more and more every day. The tenth channel had an interview with attorney Khader Shkirat - one of the lawyers of Marwan Barghouti - who said that (it's just a matter of days and Marwan Barghouti will be free). Shkirat confirmed: There will be no exchange of prisoners without Marwan Barghouti. He expressed an optimism close to certainty about the matter. Skhirat said that Barghouti will return to his family, home, and wife in a few days. For his part, Israeli analyst Tzvika Yehezkiel said that authorities in Israel are studying and suggesting seriously the release of Marwan Barghouti, as a gesture of goodwill towards the leader of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen. As for the Israeli military analyst Aluf Benn, he said that during two years of negotiations regarding the captured soldier Gilad Shalit, Hamas did not waive its conditions. Benn said that those were not negotiations anymore, but a continuous insistence b It is worth mentioning that Israel tried to link the crossings issue with Shalit's deal, but it looks like a last minute attempt from Israel to play on the nerves of the Palestinians, for them to give up some of the names of jailed leaders, such as secret Jordanians Paint A Red Donkey In Protest To Valentine's Day Celebrations Moheet: Jordanian nationals marched the streets of Jordan with a red donkey to demonstrate protest towards global Valentine's Day celebrations. Ammonnews has interviewed a local, Fadi Al Shaqran, who stated that tens of Jordanians crossing from the Syrian borders congregated to take photos with the red donkey. Ahmed Al Zaabi, one of the individuals who participated in the painting activity, declared his profound refusal to celebrate St Valentine's. Accordingly, Al Zaabi affirmed that the donkey was painted to showcase the absurdity of this celebration especially since love is not a single day's festivity. Mumbai police forces had to secure university premises which were ornamented with heart-shaped balloons. Furthermore, arrests were made to tens of Hindus who have protested against Valentine's Day revels. Police forces in the cities of Bangalore and Mangalore in the Indian state of Karnataka have had to place over four hundred members of the Hindu Shiv Sena party in preventive detention, including party leader Sri Ram Sena, this past Friday, hours after a Dozens of party members have sought the local parks of the city of Bhubaneswar to castigate public displays of affection, especially in light of the increasing number of males and females who have adopted a liberal lifestyle in India. America Warns of Increasing Sexual Harassment Rates In Cairo Elaph \endash (MENA): American reports have criticized the increasing sexual harassment rates in Cairo, describing them as daunti The reports have quoted a show on the National Public Radio station stating that harassment in Egypt started as being only verbal, and has since strongly progressed into physical harassment. A report by the National Women's Rights Center in Egypt revealed that over eighty percent of Egyptian women were victims of some form of sexual harassment, irrespective of their attire. A report issued by the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October of 2008 had warned American citizens residing in Egypt of this alarming issue. The report stated that unaccompanied women in Egypt are vulnerable to sexual harassment and verbal abuse, reinforcing that the American Embassy has received an increasing number of reports over the past six months on incidents where American females have Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani, chairman of the Qatari Council of Ministers and Minister for Foreign Affairs for Qatar announced that he would sign a document on Tuesday focused on building trust and goodwill between the Sudanese government and The false government surrendered to the traitorous rebels. Let the government go to hell. . Hey guys, Khalil Ibrahim sent his group to kill innocents in Umm Durman and its surroundings and not one government official took part in killings. The questions here is who will avenge those innocents people that were killed by Khalil Ibrahim and his gro We hope that peace prevails in all of Sudan, but not with these robbers. It's up to the government of Al-Bashir and Sudan to build its army on a solid foundation and jihad for God so that no greedy person in power thinks of carrying weapons or threatening its citizens and its country and selling its conscience to enemy countri China Celebrates Valentine's Day with Red Flowers While Jordan Resorts to a Red Donkey Sudanese novelist Al-Tayeb Salih passes away in the British capital of London Press Secretary to the President of the Republic of Sudan and great novelist Al-Tayeb Salih, passed away in the British Capital of London. The late novelist played the greatest role in disseminating the Sudanese culture and literature in different parts o Al-Tayeb Salih is an Arab author from Sudan, born in 1929 in the Northern Sudanese Province of Marwa in a village called Karmakoul near that of Dabbat al-Fuqara\rquote . That village was inhabited by al-Rukabbiyah Tribe, which he belonged to. Salih passed away i professional life Al-Tayeb Salih occupied several positions throughout his life. Except for a brief experience as a school headmaster, he worked for man years of his life for the BBC where he took the ladder up to the position of head of the drama department. After quitti His writings tackled politics, colonialism-related subjects and sexuality and the Arabic society. Having lived for long in Britain, he focused in his writings on contrasting the Western and Eastern civilizations. Al-Tayeb Salih is known as one of the most Literature Al-Tayeb Salih wrote a number of novels that were translated to over 30 languages, such as \lquote Season of Migration to the North\rquote , \lquote The Wedding of Zein\rquote , \lquote Mariud\rquote , Doma wad Hamed\rquote and \lquote Mansi\rquote . His \lquote Season of Migration to the North\rquote is one of the top 100 novel We ask the Lord to have mercy on the departed author, Al-Tayeb Salih, he was like a lighthouse to all Sudanese people and a source of pride to them. May his soul rest in eternal peace, To Allah we belong, and to Him is our return. Al-Tayeb Salih was neither Umayyad nor Abbasid, he always belonged to this land and this giant people. Never one day had he said \ldblquote I am an Arab\rdblquote or \ldblquote a Negro\rdblquote but had always been proud to be a Sudanese. This can be seen in all of his works. It is a shame th He confirmed that the occupation is internally confused at this stage Abu Mujahid: We will release Shalit according to the demands of the resistance, not according to the conditions of the occupation Gaza - Palestinian Information Center Abu Mujahid, the official spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, said that the Palestinian resistance will not release the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit but according to the demands of the resistance, not the conditions of the occupatio Abu Mujahid said in press statements published today, Wednesday (02/18), commenting on the occupation's decision not to pass the truce until Shalit is released: Up to now, the occupation did not agree to the demands of the resistance factions concerning He continued: We, the Palestinian resistance, reject that. He held the occupation fully responsible for the stalled efforts of Egypt to conclude a truce between the resistance\rquote factions and the occupation. Abu Mujahid added: The Palestinian resistance can not link the two matters in any way. He believes that the occupation is internally confused at this stage, and can not make the right decisions regarding this matter. Gilad: Shalit will not be free without releasing Palestinian prisoners An earlier meeting between Omar Suleiman and Amos Gilad Moheet: The head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, Amos Gilad, considered that without the release of Palestinian prisoners, the captured Israeli solider Gilad Shalit will not be free. The Palestinian Agency Sama quoted Gilad saying: If we decide today to release the prisoners, we will get Gilad Shalit on the same day, transported in an Egyptian plane directly to us. He added If we release the prisoners and transfer them to Erez Cr He said that if even Israel occupies the entire Gaza Strip, it will still not be able to free Shalit but through a deal, or by chance if the army finds him in some well or tunnel. He said that the Palestinians are ready to starve and not hand over Shalit to Israel. He added: But still, we have created a new equation in exchange of Shalit: we will not let in cement, steel and other construction materials, in addition to some other According to Maariv newspaper that published the news on Wednesday, Gilad said: We did not decide yet what we want. Where is Ofer Dekel who in charge of the file? He has not been to Egypt for a long time. All we did is send a list of 70 prisoners, and Gilad expressed astonishment regarding Olmert's sudden change of position when he declared that there will be no truce without Shalit, and he said: What does he want from statements like those? Does he want to harm and humiliate Egypt? Doe he want Egypti He wondered: Do we want to have Qatar replace Egypt? Qatar that moved to the second camp alongside Iran and Turkey. And look at what is happening in Jordan, they are raising lawsuits against us. But it seems that Israel will not realize the importance of Egypt to host talks between Fatah and Hamas on Wednesday A Palestinian official said that the Egyptian leadership informed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian factions that inter-Palestinian dialogue would start on February 25 in Cairo. The president of the Fatah parliamentary bloc, Azzam Al Ahmed, said that The Egyptian leadership informed President Mahmoud Abbas and the different Palestinian factions that they were invited to an internal dialogue meeting on the 25th of this month. In Gaza, Hamas confirmed that it had received an official invitation to participate in talks on the 25th, and stressed the necessity of releasing all political prisoners in the West Bank in order for the talks to succeed. Fawzi Barhoum said that Hamas has received an official invitation from their Egyptian brothers to the talks on the 25th in Cairo. He added that, With our desire for the success of the talks, we must stress that in order for them to succeed, there must On this note, Hamas issued a statement from Damascus saying that, The release of detainees in Palestinian security services prisons, numbering 600, is a necessary step in order to convene the talks and in order for them to succeed. The movement renewed its position of refusing to link a truce agreement with Israel to the release of Israeli solider Gilad Shalit, who is being held in Gaza. In its statement, Hamas called for not linking the prisoner exchange with a truce agreement or the opening of border crossing and an end to the blockade, as the truce must be limited and temporary -- not open-ended -- and must coincide with an end to the The opening session will be attended by the secretaries general of the different Palestinian factions, or their representatives. There will be an agreement during this meeting to name five committee members to begin the internal dialogue between the Pales The start date of the talks was previously scheduled for February 22, but Egypt pushed this date back after Israel's announcement that it would link its agreement on a truce with the Palestinian side to the release of Israeli solider Gilad Shalit, being h Dialogue recently resumed between Hamas and Fatah -- led by Abbas -- with the goal of reaching a reconciliation for the first time since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, following bloody clashes with security services loyal to Abbas in June 2007. Egypt attempted to organize a conference between Fatah and Hamas in November, but this was canceled after Hamas decided to boycott it in protest over the political arrests of its members in the West Bank. According to the Egyptian initiative for dialogue among the Palestinian factions, five joint committees made up of members from all the Palestinian factions will be formed: reconciliation, security, elections, government and a committee of the Palestinian Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in December 2006, but Israel boycotted the government that Hamas formed, as did a large portion of the international community, after Hamas refused to recognize Israel. An end to divisions between Hamas and Fatah is considered necessary to end Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, in place since Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006. It had originally been decided to hold talks between Hamas and Fatah, which is led by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, in Egypt on Wednesday, but this was postponed last week. Hamas blamed this on Israel's refusal to enter into a new truce. Hamas ousted Fatah forces from Gaza in a military offensive in 2007, leaving Abbas to govern in Ramallah. Fatah carried out arrests of Hamas activists in the West Bank. Hamas wants Fatah to release them within the framework of efforts towards rapprochemen Despite the development of different branches the medical sector, psychiatric medicine is still neglected, especially in medical institutions under the control of the Ministry of Health. Neglect and an insufficient number of medical staff working in this The northern part of the UAE is in urgent need of psychiatric institutions, as some regions are limited to one center specializing in the treatment of mental illnesses and addictions, or even to allocating a number of beds in one of its many hospitals to Institutions and treatment centers specializing in this field in Duabi and the northern Emirates are limited to Al Amal Hospital in Dubai, under the control of the Ministry of Health; the mental health department at Rashid Hospital in Dubai, under the con Al Amal Hospital, which was the first therapeutic treatment center for mental health sufferers in Dubai and the northern Emirates, has become unfit for treatment of patients after suffering from neglect and a lack of resources. It is not able to receive new cases, as it hasn\rquote t seen any noticeable developments to keep up with regional innovations during the thirty-five years since its founding. This has contributed to an increase in patients\rquote daily suffering, as the hospital lack Mental Health Patients Aren't on the Ministry of Health's Agenda 450 Million Cases Globally «Cairo» and «Giza» declared a state of extreme emergency for the implementation of the plan to combat bird flu By By Mona Yassin and Manar Khater, 2-21-2009 The Cairo and Giza governorates declared a state of extreme emergency to implement the plan to combat bird flu and to eliminate its causes during the winter, the season during which the virus emerges and spreads. Engineer Sayed Abdul Aziz, Governor of Giza, said that eight cars were seized yesterday because they were loaded with poultry, while they didn't possess any permits to transport poultry stating that it is bird flu free. 1166 chickens were killed in the he Dr. Gad Sayed Jadallah Al Mawla, Director of the Directorate of Veterinary Medicine in the Giza governorate, said that the Directorate received in the past two days 103 complaints on domestic raising of birds, which have been dealt with. There have been i For her part, Suaad Khouli, Director of the Directorate of Veterinary Medicine in the Cairo Governorate, said that the campaigns launched by the Directorate's Department of Inspection and Public Health, in the districts of Al-Marj, Assalam, Ain Shams, Azz Hamas : We do not pant behind the dialogue with Abbas Arab News - The Hamas movement announced on Monday that it would not create any pressure to hold Palestinian reconciliation talks if the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists on the recognition of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the sole In a statement mocking up Abbas and his supporters, a senior official in the Hamas movement accused Abbas of having stood alongside Israel during its latest invasion of Gaza, and seeking the return of Israeli tanks to govern the Gaza strip. On Sunday, Abbas rejected Hamas's call to create a new leadership for the Palestinians, to replace the Palestinian Liberation Organization which is dominated by Abbas and the factions loyal to him. Despite the formation of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Liberation Organization still has a great influence as it enjoys international recognition as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, including the populations of Mohammed Nizal, a Hamas leader, said in a statement from Damascus, this reflects the state of confusion and agitation of Abbas, after the great victory achieved by the Hamas movement and the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip, as Abbas and his entoura Nizal added in his statement as for Abbas's new requirement for dialogue with us, we reassure him we do not beg for dialogue, nor do we pant behind it. Hamas considers its position to be stronger after responding to a three weeks Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of more than 1300 Palestinians, including 700 civilians and ten Israelis. Hamas had defeated Fatah forces loyal to President Abbas, who is pro-West, and took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, while Abbas and Fatah faction took control of the West Bank only. Relations strongly deteriorated between Hamas and Fatah ever since. An Egyptian attempt had failed last year to hold a conference for unity as Hamas refused to attend it, accusing Abbas of willing to achieve political gains at its expense. The Palestinian Liberation Organization, which is controlled by Abbas and the factions loyal to him, does not include Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, despite an agreement signed in 2005 aiming to bring together all the factions under the umbrella of the Orga In a statement from Gaza, Ayman Taha, a Hamas official, told Cairo Reuters: Our position is clear. We demand the rebuilding or repairing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, but if the other side insists on not reforming the Organization or rebui Abbas said that Hamas did not take the responsibility of ending the truce with Israel in December, after it lasted six months, and that the rockets Hamas fired gave the Jewish state a pretext for its violent assault on the Gaza Strip. Hamas said that Israel has undermined the ceasefire agreement, because it did not lift the economic blockade on Gaza, of which most of the population - estimated at 1.5 people - live in refugee camps. Clouds On The Horizon Of Bilateral Relationships Results Of Israeli Elections Trigger Years Of Tepidness With Egypt They Are All Hawks Netanyahu's Return Threats to the High Dam Egypt Expects The Formation Of A New Israeli Government The events of the latest Israeli war on Gaza have placed diplomatic, political and even security pressures on Egypt. These pressures were initiated by the events of the war and continued to the moment a cease-fire was declared. Today, these pressures pe It became apparent that Israel was intentionally jeopardizing Egypt's diplomatic stance as it paves way for the war on Gaza. Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, paid Cairo a visit only two days prior to its air assault on Gaza. It is t Israeli's firm rejection of any Egyptian initiatives during the war further placed Egypt in an embarrassing situation. This embarrassment reached its peak when Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire; blatantly ignoring any Egyptian initiatives. Israel Egypt had barely survived the consequences of war only to be faced with a new political reality enforced by the Israeli elections which ran in February of 2009, placing a right-wing party in power whose leaders have less than amiable relationships with Eg Irrespective of the next Israeli Prime Minister, Egyptian-Israeli relationships have been tepid since their 1979 peace treaty. Despite short periods of geniality with Ehud Barak and Isaac Rabin as Prime Ministers, it seems that Israeli-Egyptian relations The relationship between Egypt and Israel was less than amiable at the official level since the signing of the peace agreement between them in 1979 and is now on its way towards more tension Even with assumptions of the rise of the least powerful of the bunch to power, Tzipi Livni, and even if she surpasses all Israeli internal political complications and succeeds in forming a new government \endash Cairo's relationship with Livni was never strong. Livni's origins go back to the particularly right-winged party Betar. She also worked for Israeli's intelligence service \endash Musad. Finally, she prominently appeared on the political scene as Minister of Foreign Affairs with Ariel Sharon's assumption of p Livni had flown to Washington to sign an anti-smuggling agreement with Condoleezza Rice; thereby completely disregarding Egypt's role and placing Egyptian officials in a rather embarrassing political situation. This has led Egyptian authorities to repeat Egypt's worst fear would be for Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud party leader, to form the upcoming Israeli government. Hypothetically, Netanyahu could form a government of sixty five deputies; twenty seven of which would be Likud officials, fifteen of which wo Netanyahu, who became Israel's youngest Prime Minister in 1996, has fanatic views towards the Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. He is known for his strong opposition to the 'Land for Peace' concept as well as the Oslo Accords signed betwee Netanyahu's rise to power in 1996 placed a halt to any ongoing peace-process with the Arabs and the international community. He had relentlessly stated that Arabs only understand the language of power, and that signing any peace agreement with them would Netanyahu believes that the only way to get Arabs to succumb to the peace process is through weapons of mass destruction. Netanyahu had relentlessly stated that Arabs only understand the language of power, and that signing any peace agreement with them would be like placing fish in an aquarium, then waiting for the fish to learn not to bang its head against the glass. Despite his fanatic opinions, Netanyahu posses the charm and is politically talented in marketing his extremist views to the right-wing in Israel as well as the international community. In a climate as such, any excuses provided by Egyptian authorities w The Israeli political triangle only becomes complete with Avigdor Lieberman, party leader of the extremely right-winged Yisrael Beiteinu party. It is anticipated that Lieberman will have stake in the new Israeli government. Lieberman's political agenda was initially formed to attract Jews returning to Israel from the USSR. He formed ' Yisrael Beiteinu' and devised a racial agenda that demanding the exile of all Palestinian citizens from Israel. Lieberman is known to strongly condemn the Arab leaders of 1948 and even went as far as calling them 'terrorists' who want to jeopardize Israel's security. Egypt did not survive Lieberman's verbal assaults. Liberman's first public outburst came shortly after the Al Aqsa Intifada; on the Knesset platform, Lieberman called for bombing the Aswan Dam and drowning the Egyptians in the Nile, alleging that the pe This outburst solicited a strong, instant, and direct response from Dr. Usama El Bazz, the Egyptian President's political consultant. Lieberman's last known verbal assault on Egyptian authorities came this past October in the Kenesset, when he told President Mubarak 'to go to hell', referring to Mubarak's refusal to visit Israel. It will be rather difficult for Egyptian authorities and nationals to forget these crude and un-polished statements despite Ehud Olmert's and Shemon Peres' formal apologies. Egyptians will criticize and oppose their own leaders but will not accept denigr With these factors in consideration, one can only speculate that Egyptian-Israeli relationships will witness more tension and rigidness. Lieberman's last known verbal assault on Egyptian authorities came this past October in the Kenesset, when he told President Mubarak 'to go to hell', referring to Mubarak's refusal to visit Israel. UAE Journalists: The New Media Law is A Step Backwards Dubai \endash AFP: Journalists in the United Arab of Emirates fiercely criticized the new media law and considered it a step backwards for stipulating, according to the head of the UAE Journalists Association (UJA), a number of taboos restricting the freedom On its part, however, the UAE government affirms that the proposed law will give a larger space for the freedom of the local press, bearing in mind that official parties sponsor and manage the free zones which include hundreds of regional and global media Yet, the Head of the UJA, Mohamed Youssef, denied that the new draft law would be better than the one in force which dates back to the year 1980. A few days prior to the approval of the draft law in the Federal National Council (a consultative council) Youssef was quoted as saying that the submitted draft is not better than the old one. Our demands were not considered and that it is a step backw Youssef also said that the UAE proposed law, includes several items that constitute a flagrant violation of international legislations that ensure freedom of expression. On the other hand, the National Council of Information, which is the supreme UAE press authority, defended the draft law pointing out that the text liberates the press from several existing constraints. The director-general of the council, Ibrahim Al-Abed, told AFP that the current law dates back to the year 1980, and includes 16 articles on publishing taboos. No one talked about it because it was not applied. Al-Abid added that the new law stipulates only three articles on taboos which include the mentioning of the president of state and governors, the publication of misleading news to the public opinion in a manner detrimental to the national economy and the He pointed out that \ldblquote the five-year imprisonment for wronging the state president under the Penal Code, was replaced with financial penalty\rdblquote According to the newspapers, the fine can go up to one million Dirhams (272 thousand dollars). It is worth mentioning that 11 major newspapers are issued daily in the United Arab Emirates, six in English and five in Arabic. These newspapers are seemingly self-controlled, as they do not publish any criticism of the rulers. According to the index, prepared by the France-based Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), the UAE ranked 69th worldwide in terms of freedom of the press, and third Arab country after Kuwait (ranking 61st Worldwide) and Lebanon (66th worldwide). On his part, Youssef criticized the ambiguous articles of the law which can be interpreted differently according to the need of any executive authority when needed\rdblquote He yet welcomed the abolition of prison sentences and called for the distinction between criticism of the person and that of his acts in the law, and said that this is a point that should be tackled by the penal code which specifically inflicts punishm He also said, that freedom is the norm in the sphere of press and tabooing is the exception which should be limited to the minimum and that \ldblquote hindering the work of a newspaper is a mass punishment of its readers, employees, and owner. The punishment terr As for professor of political science, Abdul Khaliq Abdullah, he considers that the law still contains words and phrases that could be very confusing and tailored to the needs of authorities when needed to be used\rdblquote In this context, Al-Abid stressed that the draft law protects the freedom of the press more than other press laws in many countries, adding that according to the text of the new law A journalist cannot be made to disclose his source of his information, a He also said that under the text of the draft law, the closing down of newspapers will not be for publication issues but procedural ones and that the licence will be annulled if the newspaper was not released within a year of the issuance of its licenc Nevertheless, the new draft law does not include hundreds of other media operating in the free zones, of which Al-Abed said had a special status that shall be taken into account. There are eight free zones in the United Arab Emirates including Dubai Media City, where hundreds of media are headquartered. The free zones are subject to special measures that come directly from the government. On this level Mohamed Youssef considered that it is not possible to enact two or three laws in the same state. Free zones must be distinguished from other regions in terms of permits and visas, like any free economic zone, but as for the press they shoul Hamas: Amnesty\rquote s call is unfair and puts offender and victim on equal footing Al-Qasam - Agencies : Prominent leader and spokesman for the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum, stressed that the Amnesty International call is unbalanced and unfair, and that it equalizes between the real criminal and the victim. Barhom underlined in a press release, of which The Palestinian Information Center received a copy, that \ldblquote There are not any countries exporting arms in favor of the Hamas movement, but arms are being exported to the Zionist enemy from axial and powerful st He said that The Zionist occupier uses these lethal atomic and phosphoric weapons and weapons of mass destruction against the unarmed Palestinian people. The last war destructive war on the Gaza Strip is the ultimate proof of this. While the Palestinian The official spokesman expressed his concern saying: We, in Hamas, are worried that the public opinion would be mislead by such statements by the organization, for it could be used as a pretext on the part of the Zionist occupation to launch attacks on t Amnesty International had called - in a statement it issued earlier today (Monday) - the United Nations to impose a total weapon embargo on the Zionist entity, the Hamas movement and other armed Palestinian factions. ِEurope dominates the Oscars and America reaps only six awards in its eighty first ceremony 'Slumdog Millionaire' knocks out American dreams with eight Academy awards America was finally able to break the monotony of the Academy Awards by introducing the Australian superstar Hugh Jackman and the gorgeous Beyonce, but it failed in reaping the big awards and overcoming European dominance which has become the Oscar's sign The nominations committee was apparently biased towards The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as the American movie failed to achieve high box-office revenues, despite its thirteen nominations. In contrast, Slumdog Millionaire garnered one hundred sixty mi Everyone anticipated that the eighty first Academy Awards will be full of surprises. These predictions came true with the consistent dominance of European filmmakers over the Oscars and the notable decline in American accomplishment. Hugh Jackman was ab It appears that Oscar officials have resorted to a different approach after suffering from a decline in viewership with comedians such as John Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and Ben Stiller running the awards in previous years. Slumdog Millionaire was produced on a low budget and starred less than famous actors. It was initially decided that the film will not be screened in movie theatres. Ironically, Slumdog Millionaire was able to harvest eight of the nine awards it was nominated for. Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of an Indian orphan raised in the slums of Mumbai who wins a prominent television game show. British director, Danny Boyle, thanked all those who 'helped us and didn't help us' as he walked away with the best director best picture, music, film editing, sound mixing, cinematography, and adopted screenplay. Renowned Indian composer, A.R. Rahman, also won two Academy Awards. Sean Penn was able to win that very same award for playing Harvey Milk, Kate Winslet won best actress in a leading role for her part in The Reader where she plays Hanna Schmitz, a German lady suspected to have conducted war crimes during the Second World War. This award comes twelve years after her success in the movie Titani was awarded best actor in a supporting role for his part in Batman: The Dark Knight. Emotions were running high in the Kodak Theatre when the Australian actor, Heath Ledger, This acknowledgment comes thirteen months after his death due to a medications overdose. Heath's sister accepted the award on his behalf and gave a touching statement in the presence of her parents. Spanish actress Penelope Cruz took home the best actress in a supporting role award for playing Vicky Cristina Barcelona in the Woody Allen feature, , thereby becoming the first Spanish woman to ever win an Academy Award. The foreign language film award was granted to the Japanese feature, Departures while Wall-E harvested the animated feature film award. Man on Wire walked away with the documentary feature award. As for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the movie was only able to reap three of its initial thirteen awards nominations which were for visual effects, makeup, and art direction. After five years of acclaiming the Best Actor award for his role in the movie Mystic River, a gays' rights activist. The movie was also able to harvest the best original screenplay award. Slumdog Millionaire also won awards for It\rquote s not new that when there is a government reshuffling, it only interests a few dozen elites in Amman and its surroundings, but what is new is that it has revealed to us that the polarization and personal struggles \endash for which the a huge price was paid The government after the reshuffling is weaker than it was before it. The reshuffling, which as a political process governments need in order to revive their capabilities, had adverse effect on the government and the president, as this \ldblquote last shot\rdblquote to stre The confusion that has become apparent over the past few days has shown that the reshuffling has no methodological basis, and there is no indication that it will solve the problems of the ministerial team and the weaknesses that it was suffering from, or And if the president drowns during the restructuring, then how will he be able to manage a difficult economic year and an important political period? This is if the government has the ability and the desire to extricate itself from its boycott of the poli Politically, the president lost the battle of the reshuffling, for the ghosts of the leaders of previous battles were present in all aspects of the reshuffling. Regardless of the accuracy of this analysis, there is a political agreement that the governmen Had it not been for the cabinet reshuffling, most ministries wouldn\rquote t have changed a thing, and for many of the ministries, the problem wasn\rquote t in the people in the ministry, but rather in the ministry\rquote s power and its role. The president needed several day I believe that the government\rquote s opponents were not concerned with the names of those entering and leaving the cabinet, but rather, wanted to show the president floundering and confused in his management of the reshuffling, and this is what happened. For t If the reshuffling was urgent and speedy, then a certain amount of confusion would be justified, but the reshuffling had been talked about for many weeks, so what took place \endash resorting to last-minute decisions or impractical decisions \endash points to a weakn Perhaps the most apt example is that of the President of the Office of Ombudsman, who began his work less than a month ago as part of a monitoring institution and a gesture of justice to citizens, and suddenly the president of this office takes a chunk of This is not a matter of names \endash despite their importance when they have influence \endash but of the amount of talk about the reshuffling, both politically and in the media, whose modest results caused a shuffling among working and retired officials and the ent Amnesty International reports: Twenty countries partaked in Gaza massacre, US atop of them New York \endash Laha Online (Exclusive): Amnesty International revealed that twenty countries have partaked in the Gaza massacre by selling arms to Israel, through a report issued on Monday. The report condemned the Israeli assault on Gaza as well as the engagement of other nations in the attac The report stated that over twenty nations were selling ammunition and weapons to Israel; these weapons were used to commit war crimes and serious violations to international law. The United States ranks top of the list of the Amnesty report, with other nations such as France, Romania, and Serbia following behind. The report shed light on the latest massacre in Gaza and included a detailed account on the global sale of weapons in Amnesty reports accused Israel of directly attacking civilian targets and air raiding the district amidst clear issues of proportionality, all of which can be classified as war crimes. Amnesty International further called other nations for an immediate and comprehensive arms embargo on the Jewish state. The reports indicated that the United States was Israel's main supplier of arms, with 8.3 billion dollars in sales between 2004 and 2007. The report further states that, ever since 2002, Tel Aviv has received whats worth 21 billion dollars in military an Amnesty revealed that there is an ongoing security agreement between Washington and Tel Aviv, which dictates securing Israel through 30 billion dollars worth of military aid. New Jordanian ministers: Ma'aytaha is the first to be appointed a minister from his tribe, Arbihat holds a position specialized in disability, and the legal affairs of the government are in the hands of Khazaaleh, a graduate in philosophy who specializes Ammon - Below are the biographies of the new ministers in the government that Nader Al-Dhahabi had amended yesterday. The list includes both the newly appointed ministers, as well as the ones that were transferred from a portfolio to another. Nayef Al-Qadi, Interior Minister Date and place of birth: 1944 in Housha. Nayef Al-Qadi got a bachelor's in Political Sciences from Baghdad University, in 1969. He occupied the following positions: - Interior Minister in the government of Abdel-Raouf Rawabdeh, 1999._- Chargé d'affaires in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, 1970._- Consul in the Embassy of Jordan in London, 1974._- Deputy Permanent Representative in the League of Arab States Nasser Sami Jawdeh, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Sami Jawdeh was born in Amman, and studied primary and secondary school there. Then, he moved to Britain where he completed his high school education. He conducted his university education at Georgetown University in Washington, in the United State Nasser Sami Jawdeh received the Medal of Independence of the First Class, the Medal of the Jordan planet of the First Class, and a number of foreign honors. Dr. Walid Al-Maani, Minister of Higher Education Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Walid Al-Maani, was born in Al-Karak in 1946. He is married with four children. He got a bachelor's degree in medicine and surgery with honors, from the University of Alexandria in Egypt, in 1969; Al-Maani was a member of the Council of Elders, before being appointed as Minister of higher education, which is the same position that he had held in the government of Ali Abu Ragheb, in 2002. Then he was appointed as Minister of health in 2003. Al-Maani had filled many positions, namely at the University of Jordan, and the University's Hospital. Saudi Arabia Declares Its Participation in a Conference on the Reconstruction of Gaza to Be Held in Egypt. Saudi Arabia, Gaza Reconstruction Conference Participation Riyadh, 24th of February/ WAM/ _Saudi Arabia has declared today its participation in the international conference to reconstruct Gaza Strip, which is to be hosted by Egypt on the 2nd of next March. The Saudi News Agency stated that a trusted Saudi source illustrated that upon an invitation received by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to take part in Cairo International Conference which the Arab Republic of Egypt will host on the 2nd of next March to supp Moreover, the source added that the Saudi delegation will include the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ibrahim al-Assaf, the Saudi Development Fund\rquote s vice president and the delegated member, Engineer Youssef Ben Ibrahim Al-Bassam, stressing that Saudi Arabia\rquote s pa WAM/ RD/ KHA WAM/ KHA/ Ein A W Naomi Klein :The decline of disaster capitalism! Political Affairs Hikmat Fakih The Global economic crisis is a serious indication to the ending of the capitalist system. This system was brought to being by the hard work and efforts of millions of people working in farms and factories whose fruits of hard work were eventually harvest In this context, a reference should be made to the new book by Canadian author, Naomi Klein, which raised clamor worldwide when it was published in New York in 2007 under the exciting title \lquote The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism\rquote . This book provides a detailed analysis of the savage capitalist structure basing on two concepts \ldblquote Shock and disaster\rdblquote . By shock she means bringing about rigorous substantial changes in economy allowing freedom of market to reach the absolute as well as ab Yet the most serious issue Naomi tackled in her page-turning book is that if the neo-capitalists fail to find a natural or social disaster they can turn, against the best interest of the majority of people, into investment opportunities that gain them mil Klein cites a number of examples from the time of the dictator Pinochet in Latin America to the US invasion on Iraq which allowed big US companies to invade the Iraqi markets after the country was destroyed, all public sector establishments were abolished Reviewing the reactions supporting the Naomi Klein\rquote s book, big names appear as staunch proponents such as the famous American historian Howard Zinn, a great opponent of the US invasion on Iraq and author of \lquote A People\rquote s History of American Empire\rquote . In this When Naomi wrote her book in 2007, Capitalism was revelling in prosperity so her theory came to establish that that prosperity was fake, because on the one hand it was based on shock-creating in social environments and on the other was a result of natural Iran's preliminary steps to launch Bushehr's nuclear plant A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has stated that preliminary steps will be taken next Wednesday to inaugurate Bushehr's nuclear power plant, South of Iran. Inauguration procedures will happen in the presence of the head of Russia's state nuclear company, Sergei Kiriyenko, who is set to arrive in Tehran to witness the pre-commissioning of the plant/ Russia had been supplying Iran with nuclear fuel since 2007 under the surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Kiriyenko further stated that Russia intends to fully launch Bushehr's nuclear plant by the end of 2009. Sergei Kiriyenko said that, without unforeseeable obstacles, the plant will be launched at the set date, with work starting early this year. Tehran and Moscow signed a comprehensive nuclear cooperation agreement in 1992 under which Russia had agreed to launch the Iranian nuclear power plant by 1999. This step was delayed for an entire decade. Mostafa Al -Naqqash: The debate with the US side to focus on trying to find solutions, not to keep attitudes for the record. An agreement was reached between the two sides that this meeting would be followed by others to continue examining various issues that have been raised.\rdblquote Syrian ambassador to the United States, Emad Mostafa, said that a constructive atmosphere charged with mutual respect pervaded the meeting with the acting assistant secretary of state Jeffrey Feltman and that the discussion focused mainly on trying to fi The meeting was called for by the US State Department in order to explore the prospects the US-Syrian relations and ways of improving them, and to discuss some of the issues pending between the two countries. Mostafa added in a statement to the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) that an agreement was reached between the two sides that this meeting would be followed by other meetings to continue the search on the various issues raised A US Foreign Ministry statement hate indicated that the meeting will deal with some of the issues pending between the two countries such as the Syrian support to the Lebanese and the Palestinian resistance and the consequences of the September 2007 Israel US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said earlier on Thursday referring to this uncommon meeting that the United States is dealing from time to time with the Syrians as part of its regular diplomatic efforts. Analysts consider this meeting a very important stop signaling a new beginning for the Washington-Damascus relations, especially that the administration of former President George Bush had followed a policy that aimed at isolating Syria which led to the d The Mustafa-Feltman meeting is the first official one between officials representing the two countries since President Barak Obama assumed his position. The US State Department deemed it a declaration of the resumption of diplomatic dialogue with Syria. Damascus had recently witnessed visits by three delegations of members of the US Congress, of which the last was headed by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations John Kerry. Obama Pledges to Withdraw American Troops From Iraq Within Nineteen Months will announce today the revision of his plan to withdraw American troops from Iraqi lands. One hundred thousand soldiers will be recalled within nineteen as opposed sixteen months as declared in his original statement. Further revisions may be made in a American president Barack Obama Congress members said that Obama plans to withdraw most American troops by August of 2010. He will be leaving fifty thousand soldiers to provide consultancy to the Iraqi forces as well as to service American interest. Obama announced in a closed session with republican and democratic leaders that he plans to leave thirty five to fifty thousand American soldiers in Iraq after withdrawing one hundred thousand troops, accounting for the vast majority of American soldiers. There are currently around one hundred forty soldiers in Iraq. John McHugh, an MP and a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said that Obama has promised to reconsider this new strategy should violence escalate in Iraq. McHugh had expressed concerns regarding the fragile state of Iraq, especially in light of the upcoming elections in December of 2009. Obama's new proposal accounts for a three month extension to his initial pledge to withdraw American troops within sixteen month of claiming presidency. Obama has stated that Afghanistan is the United States' top concern, and that he plans to move American troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. As such, seventeen thousand American soldiers will be planted in Afghanistan this year. Susan Rice, United States ambassador to the United Nations, said that the United States will move in a secure and responsible manner to remove most American troops from Iraq in light of a new initiative under Obama's administration. Iraq will pave the way for American troop redistribution in consultancy and cooperation with the Iraqi government. Rice further assured that Iraq is still a priority for the United States but will be dealt with in a different manner under the current administration. Rice had said during United Nations deliberations that the bilateral security agreement signed with A security agreement was reached between former American president George Bush and Iraqi prime minister Noori Al Malki, dictating that American troops be fully recalled from Iraq by the end of 2010. In 1993, Dr Al-Maani was appointed Vice-Rector of the university for Finance and Administration Affairs, and he served as Chairman of the Coordinating Committee of the Common Admission for four years. In 1998, he became rector of the University until 2002 Dr Al-Maani was also a member of the Council of Elders in February 2008, and he has a membership in many Jordanian and international institutions and associations, namely: the Association of Neuroscience, the Jordanian Association of brain and neurologica Dr. Al-Maani has published more than thirty research papers in international medical journals, two books in surgery and emergency sciences, and will soon publish a book on the medical achievements of the twentieth century. Dr. Nabil Al-Sharif, Minister of Communication and Media Affairs Dr Al-Sharif had served as the Minister of Communication and Media Affairs in 2003. He was Jordan's ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco as of 21/4/2004 to 1/9/2006. He occupied the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jordan Media Institute in 2007, and vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jordan news agency Petra'' in 2007. Dr Al-Sharif was also an accredited and non-resident Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Mauritania, from 7/4/2005 to 1/9/2006. He was the chief editor of the oldest Jordanian newspaper Addustour, (1993-2003) and (2006-2008). He was also th Dr. Al-Sharif studied in the English sections of Yarmouk University and the University of Jordan (1982-1993). He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development. And he was a member of the Jury for the environmental Education: - (1980-1982) - A Ph.D. in the English Language and literature, Indiana University, United States of America. - (1979-1980) - A Master's degree in the English Language and literature, Indiana University United States of America. - (1974 -1977) - A Bachelor's degree in the English Language and literature, Kuwait University, Kuwait. - Member of the Supreme Council of Information - Jordan. - The only member from the Arab world in the Board of Trustees of the Global Forum of Editors in Chief - Paris. - Member of the International Press Institute - Vienna. - Member of the Euro-Arab Cooperation Center - Egypt (Alexandria). - Member of the Board of Trustees of the King Hussein's Institution - Jordan. - Member of the Jordanian Journalists Union, and the Society of Jordanian critics. - Member of the Association of international affairs - Jordan. - Member of the UNICEF Group of Friends of Jordanian children. - Member of the Board of Trustees of the National Institute of Music - Jordan. - Member of the Association of American Universities Alumni - Amman, Jordan. Klein embodies the savage nature of capitalism in her book Ottawa: The latest book of the famous Canadian journalist Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, caused a global uproar, and was translated from English into many languages, because it provides -for the first time- an integrat The book is divided -according to Mr. Yasin from Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram- into four chapters; the first chapter starts off by tracing the historical origin of brands, stating that they were just a reference to a product made by a particular factory Naomi says that the big companies \endash starting from the 80s- reviewed their marketing policies, and had decided to focus on young people, making of products such as Adidas, Nike and Coca-Cola necessary lifestyles for them, and using famous sports heroes and And these companies leading international activity considered that the process of brand marketing is more important than making the product itself that carries that brand! This explains the transfer of their factories to third world countries, where there The policy of transferring products manufacturing from the headquarters of these companies in America and Europe to third world countries caused a cutback in the labor market for the youth, who were left with only trivial functions in the area of services As for the last chapter of the book, it reviews the social movements, political leaders and westerner advocates of civil society whose struggles can create a world without global brands dominating the choices of people, monopolizing the guidance of their Thus -according to the same source- globalization is not content with the accumulation of profits at the expense of consumers through savage capitalism, but it also reshapes the human personality as it sees fit through the establishment of consumption tre Canadian journalist Naomi Klein was born in 1970; she is an author as well as an activist in the field of anti-globalization. She belongs to a political family in Montreal, and is currently residing with her husband Avi Lewis in Toronto. Naomi did not finish university and had decided to work as a journalist. She published many important articles in newspapers and magazines, and in 2000 she published her first book \ldblquote No Logo\rdblquote , which has become since its publication the manifesto of anti-gl - Holds a medal of appreciation from the Al-Sayyad Press Foundation, Beirut - Lebanon. - Received a certificate of appreciation for volunteering and support from the Al-Amal Center for Cancer - Jordan. - Holds a medal of appreciation from the Governor of the US state of Arizona. - Received a shield of the advisory service from the armed forces of Jordan. Bassem Al Salem, Minister of Finance Born in Amman in 1956. - Education: A Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of London in 1978. - Positions held: - 1987-2005 - Founder and General Director of a company for wrapping and packaging materials' plants. - 1992-2005 - Founder and chairman of the board of directors of the United Company for the manufacture of flavors and fragrances. - 1999-2005 - Member of the Board of Directors of the Export and Finance Bank. - 2000-2005 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Mining Corporation. - 2000-2005 - Member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Jordan. - 2001-2005 - Founder and vice chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saueressig Company, Jordan. - 2001-2005 - Vice President of Jordan New Cable Company. - 2002-2005 - Member of the Commission of Jordan First, minister of labor since 2005. Netanyahu should firstly commit to what Abbas is committed to! Gawad Al-Bashiti Is there any political reason preventing Livni and Barak from joining a government with Netanyahu, or led by him? Salem Ahmed Khazaaleh, Minister of State for Legal Affairs He was born in Al-Mafraq, on February 1, 1963. - Eudcation: - A master's degree in philosophy, University of Jordan in 1992. - A High diploma in philosophy in 1987. - First university degree in law, University of Jordan in 1985. - Certificate of secondary education, scientific section, Al-Mafraq high school in 1981. Positions held: - From November 2006 until November 2007: Minister of Industry and Trade (Government of Dr. Maarouf Al-Bakhit). - From November 2005 until November 2006: Minister for the development of the public sector (Government of Dr. Maarouf Al-Bakhit). - Chairman o - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Civil Service Consumer Corporation. - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Insurance Authority. - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institution for Standards and Metrology. - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jordanian Foundation for the development of economic projects. - Member of the Jordanian Institute of Diplomacy. - Member of the Supreme Council for Science and Technology, chairman of the board of directors of the Jordan Upgrading and Modernization Program (JUMP), and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jordan Investment Board. - Chairman of the Board of Dir The United States Decides to Boycott the Durban 2 Conference on Racism An American official announced that the United States will not attend the U.N conference on racism that critics say will be a forum for criticism of Israel. The official, who asked not be named, told Reuters that Washington will not participate in the remainder of preparation meeting for the conference. The U.S. decision not to participate comes the day before the departure of Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on her first trip since she took up her post to the Middle East and includes a visit to Israel. A senior official at the U.N. said that the U.S. would officially announce its non-participation in the Durban 2 Conference, which will be held in April in Geneva. According to the same source, the U.S. was in intensive communication with thirty delegations during the preparatory meeting in Geneva, in which a number of countries participated, but according to the U.N. official, the contents of the draft which was fo According to the report, the U.S. broke off the communication that it had with the countries that formulated the draft of resolutions to be voted on at the conference. It has been learned that the U.S. did not want a vote on proposals to ratify decisions He also quoted sources from the U.N last week, saying that the contents of the draft proposals deal with the status of Palestinian refugees, and the fate of other inhabitants of the occupied territories. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that, Just like the first conference in 2001, the current conference made a special effort to make Israel the primary target of criticism and condemnation. The draft resolutions that were prepared to be voted on in the It is noteworthy that the U.S. boycotted Durban I in 2001. It had intended to participate in this conference -- which led U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to praise the U.S. -- in an attempt to effectively influence the nature of the discussions and the Mitchell: Turkey is an Important Partner for Peace /Erdogan: No Peace Without Hamas George Mitchell, the special presidential envoy to the Middle East, said in Ankara that Turkey is an \ldblquote important partner\rdblquote in the success of the peace process between the Arabs and Israel in the region. Ankara responded to him by saying that the peace talks In a press conference on Thursday during his visit to Turkey, after meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mitchell said that, \ldblquote Turkey is a key ally of the United States and an important power for peace and security in the Middle East.\rdblquote He said that Ankara\rquote s close relations with Israel and the Arab countries are an \ldblquote important force that will benefit President Barack Obama\rquote s plans to achieve peace between the Arabs and Israel.\rdblquote In what is considered a response to Mitchell\rquote s statement, a Turkish government official who the attended the talks between Mitchell and Erdogan told Reuters that the Turkish PM stressed to the American envoy that Hamas \ldblquote must not be excluded from any lasti Erdogan added to Michell, \ldblquote Although we do not agree with the methods used by Hamas, they must be integrated into the political system and the peace process.\rdblquote Turkey, a member of NATO, played a major role as an intermediary in the Middle East, especially when Ankara hosted four rounds of indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria, but both Syria and Turkey announced an end to the negotiations after the outb Mitchell\rquote s visit to Turkey, which had been scheduled for his first Middle East trip at the end of January, was postponed because of \ldblquote technical difficulties,\rdblquote according to the American Embassy in Ankara. Observers linked the postponement of Mitchell\rquote s visit to the fact that the Turkish PM walked out of a panel that brought him and Israel PM Shimon Peres together at the Davos World Economic Forum on January 29, in protest over not being given sufficient ti Arab and Israeli circles said at the time that Erdogan\rquote s position on the Israeli war on Gaza, and his persistent criticism of Israel and his descriptions of its actions in Gaza as war crimes, would lead to an unfavorable American and Israeli position towa But neutral diplomats and analysts believed that the damage to relations between Israel and the U.S. would be short-lived. A Stop in Israel Following his stop in Ankara, Mitchell arrived in Israel on Thursday evening, in his second tour of the Middle East since he was appointed to the position last month. The trip is part of a mission aimed at reviving the stalled negotiations between the Pal But Netanyahu's opposition to the peace negotiations between the two parties will add to the difficulty of the American envoy\rquote s mission in the region. Mitchell had previously criticized Israel, in the well-known report published in 2002 that carries his n Netahnyahu described the most recent round of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority as a \ldblquote waste of time,\rdblquote and called in his election campaign for a focus on improving economic conditions for the Palestinians, in place of establishing a state for the Mitchell met with Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister in the outgoing government, and will also meet with the leader of the Likud Party, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been tasked with forming a new Israeli government. One of the conclusions to come out of Gaza is that nothing has changed in Israel, but the Arabs are the ones who have changed. The crime of the Holocaust will not go away - From September 4, 2003, to July 4, 2003 (General controller in companies / Ministry of Industry and Trade). - From January 5, 1991, to July 11, 1999 (Lawyer / Housing Bank). - Lawyer / private office, 1988-1991. - Trainee lawyer 1985-1988 membership. 1 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Radio and Television Institution. 2 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Civil Service Bureau until November 2006. 3 - Member of the Supreme Committee for the application of the formal appointment. 4 - Member of the Ministerial Committee for the development of the public sector. 5 - Secretary of the national agenda. 6 - Member of the King Abdullah II Award for Distinguished Government Performance and Transparency until November 22, 2006. 7 - Member of the Jordanian Committee of Scientific Dialogue. 8 - Member of Dubai's Academy Body for the directorates of the Department of State. 9 - Chairman of the administrative board of the Arab Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions until November 22, 2006. 10 - Member of the Promising Leadership Program, University of Jordan. 11 - Member of the Committee of Legal questionnaires, University of Jordan. 12 - Member of the Legal Committee of the Association of Banks in Jordan. 13 - Member of the board of directors of the National Electricity Company. 14 - Member of committees of discussion of trainee lawyers' research. Livni claims that she will not be able to serve, even partially, the principles of the political agenda of her party, Kadima, if she joins a coalition government with the Likud party, or headed by it, although the real major obstacle, based on facts, However, let\rquote s believe Livni\rquote s claim that her union with a government with Netanyahu -or headed by him-, or with a government involving the movement of Shas, will be of no benefit or interest to the efforts, goals and peace negotiations with the Palesti 15 - Member of the committee formed to study the instructions for procurement applied by financial companies, and used in the stock market. 16 - Member of the committee formed to study the capital market through the Economic and Consulting Council. 17 - Member of the Advisory Committee - Central Bank of Jordan. 18 - Member of the Jordanian Lawyers Association. 19 - Member of the Jordanian Society of Philosophy. 20 - Member of the Investment Committee (Closed meeting of the Dead Sea, the Second National Economic Forum held in the Dead Sea, the second 03/30--_04/01/2001. Let\rquote s believe her claim, and what Barak claims too, so that we can claim that what Livni considered hard, will not be easy for Palestinians, so how will the Palestinian Authority negotiate with a government that has Netanyahu as its head and Lieberman as 21- Member of the Administrative Body of the Insurance Committee. 22 - Member of the Deposit Guarantee Corporation Body. 23 - Member of the Supreme Anti Corruption Commission. 24 - Member of the World Commission in the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the verification and examination of the legality of strategic plans. 25 - Director of the Commission of accounting, planning and evaluation in many companies. 26 - Member of Jordan's High Committee to fight corruption and nepotism (Jordan first). Dr. Sabri Irbeihat, Minister of Culture Dr. Irbeihat was born in Al-Tafilah in 1955. He holds a Ph.D in sociology from the University of California in 1987, a master's degree in public administration, and a master's degree in criminology from the same University. He also holds a bachelor's degr He occupied many positions including: Minister of Political and Parliamentary Development in the Government of Dr. Marouf Al-Bakhit, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Radio and Television Institution, Counsel of the Special Rapporteur of the Unite Nancy Bakir: Minister of Public Sector Reform - She was born in Amman in 1952. She was minister of culture in the government of Adhahabi. She worked in the Ministry of Administrative Development, as Secretary General of the Ministry. - She holds a certificate of graduate studies in education and management development from Boston University in the United States (Jordan). - In 1975, she obtained a diploma in languages from the Soviet Union (Jordan). Previous positions held: - 1979-1982: Responsible of missions in the Civil Service Bureau (Jordan). - 1982-1988: Researcher and secretary of the Council for Higher Education in the Ministry of Higher Education (Jordan). - 1989-1994: Adviser of the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Science and Technology (Jordan). - 1997-1998: Assistant of the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Science and Technology (Jordan). - She was also selected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Radio and Television Institution before moving to the Arab Republic of Egypt. How can we count on the administration of President Obama, and his delegate Mitchell, after we heard the United States say, more than once after the eighteenth Knesset elections, that the close alliance with Israel is consistently changing, and that formi Alaa Batayneh, Minister of Public Works and Housing - He got a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University, and master's degree in management of information systems from the same university in the United States of America. He held several positions including: - Minister of Transport in the Government of Nader Dahabi. - Director General of Jordanian Customs. - Secretary General of the Ministry of Transport. - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Bridge Maritime Company, and before that he worked in the private sector in the United States and Britain. - A member of the administrative boards of various companies. I think that the Palestinian Authority and its chair have the right to, and should, invite the administration of President Obama, the European Union, and the international Quartet Committee, to meet their simple and fair demand, which is to get from Netan Sahl Abdul Hadi Majali, Minister of transport - Date of birth: 07/03/1962. - Place of birth: United Kindgom. Education: - Bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of London, 1984. - Master's degree in engineering management from George Washington University, in 1986. He was appointed Minister of Works in the Government of Dahbi. - Captain of the Jordan Construction Contractors Union, and member of the Jordanian American Association for Business, and the Federation of Arab Contractors, in addition to his partnership in a number of companies which he heads a number of. Previous pos - 1985-1991: International WE CARE Company (feeding and cleaning services) / partner. If they respond to this simple and fair demand, the Palestinian Authority can then, and should, continue to hold on to its call for a new Palestinian coalition government -including Hamas- that commits to the principle of a two-state solution, and all t Dr. Ghazi Shbeikat, Minister of Labor Dr. Ghazi Hamdallah Shbeikat Daajeh was born in Amman in 1966. He holds a Ph.D degree in economics, specializing in global policy and monetary policy, from the American University of Tennessee. He finished his university studies (Bachelor's) at the Univer Dr. Shbeikat began his career in 1990, at the Central Bank, as an economic researcher in the Research and Studies Department until 2002, when he left to work for the International Monetary Fund in the position of chief adviser to the Executive Director of - He is married, and has participated in the preparation of economic reform policies, and addressing economic imbalances in many countries, and has published many researches. Dr. Nayef Hayel Al-Fayez, Minister of Health He was born in 1947, in Al-Laban. He was a deputy in the 14th House of Representatives, and first representative of the Chairman of the 14th House of Representatives for four sessions. Education and experience: He holds a Ph.D degree in Medicine from the University of Damascus. He is a brain and neurological surgeon, graduated from the University of Muenster and Cologne in West Germany. He is a specialist adviser in brain and neurological surgery. Brothers, all what we read was: Studied… graduated… received… Someone please tell us how and why, for God\rquote s sake. Ammon, let us understand! I have a question for the person who wrote the headline: What happened to Dr. Ruwaida Al-Muaitah, former minister for Social Development? Whose fault is it? I wish that my father was a Minister, so that we would concretely feel this ministerial reshuffle. If, however, they do not respond, and they keep treating Netanyahu\rquote s government that refuses to commit to the principle of a two-state solution as if the Israeli government is entitled to what the Palestinian government is not entitled to, then the Palest Livni\rquote s party won one seat in the election; however, according to what its leader claimed, it preferred the opposition over the government as it felt, or realized, that the government is not now on its way to implement and apply its political program, or Washington boycotts a UN conference on racism in defense of Semitism The United States intends to boycott the United Nations conference on racism because of concerns over a document being prepared for the event that focus on Israel. The representatives of the United States headed to Geneva to submit amendments pertaining to document which is to replace a previously prepared controversial draft which was written in 2001 at a conference held in Durban, South Africa. Robert Wood, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement issued late two days ago that the document that is being negotiated has gone from bad to worse and the present text of the draft of the final document could not be fixed. As a result, the United States will not enter into further negotiations regarding this text and will not participate in a conference that relies basing on this text. A conference basing on this text would be as a lost opportunity to speak clearly on the o He said that the United States believes that it is still possible to reach a document in the conference to be held in Geneva next April, if the document did not focus on any country or conflict and did not include language to criticize religious groups, t Canada and Israel had also declared boycotting the conference. On its part, Israel welcomed Washington's decision to boycott the conference which it described as an anti-Semitic event. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said in a statement that Under the pretext of fighting racism such a conference is counted anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli par excellence. States that support our values are ought to follow the example of the United Sta A right-wing official of the Likud party, Silvan Shalom, supported this step. I congratulate the United States for this decision, which goes to prove that the US government respects its commitments towards Israel, he said in a statement. He added that it is a further evidence of the close ties that link our two countries. What principles does Israel talk about? Is racism only about what is against anything that is Jewish? What a bad judgment! Rumors damage Dubai's reputation, the people are impatient and the media is oblivious to the facts and wear expensive suits and shoes made of skins of rare snakes and crocodiles, are rivalling the poor and the (unfortunate) on the best and most distinctive thing they have: they are stealing complainant. Complaint and resentment accompanied the poor, th Egypt is planning to launch a satellite to protect its antiquities from theft Wealthy people and businessmen are stealing from the poor the most precious thing they have, it\rquote s unbelievable how the rich who pu Date: The project aims to inventory and document all antiquities located in Egypt After multiple robberies of Egyptian antiquities, Zahi Hawas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, decided to resort to the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, and conclude a partnership contract for the productio Naji Najib, Director General of the Egyptian Antiquities Information Center, said that most robberies occur due to that fact that we did not inventory and document what we have of antiquities, which makes it difficult for us to prove our ownership of thos Ayman Al-Desouki, President of the National Authority for Remote Sensing, said that the Desert satellite that the Authority plans to launch in 2017 will benefit greatly archaeological discoveries, as the satellite will be able to take imagery under the On the nomination of the satellite Desert, Al-Dasouki explains that this name was inspired by to the nature of the satellite that works only in desert areas, unlike the Egypt Sat 2 satellite that the Authority plans to launch in 2012, and which aims to Izzat to Al-Qabas: Al-Maliki will release Tariq Aziz following Obama's advice Amman, Muayyid Abu Sbeih Tariq Aziz's lawyer, Badia Aaref Izzat, announced yesterday that Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki will soon release his client, along with five other defendants, following an advice from U.S. President Barack Obama, as he was informed by Iraqi and American s In a phone call with Al-Qabas, Izzat added that he had received confirmations from Iraqi and American sources about the close release of Tariq Aziz, following Obama's advice to promote national reconciliation in the country. According to Izzat, the list of the persons to be released in addition to Tariq Aziz (73 years) includes the son of former Intelligence Director Mohammad Barzan Al-Tikriti, former Interior Minister Mahmoud Diab, Seif Eddeine Al-Mashhadani, a member of the An Iraqi official source could not be reached to confirm or deny the news. Tariq Aziz, born in 1936, had surrendered to U.S. forces in April 2003. He is a detainee in Camp Cropper near Baghdad, and is suspected of being involved in the execution of dozens A year ago, you\rquote d see a businessman, filled with arrogance, boasting to everyone about the genius of his achievements, and insisting that the economy is the magic solution to all problems we have nowadays, that openness and the open market make nations de You can see the foreign staff that is responsible for the termination of contracts focusing on Arabs (as someone working in a major touristic company claimed). Five years of hard work and dedication, and the result is simply a decision of suspending work Amenhotep grave found in Luxor's west mainland Luxor \endash Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Husni, announced the discovery of Amenhotep's grave by a Belgian delegation from the University of Brussels. It is located south of Sinn Nafar's (King Tohotmos the third's royal seal bearer) grave in the Sheik Destroyed Engravings Dr. Zahi Hawwas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, stated that the grave consists of a T-shaped compartment as well as a vast hall which is divided into northern and southern sections via six pillars. Dr. Hawwas said that part of t Laurent Bavay, head of the Belgian delegation, said most of the inscriptions on the wall of the tomb were damaged, a sign that the place had probably been robbed in the early 19th century. The engravings on the grave's ceiling were well-maintained; these The inscriptions indicate that Amenhotep was the deputy seal bearer to Pharaoh King Tuthmosis III, son of Ahmos who supervised the god Amon's cattle, and was married to Sinn Nafar's, chief royal seal bearer, daughter. Amehotep's grave was initially discovered in 1880 by the archaeologist Karl Piel but later disappeared under the sand. Since then, archaeologists searched for it with no avail, until it was re-discovered by the Belgian delegation. The four generals make new requests as three civilians are freed Lebanon consents to referring detainees and files to the international tribunal The Lebanese political scene is on edge as an international tribunal on Rafik Al Hariri's assassination is set to take place in The Hague. Meanwhile, Beirut readies itself for a celebration in the 'Martyr's Arena' in line with the tribunal's launch in Th Justice Minister, Ibrahim Al Naggar, has declared in a statement to the special tribunal that Lebanon consented to referring all relevant files as well as detainees according to the tribunal's request. Meanwhile, three suspects, initially detained for in Daniel Bellemare, head of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, stated on the night of his departure to The Hague that he hopes that the efforts exerted in unvei Bellemare's statements come after his last visit to Foreign Minister Fawzi Salookh, where he thanked him for facilitating the tribunal's mission. In the same context, Bellemare visited Ziad Barood, Minister of Internal Affairs prior to his departure. He said: 'The Lebanese Judicial Authorities formally consent to referring all relevant records, files, and investigations to your honored tribunal. Lebanon consents to full cooperation and vows to fulfill its international as well as bilateral obligation Soldiers murder president of Guinea-Bissau Joao Bernardo Vieira had already been attempted on his life, twice, three months ago Aljazeera net learned through a source in Guinea-Bissau that military men assassinated President Joao Bernardo Vieira, his wife and his bodyguards in the wake of an attack where leader of the army was assassinated last night at his headquarters. A number of local and regional sources also confirmed that President Joao Bernardo Vieira was murdered today morning by military soldiers. Diplomats had said earlier that the chief of staff General Batista Tagme Na Wai was killed last night when attackers blew up part of the headquarters of the armed forces. At least other five people were injured in the blast. Local diplomats and journalists also said local that Na Wai was in the building for a meeting with top-brass officers at the time of the explosion. Army officers immediately commanded two private broadcasting stations in the capital to stop broadcasting, A witness said, hours after the murder of Na Wai, that the sounds of machine-gun fires and massive explosion echoed across Guinea-Bissau early this morning. It seemed that sounds of shooting came from the direction of the headquarters of the troops, and the source was not immediately identified. A witness who had heard the sounds headed towards the source where he saw part of the headquarters of the armed for Inspection Witnesses at the scene said that the explosion was apparently from firing a missile. Army troops cordoned off the area and searched for the attackers whose identities are yet unknown. A spokesman for the armed forces, Samuel Fernández, told reporters working for Radio Bombolom, a private station in Bissau: You have to close down the radio station and stop broadcasting for the safety of reporters and your own. Na Wai had served in a military council that had ousted military ruler Joao Bernardo Vieira in the nineties. He criticized that veteran ruler ever since he, Vieira, resumed power in the 2005 presidential elections. The armed forces leadership had declared, early January, that militia members responsible for the protection of Vieira opened fire on general Na Wai who criticized the president. It is said that this country located to the West of Africa, with a population of only 1.6 million people, has seen years of civil war and coups. Guinea-Bissau, which is one of the poorest African countries over the past few years, is considered a transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe. Olmert threatens with a \ldblquote tough and painful\rdblquote Israeli retaliation to rockets fired from Gaza. Jerusalem, Gaza - agencies: The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened, yesterday, the armed Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip with a tough and painful retaliation in case of continuation of firing homemade rockets at southern Israe Israel will respond in a harsh and painful manner beyond the expectations of terrorist organizations should the firing of rockets from the Strip continue, said Olmert, yesterday, during the weekly meeting of his government. Olmert said that the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, is trying to recover from the strike it received in the only way it knows, which is firing more rockets. By the end of week, 11 rockets were fired a missile at southern Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak will issue orders so that calm reigns over the south of Israel. The Israeli radio announced that the weekly government meeting was to discuss the situations in the south of Israel after rocket firing operations from the Gaza Strip continued. A number of Israeli ministers made statements confirming a similar stance. On his part, a senior official in the right-wing Likud party threatened to topple Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. Israel will sooner or later have to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza, MP Yuval Steinitz told Israeli public radio insinuating the possibility of a new Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip. The leader of Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu, who authorized the formation of the new Israeli government, assigned Steinitz the task of preparing a new agenda for the first 100 days of the government first after the completion of its formation. A spokesman for the Israeli army in Tel Aviv had said, yesterday, that eight rockets were fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, since Friday night. One of the rockets was fired directly at a school causing casualties. An Israeli military source also declared, yesterday, that two Palestinians fired a rocket, yesterday, at southern Israel from the northern Gaza Strip without causing human or material losses. The spokesman confirmed that the rocket exploded in a deserted land south of Ashkelon. The sources also indicated that a rocket fell in the backyard of a house in the city of Sderot, which caused some damages, while other four hit empty land. Hezbollah Brigades in Palestine claimed in turn responsibility in a press statement the bombing of western Negev by a radwan rocket, yesterday at dawn, and bombarding the town of Ashkelon, with another radwan rocket, he said. The statement stressed the continuation of rocket shooting and making the enemy\rquote s usurped land cities of ghosts Differences Over Plans to Rebuild Gaza and an Inclination to Place the Matter in International Hands Sarkozy: If Hamas Wants Respect, It Must Take a Respected Position Differences Over Plans to Rebuild Gaza and an Inclination to Place the Matter in International Hands Elaph has learned from trusted sources that disagreements have arisen over plans for international funding behind the scenes at the international Sharm El Sheikh conference, which is looking at ways to rebuild the Gaza Strip. Despite the issuance of an ea In a speech he gave at the opening of the conference, which began on Monday in the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that, The Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic World won't wait any longer for a peace that ma French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his country's solidarity with the Palestinian people, whom he described as having suffered a lot, and pledged funding to build a hospital in Gaza. He said that nine French airplanes carrying aid arrived on Palest Funding Mechanisms It seems clear that there are suppressed disagreements over the international funding mechanisms for the reconstruction of Gaza, and despite an official decision from the council of the Arab League to set up an ِِArab authority to rebuild Gaza, an Arab di Statements made by Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki corroborated this information, and he confirmed that, There is no new mechanism to fund the reconstruction of Gaza, but there are existing mechanisms under the leadership of the European On the other hand, sources close to Hamas said that disagreements over the aid that was approved by the Sharm El Sheikh conference may prevent the establishment of an Arab authority to oversee the reconstruction process, but at the same time, Hamas said t Aguero drives Argentina into smashing victory against FC Barcelona Sergio Aguero, Atletico Madrid's Argentinean talent, led his team to an immense victory against FC Barcelona with four goals to three. Aguero scored the fourth goal two minutes prior to the end of an intense game during the twenty sixth week of the Spani Madrid's performance was strong, placing massive pressure on Barcelona's goal keeper, Victor Valdes, who was a key cause behind Barcelona's loss in the Vinciti Calderon stadium. Aguero almost scored during the first minute of the game but the ball landed Only two minutes had passed when the referee ruled out a goal scored by John Heitinga as an offside; a wake up call to coach Josep Guardiola which led to Barcelona leading the game through a goal scored by Thierry Henry in the nineteenth minute of the mat Argentinean player Lionel Messi managed to re-enforce Barcelona's temporary lead by scoring the game's second goal during the thirtieth minute of the match, through artistic evasion and a shot taken from the penalty area. Atletico Madrid's striker, Diego Forlan, had his say when he scored his own goal one minute following Messi's, taking advantage of Valdes' advancement. Barcelona dominated the first match of the game with two goals against one for Atletico Madrid. Cameroonian player Samuel Eto'o lost a golden opportunity when he missed an open goal, kicking the ball far away from the net. Atletico Mardid responded with a counter attack through which Aguero was able to score the tying goal for the game during the f Madrid lost an opportunity at the lead when Forlan missed a headshot enabling Barcelona's Isadore Johnson to respond with a counter attack where he passed the ball to Henry who scored the team's third goal in the seventy third minute of the game. Barcelona's lead did not last when the referee granted Madrid's Forlan a penalty in the seventy eighth minute of the game, which finally enabled Atletico Madrid to tie with its opponent at 3-3. Madrid's players intensified their attacks just when the game was heading straight into a tie. Aguero managed to take advantage of a misplay by international skipper, Carles Puyol, shooting right into Valdes' net and granting Madrid a valuable victory wh This was Barcelona's second consecutive defeat with the team leading with sixty points. The game diminished the difference between Barcelona and Madrid from twelve to four points only over the past three weeks. With thirty nine points, Madrid manages to jump from eighth to fifth place surpassing Valencia, Deportivo, and Malaga. Malaga failed to take the lead in the league when the team lost 0-2 to local rivals Recreativo. Osasuna managed to maintain a loss-free record over the past six games as the team tied 1-1 against Racing Santander, while Almeria managed to win its game ag Masked Gunmen Attack Players on the Sri Lankan Cricket Team Eight people were killed, most of them Pakistani policemen, and at least fifteen others were injured, among them six players on the Sri Lankan cricket team, in an attack carried out by masked gunmen on Tuesday morning in Lahore, according to a police stat The attack took place close to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, where masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying members of the Sri Lankan cricket team. Neither the identity of the attackers nor that of the group to which they belong is known. . Pakistani officials believe that the incident has the mark of the perpetrators of the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008. Habib Rahman, a police official, said that, Five policemen who were in charge of protecting the team gave their lives. He added, Twelve well-trained masked terrorist gunmen-- apparently having arrived on bicycles -- were armed with hand grenades and Ka . Team manager Brendan Kuruppu announced that five or six Sri Lankan players were injured in gunfire that took place as they arrived at the stadium in Lahore for a test match with the Pakistani national team The team captain, Mahela Jayawardena, was slightly wounded in the leg, according to what his father told a Sri Lankan television station after receiving a phone call from his son. Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse condemned the attack that targeting his country's cricket team in Pakistan, saying that it was a cowardly terrorist attack. In a related development, a security official announced that the Pakistani Civil Defense Services defused two car bombs on Tuesday in Lahore, in eastern Pakistan, an hour after the attack that targeted the Sri Lankan cricket team. Japan is Using Five Million USD to Help Companies Hit by the Credit Crisis Tokyo, March 3 (Xinhua) Japan will provide five billion USD of foreign exchange reserves later this month to help companies suffering from the recession to collect dollars in order to repay credit through the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation th Yosano said that, \ldblquote Because of the deteriorating economic conditions at the end of this fiscal year, which ends on March 21, we will, in an unusual measure, borrow funds from the foreign exchange reserves from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation t In a press conference, Yosano added, \ldblquote We need to ensure smooth financing of Japanese companies operating in Japan and abroad.\rdblquote It is worth mentioning that the Japan Bank for International Cooperation is has been carrying out an emergency program since last year to provide loans and loan guarantees to Japanese companies operating abroad, which are facing difficulties in raising fu The new reserves from the bank\rquote s foreign reserves are expected to strengthen the bank\rquote s operations. Japan\rquote s foreign currency reserves have reached more than one trillion USD, is the second largest reserves in the world after China. Also on Tuesday, Toyota Financial Services, which secures loans for the Toyota car company, asked the Japan Bank for International Cooperation for almost 200 million yen, or almost 2.06 million USD in loans to help finance its operations in the United Sta Toyota Financial Services, a branch owned by Toyota, the major auto manufacturer, has become the first Japanese car maker to announce its intention to rely on financial assistance. Financial institutions in the U.S. are increasingly failing to provide credit. Toyota Financial Services is offering car loans in different parts of the world. Fifth World Islamic Economic Forum opens in Jakarta ... Indonesia Calls to focus on regional investment Jakarta ( Indonesia ) \endash Akram Hariri al-hayat - 03 / 03 / 09 / / The call for a green revolution that contributes to assisting humanity to overcome the economic crisis, caused by winners we followed their example, by focusing on regional investment, and young men and women in sustainable development projects and fill Opening the forum, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono clarified that the goal of the meeting is to search for ways to achieve the welfare of the peoples, warning that the world is threatened to collapse, including the already lagging Muslim com The president spoke at the beginning of the organization committee of the Indonesian Sofyan Jalil, in the hope that the Forum would lead to for the promotion of cooperation between businessmen, where agreements that are worth around 3 billion dollars are The chairman of the forum, Musa Hitam, confirmed that challenges that have emerged in the context of the financial crisis surprised the world, and which is a test to the heads and leaders of the world, and that no one can find a solution to it as a whole. Turning to the situation in his country, where local production grew at a rate of 1.4 percent last year, and where Indonesia succeeded to establish a network of social security and managed secure food and protection to the low-incomed. Malaysia Prime Minister designated the theme of the forum to address the crisis and food security. He accused the West of trading with what it does not possess, pointing out that the cause of the crisis lies in the lack of transparency in the global finan An Israeli clown's relations with its brothers and press correspondents covering the Zionist massacres on the borders with the Gaza Strip ( AFP ) good luck Zionism, that satellite and the Internet was not there in the year 1948. he was deceived easier. Ma Arab arts succeed where politics failed in Washington Saturday, February 28, 2009. 10:00:00 GMT Washington report Washington is currently witnessing the largest gathering of Arab artists outside the borders of the Arab world. The Kennedy Center for Arts is celebrating Arab arts and culture in Washington, within the frameworks of the Arabesque Festival, which will las The opening ceremony was attended by more than 2200 Americans interested in the Arab culture from Washington and surrounding areas, in addition to an elite of Arab guests including Mr. Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League that is co-organizing Why Arabesque? The word Arabesque refers to a kind of Arabic calligraphy that appeared in the nineteenth century in Iraq. The Arabesque style is also an Arabic decoration that consists on the convergence of geometric lines to create exact forms that are used to embell The three floors, nine amphitheaters, and numerous halls of the Kennedy Center turn during the Festival days to a museum for Arab culture and arts, including: music, dance, theater, artistic exhibitions, photography, debate circles, and more. The fate of the four generals linked to Al-Hariri\rquote s tribunal Tuesday 3 March 2009 GMT 17:00:00 Elie Al-Hajj The position of Hezbollah and its ally spreads conflicting interpretations Elie Al-Hajj from Beirut: Close sources of the Future Movement headed by MP Saad Al-Hariri criticized the stance and comport of Hezbollah the day that the International Tribunal opened, and pointed out that the party has focused on the claim of releas Elie Al-Hajj from Beirut: The opening ceremony was like an Arab wedding. The halls and corridors of the Center exhibited examples of traditional dresses of Arab brides from all countries, and from different regions within each country. For example, there were Palestinian bride dre Protests over Israel Day in British museums Moheet: Over 400 people joined demonstrations opposing the Israel Day in the British Museum which was held in each of the two cities of London and Manchester. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, 400 people signed a letter written by the British Committee for Universities for Palestine (BRICUP) protesting over the activity organized by the Zionist Federation of Britain. The letter says: Academics who participate in this activity connive with the Israeli policies that were used during the war to Gaza . On the other hand, the organizers insist that the activity targets high school students in particular and has nothing to do with politics. Organizers added that the aim of the activities is to encourage students to give more attention to science. It is worth mentioning that the activity include lectures given by Israeli academics in the field of medicine, energy and water. Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, who wrote a letter of objection, says that such an event that would raises doubts in normal days, indicates now, at this time specifically, namely after the war on Gaza, total insensitivity. It is mentioned that about 1300 people were killed in the war launched by Israel recently on Gaza, which lasted 3 weeks, causing the death of people of which over 400 are children. The letter accuses Israel of using excessive force in a disturbed way, in response to the rocket bombardment of its southern areas from the Gaza Strip. BRICUP proponents and those who support its message staged a sit-in before the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (MOSI). A similar demonstration is expected to be organized demonstration before the Science Museum in London on Thursday. Rosenhead who is a lecturer at London School of Economy (LSE) said that about 150 academics signed his letter which is supported by figures of all hues. Professor Rosenhead added that the seven Israeli institutions that organize this event were up to their ears in justifying the Israeli attack on Gaza, take the University of Tel Aviv for example. Rosenhead also said that the annual review of the work of the Zionist Federation showed that the Israeli Ministry of Defence funded 55 projects that helped promote the Israeli military logic. Of course, those are not supported by individuals and institutions that draw up public policies through which they say, look how good well we kill people, Rosenhead concluded. On the other hand, Jonathan Hoffman accused the vice president of the Zionist Federation accused the academic committee of attempting to prevent school students from benefiting from scientific discoveries and new techniques. Hoffmann added that he is sad not only because the opposition is seeking to cancel scientific lectures, but also because they urge discrimination against Israeli academics. Hoffman said that science cross borders, citing the Israeli-Palestinian and the Israeli-Jordanian cooperation in the elimination of the Mediterranean flies harmful to the crops. Meanwhile, the British science museum stressed in his statement being a foundation that is not involved in politics and that it did not support or adopt this activity scheduled for about a year ago. The statement added that the title of the activity is non-political, and therefore not to proceed with it would be political position par excellence. Number of responses: 18 The opposition forces, however, link between the four generals case and the next parliamentary elections, saying that between waiting for the request of the International Tribunal\rquote s prosecutor to refer all the files related to the crime to the Hague, havi A New Design for Facebook. Does it Look Like Twitter? Facebook will redesign the user's home page, to make it easier to update statuses on it. You will now be able to share your thoughts, photos, or even video clips directly on your home page without having to move from one page to another. In addition, any updates of yours or of your friends will appe Facebook published some screen shots of the new design, which I think is aiming to compete with Twitter, by allowing you to publish your status updates, like what is offered by Twitter, but in an easier and faster way. Furthermore, Facebook does not have Source [ May God have mercy on us, because a Lebanese fortune-teller said many times that the four Generals are in danger, or at least two of them are, and they will probably be killed by Syria, Iran or Hezbollah before the trial! As for the scenario itself - citi The opinions expressed in the comments reflect the views of the commentators and not of Elaph's. Tuesday March 3, 2009 _GMT 17:38:39 Title: The wonders of Hezbollah Name: The wonders of the world I think that the party of Hassan Nasr Allah is involved in the crime somehow. May God protect Lebanon from all evil. Name: Abdul Rahman Title: The Divine Party Tuesday March 3, 2009 _GMT 18:18:06 The ceremony began with a speech by Michael Kaiser, Kennedy Center President, on the role of Arabs in the progress of human civilization, and the role of the center in introducing arts from other countries to the American people, in an attempt to bring pe The opening ceremony began with two songs by Al-Farah Choir from Syria, with 120 Syrian children in bright colored uniforms who stood on stage to perform two songs from the Syrian folklore. The children created an undeniable atmosphere of joy in the place The star of the ceremony was the Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif, who selected excerpts from three Arabic texts to read to the audience in an elegant English, while keeping the original meaning of the texts. The first text was by May Ziada on the Outlook and On the idea of the festival, Alicia Adams - Vice-President of the Center for International Programs, and the programming responsible for the festival - said that it emerged several years ago, but the Center was awaiting the right political climate for its The festival was being planned for at a time when the United States was fighting on two fronts in the Middle East. The popularity of the United States was at its lowest level among the Arab peoples, while the Arab and Muslim world was suffering from havin The first theater performances of the festival start with the Palestinian play Stories under occupation, by Ramallah\rquote s Al-Kasaba Theater and Cinematheque. This play had won several awards, including the best work award in the Cairo Festival for experime The Kennedy Center for Arts The center was founded in 1971 to commemorate the memory of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and to realize his dream for the United States of America to contribute to the advancement of mankind. The Kennedy Center is considered to be the largest The International Criminal Court's decision to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes against humanity reflect the amount that the West, as well as the international institutions under its influence, values the Arabs and their l Lest we forget, we must emphasize that we are the victims of Israeli injustices, which consist of massacres, displacement, torture, the looting of our homeland. We cannot stand by while the people of Darfur are subjected to these crimes, whether they are The Sudanese government's handling of the situation in Darfur was arrogant, and it used excessive violence against opponents who rebelled against the it. The government committed crimes against humanity with outside support -- Israeli support in some resp Sudan is targeted because of the National Salvation Revolution, which rescued a country in critical condition, and prevented its collapse; and its rejection of the American aggression in Iraq, and all the projects that seek hegemony over the destinies and The American - Israeli plan has partially succeeded in dividing north and south in Sudan, and they now want to divide the North by cutting off Darfur, within the framework of a carefully thought-out dismantling process financed with billions of dollars. I President al-Bashir's problem is not limited to Darfur, but rather lies in the country's refusal to join the alliance of Arab moderation, and its choice to join the other trench, which is opposed to American hegemonic projects. If Israel opened an embassy According to American and Western plans, if Sudan were to be divided, it would mean that it would turn into a failed state, along the lines of what happened in Somalia and Iraq and Afghanistan, and to some extent in Iraq, and would threaten the security a The destruction of Afghanistan and the toppling of its leadership turned it into a failed state as well as a haven for the two main extremist groups in the world -- the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Regime change in Iraq was a like throwing a lifeline to Al Qaeda Those who seek to break apart Sudan forget that the pressures put on this country by the United States and its Arab allies that led to the removal of Al Qaeda leader Sheikh Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, resulted in a turning point The leaders of the West, the Americans, want agents, not allies, and ignored President al- Bashir's distancing from Islamists and Al Qaeda leaders in his country, as they ignored the extradition of Carlos the Jackal, who is now in a French prison, and its The Sudanese people have a high level of dignity and self-esteem, and cannot allow the surrender of their leader to stand before the International Criminal Court as a war criminal. They will be supported by all the Arab and African peoples, and the world We support international law and its application on the condition that it is not applied in a selective manner, or that international justice be one-eyed when looking at the crimes of the Islamic world, and exaggerate them through the powerful media m We were told over the past three years, through intensive media campaigns, that the Sudanese regime massacred 600,000 people in Darfur, only to discover through the court's recent decision that the number is now only 35,000. How can we trust them and thei . Maan reveals: The driver of the bulldozer, Marie of Obaidia, and his uncle confirm that it was a road accident Bethlehem - Maan \endash Israeli Police revealed today, Thursday, the identity of whom it described as the perpetrator of the police running over operation in Al-Maliha District in western Jerusalem today The police said that the operation executor is Marie Ahmed Rodaida, 24 years, from the village of al-Obaidia, south of Bethlehem, inhabitant of the district pf al-Ashqryt in the walled Old City to the north of Jerusalem, married and a father of a child of Ismail Rodaida, Marie uncle, refuted in his statement to Maan the story of the Israeli police on the circumstances of the incident. \ldblquote It was just a normal road accident, he said. Israeli media had started reporting urgent news on an operation that aimed at ramming Israeli police in the District of al-Maliha in western Jerusalem, adjacent to Bethlehem. According to the Israeli news, the Palestinian driver of the bulldozer drove it towards an Israeli bus and purposely rammed a police car near the commercial complex in al-Malha in Jerusalem. Initial reports said that two Israeli policemen were injured and were taken to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem, while other two policemen opened fire at the bulldozer driver who was injured and died. Israeli eyewitnesses gave different accounts on the incident; while some confirmed that a deliberate operation; others said it was just a road accident that took place because bulldozer slid. Hammadi: I search for the gold of the East and fly with angels\rquote wings His paintings combine between the suffering of horses and humans. Hammadi, an artist of Iraqi origin, studied in Belgium and continued his postgraduate studies in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the Flanders in Brussels where he settled down 25 years ago. He writes poetry and novels. He also studied art history. \lquote Taking off with Horses\rquote is the title of his exhibition, which was held yesterday in the cultural complex in Abu Dhabi. His paintings in this exhibition constitute integral parts of a whole work of art that reflects variations of rhythms and styles that h The artist says: \ldblquote My works started with a painting of a young Arab dancing à la Red Indians, in celebration of the spirit, awaiting his death/end and the end of his beautiful horses which represent the spiritual and aesthetic side of his existence. There \ldblquote The collection ends with a painting depicting a family and water spring, where we see the Arab horse stepping with his foreleg in it sensing the cold water. The last of the small works represent the internal fire, the magic fire inherent in the Oriental A Statement from the Justice and Equality Movement Regarding the Expulsion of Dozens of Volunteer Agencies and the Disbanding of Two by the Sudanese Government A Statement from the Justice and Equality Movement Regarding the Expulsion of Dozens of Volunteer Agencies and the Disbanding of Two by the Sudanese Government At a time when people in refugee and displaced persons camps in Darfur are suffering from an acute shortage of food and medical and educational supplies, as well as drinking water, the first response of the National Congress government after the Internati . The Justice and Equality movement rejects these types of reckless decisions and sees in them a clear repudiation of what was agreed upon in Doha, especially as regards the South and the facilitation of relief operations, which means the facilitation of th The Justice and Equality Movement expresses its support for voluntary organizations working in Darfur and rejects completely the National Congress' decision to expel dozens of these voluntary agencies and to disband two national organizations. The Movemen The Movement wishes to draw the attention of the international community to this type of irresponsible behavior, at time when IDPs and refugees have suffered for so long from arbitrary decisions such as these, which are not in the interests of a peaceful The Deputy Political Secretary of the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement Foreign Ministry Spokesman Welcomes an American - Syrian Rapprochement...Britain is Ready to Communicate with Hezbollah: An Direction Chosen Based on Positive Changes Bill Rammell, the British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, confirmed that the United Kingdom is ready to begin direct communication with the political wing of Hezbollah, now that it is participating in the national unity government. Rammell said bef He confirmed an initial meeting between a delegation of Conservative Party members that visited Lebanon and a Lebanese Parliamentary delegation that included members of Hezbollah, and stressed that this is part of urging Hezbollah to play a constructiv The spokesman for the British Foreign Office, Barry Marston, reiterated his county's readiness to communicate with the political wing of Hezbollah, based on positive and important changes Lebanon during the past few months. This includes the formation of Marston also welcomed the improving of relations between the UK and Syria, and emphasized the necessity that, This is tied to a continuation on the part of Damascus to move towards peace with Israel. He denied that a warming of relations with Syria, In a meeting with the news agency United Press International, the British official said that, through direct communication with political elements of Hezbollah, Britain wants to play a positive role in encouraging Hezbollah to fully engage in the polit He said that, This position does not contradict the decision taken by the British government last summer to ban the military wing of Hezbollah and to classify it as a terrorist organization. He added that, This decision was tied to Hezbollah's military Dubai aspires to poetry Despite the global financial crisis that looms on today\rquote s economies, Dubai has launched an international poetry festival to commemorate Arabic literature. The festival celebrates poetry\rquote s ability to extend bridges between Arabic nations in light of Dubai One hundred poets from forty five nations are participating in the festival over the span of one week. They will be engaging in poetry symposiums in many languages including English, French, Italian, German, Persian, and Indian under the festivals slogan The festival aspires to shed light on the Emirates\rquote and Dubai\rquote s unmatched cultural diversity. Seminars and poetry evenings will be held in several halls across the city, as well as cultural consortiums associated with Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, and Sudan. The festival is sponsored by the Mohamed Bin Rashed Al Maktoom Association. Festival officials aim to make this an annual spring event in Dubai, brining together one thousand poets from all over the world over five rounds. This year, several renowned poets are taking part in the festival including South African poet Breyten Breytenbach, Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka, Ahmed Abdel Moaty Hegazi from Egypt, Abdou Wazen and Jumana Haddad from Lebanon. Dubai authorities\rquote eagerness to launch a poetry festival mirrors the gulf regions\rquote fascination with Arabic literature. Dubai\rquote s ruler is a poet and often expresses his reflections on Dubai and the Emirates through poetic verses. Crown princes Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohamed Bin Rashed and Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohamed Bin Rashed are two prominent poets in the Gulf region and will be hosting a poetry evening in light of the festival\rquote s activities. The festival, which ends on the 10th of March, is launched despite a globally unprecedented financial crisis. The city of Dubai is renowned for its open economy in comparison to its Gulf counterparts. For this sole reason, Dubai is most affected by the Clinton: President Obama to visit Turkey next month Political Affairs, 07/03/2009 06:27:00 PM U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton Istanbul - 7-3 (KUNA) - U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said that the American President Barack Obama will visit Turkey within a month. Clinton arrived earlier today to Turkey, and said in a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan: President Obama will visit Turkey some time next month. The exact date of the visit will be determined soon, as we just started plann Clinton, who has received an official welcome and large media attention, met Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. U.S secretary of State focused her discussions on the reform of the bilater The U.S. Secretary of State covered also in her discussions the latest developments in the Middle East, especially Turkey's mediation in indirect talks between Israel and Syria. Clinton stressed that the Israeli-Syrian negotiation track is of utmost importance, adding that Washington has not taken a decision yet on the return of the American ambassador to Damascus or not. For his side, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan welcomed the visit of his Amercai counterpart, noting that it is an opportunity to address bilateral relations between the two countries in various fields. Babacan said that the talks focused on a number of regional and international issues aiming to establish peace in the Middle East, and especially on Turkey's mediation in indirect talks between Israel and Syria. Babacan added that his country is ready to host the indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria once again, saying that both sides should submit a request for that. Ankara is interested in Clinton's visit in the light of current developments in the region, and the repercussions of the situation in the Middle East, especially that the visit comes in light of regional changes including a process of truce in the Gaza St Clinton' talks with Turkish officials included the cooperation of the two countries in political and economic fields, activating strategic agreements, and studying the possibility of the involvement of Ankara in economic projects that will contribute in r Sarkozy impressed with the diplomacy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz at the opening of the Saudi-French Symposium on Civilization Dialogue, and says that Riyadh agrees with Paris on building an economic system that is Al-Hayat - 08/03/2009 French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed his country's support for the efforts of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, stressing that the Saudi initiative, known as the Arab Peace The French President expressed his appreciation to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for creating opportunities for dialogue between religions in a number of occasions, which allowed the creation of a sound and meaningful dialogue between different re The French President talked also about economy in his speech, considering it among global challenges. He said: «This crisis revealed the weakness of international economic governance, and forced us to return to the values and foundations of a market econo It also showed that we need to build an economic system that is more humane, more ethical, and more respectful of human dignity and work. I realize that Saudi Arabia and France share this idea. Therefore, we need to coordinate to face this great challenge The PLO assesses Fayyad\rquote s Resignation and Hamas Separates it from Reconciliation In a statement by Palestinian government spokesman Tahar al-Nuno, the government announced that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad\rquote s presentation of his resignation to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has no relation to Palestinian reconciliation and dialogue . . . . . . The position of Ismail Haniya\rquote s government \endash which was dismissed by Abbas in 2007 \endash comes after the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced that it is unsympathetic to Fayyad\rquote s government, describing it as illegal and unconstitutional, and that the . . In a statement to Al Jazeera, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said that he is convinced that Fayyad\rquote s resignation came amidst financial and personal disagreements between Fayyad and Abbas, and was not intended to support the chances of success in the Palest Barhoum said that Fayyad faces disagreements within the Fatah movement and with the Palestinian people because of his programs and politics, and did not rule out that these disagreements could be what pushed him to present his resignation. Although Barhoum did not link Fayyad\rquote s resignation to the dialogue and events in Cairo, he confirmed that Fayyad\rquote s position was an obstacle to national Palestinian reconciliation. A National Position In a press statement following their meeting in Ramallah, the executive committee of the PLO, headed by Abbas, expressed its appreciation for what it called \ldblquote the national position\rdblquote shown by Salam Fayyad. The executive committee also evaluated the government initiative that led to the resignation \ldblquote in order to play its part in paving the way for a new Palestinian government to emerge from the national dialogue,\rdblquote and expects the formation of a national conse Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has asked his recently-resigned prime minister to continue his work until the emergence of results of the national Palestinian dialogue which is scheduled to start in two days in Cairo. At the beginning of the meeting of the executive committee in Ramallah, Abbas said that, \ldblquote Today our brother Salam Fayyad presented us with his resignation from his office so as to strengthen and support the Palestinian dialogue in order to carry out the t Fayyad declared in a special statement today that his resignation is intended to support the formation of a national consensus government, confirming that the resignation will go into effect upon the formation of a unity government, \ldblquote no later than the end Twenty-Eight Killed in a Suicide Attack at a Police Academy in Baghdad Official sources reported that 28 people were killed and 58 others were injured today in a suicide bombing that targeted a group of police recruits outside the headquarters of the police academy in the center of Baghdad. An Iraqi Interior Ministry source said that a suicide bomber blew himself up with an explosive belt in the middle of a group of people in front of the back entrance to the academy, which left a number of policemen and recruits dead. The police said that the explosion left body parts scattered around that area, which made it difficult for the police to identify the victims. The source added that the suicide bomber was riding a motorcycle that had been rigged with explosives. Fifteen policemen and recruits were killed at the beginning of December 2008, outside the same academy. Recruits wishing to join the police force have been a main target of armed attacks since the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The Iraqi Ministry of Health announced earlier that 258 Iraqis (211 civilians, 17 soldiers, and 30 policemen) died in February. On a related note, the American army said in a statement that an American soldier had been killed following an attack on a military patrol in the Salah al-Din governorate north of Baghdad. The source said that the soldier died of wounds sustained in the attack on his patrol, without giving any details of the attack or the identity of the attackers. This brings the death toll of the U.S. Army in Iraq to 4,256 since 2003. The position of the Baath Party On the political front, leaders in the Iraqi Baath Party rejected a call by Iraqi president Nouri al-Maliki for reconciliation. . . . Tayeh Abdel Karim, a former member of the party\rquote s national leadership, said in an interview with Aljazeera.net that he would not heed such calls, and that a return to Iraqi politics could not take place \ldblquote without fulfilling the clear and firm conditions th He added that these conditions stipulate \ldblquote a change in the current constitution which is based on sectarian and ethnic differences, in addition to the departure of occupation forces and the release of government and American forces detainees.\rdblquote Al-Maliki said last Saturday \endash in a speech at the General Conference of Iraqi Tribes \endash that national reconciliation, \ldblquote has become a principle that we rely on, and not a phase that has ended, and I call on everyone to remain in the boat of national reconcil The European Union: Israel seeking annexation of East Jerusalem by demolishing Palestinian homes and building thousands of houses for Israelis Saturday 7, March 2009 British newspaper \ldblquote The Guardian\rdblquote published an analytical article sent by its correspondent in Jerusalem, Rory McCarthy, in which he talked about a special report of the European Union exploring the demolition of Arab homes by Israel in the village of Silw The newspaper says that a confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of \ldblquote actively pursuing the illegal annexation\rdblquote of East Jeru The report also says: \ldblquote Israeli facts on the ground - including new settlements, construction of the barrier, discriminatory housing policies, house demolitions, restrictive permit regime and continued closure of Palestinian institutions - increase Jewish The report has emerged at a time of mounting concern over Israeli policies in East Jerusalem, following the demolition of two houses on Monday, shortly before the arrival of the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. 88 more houses are scheduled for demo French-Saudi symposium on civilizations dialogue opens Custodian of the two holy mosques King Abd Allah Bin Abdel Aziz stated his appreciation of the participation of French and Saudi academicians and researchers in the \lquote French-Saudi symposium on civilizations dialogue\rquote . He thanked all participants for their His Highness said \lquote Based on Islamic teachings which seek to promote peace, justice, and equality, and brotherhood, I welcome everyone to this blessed symposium, which will open dialogue and bridge communication between nations and advocate love and unders He said \lquote The invitation to an open dialogue on religions and culture was an articulate and clear message to all nations that Islam is a religion that promotes love, peace, and brotherhood. Dialogue has become crucial in light of the world becoming a sing The King further expressed his anticipation that effective communication takes place between French and Saudi researchers to re-enforce the rights of man in his beliefs. He also stated that he hopes this symposium would shed light on Islam being a religi The King stressed his willingness to fully support all initiative that will promote peace and justice for humanity. He thanked all participants in the symposium for their efforts. Dr Saeed Bin Fayez Al Saaed, dean of the Faculty of Tourism in King Sao\rquote e Ali Saad Al Moussa \endash They want a rice convention, not a book fair A culture of custodianship surrounds the Riyadh book fair despite wide-spread knowledge that they're beneath evaluating a book. They will protest a seminar's title when they know that dispute and noise are all they have. All they have is a 'list' of wri Saad Al Moussa With all due respect and appreciation to the efforts exerted by the ministry of culture and the Riyadh international book fair committee, the custodianship surrounding our cultural events proves that what our popular culture really needs is a rice exhibit We need an exhibition which differentiates between natural and artificial rice, basmati versus telda, a wing dedicated to displaying high quality Thai and Indian rice, and to showcase the different scents of Abu Bent and Abu Suyoof and Abu Banadeq, while A culture of custodianship surrounds the Riyadh book fair despite wide-spread knowledge that they're beneath evaluating a book. They will protest a seminar's title when they know that dispute and noise are all they have. All they have is a 'list' of wri Hamas Moves to Stop Islamic Jihad from Launching Rockets…Cairo Talks: A Positive Atmosphere and a Wide Gap Meetings of the five committees that emerged from the Palestinian national dialogue begin today in Cairo, as opinion polls show a decrease in popular support for President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad -- who has resigned -- as well a At the same time, Cairo has witnessed efforts over the past few days to act on the issue of detainees. A high-level security delegation from Hamas, including an official from the movement's security service, was summoned the day before yesterday. This is Also in Cairo, the dialogue committees are attempting, in meetings starting today, to agree on five controversial issues. These are: the formation of a unity government, preparations for elections, reform of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), The Palestinians are going to the Cairo meetings at a time when a Palestinian general opinion poll carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah showed a decline in support for Abbas, and a rise in support for disputed p A delegation of Fatah members left the Gaza Strip yesterday, headed to Cairo to start work on Palestinian dialogue committees, to be held tomorrow, March 10. Hamas announced that its delegation would leave this afternoon, to join the rest of the Hamas delegation from the West Bank and elsewhere, after a delay in travel planned for yesterday because of administrative arrangements. This comes as Mahmoud Abbas repeated yesterday his call that the government that will be formed abides by the obligations of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and carries out presidential and legislative elections prior to January 24, 2010. In a statement to reporters at the Muqataa headquarters in Ramallah, he confirmed that he would communicate to the Fatah delegation participating in the Cairo talks the need for the talks to succeed by any means, because they are very important and the r In a statement to Palestinian news agency Wafa, he made clear that the new government will be left with the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, so the sooner we form a government, the sooner we can rebuild Gaza. Ismail Radwan, a leader in Hamas, said that the Hamas delegation, which will arrive today in Cairo, will bring a complete picture of the work of each committee and its views, and will present this during the committee meetings, confirming the movement's A Package Deal In a press statement, he clarified that the five committees will be part of one package, and that individual results of any one committee will not be announced. He said, Results of the agreement for each council will be announced as one, and then what ha In regards to names of Hamas representatives in the dialogue committees that were reported in the media, he indicated that there were names already in circulation, and that door will remain open to possible changes. There is therefore no official announce The day before yesterday, Alsabeel revealed the names of Hamas members in teh dialogue committee, but it has learned that there was a slight amendment to the names in the Hamas delegation. Doctor Musa Abu Marzouq heads the delegation in the PLO committe Nabil Shath, a member of the Fatah movement\rquote s delegation to the Palestinian national dialogue in Cairo revealed in a press statement yesterday that a series of meetings would be convened by the Fatah delegation with Hamas and the other Palestinian faction He made clear that an Egyptian representative would be present at all five committees, and each committee of the five would contain three Fatah members and three Hamas members. As for the remaining Palestinian factions, each would be represented by one or He pointed out that these plans are dependent on agreement and that it is expected that the work of the committees will last ten days, saying \ldblquote we said that during this period we expect to complete the great bulk of the work so that its results can subsequ The theft of nine antique paintings from Muhammed Ali Palace Masrawy \endash Exclusive Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad held today a trilateral meeting at the Riyadh Airbase airport. Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait, joined the meeti News Analysis_Reasons for the Egyptian-Syrian Reconciliation under Saudi Sponsorship Written by Ahmed Mousa: _The Arabic reconciliation, which took place in the Saudi Arabian Capital City, Riyadh, and whether Egypt has had certain conditions or reservations to accept reconciliation with Syria, have raised many questions for the public opi Egypt had no problems with any Arabic country; on the contrary, the political leadership is constantly working for the nation\rquote s issues and the Palestinian case. However, the signs of some disagreements started to appear because of the intervention of some Co-ordination went on between the two leaderships, the Egyptian and the Saudi, during all meetings and discussions over the last period, and President Mubarak has sent two confidential letters to King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz within 21 days; these letters Definitely, Egypt witnessed a significant change in the Syrian attitude towards several regional issues, which paved the way for Egypt to move. In addition, the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques sent a message with Prince Mequren Ben Abdul Aziz, the Direc •_Syria\rquote s changed attitude towards the Arabic peace initiative, which was clearly manifested during the last meeting of the Arabic Foreign Ministers in Cairo on the 3rd of this March. •_The gradual change from directing offenses to Egypt, which reached its climax over the last period whether through arranging demonstrations in front of the Egyptian Embassy or exploiting Syrian news media to attack the Egyptian policy. •_Adding Syria to the Arabic unity, to enjoy support in the critical accusations that Syria is exposed to on the international side, amidst the International Court\rquote s movement towards conducting a trial for Rafiq Al-Hariri\rquote s assassination, or the nuclear l •_Positive attitude on the Syrian part towards what Egypt currently undertakes in making historical reconciliations between all the Palestinian sects, and allowing those who reside in Damascus, who belong to those sects to attend in Egypt, while lessening King Abdullah, and his counterparts Mubarak, Al-Asad and Sheikh Sabah worked on clearing the air among Arab states According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the Arab leaders discussed during the meeting a number of issues on the Arab arena, in addition to clearing the air among Arab states, and achieving reconciliation to unify Arab countries. The leaders of the A Saudi official source announced that the Saudi King Abdullah had held a bilateral meeting with the Syrian President at the Riyadh Airbase airport, before the arrival of Mubarak and Al-Sabah. The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) added that a number of issues of mutual interest were discussed during the meeting, as well as prospects for cooperation between the two countries, and ways of strengthening collaboration in various fields. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, accompanied by a group of princes and ministers, had received the Syrian President at the Riyadh Airbase airport. Al-Assad's visit to Riyadh is his first official visit to the country in more than three years, and it comes after being invited by the Saudi King. The leaders of Egypt, Syria and Kuwait will meet to discuss Arab reconciliation, which was called for by the Saudi King at the economic, social and development summit of Kuwait, which took place on the 19th and 20th of last January. Kuwaiti sources in Riyadh said that the visit of the Emir of Kuwait, and his presence at the summit, come after receiving a phone call from the Saudi King on Tuesday night. The mini-Arab summit comes on the heels of the visit of Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, to Riyadh last Monday, and handing the Saudi King a letter from the Egyptian President. Al-Assad's visit to Riyadh comes at a time when there are indicators on possible American-Syrian convergence, especially after sending two American envoys to Damascus. Al-Jeeran, Baghdad - A court in Bagdad pronounced a verdict today sentencing the Iraqi journalist, Muntasir al-Zaydi, who threw his shoes on Bush to three-year imprisonment. Critics said the sentence had political motives. Al-Zaydi who works for an Iraqi television channel, al-Baghdadiyyah, acquired an instant fame by throwing his shoes on the occupation leader, Bush, at a press conference in Iraq in December, 2008, during the US President\rquote s visit, which he described as a f When the verdict was pronounced, al-Zaydi shouted the name of Iraq and addressed journalists saying he did not regret his act. Shrieks of joy followed loudly as well as outcries protesting the court\rquote s ruling. The group gathering members of al-Zaydi\rquote s fami Diaa\rquote al-Saadi, respondent\rquote s counsel for al-Zaydi, decried the decision as harsh and inconsistent with the law. He also stated that the respondent will appeal the ruling. The government of Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq\rquote s prime minister who was standing next to Bush in the press conference and had tried to shield the second throw of al-Zaidi, described this act as barbaric. Al-Zaydi\rquote s sister, Ruqayyah, burst into tears upon the pronouncing of the ruling and shouted against the Iraqi prime minister saying \ldblquote Down with al-Maliki\rdblquote and accused him of working for the Americans. While Adeyy, al-Zaydi\rquote s brother, said the ruling had political motives. case was politicized and is an attempt of revenge and that the judges were subjected to political pressures by known political factions. He concluded that the sentence was unfair and that it will be appealed at the Court of Cassation. BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) on Thursday expressed sorry over the verdict made by the Supreme Criminal Court to jail Muntather al-Zaydi for three years, calling on President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri a \ldblquote The verdict issued today against al-Zaydi shocked journalists,\rdblquote Hadi Jalo Marei, deputy head of the JFO, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced Muntather al-Zaydi, the journalist who hurled his shoes at former U.S. president George Bush, to three years behind bars, the correspondent of al-Boghdadiya satellite television said. The Council of Arabic Health Ministers initiates its thirty third session under the auspices of President Al Assad The events of the thirty third session for the Council of Arabic Health Ministers initiated under the auspices of President Al Assad in the Umayyad Palace. The session discussed several issues revolving around fortifying Arab efforts in fields related to The Council of Health Ministers' executive office recently held a meeting alongside delegates from Algeria, Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Syria. The meeting was held to formulate the Ministers Council project agenda. The meeting The ministers had also stressed the importance of implementing the Arabic project for the enhancement of the quality of medical institutions which was initiated in Damascus and Riyadh. The council also called higher education ministries to incorporate the studies of evidence-based medicine in relative curricula, and the council affirmed the formulation of national committees for evidence-based medicine. . The timing of the meeting coincides with the Arab Hospitals' Union periodic convention and a national medicine and medical equipment exhibition held in Ebla Elcham hotel. The Council also delegated the provision of appropriate programs and sessions to the Council of Arab Board of Medical Specializations to train a number of candidates in the fields of evidence-based medicine, family medicine, and nursing. The President of the Executive Office also discussed a report on the accomplishments of the Council of Health Ministers since the previous session. The Council further discussed the importance of having central nursing administrations in countries that have not adopted this already. Former Palestinian government denies resistance factions' relationships with Gaza missiles The former Palestinian government has criticized the firing of rocket missiles from the Gaza Strip on Israel, stating that resistance factions have nothing to do with the incident. The government has promised to pursue the militants behind it. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Hamas-dominant government body has issued an unusual press release affirming that resistance factions have nothing to do with the fired missiles. The ministry has stated that this is wrong timing and that security forces will be pursuing the militants behind the incident. No appeasement has been achieved between Palestinian factions and Israel since the last Israeli assault on Gaza in January of 2009 and a movement known as the Hezbollah Brigade in Palestine have claimed responsibility for them. Tens of missiles have been launched at Israeli communities. The ministry claims that this is movement is fictitious Air Raids This comes at a time when Israel launched several air raids on Palestinian-Egyptian borders targeting the tunnels area. Local residents stated that Israeli forces fired at least two missiles on the borders south of Rafah. No injuries were reported. A spokesperson for the Israeli army stated that Israel conducted air raids Thursday morning on two tunnels South of Gaza. The raid resulted in striking the targets without any reported injuries. Two Palestinians are reported to have suffered injuries on Wednesday due to an air raid on the Egyptian-Palestinian border. Several surrounding houses were hit by air raid splinters. A spokesperson for the Israeli army has stated that the air raid was a consequence of Palestinian resistance factions issuing rocket missiles south of Israel Sources stated that four home-made missiles were launched Tuesday from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli communities but left no financial or human losses. Palestinian medical sources have further revealed that three Palestinians died as a result of the Israeli occupation preventing them from crossing the borders to receive medical attention. Amongst the three victims were two children aged four and seven, who suffered from a heart condition The third victim was a seventy one year old woman who had cancer Smoke rising from the area of the Israeli air bombardment under the pretext of the presence of tunnels Occupation: blogger After four years of blogging, mainly in pure personal blogs, the time has come to focus (full time) on professional blogging, and to make blogging my official and main job. Practically, I have been a professional blogger for almost two years now. I worked for a whole year as part of the team of the as the first Arab (working in an Arab company) to hold a position with the job title of community manager. One of the tasks I performed was blogging for the Ikbis blog. Even before that, I can say that practicing professional blogging started with my first personal blog, as I earned direct revenue through published advertisements on the blog, and indirectly by promoting my services of websites' development. Ikbis website, After a year of working as a blogger and a community manager for Ikbis, I resigned. As I told my employer at the time, I wanted to fully focus on professional and commercial blogging, and to create a blogs' network. I delayed announcing this decision because I was busy trying to launch another side project that took all my time, but it unfortunately could not come to light because of lacking adequate funding. Today, the time has come for me to become the first Arab blogger to be devoted to professional blogging (or let's say commercial blogging), and to start getting prepared to launch the first network for Arab blogs. Setting oneself free for professional blogging in the Arab world may be a serious adventure (if we don't call it a crazy step). Blogging, however, is like any other activity on the Arab Web, it carries a lot of risk, but it has in itself all the possibili During the past years, I started more than a blog, apart from my first personal blog, but they were not successful as I did not keep posting in them more than a few weeks. The reason being simply lack of time and my permanent concern of earning a living a The difference this time is that I will dedicate my time to commercial blogging. This means that the blogs that I will create, and all projects related to blogging, will aim at creating an acceptable revenue subject to sustained growth. Yes, it seems easy to say, and it's easier to dream of. However, I am ready this time to face all the upcoming difficulties. In the beginning, I will devote eight hours a day to blogging (I will publish a new post in this blog every day, from Monday to Thursday), and I will allocate additional hours to provide services related to blogging, which I will talk about later in detai I will focus on this blog in the beginning, to train myself more on a new way of blogging. Then, when I find an appropriate office with a reasonable rent, I will start launching the network' blogs one after another. In most blogs, I will not be the only o The first thing to do now is close other blogs (except for the archives of my first blog) , and I will redirect traffic automatically to this blog. Then I will complete the second edition of my book ABC of blogging. This edition does not seem to come to an end. Therefore, I set a challenge: if I can not complete the book, with a sufficient d Comments (21) This blog will be my only personal blog. Do not worry, I will not be talking here about the details of my personal life. I never did that before. And I will not write about political issues that will make your hair stand; politics will have a dedicated bl Congratulations, brother. This is an excellent decision, and I wish you success. I am also a full time blogger from the Arab world for my blog Arab crunch My blog has grew to this day, thanks to God the Almighty, to organize events and activities. I am currently planning for the launch of the Arabic version of Arab crunch. Wishing you all the best. said: March 13, 2009, at 18:50 March 13, 2009, at 18:50 Wonderful! An experience worth following, and very inspiring as well! Ibrahim Al-Jabour March 13, 2009, at 18:50 I am a good reader of yours, brother. I think that you used to have more than four blogs, and I used to feel dispersed and always tell myself: if Hijouij posts in one single blog, he would have a great success. My wishes of success for you, and for my new blog, God willing. Mohamed Bashir March 13, 2009, at 18:50 That's wonderful, Mohamed! Wishing you all the best, God willing. A Common Gulf Currency will be Launched in 2010 and will be Called the Khaliji Imagine... A sheep for fifty \ldblquote Khalijis\rdblquote Economic experts have informed us that the currency in circulation in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf before and after the appearance of Islam was called the Dinar and its units were Dirhams. If naming the common currency after the currency of one A friend told me that when he moved to the Sudanese capital to work as a director in the offices of the Middle East News Agency, he found himself one day in the market. He passed by a seller of dates and peanuts, and asked him for a quarter pound worth of I remembered this story when I read that the geniuses at the GCC had suggested the name Khaliji (a citizen of the Gulf countries) for the common Gulf currency, which is long overdue. I don't know these gentlemen\rquote s springs of thought and creativity had d Imagine with me if this name was adopted… How would a Gulf citizen divvy up his monthly salary for various expenses? Maybe it would be divided like this: 150 Khalijis for the car payments, 60 Khalijis for the maid, 70 Khalijis for the driver, 100 K And imagine what advertising will be like in appliance shops during sales: Automatic washing machine for 100 \ldblquote Khalijis\rdblquote ...what a deal! Forty inch television for 300 \ldblquote Khalijis\rdblquote ...Don't miss this opportunity! And men of the Gulf, imagine how many \ldblquote Khalijis\rdblquote equal a nightgown and accessories in a women\rquote s clothing shop? And the worst would be when one goes to the livestock market to buy a sheep, and the seller informs him that a sheep is worth 50 \ldblquote Khalijis!\rdblquote According to economic experts, the currency in circulation before and after the advent of Islam was called the Dinar, and its units were Dirhams. So if a common currency named for the currency of one of the GCC countries offends the sensitivity of our off The Turning Point Lebanese embassy inaugurates in Damascus marking new era Lebanon and Syria witness the dawn of a new era as Lebanon\rquote s flag is raised above the Lebanese embassy in Damascus Damascus - The Lebanese embassy was inaugurated in Damascus early this week, in light of new diplomatic relationships between the two nations. No statement was released on the occasion. The Syrian embassy had inaugurated in early December in Beirut Damascus has not appointed an ambassador yet in Lebanon. Three Syrian diplomats had joined the embassy including First Secretary Shawqi Shomat In return, appointed ambassador Michel Khori should be arriving to Syria as soon as official farewell ceremonies come to an end in Cyprus, where he is currently serving as ambassador. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad had issued a decree entailing the initiation of diplomatic relationships with Lebanon this past October, as well as the inauguration of a Syrian embassy in Beirut. In a historic move, a Lebanese-Syrian summit was held in Damascus on August 13th between President Bashar Al Assad and Michel Suleiman. Both presidents had agreed to building diplomatic relationships on the ambassadors\rquote level. This initiative was the fi The Lebanese government had conceded to diplomatic relationships with Syria on August 21st, and the conception of a Lebanese embassy in Damascus Lebanese-Syrian relationships had deteriorated since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafeeq Al Hareeri in February of 2005 and the withdrawal of Syrian forces in April of the same year. The inauguration of the Lebanese embassy in Damascus coincides with President Michel Suleiman\rquote s three-day visit to Paris where he will be discussing bilateral relationships and the Syrian-Lebanese file. French president Nicolas Sarkozy stated in July of 2008 in light of the \lquote Union for the Mediterranean\rquote summit that Lebanon and Syria had agreed to mutual diplomatic relationships and the formation of embassies in Syria and Lebanon, labeling it historic pro Former French President Jacques Chirac put a halt to high-level relationships with Syria after the assassination of Rafiq Al Hareeri. After his appointment as president, Sarkozy linked French collaboration with Damascus with facilitating the election of a Lebanese president, in light of an appointment gap that extended for six months and was finally resolved in May 25th. Sarkozy paid a visit to French authorities in Syria and has long affirmed the importance of the development of relationships between Damascus and Beirut as well as the resolution of any points of conflict between them. Rami Mortada, who is in charge of the Lebanese embassy\rquote s operations, had raised Lebanon\rquote s flag above the embassy headquarters in the upscale neighborhood of Abu Rummana in Damascus Kuwaiti Emir accepts government resignation post questioning requests from parliament Sheikh Nasser El Mohamed\rquote s government is the fifth in three years, and was formed only eight weeks ago Kuwaiti media had reported Emir Sheikh Sabbah Al Ahmad Al Sabbah\rquote s acceptance of the government resignation. Media sources have revealed that the Kuwaiti Emir requested the government to finalize all current affairs. Many MPs had stated that the governm Political conflict between members of parliament and the government had deepened further as Kuwaiti MPs declared that Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohamed Al Ahmad Al Sabbah submitted the government\rquote s resignation to Kuwaiti Prince Sheikh Sabbah Al Ahmad. Inside resources revealed to \lquote Al Sharq Al Awsat\rquote that the government chose to resign during the last ministries meeting. This decision came as the best option to avoid the interrogation of PM Sheikh Nasser Al Muhammed. It is worthwhile to mention that A Sources have also revealed that the government has indeed issued its resignation letter to Emir Sheikh Sabbah Al Ahmad, stating concerns on over-questioning, and the misuse of constitutional tools. Parliament speaker Jassem Al Khorafi had declined the va He further stated that he did not receive any information regarding the government\rquote s resignation or the dissolution of the parliament, and that the parliament session will carry on as scheduled and in accordance to the set agenda. Al Khorafi\rquote s statements Al Dowaila said: \lquote We have reached the turning point. The government should either resign or the parliament should dissolute\rquote . MP Abdallah Al Omairi had reaffirmed this announcement in a media statement. It is worthwhile to mention that Kuwait is currently witnessing political conflict between the parliament and the government, largely due to accusations issued against Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed\rquote s government for not exerting sufficient efforts to rectify i Jerusalem/PNN - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel will not release any prisoners, but those on the list prepared by Israel, pointing out that Israel has red lines that can not be crossed and that it will not bow to the dictates of Hamas. Olmert: We will not free any prisoners, but those on the list Israel prepared Olmert held a special press statement on this matter. Olmert added that Israel had made a generous offer with a number of names including some murderers, but this offer was rejected by Hamas, which made it clear through the communications to be a dangerous movement that\rquote s away from any sense of humanity, he Mr. Olmert also said that Israel will continue its communications and unprecedented efforts in order to bring soldier Gilad Shalit home. A special ministerial committee will take the legal means to increase pressure on Hamas prisoners who are in Israeli jails, and equal their conditions of imprisonment to those experienced by the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. There are 20 prisoners that Israel refuses to release, and it\rquote s calling to deport half of them. Those who are to be deported are: 1-_Ata Lateef Shair 2-_Nasir Abdallah Nezal 3-_Ziyad Kilany 4-_Said Mohammad Youssef Badraneh 5-_Mohammed Taher El-Karam 6-_Walid Engues 7-_Ibrahim Shamaseneh 8-_Ayed Shalaledeh 9-_Idris El-Rajabi 10-_Fadi Joebeh Those who are to be released: 1-_Bahij Badr, 18 life sentences. 2-_Abdullah Jamal Barghouti, 67 life sentences. 3-_Mohammad Hasan Ahmen Imran, 82 life sentences. 4-_Ibrahim Hamed, responsible for the death of 82 Israelis. 5-_Abbas Sayid, responsible for the death of 82 Israelis. 6-_Mahand Sharim, Al-Qassam Brigades\rquote official in Tulkarem. 7-_Ra\rquote id Khudri 8-_Jamal Abu al-Haiga 9-_Muath Bilal 10-_Hasan Salama, 38 life sentences. Hebrew sources said that immediately after the special meeting of the Israeli cabinet devoted to debating the latest developments in the prisoner exchange deal, Olmert informed the ministers that there was nothing new in this file to talk about. According to these Hebrew sources, Olmert told his ministers that Hamas hardened its stance, which made it difficult to have a deal. The sources added that the meeting which ended Tuesday afternoon had a sense of failure, especially after Olmert briefed the Ministers on what was described as a retreat of Hamas from previous positions, and its request to free more prisoners with life se The sources also added that Olmert's office issued a detailed press statement covering the latest developments of this case. The Ministers had listened to reports from the Israel's General Security Services chief Yuval Diskin and Special Envoy Ofer Dekel, about their talks in Cairo in order to complete the deal for the release of Gilad Shalit. Diskin and Dekel told the cabinet members that the failure of talks with Hamas is due to the the movement\rquote s new demands and their raising issues already agreed on. The sources said that ministers were briefed on a partial list of Palestinian prisoners who were candidates for release. New desktops from Apple Mac-mini: One of Apple\rquote s new desktops Cupertino, \lquote California\rquote - Agencies: Apple announced a new line of desktops to be launched in the market. New Apple desktops will have a new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics introduced with 1GB RAM and 120GB hard disk. Apple is also to launch a version with higher features than the Mac mini desktop, priced at 799 Euros, with 2GB RAM, 320GB hard disk and a 2 Duo core processor of 2,26 GHz. Apple plans to launch a new Mac mini with a 2 GHz processor for a retail price of 599 Euros (USD755). Apple introduced many improvements to its line of iMacs, which will all have faster processors from now on. For example, the 20-inch iMac will be provided with a 2,66 GHz 2 Duo core processor, 2GB RAM and 320 GB hard disk, for a retail price of 1099 Euros The 24-inch iMac will be available at 1399 Euros, and have a 3.06 GHz 2 Duo core processor, and up to 1TB of hard disk. Users can choose between integrated graphics from ATA and NVIDIA. The Mac Pro will continue to be the best Apple machine, and new versions of it will be provided with the Xeon chip that relies on the electronic chip technology of Nehalem from Intel. The company says that the speed of this chip can be up to 2.93 GHz. The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, called the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip a war crime, asserting that these atrocious crimes must be stopped. He added, in a speech aired by al-jazeera, that the blood of the martyrs of the Se According to economic experts, the currency in circulation before and after the advent of Islam was called the Dinar, and its units were Dirhams. So if a common currency named for the currency of one of the GCC countries offends the sensitivity of our off \ldblquote My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses all the issues we face and to resuming efforts aiming at establishing constructive ties,\rdblquote he stated in an unprecedented video message that concurred with the Nowruz holiday which marks the be The US president added in his message, which was broadcasted by the Voice of America radio in the Persian language, that this process will not be enhanced by threats as we seek instead of that dialogue to be purely based on mutual respect. Obama made a condition to the Iranians that in order to start any dialogue, they have to give up arms and supporting what he called \lquote terrorism\rquote , saying that Washington wants for Iran to take the place it deserves in the international community, which it Referring to Iran's nuclear programme, the US president said that the greatness is not gauged by the ability to destruction, but rather the ability to construction creativity. Obama did not make any specific offers to the Iranians in his speech, but said that he is looking forward to a future of new relations between our two peoples and greater opportunities for trade and partnerships. However, he admitted that this will not In his comment on the speech of the US president, the editor-in-chief of al-Wahdah magazine, Abbas Khamah, told al-Jazeera that there is frustration among Iranians caused by the US policy. He added that Obama made a condition to Tehran to not to support t He pointed out that Washington, despite announcing having opened a new chapter, continues still to support the Iranian armed opposition and is still freezing Iranian bank assets, confirming that Iran is expecting actions to be taken by the US side. This speech comes about a week after the one-year extension of the sanctions that the US administration imposed on Tehran. Obama said in his letter to the Congress that the actions and policies of the government of Iran comes in contrast to Washington's i The Iranian president , Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , has condemned the extension of sanctions, saying that the attempts to put obstacles to hinder the development of Iran through imposing sanctions are a boyish notion and a grave mistake.\rdblquote Ahmadinejad, had agreed earlier to dialogue with the United States, but stipulated that dialogue should be based on mutual respect between the two parties. The Supreme Leader of the Iranian revolution also , , criticized the US president saying that his administration follows the same misleading path of the previous one by supporting Israel. In an unprecedented speech to the Iranian people Obama offers Tehran a new beginning for its relations with Washington Barrak Obama admits that opening a new chapter with Tehran is not an easy task The US president , Barak Obama , offered Iran a new beginning in its relations with his country based on mutual respect between the two parties in place of \ldblquote threats.\rdblquote Israel prohibits the celebration of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture A general overview of the eastern city of Jerusalem (Reuters - Archives) The Aljazeera correspondent in Palestine reported that soldiers from Israeli occupation forces broke into Burj Al-Laqlaq in the Old Town in Jerusalem, and arrested a number of the organisers of the festivities of Al Quds, Capital of Arab Culture. The occupation forces have taken strict measures, and threatened to use force to suppress any attempt to celebrate in Nazareth as well. Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter had signed a resolution prohibiting the establishment of any celebration Despite the Israeli decision, the Palestinians insist on celebrating the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture for the year 2009, as the organizers confirmed that they have prepared alternative plans to make it successful, in spite of the Israe Israeli occupation authorities justify the decision of preventing the celebrations, which the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was expected to take part in, in the city of Bethlehem, by the pretext that they will be held in two towns under their contro Israeli occupation authorities based its decision on an Israeli law related to interim agreements signed with the Palestinian Authority in 1994, which stipulates that such festivities were to be banned in every place within the borders of the state of Is The slogan of celebrating Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture (Al Jazeera Net) Since Friday morning, the Israeli occupation authorities deployed more than two thousand policemen in all parts of Jerusalem to prevent celebrations that start on Saturday, with artistic, traditional and literature activities and shows, from five sites: J Despite that, Chancellor Abdul Qader confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that a number of cultural and artistic activities will be carried out in a number of areas in the city without declaring them, for fear of the occupation police to stop them. He added that He also confirmed that whatever the occupation authorities do, they will not be able to silence the voice of Jerusalem and its presence in this celebration. There will be symbolic events, even if they are not huge, in order to prove the right of the Pales In the city of Nazareth in the north of the Palestinian territory that was occupied in 48, the Israeli police handed over a decision to the municipality of the city, stipulating the prevention of a musical activity that was expected to be launched from th The president of the People's Committee for the Defence of Freedoms in the country Amir Makhul considered the Israeli decision as legal terrorism against the Palestinian masses in the country, and against the right of Palestinians in general in the city o The president of the People's Committee for the Defence of Freedoms in the country Amir Makhul considered the Israeli decision as legal terrorism against the Palestinian masses in the country, and against the right of Palestinians in general in the city o Makhul considered the easy use of repressive administrative orders and emergency laws as an official and methodological Israeli escalation towards our people at home, and towards the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And that comes within the Israeli efforts for Makhul said in a special interview that celebrating Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture is a Palestinian right, based on resolutions of the League of Arab states and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and not on the decisions of the government of According to the President of the People's Committee for the Defence of Freedoms, the city of Nazareth is expecting on Saturday large-scale protests against the decision of preventing the festivities, which will take place at the same time on which the ce Source: A First in the Arab World \ldblquote Girls Radio\rdblquote …A Social Station for Girls Only A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step...From this beginning, a team composed of mostly girls succeeded in launching the first radio station in the Arab world targeted to girls, online in every Arab country. They didn't wait for a government job The idea started last year with a dream conceived by a group made up of twenty-five young women and five young men to create Girls Radio, targeted at girls and women of all different cultural, social and economic backgrounds. The radio station presents Male Spinsters Imani Al-Tunisi, the director of Girls Radio and its creator, says of the new station and of her goals: I grew tired of an arrogant male point of view prevalent in Eastern societies, which views girls as being a 'shame' on their families, which can onl \ldblquote Our station\rquote s bold slogan is \lquote Why are there no male spinsters?\rquote We're trying to improve the image of girls in the Arab world, and change the stereotypical image of young girls, which, from the point of view of many, is limited to fashion and cosmetics, a She continues: The second point that we are focusing on in our programming is exposing problems faced by girls, regardless of personalities. These personalities could be classified as, 'the intellectual girl,' 'the quiet girl,' 'the crazy girl,' 'the uni Shaimaa Hosni, a program producer, says: I've found that 'spinsterhood' and sexual harassment of women in the streets and on public transportation are the biggest problems that girls and women suffer from in society, so I decided to create the 'Tante Fee Another program that is contributing to a change in perceptions of women's programming is It's been a long time since I was young, a group program for which we except great success, as it includes ideas and contribution from our entire work team. It ta . . A Us cargo plane crashed in the international airport of Narita in Tokyo causing the death of the pilot and his assistant. This concurred with the death of nearly 17 people killed in the crash of a small passenger plane while landing on the state of Monta Television pictures showed, today morning, the federal Express cargo plane turning into a ball of flame upon landing on the Japanese airport. The crash, of which the cause is not yet determined, took place during the emergency landing of the plane. However, a spokesman for the airport said it was likely due to the strong wind which caused the plane to deviate from the runway. According to the Japanese hospital sources, the accident caused the death of the pilot and his assistant who were alone on board of the plane which was on a flight from Guangzhou, southern China. Firefighters sprayed the remaining parts of the crashed plane, which was turned upside down with its wheels up in the air, with foam. A statement by the Ministry of Communications pointed out that the two US pilots who died were Americans. On the other hand, the US Federal Aviation Administration said that 17 people were killed in a small plane that crashed while landing on the state of Montana, western US. The FAA officials said that the ill-fated plane was carrying a group of young children who were on their way to a ski vacation in Bozeman in the state. An FAA official in Los Angeles clarified that the plane took off from Oroville, California, and crashed upon nearing the final approach to the airport in Butte. The accident took place at a distance of five hundred feet from the airport. Pictures aired by the CNN showed the location of the plane crash where it blasted into a ball of flame in an orchard near a cemetery. According to an eyewitness, the plane left a hole of a depth of six meters, adding that due to the blaze, he was not able to see except only some parts of the plane. The FAA said that the cause of the crash of the plane and the prevailing weather conditions at the site could not be speculated and that the authorities have started probing the incident. People killed in US plane crashes in Tokyo and Montana Saudi \endash American invention to facilitate water desalination using nanotechnology The city of King Abdel Aziz for Saudi Sciences and Technology and technology mogul, IBM, have announced that they were able to develop membranes capable of purifying water of salts and toxic material through nanotechnology in a highly effective and timel Both parties have said in a joint statement that they intend to mutually patent the invention, as the release was issued at the same time by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Bob Allen, an official at the IBM Research center, based in San Jose, California, had stated that this research produced promising results for smarter and healthier applications that will assist on preserving the planet as well as maintaining current ecol The nano technology is used to invent new mediums and know-how whose dimensions are measured by the nanometer, which is one thousandth of a micrometer or one millionth of a millimeter. This term was coined with the advent of electronic-technological industries. This technology utilizes the wide-known properties of atoms and particles to build tools and equipment with extraordinary capabilities. The international research center specializes in nanotechnology applications and aims to find cost-effective solutions for water desalination. The center is comprised of many researches including a female Saudi researcher specializing in nanotechnology. The new membranes which operate through reverse osmotic pressure are an important discovery in the field of technology and water desalination. The Saudi-American team was able to set a new understanding for membranes and material that can resist chlorine The new membrane was named i-Phobe due to its unique chemical combination of ionic hydrophobes which enables radical changes when faced with different environments. Water is effectively able to travel between the membranes which has led experts to label Trial of Mumbai attacks suspects begin Pakistan delivered the suspects' DNA to the Interpol The trial of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, one of the armed suspects in the Mumbai attacks, has been initiated through television media. Reuters had reported statements from chief Indian inspector Rakish Maria on Kasab\rquote s confessions at the beginning of the trial and from his prison in cell in Mumbai that he was Pakistani, and that he had requested legal assistance from the court. Indian police had reportedly accused 21-year old Kasab of murder, attempted murder, and 'waging war' against India this past February. Pakistan had earlier stated that India would be asked to deliver Pakistani citizen Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only survivor from the blasts, should the investigation entail this. Rahman Malek, Pakistani Prime Minister Counselor for internal affairs, said that Kasab\rquote s name appeared in preliminary investigation reports carried out by Pakistan on the Mumbai attacks. He later stated that it was too early to be discussing hypothetical The Mumbai attacks, which occurred in early February, resulted in one hundred seventy four casualties, eight of which were executors. DNA The International Police (Interpol) revealed that Islamabad has delivered DNA analysis for the suspects. Ronald Noble, current Secretary General of the Interpol, has declared that the Pakistani decision acts as a \lquote detour for Interpol investigations on terrorism\rquote . India had officially accused Pakistani Military Intelligence of being directly involved in the explosions. Pakistan strongly denied these allegations and asked India to present evidence. In turn, Pakistan considered that Indian cooperation was vital for the progress of investigations on the attacks. Global financial crisis leads to decline in Suez Canal revenues Moscow - 23 March \endash Novosti : The global economic downturn has led to a decline in Egypt\rquote s marine transport revenues from the Suez Canal. Figures suggest a twenty five percent decrease in income in February compared to the same month last year, as stated Canal administration had decided not to raise tariffs at the beginning of this year due to the difficulties that face the sector. These complexities are primarily due to the global financial crisis, as well as the increase in pirate attacks in the Gulf o Arms manufacturers have particularly changed their shipping routes over the past months due to the increasing number of pirate attacks, to ensure that their ships are avoiding dangerous areas between the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. As a result, many Canal administration officials had previously communicated fears that the global financial crisis would result in a decline in the number of goods transported from China and East Asia to West Europe and the United states. This would adversely affect Suez Egypt: Global financial crisis affects Suez Canal revenues Cairo \endash Suez Canal proceeds have declined by one hundred million dollars in February as they amounted to three hundred and two million, compared to yields of four hundred and eight million dollars in February of 2008. A statistical report issued by the c Thirty five Saudi clerics call for a ban on the emergence of women in the media A number of Saudi clerics have called on Abdelaziz Khuja, newly appointed Saudi minister of culture and media, to ban the emergence of women in mass media. Thirty five Saudi scientists have warned in a press release issued in \lquote Noor Al Islam\rquote website, which is administered by Sheikh Mohammad Al Habdan Khuja, against the consequences of violating religious teachings through mass media. Scientists have also called on Khuja to not promote any female dancing or singing on television, as well as place a ban on the appearance of all female news anchors and women generally in the media. The statement said: \ldblquote Under no circumstances should women appear in Saudi newspapers and magazines\rdblquote . The statement was issued in accordance to the Prime Minister\rquote s generalization in 2000 which entailed that supervisory institutions should look out for med Clerics who have signed on the statement declared that the appearance of women in Saudi television was a violation to the Kingdom\rquote s media policies. The statement also requested the minister of media to meet with ten co-signers to discuss the issue. Some of the co-signers on the release were Sheikh Abdel Rahman Bin Nasser AlBarrak, Sheikh Abdelaziz Bin Abdallah Al Rajhi, Sheikh Abdallah Bin Hammoud Al Taweijri, Sheikh Abdel Rahman Al Saleh Al Mahmoud, Sheikh Abdallah Bin Ibrahim Al Rayyes, Sheikh Ham Reflections on Obama\rquote s initiatives Al Azzab Al Tayyeb Al Taher … American president Barack Obama has increased his initiatives towards Iran; this is virtuous progress reflecting the credibility of this man who has come to power with dreams and visions that conflict with his predecessor; George W. Bush has unregrettably I believe he is sincere in directing dialogue at Tehran at a high level, and he might even surprise us with dramatic developments in that respect. The British Play \ldblquote Damascus\rdblquote Angers Syrians The people of Damascus are furious about a British play that uses the name of their city as its title, after many found that the play presents a superficial and stereotypical picture of Syrian characters, most of whom are depicted unfavorably. One audience member, who introduced himself as a writer, appeared provoked, and spoke with emotion to the play's author, David Greig, You present Damascus in a superficial way through stereotypical characters, all of whom are negative, and as a writer, y The author of the play responded that this question didn't seem valid to him, because there is no history of power relations between us and you. The play Damascus, which David Grieg -- who is considered one of the most prominent writers of the new Scottish generation -- wrote for the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, has been performed in Russia and New York, in addition to Edinburgh, over the last All of the actors are British. The play\rquote s events take place in a lobby of a Damascus hotel, where Paul, a curriculum writer for English learning materials, arrives to sign a deal to sell his textbook to an English language institute in the Syrian capital. The English writer meets Mona, a young woman who is the representative of the institute, and a discussion takes place between them on the changes that the writer must make to his work so that the institute can teach it to Syrian students. This discussion is one a series of discussions that open the door for a debate on the issue of political, religious, and social differences between the Syrian society as Mona presents it and the sayings and characters found in the textbook. Paul meets the director of the language institute, who is presented as a hypocritical character who speaks about values, both in his conversation with Paul, and also with Mona, who wants him to adopt a new curriculum that will enable the students to learn The writer, whose stay in Damascus has been prolonged by an explosion at the Beirut airport during the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in July 2006, has many conversations with the hotel's receptionist, a young Syrian man whose naive character seems to think o Another character in play is a Ukrainian piano player, transmits what appear to be reports about Damascus society, through people passing through the hotel. The play ends with the writer reluctant to leave Damascus, after he develops feelings for Mona dur Discussion was heated after the performance, to the point that when the discussion leader announced that it had ended, many hands in the room were still raised. Despite this, the audience applauded the British Arab actor Khalid Laith, who played the role The critic Osama Ghanam, an instructor at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art in Damascus, who participated in the discussion, said that the play, which was presented by the British Council as part of a dialogue between cultures, presents a superficial The United States did not only practice unilateral policies of hegemony in the Arabic region, but in other parts of the world as well.__Those policies did not enrage the Arabs alone, but also maddened the United States allies in Europe and left a deep imp President Barack Obama, commenced his term by chronicling the account for the withdrawal from Iraq, and by sending his envoy, George Mitchell, to calm the situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Yet, he has not done anything to avert the wave The logic governing the US actions now is their wish to return to diplomacy and negotiation, and establish that they are not to be held responsible for the damages the Bush administration caused. Their main concern is for the US army to not walk out of Ir The Blue Jerboa...Witness to the Tragedy of France's Nuclear Testing in Algeria. The Blue Jerboa...Witness to the Tragedy of France's Nuclear Testing in Algeria. Despite the passing of half a century since France's nuclear tests in the Algerian village of Raggane, the effects of these explosions, which sowed terror and destruction and sickness in the region, are still present. For the first time, a documentary fil Jamal Wahab, the director of the film for the nine o'clock news on MBC1, said on Friday, March 5: France, which built its glory on the blood of Algerians, is called upon today to reveal the truth of its nuclear secret. French conscripts and inhabitants of Raggane, who were victims of the French crime, tell of the terrible health and environmental effects of the nuclear explosions. Hamadi Ahmed Alhaj, one of the victims of the nuclear tests, says We came to this region The issue of nuclear testing was shrouded in secrecy, and France didn't want to talk about it, even though the victims raised their voices and demanded that the French government compensate them for their health problems, which only increased. Reports suggest that France carried out a series of nuclear explosions of varying strength in Raggane (in the province of Adrar) and ِAynkar (in the province of Tamanrasset) beginning with the blue jerboa on October 14, 1960, and ending with \ldblquote Verona,\rdblquote w Bruno Barillot, a French researcher specializing in French nuclear tests, said that the French colonial authorities used 42,000 Algerians as guinea pigs in their first nuclear bomb explosions in the French desert. In a conference in the Algerian capital, the French researcher said, The nuclear bomb was detonated over 42,000 people, including local residents and prisoners from the Algerian Liberation Army. This represents the harshest picture of the genocide and ba 42 Thousand Victims Barillot showed photos of crucified Algerian fighters wearing different military uniforms, and other pictures showing the extent of destruction that the bomb caused to the environment of the region, and what happened to military equipment (planes and armo Barillot said that, Most of the Algerian desert was damaged by nuclear radiation spread by wind, and the inhabitants of these region are still threatened by particles of plutonium. The Evian Convention, which France signed with the Algerian Liberation Fr Life imprisonment for the man who raped his daughter in Austria Agencies - Islamonline.net An Austrian court issued on Thursday a life imprisonment sentence against Joseph Fritzel, on the charges of detention and rape of his daughter for 24 years, and murder by neglect in the death of a newborn boy his daughter had from him. The verdict of the court of \ldblquote St Poelten\rdblquote , in the west of the Austrian capital Vienna, was unanimous from the eight jurors; to let the curtain fall on one of the worst crimes in humanity. The sentence, which is one of the maximum punishments in Austria, di Earlier yesterday, Fritzl apologized to the court for everything he did, but he said that his apology can not change anything of what happened\rdblquote , and he expressed his regret by saying: I am sorry for all what happened from the bottom of my heart, but I c Fritzl committed one of the worst crimes in humanity Fritzl pleaded guilty of all the charges against him, in the third day of his trial on Wednesday, in the case known as the cave of terror. He said before the judge: I recognise that I am guilty of all the charges. Among the charges directed by the prosecution to Fritzl are: slavery, rape, coercion, kidnapping, and false imprisonment; according to the prosecution official. At the beginning of his trial on Monday, Fritzl denied the charges of murder and slavery, but he pleaded guilty after watching his daughter Elizabeth telling the story of her plight in an 11-hour video taped testimony, which was broadcasted in the courtro However, Judge Andrea Hammer, who could not hide her anger and outrage, responded to his regret and recognition of the size of charges: Why are you saying this now?! What has changed?! The maximum penalty Elizabeth \endash the victim \endash attended the trial session held on Tuesday, to see the reactions of her father after broadcasting her testimony against him. It was the first time for her to see him since the disclosure of the case a year ago. China calls for the adoption of a currency other than the dollar for the international reserves. Obama calls on the London summit to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated measures On the eve of the G20 summit in London, the US President Barak Obama called on the head of the group states to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated measures in the face of the global economic crisis, while the Chinese central bank called to the adop Central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said in a statement that was published on the ebank that \ldblquote the goal is to establish a new world economic order that is not easily affected by the policies in some countries and that the outbreak of the crisis and it China is under the current system which is dominated by the dollar and is following closely the results of the policies to revive the economy endorsed by the Obama Administration and the potential consequences that may ensue and affect China's reserve of Zhou said that the adoption of a new reserve currency had received wide acceptance, may take a long time. The international family, especially the IMF is ought, in the near future at least, to face the risks resulting from the current system and to car China is assumed to enjoy the support of Russia, which suggested that the summit discusses the adoption of a reserve currency that is not subject to any national sovereignty. Zhou recommended that in this context, the adoption of the special drawing righ The International Monetary Fund set up special drawing rights linked to a basket of currencies in 1969 forming the assets of the world reserve; in order to complete the reserves of its member states at a time where the offer gold and dollars are no longer The IMF said on its website that its role had decreased since that time and used, has been used as an arithmetical unit by the IFM and some international systems. Chinese economist, Andy Xie, speculated that the Chinese proposal will remain a dead letter as special drawing rights is not considered a monetary system supported by the government. Not to mention that the aim of this proposal might be to give warning to The economic expert believed that the situation was sorrowful. China is the Bank for the United States and the United States owes China a great deal, but yet it is not intimidated, it is China that is like a hostage to the United States and not the other In an article published by the International Herald Tribune, the US president was quoted as saying: We are going through a phase of global economic challenges that can not be overcome by supporting measures or isolated efforts carried out by some nation. South Korea to Send a War Ship to Monitor North Korea\rquote s Missiles Tokyo \endash South Korean news service Yonhap reported that Seoul has decided to send a war ship to the East Sea with news that North Korea has finished its preparations to launch a missile towards the territorial waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan. The news service quoted a Korean official as saying that, \ldblquote The war ship Sueng will carry out monitoring activities in the East Sea,\rdblquote referring to the war ship, which weighs 7,600 tons and can monitor and identify targets hundreds of kilometers away. The news agency reported that another official, who refused to be named, said that Seoul learned yesterday that Pyongyang has finished assembling the missile on a launch pad on the eastern coast. North Korea has said that it will set up what it described as a communications satellite between April 4th and 8th. South Korea and the United States see this as a possible attempt on the part of North Korea to launch a long-range war missile that could r Experts say that a missile launch could take three days from the injection of a medium-range missile with liquid and dry fuel. North Korea carried out missile tests in 2006, but the missile crashed immediately after being launched. Embraced by over 2717 cities in 83 countries.. \lquote Dubai Electricity\rquote calls for participation Eleven institutions and foundations switch off lights in Abu Dhabi as they partake in Earth Hour Dubai Electricity and Water Authority called all families in the city to support the \lquote Earth Hour\rquote initiative through effective participation in the official event set to take place in the Jumeira B The authority stated that its employees will be distributing lanterns, T-shirts, and free balloons with the \lquote Earth Hour\rquote logo. The audience will then place their lit lanterns on physical projections spelling \lquote Earth Hour\rquote in English and Arabic. These pro from 8:30 until 9:30 in the evening Dubai\rquote s water and electricity authority will manage a separate area for children during the event. The area will focus on energy-saving activities and will be in proximity to the Hilton Hotel. The event is also set to include a campaign called \lquote The Deci Saeed Mohamed Al Tayyer, managing director and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, stated: \lquote Earth Hour is a great opportunity for families to work together with a collaborative and responsible spirit to ensure a continuing future for planet Eart Amal Koushk, director of loads and tariffs in Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, said \lquote Last year, Dubai became the first city to engage in the Earth Hour initiative. Once again, it is leading the journey in the region.\rquote The Environment Agency \endash Abu Dhabi and a number of partners are also partaking in the symbolic global initiative \lquote Earth Hour\rquote , launched by the World Wildlife Fund in an effort to combat global warming across the planet. The agency as well as ten other in Some institutions set to take part in the event are Abu Dhabi\rquote s Company for Health Services (Seha), Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ADNOC companies, GASCO, Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi Higher Colleges of Tech Dubai Public Prosecution will also be supporting the \lquote Earth Hour\rquote campaign in Dubai, which promotes constructive aims of combating environmental changes through turning off thousands of lights in the city for one hour, and starting at 8:30 p.m. Baker Abdel Wahed, public relations manager at Dubai Public Prosecution, has issued a statement saying that Dubai Public Prosecution\rquote s participation in this voluntary campaign is represented through the switching off of all lights including all facilities Engineer Hasan Nasser Lutah, general manager in Dubai Municipality, has requested the residents of the city to switch off all unnecessary lights for one hour, hoping to increase consciousness on carbon emissions, which scientists claim to be the main reas Abu Dhabi Environment Agency has announced its participation in Earth Hour, through switching off unnecessary lights and equipment, as well as external lighting, in the head office. The agency will also invite all members in its database to participate i Habiba Al Mara\rquote ashly, board member of the United Nations World Charter, has reiterated that \lquote Earth Hour\rquote was a symbolic initiative aiming to divert global attention towards the potential dangers of global warming. She said that if 6.4 billion individuals were to participate in the light-switching event, there would be hopes of combating this phenomenon which warns of direct and indirect consequences which may go as far as changing the global map as it affects the w Jeremy Bruer, Australian ambassador to the UAE, praised the country\rquote s participation in the event, as one billion persons are anticipated to switch off their lights in support of the initiative. The US, in general, has a number of advanced ships in Japan\rquote s sea ever since the threats by North Korea to launch missiles that are designed to monitor ballistic missiles and down them if necessary. North Korea says it will launch a commercial satellite o Spokesman for the Japanese ministry of defense, Yuichi Akiyoshi, said that the minister of defense, Yasukazu Hamada, ordered the destruction of the North Korea\rquote s missile in the event of launch failure and fragments scattering on Japanese territories. A US The spokesman for the US navy commented on this saying that \ldblquote ships that are capable of shooting down the ballistic missiles headed to the Japanese sea\rdblquote while Korea is preparing to launch next month. Later on Thursday, Japan said that it is ready to down t US ships to face Korea\rquote s threat It is said that North Korea had declared earlier that it is to launch a long-range missile in the period of time between the fourth and eighth of April using a launch pad of which the first layer is based in Japanese sea, not far from the northern Japanes The Japanese government expressed, today, once again fear over the possibility of some parts of the Ballistic missile falling on Japanese land. It urged its citizens to maintain composure and calm. Japan\rquote chief cabinet secretary, Nobutaka Machimura, said Tokyo, agencies: Japan urges its citizens to remain calm about Korea's missiles If North Korea carries out the launch, the Obama Asministration will have less than five minutes to decide as to whether the launch represents a threat, and if necessary, shoot the missile down. A US official said that the Aegis-equipped destroyer USS HOP The increase in tension on this ground comes at a time where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, Wednesday, that the United States does not plan to bring down North Korea long-range missile, but it will refer the matter to the Security Council sh It is worth mentioning that the UN Security Council resolution for 2006, bans North Korea to carry out any ballistic missile activities. Clinton's statements come at a time where officials confirmed reports indicating that North Korea has placed what is b Quoting sources in close relations with the project, Japanese Kyodo news agency, said that the missile is on the launch pad and ready for launch. Taeboudoung 2, which will be used to launch the satellite, is believed to reach up to 6700 Km. 120 Pakistanis killed and injured in an attack targeting a mosque during Friday prayers 50 killed and 70 wounded in a blast in Pakistan Moheet: At least 48 people died, and 70 more have been wounded on Friday, in a suicide bombing targeted at a mosque in the Peggyari region, in the Khyber tribal province in Pakistan, during Friday prayers. Tariq Hayat Khan, a local official in the province, expected the death toll to rise, since the explosion took place in a two-story mosque during the performance of Friday prayers. Rescue teams expect to find more victims. It is worth mentioning that this region has witnessed a large number of suicide attacks, against the backdrop of activity led by the Taliban, in addition to sectarian frictions between Sunnis and Shiites. A local government official named Bakhtiar Khan was reported saying that rescue teams rushed to the mosque, and they are searching under the rubble for survivors. Another suicide attack had killed ten people in the town of Gondola, in the southern province of Waziristan. The responsibility for that attack, which had targeted a restaurant, was attributed to a dispute between two armed groups. (Dejla Radio) - The Oldest woman in the world is celebrating her 130th birthday The oldest woman in the world was found in northern Kazakhstan, and she will celebrate her 130th birthday in 2 days. The woman was discovered by a mere coincidence during a census that was conducted in the Karakanda region, in northern Kazakhstan. Documents and a passport copy showed that this woman called Sakhan Dosuva was born in March 27, 1879. The surprising fact is that Sakhan was registered during the first census conducted in the era of Stalin in 1926, and she was 47 years old at the time. When asked about the secret behind her long life, Sakhan said that she never ate sweets or candies, and she always focuses on food containing milk and cheese. And most importantly is having a sense of humor and fun, as she doesn't let any event disturb th 25/03/2009, 11:20 Mecca time International Atomic Energy Agency fails again in selecting a successor to ElBaradei The International Atomic Energy Agency Logo Vienna \endash Moheet The IAEA\rquote s council has failed to select a consensus candidate to head the International Atomic Energy Agency following Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei\rquote s departure in the upcoming month of November, after having spent twelve years in this post. Yukiya Amano, who was nominated by the Asian group and considerably supported by Western nations, was capable of attainting twenty three out of thirty five votes in the first election round, while his rival, Abdul Samad Minty, was capable of winning twelv The third election round witnessed Amano's gain of nineteen votes, with one country not casting its vote. Minty was able to win fifteen voices thus failing in getting conclusive election results two days in a row. Either one of the candidates must win a In this regard, a Kuwaiti news agency quoted the head of journalists\rquote council, who stated that both candidates were not able to win the required two thirds of the votes. Consequently, more candidates will be able to nominate themselves until the end of A It is worthwhile to mention that the nominations door for the post of head of IAEA closed in December of 2008. The Agency\rquote s internal laws entail that a new head must be appointed by June of 2009 upon the authorization of the Agency\rquote s general conference, Experts anticipate that the new candidate list might include Rogelio Pfirter, Argentinean head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Luis Echavarri, Spanish director of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's nuc Erdogan expresses Turkey\rquote s willingness to mediate between Damascus and Tel Aviv Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey is ready to mediate between Israel and Syria if the two agree to resume stalled indirect talks, adding that it\rquote s important to solve all issues of the region through dialogue and negotiation. Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Syria last year, but the process was suspended in December after the Jewish state launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip. Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying that the negotiations could be revived if both countries wished, adding that the prospect would depend also on the attitude of the new Israeli government, which is yet to take office after elections in Februar He also said that Turkey is determined to do whatever it could for peace in the Middle East, and that all issues should be resolved at the negotiating table. Turkey, the secular Muslim country, is Israel\rquote s main regional ally, and keeps strong economic ties with it since the two signed a military cooperation agreement in 1996. However, the Israeli attacks on Gaza strained these ties. In January, Erdogan got mad at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) and stormed out of a heated debate on the attack on Gaza after clashing with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Soyuz capsule docks with the International Space Station The Russian Mission Control Centre announced the docking of Russian Soyuz capsule carrying space tourist Charles Simonyi with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, the docking took place at 13:00 GMT. Spokesman Valery Lyndin said that checks would be made to ensure there were no leaks in the airlock between the capsule and the space station before the crews of the two vessels joined up. Hungarian-born US space tourist Charles Simonyi will spend his second vacation in the International Space Station; his first trip was 2 years ago. Labor votes in favor of joining Netanyahu's government… Likud remains with 6 ministerial portfolios only Librman refuses to Annapolis and Abu rodaina demands Washington to intervene The Labor Party Central Committee voted on Tuesday in favor of joining Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. The votes count revealed that the supporters exceeded the opposition by 165 votes, thus making Barak establish his leadership in the part Knesset member Amir Peretz, who is a leader of the opposition, said that the group which suffered a loss of voting will meet and examine its steps. While Knesset member Shelly Yechimovich who also strongly opposes joining the coalition government, said th Barak had passionately urged members of Congress to vote for the coalition with Netanyahu\rquote s government, and he defended himself against the charges received in recent days by the opposition. Earlier yesterday, Tuesday, the crews of negotiations for Labor and «Likud» signed a coalition deal, after a meeting between the presidents of both parties, Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu who\rquote s in charge of forming the government. The Labor Party gets Under the terms of the agreement, which was characterized by general formulas, Israel will seek to develop a comprehensive agreement for peace in the region, commit to all agreements already made, and pledge to continue settlement negotiations. Despite Ba By: Samer Bater First U.S. Boycott Campaign of Israel Samer Bater, editor of Windows Arabic Magazine The first U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI) was recently launched, despite U.S. laws and hidden laws in some Arab countries that forbid any trade boycott of the Zionist entity. These laws even require that any America The campaign's website says that in response to the call of Palestinian civil society PACBI to boycott Israel, because of its violations of international laws and ignoring the resolutions of the United Nations, the campaign was launched to boycott any cul The campaign\rquote s statement also says that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms According to the campaign, most universities in the entity and their employees fuel hatred, and support the extermination of the Palestinians and the destruction of libraries and their cultural heritage, therefore all elements that are related to the acad Although the campaign started in California, it reached academic environments in other states. The campaign has the following goals: Ending Israeli occupation, dismantling the wall, recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Is Academics and organizers of the campaign will engage in disseminating its demands of boycott in their universities and institutes, and inviting others to join the campaign._This campaign parallels the call for boycott and sanctions by trade unions, church The campaign invites all those who wish to join this cultural and academic boycott to publicly announce supporting it on: The campaign also encourages funding scholarships and fellowships for Palestinian students without the usual Israeli conditions on those wishing to go abroad, and calls for not allowing any funding or cultural and academic contribution in projects related UN secretary-general expresses his concern over North Korean rocket launch Sunday 29 March, 2009 Seoul - DBA. News reports said on Sunday that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his deep concern about North Korea's plan to launch a rocket early next month, as South Korea, the US and Japan reportedly reached an agreement to refer North Korea to th Ban made similar statements at a U.N. press conference in New York on March 12, saying he was concerned about North Korea's plan to launch what Pyongyang claims is a satellite, adding that, This will threaten the peace and stability in the region. Earlier this month, North Korea notified international aviation and maritime organizations of its plan to launch a rocket to send a communications satellite into space between April 4-8._North Korea has emphasized it has a right to develop a peaceful spac The news agency said that last week, North Korea moved the rocket to the launch pad at its east coast base._Top nuclear negotiators from South Korea, the United States and Japan held a series of bilateral meetings in Washington over the weekend before sha South Korea's Wi Sung-lac and Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special envoy on North Korea, held a bilateral meeting at the State Department after Bosworth had a separate meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Akitaka Saiki._Emerging from a two-hour meeting with B Al-Hurayyah Theatre in Camp Janine inaugurated, in cooperation with the British Consulate in Jerusalem, the performance of George Orwell\rquote s Animal Farm on stage of al-Huriyyah theatre in the camp. The British Consulate had contributed to the production of Karen Mcluskey, political attaché in the British consulate, praised the achievements of al-Hurriyyah theatre team. She said: \ldblquote we came with a number of the people working in the British consulate just to watch this play. Our reason to support this was givi She confirmed that supporting such projects for the youth in Palestinian territories especially in refugee camps aims at opening new horizons for them where they can demonstrate their faire cause to the world and better express themselves and to connect t \ldblquote \rquote Animal Farm play reminds of the injustice of the abuse of power and authority as a general rule that applies to all nations and states. It stresses that focus should be on serving the best interest away from schisms, political conflicts and personal int In the farm we produce thoughts and make freedom of thought and criticism, we bring up an independent generation that independently chooses its policies and personas. He extended his thanks to the British consulate for supporting such type of projects that help the youth freely express their thoughts and opens new horizons ahead of them.\rdblquote On his part, director of the theatre, Juliano, said that \ldblquote the Animal Farm play is the first performance by the acting students in al-Hurriyyah theatre and the first school as well in the occupied land of Palestine.\rdblquote It is worth mentioning that the novel Animal Farm is taught as part of the English language curriculum in Palestinian high schools. The novel narrates a factious story of a number of animals that inhabit a farm and one day decided to rebel against the own It is noteworthy that the team of al-Huriyyah theatre in the camp of Jenin is overseeing a three-year student training program, the only program in the Western Bank that teaches this art. Animal Farm was the first production by the program\rquote s students. Sudan Threatens to Withdraw from the Arab League if the Arabs Do Not Take a Firm Stand on the Arrest Warrant for President Omar Al-Bashir Sudan threatened to withdraw from the Arab League if the Arabs do not take a firm stand towards canceling and stopping the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from the International Criminal Court. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minist A heated discussion took place during the closed-door meeting between the ministers over the arrest warrant for the Sudanese president. At the beginning of the meeting, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani aroused the ire o He said the minister for foreign affairs of Oman, Yusuf bin Alawi, that the rejection of the resolution means that comes to us by others, this outside of political tactics rather than to go to them, while the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Mous The Foreign Minister of Djibouti said that, My country is a signatory to the Rome Convention, but we rejected the resolution because it is politicized and based on political considerations, and must stop this resolution by taking action on the Security C Following this, the Qatari PM said, We will call on the Security Council to cancel the resolution and stop it. The Arabs have stood by Sudan and you must not underestimate your capabilities, because this situation could disturb the stability of the regio Jerusalemites Celebrate the Anniversary of the Land Day, Confirming Their Clinging to Their Lands, and Homes.__30-03-09 14:49 with the implanting of olive, almond, orange, and lemon trees in Jerusalem\rquote s districts which are threatened with demolition, evacuation, and confiscation. This is aimed at becoming firmly settled in their homeland, enhancing their attachment to it, and co Implanting 6000 Trees in Jerusalem\rquote s Districts which Are Threatened Demolition, Confiscation, and Evacuation. Jerusalem: Maysaa Abu Ghazala \endash Coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the eternal Land Day, Jerusalemites wanted the celebration of Jerusalem, the capital of the Arabic culture to revive such anniversary Ten Egyptians Drown and Six are Rescued off the Libyan Coast During an Attempt at Illegal Migration to Europe The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that ten Egyptians were on board one of the fishing boats that sunk off the coast of Libya during an attempt at illegal migration to Europe. Ambassador Ahmed Rizk, Assistant Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and Egyptians Abroad, said that, The Egyptian embassy in Libya has learned that a fishing boat was carrying 257 individuals of various nationalities, including sixteen Egyptians attem Rizk added, According to the Egyptian embassy in Libya, the boat set sail early last Sunday from the Sidi Bilal -- Janzour Tripoli region and after having been at sea for three hours, thirty kilometers from the Libyan coast, a hole in the side of the boa The Libyan coast guard was able to rescue twenty people, including six Egyptians. They are: Mohammed Gamal Ahmed Yusuf, Mahmoud Abubakr Aldabaissi, Mohammed Ahmed Ahmed Gaballah, from the Western province, and Osama Salah Abdelhalim Abdelnabi, Nafi Gamal He said, The Libyan authorities were able to recover the bodies of those that drowned, including ten Egyptians: Ahmed Azouz Abdelhalim Abdelnabi, Ahmed Hussein Mandour, Ahmed Yehya Albayoumi, Amr Adel Algamal, from the Eastern province, and Faris Mohamme Rizk said that the Egyptian embassy had sent a representative to the hospital, and they are in the process of obtaining travel documents for the survivors in order to return them to Egypt, as well as preparing and processing the bodies of the deceased to Hot tea puts you at risk of oesophageal cancer Moheet \endash Suheer Othman People have many different ways to drink and prepare tea, the most popular drink in the world. This variety of tastes allows having many tea products and ways to prepare it. This diversity also accompanies modern scientific studies which confirm the benefits of all kinds of tea sometimes, or reveal more of its disadvantages other times. The latest study is one in which some Iranian researchers showed that drinking very hot t Previous studies have associated between tobacco and alcohol, and oesophageal cancer The study covered the tea drinking habits of 300 proved cases of oesophageal cancer and 571 matched neighbourhood controls in the case-control study. The speed of drinking tea was also one of the main factors, as researchers showed that people who drink tea quickly, i.e. less than 2 minutes after pouring it are at risk of cancer 5 times more than those who wait for more than 4 minutes. Former British studies have reported that people prefer to drink tea at a temperature ranging between 56 and 60 degrees Celsius. Lipton... The lead in the booming tea industry The story of tea started in Europe back in the seventeenth century, when the Dutch brought green tea for the first time to this continent. Tea's origins are from Japan, and China at a later stage. Tea was considered at the time as one of the most expensiv Tea continued its long journey, from towards and Seventy years later, the British decided to create the to become one of the leading companies in tea trade. For a long period of time, the black tea imported from Asia was known as the Russian tea, as convoys used to transmit it from Russia to Europe. The tea industry had witnessed a significant boom in the nineteenth century, with the famous English tea creator, who artistically mixed different types of tea, and launched it on the market in ready-to-use packages. The following lines show us the discrepancy showed in the results of scientific studies which confirm the advantages and disadvantages of different types of tea. Some researchers reported that having three daily cups of tea may protect women under the age of fifty from breast cancer. The researchers compared the medical records and style of living of the participants in the research, with those of a similar group of non-infected women with breast cancer. The study concluded that drinking an average of three daily cups of tea, reduces the likelihood of tumor progression by about 37 per cent, among women under the age of fifty. However, tea did not show any benefit for women over that age who drunk as much The research team believes that the natural characteristics of the anti-cancer in the composition of tea may have an effective impact on the types of cancerous tumors that tend to affect young women. Researchers have discovered that the benefits of tea have grown in terms of reducing the risk of lobular cancer by 66 per cent. Lobular cancer which affects deep lobules within the breast tissue, making it hard to be diagnosed until a later stage, is one Researchers pointed out that drinking tea regularly, specifically with high moderate rates, may cut down the risk of breast cancer for young women. Other researchers also reported that tea changes and adjusts the mood, which is proven scientifically. A study on the effects of drinking of black tea on the psychological state, which was held during a campaign to climb Mount Everest, proved that having Solin Navios, nutrition specialist at the Food and Nutrition Research Institute in the Netherlands, said that tea is also an excellent source of fluoride that helps maintain healthy teeth, and it is also rich in antioxidants which increase resistance to a On the benefits of other types of tea, American researchers reported that green tea helps in preventing or delaying the incidence of diabetes Mellitus type I. The researchers who have reached that exciting conclusion through the study they conducted on a group of experimental animals, in the Faculty of Medicine in Georgia, the United States, explained that green tea contains antioxidants that amazingly protect Cultivation of tea in Sri Lanka which is one of the most powerful antioxidants found in the green tea plant, by making laboratory tests on a group of mice infected with diabetes Mellitus type I, which makes the mouth and eyes dry. Researchers reported that they conducted their experiences on a substance called On the other hand, Dr. Magdy Badran, a paediatrics consultant and member of the Egyptian Society of Allergy and Immunology, explained that although drinking tea and coffee once a day enhances mental performances of the brain and activates memory, drinking Dr. Badran explained that the human brain, although representing just 2% of the weight of a human being, consumes 25% of the body's energy, and is influenced by food components through the production of neurological connectors, which are of about 300 type On a related level, an American doctor has warned that drinking iced tea may increase the risk of kidney stones, because it contains a high proportion of . Dr. John Milner, from the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, explained that patients who are more susceptible to kidney stones should avoid iced tea because it is the worst drink that can be drunk. Milner pointed out that the best drink for prevention of kidney stones is water, because the calculi is composed by the deposition of salts and minerals from food, when there is a lack of sufficient intake of liquids. It seems that the researchers and those interested in this matter have started fabricating scientific facts. What about cold juice? Please advise. This is not considered an informal text. Cancer is after us even in tea. Glory be to God, this is the first time I hear about all these benefits of tea. Glory be to God But I would like to mention that there is no contradiction. They just warned about drinking very hot tea and warned of drinking iced tea. I mean, drink it with moderate temperature, for your good health, God willing. Tea Tea is a disease that people used in the Ivory Coast. The competition was between us Saudis and our Egyptian brothers in day dreams and inventions that benefit the mankind, and now our Iranian neighbours joined us, and all three are of no use. And here goes the third Very interesting subject I find no words to express my gratitude for this rich page. The issue is of utmost importance. Suheer, this article should be shorter than this because I read the first part and noticed that the following paragraphs were just a repetition. The first part is saying that drinking hot tea is bad and the other is about the benefits of tea in general, w One cannot get water from a stone Drinking too much tea causes Irritable bowel syndrome. Greetings! The issue of drinking tea whether it's hot or cold is worrying because this study eliminates a whole history and inherent culture of too many of those who drink tea. And tribute goes to those who are behind the website of Moheet who are always raising awa Beware of life In two words, we should avoid all aspects of life, smiling, crying, sadness, happiness, showering, shampoo, tea, coffee, sleep and staying up late at night to ensure a better life. All these ads and studies only entice us to avoid life in all its aspects. Interesting comments and good topic Whenever I read the different issues and analysis on the pages of Moheet, my respect for people who are behind this website increases. I am always keen to follow all the topics and articles that make us long to scientific magazines and newspapers that hav Netanyahu presents his government and peace is fading in the darkness of extremism ArabOnline - Wael Baalbeki: Incoming Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, presented his new government to the Knesset for a vote of confidence onTuesday, while the structure of this government contains the largest group possible of extremists, whic The government of the incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was severely criticism a few hours before being presented to the Knesset, and approved on Tuesday night. Netanyahu agreed with Silvan Shalom, a leading member of the Knesset in the L With the accession of Shalom to the government, Netanyahu has surmounted the last obstacle to the formation of his government. Netanyahu enjoys the support of about seventy out of 120 deputies in the parliament, and is thus confident to get the required majority to form the thirty-second government in the history of the Jewish state. Observers say that the position of the Arabs who call for peace with Israel will be more embarrassing, especially since they did not achieve anything worthy from their policies and calls over years, with government that were described as less right-winged Benjamin Netanyahu 31/03/2009 05:32:23 P.M. If Netanyahu\rquote s Government accepted to enter a new negotiation process for peace, the Palestinian or Arab negotiators will be forced to deal with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that\rquote s led by Avigdor Lieberman, leader of \ldblquote Yisreal Beitenu\rdblquote and one o The Arab leaders stressed on the necessity of achieving a just and comprehensive solution, which will not be achieved, according to the declaration, without the Israeli withdrawal to the borders of 1967, to reach a just solution agreed upon for the pro In Doha, Arab leaders renewed at the end of the Arab summit on Monday the need to identify a specific time frame for Israel to fulfil its obligations towards the peace process, and take clear and specific steps for the implementation of the peace process They did not mention the word Palestinians, and they did not mention the issue of the Palestinian state. Netanyahu sought to reassure the international community who fears that his government would blow the already faltering peace process. While Barak theoretically supports the idea of establishing a Palestinian state, Netanyahu is opposed to such a step at this time, saying that economic conditions should be improved in the occupied West Bank first. Despite the fact that Netanyahu signed a number of agreements with the Palestinians during his premiership from 1996 to 1999, he allowed a large expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which is considered as one of the thorniest problems in the He also said that he wants to hold negotiations with the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas to reach economic peace, but refuses the establishment of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel and also refuses to stop Jewish settlements in the In the agreement between Netanyahu and the leader of the Labor Party, Ehud Barak, on the establishment of the coalition, their position remained unclear about the issue of peace, saying that the government will work to reach a comprehensive regional peac Nabil Abu Rodaina, spokesman of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on the United States to take a clear position regarding the new Israeli policy after the new Israeli Foreign Minister affirmed Israel's lack of commitment to the decisions of the Annapolis conference. Palestinian attacker kills an Israeli and wounds another in the Bat Ayin settlement Israeli sources reported that a Palestinian wielding an ax attacked the residents of the Bat Ayin settlement in Gush Etzion south of Bethlehem, killing one person and leaving another with moderate injuries, before fleeing the scene. Israeli reports say that the Palestinian attacker managed to escape, and a massive search by police and the army is now under way in the area. The attacker is suspected to be still hiding in the settlement. Bat Ayin is an ideological settlement, with most its residents from the extreme right. It was known in the past as a Jewish terror cell that plotted to murder Palestinians. One witness said that he tried to stop the attacker and described trying to wrestle him, before he managed to finally run away. The witness added that he assumed that the attacker was just a laborer but realized later that he was an Arab, especially that the settlement only employed Jewish laborers. Settler leader said security guards managed to shoot the attacker, but he probably didn\rquote t get hurt. Al Bardawil reveals reasons behind Hamas-Fatah dialogue postponement Gaza \endash Dunya Al Watan Dr. Salah Al Bardawil, prominent leader in the Islamist resistance movement, Hamas, and parliament member, revealed the reasons behind dialogue postponement between Hamas and Fatah, after their much anticipated meeting Saturday. Al Bardawil had said in a statement to the \lquote Palestine Now\rquote network that Fatah has arrived to Cairo with nothing new to offer apart from insisting on its current stance on governmental programs, prohibition of security equipment maintenance in Gaza, electi Al Bardawil said that Fatah insisted these topics were red-lined, opening the door to speculations that the movement was under massive external pressure to not progress dialogue towards mutual factions. This has led Egypt to push further talks to the end The Hamas leader stated that Egyptian authorities spent a day in talks with Fatah without reaching an agreement. This aggravated Egyptian officials and let to the decision to delay talks without consulting with Fatah. Media channels said that Egyptian sources are adamant on postponing Palestinian \endash Palestinian talks to the end of the month as they hope that differences in perspectives will begin to dissolve. Rapist assassinated and another injured_Occupation forces impose curfew on Khirbet Safa Bethlehem \endash Palestinian Information Center Occupation forces have enforced a strict curfew on the city of Khirbet Safa, North West of Soreif, following the assassination of a rapist and the injury of another in a stabbing incident carried out by a Palestinian worker. The incident took place in \lquote B Local sources have revealed occupation forces stormed and searched the area which extends from Safa to the outskirts of Soreif seeking the perpetrator. Sources state that occupation forces intensified military and machine support on the outskirts of the Eastern city. Israeli forces closed all routes to the city, stopped, and searched tens of oncoming vehicles. Some civilians were detained as occupation \lquote Maariv\rquote newspaper said that the executor had directly injured some settlers, which led to the death of one and the serious injury of another, while he managed to escape. Syrian researcher uncovers new breast cancer therapy Damascus: Mohamed Amer Al Sheikh Youssef, Syrian researcher, doctor, and head of the Syrian tumor association, was able to develop a new therapy for breast cancer needless of a lumpectomy, in what is accounted for as a scientific breakthrough for Syria. Al Sheikh Youssef said that research largely depended on unprecedented developments in the field, where advance-stage cancer cells are conquered and patients endure a shorter therapy period, leading to significantly less costs. This is the first time an Youssef added that forty six percent of ninety tested patients responded positively to therapy as the disease ceased after three doses of medication. Fifty four percent recovered from the diseases after enduring six doses. The disease clinically termina He further stated that results were promising and push towards new possibilities as opposed to conventional surgical methods which entail the full removal of the breast as it adversely affects women. More importantly, medicinal therapy is available for f It is worthwhile to mention that Dr. Al Sheikh Youssef first presented preliminary research in this field at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) convention held on October 29th, 2004, in Vienna, with 15,000 participating researchers from all Step-by-step dialogue... Will it succeed?! The new meetings that are underway are based on the famous \ldblquote principle\rdblquote of Kissinger, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of America, to negotiate step by step, as a way to discuss the negotiation items without applying what\rquote s agreed on following this American The convening of the new negotiation meetings comes in a very sensitive timing on the national, Arab and international levels, as Israel has just presented to the world a government that raises concern, tension and vigilance; a government that does not be The Arab summit ended its works without granting the division any political gains, that some have wished to exploit in order to impose new negotiation conditions, it even reaffirmed support for the national legacy as an organization and a president, which These facts are usually stimulating factors that put pressure on the interlocutors to reach a consensus in order to spare their own people and cause more suffering and disasters, but it seems that what\rquote s said in the eve of the meeting, and after it, is no The dialogue that\rquote s underway does not indicate a change in the essence of the logic of negotiations, and its real goal being political consensus to end division in all its forms, instead of looking for a solution to reinstate the aspects of the functional *Minister and former Member of the Legislative Council from the Gaza Strip. - hasfour@amad.ps By: Hasan Asfour Death of the gunman who opened fire in an association in New York after killing 12 people On 04/03/2009 New York, April 3rd / BNA / The gunman who opened fire inside an association in the city of Binghamton, in New York, died today after killing about 12 people during the incident. Sawa radio reported that David Patterson, the Governor of the State of New York, said that the hostages who were held by the gunman were released, and that 12 or 13 people were killed in the incident. Patterson described the incident as shocking, and added that It's a sad day for New York. The town's police chief said that the gunman was found dead in the association, indicating that the building is safe now, and all the alive hostages that were held inside it were freed unharmed. Witnesses reported that they saw about 15 people who work in the civic association coming out of the building screaming, with their hands behind their heads, accompanied by the police. The gunman had held around 40 hostage at the headquarters of the American Civic Association in the city of Binghamton, located at about 217 miles northwest of New York City, near the borders with Pennsylvania; and he had opened fire randomly at the hostag BNA / / / / / 03 2312 Rumor: Google is planning to buy Twitter Here are site statistics of Twitter, showing the increasing number of unique visitors: The rumor is circulating, and according to sources in the techcrunch website, Google is planning to buy Twitter, but the offered amount is unknown. If Google succeeds in aqquiring Twitter, I believe that it will be a great deal by all means, due to the hu Author: Number of comments: 8 Number of readers: Saud Al-Hawawi On April 3, 2009 8 comments for Rumor: Google is planning to buy Twitter April's fool. April 3, 2009, at 1:28 PM Hello Fahd, April 3, 2009, at 1:34 PM I don't think that it's April's Fool, otherwise the source would have mentioned that it was a joke. April 3, 2009, at 2:03 PM That's good news. But please correct the typo (scientists) --> (workers). This way, all our stuff will be on Google - hahaha - E-mail, twitting, search and browsing. April 3, 2009, at 2:04 PM I am not surprised. As Google bought Youtube and other successful projects, it won't hesitate to buy Twitter, and the statistics you published show how successful Twitter is. Thank you. Khaled Maymoun - Daily Barid Blog April 3, 2009, at 3:10 PM That's good news. Twitter is indeed a very powerful technical bomb, and those who value it well will pay more to get it. But I personally prefer that the website stays with its current owners, for us to be free from Google's control that worries me... April 3, 2009, at 3:40 PM Is not surprised to see that coming from Google. But what can Google offer after acquiring Twitter? As for my part, any site that enters under the auspices of Google, I then feel comfortable with it and start using it. April 3, 2009, at 5:31 PM It will be wonderful if Google buys Twitter. April 3, 2009, at 3:58 PM Google is indeed a leading company: Wonderful e-mail service, outsanding services, and a continuous innovation process in almost a daily basis. It's really wonderful, and the only problem with Google is that it doesn't offer its to us services in Syria. S Of course the reason behind that is the US sanctions. God willing, things will improve more… Otherwise, we will suffer a lot if Google buys Twitter and prevents us from browsing it. So hopefully it will not buy it - LOL-. Microsoft admits defeat to Wikipedia and shuts down the Encarta Ashraf Abu Galal and Amal Al Hilaly: Press reports said that this step reflects the fact that Microsoft is acknowledging defeat to its direct competitor, Wikipedia. Technology mogul, Microsoft, has failed to meet expectations in competition with Wikipedia, one of the most prevailing encyclo The Times newspaper reported that Microsoft announced that, by the end of the year, Encarta will not be available in most countries. The decision comes after fifteen years of launching the encyclopedia and marketing it on a global scale. Microsoft had i The newspaper stated that this step reflects Microsoft\rquote s contextual acknowledgment of defeat against the ever popular Wikipedia, which was launched in 2001. The newspaper said that the updating process is timely and efficient on Wikipedia, thanks to volunteering editors who undertake this job. This enables the encyclopedia to quickly update and record all events. Encarta\rquote s website states that all work on th The Government Agrees to the Adoption of GPS in Egypt Dr. Amr Badawy, the National Authority for Communications Organization Written by Heba Al-Sayed The board of directors of the National Authority for Communications Organization ratifies a number of decisions pertaining the use of Global Positioning System \ldblquote GPS\rdblquote devices in Egypt, seeking the enhancement of investments and the improvement of communica Dr. Amr Badawy, the Executive President of the National Authority for Communications Organization, said that these decisions include allowing the import of cars equipped with \ldblquote GPS\rdblquote devices, and land navigation programs which direct car drivers to places w The new rules necessitate the permission of importing Global Positioning System \ldblquote GPS\rdblquote devices, such as cell phones, computers, and other devices including some civil applications. The Communications Organization Authority will prepare approval procedures As for the Automatic Vehicle Location services, known as \ldblquote AVL\rdblquote , they will not be allowed except after the acquisition of necessary permits and licenses from the National Authority for Communications Organization, in accordance with specific restrictions, It is noteworthy that this crisis has erupted the last year because some security bodies refused the adoption of such technology in Egypt under the plea that it represents a danger for the national security; besides, Nokia threatened to withdraw its inves Pakistan: Suicide bombers do not come from abroad Sunday, April 5, 2009 - 17:00:00 GMT UPI Islamabad: Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said on Sunday that the suicide bombers who blew up themselves in the country are Pakistanis, and did not come from abroad. The Geo TV channel reported that Malik said that the suicide bombers are not forced to carry out suicide attacks, but they are paid for that. Malik pointed out that the family of a suicide bomber receives 500 thousand rupees (6225 dollars) in return of him blowing up himself. He hoped to get rid of terrorism in his country. 22 people were killed, and 200 others wounded in a suicide bombing on Sunday, which targeted a Shi'ite mosque in the town of Chakwal in northern Pakistan. The statements of Malik are contradictory with those of the Pakistani Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, earlier today, as he accused Chechens, Arabs and Uzbeks to be involved in the terrorist acts faced by the country. The Geo TV channel reported Gilani's call on political parties to unite to form a committee for the eradication of terrorism, pointing out that Chechens, Arabs and Uzbeks were involved in the wave of violence affecting the country. Gilani told reporters that the parliament will discuss the terrorist acts which caused human and material losses in Pakistan. Pakistan is experiencing a surge in violence, especially in the form of suicide bombings that have resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of people during the past year of 2008. In most of those attacks, Pakistani authorities accuse elements loyal to the Taliban Afghan movement and the Al Qaeda. The new version of Skype for Apple's iPhone Skype to extend its services to iPhone Dubai - Skype, the voice chat program on the Internet, developed a version of its software that can be used on Apple's iPhones, according to the CNN news network. The new version of the the Skype program, which is a means of connecting voice chats over the Internet, has maintained many of the main features of its current version on the Internet, as the program's developers are keen to keep a coherent image of the s Skype over phone offers users the possibility to sort contact' names alphabetically, or by online status. It also offers a chat feature, and the possibility to have voice chats with other users of the same program, with no costs. To make a phone call or a voice chat using Skype over phone, cutomers need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot. As for the chat service, it's available all the time. As for users of i-Pod Touch, which is similar to the iPhone, they need to have a separate headset and a microphone integrated into the device to be able to have voice chats, so that they can reduce the volume, or put a call on hold, in addition to the pos A disadvantage of using Skype over phone is the inability of a user to start a group chat, but he can join one if invited by one of the participants in a group chat. Some experts expect the outbreak of fierce competition between the new version of Skype over phone, and similar programs installed by default on iPhones, such as Nimbuzz and Fring, which were used as a means to have phone calls with Skype users. Kurt Thywissen, the chief designer of Skype over phone, said that the quality of calls conducted using other programs is considered to be very poor, compared to the quality of calls conducted using the Skype program. Clerics in Aleppo honor Saad Allah Wannous I personally did not read and did not see the play to judge what was mentioned in it. Also, I am personally against the imposition of restrictions on literature and theatre (within certain limits). But in the end I don't see this surprising or restricted Your objection to the issue is not an objection to the opinion of some clerics but rather the opinion of a very broad popular base that, in our case, is mostly represented by clergy. Aborting an attempt to hijack an Israeli ship attacked by Somali pirates Bethlehem- Maan: Armed Somali pirates attacked an Israeli ship was sailing off the coast of Somalia, at around 10 o'clock on Saturday, but did not succeed in taking it over. No Israelis was on board the ship, which is called the Star of Africa, owned by the freight company, Zim. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted Lior Hayat from the Israeli foreign ministry as saying that Israel is following up on the incident but since there are no Israelis on board, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not intervene to deal with this incident The newspaper said that the armed pirates were driving motor boats accompanied by a huge ship and opened fire on the Israeli ship then tried to board it, head to the front and jump off the boats but failed because the ship was surrounded by barbed wire. T After failing to board the vessel, the pirates returned to their boats and started chasing after it for hours but could not catch it. At that time, the Zim office in Haifa had contacted the NATO forces in the region, as well as the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Navy. The NATO informed the British center to monitor the pirates in the region, which in turn sent a chopper that ho Emirates Academy for volunteerism launches first habilitation program Abu Dhabi \endash Al Khaleej Emirates\rquote academy for volunteerism launched its first program in the field of social volunteering as part of its aims to endorse a culture of volunteerism within the youth. The academy aims to achieve this through an authorized curriculum based on the mo Dr Adel Shamry, CEO of the \lquote Zayed Al Ata\rquote a (Zayed Philanthropy)\rquote initiative and executive manager of the Emirates Academy for social volunteerism stated that training programs include many seminars and practical workshops, in addition to hands-on training Eng. Isaac Mohamed, deputy manager of the Technological Institute, said that the initiative was a promising and creative one, aiming to provide volunteers with practical skills through set curricula and training programs. All participants will be awarded Training expert, Chuck McNthon, said that that social responsibility entails that the National Training Institute effectively participates in this initiative which hopes to provide a national team capable of responding to emergency. Somali pirates abduct Japanese and British ships Somali pirates have abducted Japanese and British cargo ships. The Associated Press had stated that unknown diplomatic sources revealed that the Japanese ship was kidnapped in proximity to Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean. The source stated that abduction area for the British ship remains unknown. The ship is run by an Italian company and bears Panama\rquote s flag. Andrew Mungara, an official at the program for assisting East Africa\rquote s sailors in Mumbasa, said the British ship carried 32 tonnes of cargo and was abducted in the early hours of the morning. The ship is owned by Britain but being run by Italians. The s The same source had previously confirmed the abduction of a French yacht, a Qatar-Yemeni boat, and a German ship by pirates close to the Somali coast. It is worthwhile to mention that pirates kidnapped tens of ships in the Horn of Africa and the strategic Gulf of Aden. Pirates had hijacked two European cargo ships late last month. Seychelles islands army had dispersed military forces throughout the area after pirates had captured another ship. Foreign countries and sent warships to the region in an effort to combat piracy attacks, but daily abduction attempts are still taking place It is most likely that pirates resort to speed boats and lead the abducted ships to distant coastal villages in Somal seeking hefty ransoms. Israel steals one of the largest monument stones in Al Aqsa Mosque Palestinian sources in occupied Jerusalem revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities stole one of the largest ancient stones in the area of the Islamic Ommiad palaces, south-east of Al Aqsa Mosque. Palestinian figures condemned the usurpation by Israeli the occupation gangs of the stones from the Ommiad palaces in the area known as al-Khanutiyyah, southeast of Al-Aqsa Mosque, amidst the silence of the Islamicworld and the international community. The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein said that the occupation forces moved, yesterday, the stone to an unknown location, and suggested it was carried to the Zionist Knesset square. He regarded this act as an assault on the historical and antiquity rights and the civilization of the Muslims in Al-Aqsa mosque especially that the area where the stone was taken from is adjacent to Al-Aqsa mosque, which has been attacked repetitively b The General Director of the Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, stated that the theft took place for the first time in public and in broad daylight, as the stone was displaced using Israeli cranes. he said adding that that it is a s He said that the theft took place in an endowment land within the surroundings of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that it was not the first of its kind, but this one happened right before our eyes. He explained that they demanded the stone to be returned back to it According to the head of manuscript department in Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Najeh Bukairat, this is not the first time for Islamic antiquities of Jerusalem to get stolen, but the fact that it happens in broad daylight confirms that Israel acts as if it were He said that the stone weighed half a ton and is over 1400 years of age, adding that stealing it warns of two dangerous issues: the first is that Israel wants to destroy everything that is Islamic and Arabic, the second is that it is seeking to twist the Bukirat recalled how the Israeli museums are rich in Arabic and Islamic antiquities that were stolen from Jerusalem. Just like it has done in the Madrasa Tankaziyya and more of other 15 buildings,\rdblquote he added. 6 explosions of booby-trapped cars in Baghdad leave 32 killed and 120 injured Media and medical sources declared the death of at least 32 people and the injury of about 120 others in 6 explosions of booby-trapped cars in Baghdad and its suburbs before noon time on Monday. The sources also said that 12 people at least were killed while 23 others were injured in an explosion of two other boobytrapped cars in the area of Um al-Maalif, West of Baghdad. In Sadr City, sources clarified that 10 people were killed, including two women and 65 others were injured, including women and children in a car explosion in al-Ureibi market. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals They added that majority of the casualties were workers who were lining up in the middle of the road waiting for a job. A booby-trapped car targeted the convoy of the assistant director of the Homeland Security, Brigadier General Sadoun, while passing through al-Noairia region, which resulted in the death of one of his escorts and another person and the injury of six peopl Has documented Al-Aqsa relics removed as it revealed in pictures the world heritages Golden age for American-Turkish relations Israeli Minister withdraws from a conference in Ethiopia because of the participation of Hamas in it Published on Tuesday 04/07/2009, (Last update) 04/08/2009, at 11:50 Bethlehem - Maan -Israeli sources said that an Israeli delegation headed by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom withdrew from an international parliamentary conference held in Ethiopia, because of the participation of two members of the Hamas movement in the P The sources added that Shalom announced on Tuesday Israel's withdrawal from the podium, to which he headed especially to announce the withdrawal, saying that Israel will not take part in a conference or event that is attended by representatives of a terr A Historic Ruling Against Microsoft Over Patent Violation Moheet: A US court issued a ruling yesterday on Microsoft Corp. to pay $388 Million to its US rival Uniloc for infringing a patented invention used to deter software piracy. The Rhode Island jury concluded that Microsoft has exploited in a deliberate and illegitimate way the patent of Uniloc Corp., and estimated the value of damage at $388 Million. Uniloc, which is specialized in information security, had filed a complaint against Microsoft since 2003. The system subject of the issue is used in the Windows operating system, and Office programs, which constitue the core of Microsoft's activity. The first ruling was in favor of Microsoft, but Uniloc persuaded a federal court of appeal last summer that the verdict was based on the views of an expert who was preparing a Ph.D in computer science. Uniloc said that Microsoft acknowledged the use of a similar method to Uniloc's. It is worth mentioning that Microsoft intends to appeal the verdict. Bouteflika\rquote s supporters prematurely announce landslide victory Algeria \endash Al Arab \endash Saber Bleidy: Strong news disseminated from sources closely related to Abd El Aziz Bouteflika\rquote s campaign administrators suggesting the candidate\rquote s overwhelming victory in the elections, with results similar to those of the presidential The same sources revealed that the election race surpassed all expectations, with a participation level of 60%. Candidates and observers of the political scene in Algeria did not anticipate this due to Algerian people\rquote s history of refraining from voting Despite some obstacles on Election Day, such as the rainy weather, and the attempts of some groups to vandalize the election process in the cities of Al Rafour, Mishdala, and Al Shrafa, as well as armed attack witnessed by Al Nasereyya in the governate of The Minister of Internal Affairs had consecutively announced participation levels, stating that they had surpassed the numbers declared in the elections of 2004. Participation levels amounted to 30% by one o\rquote clock, as opposed to 21% in 2004. 32% of the Zarhouni had announced that participation levels reached 10% during the first two hours, speculating that these numbers will increase in the evening, as this is the time most women prefer to vote at. The six candidates had cast their votes in the morning; some had released concise statements while others refused to issue a statement. Balea\rquote d Mohamed Saeed stated his content with the electoral procedures. Louisa Hannoun declared that the ninth of Apr Farouk Qasanteini, president of the Algerian committee for the promotion and protection of human rights, had denounced the importance of accusations questioning the viability of the electoral process, discarding this as \ldblquote nonsense\rdblquote and reaffirming that the It is worthwhile to mention that 20 million Algerians have the right to vote in the elections; a one million voter increase from 2004. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had procured all financial and logistical means to ensure strong participation. Voter President Bouteflika casting his vote at the elections Algeria votes on president, foreign parties prematurely congratulate Bouteflika on victory \lquote The minister of internal affairs confirms electoral transparency ... and condemns candidates for verbal transgressions\rdblquote Algeria \endash Abu Allam Ghamrasa London \ldblquote Al Sharq Al Awsat\rdblquote Algerians headed to cast their ballots on elections day with six candidates standing for presidency, the luckiest of which appears to be Bouteflika. Over twenty million voters were invited to participate in the process. The Ministry of Internal Affairs promised transparency and dispersed thousands of police officers in 46 election offices. It is remarkable that large foreign companies with Algerian It seems that president Bouteflika was most likely to win the presidential race, in light of his popularity with Algerians, the military institute, and prominent business men. Electoral campaign administers perceive strong attendance in Bouteflika\rquote s camp Two of the six candidates stood for elections for a second time. Louisa Hannoun, aged 55, is the left-winged \lquote Labor Party\rquote candidate. Fawzi Rabaein, aged 54, is the president of the \lquote Vow of 54\rquote party, and is well-known due to his mother; Fatima Ouzalagh Three other candidates participated in the presidential race; Moussa Tawati, president of the \ldblquote National Algerian Front\rdblquote , Mohamed Al Saeed, president of the \ldblquote Liberty and Justice party\rdblquote , and Jaheed Younsi, Secretary General of the Islamic \ldblquote National Reform M The US-based Berkman Center for Internet and Society announced the launching of the Arabic interface of the Herdict project that aims at presenting an accurate image on the ability to access internet websites through group sources, especially the ones tha Herdict collects reports from users on the ability to access internet websites from around the world to draw an accurate real-time picture of the any website that cannot be accessed, in which country, and the time of the inaccessibility. The users can con Professor Jonathan Zittrain, the chief director of the project, said in a statement that al-Arabiyah.Net received a copy of, that Herdict relies mainly on the users from around the world, and that it is on top of their priorities to give them the opportun The project Herdic, which combines the two words \ldblquote herd\rdblquote and \ldblquote verdict\rdblquote is the product of the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Open Net Initiative (ONI). According to one of the employees working in the project who talked to al-Arabiyah.Net, the aim of the initiative is to recognize and document the blocking and monitoring on the Internet, as well as raising awareness among the audience and supporting dial To get an accurate picture on the monitoring around the world, Herdict Web gathers the information provided by the users who send reports with (the URL of the website, the internet service provider, the country, the location, the location type, and commen It is worth mentioning that Arabic is the second language of the project next to the English, and they are currently working on creating an interface in Chinese. In an initiative to create accurate picture of Arab monitoring The US Herdict decides to uncover the blocked Arabic websites A picture from the festival\rquote s archive Gulf Film Festival highlights the Iraqi suffering DUBAI - Al-Arab Online - Agencies: Organizers of the second edition of the Gulf Film Festival, which will start next Thursday in the Emirate of Dubai, said that \ldblquote the festival will provide a platform for documentary filmmakers to showcase their work in fro The documentary films will compete for prizes worth up to 25 thousand Emirati dirhams. These films include the most remarkable documentaries in the Gulf, with Iraq topping the list of participating countries this year in terms of number of films. \ldblquote Adasaat maftooha fel Iraq\rdblquote (Open lenses in Iraq) was one of the participating films in the festival. It revolves around five women from five Iraqi cities, who gather in a house in Damascus before returning to their homeland, to talk about their childhood Iraqi-British director Maysoon Pachachi, a founding member of London-based \ldblquote Act Together: Women\rquote s Action For Iraq\rdblquote , has worked as a scriptwriter and documentary film director on this film. This film illustrates -in accordance with the chronology of events during the past four years-, political arrests, civil war, conflicts and chaos everywhere in Iraq. This film won the best film award at the Munich International Film Festival and the Golden Falcon Award in the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam in 2008. The film tells Hayat ba\rquote da soqout (Life after the fall) tells the story of the return of the photographer and filmmaker Qasim Abd to Baghdad in 2003. Farouk Dawood\rquote s film \ldblquote Dhakira wa jodhoor\rdblquote (Memory and roots) records the life and memories of Iraqi writer and author Gaayeb Tuuma Farman who lives in exile, as well as his fight against the attempts to erase the memory, roots and culture of the nation. \ldblquote Hadha ma khasert\rdblquote (This is what I lost) is a co-production between Canada and Iraq, that features the story of fifty Iraqi refugees in Jordan who are trying to relate what they had lost since the beginning of the war in Iraq. The film \ldblquote In\rquote ikas adaw\rdblquote (Ref The film Virus, by Jamal Amin, is about the journey of five Iraqi friends living in Denmark, and when their bus breaks down, these friends begin to push it despite the conflicts that arise between them. The activities of the second edition of the Gulf Film Festival will last for a week. Dr. Al Sabti: The Kingdom has the potential to successfully mentor talent in schools Bin Mo\rquote amer: The Ministry will adopt \ldblquote Mawhiba\rdblquote in a move towards a society of knowledge Faisal Bin Mo\rquote amer, deputy to the Minister of Education, affirmed that cooperation between \lquote Mawhiba\rquote and the ministry existed from the outset; the ministry mobilized all means to support \lquote Mawhiba\rdblquote in an effort to fulfill its vision and aim of moving towar The deputy inaugurated the \ldblquote Mawhiba\rquote forum under the slogan \lquote towards local summer programs of international quality\rquote on behalf of Prince Faisal Bin Abdallah Bin Mohamed, Minister of Education at the King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh. He stated that the The deputy declared that the Minister of Education was a primary adopter of a strategic plan aiming to support creativity and innovation, and will exert all possible efforts such that Saudi Arabia is able to attain its full vision by 2022 in light of posi Dr. Al Sabti stated that collaboration between Mawhiba and the ministry of education is now at a progressive stage as a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two parties. He confirmed that a second memorandum is to be signed soon. Dr. Khaled Al-Sabti further indicated that \lquote Mawhiba\rquote signed a two year contract with a leading British company to undertake additional curricula in support of creativity and talent as well as implementing special curricula on skills, time management, and French doctors perform face, hands transplants French doctors were successfully able to perform the worlds\rquote first ever face and hands transplants on a French patient. Paris\rquote Public Hospital authority said on Monday that a team of doctors performed the critical surgery on a disabled man who suffered severe burns during the weekend. Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, French Minister of Health, congratulated Professor Laurent Lantieri, Professor Jean-Paul Meningaud, Dr. Christian Dumontier, and Professor Levon Dursignon on the success of the operation. She also praised the patient\rquote s courage. The upper half of the man's face, including the forehead, nose, ears and upper and lower eyelids were transplanted. The surgery was performed over long hours in Henri Mondor hospital in the Paris suburb of Creteil, in proximity to Paris. The thirty-year old victim was injured in a 2004 accident that left him with scars preventing any social life. Professor Lantieri, having performed numerous organ transplants before, stated that the patient was in a good condition overall. The patient will remain in intensive care for two weeks. Bolivian President goes on a hunger strike because of the new election law Bolivian President Evo Morales said that he will go on a hunger strike until the Senate approves a new vote law. The opposition-controlled congress is blocking the draft bill that gives greater political influence to the indigenous people who make up the majority of the population in Bolivia, and to which Morales belongs. The opposition says that the adoption of the new electoral law could help Morales win a new presidential term in the elections to be held next December. Bolivian President says that the new law would allow indigenous people to participate actively in the decision making of the country, after centuries of suffering from discrimination, and not having the right to participate in the elections until 1952. It is worth mentioning that Morales, of Indian origins, is the first indigenous President to govern the country, and the new law gives him the right to nominate himself for a new presidential term after the end of his term in 2011. The changes include the support of state control over the country's natural resources, which gives Morales a greater control over the economy. Morales says that the new law will pave the way to correct historical errors in the Bolivian history, as a group of lawmakers of European origins dominate the main structures of authority and economy. It is worth mentioning that Morales nationalized, since he came to power, energy and mining and telephone companies. During his term, trade relations strained with the United States which abolished preferential trade benefits that were granted to Bolivia Thailand: Demonstrators force government into second ASEAN summit postponement Authorities salvage nation leaders through helicopters, and journalists enjoy royal feast. Pattaya (Thailand) \endash London: Al Sharq Al Awsat Demonstrators in Thailand caused unduly postponement of the ASEAN summit after they stormed the headquarters where Asian leaders convened. The chaos caused by the demonstrators led to immediate evacuation of the leaders through helicopters, according to Thai government spokesperson Panitan Wattanayagorn said that \ldblquote All meetings have been postponed\rdblquote , affirming that this decision was taken to ensure the leaders\rquote security; sixteen nations in South Asia and the Pacific Ocean were to partake in the summit. De The statement did not include a new date for the summit, which was bringing South-East Asian nations and main partners together. The summit, initially set to take place in the past December, was delayed due to constant political unrest in Thailand. Hund Prior to storming the complex, red-shirts blocked all routes to Pattaya through hundreds of taxi cabs. This blockade led to the cancellation of a meeting between Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean Prime Ministers, and indefinite postponement of the ASEA News of the summit\rquote s postponement did not pose as a complete tragedy for attending journalists, as they were able to savor the royal feast initially prepared for nation leaders, who have had to evacuate the hotel due to rallying protestors. Hotel organiz The conference on Syrian-Lebanese relations begins in Damascus tomorrow with the presence of 150 intellectuals and writers Al-Aathar: Relations between Syria and Lebanon must give a good example of bilateral relations Syria-News The conference on Syrian-Lebanese relations will begin on Tuesday in Damascus, and will last for five days, after it had been postponed because of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip earlier this year. In an invitation addressed to intellectuals and writers to take part in the conference, Vice-President, Najah Al-Attar, said that the sovereignty and freedom of both Syria and Lebanon must be the main reason to make the bonds of their relationship more s She added that relations between Syria and Lebanon must give a good example of how inseparable and friendly the Arab nation should be. More than 150 Lebanese and Syrian writers and intellectuals will take part in the conference. At the opening, there will be two speeches by Al-Attar, and Lebanon's former Prime Minister Salim El-Hoss. The conference includes 16 meetings on subject such as: Levant countries in the second half of the nineteenth century, building an independent state in Syria and Lebanon, one culture, a common struggle, and one fate, Levant countries in the First W The convening of this conference comes at time when Syrian-Lebanese relations are developing, as the two countries decided to establish bilateral diplomatic relations for the first time in history. It also comes a few days before the start of official fun Lebanon had also announced recently its approval to appoint Abdul Karim as a Syrian ambassador in Beirut, after he was an ambassador in Kuwait. Olive oil offers protection against heart diseases Researchers from Portugal revealed one of the secrets of the benefits of olive oil in the prevention of heart diseases, as they recently conducted a study that explains the role of one of the important components of this oil in preventing blood cells from According to the results of the study recently published in the periodical of Partial Nutrition and Food Research, in its electronic version dedicated to early releases, the DHPEA-EDA molecules that are in olive oil are among the main elements that pre Researchers from the Portuguese University of Porto conducted a study that included carrying out experiments in order to compare four components known as polyphenol, which exist in olive oil with high concentrated levels, with respect to their impact on According to the results, it turned out from the experiments that the (DHPEA-EDA) compound was the most effective in protecting red blood cells, even when existing with a low concentration, which provides the first indications on the components of olive o Dr. Fatima Pavia - Martins, a specialist from the University of Porto and a member of the research team, commented on the results of the study saying that these results provide the scientific basis for the healthy benefits seen in people who use olive oi On a different note, the research team finds that the study may enable professionals in the future to produce a kind of functional olive oil, i.e. an oil that has the characteristics that help to reduce the risks of heart diseases for individuals in par Teenager exploits twitter loophole Twitter administrators were busy with a worm that hit the website. The worm spread quickly through malicious code which caused the website to slow down. A cross-site scripting loophole on twitter allowed malicious code execution and the spread of a worm by some bloggers. The worm affected user computers as they visited their personal websites. The worm was analyzed and administrators discovered that it was sending links to stalkdaily.com, owned by 17-year-old teenager Mikey Mooney, who did not admit to involvement at first but later confessed that he utilized the loophole to alert website admin Administrators have recently announced that the loophole was resolved and passwords were re-assigned to several accounts. The account that initialed the incident was also blocked. Saudi Shura Council criticizes institutional intervention in Saudi female attire Writer Qahtan Al Uboush Saudi Shura council members vigorously attacked the Saudi general presidency of the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vices on Sunday. Council members called for institutional re-organization and the specification of civil employee warrants. Shu Abdallah Bukhari, council member, said he was baffled by the institution\rquote s outright violation of people\rquote s privacies, affirming that the employees should be calling for reform and not assuming the role of police officers. Bukhari criticized t Bukhari requested the institution to work on enhancing public perception of its employees through revisiting the manner with which offenders are treated by the institution\rquote s employees, which will ultimately earn the institution respect and awe. He also c Shura member Mohamed Al Naqadi stressed the importance of revisiting newspaper reports on painful incidents and confrontations between some institutional employees and civilians. Amer Al Luweihaq, another Shura member, questioned the lack of announcement of verdicts relating to institutional cases. He stated that it was not unusual for the institution to suffer negativities. Shura member Abdel Rahman Al Annad referred to the second chapter of the report headlined \ldblquote preventing vice\rdblquote , under which there was a section titled \ldblquote controlling incidents\rdblquote . Al Annad reiterated the role of \ldblquote preventing vice before its occurrence\rdblquote , as oppos He said that figures within the report were obviously exaggerated. The report stated that 416,000 incidents were reported, 76% of which were categorized as worship violations, including failing to attend congregational prayers and lateness in closing sto The institution faces wide criticism due to the demeanor of its employees, despite the important role it plays in preventing many worship and tradition-related crimes in the inherently Islamic Saudi society. The institution poses as a prevention force an Barak and Obama meet to discuss issues Some pessimists claim that we are a people that are different from the rest of the peoples; we sleep with fear since the first cry in the cradle when they scared us with the bogyman stories and the dusty hyena and frightened us with the one-legged man and Diving into the lines of your words, I forgot myself and took a look through the window of my memories. There were really tales that cannot be erased with time and of which the roots keep growing deeper down with time. As a teacher, I refer to them as a m You could not be more correct, sir. Now, being a girl of 15, I do not remember that any story was told to me, scary or of heroic acts. I have never heard of al-Shatir Hassan except now, even though I like reading and to know about different cultures. Year Magarrat: Hakaya's Second Festival_Ramzi ell-Ghazawi On Susan Boyle She stepped on stage with a kid's firmness. She looks like a naughty girl who is trying to be serious. She is not afraid, as she doesn't know fear yet. She gets a little bit confused, trying to remember the word villages to describe her town. She starte She is done. People in front of her are lost between feelings of disbelief, joy and shame. All what mattered for me, all what surprised me, was Susan Boyle walking away after she was done singing. Susan walked away after stunning everybody. She walked with an immortal confidence, heading to the backstage once more. She stepped away not waiting Susan reminded me of Hanan Mady, and a time where the ugly Umm Kalthom used to sit on the throne of singing. She also reminded me of Student Facebook users earn low examination results the fastest Indian in the world, the stubborn New Zealander who turned around half of the globe to prove that he was the fastest. According to a study published yesterday London: Al Sharq Al Awsat A recent study published by English newspaper \lquote Mirror\rquote revealed that students who use the famous social networking website, Facebook, tend to earn low examination grades. The study suggested that website addicts are getting lower grades than ever before. Researchers propose that reasons behind this relate to students wasting time in messaging, chatting, and sharing jokes with friends; time-consuming activities which do not leave them with sufficient studying time. It is worthwhile to mention that 83% of Afghani women demonstrate on controversial law Kabul (Reuters) \endash Afghani women demonstrated a new family law. Protestors against the law describe it as a step backwards towards the oppression prevalent in the Taliban era. Supporters of the law, however, claim it\rquote s the essence of Islamic justice. Both groups, separated by female police officers, rallied under the surveillance of anti-riot police forces in front of a new Shiite mosque built by a prominent religion figure in Afghanistan, who helped in passing the debated law. The legislation, which targets the Shiite minority in Afghanistan \endash approximately ten percent of the population, received wide criticism from many Western nations as well as supporting forces of the Afghani government. Critics say the new law confines the liberty of women. Some interpreted articles within the law to permit the husband to have intercourse with his wife without her consent. Supporters suggest that the new law grants the Shiite minority their own family A group of fifty female protestors carried signs that said \ldblquote We don\rquote t want a Taliban law\rdblquote and distributed flyers stating the new law was an insult to their dignity. Supporters of the new legislation outnumbered the protestors; one hundred females marched out of the mosque chanting \ldblquote Allahu Akbar\rdblquote and waiving signage in favoring \ldblquote Islamic justice\rdblquote . Over two hundred angry males congregated on mosque steps, marching and throwing pebbles at protesting women. For protestors, the new law is reminiscent of the Taliban regime under which women were forbidden to work, educate, or leave their houses without a Muharram \endash a male whom she cannot marry. Articles within the law entail that \ldblquote a woman is obliged to fulfill her spouse\rquote s sexual desires\rdblquote . Protestors fear husbands may utilize this to force their wives into having intercourse. Alcohol-free halal champagne now available to Muslims in France Paris (Reuters) \endash It seems that not every gold bottle of grapevine bubbly contains traditional champagne. A new alcohol-free effervescent drink has recently emerged in the market, enabling Muslims to guiltlessly enjoy it during happy occasions as a \lquote halal\rquote drink. The drink, which was launched into the market during the fasting month of Ramadan, attained high sales. The new drink, labeled \ldblquote Cham\rquote Halal\rdblquote , is sold in some restaurants in downtown Paris for sixty Euros. Muslims in France have found refuge in this drink, which poses as an alternative to alcoholic beverages whose consumption in Western cultures is nothing out of the norm. Jameel Abu Shalqum, a client in a downtown Paris restaurant, said while savoring the drink that this beverage could be shamelessly enjoyed by everyone in special occasions. The \ldblquote Islamic European Institute for Meat and Agricultural Food Products\rdblquote had certified that the drink was halal. \lquote Cham\rquote Halal\rquote is made of sugar and grape juice; it is not fermented to guarantee that no alcohol is produced. The beverage was analyzed in France and Europe to ensure that it\rquote s alcohol-free. Racheed Jassim, beverage inventor and distributor, said that the idea came to him naturally. As an adhering Muslim, Jassim noticed that there wasn\rquote t an alternative to Champagne in many of the special occasions he\rquote s had to attend. Jassim stated that he constantly felt left out in parties when he turned down champagne. This led him to produce a beverage resembling Champagne but caters for the needs of Muslims. France currently hosts the biggest Islamic community in Europe. The market is open to possibilities in terms of Jassim and his inventive beverage. \lquote Cham\rquote Halal\rquote is currently sold in French markets and halal-meat vendors in Paris. There are promising market possibilities for the drink in Europe. Jassim revealed that the drink initially targeted Muslims, but he came to notice that of every ten bottles sold, seven were purchased by French people. He expressed hopes of exporting the beverage to Islamic countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Cameron, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, and Iran. The drink is manufactured in Belgium and sold in stores for less than ten Euros. It is convenient for celebratory occasions such as weddings, Eid Al Ad\rquote ha, Eid Al Fitr, amongst others. Clients who tasted the drink have praised it. Abdel Rahim, a client who tried the beverage, said he held nothing against it and commended the fact that it resembles champagne but is still halal. Oglu warns against the consequences of attacking Al-Aqsa Mosque The deposed government calling for an urgent Islamic summit in support of Jerusalem Al-Aqsa mosque has become a direct target for Israeli attacks The deposed Palestinian government in Gaza the called upon the Jerusalem Committee of the Islamic Conference Summit, to urgently hold an emergency Islamic summit to discuss the Israeli attacks on the city of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Meanwhile, it The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) of the consequences of Israeli extremists breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Minister of Religious Endowments and Religious Affairs of the deposed government, Dr. Taleb Abu Shaar, demanded the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session to monitor the inhuman violations and heinous atrocities perpetrated by the enemy in Abu Shaar called during a press conference held in Gaza City on Wednesday on the people of Palestine in the occupied territories since 1948, the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem to travel together to the Blessed Al-Aqsa mosque to protect it from the Isra Fifty plans The minister referred to the aggressions and violations against the Al Aqsa Mosque, pointing out that the occupation prepared fifty plans for the Judaization of Jerusalem, erase the Arab and Islamic identity, and to establish the Greater Jerusalem which He said that the occupation prepared a blueprint for the construction of over 73 thousand settlement housing units in the occupied Jerusalem, and gave out notices of the destruction orders to hundreds of the citizens in the district of Abbasiyah and Silw He mentioned what the occupation committed of theft and displacement of a huge Archaeological stone from Al Aqsa Mosque to place it in the so-called Israeli Knesset. The Zionist campaigns escalated on Al Aqsa mosque in recent days where the occupation gave orders to demolish more than 55 apartments at Ra\rquote s Khamis in al-Shufat camp, The Zionist extremist incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque were repeated with the protection of Zionist police, and they are threatening of more raids and mobilized an army of extremist settlers for this purpose, Abou Shaar continued to say. Oglu warns On his part, warned the secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, warned of the serious consequences of Israeli extremists breaking into Al Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, stressing that the atta to undesirable consequences In his statement on Wednesday, Oglu described this plan to break into Al-Aqsa Mosque by large numbers of the most extremist Israelis on Thursday, as a grave matter. He said that this would lead to undesirable consequences, pointing out that the increase of the Israeli aggressions on the sanctities of Muslims in the holy city call for a serious stance by the nation to defend them. In a related context, Oglu received in his office on Wednesday afternoon the president of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, and discussed with him the serious conditions which the holy city of Jerusalem is going through. Middle East Rappers ... voice out their revolution through songs Under surveillance in Egypt and chased after in Iran The police was nice but firm at the same time, when arrested Shaheen Filakat, a young slim disheveled brunet teenage for chanting words anti-Islamic words threatening the regime in the Islamic Republic of Iran. After spending a few days in prison, the 18 The authorities have a very negative point of view on rap music, they say that rap music is of corruptive influence. When you say the word \lquote Rap\rquote they think it\rquote s synonymous to drug addiction, a person with no parents obsessed of drugs and sex, says Filak However every day, the youths singing rap face new difficulties. They seek to present the words of the popular songs which became so popular among the young people in the Middle East. In both Tehran and Lebanon and Jordan, the language of the American rap music and street culture found its way in the life of the youth of this country. Young men in the Middle East became inclined to the rhythms of hip hop music, but at the same time the Occupation forces secure Jerusalem, fanatics aim to storm Al Aqsa Mosque Jerusalem \endash Israeli police and guard forces secured many streets and routes within occupied Jerusalem last night, particularly in the Old Town and neighborhoods en-route to the blessed Aqsa Mosque. Occupation officials issued a decree by which Palestinian citizens are banned from entering occupied Jerusalem. Palestinians under the age of fifty are forbidden from accessing the Old Town and Al Aqsa Mosque. Occupational procedures come in light of institutional as well as national and religious leaderships in Jerusalem and the lands of 1948 calling on citizens to march towards the blessed Aqsa Mosque, in opposition to fanatic Jewish sects. Jewish groups ann Insight resources revealed that all attempts to pressure occupational forces into preventing the rally have failed; giving rise to the possibility of confrontations not limited to Jerusalem borders. Jewish fanatic groups threatened to storm Al Aqsa Mosque on Thursday in light of their beliefs that it is \lquote the temple\rquote s mountain\rquote . The Islamic movement within the green line had warned against the consequences of storming the mosque, and invited Palestinians in Israel to take part in organized visits to Al Aqsa in an effort to compact these groups. Movement sources anticipate that an attempt to storm Al Aqsa mosque will occur in the early hours of today. Sheikh Akrama Sabry, Jerusalem\rquote s former Mufti (an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law), said the Israeli government should be held accountable for any disastrous repercussions to Jewish groups storming the mosque Hatem Abdel Qader, advisor to Salam Fayyad, former Palestinian Prime Minister for Jerusalem affairs, said \ldblquote We have invited people as well as national, religious, and institutional parties to participate\rdblquote Abdel Qader said that the prevention of the fanatic-induced march towards Al Aqsa mosque by Israeli police forces was likely, affirming that police authorities have hinted at this. He clarified that the Palestinian invitation for a rally towards Al Aqsa Mosque will still prevail even if the settlers\rquote march was averted. Israeli police forces restricted the number of Palestinians allowed access to Al Aqsa Mosque out of fear of conflict. Israel police authorities announced that it will ban Jerusalem residents under the age of fifty from entering Al Aqsa mosque. Our reporter said Israeli forces intensified existence in mosque arenas and Jerusalem as their fear confrontations between Palestinian prayers and Jewish groups, who have declared intentions to pursue Talmudic rituals within the holy mosque. \lquote The Islamic Movement in Palestine\rquote and \lquote Al Aqsa institution for Heritage and Culture\rquote has announced that Thursday will witness a \ldblquote General March towards Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque\rdblquote , as Jewish groups intend to storm Al Aqsa mosque and perform Talmudic ri The establishment of an Arab council to counter financial crisis repercussions Moheet \endash Exclusive Arab finance ministers approved the establishment of a council aiming to coordinate financial policies between Arab nations and counter financial crisis repercussions. A press release revealed today that the council, headed by Kuwiti finance minister Mustafa Al Shamali, she d light on the importance of coordination between Arab financial policies in order to combat economic downturn, taking into account several fiscal j The press release indicated the Arab financial ministers meeting was in parallel to Arab monetary institution meetings held in the Dead Sea region. The meetings were held in an effort to coordinate and combat economic issues, consequences, and policies a The inauguration of the Arab finance ministers\rquote council is a direct result of a common meeting held between finance ministers and central bank governors held in Kuweit early this year, encouraged by the Arab Economic Summit. The release stated that the Jordanian finance minister will head the meetings in accordance to agreed-upon protocols which follow alphabetical order. The Qatar Foundation has announced it is launching a 'Stars of Science' competition to promote the most innovative youth projects in science and technology to be broadcast across the Middle East and North Africa with the aim of discovering young Arab inn The US envoy George Mitchell meets a delegation from Fatah movement Ramallah / PNN- The US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, met today, a Fatah movement delegation in Ramallah city, where they discussed the current situation and the possibility of achieving peace. The Fatah delegation has expressed its serious concern of the declared an undeclared policies by the Israeli government and of its refusal to recognize the Palestinian people's right to self-determination on their land, in addition to the occupational pro Qaddora Faris said that the delegation informed Mr. Mitchell that it was not enough to exercise pressure on Israel to agree to the two countries solution, but it has to recognize the national rights of the Palestinian people, and stop its settlements and The discovery of the genes that cause stroke Chicago \endash AOL Arabs \endash Agencies: Scientists discovered significant genetic differences that increase the risk of brain stroke which millions of people suffer. They said that the study is the first to identify different common genetic types that affect the risk of having stroke in the United States and may lead to better treatments. Eric Boerwinkle of the Centre for Health Sciences at the University of Texas said that while other stroke-related genes were discovered yet none of them were found among this large number of the population. Boerwinkle said that his team was one of several teams that participated in the study published in a New England Medical periodical This is the first step towards uncovering the genetic role in this debilitating disease. Stroke is the third major cause of death in the United States and causes serious long-term disabilities for many people around the world. Boerwinkle said that the teams discovered different forms of the genes on chromosome 12 near two other genes linked with stroke. The first is called \lquote WNK2\rquote which is related to controlling blood pressure and the other is \lquote NINJ2\rquote , which is linked to the bra Both neighbouring genes are also strongly linked with stroke caused by a lack of blood pumped to the brain which is the most common type of strokes that is caused by blocked blood vessels in the brain. Boerwinkle said that it was not clear which one of the genes in particular is the related one but he said that the most likely possibility it was the NINJ2. Obama uncovers former American administration anguish methods Bethlehem: Maan: American President Barack Obama authorized the publication of detailed memorandums authored by the American Department of Justice on torment methods. The memos were written in an effort to justify and legitimize anguish techniques impose Obama had permitted the publication of four memos issued by the American Department of Justice in the years 2002 \endash 2005; the memos explain torment methods utilized in interrogating terrorism suspects. According to Haartz, the legal memorandums aim to legitimize torment practices despite these being classified as coercive techniques by the world and many Americans. The four memorandums unveil interrogation procedures undertaken by the CIA against twenty eight individuals suspected to be Al Qaeda members, as they were detained in covert areas and subjected to illegal interrogation methods, which included being expose The memorandums, issued upon the request of the Civil Rights Union, revealed several torture methods including whipping the face and stomach, detaining suspects within confined areas in uncomfortable positions, as well as other torment procedures. Despite deeming these practices immoral, inhumane, and illegal, a press release issued by the White House on behalf of Barack Obama stated that the American president has vowed not to prosecute terror interrogators. His decision comes under the premise t Rap finds its way to Syria They started singing in their bedrooms and then went out to the streets \endash Al-Jazeera Talk \endash Hamam Kadar I support my brothers in Gaza, I only bow to God and no one else, this is the story of my life, from the day I was born, till the day I will die, I hear my moans as I save money. These are the lyrics of new songs in spoken language, by the Street Art band of Arab rap, or hip-hop, which has widely spread recently in Syria. In one city for example, there are about ten bands that sing rap, not officially on scenes and in cultural cen In a country like Syria, the proliferation of this type of singing is very difficult, despite the fact that the cultural scene in general has opened up, especially during last year following the celebration of Damascus as the capital of Arab culture in 20 This celebration hosted musical events of various cultures and countries, except for rap that hasn\rquote t been performed officially on Syrian scenes. It seems that rappers do not need scenes and official invitations to perform their songs, since they are ready Al-Jazeera Talk met with Hany al-Sawah, one of the members of a rap band called Street Art, who told us that their band was founded in 2005, but started effectively last year. About the idea of its creation, Hany said: At the outset, we started by imitat Street Art band consists of two singers and an audio engineer, who sing and compose lyrics. Al-Sawah added that they meet every Thursday in a specific street, with other bands to exchange new rap ideas and songs. They rarely performed on scenes: \ldblquote We perfo The bands usually sing in gardens and university halls, and most of their audiences are young people. The internet, especially Facebook, is the main medium where they exchange songs on Syrian websites and forums about rap. Every rapper has a nickname, or an \ldblquote artistic name\rdblquote , which is usually an Arabic name such as \ldblquote Sawt Soory\rdblquote (Syrian Voice) and \ldblquote Joolany Lmaydaany\rdblquote (Golan Guy). The same goes for the bands, like \ldblquote Laji\rquote i rap\rdblquote (Rap refugees), \ldblquote Aks seer\rdblquote (Running Against the Tra As for their songs, they usually criticize politics and society, or talk about emotions and the problems of young people in general. Khaled al-Kilani, one of the famous rappers in Syria, wrote and sang a song on the death of his sister. Khalid insists to One of their political songs criticizing Arab countries for not supporting Gaza during the recent war is entitled \ldblquote Onadikm\rdblquote (I am calling you), and one of their love songs is \ldblquote Tarakto taht el matar\rdblquote (I left him under the rain) that includes some English w Zigzag is a band composed of two singers who started about a year ago, and who wanted to make a name for themselves, especially in rap. They say that hip-hop is not empty talk and trivial things as some people think it is, and it\rquote s not just combining lyri Somali parliament unanimously consents to Islamic Sharia implementation Somali transitional parliament unanimously adopted a bill passed by the government on the implementation implementation of Islamic Sharia, according to deputy parliament speaker Othman Elmi Boqore. This occurred during a parliamentary meeting held Saturday in Mogadishu. \ldblquote There were 340 members at the session and they voted unanimously for the implementation of Islamic sharia in Somalia,\rdblquote said Bogore, who presided over the debates in the absence of speaker Aden Mohamed Nur. He said the parliament endorsed the government\rquote s law proposal, adding that they now have an Islamic government. The Somali parliament\rquote s verdict will not include two quasi-independent regions north of the country, which are Puntland and the Republic of Somaliland. A real challenge awaits the government in the practical implementation of this decision, which ultimat Those opposed to Al Sheikh Sherif and the new Somali government and especially the Islamic Party had set conditions to acknowledge and cooperate with the government. Such terms included the application of Islamic Sharia in all aspects within the country, It is worthwhile to mention that the party was incepted in February of 2009 immediately after Sheikh Sherif was brought into power on January 31. The party is comprised of four factions, namely \ldblquote The Islamic Front\rdblquote , \ldblquote Ras Kamboni Brigade\rdblquote , \ldblquote Khaled Bin Wale After one month of inauguration, the Islamic Party in Somalia faced divisions within members, ultimately resulting in leadership change. Sheikh Mohamed Hassan Ammi assumed power post Dr. Umar Ayman Abu Bakr\rquote s resignation, due to unjustified battles condu The new president has confirmed the party's dialogue with the Islam Online its commitment to the orders of the board of ulema in Somalia to stop fighting among the Somalis, and its readiness to cooperate with the new government, to abide by the applic Chavez announces ambassador return to Washington Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, announced Saturday the restoration of an ambassador to the United States. His decision was announced during the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. This announcement came post a brief meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, after which Chavez declared the possibility of restoring an ambassador in the United States, stating Caracas\rquote willingness to work in this direction. Chavez had kicked out the US ambassador to Venezuela in September, which led Washington to respond in kind. The dispute was over an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close friend of Chavez\rquote . Obama shook hands for the second time during the summit; a clear indication that relationships were healing. He also accepted a book from the Venezuelan president. I thought it was one of Chavez's books, Obama told reporters afterwards. He soon discovered it was an original Spanish edition of Eduardo Galeano\rquote s Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent I think President Obama is an intelligent man compared to the previous U.S. president, Chavez said. American President Barack Obama had expressed his commitment to equality in partnership with Latin American nations. He said he believes in a new direction in relationships with Cuba, Chavez\rquote ally. Several Southern America leaders have praised Obama\rquote s relationship reform plans during the summit. Rafael Correa, acting president of Ecuador, said that this was the beginning of a new era of relationships between South America and the United States. Correa, Chavez, Morales, and Paraguayan President Fernando Logo are known to be long-time US critics. Correa had stated the new American administration was open-minded. He said a change was yet to be seen in Cuba. Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner said that a different, integrated, and open dialogue took place between nations of the America continent. She said it was a good thing. Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet said that the meeting was very positive and the dialogue was honest. Bachelet said that all presidents intend to take consideration of the past so the same mistakes are not repeated. This first meeting was significant; twelve nations expressed hopes of a new beginning with the United States. On a similar note, rapper Firas Maasrani considers his performance as critic art that has a goals and meanings, and must be recognized by official bodies because this will offer rappers great facilities in organizing concerts and being paid for them. \ldblquote We You rarely find a rapper who does not write his own lyrics. Rappers consider rap lyrics the most important element in the song, which needs a special talent, while a beautiful voice is not essential. The recording equipment is very basic, because well equ ._Imad el-Helo is an audio engineer for a number of rap bands, and has a store to sell his tapes. According to him, young people -especially university students- are the main audience for rap songs and are constantly demanding them. However, there are no Arab rap did not enter through the gate of the Syrian Opera House, but it reached a large segment of young people in the country and has developed a huge audience. Rappers are determined to continue, whether or not they get licensed and encouraged by the Israeli police prevents Palestinian Christians from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem Saturday, April 18, 2009 Ramallah - - Jerusalem, DPA - Israeli authorities prevented Palestinian Christians on Saturday from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the old town of Jerusalem, and celebrating Saturday of Light. Dmitri Diliani, head of The National Christian Coalition, said that the Israeli police allowed only tourists and those who were transported in Israeli buses to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and celebrate Saturday of light, while it kept preventi Clashes broke out today in the afternoon between Palestinians and the Israeli police in the surroundings of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in an attempt to break into the police barrier and enter the church to celebrate Saturday of light. Diliani condemned the interference of the Israeli authorities in the affairs of the Christian church, stressing on the right of Palestinian Christians to celebration their feasts in their church without anyone's interference. For its part, the Palestinian presidency condemned strongly the Israeli actions preventing Christian clergy and worshipers from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate their feast. The Palestinian presidency said in a press statement that the Israeli practices clearly reflect how the occupation authorities disregard all humanitarian norms and conventions which ensure freedom of worship for every human being on earth. It considered that the Israeli crime reached its peak by setting obstacles to Christian worshipers to prevent them from accessing places of worship, and beating Greek and Syriac clergymen in the yard of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and breaking in t The Palestinian presidency called on all international, humanitarian and religious institutions to intervene to rein in this Israeli campaign. Damascus rejoices, suspect in Al Hariri assassination case detained Moheet: Insight political sources revealed that Zahir Al Saddiq, a main witness in the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al Hariri assassination case, was detained in the city of Sharjah a few days ago. \lquote Al Safir\rquote Lebanese newspaper reported that sources say this procedure took place based on a request from Syria to the Interpol to arrest Al Siddiq in the United Arab Emirates, especially since he possesses forged Syrian travel documents. Al Siddiq had disappeared under mysterious circumstances in France. Fingers pointed at the intelligences of several nations amongst which was Syria. Al Siddiq had previously testified to the International Prosecution Committee that previous Lebanese Pre Damascus hopes that Al Siddiq\rquote s arrest will assist the government in uncovering the truth. \ldblquote The White House wants to hear Muslims\rdblquote , Obama\rquote s veiled advisor tells Al Bayan Dalia Migahed, Muslim advisor in the White House of Egyptian origin, said that her mission was to inform President Barack Obama of how Muslims think, what they seek from the United States, and to endorse understanding between Muslims in Europe and America Dalia Migahed, Muslim advisor in the White House of Egyptian origin, said that her mission was to inform President Barack Obama of how Muslims think, what they seek from the United States, and to endorse understanding between Muslims in Europe and America Dalia told Al Bayan that she anticipates the White House\rquote s gesture in appointing a Muslim and veiled woman would project a positive image. She said this was not the first time a Muslim was appointed in the White House; several appointments were made in t Migahed stressed that the very foundation of her work was to inform President Obama on Muslim thinking methodologies and what Muslims seek from the United States. She said that Washington wants to hear Muslims, and that she believes she has the capabilit On John Esposito\rquote s recommendation for her appointment, Migahed said that he undoubtedly played a significant role based on what he knew of her ability to attain her goals. She also said she worked closely with Esposito on a book called: \ldblquote Who speaks for I Upon being asked if she believed the initiative was late as Edward Djerejian, former US ambassador to Damascus from the James Baker Institute, had previously requested ex-President George Bush to appoint an Islamic affairs deputy. Djerejian\rquote s requests we London \endash Jamal Shaheen Al Bayan Cairo - Egyptian newspaper, al-Ahram, wrote Saturday that Iran, Syria, Qatar, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are involved in the Hezbollah case and plotting a greater conspiracy against the Republic of Egypt. The newspaper said that the Hezbollah case was part of what it called the greater conspiracy against Egypt, in which the Lebanese organizations of Hezbollah, the Islamic resistance movement Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were also involved, in It pointed out that the Hezbollah case was not just about carrying out terrorist acts, but was the spark of revolution and disturbances as part of a greater plot against Egypt which have been carefully and maliciously weaved to disturb the internal securi Al-Ahram mentioned that it is basing on the shocking facts that state apparatuses could obtain. The national newspaper added that the beginning of military operations in the Gaza strip was at a previously determined and known time by the parties of the plot, indicating that Hamas determined the start of the Israeli military incursion on Gaza by sudd According to the newspaper, Hamas\rquote stance reflected a great conspiracy agreed by the Brotherhood leadership in Egypt, their wings in Arab and European countries, their military wing which Hamas represents, Iran, Syria and Qatar. Each played a role that wa As for the Iranian role in the conspiracy, the newspaper said that it was represented in Hezbollah, of which its secretariat is the responsibility of the Shiite Hassan Nasr who is known to have close ties with the Syrian regime, which provided Hezbollah w The newspaper added that Iran moved through its axes, through an official media and statements by the president, through exporting Grad rockets to Hamas, besides the works agenda in Egypt. Adel al-shueibi. Lies Maher - Makes sense. Jamal-Palestine - Shame on you, Egypt All who have been accused in al-Ahram newspaper are in enmity with Israel, which goes to prove the falsity of such allegations. Who would push Egypt to be against its fellow brothers except Israel? The question is, how did Israel manage to regain the Egyp Honestly, I did read al-Ahram, and the report seems logical. If we review the events closely since the truce was ended by Syria, and al-Jazeerah starting inciting against Egypt more than Israel did, assuming that the crossing is the issue, and then there Looks like the abyss that the languid Egyptian regime, which is conniving with Israel, has fallen to is bottomless. If Israel fails to military finish off Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance, that\rquote s fine, Egypt will take over. Recently, a number of families that live among us, disguised as Muslims while embracing Jewish beliefs and transmit them from one generation to the other in order to preserve their interests, have emerged. But at the times of war with the enemies we find The newspaper forgot about Chavez, Erdogan and Galloway and those who say that there is no God but Allah. What the newspaper says implies that Egypt is in a state of chaos while in reality security is in total control of things. But authorities in Egypt t It is funny to say that security is in total control of the Egyptian people because we all know that Syrian people and the people of most of the Arab countries are the ones under the control of the security (we all remember what happened to that Jordanian If you\rquote re up to comparison, you\rquote d better compare the ceiling of freedom in Egypt and that in the rest of the Arab states. Let us not forget that the so-called objecting countries, are actually objecting while in fact they\rquote re … devoted for years to holding peace treaties with Israel with the support of the US and not any other state. Besides, during the war on Gaza, all they did was weeping and attacking the largest Arab state (knowing that Egypt was almost the only Arab state that really did efforts to stop that war) We also heard how the words of the late president, Jamal Abdel-Nassir, were used in the Doha festival \endash forgot to declare that the nationalization of the Suez Canal \endash was not righteous. Knowing that such words were uttered by the late president at times o We all also remember how Iran banned the martyrdom of the Iranians in Gaza to save the best interests of Iran. And that Hezbollah was condemning missile firing from south Lebanon at the time and disapproved it. In conclusion no one has the right to speak on behalf of Egypt or Palestine, except their peoples. No one defended Palestine like Egypt did, at the time where others were trading the Palestinian cause. Salah al-Din Al_Hussami: Forgetting about Chavez and Erdogan Mohammed Wahdan: A Palestinian resident in the land of Egypt Ahmadinejad during his speech at the Durban II conference Durban II: Ahmadinejad turns the table on Israel and the United Nations al-Arab Online \endash Tariq al-Kaizani: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated his accusation of racism against Israel in front of Western delegations participating in the Durban II conference in Geneva, and criticized the United Nations who sponsors Many of the participating delegates in the Durban conference on racism walked out during the speech of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmed Ahamdinejad, when he accused Israel -indirectly- of being a racist state based on discrimination, occupation and violati The Iranian president criticized the establishment of the state of Israel after 1945, describing it as a racist government. Ahmadinejad said in his speech Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless un They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and the Holocaust world in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine, he added. In the first European official response on Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the European Union to show strong firmness towards the speech of Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Durban II conference, describing it as an invitation The Iranian president did not only accuse the Jewish state of racism, but he also criticized the United Nations that sponsor the conference for its failure in the resolution of international disputes. Ahmadinejad called for the abolition of the right of President Ahmadinejad started his speech by criticizing the UN Security Council that was set up on the principle of rewarding the winners in the second World War, in a reference to the permanent members of the council, rather than on the principle of equi The UN's conference on racism Durban II, started in Geneva on Monday, while ten major countries including the United States and Germany were absent. The secretary-general of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon expressed his huge disappointment on this boyc I am very disappointed. Some of the countries that should be helping to create a path to a better future are absent, Ban Ki-Moon said, expressing his sorrow for the continuation of racism until now. In addition to the UN secretary-general, Moscow also criticized the absence of major Western states in the conference. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko, who leads his country's delegation at the conference, said that some Western countries that boycotted the conference and that describe themselves as democratic are countries in which ethnic minorities Yakovenko expressed his understanding of the position of Islamic countries that wish to combat racism and guarantee the rights of millions of its citizens who live in the West. Washington's stance towards the conference on racism contradicts with its pursuit under the administration of President Barack Obama to reserve a seat in the new Commission of Human Rights boycotted by the Bush administration. The US Department of State j However, the participation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the conference remains the main concern of the west, since they see it as defamation of Israeli actions against the Palestinians in Gaza and its Arab citizens. Israeli official sources reported that Israel summoned its ambassador in Bern on Monday to consult, after a meeting between Swiss President Hans Rudolf Merz and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took place on the sidelines of the conference. The document ratified by the commission of the preparation for the conference, removed on Friday any reference to Israel or discredit of religions, which are two red lines for Westerners; while a paragraph on the memory of the Holocaust was retained, at Saad al-Farargi, ambassador and head of the permanent delegation of the League of Arab States to the United Nations in Geneva, said that the Western countries acted as usual towards the Arab, Islamic and African group and the non-aligned bloc, and practi A law regulating marriage age to save pre-teens Despite the strong conviction that is prevailing now of the graveness of the pre-teen marriage psychologically and socially, yet such incidents are still increasingly taking place due to the fact that parents choose their own best interests over their chi Dr. Zuhair al-Harthy, spokesperson for the Human Rights Organization, stresses that such marriages represent violation of the international convention on protecting children from prenuptial marriages that the KSA signed. He pointed out that this type of m Officials claim Egyptians cannot maintain ancestor artifacts Egyptians prohibited from celebrating at the pyramids Written by Ezz El Noubi Several Egyptian families from many governorates congregated on Monday in front of the pyramids of Giza, in celebration of Eastern Easter, only to be declined entrance due to a decision from officials. Officials claimed Egyptians cannot maintain ancestor Security officials requested visitors to celebrate in an alternate recreational area at the entrance of the governorate of Fayoum; several miles away from the pyramids. Visitors rejected this proposition as the area was under construction and development CIA resorted to water boarding 266 times The reported that the Central Intelligence Agency has resorted to water boarding techniques 266 times on two ;more times than initially publicized. The CIA had opted for this technique, described by administration as illegal, no less than eighty three times in August of 2002 with detainee Abu Zubaida, according to a legal warrant issued by the Department of Justice. A former CIA agent announced to media reporters in 2007 that Abu Zubaida was subjected to water boarding for thirty five seconds only prior to his confession. The CIA\rquote s 2005 warrant stated that water boarding was used 183 times in March of 2003 with detainee Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, labeled primary planner behind the September 11th attacks. The newspaper alleges that Sheikh Mohamed was subjected over one hundred times to harsh torture techniques in 2007. This raised concerns amongst CIA agents that they might have crossed boundaries on legitimate torment methods and led them to stop their p Queries surrounding legitimacy The New York Times report may raise controversy regarding how ethical and effective interrogation methods announced by the Department of Justice under George Bush were. At the time, they were said to be legal despite the US condemning such acts over the The newspaper revealed that president Obama plans on visiting CIA centers and making open comments to employees, as well as meeting with some officials. CIA officials opposed the publication of the interrogation memo authored on the 30th of May in 2005; one of four other confidential memorandums. The newspaper further revealed that confidential investigations are currently taking place by an intelligence committee aiming to evaluate the CIA\rquote s interrogation program as CIA officials said that torture, pushing detainees against the walls, tying them Repetitive water boarding techniques may give rise to queries surrounding the effectiveness of the procedure, amongst statements from officials who claim that the techniques were used in alliance with strict orders. With a capital of 20 million dollars and with the first clients of the of the Hamas government members The Islamic National Bank starts its work in Gaza despite being denied a license Gaza witnessed today, Tuesday, April 21, 2009, the opening of the Islamic National Bank, the first bank to start its work under the control of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas on the Gaza Strip, although it was not granted a license from the Palestin The chairman of the bank, Alaa\rquote al-Rafati, told the AFP: Today we inaugurate the Bank to provide banking services to the public. He pointed out that the bank will start its services with offering payroll services for the salaries of the month of April, Personal finance program He added: \ldblquote We have bank accounts of six thousands for the first phase of civil servants according to the amount the Hamas government deposited at the Bank. Thos will benefit from facilitations within the programme of personal finance, provided that amount He confirmed that the Bank would depend on transactions in accordance with Islamic laws with respect to financing, service programmes and speculations, as well as a partnership with companies. Al-Rafati who is known to be a member of the Hamas movement said that the initial capital of the bank is 20 million dollars, stressing that there is no liquidity crisis including in the shekel and the U.S. dollar, and this is will give us credibility amo He pointed out that the current liquidity crisis in the Gaza Strip is the result of that the people keeping the cash money due to the current circumstances and the little confidence in banks here, because of the top bank administrations for the operatin He pointed out that the bank is \ldblquote company a private profit joint-stock company that is not related to the government in Gaza or the Hamas movement, despite the fact that some figures of the administration are members of the movement, this is irrelative to Investing in various projects Al-Rafati who is working on opening another branch of the Bank soon in the south of the Gaza Strip, said that his bank will contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip being one of national institutions for the management of money. targeted. He said\rdblquote in case of aggression Israel's targets were clear for all, we are a national institution and we face institutions in the country do. The government's commissioner to the Military Court, Judge Saqar Saqar claimed that the retired brigadier general who worked for the security service, Edip Asa'ad al-Alam, his wife, Hayat Salumi, his nephew working in the same security service, Joseph Sam Adeeb al-Alam is also said to have possessed unlicensed weapons of war and forged an identity card and used it. He and his wife are said to have entered the country of the enemy without a prior permission. The claim referred to articles of which the fullest extent is death penalty. Saqar submitted his claim to the first military investigation judge, Rashid Muzaher, requesting interrogation of the suspects and the issuance of justified arrest warrant for them. He also requested the issuance of an arrest warrant in absentia for the fu Saqar annexed to his claim the preliminary investigations that were conducted by the Information branch of the Directorate General of the Internal Security Forces, which amounted to about two hundred pages, including the suspects\rquote confessions of the charg He, his wife, his nephew and a fugitive were prosecuted Al-Alam admits receipt of 50 thousand dollars from the Mossad Hayfa in the \lquote golden cage for the second time A huge party in the Pial today ... and the presence of celebrities The Lebanese singer Haifaa Wahbi, for the second time, enters the golden cage with her white gown to be wedded to the Egyptian businessman Ahmed Abu Hashima. revleaing to the people again the details of her wedding ceremony and the turnout , . With the emergence of news that she was getting married to the Egyptian businessman Ahmed Abu Hashima, the Lebanese singer Haifa Wahbi hastened to comment that the wedding ceremony will be a very simple one contrary to what is being said about huge costs Moheet: The secretary general of the Jordanian Islamic Action Front, Zaki Bani Arshid, has protested Pope Benedict XVI intentions to visit Jordan next May due to the statements he made which insulted the Prophet and the Islamic religion. According to the Iranian News Agency (IRNA), Bani Arshid had sent a memo to the Jordanian Prime Minister, Nader Al-Zahabi, in which he pointed out that so far the Pope had not apologized for his statement which had stirred up the feelings of half a billio The Jordanian Islamic Action Front regard the Pope's visit as unwelcome if he insists on retaining his stance that offends Islam and Muslims, that despises their feelings as well as publicly his lack of respect for Islam and the Prophet (God bless him and Arshid expressed his hope that Jordan will request a public apology from the Pope for his statements that offended Islam and the Prophet. He criticized the timing and agenda of the Pope's visit pointing out that the Pope will be visiting Israel who carrie The Media spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood Group in Jordan, Jamil Abu Bakr, has demanded from the Pope an apology for his statements which has caused harm to Islam and its great Prophet. He pointed out last Monday in his statement that the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the region should express the solidarity of Muslims and Christians throughout history. If the Pope ignores the feelings of the Muslims this will remain a stumbling block to He added, The pope should realize the seriousness of his wrongdoings against religious figures which will not be absolved through flattery nor through the passing of time Jordan: Islamists angered by the visit of Pope Benedict XVI Abu Bakr criticized the Pope's intention's to visit what he calls the (Gazan) Holocaust pointing out that the Pope's visit comes not long after the Holocaust that Israel carried out against Gaza's children killing hundreds of women, children as well as de He stressed that the Wailing Wall, which the Pope intends to visit, is a stolen Islamic legacy. He warned against condoning the Pope's illegal step to visit it. When is the divorce for? As American artists do when they get married, divorce is next. Comment: Sender: Country: Comment date: Saturday, 25-4-2009 at 0:11 am Request People, I'd like to know what channels will broadcast Haifa's wedding. Friday, 24-4-2009 at 6:43 PM Hahahaha_No one knows how many times Haifa got married before. Friday, 24-4-2009 at 7: 50 PM Friday, 24-4-2009 at 6:33 PM They are all the same I think that her marriage might solve the problem. Her husband might be a good man, and he will spare us her beautiful art. Emergency at the Beirut Airport 150 Aircrafts and Thousands of Guests for Haifa Wehbe's Wedding Al Fann Online - Khaled Al-Saleh Lebanese authorities decided to lift the state of alert among security forces, army and police, in the Beirut airport, major hotels, and surroundings. It also prevented breaks and holidays, and warned soldiers not to leave their places no matter what... S These measures were taken in preparation for the wedding party of Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe and Egyptian businessman Ahmed Abu Hashima, to be held on Friday evening, and to which a large number of ministers, officials, artists and businessmen from all over the world were invited. Al Fann Online learned from the office of the Lebanese singer that the ceremony costed about 10 million dollars, which amounts to 55 million Egyptian pounds, of which one and a half million dollars were paid to the international company in charge of emb Will participate in the animation of the ceremony renowned Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias, who will dedicate to the couple a song in English that was especially prepared for the occasion, in addition to Amr Diab, Ragheb Alama, Nancy Ajram, Nawal Ministers and Officials It's worth mentioning that Haifa and Abu Hashima invited a large number of Arab officials and ministers to attend their wedding ceremony, and they received indeed confirmations, in addition to invitations to very close friends from outside the artisti Observers that followed the measures that were taken in Beirut that night confirmed that the event will be unprecedented in the history of Arab wedding celebrations. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi....a reality or an illusion US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on 25th April called for Iraqis to put aside their differences in the midst of the suicide attacks which are raising fears of a renewed sectarian war with the withdrawal of the US forces. In a short visit to Iraq, the first one for her as foreign secretary, Clinton stated that the United States will continue to support the Iraqi government while Washington is preparing to withdraw all its troops from the country by the end of the 2011. Clinton arrived to Baghdad aboard a military transport aircraft a day after two female suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a Shiite shrine in Baghdad which resulted in the death of 60 Iraqis, the bloodiest single attack in Iraq for more than ten mo This was the third major attack that took place within two days bringing the total the number of people killed in those two days of violence to at least 150 people. The recent rise in the number of attacks that has left many victims in its wake has triggered fears of renewed violence. US President, Barak Obama, has ordered US combat forces to get ready to withdraw from Iraqi cities in June. There are doubts about the During a meeting that Clinton held with 150 Iraqis in the US embassy's headquarters an Iraqi journalist stated candidly that many Iraqis are afraid of what will happen when the American troops withdraw, and that they do not trust the Iraqi security forces However, Clinton responded by saying, There is nothing more important than an united Iraq. The more that Iraq's unity becomes strengthened the more they will feel confidence in their security services. It is imperative that the security services win the The sectarian violence began when the United States led the 2003 invasion of Iraq but then dropped over the past year. However, the Iraqi security forces continue to face enormous challenges. These include taking on the military tasks and management of th Clinton visits Iraq amid a wave of violence raising fears of a sectarian war Clinton asked whether or not the recent violence could spark a sectarian war again. I see no indications of that at present, she told reporters in Kuwait late Friday night before traveling to Baghdad. I believe that the suicide bombings is an an indic In what was a short visit Clinton met with the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki and General Ray Odierno, commander of US forces in Iraq. In a closed-door meeting Clinton also spoke with a group of Iraqi women that had been widowed during the past six During her meeting with Iraqi citizens in the American Embassy she responded to a spate of questions in regards to what the United States can do to assist the Iraqi people in everything from education and agriculture to the empowerment of women and the ri Clinton said that she was aware that it was not easy to repair ties in Iraq's society. I know how difficult it is. My country struggled for many years with all kinds of divisions but as you know we elected a president of African origin, someone who leads Regarding another matter, a prominent military official said on Saturday that Iraqi officials will not know for two days whether the man that was arrested last week was in fact the leader of one of the armed groups of al Qaeda's network, who is blamed for General Qassem Al-Musawi, a spokesman for the security operation in Baghdad said that they had found documents on the man arrested on Thursday that stated that he was Abu Omar the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. Poll: Majority of Palestinians are willing to accept the two-state solution Saturday, April 25, 2009 Jerusalem - DPA - A vast majority of Palestinians expressed in a poll that was published on Saturday their support for the two-state solution in order to achieve peace with Israel. The poll, conducted by the Voice of Palestine on the peace process and issues related to the final status, showed that the majority of Palestinians believe that the two-state solution is still the most acceptable choice for the vast majority of the Pale The poll was conducted on a sample of 600 Palestinians at the beginning of February, meaning right after the end of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which killed and injured more than seven thousand Palestinians. The poll showed that 71 percent of those who participated in the survey, which was conducted in collaboration with the Instit In contrast with the pre-mentioned results, the poll showed that 59 percent of the sample consider the bilateral nationalist state unacceptable, while 94 percent of the Palestinians believe that they have the right to access to the course of the process o We are awaiting the results of the DNA test said Genral Al-Musawi , as well as certificates by the leaders of al-Qaeda who previously worked with Al-Baghdadi who are currently being held by us. This is in order to reach conclusive results regarding th He added that the results of the investigation will be announced within approximately two days. US and Iraqi officials have not been able so far to confirm that the man held in Baghdad is Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi who it was rumored before to have been killed There are speculations by security analysts that Al-Baghdadi does not exist and that he is a personal fantasy conjured up by the Al Qaeda network in Iraq to give an Iraqi appearance to the organization. Analysts say that his name might be a pseudo name th If the detainee was is Al-Baghdadi it will be a blow to the Islamic hard-liners. Meanwhile the number of large explosions in Iraq is raising questions over whether the country was sliding again towards sectarian violence. About 150 people have been killed Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi's arrest might be seen as a victory for the Iraqi forces that arrested him who seek to establish their own capacity while the US forces in Iraq, consisting of 137 thousand soldiers, are preparing to complete their withdrawal from Iraq Dubai\rquote s Red Crescent receives Belgian Princess Red Crescent / Belgian Princess / Meeting Abu Dhabi, April 8 / WAM / Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid, daughter of Belgium's King Albert II praised the excellence of humanitarian efforts of the UAE in the international arena, expressing her appreciation for the efforts of the Red Crescent at th Her Royal Highness also highlighted the importance of directing attention towards the development of awareness of malaria that could spread again, which requires concerted efforts of the international community to reduce that danger. The Belgian Princess visited Dubai recently during her Gulf and world tour to drum up support and global efforts to combat malaria. Mohammad Abdullah Al Zarouni, director of the Red Crescent branch in Dubai, received the Belgian princess and her entourage at Dubai International Airport, and transferred to her the greetings and welcome wishes of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al The objectives of the project Roll Back Malaria to combat malaria, which was launched ten years ago aiming to combat the spread of malaria especially in Africa, were discussed during the meeting, in light of the vital need to take urgent action against The Belgian Princess noted that malaria causes the death of about three million people a year, with a high fraction of its victims being children under five years of age. And she also stressed the importance of strengthening efforts to fight malaria in the light of deteriorating economic conditions, and called governments, private sector institutions, offices of the United Nations and civil society institutions to provide The Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, Marie Coll-Seck, said that the project spent about two billion dollars during the past year, noting that efforts to combat malaria -which affects different parts of the world- over the nex Launched at the headquarters of the Organization of NGLS in Paris the activities of Beirut, capital of global of the book of 2009, which makes the Lebanese capital the first Arab capital to receive this title and the second Arab city after Alexand 65% of workers in the Middle East region have voiced concerns over job security, according to a recent study published by bayt.com, the most prominent online employment agency in the Middle East. The study was conducted in collaboration with YouGov and w 58% of Jordanian workers are concerned over labor market situation 50% of employees are skeptical towards company operations The study showed that UAE workers were the most worried over the labor market situation, with 74% voicing their concerns, versus only 58% in Jordan \endash the least affected nation by the global recession The study, entitled \lquote work conditions in global recession\rquote , aims to shed light on the impact the world-wide economic crises has on people\rquote s careers and finances. This is done through gauging individuals\rquote feelings towards the economic downturn and how they The study also measured staff expectations towards the future of their companies, and revealed that 50 % of the participants have fears regarding the continuing operation of their companies. Once again, respondents in the United Arab Emirates were most sk Amer Zurayqat, bayt.com\rquote s regional manager, stated that Middle Eastern workers seem skeptical about the future of their companies and security of their jobs, in light of the current global recession. What\rquote s more interesting to note is that experiences se Zurayqat said that shedding the light on employee skepticism towards economic crises impact can be instrumental to employers, particularly HR staff members and online employment agencies as it gauges how well workers are aware of the hardships companies a Reports of job losses have been resonating in the Middle East. 43% of participants have confirmed that they have witnessed many individuals loose their jobs. The UAE seemed to be the most influenced country with over half of the respondents affirming th Al-Maliki builds a luxurious palace for culture Basra, a Cultural Capital: concerts, dancing, and restoring the ancient heritage Basra - Al-Qabas: One time intoxicating, and swooning another, you have become the beauty of all beauty, these words are of the lyrics of an old Baghdadian song, talking about beauty, charm and love. The Iraqi song fans forgot about it in the midst of the daily explosion Taher Nasser al-Hamoud, undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture said during the conference, which was held in the Otba Ibn Ghuzwan Hall on the occasion of the beginning of the activities of Al-Marbad Festival and the sixth poetry festival, which began o In response to questions from journalists about the concurrence of the days of the festival with the day of April 28, the day Saddam Hussein celebrates his birthday, al-Hamoud said: It has nothing to do with Saddam's birthday or otherwise, I proposed a da It has nothing to do with the memory of Saddam Destruction of an Iranian ship loaded with weapons before its arrival to the Gaza Strip - Egyptian newspaper Published yesterday (Last update) 26/04/2009, at 18:18 Bethlehem - Maan - Independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Usboo' quoted from what it called reliable sources in the Sudanese capital Khartoum that an Iranian ship loaded with weapons was destroyed in the Red Sea near the Sudanese coast in the past two weeks The sources stated that missiles were fired from an unknown warship which is likely to be Israeli or American, which led to the flooding of the entire ship, including its crew. The sources guessed that the Iranian ship was loaded with weapons, and that it was to unload its cargo inside the Sudanese lands in preparation for its transfer to the Gaza Strip, through the Egyptian territories. According to the newspaper, both Iran and the aggressor kept the accident a secret, but senior sources in the Sudanese capital found out about this critical information. Invention of a method to write without using fingers Washington: Researchers Adam Wilson and Justin Williams from the University of Wisconsin, USA, managed to develop a system that enables people to write on the Twitter's website, without using their fingers. Williams explained that the device is composed of an electrode-studded cap wired to a computer. The electrode detects electrical signals in the brain, which a person can use to write on Twitter without using his hands, by focusing on a particular choice d Williams said that the invention opens new horizons to patients with semi-paralysis, as they can now communicate easily with the world, especially that some estimate the number of people with such diseases and disabilities to be hundreds of thousands. Hamas refuses Palestinian dialogue to have a final round A dialogue session after the other, without any tangible results (Archives) 27/04/2009, 05:06:16 P.M Cairo - ArabOnline - Ahmed Al-Sherif: Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas refused to consider the fourth dialogue session with National Liberation Movement Fatah in Cairo to be the last one, in a serious indication that the results will not be as expect Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, prominent leader in Hamas, said that describing the meetings of the fourth round of dialogue to be decisive or definitive is not correct, pointing out that if some issues remain pending between the Palestinian factions participati In a statement to the radio on Monday, Al-Zahhar explained that Cairo offered to Hamas in the last round of dialogue a project to overcome the current disagreement, especially on the issue of the government, and he said that the position of his movement o On his part, the leader of Fatah movement, Azzam Al-Ahmad, said that the fourth round is the beginning of the final stages of the dialogue. He added: This round has to be decisive. We, in Fatah, would prefer a comprehensive agreement rather than a tempor This round was preceded by a rise in the tone of disagreement between the two movements competing over power for more than two years now. Hamas criticized strongly the statements of the Palestinian President in which he called on the next government to In a press statement by Fawzi Barhoum, the spokesman of the movement of Hamas, he considered Abbas's talk about negotiations with the Zionist occupation to be a confirmation on the failure of this option, and on the defeat of Abbas and his negotiating d Fawzi Barhoum stressed that Abbas's talk about the Cairo dialogues is a retreat from the agreement on unity, and a cheap marketing for American conditions. It's also a move from him and his movement to avoid all key issues related to the Palestinian issue In a related development, the American newspaper Los Angeles Times reported that the administration of President Barak Obama asked the Congress to make minor adjustments to the US law, for it to become possible to deal with a Palestinian unity governmen Hamas had won a majority of seats in the legislative elections in January 2006, and had formed a Palestinian unity government. However, the government was exposed to an American and western blockade, and an Arab neglect due to pressure from Israel. Los Angeles Times stated in its issue published on Monday that this step aroused the concern of the Israel-supporting Zionist lobby in the Congress. Under the current law, any US funding to the Palestinian government requires it first to recognize Israel, dismiss violence resistance, and recognize the agreements signed with the occupation authorities, but Hamas is sticking to its principles by rej The newspaper said that the US administration requested such changes this month as part of the draft law on the additional expenditure amounting 83,4 billion dollars, which includes also the financing of occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The draft law includes also the provision of 840 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, as well as for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after it was destroyed by the aggression of Israeli military last January. US officials stressed that the new proposal does not mean the recognition of Hamas or assisting it, but it reflects the difficulties faced by the Obama administration in its efforts for peace in the Arab region. Barack Obama has called repeatedly to the establishment of a Palestinian state, but negotiating a peace agreement will be difficult without dealing with Hamas, which has proved to be a number difficult to overcome in the Palestinian equation, according to Venezuela to establish diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority and Venezuela signed an agreement to establish diplomatic relations, months after Carcas cut relations with Tel Aviv in protest against the military campaign on Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and the Minister of Information and foreign affairs of the Palestinian Authority Riyad Malki signed conventions on the establishment of diplomatic relations, following the inauguration of a new embassy in Car Madoro said that the Palestinian people could rely on our eternal solidarity with them and support for their just and humanitarian case. Madoro accused Israel of persecuting the Palestinians, and said that the Palestinian people deserve to live in free On his part, Al- Maliki praised Venezuelan President and declared that he is the most popular president in the Arab world, pointing out that the Palestinians have 97 embassies and representative offices in different parts of the world. He hoped that the new emabassy would contribute to boost diplomatic ef It is worth mentioning that the Palestinian Authority embassies in the countries of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia, while Cuba and Argentina host Palestinian envoys. It is noteworthy that Venezuela expelled Israeli diplomats on January the sixth,and this was followed by a similar Israeli response. Chavez also accused Israel of committing acts of genocide. The office of the Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki issued a statement in which he announced news of the detention of the al-qaeda Network leader in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdady, describing him as new evil. The statement added that Albaghdadi has said for years that he was a successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and both carried out crimes to promote sectarianism, which claimed lives and violated the honor of the holy sites and mosques and husiniyat universit Once again the Fatah and Hamas delegations are returning to Cairo to discuss the unresolved issues that stand as stumbling blocks in the way of peace among the Palestinians. This round of talks might come in the midst of an atmosphere that is full of frus The mood on the ground between the two sides is gloomy. The host of meetings and from time to time improvements maybe in relations between individuals did not reflect an inch in terms of the political reality on the ground. Not in terms of the acts of pur Terror strikes Egypt as swine flu hits Israel Experts warn of virus development and government scrutinizes incomers Mohamed Hemeida reports from Cairo: Mona Mehrez, managing director of the Animal Health Research Institute and member of the National Committee to Combat Bird Flu, warned against swine flu moving across border from Israel to Egypt, in the same manner it has affected the United States throug Mehrez has confirmed that the disease has not yet reached Egypt. Samples were taken from swine farms and were negative; no cases of swine flu have been uncovered to date. Mona Mehrez also stated that the number of bird flu cases have increased since the Terror has struck Egypt as news of swine flu cases in Mexico, US, and other nations disseminated. Egyptians have grown especially concerned due to the increase in bird flu infections, which increases the chances of disease development and transmission. Egyptian government decided to take quick measures to follow disease development. Abdel Rahman Shaheen, Ministry of Health Deputy, had stated that the ministry declared a state of emergency within the republic. He also said that the government has under Elaph sources have learned that the government intends to construct a new district and transport all pigs within inhibited communities to this area. The government has refrained from announcing the whereabouts of this area as they fear swine-owners will Sources within the Ministry of Development said that the decision to transport swine was presented to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif about a year ago. The proposition was to move all swine to an area north of the governorate of Helwan. The proposal was not Doctor Hamed Samaha, president of the general institute for veterinarian services, said that the real problem lies in the fact that swine are raised randomly and it is therefore impossible to immunize them. He expressed fears that the disease would trans The parliament had discussed a law on Tuesday which aims to regulate bird and poultry trade. The project involves a set number of procedures which regulate slaughtering and trading processes. The proposed bill is set to penalize those who do not abide b Doctor Mohamed Imran, disease and epidemic consultant, said that the symptoms of swine flu are very similar to those of bird flu. Diagnoses are made through acquiring samples from the throat and nasal area. Swine flu is transmitted through direct contac Doctor Mohamed indicated that swine flu vaccines may be helpful but are not 100% effective due to the different breeds of the disease. He said that there is no proof that the disease is transmitted by devouring pig products and that swine-meat should be The Ministry of Health has issued a statement to citizens encouraging them to was their hands with soap and water several times following any animal encounters, and to take extra caution in dealing with ill animals. Away from the politics on the ground, the remaining controversial issues do not represent in terms of substance any real political obstacle for those who want an agreement and an end to the situation of national division, the attempt to stir up controvers Returning again to the points concerning the path to national dialogue indicate that they do not need time at all. It needs a nothing more decision or a slight amendment if the party decision is to end the dispute and disaster. Whatever is said of cover What has become clear is that party dialogue (no longer considered a comprehensive national dialogue) between Fatah and Hamas is on a dark path. It is a Yes/No policy, neither acceptance nor rejection but seeking for a situation of coexistence with all The party meeting, therefore, will end on a more negative note, not in terms of the evilness and tragedy that exists but what will follow; conduct that worsens and evildoing bearing the hallmarks of hostility and hatred. This question remains: after today will it really determine which party stands as the obstacle to peace between Palestinians? Note: When the eternal leader, Yasser Arafat, invented the not yes/no saying in politics it was to strengthen the national issue in the face of its enemies but little did he know that it would be internalised to strengthen the insurrection against the h The Dialogue of Not Yes or No In the non-decisive voting that took place last month, the Japanese ambassador at the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, upturned South Africa's ambassador Abdul Samad Minty, but he could not get the two-thirds majority required to win. Belgium nominates Poncelet for the International Atomic Energy Agency head position The International Atomic Energy Agency Moheet: An official in the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Belgium nominated Jean-Pol Poncelet, Senior Vice-President at the French nuclear energy Group Areva, for the post of director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a According to American Radio Sawa, Belgian Poncelet joins diplomats from Japan, South Africa, Slovenia and Spain in a second vote to choose a new director for the United Nations agency to replace El-baradei, after the non-decisive vote that took place la An official in the agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that Belgium submitted Poncelet's nomination papers to the agency's board of governors, which consists of 35 countries, at the beginning of the week. Monday was the last date for accepting nominations. It was not clear yet whether there were other nominations to be announced in the last moments. The vote is scheduled for the end of May. Poncelet, 55 years old, who is a vice chairman at the Areva Group for new energy policy issues, has assumed the presidency of the Agency of Nuclear Waste and Fissile Materials in Belgium from 1991 to 1995, then he took over the post of defense minister fr It is worth mentioning that El-baradei will retire in November, after spending 12 years in his current position. Egyptian translation award in the name of Rifaa Tahtawi Cairo: Egyptian Ministry of Culture announced the initiation of a translation award in the name of Rifaa Tahtawi. The prize will celebrate the best Arabic translation of foreign language literary work. Jaber Asfour, president of the Egyptian National Center for Translation, said that the Ministry of Culture decided to award 100,000 Egyptian pounds in honor of the best Arabic translation of a foreign language book. Asfour stated that the financial award amounts to 100,000 Egyptian pounds, approximately 18, 000 dollars, in addition to a commemorative medal and a certificate of appreciate awarded to the winner in an elaborate ceremony, under the patronage of Egyptian He clarified that the award was named after Rifaa Al Tahtaw (1801-1873), one of the most prominent figures during the scientific renaissance period as well as a leader in translation during the reign of Mohamed Ali Pasha and Khedive Ismail; both ruled dur Asfour said that there are two conditions to winning the award, one being that it must be the best presented translation of the literature\rquote s original language and that it must have been published by the National Translations Center within the past two yea He stated that the award will be presented this year for the very first time. A judging committee has been formulated, comprised of the most prominent Arab and Egyptian intellects. Committee members will remain anonymous up to the announcement of the aw Obama: Chrysler will file for bankruptcy prior to partnering with Fiat Maannews: American President Barack Obama confirmed that major car manufacturer, Chrysler, will file for bankruptcy protection prior to signing a partnership deal with Italian company, Fiat. Obama stated that the procedure will be a quick one as he expressed confidence that Chrysler will overcome this and thrive as a stronger competitive force within the market. Chrysler\rquote s General Manager had announced his intent to resign post the two-month period granted by court to finalize the Fiat deal. Chrysler had received loans from the American administration worth four billion dollars; the company is anticipated to rec Reports on the Queen of Holland\rquote s assassination attempt Moheet: Media reports announced that a sports car interrupted the Queen of Holland\rquote s procession during the commemoration of her reign. Holland\rquote s radio reported that locals congregated to participate in the celebration which took place in the city of Apeldoorn. A black Suzuki Swift car barged into Queen Beatrix\rquote procession leaving the car driver with serious injuries, as well as injuring Reports present at the scene of the incident said the car was driving at a high speed. Emergency services had rushed to the aid of the victims while police forces separated groups of people in the area of Loolan in Apeldoorn. Apeldoorn\rquote s municipality ch Queen Beatrix had issued a statement expressing her condolences and sympathy with the victims. Government officials stated that the Queen and members of the Royal Family were badly shaken by the incident. Witnesses suggested that the incident was potentially an assault attempt direct at the Royal Family, while others said that it seemed like the driver had just lost control of the vehicle. Bahrain captures terrorist cell Bahrain announced that security forces were able to capture a terrorist cell, which intended to conduct terrorist acts in Bahrain and neighboring Gulf countries. The Gulf news agency said to Bahraini Interior Minister, Al Shaeikh Rachid Bin Abdallah Al K The Minister did not disclose the names of Gulf countries targeted by the cell. He said that two suspects were detained on April 26th. The Interior Minister further announced that weapons and ammo were found in the suspects\rquote homes; authorities uncovered two Kalashnikovs and 2 boxes of ammunition amongst others. CDs, tapes, computer devices, bank account and exchange company slips were al The suspects were detained and interrogated by the attorney general, who stated that no information will be disclosed and that investigations will remain confidential for the time being for the good of the case. The Minister had also warned against dangerous terrorist-run websites, which run in the name of Jihad and feed extreme ideologies to today\rquote s youth, and trick them into engaging in and executing terrorist crimes. He stressed the importance of raising awareness between youth against extremism, violence, and terrorism. Wednesday 29 April 2009 A Palestinian expert: 200.000 unemployed workers in the Gaza Strip in Labor Day Maybe I was the first Egyptian blogger to write about swine flu, how it spreads, and ‎shed light on the package of government measures to prevent the disease. This included ‎the slaughter of all pigs in the Muqattam area and in the informal Zabaleen settlements of ‎Cairo because it may be the source for them contractin Gaza (Palestine) \endash Quds Press Service Of the information that I did not know about was the fact that there is no need at all to ‎slaughter all pigs. It is futile of no benefit, but rather detrimental to pig farmers and the ‎interests of the national economy. That is why no country affected by pigs move between human beings and some other through the air, that is turned into a human epidemic not related to pigs and is executed or transfer of the importance of anything. Because the procedure Veterinary right up to the league, and fortify it agai Implications of the torture video scandal continue But of course with just the dissemination of news about the swine flu there was an ‎explosion of increasing religious racism against the Egyptian Copts and joy from the ‎Islamists - what joy with this disaster because they found at last what they think is All the government bodies, ministries, newspapers and satellite channels announced a war ‎against the pigs and the poor pig owners.‎ The papers became filled with racist descriptions such as pig breeding pits, pig breeding ‎dens, pig breeding mafias. Even the paper on the 07.04.2009, that came out before my own ‎dangerous intelligence, featured Shshshshsh bring your ear closer … a map I saw doctors and veterinarians speaking about pigs on the basis of their religious faith not ‎on the basis of scientific research. You find one of them confirms that the pigs in Egypt are ‎not infected, all the blood samples came back negative and that t The Egyptian satellite stations have waged a campaign of incitement against the Coptic ‎garbage collectors of Muqattam and pig breeders that contain all the racist expressions ‎and degrading terms for those who raise pigs or eat their meat. Then there is This is not a flood of racist comments full of fallacies in the Egyptian and Arabic news sites ‎on this subject which requires to be put down in writing separately, for discussing the most ‎significant and most repeated comments. ‎ A Palestinian expert estimated the number of unemployed workers in the Gaza Strip at 200.000, as a result of the closure of border crossings and the siege imposed on the city, which led to stopping the economic life fully and preventing these workers from The question is when bird flu struck Egypt did the Egyptian government take the decision ‎to destroy all the birds that were reared in Egypt - poultry, ducks, geese, turkeys and ‎pigeons!!! Was the upshot of it all to stop the rearing of them or were the Egypt is the only state in the world that has resolved to destroy the pig farms despite the ‎disease being transferred via humans. It has become clear that the government is seeking ‎to implement a new agenda, nothing to do with the health measures such a The truth is that President Hosni Mubarak was objective in the meeting that was convened ‎to discuss the subject \endash his Egyptian television broadcast \endash and had asked the Minister of ‎Health Dr. Hatim Jabli openly. He said to him, \ldblquote Did the Mexicans destroy However, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, the prime minister told the president: \ldblquote On the subject of the ‎destruction of pigs it has been a popular demand for ages!!!!! It has been a popular subject ‎on the subject for ages. I\rquote m sure that these do not need any explanation The world media agencies are closely following, hour-by-hour, the development of the ‎epidemic in every part of the world and the measures taken by every country to remedy ‎the virus. They have relayed the decision of the Egyptian government\rquote s decision to The United Nation\rquote s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) ‎ announced that Egypt's decision to destroy all the pigs in the country was \ldblquote a real mistake\rdblquote because there was no reason for ‎that seeing that it is not the pigs that have the swine flu but the humans. They also ‎announced that they had tried to contact government officials to clarify th The People\rquote s Council met very quickly and issued a unanimous decision by all parties to ‎destroy the pigs (none of these parties have agreed on anything before except one thing, ‎against Faruq Hosni over the wearing of the hijab!!). They issued a decision But they refused to compensate the pig rearers for the pigs that are to be destroyed, ‎meaning revenge, death and destruction of homes.‎ Someone is to submit a report to the attorney general to investigate the owners of pig ‎pens.‎ It appears someone has demanded the arrest of pig rearers!!! Really, are they a risk to ‎public security!!!‎ The first of May marks Labor Day, that workers in all parts of the world celebrate to draw attention to their role and suffering, and to work on securing the requirements of a dignified life for them in return for their efforts at work; while workers in t There are those that request that pigs never again be reared in Egypt and any Copt caught ‎rearing them again be given the death penalty!!! This is in the state that does not put to ‎death the killers of Copts!!!‎ The journalist, Mustafa Bakri - who has a long history of hostility towards the Copts and in ‎inciting them \endash ‎spread a false rumour that an Egyptian had contracted bird flu.‎ The final note: This racist, sectarian, unscientific manner in which the government deals ‎with the swine flu proves that it\rquote s on the path to failure in treating it as it failed before in ‎dealing with the bird flu. ‎ Dr. Maher Al-Tabaa, public relations manager at the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce and economic expert, said that unemployment and poverty rates have risen greatly in the Palestinian territories in general -and in the Gaza Strip in particular- since the He also explained that in spite of the difficult economic situation and living conditions in the Gaza Strip, the total number of workers before the last closure and blockade was about 215.000 workers in various economic activities. Al-Tabaa said the crisis of unemployment and poverty has worsened due to the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip two years ago. Unemployment and poverty rates have risen dramatically as a result of stopping the economic life completely, and Gaza has become He also said that the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip two years ago resulted in stopping all economic activities because of the closure of all border crossings leading to the Strip, and the ban of occupation forces on raw materials required for factori According to the public relations manager at the Chamber of Commerce in Gaza, the number of workers in the industrial sector before the embargo was 35.000 workers, decreasing to less than 1.400 after the siege, as 96% of industrial facilities \endash i.e. 3900 The Chamber of Commerce called for urgent aid programmes for workers as well, and setting up necessary plans for the rehabilitation of the Palestinian labor. The chambers also called for joining local and international efforts to develop local employment programmes, in order to contribute in the reduction of rampant unemployment in the Gaza Strip. The chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture of Gaza governorates \endash the main representative of all sectors of the Palestinian production- called various international, Arab and Islamic organizations to give some attention to workers in the Gaza Strip All construction and development projects carried out by the UNRWA and other international institutions -which represent a source of income for more than 121.000 people and a vital source of jobs in the labour market in Gaza suffering unemployment and pov He also explained that because of the ban on construction materials and the interruption of construction industries, about 3.500 workers and employees lost their jobs in the construction industry, and all those working in the construction sector and its s All factories in Gaza\rquote s industrial zone were shut down, and about 2500 workers -who were employed by those factories which rely on the export of their product-, had their work disrupted. Writer, Anur Malik, exposes Bin Laden and Bouteflika's corruption Politics Critics in Egypt described the book Flood of corruption and Bin Laden's advancement in Algeria, as an important document and prominent reference book for specialists in Al Qaeda affairs and Algeria's political history as well as for international organi The book was published last week by the Egyptian Uktub Publishing House, written by an Algerian writer and researcher, Anwar Malik. The book exposes the secrets of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's regime which the Algerian researcher singled out especiall As for national reconciliation that Algeria strives for, Bouteflika is one of the most prominent leaders to have made achievements to which the author has devoted a full chapter to. He reveals in this chapter a lot of deeply hidden matters about this rec The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations demanded that the Israeli authorities suspend the demolition of houses in east Jerusalem. It stated in its report that about one third of the Palestinian houses in the city were About one thousand five hundred demolition orders have been issued, threatening nine thousand families. The problem stems from a lack of permits being issued for building houses for Palestinians, which is a difficult process. Palestinians cannot build h The United Nations report demands Israel, as the occupying power, to carry out the necessary planning to deal with the housing crisis faced by the Palestinians in east Jerusalem. The United Nations demands a halt in the demolition of Palestinian houses in east Jerusalem United Nations Radio Arabic Iran: Stop executing children \ldblquote My daughter Delara is accused of a crime she did not commit. Help her and help me for the sake of justice. Nothing about this spells humanity and fairness.\rdblquote Delara Darabi\rquote s father on January 11th, 2007. His daughter awaits the death sentence in Iran. Amnesty International is calling on judicial and political authorities in Iran to immediately stop all execution sentences in an effort to evade anymore similar incidents. The organization has also requested law amendments such that the death penalty is Malcom Smart, Amnesty International\rquote s program director for the Middle East and North Africa said: \ldblquote Iran stands alone as a nation that executes children \endash individuals of less than eighteen years at the time of committing the crime.\rdblquote He said it was time Ir In its last report on Iran, the last standing nation to apply the death penalty on children, Amnesty International lists seventy one convicted children who face capital punishment. The report also states that the number is potentially higher than this as Atefa Ragabi Sahala, convicted of honor crimes, was hanged when she was sixteen in August of 2004. Her case was only one of seven others detailed in Amnesty\rquote s report. A judicial official reported to local newspapers that Sahala was twenty two years of a Despite the fact that child executions are much less than the number of convicts sentenced to capital punishment in Iran, the report sheds light on governmental negligence towards commitments and duties enforced by international laws, which entail that im Malcom Smart said \ldblquote The Iranian government denies executing children. Their statements coincide with two executions of convicted children.\rdblquote He further states that nineteen year-old Mohamed Mussai\rquote s life was taken for committing a crime when he was sixtee Some government and judicial officials prefer, as I believe, reducing or eliminating the death penalty for children. But progress is painstakingly slow. A bill proposed by the judicial institution in 2001 could have paved the way for eliminating capital There seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel amid all the terror brought on by child executions in Iran; a progressive movement has formed which aims to eliminate the death penalty for children. This movement is led by human rights activists in Malcom Smart concluded by saying that \ldblquote Amnesty International condemns the death penalty without reservations on the individual, age or crime limitations, or the nature of the convict. Every execution symbolizes a slap to human dignity \endash it\rquote s a violation Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed accused of 25 other incidents London: The emergence of a torture video of a member of the royal family in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates tints the country\rquote s international reputation; the United Arab Emirates has long worked towards developing relationships with Western politicians, u \lquote The Observer\rquote published Sunday an article which enlists the accusations directed at Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed Al Naheyan, who appeared in the torture video and is said to have been involved in twenty five other similar incidents, all of which have been video Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed Al Naheyan is step-brother to Emirates ruler and Abu Dhabi\rquote s governor Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Naheyan. Bassam Nabulsi, American business man, was able to smuggle the tape out of the United Arab Emirates. Nabulsi\rquote s lawyer had issued a letter to the Minister of Justice in Abu Dhabi, UAE\rquote s capital and the most powerful state within the federation, stating th \lquote Al Quds\rquote newspaper reported on behalf of a statement by Anthony Buzbee published in The Observer that Buzbee withholds over two hours of video in which Sheikh Issa is seen practicing torture methods on over twenty five individuals. The British newspaper said that the emergence of more torture videos has dire consequences on UAE\rquote s reputation. This is further enforced by the appearance of a police officer in the video, and the Sheikh\rquote s irrevocable immunity, even after the tape has gone public. Sheikh Issa is a senior member of the royal family and is a relative of some of Abu Dhabi\rquote s most prom It appears that the emergence of the first video only initiated the problem. It is possible that new tapes will emerge portraying police engagement in such acts. It is suggested that several victims in the video tapes are Sudanese immigrants. Convictions Humanitarian agencies had condemned the tape, which was published on electronic websites and international media channels, in which Sheikh Issa assaults an Afghani grain dealer because of a financial dispute. \ldblquote Middle East Watch\rdblquote had criticized the video in which Sheikh Issa appears to be tormenting an individual whose face was not visible, but is believed to be an Afghani employee of the afore-mentioned Sheikh. The organization had launched an attack on the United Arab Emirates; the country responded by saying that investigations were currently taking place. The organization has called on prosecuting the police officer who appears in the tape, as well as his di It is the state that is torturing them, said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch, if the government does not investigate and prosecute these officers, and those commanding those officers. The government of Abu Dhabi had severely condemned torment tactics portrayed in the video, stating that a human rights office within the capital will immediately initiate a thorough investigation, and announce the results of the investigation to the publi A press release issued by Emirates News Agency said the government denounces the acts shown in the video. The governmental statement never mentioned the name of the Sheikh involved in the alleged torturing video, but ABC network states that Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed Al Naheyan is shown in the video broadcasted on April 22nd. A man appears in the video stuffing another\rquote s mouth with sand, beating him with a wooden plank with nails, pouring salt on his wounds, and running him over with his Mercedes. It is claimed that the individual performing these acts is Sheikh Issa. A governmental statement said that UAEs constitution protects human rights in its twenty fifth article, affirming that judicial authorities will scrutinize the video and issue its decision as soon as possible. Judicial authorities have said, on behalf of the Interiors Ministry, that the incident portrayed in the video was a consequence of a dispute that was resolved between both parties without either one of them pressing any charges. The governmental release said that even though no charges were pressed, the incidents portrayed by the video appear to be a violation of human rights and will therefore be subjected to full inspections. Human Rights Watch has considered this a positive preliminary step as it called on an investigation to be conducted by a separate entity, and through which culprits are penalized. An organization official said that they await to see whether the investigation will lead to punishing those engaged in these brutal acts and the formulation of preventive measures to ensure such incidents are not repeated. The organization said UAE needed to publicly condemn such acts. The American administration had announced its knowledge of the video tape and invited all governments to investigate allegations surrounding criminal acts. Torture video A video tape recently surfaced in which Sheikh Issa appears to be harshly tormenting another man by whipping and then pouring salt over his wounds. Press reports said the tape was smuggled from the United Arab Emirates by a Lebanese business man residing in Houston called Bassam Nabulsi, who has had business relationships with Sheikh Issa. Nabulsi is currently suing Sheikh Issa, alleging that he was The forty five minute tape was recorded four years ago over three hours in a desert area on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, upon Sheikh Issa\rquote s request. The \ldblquote International Truth\rdblquote newspaper reported Nabulsi\rquote s descriptions of the tape as he said The torture party commenced with several punches from Sheikh Issa to the Afghani employee, who was restrained by police officers. Sheikh Issa continued to punch the employee until he got weary and ordered the police to continue punching the Afghani employee. The Sheikh then proceeded to stuff the Afghani\rquote s mouth with sand, with the help of police officers. The employee was shoved to the ground and Sheikh Issa stood on his head. The Sheikh ordered the employee naked and tormented him by electrocuting his testicles and anus. The employee was further tortured when he was beaten by a wooden plank with nails. The Sheikh took a rest and ordered police officers to continue beating th The forty five minute long torment party ended with the Sheikh ordering the employee to lie on the ground and running him over with his SUV, as the sound of breaking bones is heard in the taping. The Afghani employee then stopped screaming and asked for mercy. However, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, the prime minister told the president: \ldblquote On the subject of the destruction of pigs this has been a popular demand for ages!!!!! You see it has been a popular demand for ages. I\rquote m sure that this does not need any explanation. It ha Swine flu spreads via airborne transmission between humans, then mutates into a human ‎epidemic not linked to pigs. Nor will the slaughter of pigs or moving them to other locations ‎be of any benefit. The correct veterinary procedure is to keep an eye on Debate in Al Azhar over Tantawi\rquote s fatwa on aborting reputable rape victims Subhi Mijahed Cairo: Doctor Mohamed Said El Tantawi, Al Azhar Sheikh, has issued a controversial fatwa that legitimizes aborting rape-victims. His statement, which was issued at the closing of the cultural seminar in the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, has led to Supporters said in a statement to Islam Online that it was necessary to ease the burden on females unrightfully subjected to this horrible crime. Opposers expressed concerns that women might use this fatwa to their advantage and abort pregnancies caused b Tantawi told Islam Online that his fatwa was not absolute and is applied on a case-by-case basis. The application of this fatwa will not be legitimate to all cases, as each will have different circumstances and generalizations cannot be made; applicabili Conditions of applicability set by Tantawi during the seminar were that the victim must be a virgin and of sound reputation. She must also strongly disapprove of the incident. He said: \ldblquote We might be faced with another case where the victim becomes pregnant due to a rape crime, but feels comfortable with the pregnancy. Here we would delegitimize the abortion; each case will have different circumstances and consequences.\rdblquote I saw Egyptian doctors and veterinarians speaking about pigs on the basis of their religious faith not on the basis of scientific research. One of them confirms that the pigs in Egypt are not infected, all the blood samples came back negative and that the The Egyptian satellite stations have waged a campaign of incitement against the Coptic garbage collectors of Muqattam and pig breeders that contain all the racist expressions and degrading terms for those who raise pigs or eat their meat. Then there is th This is besides the flood of racist comments full of fallacies in the Egyptian and Arabic news sites on this subject which requires to be put down in writing separately, for discussing the most significant and most repeated comments. Egypt is the only state in the world that has resolved to destroy the pig farms despite the disease being transferred via humans. It has become clear that the government is seeking to implement a new agenda, nothing to do with the health measures such as Hour-by-hour the world media agencies are closely following the development of the epidemic in every part of the world and the measures taken by every country to remedy the virus. They have conveyed the Egyptian government\rquote s decision to destroy a part of because there was no reason for that seeing that it is not the pigs that have the swine flu but the humans. They also announced that they had tried to contact government officials to clarify their stance but they couldn\rquote t reach them (the Beys are escaping to slaughter all pigs in the country is a real mistake \rdblquote 1500 female university students demand deterrent laws to confront blackmailing of young women Meanwhile the Mufti emphasises that resistance should be shown to what he calls the corrupters Riyadh: Khaled Al-Awijan Nearly 1500 female students of King Saud University in Riyadh demanded the enactment of strict and firm laws needed to prevent the recurrence of blackmailing incidents which they may be subjected to from young men. Those demands coincided with calls from Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Asheikh, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia and chief senior cleric as well as head of the Department of Scientific Research and office of mufti, to confront the blackmailing of young women which he de The mufti stressed the role that schools and universities and scientific institutes should take in tackling the phenomenon of blackmailing young females which has involved thousands of male and female students over many hours. He said at that time that the mixing of sexes in the work place is the biggest ‎cause of blackmailing cases besides some of the recruitment advertisements ‎which are ‎published in some forms of media, and small dressmaking factories all of which call ‎for Concerning the young women who are being subjected to this kind of ‎blackmail, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Asheikh said how necessary it was for them to ‎resist what he called the corrupters and to report them to the authorities ‎concerned. He warned them at t He said, Young women must not create any means of communication by ‎listening to this and that. How many men are hunting down women and ‎blackmailing their repute by these suspicious communications which they view ‎as a way of forming a ‎relationship wit He added in a lecture organized by the Department of Female Law students Club at King Saud University, Oh Muslim ladies, be careful. The prophet, God bless him and grant him salvation, says, I have not left behind me a temptation for men more harmful th Dr. Fahd Il-Inizi a member of the Shura Council, for his part, supported the ‎idea of the Shura Council committee's discussion about the need to create ‎strict laws to prevent the human wolves (as described by them) from ‎attempting to blackmail any you Dr. Inizi accepted those requests: Imported ethics have appeared our way that have revealed criminals, highwaymen and human wolves. We have to confront them with the superior culture of Saudi Arabian women. This involves combating this issue first and fo Arab Foreign Ministers hold emergency meeting on Palestinian issue Cairo- 7-5-2009 Wafa: Arab Foreign Ministers attended an emergency meeting for the Arab League of States today in support of the Palestinian case. The meeting, held upon Palestinian request, discussed severe and unprecedented Israeli practices in occupied Jerusalem. It aims to present Israeli war criminals to justice for grave human rights violations in Palestine Several individuals represented Palestine at the meeting including Dr Riyad Al Malki, Foreign Affairs Minister and delegation head, Dr Barakat Al Farra, Palestinian ambassador to the Arab League on duty, Ambassador Tayseer Jaradat, head of Foreign Affairs The meeting was chaired by Sudan, and with the attendance of the Secretary General of the Arab League as well as Arab Foreign Ministers and representatives. The Palestinian delegation presented a video report of Israeli violations within occupied Jerusalem. The report was presented by Foad Hallaq, member of negotiations affairs unit in the Palestinian Liberation movement. The report highlighted Israeli occupational force objectives, which are attained through racial practices in Jerusalem. Top of the list of objectives was for Israel to find a demographic resolution that serves Jewish interest in the holy land. The report suggested Israel was attempting to rid the holy city of Arab and Palestinian residents through demolishing houses under licensing pretexts, construction of the separation wall which isolates the holy city from the Arab region, revoking IDs from Judicial Reform and the Principle of Independence In February 2009, King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz reshuffled the cabinet for the first time since taking power in 2005, appointing new ministers for health, education, justice, and culture and media. The reshuffle included the appointment of a woman as deput Among the notable features of the 2007 Law of the Judiciary is that it transfers all relevant administrative prerogatives from the Ministry of Justice to the SJC, and all the SJC\rquote s judicial prerogatives to the Supreme Court. Such measures are practical st Indications of increased judicial independence also extend beyond administrative matters to the transfer of supervision of the court system from the Ministry of Justice to the SJC. The previous law, for example, had stipulated that rulings of the Court of In the new law, the SJC alone possesses the prerogative to compose courts of first instance and specify their specializations; previously the minister of justice did this by decree, based on SJC recommendations. The SJC has been given jurisdiction over se Furthermore, the new Law of the Judiciary has vested the duty of ascertaining judicial competence in the SJC, stipulating that judges must have earned a degree from one of the Kingdom\rquote s law schools or an equivalent degree, with the condition in the latter One aspect that has not changed is that under the new law judges will still be appointed or dismissed by royal decree upon recommendation from the SJC, a factor that appears to diminish judicial independence from the executive branch. But the greatest dut Abdullah Fakhry Ansari is assistant professor of law and Islamic legal systems at King Abdul-Aziz University and senior advisor to the president of Human Rights Commission in Saudi Arabia. Paul Wulfsberg translated this article from Arabic. The Long-Delayed Hope for Fatah\rquote s Rebirth Fatah leaders and outside observers believe that holding the movement\rquote s sixth General Congress could breathe new life into the party by electing new, young leaders and adopting a political platform better suited to the current Palestinian situation. This The General Congress, Fatah\rquote s mechanism for changing leadership, has not been held for 20 years. It last convened in Tunisia in 1989, with some 1,200 members from the Palestinian diaspora taking part, along with a small number of West Bank and Gaza member A number of younger members, including West Bank Fatah head Marwan Barghouti (currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison), have led campaigns to renew Fatah\rquote s leadership through democratic elections from the local level up to the movement\rquote s pr Disputes within Fatah have not been limited to the date and venue of the Congress, but also over who will participate and the political platform to be adopted. While some leaders insist on the platform still being based on armed struggle as a means to lib Choosing delegates to the Congress has emerged as a major sticking point. Contending leaders are eager to pack the gathering with their supporters. Some argue for adopting the results of the regional Fatah elections held in the past two years, while also Members of the military are another controversial category. Fatah banned them from taking part in the regional elections because there is already a quota for their representation in the Congress. But the quota\rquote s size is disputed, with the military demandi Leadership itself is the most critical issue. As yet the preparatory committee for the Congress is mum on the names of the candidates to be put forward for the Fatah Central Committee and Revolutionary Council. Marwan Barghouthi may be the only leader sec Fatah\rquote s response to disputes between the older and younger generations is pointing to expansion. While the last Congress had 1,200 members, the next Congress is expected to have some 2,400, the overwhelming majority being members operating within the Pale And now there are reports that the preparatory committee might retain all veteran members of the Central Committee \emdash even those who have died\emdash and simply add more, expanding the body from 21 to 30 members in order to alleviate tensions between the old and new generations. . . . Hossam Ezzedine is a Palestinian journalist for al-Ayyam newspaper and a scholar specializing in political and parliamentary affairs. He lives in Ramallah. Paul Wulfsberg translated this article from Arabic. Al-Shathri said in a ‎speech: The ‎information given to the CPVPV will be treated with full ‎confidentiality and ‎complete care for the investigation of what is hidden. ‎Deterrent measures ‎against the blackmailer will be taken while the victim will ‎be Calls went out for the governmental authorities to involve themselves in fighting against these sorts of issues and that it should not be limited to the role and fight of the CPVPV. This was provided that the authorities use confidentiality and privacy in Editor in chief And the truth is President Mubarak was objective in the meeting, was held today to study the issue \endash an interview broadcast on Egyptian television-was asked Minister of Health, hatem el-Gabali, clearly and he said to him: Mexico is executed, then? Or anyo The Arab League rejects the renewal of US sanctions against Syria The Arab League has criticised the new US Administration's decision to renew the unilateral US economic sanctions on Syria. Ambassador Ahmed Bin Heli, the deputy secretary general of the Arab League, expressed in a statement to reporters today, his astonishment at the decision of the US administration to renew sanctions against Syria. This decision does not reflect what was e 79% of Egyptian females subjected to domestic violence Safaa Esam El Dein A study issued by the Nadeem Therapy and Rehabilitation Center for violence victims revealed that 79% of women are subjected to domestic violence. Study samples revealed that 55% of Egyptian women are prone to violence from their spouses, 20% from their The study also stated that 6% of the sample, whose ages ranged from 19 to 40 years, was subjected to incest. Women who participated in this research called for laws that criminalized domestic violence against women despite the fact that many females do n Doctor Majda Ali, Nadeem Center General Manager, said that t The research, which was publicized at Nadeem Center\rquote s (Life is Possible without Violence) conference and held at the journalist\rquote s syndicate, revealed that a growing number of Egyptian females no longer concede to circumcision. The center\rquote s General Manage Majda said that these statistics were an indication of efforts exerted by NGOs to combat circumcision; positive advancements have been accomplished in the way people thing. The research, which was conducted on 1261 participants of difference social class Majda had criticized associations that suggest males were being subjected to violence by their spouses. She said that, in reality, all indicators suggest males practiced violence and not females. Doctor Hisham Abdel Hamid, Islamic medicine councilor, spoke of violence and rape crimes against women, proposing that all rape victims are given hormonal birth control pills within 24 hours of being raped; this would reduce chances of pregnancy by 90%. Abdel Hamid also proposed constructing government-authorized centers to receive rape crime reports and liaise with police forces and medical agencies. He stated that the rape victim has to describe the incident several times to different parties and that Abdel Hamid proposed training women on how to better understand a rapist\rquote s character. Rapists can be either angry sadists or power loving. He said that if women truly understand the character of their rapists then they would have a better chance at avoi Yemeni government bans seven newspapers and arrests supporters Yemeni government banned the publishing of seven journals amidst accusations of threatening national unity. Fifteen persons were arrested at the governorate of Al Dale\rquote South of the country in support of the newspaper. Saba\rquote news agency had reported on behalf of the Media Minister Hasan Ahmed Al Luzy that the procedure has affected \lquote Al Ayyam\rquote newspaper as well as \lquote Al Neda\rquote \rdblquote , \lquote Al Mustaqella\rquote , \lquote Al Masdar\rquote , \lquote Al Deyar\rquote , \lquote Al Sharei\rquote a\rquote , as well as \lquote Al Watani\rquote weekly newspaper The statement said that the above-mentioned papers published news that threatened national unity and called on divisions within Yemen. Al Luzi had called on the Yemeni attorney general to investigate with newspaper officials and bring them to justice. The statement made no mention of the time period within which the newspapers will remain banned. Primary local reports said fifteen individuals have been arrested as tens of Yemeni citizens rallied in support of the banned newspapers. Sources revealed that authorities prevented the rally by using tear gas. The Yemeni journalists syndicate has condemned the authorities\rquote decision to ban the seven newspapers on national unity threat pretexts. The syndicate has warned against using local crises as an excuse to confiscate press freedom. Rally at Al Makla The rally took place in front of City Hall where they called for the liberation of detainees held for rioting during protests within the governorate early this month. Tens of Al Liqa\rquote party supporters congregated in the city of Al Makla in the governorate of Hadramot East of New York Times: Obama\rquote s choice of Egypt is no coincidence The White House\rquote s announcement on the American President\rquote s intent to visit Egypt on June 4th was recently announced on the New York Times\rquote official website. Written by Mahmoud Mohyee The newspaper said that the American administration chose Egypt to be Obama\rquote s podium in a speech through which he intends to reach out to the Arab and Islamic world. The announcement comes in light of Obama\rquote s presidential promise to address Muslim all ov The newspaper said the White House\rquote s choice of Egypt to be Obama\rquote s podium was no coincidence; in fact, it was a direct result of a thorough study conducting on the political reality in Egypt. The newspaper suggested that there is political frailty and in The newspaper said that Egyptians speak for Arab thoughts in general; Arab and Islamic sentiments are conveyed through the Muslim Brotherhood movement which is considered illicit in Egypt. According to the New York Times, the movement plays an integral r The newspaper further stated that Egypt was the country through which Obama can win over deprived and angry Arabic youth. The newspaper also said American Secretary of Defense Robert Gates described Egypt as the heart of the Arab and Islamic world; it is The newspaper said that American intelligence forces will be on standby during Obama\rquote s visit to Egypt, especially in light of terrorist attacks conducted in the country over the past few years. Security Council emphasizes urgency of Middle East peace process New York May 11th / WAM / The International Security Council issued a statement emphasizing the urgent nature of the peace process in the Middle East, and the dire need to exert diplomatic efforts to attain this goal. This peace goal was set by the inter This came in the form of a presidential statement from the Security Council, released by the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister, in his capacity as council president. The statement reiterated the importance of previous Security Council decision pertaining to the Middle East; specifically decree 242 of 1967, 338 of 1973, 1397 of 2002, 515 of 2003, and 1850/1860 of 2008 as well as Madrid\rquote s Principles. The Council also t The statement praised the continuous efforts of the Quartet in aiming for comprehensive, just, and continuous peace in the Middle East. The Russian Minister also reaffirmed the Security Council\rquote s commitment to bilateral negotiations relating to previous He also stressed on the importance of exerting new and urgent efforts from all parties and the international community in order to attain comprehensive and just peace, based on a two-state vision where two democratic nations (Israel and Palestine) are ab The Minister called on all parties to fulfill obligations pertaining to the road map, and refrain from undertaking any steps that would adversely affect core issue negotiations. He also invited all nations and international communities to support the Pal The Minister commended tangible efforts towards Palestinian \endash Palestinian reconciliation and especially praised Egypt\rquote s efforts in this direction. He encouraged all parties to provide support in developing the Palestinian economy and extending resources The statement was in support of a Russian proposal to conduct an international conference on the peace process in the Middle East in Moscow, 2009. The conference will be in cooperation with the Quartet and other parties. Obama\rquote s popularity rates in the Arab World rises above America Washington \endash News Agencies \endash It seems that American President Barack Obama\rquote s open approach towards the Middle East has led his popularity to skyrocket in the region. A recent poll suggests that the President\rquote s popularity rates in six major Arab nations w A recent poll published by the Ipsos institute revealed that residents of the Middle East region are fairly optimistic about Obama as they speculate that he will positively affect the area. Research was based on the opinions of seven thousand adults in S The study revealed 64% of Jordanians, 55% of UAE nationals, 49% of Saudis, 48% of Kuwaitis, 45% of Lebanese, and 35% of Egyptians believe that Obama will have a positive impact in the Middle East. The study also revealed that Obama\rquote s and the US\rquote popularity varied by 26 points in Kuwait and 11 points in Lebanon. The institute commented by saying that President Obama has the opportunity to bridge the gap; his credit of good will works towards good perception of the United States. Nizar Ghorab asks the government to fight vice By Abdel Fattah Abdel Monam Lawyer, Nizar Ghorab, demanded that the government enforce a judicial ruling to block internet access to pornographic sites which he obtained on Tuesday from the Administrative Judiciary Court headed by Counsellor Dr Mohammed Ahmed Atteya. Ghorab, who fil that it was a historic ruling because it was a victory for values and ethics and a judicial blow to vice. He entreated the Minister of Communications, and the Chairman of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA), in addition to those con _on the 7th May 2009_ Ghorab said that his lawsuit against the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and the Chairman of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) ‎was based on articles 9 and 12 of the constitution which states that society m Ghorab pointed out in his lawsuit that the head of state represented by the president of the republic should be the one who guards over the implementation and protection of those values, traditions and principles in accordance to Article 73 of the constit Al Qaida Militant commits suicide during imprisonment Tripoli \endash Libya today \endash news agencies A Libyan Al Qaida militant took his own life last Monday during his imprisonment. The militant was deported back to Libya in 2006 from Guantanamo prison, and sentenced to life imprisonment. According to Oea newspaper, Libyan citizen Ali Mohamed Abdel Aziz Al Fakhri, better known as Ibn Al Shaikh Al Libi, was born in Ajadabia in 1963. He left Libya in 1986 to Morocco and later to Mauritania, followed by several African nations. He then move The newspaper said Ibn Al Shaikh joined the Khaldoon camp East of Afghanistan; the camp was established by Palestinian militant Abd Allah Azzam in the 80s with the goal of recruiting Arab fundamentalists. The newspaper mentioned that Ibn Al Shaikh later assumed responsibility of the camp which included training militants and financially supporting extremist groups in the Arab World, adding that these groups were not only armed with weapons but with mass in Ibn Al Shaikh was captured in Afghanistan in November of 2001 while attempting to cross Pakistani borders; he was deported to Libya, trialed, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The newspaper confirmed that a \lquote Human Rights Watch\rquote delegation has recently visited Libya and met with the prisoner, who had expressed resentment towards the visits and suggested that the organization\rquote s refrainment from visiting him in Guantanamo while he Libyan authorities handed his body to his family for burial in his hometown in the city of Ajadabia. Inside resources revealed that Ibn Al Shaikh\rquote s last family visit was a month ago and he was in good spirits. Ibn Al Shaikh is married to a Syrian lady and has a nine year old girl. Ghorab said that the two defendants had been entrusted by the law with the responsibility for all dealings ‎inside the Arab Republic of Egypt with the international information network - the internet. That the two ‎defendants shoulder the responsibility f United Arab Emirates: Detention order in torture case Government should unveil further investigation and persecution details New York \endash Human Rights Watch said today that the mentioned arrest of Sheikh Eissa Bin Zayed Al Naheyan, member of the ruling family in the UAE in connection of torture recordings of an Afghani grain dealer, was a significant development, but more needed UAE officials had revealed to American diplomats that the Shaikh is subject to home arrest and banned from leaving the country. The Ministry of Justice has issued a forensic investigation on the taped incident, according to ABC channel. The government h Sarah Leigh Watson, Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa for Human Rights Watch, said the torment video shocked the world. She stated that the detention order was reassuring, but the government should now publicly reveal details. She s The taping, which was aired on ABC news channel on April 22, 2009, depicts Shaikh Issa torturing a grain dealer with a whip, an electric cattle prod, and a wooden plank. The taping led to international condemnation. After getting a judicial ruling blocking access to pornographic sites The United Arab Emirates had announced on April 29 that the Ministry of Justice will conduct a comprehensive and immediate investigation for the torment incident. The statement was issued upon the receipt of a letter from Human Rights Watch to UAE president on April 28 where he was called upon to investigate. Interior Affairs Ministry had previously described the incident as an assault between two parties which was resolved throughprivate re Human Rights Watch has called on UAE government to formulate an independent institution with authority to investigate abuse and torment activities conducted by UAE police forces. The organization also called on UAE to publicly condemn torment and physica and to rescind article 32, which enforces a 5 million dirham fine (1,350,000 American dollars) against media agencies who report on senior government officials or members of the ruling family. UAE news agencies have been reluctant in covering updates despite wide coverage of the incident by international media, shedding the light on the need for UAE governments to review media laws Turkish President arrives in Damascus tomorrow on a 3-day visit at the invitation of president al-Assad… Gul: Our partnership has developed in all fields, and might include the military field Turkish President Abdullah Gul will travel to Syria on Friday on a 3-day official visit, to lead various activities in Damascus and Aleppo, and have political talks with President Bashar al-Assad. Gul confirmed in an interview that Syrian-Turkish relations have evolved in both political and economic fields, pointing to the possibility of these relations\rquote development at the military level as well. Gul heads a large delegation of officials including a number of ministers and a large group of businessmen. The two presidents, Gul and al-Assad, will hold political talks on Friday. Economic activities are scheduled on Saturday for Gul, such as attending the opening ceremony of Dedeman Hotel (formerly Le Meridien Hotel) in Damascus, participating in a Syrian-T There is no announcement of economic agreements to be signed between the two countries, but according to al-Watan sources \ldblquote the economic and trade structure for cooperation between the two countries is complete, and only technical details remain\rdblquote . On this occasion, the Turkish President had an interview with private TV channel \ldblquote Dounya\rdblquote , in which he praised how Syria dealt with indirect talks with Israel, and stressed that such negotiations «have progressed», and would have become direct if it weren During Barack Obama's visit to Turkey, the USA granted Ankara a sort of a « mandate, backed by Washington» for the management of such a process if the conditions are appropriate. Talking about Iraq, the Turkish president said that his country can \ldblquote contribute in filling the security gap in Iraq\rdblquote , if the need arises. He also stressed that the Kurdish issue has delayed the entry of Turkey into the European Union, describing the Kurdi Gul praised the reforms in Syria and said that \ldblquote Syria has taken important steps in the reform process, there are now significant investments in Syria and private and open media, and the process is continuing.\rdblquote Egyptian ship rescued from pirates in Somalia Thursday, 14 May 2009 -17:14 International forces succeeded in aborting an attempt to hijack an Egyptian ship A South Korean navy unit managed to rescue an Egyptian ship that pirates attempted to hijack off the Somali coast on Wednesday night. The Egyptian ship was arriving from Australia, carrying a load of coal on its way to the port of Alexandria. Ahmed Rizq, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, said that a number of pirates tried to hijack a, Egyptian vessel off the Somalia coast, but two helicopters and a Korean warship hurried to the site of the ship, and they secured it. Rizq indi By Youssef Ayoub Turkish President Starts Official Visit to Syria Turkish President Abdullah Gul started on Friday afternoon an official visit to Syria, during which he will meet President Bashar al-Assad. The two sides will hold talks about bilateral relations and international and regional situations, followed by economic activities on Saturday, including Dedeman hotel (former Meridian) opening in Damascus, participating in an economic forum, as well as a Turkey plays an important role in the Middle East, as it had hosted indirect talks between Syria and Israel in Istanbul, which were suspended last September, in addition to its involvement in a number of complex regional issues such as the Palestinian-Isr Syria and Turkey have several economic, trade and investment agreements, including a free trade zone agreement between the two countries, which resulted in a significant increase in the volume of trade exchange between them in recent years, as it reached It is worth mentioning that the Syrian-Turkish relations have witnessed major developments, especially after the Justice and Development Party arrived to power in Turkey in October 2002, in several areas, the most recent of which was the military field, a Welcome to you, Mr President Halabi Aleppo and its people are welcoming you, Mr President. I wish from the bottom of my heart that I were in Syria to attend this lecture and get to know this person. Welcome to your home, our brother Turkish President Abdullah Gul. You are One Of Us. We always proud of your sincerity and Support \ldblquote ISLAM\rdblquote and we do Thank You for supporting our Country \ldblquote Palestine is for all Muslims People around the World\rdblquote . Finally We Ho Gul to visit Syria tomorrow Turkish President Abdullah Gul will start tomorrow an official visit to Syria for three days, in order to strengthen relations between the two neighbors that are close politically and economically. Akhbar Al Aalam + Al Safir Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad had a talk with the foreign minister of Serbia, Vuk Jeremić, in Damascus, on the latest developments in the Balkan region, which led to divisions on ethnic and religious bases; and the need to take positions that serve th Gul's visit to Damascus comes after almost two years from Al Assad's visit to Turkey, and it entails coordination between the two countries during the Israeli aggression on Gaza, and occurs months after the collapse of the Syrian-Israeli indirect talks, d Gul heads a large delegation of officials, including a number of ministers, among which the most prominent figure is foreign minister Ahmad Dawood Oglo, and a large number of businessmen. Economic activities are dominant in Gul's visit, even if the politi Gul will hold political talks with Al Assad on Friday, followed by economic activities on the second day, including Dedeman hotel (former Meridian) opening in Damascus, participating in an economic forum, as well as an activity in the People's Assembly, a There were no announcements on signing economic agreements between the two sides, but some observing sources told Al Safir that the structure of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is complete, and only some technical details are r On this occasion, Gul praised, in an interview with Dunia TV Channel, the special way in which Syria dealt with indirect talks with Israel. He also expressed Turkey's willingness to play the same role if Israel showed some seriousness. It is known that the US President Barak Obama had given Ankara, during his visit to Turkey, what looks like an authorization backed by him to manage the process of Syrian-Israeli talks if appropriate conditions are available, especially with the direct On another note, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle East affairs, Richard Chemirar, said in an interview with United Press International: Our dialogue with Damascus is still in its early stages,. There are many issues that we have rais Regarding the renewal of sanctions on Damascus, he said: My understanding of the sanctions is that they were a form of legal or technical requirements in order to maintain a defined policy in the right place. Khaled Youssef: Control authorities did not delete any scenes from my movie In the private presentation of Shehata's Store Al-Fann Online \endash Doaa Hassan Photography - Sabri Abd El-latif A large number of film critics and journalists commended the Shehata's Store movie, during the special presentation ceremony held on Friday, May 15, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The ceremony was attended by the whole cast: Haifa Wehbe, Amro Saad, Mahmoud H Journalists liked the movie, and the attendance praised the roles played by Mahmoud Hemeida, as a father, and Amro saad, as the son. They also liked the role of Amro Abd El-jalil as a bully, but views differed on the role played by Hayfa Wehbe, especially as it is her first experiment in the Egyptian cinema. Shehata The movie is about Shahata (Amro Saad), who was born in a poor village in Upper Egypt. After the death of his mother, Shehata's father, Hajjaj, takes his baby to live as an orphan and stranger in the huge city. Shehata, with his heroic and noble personali Despite all what happened to him because of his brothers, Shehata did not allow revenge and hatred to sneak into his heart, for he insisted on belonging to his family and brothers, and he knew that he couldn't live without them. The fear of loneliness mad Chaos Director Khaled Youssef confirmed during the press conference that followed the presentation of the movie that: the movie is about conflict over property between brothers. The movie starts with the birth of Shehata - which was in the period in which late Bissa For her part, Haifa said she was happy for playing the role of Bissa in the movie, and considered the movie character close to her as a human being, indicating she sympatized with her just by reading the script. She said: Many scripts were presented to me before, but thank God I didn't fall in the trap of playing the role of a Lebanese girl, and I managed to play the role of a simple Egyptian girl. As for artist Mahmoud Hemeida, he said that he was happy for his partnership with young actors, indicating that he does not mind their participation and supporting them. On the political background presented through his role in the movie, he said that he Artist Ghada Abd El-Razzaq denied the existence of any conflicts between her and Haifa Wehbe during the filming, indicating that she discovered the personal side of Haifa, and they always had nice moments at the backstage. On the extent of the intervention of control authorities in the events of the movie, Youssef confirmed that not a single scene had been deleted from the movie, but the control authorities had always have a problem with creativity. At the time Egypt is boa The Historic Victory: Masouma, Aseel and Rola reach the Assembly By Zakaria Mohamed, Ibrahim al-Saaidi, Yusuf al-Matayri and Hamd al-Salama: In the early hours of Sunday, the National Assembly elections were witnessing an historic event. Three female candidates have won election to the assembly, with two more on the threshold. Before the final announcement of the results, Maasouma Al-Mubarak (first constituency), Aseel Al-Awadhi and Rola Dashti (third constituency) were about to achieve a deserved win, while Salwa Al-Jassar (second constituency) and Dekra al-Rashidy (fourth co Salwa and Dekra on the threshold The entry of women in the national assembly is considered an historic event, and the most important change in the current elections. It is worth mentioning that this is the third election in which women take part. The elections that took place yesterday smoothly and effectively, were organized by official organizations concerned especially the ministries of the interior and information. These elections were characterized by the low turnout that decreased compared t According to a preliminary KUNA survey, the turnout was at 58% yesterday at 7pm (one hour before closing the doors of polling), and was 60% in the elections of 2008. The observers attributed the turnout decline to the citizens' frustration towards the assembly. According to a preliminary KUNA survey, the percentage of voters in the first constituency amounted to about 61.33%. At 7pm, the number of voters reached 42402 in the first constituency, at a rate of about 61.33% of total voters in the constituency, which are 69132. The number of voters was 29564 in the second constituency, which is 68% of all voters in the constituency estimated at 43473. The number of voters was about 35450 in the third constituency, which is 56.64% of all voters in the constituency estimated at 62587. The number of voters was about 56526 in the fourth constituency, which is 56.57% of 99882 registered voters in the constituency. And the number of voters reached 61440 in the fifth constituency, which is 56% of total voters estimated at 109716. Haifaa Wahbe reinforces her acting talent in the movie \ldblquote Shehata\rquote s Shop\rdblquote warns of total chaos in Egypt by 2013 Khaled Youssef reasons that oppression, poverty, lack of justice, soaring unemployment rates, and the prevalence of a single ruling regime for over thirty years are factors that constitute \lquote the rational ending\rquote for his movie, \lquote Shehata\rquote s Shop\rquote , which is cu The movie\rquote s ending warns of ultimate chaos in Egypt, and the overtake of the country by fundamentalist groups as well as conflict between police forces and Egyptian residents by 2013 should circumstances remain unchanged. Authorities have insisted on cen Khaled Youssef revealed in a press conference following the movie\rquote s premiere that he sincerely hopes matters do not avail to what is proposed through the movie, and that his film is merely a warning and that the aim is not to provoke because this would no Youssef said he strongly opposes the concept of censorship, relating creativity to a person\rquote s dreams. Youssef stated that, as a citizen, he should be treated in accordance to the Egyptian constitution which enforces liberty of speech which he feels depri First one to surrender to the International Criminal Court accused of Darfur crimes The Court: His court appearance may encourage others who are still at large to attend court. Brussels: Abdullah Mostafa (London): Asharq Al-Awsat Today the first of those suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur will appear before ‎the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. ‎‎The court said that Bahr Idris Abu Garda, the commander of one of the rebel groups in Darfur, will present him Infiltration of the most important secret air force base in Southern Israel Agencies (Sabq) - Tel Aviv: Sonia Robla who is in charge of the media side of the International Criminal Court stated yesterday to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Abu Garda faces three charges of war crimes in Darfur. She added that the judges are awaiting his appearance at 3.00pm today. Si Fears about canceling pilgrimage because of swine flu Abu Garda ... chooses his own destiny in his hand Saturday, 16 May 2009 -12:12 Dar Al-Iftaa in Egypt suggested the postponement of Hajj and Umrah because of the spread of swine flu. One of the Darfur rebel leaders appeared today voluntarily in front of the criminal court in The Hague. He might be free to leave the country. Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa had said in a statement that the postponement fatwa should not be issued individually, but rather collectively, in the presence of scholars from the Islamic nation, and in coordination with jurisprudential institutions in th In an interview with \ldblquote the BBC, Dr. Ibrahim Najm, adviser of the Egyptian Grand mufti, reported Gomaa's support for the opinion of Al-Azhar\rquote s Grand Sheikh that if the World Health Organization raised the degree of alert of the epidemic to six, then ther The mufti of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Haddad, had urged Muslims to defer any trip to Mecca for two or three weeks. He also called on Muslims to pray in the open air to avoid the transmission of the virus. It is worth mentioning that no cases of swine flu were reported in any Gulf states. United Arab Emirates responds to report by Human Rights Watch on employment: The report lacks credibility, accuracy and transparency The UAE /Human Rights Watch Organization (Abu Dhabi) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed that the latest report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the employment situation in the state lacked credibility, accuracy and transparency. It failed to highlight the efforts being made by the governme This statement came in response to the report published by Human Rights Watch on the situation of construction workers working on the Saadiyat Island project - where construction work up till now has not begun - in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. His Excellency, Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs commenting ‎‎‎on this matter said: The United Arab Emirates was surprised by the Human Rights Watch's biased ‎report which endeavours to highlight problems and raise issues It is worth mentioning that in recent years the federal government has been keen to strengthen ‎international partnerships. This uniting of efforts was aimed at developing legislation and legal ‎frameworks relating to employment in order to provide a civi His Excellency, Dr. Gargash pointed out that if the above mentioned factors were given the least consideration we would still find that this report issued by Human Rights Watch was incorrect in judging the state's efforts to protect employees rights. This He added: While the United Arab Emirates government welcomes constructive criticism about the ‎efforts made by the state to protect employment rights within existing laws, we find that the report ‎tends, in an arbitrary way, to generalise therefore obscu His Excellency pointed out that the issue over respecting the rights of the workers falls within ‎the country\rquote s ethical and cultural standards and is just as important a priority to promoting economic ‎growth in the UAE. He said that the government is pro His Excellency clarified by saying that within the context of protecting workers rights the government of the UAE does not distinguish between race, nationality or faith but deals with this issue with due care through the preservation of principles and hu The UAE understands very well the problem of protecting workers from illegal practices. It is a subject of interest to many concerned authorities on the regional and global levels including governments and various types of international organisations and Al-Mubarak: No to escalation and crises Jerusalem celebrates Palestinian Literature Festival next week Bethlehem \endash PNN: The Palestinian Literature Festival, which is a British initiative, is set to launch on the twenty third of May. The event is organized by the Yabos institute in Jerusalem and aims to revive Arabic literature with the participation of se Al Gaul said that the festival attracts global poets, intellects, and novelists from different areas who will engage with the audience, Palestinian writers, university students, and literary specialists through workshops and literary readings. This is se Khaled Al Gaul, festival coordinator at the Yabos institute, said that this is the second year the festival is being held in Palestine. The event is supported by the British Council and in collaboration with the Yabos institute for art productions in Pal Al Gaul said that these initiatives are part of Jerusalem \endash Arabic culture capital \endash festivities, stating that it was only natural that the festivities are focused on Jerusalem since it\rquote s the \ldblquote capital of Arabic culture\rdblquote . The festival is set to launch and When asked if there were any Israeli pressures against such festivities in Jerusalem, Al Gaul said that, up to this day, there have not been any attempts to stop the festivities and that everything and anything was expected. He said that the festival was In objection to Riyadh hosting the Central Bank\rquote s headquarters: UAE withdraws from Gulf Monetary Union Project In an unexpected turn of events, the UAE announced Wednesday its withdrawal from the GCC\rquote s Gulf Monetary Union Project. The withdrawal poses as a major hit to the project which had previously witnessed Oman\rquote s retreat. Emirati news agency WAM reported on Sultan Nasser Al Seweidy, Emirati central bank governor, said that the UAE dirham will remain pegged to the US dollar, and that the UAE\rquote s monetary policy will remain unchanged. This decision came in light of UAE\rquote s objections to the choice of Riyadh in hosting the Central Bank\rquote s headquarters, as opposed to UAE. The Gulf Central Bank is set to launch a unified Gulf currency within the GCC by 2010. The unified currency project, which is part of a bigger initiative in which the Gulf seeks to build a common regional market including a customs union, took a blow over the past three years which Oman made the decision to refrain from participating. Residential leaders signed on important monetary agreements in December of 2008. Central Bank governors had hoped to decide on a name for the currency and determine the exchange rate by the end of 2009. Five GCC countries have agreed to participate in this project: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar. Oman, being the sixth member, had abstained from participating. The unified currency project aims to assist Gulf countries in developing regional monetary markets, giving these nations more tools to influence monetary policies by intervening in the purchasing and selling process of monetary notes. Some analysts say that the goal of a unified currency is difficult to attain; monetary policy frameworks within the Gulf are likely to part with time in to accommodate the different economical priorities of GCC countries. The release of Syrian dissident Michael Kilo Hassan Abdel Atheim, attorney and official spokesperson for the National Democratic opposition party, said in an exclusive statement to Elaph that he welcomes the release of Syrian dissident and novelist Michael Kilo. Abdel Atheim stated that this was hi Baheyya Mardini - Damascus: Zradsht Mohamed, political committee member within the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria, revealed to Elaph that Michael Kilo\rquote s detainment was unjust and unlawful, stating that his arrest follows a policy of activist \ldblquote elimination\rdblquote adopted by the aut Attorney and activist Khalil Ma\rquote atooq told Elaph that Syrian dissident Michael Kilo\rquote s defense team convened last night. The meeting was attended by attorneys Hassan Abdel Atheim, Khalil Ma\rquote atooq, Joseph Al Lahham, Inrahim Al Hakim, and Abdel Razeq Zereiq \lquote Reporters without Borders\rquote had also welcomed Kilo\rquote s release upon the end of his sentence last Thursday. The organization had previously expressed skepticism regarding Kilo\rquote s fate especially after his CT scan on May 14th. Kilo, who is 68 years or age, was arrested on May 14th, 2006, and sentenced to three years of imprisonment with charges of \ldblquote weakening national morale\rdblquote upon signing the Beirut-Damascus Declaration which favored Syrian-Lebanese relationships. Despite a cou Comments on the death sentence on Hisham Talaat Mustafa in the murder of Suzan Tamim Comments on Facebook What are you expecting from Suzan Tamim's case? I think that El-Sukkary will get a death sentence, and Hisham will get a life imprisonment sentence. El-Sukkary should disappear. In a quarter, the trial of Hisham Talaat Moustapha will take place, and in half an hour, the stock exchange will open, while Hisham's shares closed yesterday on 4.94. May God make things better today. I don't know why did I shed a tear today, and I was really touched from inside, when I heard the sentences on the case of businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa, and former police officer Mohsen El-Sukkary... I am very surprised that this happened to me. Who's this Suzan Tamim whose murder makes someone like Hisham Talaat - who is one of the major pillars of Mubarak's regime - get a death sentence, while Mamdouh Ismail - who killed 1300 Egyptian kids, women, and elderly - get a 7 year prison sentence whic Death sentences for both Hisham Talaat and Mohsen El-Sukkary in the case of Susan Tamim... Glory be to God! I didn't know that any businessmen could be executed, people! Death sentences for both Hisham Talaat and Mohsen El-Sukkary in the case of Susan Tamim, rulings of innocence in favour of torture officers, and 7 years in the ferry case. Long live justice! Hisham Talaat Moustafa and El-Sukkary deserve what they got. This is the end of financially and morally corrupted people. But I wonder why didn't the court rule on the minister of health - the corrupt blood dealer -, and the murderers of the Egyptians on I was absent for a short period, and when I am back, I find Talaat Moustafa sentenced to death... Anyways, I think that the sentence will be overturned in the appeal... I also believe that this is just a media splash to have people's sympathy... The one w Court is like a hair, it's moved by the air. Oh Lord! Go ahead and execute them, whatever! Why does it have to be only the swine's destiny? The case of Hisham Talaat Moustafa and Mohsen El-Sukkary was transferred to the Mufti. The latter rejected the ruling, and the session of 25/6/2009 is set to issue the death sentence on Hisham and Mohsen, after which, the two accused have to right to appe Executing the criminal Hisham Talaat Moustafa is a lesson for all criminals of his kind. The case of El-Sukkary and Hisham Talaat was transferred to the Mufti... When will it be the turn of the cases of Mubarak, Youssef Wali, and Habib El-Aadeli? The judiciary system is indeed the voice of God on earth... Death sentences for both Hisham Talaat and El-Sukkary. Life sentence for the American soldier who raped an Iraqi girl and killed her family (Day Press \endash Agencies) The jury of the American criminal court reduced to a life sentence the death penalty called for by prosecutors against the American soldier (Stephen Green) who raped an Iraqi girl and killed her with her family in a town near Baghdad in (2006). Reuters reported that the same jury had found Green, 24, guilty for the same crimes on the seventh of this month. Green and five of his companions had planned and committed a crime against the Iraqi family consisting of four members, after raping the girl. They showed off later about what they did to the girl and her family. Green escaped thus the death penalty, as that the jury of nine women and three men did not reach - after ten hours of deliberations - a consensus to punish the ex-soldier with a death penalty, so he was sentenced to a life sentence without parole. Stephen Dale has admitted the 17 charges against him including rape, murder and obstructing the work of the judiciary. The ex-soldier was accused of being at the head of the task force that committed a murder in March 2006 in Al-Mahmoudeya in Southern Baghdad, according to the resolution of indictment. At the time three other soldiers raped 14 year old Iraqi girl Abeer Al- Janabi, Green detained her parents and her 10 year old sister in a room, and killed them. Then, he also raped Abeer Al- Janabi, and killed her. Green had been expelled from the army because of personality disorder before the discovery of this case. The ex-soldier's father said that the jury chose the best solution from two bad solutions, meaning the life sentence and the death penalty. In the last pleadings, deputy prosecutor Brian Skaret accused the defense of seeking to reduce the responsibility of the ex-soldier by stressing that he lived a hard childhood, and that military personnel in Iraq was suffering from a problem. Skaret said: He confirmed that the state of war in Iraq cannot be used in any case as an excuse for this horrible attack, and that the accused had planned for the rape and murders with a criminal and ignoble mentality. For his part, Green's defense attorney Scott Wendelsdorf, said that his client had asked for help three months before this tragedy because of the difficulties resulting from pressure in the fighting and that he told his Officer several times that he wante The lawyer said: Stephen Green is responsible for rape and murder, but the United States failed him, confirming that Green wouldn't have committed these crimes if he had gotten adequate assistance earlier. Gates: Guantanamo is a stain on US reputation, and a condemnation of it Robert Gates Washington: American Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the decision of President Barack Obama to close the Guantanamo detention camp, pointing out that Obama did not have but this option, because the name of the camp in itself is a condemnation of t Reuters Agency quoted Gates saying in an interview with the NBC news network that: Guantanamo prison turned into a stain on the reputation of the United States and its image in the world. The name itself is a condemnation of U.S. anti-terrorism strategy. He added that once a decision is taken on the closure order of the prison, the question that will be presented is on the destination to which the 240 detainees of Guantanamo will be transferred, pointing out that President Obama will never take any step t In response to the sharp controversy raised by Obama's intentions to receive some of the detainees in the United States, Gates said: We have a lot of terrorists in American prisons today, and none of them ever escaped from one of these prisons with tight The US Senate had voted on Wednesday in favor of a resolution to prevent the reception of Guantanamo detainees in the prisons of the United States, and reject the American President's request to allocate $80M from the military budget to the closure the de For his part, Obama said in a speech yesterday that there are no easy solutions for this issue, vowing to correct mistakes and clean up the mess created by the US practices in the detention camp under the administration of his predecessor George Bush. Oba Former deputy President Dick Cheney issued a scathing criticism, on Thursday, on the handling of Obama's administration of the issue of terrorism. Cheney has become one of the harshest critics of Barack Obama, and one of the main defenders of the policies He said commenting on the decision of Barack Obama to close Guantanamo: The administration found it easy to be praised by Europe for closing Guantanamo, but finding an alternative to serve the interests of justice and US national security is a perplexing Unknown assailant burns the face of Ayman Nour with a flame from an insecticide canister Ayman Nour the former leader of Al-Ghad Party was subjected to an attack by an unknown assailant which resulted in first degree burns to the right side of his face, his forehead and his scalp. Mahmoud Jaweesh and Mohsen Samika Nour said to Al Masri Al-Yom that he was walking near the Lebanese Embassy in Giza and suddenly a young man no more than 17 years of age approached him on a motorcycle and dispatched a flame towards him from an insecticide canister. It hit him causing sev He made clear that he did not inform the police about the incident justifying that by saying that he saw nothing and did not take a note of the number plate of the motorcycle. Even if I had reported it to the police it would come to nothing like how they Nour made clear that he is not accusing anyone of committing the crime but he hinted that the incident may be in response to his visit to Port Said two days ago during which he announced his intention to run for the People's Council elections from the dis Nour added that he had canceled all his appointments for the next three weeks under doctors advise until his burns heal and he returns to his normal state. On another note the supreme governing body for the party convened a meeting the day before yesterday scheduled to discuss preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections, and the party stance in view of the US president, Barak Obama's anticipated vi 24/5/2009 News of death sentence hit Talaat Moustafa Goup shares creating confusion in the Egyptian Stock Exchange Talaat Mostafa Group after death sentence ruling: We will continue our projects in Saudi Arabia Businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa during the pronouncement of his death penalty yesterday. The company that Moustafa used to head confirmed its commitment to continue its real estate projects in Saudi Arabia. It was confirmed yesterday that the Talaat Mostafa Group (TMG) will continue their strategic foreign projects especially in Saudi Arabia. They did not expect any negative impacts in light of the death sentence that was passed down on their former head, Hi Here are further details: Talaat Mostafa Group's Egyptian shares recorded a steep drop in the Egyptian Stock Exchange yesterday shortly after Hisham Talaat Mostafa was sentenced to death in the case of the murder of the Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim. There was a sense of anticipa After the pronouncement of the verdict the vice-chairman of Mustafa Talaat's holding company, Jihad Al-Sowafata, held a press conference in which he confirmed that no impacts were expected in the Group's activities after its former chairman was sentenced Al-Sawafata said that the completion rates for the Group's domestic and overseas projects are going according to plan and the housing units will be finished before time. He said that the group is continuing with its overseas expansion plan especially in Egyptian businessman Talaat Moustafa leaves courtroom in Cairo yesterday after being sentenced to death by hanging along with policeman Mohsen Al-Sukkari for their roles in the murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in July 2008. The former was Al-Sowafata went on to say that the Group is based on foundational work, and enjoys high liquidity of up to 2.3 billion Egyptian pounds. He pointed out the recent deal made to purchase Prince Al-Walid Bin Talal's share in the Four Seasons Sharm el-Sheikh Egyptian circles received the decision of the court in the south of Cairo to transfer legal documents of the businessman Hisham Talaat Mostafa and Mohsen Al-Sukkari accused of murdering Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim to the Grand Mufti for different interp The lawyer for Talaat Moustafa, Farid Eldeeb said, What happened in court is not a considered a sentencing but a decision that was not accompanied by any legal reasons. It is a prelude to the pronouncement of the sentence on June 25th. Meanwhile the writ By Dua Atteya from Cairo Farouk Husni apologizes for Israeli book statements Controversial UNESCO candidate Farouk Husni, Egyptian Minister of Culture, has apologized for his 2008 statements in which he declared his willingness to burn any Israeli books in Egyptian libraries Husni said in an article published in Le Monde: I am a man of peace, and I acknowledge that peace lies in understanding and respect. It is in the name of these values that I would like to revisit these statements which I issued in May of 2008 and which I'd like to express regret for what I said, Husni said. These statements conflict with my beliefs and convictions. The Minister of Culture said these statements were unintentionalNothing is more distant to me than racism, the negation of others or Husni said that some of his stances were a result of outrage for the fate of the Palestinians who were deprived of their land and their rights. He added that the statements, although harsh, should be placed in proper context. Israel had dropped objectios to Farouk Husni's candidacy as a peaceful initiative, according to an Israeli official. Several prominant figures and institutions, including Nobel prize-winner Eli Vizel and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, have have retained th Written by Sara Sanad Oil and Iran... The focus of Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia Hassan Abdo - Agencies Obama to visit Saudi Arabia shortly before his speech to the Islamic world from Cairo Jeddah - Iran's nuclear file, the revival of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, and oil: Three prominent files in the agenda of the talks that US President Barak Obama will have during his visit to Saudi Arabia with Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that this visit, which was announced on Tuesday, is an important opportunity to discuss important issues, such as peace in the Middle East. In a special statement to IslamOnline.net, Jamal Khashoggi, editor in Khashoggi pointed out that Obama's views are close to those of the Saudi king on many issues with respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict. As for the Iranian file, it is certain that the kingdom would reiterate its position of not being satisfied with Iran' This visit comes at a time when Obama seeks building a coalition that includes moderate Islamic countries, in order to put pressure on Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program, which Washington fears to be a cover for making nuclear weapons, according The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal called on Arabs last March to agree on how to confront the Iranian nuclear program which Tehran insists that has the peaceful purpose of generating electricity. The peace process The White House's announcement of Obama\rquote s visit to Saudi Arabia was a surprise addition to his 3 days trip during which he will visit Egypt, Germany and France, and which includes delivering a speech to the Islamic world from the Egyptian capital Cairo on The White House spokesman denied that the visit to Saudi Arabia was added to Obama's trip in order to convince the Arab countries to make gestures of reconciliation towards Israel. He also denied last week speculations that US President will reveal in his Obama's government supports the Arab peace initiative that was launched in 2002 based on a Saudi proposal. The initiative is about the normalization of relations of all Arab countries with Israel in return for its complete withdrawal from the lands that i Saudi Arabia is among the biggest 15 trading partners of the United States. The volume of trade exchange between the two countries amounted last year 67.3 billion dollars, which is the equivalent of about 2 percent of the total American exports and import A new ambassador According to Saudi diplomatic sources, the appointment of a new US ambassador to Riyadh will be discussed on the fringe of this visit, as the term of the current ambassador, Ford Fraker, is about to end. It should be noted that the Saudi-U.S. relations started back in 1940, with the establishment of the first U.S. mission in the kingdom. In 1943, King Abdul Aziz granted Americans the right to build a large air base in Dhahran in eastern Saudi Arabia, and Journalist and correspondent of Islam Online in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Your comments: Amnesty warns of a time bomb Today's world is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb - this is what Amnesty International Organization said in its annual report. Amnesty's report in Arabic \endash external site Amnesty says that the global economic crisis and its repercussions have led to violations of basic human rights and the crisis diverts attention from such violations. On the Middle East, Amnesty says that the financial crisis has made people feel less socioeconomically secure. The organization adds that this is evident from the strikes and other forms of protest in the private and public sectors as what took place in Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries. Here many people live in abject poverty, victims of the serious disparities Has the economic crisis taken away your basic human rights for housing, employment and a decent lifestyle? Have you witnessed any unrest and protests in your country because of the economic crisis and the high food prices? How is it being dealt with? Do you agree with Amnesty International's assessment that the world is really sitting on a time bomb? We will discuss these and other topics in the episode on Monday June 1st's from the point of discussion at 15:06 GMT. Lines of communication are open half an hour before the programme - tel: 00442077650211. You can also participate through short SMS text messages message in Arabic - tel: 00447900040407 Obama calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and a halt for settlement US President Barack Obama (R) talking to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the White House the day before yesterday - (AFP) Capitals - The US President Barack Obama called to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and reiterated a demand to Israel to stop settlement in the Palestinian territories and to respect the commitments it has taken. Obama met Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for the first time as president, in the White House, the day before yesterday, and expressed his support for a two-state solution. He said that the Israeli and the Palestinian parties should respect their obligations under the road map, which is an international plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a settlement halt. For his part, the Palestinian President confirmed in an interview with Al-Arabia TV channel following his meeting with Obama, that we should stop talking about preconditions for the start of negotiations with the Israelis, considering that there are Abbas, who arrived to Cairo yesterday to hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said that he delivered to Barack Obama a document containing ideas to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. This document does not deviate from the road ma On his part, chief Palestinian negotiator and the head of negotiations affairs in the Palestinian Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat said yesterday that there is optimism in the Palestinian leadership on the commitment expressed by President Barack Obam Erekat added that the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is key to the stability and peace in the region, adding that the establishment of a viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel, and a just solution to For its part, Hamas movement considered that the meeting of President Abbas with Obama does not carry anything new, and is disappointing for the Palestinian people. Published on: 30/05/2009 at: The Washington Times calls on Obama to strike a balance between tolerance of Islam and criticism of extremists Reem abd Hamid writes. The Washington Times, turning to the US president Barack Obama\lquote s coming visit to Cairo on 4th June, where he will give a much anticipated speech to the Muslim world, has called on Obama to adopt a comprehensive approach based on the \ldblquote successful\rdblquote American The Times, renowned for its strongly right wing views, added that Obama has to find some way of connecting American tolerance of Islam and honest criticism of extremists, who abuse others, Muslims and non-Muslims, in the name of Islam. The article goes on to say that the main issue in the relationship between religion and international politics is not a lack of US respect for Islam or any other religion, but rather that many governments around the world do not provide sufficient protect Israel faces the United States' escalation with regard to the settlement by 'fattening' settlements A provocative title for an aggression policy By: Hamadad Faraana Benjamin Netanyahu appointed former Mossad man, Uzi Arad, as a political adviser and the president of the National Security Council at the first meeting of the Israeli Government. Uzi Arad is a persona non grata in Washington. The American Embassy in Tel Aviv had previously refused to grant him a visa because of his involvement in a spying operation against U.S. interests via the members of the AIPAC (the pro-Israel lobby in Wash Arad is not dangerous because he consists a threat to the interests of the United States of America, because this could be dealt with in the framework of bilateral relations between the two allies, especially that this incident of espionage, theft of sens And Arad is not dangerous because he worked in the Mossad, since many Israeli personalities worked at the foreign security service of Israel; some of them remain austere, offensive and hostile towards others such as Yitzhak Shamir, and some them have chan Uzi Arad, political adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, is dangerous because he\rquote s hostile towards three Arab parties: 1- Palestinian Arabs and their right to equality, stability, justice and partnership within the Jewish state, 2- Against the Palestinian people and their right to freedom and independence through a division of the land and establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and 3- Jordan and its security and stability, and changing its national identity, borders and political system. Arad is openly calling for the separation between the Triangle area from the first occupation lands in 1948 and Israel, then annexing it to the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967, with the aim of reducing the number of Palestinians in the Jewish state. Uzi Arad has already presented this aggression project, in a research seminar in Washington, where his opponent was former Jordanian Ambassador in Washington, Marwan Muasher, who refuted the project, thwarted it and opposed its content, but Arad remained As we find aggressive people such as Uzi Arad who should be exposed, stripped and boycotted, we also find Israeli figures that are realistic and practical, and who seek relationships with us, to get with it and through it to the middle of the road, in ord Uzi Arad represents hostility, racism and colonial expansion at the expense of Palestine and Jordan, we must face and repulse him, and make of him a symbol of contempt, alienation and estrangement between Israel and the international community that\rquote s civi Occupied Jerusalem, Haifa - Washington - Addustour - News Agencies - The American administration escalated its tone against settlements in the occupied territories on the eve of the first meeting between the US President Barack Obama and the President of Date: 29-05-2009 A race between security services... New Israeli networks uncovered Hariri: Our disagreements are political not sectarian, and our slogan is «Lebanon First»... Aoun Warns of «prostitution market» The coalition in the upcoming elections Promises by Nasrallah over equipping the army threaten to break the ‎coalition with Aoun What will the political weight of the Maronite Christian leader be if Hezbollah's allegiance to Iran plays with the Lebanese army's autonomy? Written by: Shaker Al-Rafaiya What will the political weight of General Michel Aoun be in the Maronite Christian community - one of its chief leaders - if the opposition won in the upcoming Lebanese elections after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised to supply the Lebanese army Nasrallah's statements, backed by Syria and Iran, threaten to break the coalition with the Free Patriotic Movement led by Aoun who won in the last parliamentary elections in 2005 gaining more seats than any other Christian leader. Nasrallah, in a packed celebration in the town of Baalbek in the eastern side of the Bekaa Valley on the ninth anniversary of the Israeli army's withdrawal from Lebanon, said: No one expects Iran to come and equip the army. However, any Lebanese governme Christians are now looking to two rival political groups neither of them led by a Christian. Each group is calling for the a free and sovereign Lebanon. The first group is led by the Future Movement Party headed by Sunni politician, Saad Al Hariri, and Aoan was one of the fiercest opponents of Syrian influence in Lebanon. He entered, however, into an alliance with Hezbollah in 2006 and then closed a page on the historic conflict with Damascus when he visited Syria in 2008. There is sharp rivalry in Lebanon between the current majority, March 14th Forces, supported by the West and Arab countries, and the opposition party (March 8th Forces). It seems that Nasrallah, if his supporters bring about an election victory, is really determined to confine the source of his weapons supplies for the Lebanese army to Iran. He shows no enthusiasm towards the idea of being supplied by Western or even Russ Al-Azhar Scholars Call on the President to Ban \ldblquote Shahata\rquote s Shop\rdblquote To Avert Divine Wrath away from the Muslim Nation Front of al-Azhar Scholars demanded President Mubarak to ban the screening of the movie by director Khaled Yusif, \ldblquote Dokkan Shehata\rdblquote (Shahata\rquote s Shop), because of the scenes showing Hayfa Wahbee in al-Husain Mosque, which is described by the Front as an ins In a statement titled A Call to Mr. President, the Front leveled fierce criticisms at the movie decrying it as a rape of the honor of the nation and a violation of the sanctity of the mosques of Egypt and al-Azhar with flagrant dancing.\rdblquote The statement The Front said in its statement that the Lebanese flagrance managed to do to our sanctities, in addition to what it did to our masters and moral values, what the Roman dissoluteness failed to do to our heritage and the tombs of our great ones; it turned The statement wondered: \ldblquote what further desecration and disrespect of the nation could there be after praying congregations are kicked out of al-Hussein mosque so that she dances in its midst and on its floor\rdblquote Al-Azhar Front Scholars asked President Mubarak to intervene \ldblquote urgently\rdblquote to stop the screening of the movie to avert \ldblquote divine wrath on the nation and repay honor to its institutions.\rdblquote The security issue remains ahead of other internal concerns, with the news in the last few hours being about the arrests of a number of alleged suspects to deal with the Israeli enemy, while the pace of electoral preparations is increasing and the speech On the security front, the security services continued their pursuit after Israeli spy networks. The Directorate General of Public Security arrested four people suspected of dealing with the enemy, two brothers M. J. and A. J. in the town of Kfar Kila, an Well-informed security sources confirmed the beginning of what they described as an «extensive security workshop» to uncover «dormant networks», and collect all information and elements related to them, but they indicated that the process has not matured The same sources said that the investigation with the detainee Nader reached an important stage, and got closer to confirming his role in the assassination of the late hero Ghaleb Awali. It also seemed that Nader is highly trained, «we inferred from the i The Director of the Internal Security Forces, Major General Ashraf Rifi, expressed his confidence about the collapse of the espionage structure built by the Israeli enemy in Lebanon, telling «As-Safir»: We continue to work away from the spotlight, and we The Director-General of Public Security, Major General Wafik Jazzini, told «As-Safir»: There are many names of agents that were given by the detainees during interrogation, and it\rquote s interesting to see how many of those detainees are former agents that Isr Smoking retreats globally and increases in Arab World A large number of world countries witnessed different activities on the occasion of the International Day for fighting smoking, which was approved by the World Health Organization 22 years ago. The even aims at sending a message of awareness about that sc According to the 2008 report of the World Health Organization, the total number of smokers in the world is over one billion and a hundred millions smokers, and is expected to reach 1.7 billion by the year 2025. The death toll from diseases caused by smoking is 5.4 million people every year at the rate of one death every six seconds. Death toll is expected to rise to more than eight millions people a year in 2030. Mortality rate among smokers from the age of 35 to 69 is three times higher than among non-smokers. Scientific researches assert that smoking is responsible for 90% of lung cancer deaths in the world and 30% of all cases of cancer. Contradiction Whoever wants to equip the Lebanese army supplying him with air defense artillery, anti-tank missiles, medium and long range missiles, and even ten MiG planes will not change anything in the equation - he said this in reference to the MiG-29 planes that If General Aoun was one of Hezbollah's supporters he would deem a weapons arsenal necessary to confront Israel. The situation would change if Iran's influence got to the point where Iran was arming the Lebanese army and playing with its independence which He pointed out that weapons restrictions being under the authority of the state is among the main topics of disagreement between March 14th Forces and March 8th Forces. And despite the increased awareness of the health risks of that scourge of smoking and all the measures adopted to reduce it, statistics of the World Health Organization confirm an increase in the number of smokers, particularly in developing countries, a Aoun's coalition with Hezbollah has further weakened the political voice of the Christians - who make up 35 percent of the nearly four million Lebanese - in the midst of the majority and the opposition. In Lebanon the 1928 parliamentary seats are apportioned among the various confessions split equally between Christian and Muslim candidates. However they are chosen by the voters regardless of their confession. And for every confession there are a number of seats in the electoral district according to its demographic density. Turkey has the largest number of smokers compared with the number of the population, whereas the percentage of smokers goes up to 67.6 percent, surpassing South Korea. While Iran imports from the United States about Fifty million dollar-worth of tobacco p As for the Arab countries, they import about two hundred billion cigarettes a year, mostly from the US tobacco companies. The money Arab countries spend on smoking is greater than that spent on education and health. In Syria, according to statistics, smoking costs reach about four hundred million pounds a day distributed between the price of tobacco and treatment of health problems resulting from smoking, in addiction to the economic consequences such as fires and di Syria tops Arab states, where it has the highest rate of smokers among young people which goes higher than 20%. Tunisians spend more than quarter of the individual income on smoke. In Iraq, around 7 million and a half smokers spend over a billion dollars annually on cigarettes. In Saudi Arabia, there are six million smokers, of whom one million are women, spend about eight billion dollars on the purchase of more than 15 billion cigarettes a year. In spite of the key role that the Christians play at present it is still much less than what they played before the Civil War (1975-1990) when they were really holding power. These figures ranked Saudi Arabia fourth internationally in terms of tobacco consumption. Despite being a small country, Kuwait ranked 19th among the world countries in terms of consumption of tobacco. Many times as much as the Canal\rquote s income The youths fall prey to that scourge more rapidly In Egypt, said the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, the number of smokers in Egypt hit about 13 million smokers, consuming eighty billion cigarettes a year. Egypt's imports alone constitute more than fifty billion cigarettes annually, while the amount of spending on the treatment of smoking-related diseases is estimated at more than a billion dollars. The Taif agreement - which put an end to the civil war and reduced the power of president of the republic who comes by tradition from the Maronite Christian community - along with the Syrian presence who basically continuously opposed them contributed to The Central Agency indicated that smoking constitutes about eight billion pounds a year of the Egyptian national spending, namely is consumes about 22% of the income of the smoking person per month. According to the latest data of the Central Agency, the percentage of work absentees due to smoking is way more than 50% of that among non-smokers. The number of smokers include about five hundred thousands people aged 15, 73 thousands under the age of 10, according to the Ministry of Health estimates for the year 2007. And if things go well as the opposition desires then the Christians can only return to the period four decades ago, or for the two sides to split. Where are Lebanon's Christians? The 14th March Alliance Lebanese Forces led by Samir Geagea. Geagea, who heads the Lebanese Forces Party is a Maronite Christian leader the only one among the leaders of the civil war who was imprisoned. He was jailed for 11 years after being convicted of crimes of murders until he was released in 2005. He consider The number of smokers is increased annually at a rate ranging between 8 - 9%, which is much higher than the birth rate. Another report issued by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs showed that Egypt loses 34 billion pounds annually due to smoking. The Kataeb (Phalangists) Party led by Amin Gemayel. Gemayel (65 years of age) who heads the Lebanese Kataeb Party with a Christian Maronite majority assumed the presidency of the republic from 1982 till 1988. He took over the presidency after his brother, Bachir, was assassinated for being an ally of Israe In addition to the Free National Movement, this alliance includes the Marada Movement led by Suleiman Frangieh (43 years of age). He is a former interior minister and a personal friend of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad. The father, mother and siste The 8th March Alliance Jazzini said: «We will continue to hunt down the networks despite the modest resources and capacity of the public security, because this is the core of the public security mission, and we will not stop despite the acute shortage in many things and the min Meanwhile, a close source to the leadership of the branch of information reported to «As-Safir»: The most important thing that happened is that we opened the file of the Israeli spy networks, after we gathered enough information to condemn the people conc The source added: Actually, the branch of information was the first to open this file, but it indicated the coordination between the branch and Hezbolla, a few hours before the start of the arrests. The issue was presented in detail to «Hezbollah» with an However, other sources that follow up this issue pointed out that the file in question, about the agent Adib Al-Alam, was at the branch since 2007, so why was it left all that time and was not open then? Junbulat: I rushed in issuing the resolutions on May 5 At this time, the position of deputy Walid Junbulat was made clear by announcing yesterday that he rushed to stress on issuing the two resolutions in the meeting of the Council of Ministers on May 5, about the communication network of Hezbollah and the ai In the show \ldblquote Kalam Al-Nas\rdblquote , of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, Junbulat presented his detailed report about this case and its aftermath in May 7, the events in Beirut and its suburbs, and concluded by reiterating the importance of dialogue and repe He also described the resolution 1559 as the cursed resolution that killed Rafik Al-Hariri, and denounced what was published on the German magazine «Der Spiegel» which assassinates Rafik Al-Hariri once again. Junbulat warned about the situation in the reg Americans to Obama: Don't apologise to the Muslims The Syrians boycott mobile companies in protest against the expensive call rates The Syrians have been sending out emails for days to encourage boycotting mobile phone companies in the country to force them to reduce the prices of their services. Syrians seeks to organize a campaign for boycotting the mobile phone companies, SBC, Syritel, or M_T_N, the two companies that are holding monopoly over mobile phone service in the country, to compel their management to reduce the call prices between the Arabian Business has seen the text of an invitation that is being circulated through the Internet which read: Boycott mobile phone on June 1st, 2009, contribute to the Syrian National campaign to put pressure on telecommunication companies to reduce pri The email of unknown source, of which many Syrians to confirmed to Arabian Business receiving having received copies asking them to turn off their mobile phones Starting 1 / 6 / 2009 and limit its use to missed calls to identify callers and use ground l Both Syritel and M_T_N announced a short while ago a 20% reduction in the prices of some of the services they offered.\rdblquote A minute call on mobile costs 4 Syrian Lira, (an equivalent to $1 per 9 minutes.) The two companies said they were to cut prices of calls and SMSs by 20% for the pre-paid lines, and only SMSs for the post-paid by the same percentage, but call prices were not cut for post-paid lines. Statistics show that the number of subscribers of mobile phone lines in Syria recently reached 5.6 million subscribers about 23.3% of the 24-million-population. 4.6 million of those subscribers use prepaid service, which means that the latest reductions i The number of mobile phone users grows steadily in the country, as it was increased by about 2 million subscribers since the beginning of the Year 2007. Syrian Minister of Communications, Amr Salem, had said earlier that the issue of calculating call tariffs for mobile phone on minute basis is a settled matter and signed with the companies and that what prevents its application is the billing systems th The former minister admitted that the tariff of the Syrian mobile phone calls was high compared to the income of the individual in Syria, but he attributed the reason for this to the decrease in the number of subscribers locally in comparison with the wor Cairo has turned a bronze color.... Obama is coming Margaret Skobey, the US Ambassador to Egypt, said in Cairo that the American president Barack Obama will confirm in his speech at the University of Cairo there is no contradiction between the American values and the values of the Islamic world, that Islam Obama expressed from his first day in office his country's desire for a relationship with the Islamic world where respect prevails, Skobey said during a round table meeting convened at the American Embassy headquarters in Cairo the day before yesterday. On the other hand, the area of Al-Qala'a (the Citadel), which includes Salah al-Din and the area surrounding Sultan Hassan Mosque, is witnessing unprecedented preparations including extensive makeovers - the planting of palm trees, decorative flowers an Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that Obama, after his speech at the University of Cairo, will visit the pyramids in Giza during an 80 minute tour. During this time he will enter the Pyramid of Khufu (the Grea Spending the night painting lamp-posts a bronze colour in front of the University of Cairo. Do you know why and for whom all this effort?! General Saleh Al-Raouf, the head for Duqqi district, said that the resurfacing work on the one kilometre stretch of street heading towards Cairo University in the Giza governorate has been finished. It took 12 hours to complete at a cost of around 15000 E He pointed out that the South Giza quarter and Duqqi quarter had agreed with the Arab Contractors Company that the task of resurfacing the street with asphalt would be completed within a short space of time which began two days ago (Sunday evening) and en By Fathiya Al-Dakhakhi, Mona Yassin, Umru Bayyoumi and Mahasin Al-Sanusi _02/06/2009 1st June marching together towards a boycott After a long wait.. something happened.. a small ... but dangerous ... protest. Yes after a lengthy wait we'll say No... Of course, don't be too optimistic about participating...because today the guys are still thinking about a method (it landed on me...come on one phone call is not going to end the boycott)...That's from one perspective...but from another perspective even On another issue of greater importance...Why does the boycotting of private companies frighten the media. Even they are ashamed to print about that. Oh, what a farce, Syriatel has complete privacy...because of its owner... and certainly they will not let Anyhow, I'm waiting impatiently for June 1st ... in the light of that day the fate of Syria will be determined. I mean, whether it's a step towards change towards what's better .... or guys it will be another 30 year wait... More important what really drew my attention, is this new self with the young people. That change is in our hands يؤخذولا gives the right. In the words of Ziyad Wake up to the homeland The sound will reach them. The immediate objective is to raise the voice of the company's customers . It's a scandal of their rights among the mobile companies in the region. Akalna- I am happy for one thing... these kind of campaigns have brought in the young men's approaches for the sake of change. You reply or don't reply, that's not the issue. The issue has got in and you know about it. Even the Syrians who are abroad boycotted the Syrian mobile phone companies. Of course Security. The most important issue is that young people feel that we all one arm...regardless of the religion and confession. We need to gather together to change the situation for the better. As long as the best is for all of us. I mean from here the importance of June 1st has arrived. The question that I'm waiting for a reply on the 1st June. Are the young people are awareness to carry the responsibility. Or are they going on the principle that clay breaks the enemy to break a member .... I'm not convinced... Washington: Internet search giant, Google, announced that it will sell as of this year literary products in electronic versions that could adversely affect internet firm Amazon a pioneer in this market as a result of their electronic book version Kindle What does Obama want? More oil at a reduced price. A free pay out of billions of dollars to support the U.S. economy. To attract the funding of Arab investors' to support failing American companies . To get what the Zionists want to get by cunning means that which Bush failed to get in the war. Israel's security. To open a new media page - the upper side of the page showing mercy, and on the underside side you might see the Swat Valley in Pakistan. To visit the pyramids :) IAEA finds undeclared uranium in a second site in Syria The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that it found traces of enriched uranium contamination in another site in Syria. The IAEA is investigating links to particles that were taken from the site which Washington claims to be a secret nuclear rea The Agency is examining the authenticity of US intelligence reports stating that Syria almost completed the construction of a nuclear reactor of North Korean design; with the aim of producing plutonium that can be used to make a bomb, before Israel bombar Syria, however, denies hiding anything from non-proliferation monitors. Yet, a report supporting the IAEA said that Damascus is still withholding documents and preventing free access for the inspectors, which is a necessity for truth to be cleared. The Agency had said in February, that the inspectors found traces of uranium in soil samples taken from the site called Deir al-zour, a year ago, and that it was enough evidence for such important find. A new report by the Agency, said yesterday, Friday, that during the same fact-finding visit, the IAEA discovered similar \ldblquote man-made\rdblquote uranium particles in samples taken from a small research reactor in Damascus that the agency was aware of, and examined it These traces were not included in what Syria had reported in the past about its nuclear stockpile to the IAEA. The report said that enriched uranium particles also appeared in samples taken from hot cells in the research reactor facility in Damascus. The report also said that Syria made suspicious purchases that included a large amount of Graphite and large quantities of sulfates barite which is a composite sometimes used to contain the radiation in nuclear facilities. Syria informed the Agency that such acquisitions are for civilian and not nuclear purposes, and that they are related to water purification, steel industry and preventive materials for treatment with radiation centers. The report said that these responses Quarantine of an AUC dormitory upon discovery of two swine flu student cases A Spokesman for the American University in Cairo said, Monday, that the building of the university\rquote s dormitory in the district of al-Zamalek, Cairo, was quarantined after two students were confirmed to be infected with swine flu. The spokeswoman, Reham Saad, explained that the students had arrived from the United States on the 28th of last May to study at the American University in Cairo. She added that the students were taken to hospital where they are receiving necessary treatment after the Egyptian Ministry of Health tests confirmed their infection with the H1N1 virus. She continued to say that another American student is suspected to have swine flu as well, but the results of her own tests are not out yet. Reeham Saad said that the AUC\rquote s residential building in Zamalek was decided to be quarantined for 24 hours, and the Egyptian Ministry of Health is taking samples from all the residents and workers there for analysis. The Egyptian Minister of Health, Hatem al-Jabali, had declared last week the discovery of the first swine flue infection in Egypt as a 12 year-old Egyptian girl, holding the American nationality, arrived to Egypt from the United States through a European Egypt is considered one of the most affected countries by bird flu which lead to the death of 26 people since 2006, mostly women and children who are in close contact with birds. Yet, Egypt is still free from the swine flu disease, after the adoption of s Damascus - Mohamed Ahmed Tayyarah Stressing that Bab Al Hara is a private project, Bassam Al Mula says in a press conference : Samer Al Masry is responsible for the death of Abu Shahabuddeen . What Nizar Abou Hagar did is illegal. Director Bassam Mullah denied the accusations made against him that he emptied the Levant culture out of its essence and portrayed it in a fantastical way Bab Al Hara. In a press conference held Saturday afternoon in Al Shamiyaa village in Damascus,, Al Mullah denied that there would be monopoly contracts for the actors starring Bab Al Hara after the withdrawal of many of its actors. He said that the actor who withdraws halfway through is committing something much worse than high treason. He said that As regards excluding the character of Colonel Abu Shahab from many episodes, Al Mulla said that it was for dramatic reasons and that he didn't exclude an actor but a character. He further pointed out that the scenes of Abu shahab, starred by Samer Al mas Mullah said that artist samer Al Masry's statement Bab Al Hara has turned into a commercial soap contardicts with his actions as he appeared on commercial ads exploiting the character of Abu Shahab- a sign of the deep differences that emerged between Mullah said that the actors of Bab Al Hara are satisfactorily paid and are not , as rumoured, low paid. Their rates are now higher than those of the first parts. There is no disagreement with any actor over that . Most of disagreemts are related to the Al Mulla expressed his appreciation of and admiration for the stance of actor Abas A Nouri as they tackled their disagreement directly between each other. He didn't stab him in the back as did other actors. He was also sincere as regards the character h Al Mula stressed that Bab Al Hara is starred by a group of lead actors , not an individual lead actor. He added that some tried to impose conditions on him but he refused, saying that this soap is his own project, whether others accepted or not. He stres Beirut - Arab correspondents, agencies Hezbollah admitted after the results of the elections and declaring it the will of the people, as he was, was once the initial results of that alliance wins March 14, the loss of the opposition Alliance ( March 8) for some of its divisions, the invitation On Sunday morning, June 7, the electoral campaigns stopped and the Lebanese headed to the polls to elect 128 deputies. During the election campaigns, the candidates gave sectarian speeches that created tensions and concerns in the Lebanese streets. Thes Google plans to sell electronic books on the Internet A spokesman for Google, Gabriel Stryker, expressed in a statement the company's hope to provide by the end of the year an additional device to sell their books to their partners working in the publishing sector. He added that the company's desire was to enable them to make the purchase of books accessible from any device connected to the Internet. Stryker did not divulge any further details regarding this project. However, the New York Times had said that it is not linked to any controversial programme launched by Google. It was related to the production of digital book versions. The newspaper added that this project allows publishers to sell their books directly via the Internet. Users will be able to access these books via any device including mobile phones in contrast to the single device offered by electronic book company Kind The group aims to make all the existing works present in the world available on the Internet. They had previously produced digital versions of millions of books for Google Books thanks to their existing partnership with libraries. The project, however, raised controversy because the project does not only relate to texts in the public domain but also works where the author holds copyright. Google has faced a series of complaints in the United States. This resulted in October in an agreement with the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. The Ministry of Justice are still looking into that. Despite the fact that the Lebanese army and the security forces executed the largest security deployment ever seen in the country to ensure the deadline of the elections, the citizens still fear frictions between the supporters of March 14 and the opposit One cannot deny that both sides have conflicting political projects, concerning the definition of the Lebanese entity, that create tensions that go beyond the Lebanese borders and extend to the regional and international arena. It is not surprising to see The strange thing today is that Lebanese are heading towards a democracy―unique in the Arab region―even though they are in the middle of an overwhelming chaos that reaches the foundations of the state and its order. This chaos starts by the disrespect of In all parliamentary elections here and there in the world, we witness trade-offs between the candidate and the people of the region to earn some gains such as the improvement of the social and living conditions of the region in return of their vote for h The observer of the electoral campaigns\endash organized by the candidates and the rival Lebanese factions supporting their candidacies\endash that is watching television continuously over a period of two months cannot avoid noting the extent of silliness and hatred in If we go beyond the slogans used during the electoral campaign by the ruling majority and the opposition regarding the critical Lebanese internal situation, this election is crucial to the determination of the state\rquote s shape and the Lebanese identity. It On the eve of the elections, the Lebanese scene brings to the minds the atmosphere of the civil war. The Lebanese do not agree on anything except the famous Tabbouleh plate. But who knows what Tabbouleh is! . Said Sheikh/Chief reporter of \ldblquote Arab colors\rdblquote Lebanese elections ... Democracy amid overwhelming chaos The Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, asserted that the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the last four years had made Iran the most powerful country in the region. In a speech which he gave in the city of Rasht in northern Iran, Mottaki In relation to its nuclear programme, he clarified that Ahmadinejad does not accept suspension of uranium enrichment activities, indicating that his stance on this had the genuine and total suport of the Iranian people. He declared that the world to Regarding the Palestinian issue, Mottaki said that the illegal Zionist entity is occupying Palestinian lands by force, and even the French President Sarkozy agreed with this. The Foreign Minister pointed out that Ahmadinejad's government had achieved the highest level of non-oil exports when compared with the governments which came after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. These exports have amounted to 20 billion dollars Mottaki: Ahmadinejad has made Iran the most powerful country in the region Mitchell following his meeting with al-Asad: Talks are essential and we want a Syrian-Israeli peace We want comprehensive peace and we are quite aware of the so many difficulties ahead of us The U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, described on Saturday his talks with President Bashar al-Assad as essential, indicating that the dialogue tackled a number of serious issues, bilateral relations and ways to achieve peace in the Mitchell said in a statement he read before the media in the presidential palace after his meeting with President al-Asad that the United States is committed to working to achieve a comprehensive peace effectively, pointing out that his country sought Mitchell speech followed a two-hour talk with al-Assad which included a 90-minute closed-door meeting, during his first visit to Damascus as special envoy of the US president Barak Obama to the Middle East region. Mitchell added that Washington wants to achieve peace between Syria and Israel, and Lebanon and Israel, as well as Palestinians and Israel, indicating that \ldblquote the peace that we want to achieve a comprehensive peace, and we are quite aware of the difficult Peace negotiations on the Palestinian-Israeli track are facing many difficulties, as the Israelis refuse to negotiate the final solution issues demanded by the Palestinians. Syria also suspended direct and indirect negotiations with the Israelis following We share our duty to create favourable conditions for successful negotiations. This would be for the benefit of all who seek peace, including the United States, Europe, Israel and the Arabs, indicating that Syria has a key role to play in reaching a co As for the US Syrian relations, Mitchell said that his country seeks to build up on the peace efforts to establish relations based on mutual respect and common interests. He pointed out that the United States looks forward to continuing the dialogue w A presidential statement said in the wake of the talks with Mitchell that Syria and the United States were looking forward for the establishment of normal bilateral relations in order to serve the interests of the two countries and the two peoples. The information indicates that Mitchell\rquote s left Syria after his talks with al-Assad, to the Turkish capital of Ankara, leaving Jeffrey Feltman, assistant US secretary of state, behind in Damascus to follow up on the talks with the Syrian officials. Mitchell had arrived to Damascus on Friday, coming from Lebanon within the framework of a tour that also included Israel and the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan. This is Mitchell\rquote s fourth tour, one of the of the peace process engineers in Northern Ireland, to the region, yet it is the first to Syria after he had ruled it out from his tour agenda in the past. Swedish Nobel Foundation chooses Egypt\rquote s Writers Union to nominate literature prizes Egypt\rquote s Writers\rquote Union is now authorized to nominate two novelists for the Nobel literature prize. Mohammed Salmawy, union president, told Reuters that this was the \ldblquote first time in Nobel and Egyptian history that an Arabic entity is authorized in such a d Salmawy said that this trust from the Nobel foundation was \ldblquote a gain for Arab and Egyptian literature\rdblquote . No Arabs were nominated for the prize since Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz won the award in 1988, although there have been talks of nominating Palesti Salmawy said that the Nobel foundation does not authorize just any entity; the institution must be independent, non-governmental, democratically elected, and has the trust of its members. The Nobel foundation also grants the right of nomination to its la Salmawy further stated that the past few months witnessed correspondence between the union and the Nobel foundation, which deemed the union a trust-worthy entity due to its international contributions, and therefore issued a letter of approval to the unio I am watching a speech by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I asked myself why is this man not afraid of his people in spite of these masses that came out in their millions, not prevented by any barriers or hindrances, and despite the other milli Ahmadinejad - the question is when will the people like their president and when will he wish them well? The citizens wish the best for Egypt and its people: Contact: 0103067092 aboalmalli@maktoob.com aboalmally@yahoo.com Plague spreads in the Tubruq region of Libya, killing two people out of the thirteen infected in two days Bubonic plague has spread in the region of Tursha, south of the city of Tubruq in Libya, and has resulted in two deaths among the thirteen cases that were admitted to hospital for treatment. The Libya Al-Youm newspaper learnt from Tubruq Hospital administration the day before yesterday that the government is making great efforts to contain the disease. It has started to vaccinate residents of the city and surrounding areas against the diseas The Libyan authorities announced signs of the new health disaster on Egypt's western border, as the Libyan village of Tursha, in which the first cases appeared, is about 80 km from the Egyptian border. Sources expressed their concern that the nationalitie Well-informed sources said that the Libyan Health Minister, Dr Mohamed Hijazi, the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Justice, Mustafa Abd al-Jalil, and the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Public Security, General Abd al-Fatah Hijazi said that he had provided preventative vaccinations against this disease, which is spread by rodents, and particularly fleas which transmit the virus to other creatures. He added that the cases which had been diagnosed in Al Butnan were now under He added that an English company contracted to eradicate the rodents had begun its work in this regard and had taken all prompt and necessary measures in the western region. Hijazi explained that this type of bacteria had previously emerged in this region twice before in 1977 and 1984. It is known that bubonic plague is a disease transmitted by rats and fleas, and humans become infected when bitten by an infected flea, whereby the bacteria is transmitted into the body tissues and starts to multiply inside the cells. The bacteria is then Mousavi calls for a day of mourning as Tehran accuses foreign media of riot support Tehran \endash Al Shourouk \endash News Agencies Events in Iran have be A statement issued on Mousavi\rquote s website on Wednesday said:\rdblquote Mousavi calls on the Iranian people to congregate in mosques and organize peaceful rallies to pay tribute to the families of martyrs and victims of recent events\rdblquote . The statement said Mousavi hims At least seven civilians had died Monday in the Iranian capital Tehran during an attack on the Islamic militia base, Basij. Many others were wounded. Shi\rquote a Muslims normally pay tribute on the third day of death, a week later, and then on the fortieth day following death. On the other hand, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad perceives his re-election as an indication of trust from the people of Iran to his government. Ahmadinejad said in a statement to the Iranian Student News Agency that \ldblquote Election results reinforce th \ldblquote Twenty five million people have supported the manner with which we administer the country which is rooted in the revolution\rdblquote , he said. The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had summoned six EU ambassadors from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, and the Czech Republic in protest to their statements condemning the electoral process. The Ministry has also criticized foreign media Israeli television: settlements continue ... and apartments are empty Bethlehem -Ma'an News Agency - Only three days after Netanyahu's speech, when everyone thought that construction of settlements had stopped, Israeli television revealed that the diggers in the West Bank, in the Ramallah area to be precise, are still worki 46 dead and 166 wounded in the explosion of a mined truck in Karkuk Panic and mayhem resulted from a suicidal attack on Saturday in a Shiite village close to Karkuk North of Iraq. The attack resulted in forty six deaths and 166 injuries, and took place ten days prior to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities. Turhan Youssef Abdel Ruhman, chief police officer in Karkuk, said: \ldblquote The attack resulted in forty six deaths and 166 injuries. Search operations are ongoing in hopes of finding more survivors or victims. Doctor Shukr Abd Allah, who works in the morgue of the city of Taza, thirty kilometers away from Karkuk, has confirmed forty six deaths as a result. 166 injuries were received by Karkuk hospital. Earlier statistics had indicated the death of 22 people and the injury of 125 others. A Karkuk police officer revealed that the truck was stationed 400 meters away from Hassuniyet Arrasool in Taza. The explosion resulted in damages at the mosque and the destruction of fifteen houses, many of whose residents were buried beneath the rubble. He stated that: \ldblquote Many victims are still lying beneath the ruins of tens of houses. Some of these houses had almost fully collapsed\rdblquote One official accused Al Qaeda of orchestrating the attack, saying that \ldblquote the explosion had Al Qaeda written all over it\rdblquote . He said: \ldblquote The truck carried more than a tone of explosives.\rdblquote . The attack was conducted only ten days prior to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi villages and cities, whose security will be administered by Iraqi military and police forces. Majda Azza, a regional councilor who was present close to the mosque said: \ldblquote The murderers picked the time when farmers would return from their fields, houses collapsed on their residents. It\rquote s a tragedy conducted by Al Qaeda.\rdblquote Karkuk police called on village residents to donate blood to the victims. The attack is one of the most violent attacks witnessed in the region since April 29th, when three explosive vehicles exploded in Al Sadr markets, killing 51 people. Sarkozy: Niqab is a symbol of subservience French President Nicola Sarkozy said in an address to parliamentary members in Versailles that the \lquote burqu\lquote (niqab) that covers a woman entirely is a \lquote symbol of enslavement\rquote and that it was unwelcome in France. Sarkozy said that the \lquote niqab\rquote \ldblquote is not a religious symbol but rather a symbol of subservience; I\rquote d like to publicly state that the burqu is unwelcome in the French Republic\rdblquote The French President stated \ldblquote we cannot accept imprisoned women in our country, ones that are isolated from any form of social life and ripped of their dignity. This is not the vision that the French Republic adopts in terms of the dignity of women\rdblquote Sarkozy had announced his support for a formation of an investigative committee that should determine the fate of the \lquote full veil\rquote in France. Controversial debates surrounding atheism broke out when sixty parliament members requested the formation of this The headscarf is still banned in French governmental schools; it is regarded as a religious symbol by authorities. Sarkozy defended secularism in France by saying that France \ldblquote does not reject religions but rather enforces a principle based on respect and impartiality\rdblquote He said We should not miss the real battle and, in the French Republic, we respect Islam just as much as any other religion Emma Kirby, BBC\rquote s correspondent in Paris, said a group of parliament members of various political parties are requesting an investigation into whether the Islamic \lquote burqu\rquote violates France\rquote s secular principles Parliament members want to ensure that these women are wearing the \lquote niqab\rquote based on personal will or coercion. Sarkozy\rquote s address to the Parliament was the first of its kind since the nineteenth century; this was not possible prior to a constitutional amendment that was approved last year. France had prohibited the Islamic Hijab and all prominent religious symbols in public schools, causing great controversy on international and local levels. French parliament members stand divided on this issue; Minister of Immigration Eric Besson says that prohibiting the \lquote niqab\rquote will cause tension within society. Rama Yade, French Junior Minister in charge of Human Rights, says she supports the ban if it w The French Muslim Council, an official institution, has rejected the debate both in concept and practice. The Council said that making the proposition through a parliamentary committee only distorts the perception of Islam and Muslims. France currently hosts five million Muslims Al-Azhar grand Mufti: veil is not Sarkozy's business, it is a Muslim affair This may be Britain, and the British media, which interferes in the internal affairs through the dissemination of false information, or may be France which opened its capital Paris with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which the US-led organiza The Iraqi Interior Ministry is prepared for the security task and the official celebrations on the day of Iraq's sovereignty Iraqi citizens worry about the withdrawal of US forces Sabah Al-Khaffaji from Baghdad: The citizens of Iraq received the Iraqi government's call to celebrate the 30th June with cautious reactions mixed with fear and concern from the Iraqis in all the provinces of Iraq. The Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki urged the Iraqis to celebrate June 3 This list of demands included working to bring Egypt to a notable position among the World Nations, to announce a strong electoral program suitable for the circumstances of the average citizens, and to work through it to improve the standard of living alo The talk about withdrawing from Iraqi cities which was completed on June 30 is similar to a large extent with the kind of withdrawals that Israel carries out from time to time from some of the West Bank cities only to return to them under various pretexts The Iraqi people yesterday needed the full withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq which would present an opportunity for national reconciliation without the pressure or terrorism. All of the Arabs, especially the neighbouring countries, wish for that. Th The US withdrawal from the Iraqi cities could have been a day of celebration for a brotherly Iraq if it coincided with the presence of an Iraqi political and security institutution which would restore a genuine Arabic facet, internal unity and reunite wit Us withdrawal or redeployment?. Ziad Abu Shawish Ziad Abu Shawish As for Hibba Rezag, a teacher, she expressed concern about the withdrawal of the US military forces that would coincide with the upcoming parliamentary election. She said, The Shiite parties struggle among each other to stay in power while the Sunni pa On Facebook: Gamal Mubarak supporters for his presidency nomination are announcing their demands, and his opposers are doubting his abilities A new campaign is launched by a activists on the Social Networking website Facebook under the name: Appoint Gamal Mubarak as a President for Egypt. This campaign was based on a Facebook group called Gamal Mubarak Supporters and fans created nearly a This group brings together more than 1100 people. The group creator is called Mustafa Ahmed. His description for the campaign was: We, the Egyptian citizens who are the supporters and fans of Gamal Mubarak, announce our support in the next Presidential E He added: We didn't announce our allegiance with you until we were entirely sure with the obvious evidence we witnessed through your outstanding achievements inside and outside the party, and your continuous work for Egypt and the Egyptian people, speci Also, the demands of the campaign, which was signed by 50 people just after two days of its launch, includes taking care of youth, working on getting a job for every citizen, improving health care and local governments institutions, supporting democracy a Talk of nominating Gamal Mubarak, 46, for the Egyptian Presidency in 2011 has become part of daily life in Egypt after seeming impossible 10 years ago. Especially after the transformation of the President's son to a prominent leader in the leading party. On the other hand, another campaign was launched across Facebook in the same time as the previous campaign under the name: Together for choosing Accountant Gamal Mubarak as the head of the accountants union. The aim of the campaign is doubting the abili The group creator, Ahmed Imam, said introducing the group: The accountant Gamal Mubarak became the presidency nominee only because he is the President's son, only because his father wants this, and only because we live under a non-democratic authoritaria He added: Because only we are in Egypt, Gamal Mubarak became the presidency nominee. Not for his abilities, his skills, or his qualifications any relation with the whole thing. For if he weren't the President's son we would barely work as a manager in so Salima Khalil, a teacher, said some months ago she had returned from Libya to see how the situation was in Iraq and on that basis would decide once and for all whether to return to her country with her husband and four children or to remain in Libya. But He added that his group, which contains are more than 100 members, aims to convince accountant Gamal Mubarak that his abilities and skills barely qualify him as a nominee for the elections of the accountants union. Iyad Mohammed, an employee at the Central Bank of Iraq believes that the US's withdrawal from the cities is timed badly. He is convinced that the security services represented by the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and the Iraqi Intelligence i Journalist, Dhiya Al-Aqabi reckons the reasons for the increase in bombings in the Shiite areas as opposed to the Sunni Karkh neighbourhood in Baghdad is the executive power which the Shiite state holds over those areas and its support for the militia dea As for Salem A-Badhawi, a food merchant, he did not understand what was the meaning to the government's call to celebrate June 30th seeing that the United States will not withdraw from Iraq once and for all. He remarked, If the American troops are not le A dentist, Thamer Al-Zubaidi, says, The withdrawal of the US military forces from the Iraqi cities is a major step on the road to national sovereignty for Iraq. The withdrawal from the towns is deemed as the US's recognition of the Iraqi government's abi Iraqi Interior Ministry: The withdrawal was months ago so there's no need to panic The Interior Ministry's Department of Operations gave assurances to the Iraqi citizens. They called on them to unite to help the Interior Ministry's security services for their own safety, and to fight against what the department called terrorist criminal In reply to a question by Elaph on the extent that the Iraqi security forces were equipped, Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf replied, A lot of military units have been supplied with modern armored vehicles, tanks and weapons. He added, however, I will In an interview with the British Channel Sky News , : Syrian President Bashar Assad called on his US counterpart, Barak Obama, to visit Syria. This comes as the two countries begin to improve relations. Assad said that the United States play a specia In regards to the views held that the success in imposing security would depend on strong intelligence there are some who see that this it is not being provided by the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The Director of Interior Operations responded by saying, T He didn't deny the ongoing dispute about the existence of rifts between the leaders' themselves in the Interior Ministry which MPs and senior officials in the government are talking about. But he said, We talked with the brothers, leaders in the Interior It is worth mentioning that the number of the Iraqi security forces working for the Ministry of the Interior has reached 500,000 policemen in addition to about 350,000 soldiers. The withdrawal of US forces is the implementation of the US's commitment to w Mystery surrounds Cheb Mami trial French justice averts crisis with Algeria French justice never unveiled all the details pertaining to the trial of \lquote French citizen\rquote Mohamed Khelifati, otherwise known as Cheb Mami. Bobigny\rquote s misdemeanor court jury, which looked into the case, avoided researching many details which would have she French judicial authorities had arrested Cheb Mami and business manager Michael Levy, whereas they should have detained the key individuals in the violence case endured by photographer \lquote Isabelle Simon\rdblquote , which were the two girls and two individuals mention Bobigny\rquote s investigative judge, who undertook the case, should have called the two women who attempted abortion along with the two other individuals who escorted the victim to the villa which witnessed the crime. The two individuals are Kamal Lazaar and Nobody mentions the names of the two girls who physically participated in the abortion attempt, the responsibility of which was entirely thrown on Cheb Mami\rquote s shoulders. Moreover, French justice has caused great embarrassment for Algerian authorities as t Cheb Mami, who blamed his ex-friend (Abdel Qader Alaily) for the abortion attempt, never went into extensive detail in court about \lquote Qada\rquote s role. Wada permanently resided in Cheb Mami\rquote s villa which he purchased with a loan from Al Khalifa bank. Cheb Mami The European elections end today. Fear that the right-wing parties and the opposition to the European Union win The boycott and low turnout increase the fear that the extremists win Voting for the European parliament continued yesterday. The voting process will last for four days. Britain and the Netherlands started the voting process on Thursday. Then the Irish and Czech voted the day before yesterday, and the Slovakian, Latvians, Elections will be held today in other states. The preliminary results will be published starting 10:00 p.m. tonight. These results will give us an idea about the future of the European Parliament. The significant progress of the extremist parties that a The Italian started casting their votes yesterday and continue to vote today. It is expected that elections will measure the popularity of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the wake of the scandal that involved his friendly relationship with an eighteen In addition to the selection of the 72 representatives of Italy in the European Parliament, Italian voters are also voting for members of the municipal councils and the mayors of the major cities such as Florence, Bologna, Padua, and Bergamo. Berlusconi c Berlusconi expected that the number of the members of the European Parliament who will be elected from his party would be the largest component within the European People's Party of the center right, who is expected to retain its majority in the parliamen In the atmosphere of indifference, the moderate conservative are expected to remain the main force in the European Parliament after the publication of the elections\rquote results this evening. This will enhance the control of the right majority in Europe. The In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who faces labor dilemma, admitted the defeat of his party in local and European elections without even waiting for the declaration of the official results on Sunday evening. The parties against Europe are expected These parties benefit from the low turnout of the elections. In the Netherlands, the turnout was 2,39 percent compared to 5,36 percent in 2004 according to the provisional poll. In Slovakia, recent poll bet that the participation will not exceed 14 percen In the European Parliament, the European People\rquote s Party will have to deal with the British Conservatives and the Czechs who want to adopt a policy that doubts the European Union politics. With the strengthening of the position of the parties against the E In an exclusive interview with General Khory Abbas expresses his readiness for the elections and to hand over the authority to Hamas in case it won it The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to have the elections held under Arab and international monitoring and to arbitrate the results. In an exclusive interview with my colleague Gizal Khory, Abu Mazen expressed his readiness to hand over th Abbas expressed his commitment to hand over the legislative and presidential power to Hamas in case of winning in the upcoming elections as he did in the previous elections when the Islamic Resistance Movement won the majority of seats in the Legislative In a television interview, another Abbas hinted at the possibility of resuming negotiations should the US administration put pressures to stop the settlement and reformed its positions towards the establishment of a Palestinian state. Abu Mazen confirmed his readiness to discuss with an open mind all the issues subject to negotiation according to the resolutions of international legitimacy. Abbas stressed that the sixth conference of Fatah movement is imminent and that the members of the conference will have absolute freedom to exercise absolute democracy to elect the members of the Revolutionary Council and Central Committee. He called at t Abu Mazen also tackled the prisoners file saying that \ldblquote there will not be settelements with Israel before the prisons are cleared from prisoners. He added: that the prisoners issue dominated the talks and we demanded, and will keep demanding, the release of all and the results of the pressuring was the release of Aziz al-Duweik, whom we demand to be released with Marwan al-Barghouthi and others . Abbas moved to the Israeli soldier captured in Gaza, and described the management of the issue by Hamas as a futile way to keep the soldier and a reason for more casualties in the lives of the Palestinian people. The Iraqi government declared on Monday, it is about to allow doctors to carry weapons and individual in order to protect themselves, following that targeted hundreds of them were killed since the invasion of the country led by the United States in 2003. Associated Press Agency quoted a statement issued by news of the Iraqi council of ministers as saying that the government has instructed the Ministry of Health to start the construction of residential complexes, doctors from the surrounding areas in hospi Sfeir implicitly attacks Hezbollah warns of dangers threatening entity Lebanon's Arab The United Nations: \ldblquote War Crimes\rdblquote are being committed in Somalia The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said serious human rights violations were committed in Somalia to the extent that they can be classified as \ldblquote war crimes\rdblquote . Navi Pillay said in a statement: \ldblquote It is clear that grave violations of international human The commission accused the Al Shabab movement, which combats the government, of illegal killings, planting land mines and explosives in civil areas, and using civilians as human shields. The commission said that it will continue to gather evidence from a The International Security Council announced Thursday that it will immediately study procedures to be taken against those who enable armed Somali movements who seek to overthrow the current Somali government. The list includes Eretria. The word \lquote Haram\rquote makes it into the English dictionary The English language is in constant expansion with new words added every day. The list includes the word \lquote Haram\rquote ; a reference to everything that is forbidden in Islamic law, and is one of one hundred new words added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dict Riots erupt in French town following death of detained man Leon \endash France \endash Reuters \endash Two hundred security force members spread in Firminy, South East France, following a second night of rioting ignited by the death of a 21 year old man in police custody. A group of youth ignited fire in garbage cans, burning cars and a social care center Thursday night following the death of Hamad Benmouna at an earlier time on Wednesday. The victim was a local resident detained on blackmail charges. Benmouna went into a coma following a suicide attempt, which eventually led to his death, according to police accounts. Autopsy reports claimed on Thursday that the death was caused by suffocation. Jac Pan, state prosecutor in St Etienne, the closest major city to Reuters, said that there \ldblquote was no evidence of violence on the victim\rdblquote . Benmouna\rquote s family seemed skeptical of the police\rquote s allegations that the victim used bed spreads to hang himself. Pan rejected claims that police forces mistreated Benmouna but said that the surveillance camera in the victim\rquote s cell was not working as it should be. An auditing agency has initiated an investigation in the case. Nine individuals were arrested Wednesday following Tuesday\rquote s riots after Benmouna slipped into a coma. Kouchner: Syrian-French consensus regarding Lebanon French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, held talks with the Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday. Kouchner said that there is consensus between Syria and France regarding the situation in Lebanon, the establishment of a Palestinian state, and making greater efforts to advance the peace process. This came at the press conference which Kouchner held in Damascus with his Syrian counterpart Walid Al-Moallem. The French Minister said that Damascus had done as France had requested in relation to Lebanon, and that there was consensus that formation of The two sides also discussed Iran and bilateral relations, and the French Minister pointed out that in this regard he had listened to the views of the Syrian President on Iran and that this was one area in which the two countries had differing views. Kouchner welcomed any Syrian mediation in relation to Iran. The French Minister met his Syrian counterpart yesterday in Damascus and chaired the Annual Conference of French Ambassadors in the region. Press sources had quoted the French Minister as saying that communications are underway to revive negotiations in relation to peace between Syria and Israel. On his part, Walid Al-Moallem said that his country welcomes the idea of the US President, Barak Obama, visiting Damascus. The Syrian President had recently announced in an interview with Sky News his desire to meet with Obama in Damascus. On his part, Obama said in an interview with Sky aired on Sunday that he hopes to make progress in improving US-Syrian relations. In response to Sky's question about the possibility of accepting the invitation to visit Damascus, Obama said it was suffice to say that he believes in dialogue, and that diplomatic communications had already begun between the two countries. The US president added there are aspects of Syrian behaviour that are cause for our concern, but we believe that Syria is able to play a greater role in a large number of issues. He added But as you know, I believe in commitment, and I hope that we can continue to see progress in these areas. The launching of the World Conference on Interfaith Dialogue s in Vienna with the 42 figures of senior scientists and figures participating. Al-Turkey: The meeting is a common task for building humane societies linked by ties of justice and cooperation Vienna: Bothaina Abdul Rahman Dr. Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Turky, the secretary general of the Muslim World League, hoped that the launch of the first meeting of the follow-up committee on the World Conference for Interfaith Dialogue, which began its sessions in the Hofburg Palace Dr al-Turky, had referred to what the Madrid Declaration included, which included a number of common concepts and principles that can be the starting point towards establishing a serious, meaningful and fruitful dialogue among the cultural and religiou The Egyptian today, in the House of the poet Maghagha, who was sentenced to imprisonment for insulting the president The family of Munir Hanna-the teacher Maghagha who was sentenced to prison for 3 years and 100 thousand Egyptian Pound for insulting the president of the Republic-asked President Mubarak to issue a presidential pardon for him. Hanna Saaid, the brother of The Egyptian today, visited Hanna\rquote s home and took some excerpts of the poems that Munir used to write on his computer and send to his friends and relatives after signing them and adding his phone number and his address. He was hoping, as his brother sa Munir says in a poem entitled \ldblquote Cheer:\rdblquote \ldblquote Cheer, cheer, cheer me, the person who loved you drove me crazy.. Cheer, cheer, cheer them, the persons that your appearance drove crazy.\rdblquote He also says in the poem entitled \ldblquote Shining:\rdblquote \ldblquote She makes the place where she Hanna Saaid, the brother of Munir, asked President Mubarak to issue a presidential pardon for his brother, for his old mother and his sick wife. The doctors amputated his wife\rquote s finger after the rise of sugar in her body after the issuance of her husband Hijab wearers banned from entering Alexandria\rquote s beaches By Shawqi Abdulqader and Sayyed Mahfouz Doctor Farid Ismail, parliament member, issued an urgent questioning to Prime Minister Doctor Ahmed Natheef , Zuhair Jarana, Tourism Minister, and lieutenant Abdul Salam Mahjoub, Local Development Minister, on the banning of headscarf wearers from enterin Ismail said in his questioning that this was a serious form of opposition to the veil and those who wear it. He also claimed that this was an attempt to promote vice and oppose virtue. Ismail stated that Agami, Ferdous, Mika, and Oxygen resorts in Alexa Geithner stresses balanced growth to evade crises US Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, stressed Wednesday the importance of establishing a foundation for balanced global economic growth in an effort to evade a potential economic crisis in the future. Abu Dhabi: Geithner told journalists during the second day of his Gulf tour, which also included Saudi Arabia: \ldblquote We do not just want to address the immediate cost of the financial crisis, but we want to rebuild a stronger foundation for a more balanced growth globall Geithner said during his Europe and Gulf tour that he aims to present a projection of the current situation, and to enforce the importance of returning to a growth route. Geithner\rquote s statements follow his participation in the Emirati-American Business Council in an effort to stress the importance of educational policies within the Middle East which should enforce economic growth, according to a press release issued from the His visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia and several European countries is believed to be aimed at shoring up conf In Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, he praised Gulf states for investing massively to pull their economies out of a sharp downturn, and said their money was welcome in the United States. In comments to Bloomberg after meeting US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Al Suwaidi reiterated his confidence in the US dollar. Bloomberg has reported Sultain Nasser Al Suwaidi saying It's very important to give realistic committal messages to the Regulatory institution declines Orange bid to purchase Mobinil Cairo: The general financial regulatory institution declined a compulsory bid issued by Orange Participations, which is entirely owned by France Telecom, to purchase all shares in the Egyptian mobile services company, Mobinil. The institution clarified t The financial markets institution had previously declined Orange\rquote s offer to purchase one hundred percent of Mobinil\rquote s shares due to the same reasons; the bid poses as a violation to the principal of equal opportunity between security owners , and those wh Thousands make pilgrimage to Al Imam Al Kathem's shrine Thousands of Iraqis have flocked to Al Kathemeyya on Saturday to commemorate Al Imam Al Khathem\rquote s death amid tight security measures. The streets of Baghdad were packed with men, women, and children who were walking with black, red, and green flags despi The streets of Baghdad witnessed traffic disruption yesterday due to road and bridge intersections, which the visitors used to get to Al Kathemeyya. The city is anticipated to accommodate a huge number of visitors today, which is the death anniversary of Hundreds of corridors have been set up to serve water, juices, food meals and pose as a rest stop for visitors. Emergency services have also been made available through medical teams and setting up operational rooms in all of Al Kathemeyya, Al Karagh, an Baghdad\rquote s operational leadership had announced in a press statement that motorcycles and carts will be prohibited as of Thursday and up to Sunday to ensure smooth traffic flow; these security measures have been enforced to ensure that no riots or explosio Operation leader and lieutenant general Aboud Kanbar said in a press statement that ministries are currently on stand-by, and that several meetings were held of ministers and top officials over the past two weeks. Land surveys were also conducted to ensu Kanbar said Iraqi security forces would work on protecting visitors until the end of the visit. Thousand police and military troops have been dispersed in the streets, and many check-points have been set up on high buildings and especially in the Katheme There have been no disruptions to the visit, apart from a reported explosion close to Al Tala\rquote e arena which led to the injury of eighteen individuals. Baghdad - Ahmed Rahima Mashaie denies walking off from VP post Khatami requests poll on legitimacy of Ahmadinejad\rquote s re-election News reports mentioned Monday that former Iranian president, Muhammed Khatami, requested a poll on the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\rquote s re-election. A website related to the reformist movement reported Khatami saying, during a meeting with families of political detainees, \ldblquote that the only exit to the current crises was a poll whereby Iranian people are asked if they are satisfied with the current politi The former reformist president said: \ldblquote Opposition will surrender if the vast majority voted in favor of re-electing Ahmadinejad\rdblquote The former president, who ruled Iran for a period of eight years from 1997 to 2005, became a strong opponent to Ahmadinejad when the latter accused his policies of being a \ldblquote disgrace\rdblquote on Iran. DDP reports Khatami saying: \ldblquote Not only is the republican aspect of the Islamic Republic of Iran currently being challenged, but so is the Islamic aspect\rdblquote in reference to the arrests conducted against ministers and former parliament members. Khatami said:\rdblquote The Islamic aspect of governance entails a policy of justice, but this principal is being questions by many ruling authorities.\rdblquote On a different note, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, who was appointed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as VP, has strongly denied resigning from his post. Mashaie said in a press statement issued on his website that \ldblquote some internet websites reported his resignation from his post as VP; a coordinated action which aimed at the government.\rdblquote Iranian media had reported that Mashaie, who is very close to Ahmadinejad, resigned from his post only three days following his appointment. Iranian Mililitant Clerics, a pro former president Mohammad Khatami association that include reformist clerics, demanded on Monday 20-7-2009 the organization of a referendum on the legality of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, considering Swiss FM receives Hamas delegation, calls movement 'important player' Minister said she seeks to organize a meeting with Gaddafi to contain disagreement Zurich - AFP: Swiss Foreign Minister confirmed yesterday that the Islamic resistance movement Hamas was an important player in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Israel expressed anger at the movement's visit to Switzerland. Hamas is an important player in the conflict in the Middle East and it should not be ignored, Micheline Calmy-Rey told local paper NZZ am Sonntag in an interview. She added that the signatories of the Geneva Initiative achieved great progress, in reference to the informal peace plan the two former ministers Israeli Yossi Beilin and Palestinian Yasser Abd Rabu negotiated. Calmy-Rey explained a 400-page report on this initiative will be handed over to the various parties of the conflict. The Swiss Foreign Minister also stated that her country seeks to organize a meeting between Swiss President Hans Rudolf Merz and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi aiming to contain the two-year long discord between their respective countries. We cannot resolve this conflict in a rational way, she told the paper. If it were for seeking a rational solution, it would have been only a few millimetres away from our reach, she added, indicating that Bern was looking for an immediate meeting between Merz and Gaddafi. The minister explained that Switzerland saw in this conflict a State of the law matter, while Lybia considered the disagreement an issue of honor. Relations between the two countries become strained since July 15, 2008, when one of the Libyan leader's sons, Hannibal Gaddafi, and his pregnant wife were arrested in one Geneva's luxury hotels following a complaint made by two of their domestics for ill The couple were released after a two-day detention and payment of a half million Swiss francs (312,500 euros) bail. In retaliation, Libya stopped in October 2008 its oil exports to Switzerland and withdrawn from the Swiss bank funds estimated at five billion euros. It also put an end to cooperation programmes between the two countries and imposed restrictions on the Sw Is the dissemination of personal information included on the list of those eligible to vote an attack on the personal freedom of citizens? Lebanese law does not provide an answer, but will the resentment that arose following this publication instigate the Baroud also demonstrates that the publication of this information was in accordance with the electoral law: «If citizens vote according to information such as their full name, their mother\rquote s name and their sect then we should publish that information in o Interior Minister Ziad Baroud agrees with Ghantous, which is not surprising since she is a member of his working group. Baroud, who accepts criticism very openly, considers it important to explain the reasons why the publication of this information electr - Married twice, for example, or the disclosure of the existence of certain diseases in the family. - Such as what? Lawyer Mary Ghantous affirms the absence of any law dealing with this issue, and denies any violation of personal freedoms. on the contrary, in her opinion, the personal information published by the ministry «promotes transparency and reduces the possibil Under Article 33 of the election law, issued on the 8th of October 2008, states that: The General Directorate of personal conditions sends, before the 10th of February of each year, copies of the electoral rolls preliminary selected municipalities and ma But is the information published online an assault on personal freedom? Is it a personal right to the owner? What are the specific informations that may not be published? We asked legal experts, but the answers were not clear. Lawyer Mary Rose Zalzal admi A jurist and activist in the defense of human rights, admits that he did not pay attention to the issue before the question was addressed to him. But he understands the concerns of those opposed to this move, comparing their reaction to similar ones that Those against this move \endash insisting it violates their personal freedom \endash agree on the absence of any legal text to support their point of view. It also irritates them that most Lebanese are not aware of their right to keep this information private. «I do Shadi, a computer engineer, says that the availability of this information saves robbers 70% they need to do in terms when search for information, especially if they specialize in electronic theft.«What is the information we provide to the banks for examp Nawal objects, for example, on the publication of her birth date, information she considers to be private: «I do not want anyone to know my real age. This is my right.». Jananne does not like the idea of everyone knowing her sect. Something she struggles This scene may be dismissed by some as \ldblquote childish games\rdblquote , those with a sense of humor like to compare this website to \ldblquote Facebook\rdblquote . But others are infuriated as they believe the dissemination of information on the electoral lists, and the availability of suc In the cafe, the young men, all under 25 years old, are looking for information about ...Girls. «Sawfar, are there any Christians there?\rdblquote Asks one of them, \ldblquote my friend tells me that the girl I am going out with is lying. She says she\rquote s Christian, he insis Maha Zaraqit _The noise in the Beirut Internet café a few weeks ago was unusual. Usually, each person sits behind a computer surfing his own cyberwolrd. They rarely discuss any website together or laugh about it. That is what a website affiliated to the L [Lebanese] Internal Ministry adopts a \ldblquote Facebook\rdblquote approach without breaking the law Article 34 states: The ministry announces, within the deadline mentioned in the previous article, by means of the visual, audio and written media, the readiness of the electoral lists. Calls on voters to revise and correct them. To this end the ministry Khatami: The solution lies in referendum … Mousavi: They insulted forty million voters Khamanei: Everyone should be discrete., Mashaie rules out resignation as rumor Tehran: Al Sharq Al Awsat Former reformist President, Mohamed Khatami, called for a referendum on the legitimacy of Iran\rquote s government, thereby challenging Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who yesterday condemned external intervention in Iran\rquote s political crises. Both stances run in pa According to an internet source, Mousavi wondered: \ldblquote Isn\rquote t it an insult to forty million voters when arrests are linked to foreign countries? Our loved ones are imprisoned and lawyers haven\rquote t been able to reach them; they are under pressure to confess\rdblquote Khamanei accused \ldblquote Iran\rquote s enemies\rdblquote of supporting violence and riots following the last presidential elections, and especially through mass media. Khamenei addressed his comments to the elite, saying they could be careful in the positions they take on the postelection dispute; addressing issues in need of address was of their duty, while discussing others that should not be discussed is a breach o Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is also the father in law of Ahmadinejad\rquote s son, had denied his resignation from his post as VP, ruling out the news as a rumor spread by his enemies through Iranian media. Ali Akbar, Ahmadinejad\rquote s councilor, had recently crit Mecca faces influenza challenges The Saudi Ministry of Health has taken a necessary preemptive move by banning Hajj for children, seniors, and sick individuals in light of the global swine flu pandemic. This is a precautionary measure aimed at containing the issue. Authorities have taken the decision while bearing in mind that the disease, although limited at present, remains one without a vaccine or cure. There is greater concern that the virus may evolve into a deadly epidemic. There are more challenges in Mecca than any other place in the world. Millions of pilgrims flock to the holy city at different times of the year. Bigger challenges lie ahead during pilgrimage peak times only four months away. Banning Hajj and Umrah is I understand there are people who underestimate the gravity of the disease as only seven hundred individuals have died as a result of swine flu; a rate less than that attributed to regular influenza. This opinion is valid for people with no responsibilit The situation is even direr in Mecca, the destination of a billion Muslims, three million pilgrims, and more than twenty million people who perform Umrah from outside and within. Health authorities have publicized warnings against the new pandemic. As s We all know that Hajj is a cause for political controversy not only for Saudi Arabia, the hosting country, but for other Islamic nations that avoid banning, restricting, or imposing conditions on their pilgrims. These mutual fears and sensitivities shoul We should acknowledge that this is an exceptional year, which means that certain institutions, such as the Islamic Conference Organization, together with the hosting country, should study how to manage the worst-case scenario through acknowledging potenti Saudi Arabia: We must stop violations that are committed in the name of combating terrorism We were scared that something wrong happened to him, that perhaps he was subjected to torture. We called the prison, but they answered: be patient, the investigation is not over yet. I yelled: Let me just listen to the voice of my husband. His disappe The wife of Khalil Abdel Rahman Abdel Karim al-Janahi, who was arrested at the airport in Riyadh in April, 2007. Amnesty International Organization said in a new comprehensive report published today that the Saudi authorities launched an attack on human rights under the guise of fighting terrorism. Thousands of people were arrested and detained secretly, while others were killed in mysterious circumstances. Hundreds of others face secret trials with a brief action, and it is likely they will end up executed. News reported that many were subjected to In July 8, July 2009, the Ministry of Justice of Saudi Arabia declared that 330 people were tried on charges related to terrorism and pronounced verdicts against them ranging between fine and execution. The names of suspects and details of the charges wer Malcolm Smart, director of the programme for the Middle East and North Africa in the Amnesty International organization, said that these unjust measures to combat terrorism have boosted the deterioration of the human rights situation that is already dete There are some intellectual prisoners among the thousands who were detained by the authorities; who were targeted as a result of the peaceful criticism of the government policies. Most of the detainees are those suspected to have supported Islamic groups The measures adopted by the government since the September 11, 2009 attacks that took place in the United States of America led to the aggravation of the violations of human rights that have long been used in the country. The arbitrary arrests of the political and suspects and their detaining for long periods without trial and without the contacting their lawyers is one of the human rights issues that have been faced for long in Saudi Arabia, but the number of those people In July 2007, the Saudi Ministry of Interior declared that nine thousand people of the suspects were detained during the period from the year 2003 to the year 2007, and 3106 of them were still in detention. Others were transferred to an official programme Among what the News reported on the methods of torture and other forms of abuses were: beatings with sticks, punching, and hanging in the ceiling, electric shocks, deprivation of sleep. The punishment of whipping is also used as legal punishment separatel The Amnesty International Organization report sheds light on the nature of the trials of political and security prisoners in Saudi Arabia, which took place in secrecy and which are not in conformity with international standards of fair trial. In March 200 The anti-terrorism measures that were adopted in 2001 were a setback to the limited reform in the human rights domain in Saudi Arabia. As a result and in addition to severe repression of all of the opposition and the weakness of the human rights framework Iran\rquote s democracy in an Arabic mirror The Arab position on everything related to Iran's is affected by previous tensions. Shiite-Sunni bilateralism and the date of that division is not away from the sight of the political discourse in the Middle East. Since the Iranian revolution and the Arab The thing that scares the moderate Arabs the most is the achievements realized by those described as the tools of the Mullahs regime. In this context, paradoxically, it uses the pretext of the lack of democracy under the principle of the rule of the schol The Arabs are not neutral on the explosive situation in Iran, the so-called axis of Arab moderation (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the like) is recently taken to advocate against the Iranian threat in the region, in place of the Israeli danger. The A On the other hand, it is not appropriate for Hezbollah in Lebanon, for example to watch the Iranian police shooting dead the protesters and demonstrators in the streets of Tehran, which affected its image in the light of the sharp media attacks that were But what most critics of Hezbollah or Iran are missing, given that they side with the policies of the United States in the region on the basis of affiliation to the values of the time, progress and civilization, is that the Arab countries do not actually Wael Abbas .. We received information about you Last Tuesday morning, security officers detained Egyptian blogger and rights activists Wael Abbas for thirteen hours in Cairo\rquote s airport, upon his return from a conference in Sweden. His laptop is still being held by anti-piracy authorities in Egypt. Abb Alexandra Sandles \endash Menassat Prominent Egyptian blogger and human rights activist, Wael Abbas Wael Abbas travelled to different areas of the world in order to present speeches on human right violations in Egypt, and the role blogging has to play in exposing these violations which are committed by the state. Some have jokingly nicknamed him the \ldblquote o blog, and he is one of the most famous bloggers across the Arab world. He has won several international press awards for exposing different social issues, such as police violence, torture, and sexual harassment in Egypt. \ldblquote Egyptian Awareness\rdblquote Abbas administers the Abbas had rarely been detained in the airport, despite clashing with Egyptian authorities several times. It seems that Abbas\rquote attendance at the . High profile individuals participated in the forum, including prominent politicians, intellects, and public personas. Abbas engaged in discussions on the applicability of freedom of expression in Egypt and social interaction tools. form on global interdependence, held annually North of Sweden, had grabbed the Egyptian authorities\rquote attention Tilburg Abbas said that, upon his arrival to the passport checkpoint in Cairo\rquote s airport, around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, an official revoked his travel document and asked him to wait. Nobody told him why his passport was confiscated. Abbas told Menassat: \ldblquote I repeatedly asked the officer why my passport was taken away. Nobody answered me. I was asked if I was ever stopped in the airport before.\rdblquote Sit-in A short while later, Abbas reported an officer whispered that his passport is being held by Egyptian internal security forces. Abbas responded with a sit-in in the airport; he received arrivals with a paper that said: \ldblquote Internal security confiscated my pa Security officers seemed to be amused by what he did. \ldblquote I held the piece of paper. They didn\rquote t like it; there were many foreigners at the airport. For this reason, they decided to return my passport.\rdblquote Finally, Abbas was able to take back his passport. He headed towards baggage claim where he was in for yet another surprise \endash his luggage had \ldblquote disappeared\rdblquote . Abbas said: \ldblquote I headed towards baggage claim but of course, my entire luggage had disappeared. So I went to the customs counter where I was told that I was forbidden to leave because I had no luggage outside. I don\rquote t think that was true.\rdblquote Custom officials then told Abbas he would be subjected to inspection. \ldblquote They searched every paper in my bag, and then they inspected the medication I was taking, pill by pill, and asked me why I was on medication. I wondered if they were searching for drugs.\rdblquote When Abbas joked with the officer on the importance of his medication, he responded by saying: \ldblquote We received information about you\rdblquote and continued to scrutinize his belongings. Abbas\rquote wallet and laptop were eventually confiscated. Abbas claimed that they quickly returned his camera after discovering that it only held photographs of Swedish forests and animals. A security official took away Abbas\rquote laptop after telling him it would be sent away to the technical affairs department \endash the electronic anti-piracy authorities in Egypt, where it would be scanned for any illegal or pirated material. Abbas called these procedures \ldblquote ridiculous\rdblquote ; he believes there were no real ground to confiscating his laptop. \ldblquote Anyway, I\rquote ve got nothing to hide. I post everything on my blog, but I\rquote m concerned they might install spyware on my laptop.\rdblquote \ldblquote Threatening Egypt\rquote s Interests\rdblquote \ldblquote I think someone set me up. I was searched before but never like this. This reminds me of what happened to Huwaida Taha.\rdblquote Taha is an Egyptian journalist who worked for Al Jazeera. She was stopped in January of 2007 in Cairo just as she was about to depart from Egypt. Taha was working on a documentary on police violence in Egypt; she was sentenced to six months of imprisonm Abbas also believes this has something to do with his attendance at the Swedish forum. \ldblquote When they searched my papers, they really focused on documents related to the forum. I was asked if I had any additional documents from the conference. I think they photocopied them.\rdblquote Abbas seems to believe that some members of the ruling National Democratic Party in Egypt, who attended the forum, were the ones who set him up. The blogger reported on Twitter \ldblquote NDP elements were in attendance at the Tilburg forum, and told security authorities that I opposed Egyptian interests\rdblquote According to Daily News Egypt , Abbas believes some members of the government\rquote s \ldblquote Next Generation\rdblquote organization, who attended the conference, were behind his set up. Abbas said he criticized Egyptian authorities several times during the conference. Abbas had issued a report on his detention and laptop confiscation to the police. He stated that police officers were hesitant about accepting the report and that a senior officer tried to convince him to change some of his writings, and advised him not Poll: For the first time in the Islamic World….An American president\rquote s popularity surpasses that of Bin Laden A recently published poll revealed that the United States\rquote image has largely improved in many countries due to the election of American president Barack Obama, despite the fact that many Middle Eastern nations remain skeptical of the US. The survey, which was conducted by researchers at the Pew center, said that while the United States\rquote image was greatly enhanced in many countries across the world, Muslims still carry strong reservations and continue to perceive the US negatively. Twenty seven thousand people participated in the poll, which was conducted from the 18th of May to the 16th of June in twenty four countries, including Palestine. The poll revealed that \ldblquote hostility towards the United Stated was deeply rooted in Turkey, Pa The survey revealed that perception has improved in some Islamic and Middle Eastern countries, following Obama\rquote s election whose father was a Muslim and who exerts a lot of effort in extending a friendly hand to the Islamic world, compared to his White Hou Only a slight improvement to US perception was noted in Pakistan and Palestine. A better perception was recorded in Egypt and Jordan. The report also revealed a strong improvement in the US\rquote image in Western Europe and Canada; observers revealed their confidence that Obama would direct movement in the United States to address climatic change. Critiquing the 23rd of July revolution Once again, the 23rd of July revolution consumes my thoughts. No other event in contemporary or ancient Egyptian history leaves you feeling indecisive about whether you are a supporter of its virtues or an opponent of its vices. One thousand question ma -The transition from a monarchy to a republican system: Indeed, the move was great thing and one of the many benefits of the revolution, but how did this happen? Who elected the Republic\rquote s president? How long was the president in power? Since the revoluti of those four presidents, some have ruled longer than many royal members did. this leave us in terms of a republican system? What did the revolution accomplish? We come to find that, So where does Indeed, the feudal system was eliminated and, upon enacting the nation\rquote s constitution, the first article clearly states that the Republic of Egypt is a socialist nation. What were economic conditions like at the time of the revolution? How was the social the goals and aims of the revolution was to abolish the feudal system and to overcome the prevalence of capitalism. Feudalism also exists within the manufacturing industry; each business man has come to monopolize an industry or trade and name it after himself, a fine example of which is the country\rquote s steel mogul. Once again, where is the socialist system here and wha that we have returned to a feudal system but in a more subtle form. -One of -Agricultural reform laws \endash This law re-affirms the English proverb that goes ended up constructing buildings on the lands, or selling the land and moving to Cairo. The truth is that these lands constituted Egypt\rquote s most fertile areas and could have yielded the best Egyptian cotton, but have instead gone to waste. Another accompli Everyone knows that most of the farmers who claimed ownership of these lands without exerting any kind of effort -Building the high dam: If I may say so, building Khufu\rquote s pyramid was the most significant project to bring together the people of Egypt in ancient history, and is only matched by the construction of the high dam, one Egypt\rquote s greatest accomplishments in m and the high dam became an Egyptian symbol. Any nation seeking to wage war against Egypt takes up destroying the high dam as a primary goal. We saw that even countries without an army, such as Libya, threatened to destroy the high dam when Al Sadat was in power. This is only one side to the story, however \endash the Nile\rquote s annual flood purified its waters from germs and pollutants. The water grew listless wi The construction of the dam also caused an increase in salty water on delta coasts, which led to the ruin of thousands of acres of land. Lastly, the construction of the dam in such capacity and weight caused Earth crusts in the region, and led to tribal conflict in Aswan. -Nationalizing the Suez Canal: This was a wonderful decision when taking into consideration the International Bank\rquote s refusal to finance the construction of the high dam, and the Egyptian government\rquote s will to reaffirm sovereignty of its land. But was it w These are only some of the revolution\rquote s accomplishments; we can also discuss the free educational system and the liberties granted to the people of Egypt, or the establishment of Egyptian intelligence services. We won\rquote t discuss Salah Nasr or Shams Badran This is still a perplexing issue \endash was the revolution beneficial to the people of Egypt or was it a vice? Mystery surrounds Facebook ban of Ismail Haniya page 26 July 2009 Facebook administration has banned Ismail Haniyeh\rquote s fan page. Haniyeh was the former Gazan Prime Minister and is currently a prominent leader in the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas. The fan page supervisor said Facebook banned the group page title \lquote Commander Ismail Haniyeh\rquote after ten thousand fans subscribed to it. He said the Facebook administration omitted the page without providing any clear justifications. He warned that the administration might take the same step with other Hamas leadership fan pages, including Khaled Mishaal, the political bureau chairman of Hamas. Mishaal\rquote s page currently has over seventeen thousand subscribers. AlHayah newspaper reported Sunday that Facebook activists have launched a campaign aimed at the Facebook administration to request the restoration of Haniyeh\rquote s page, and the retention of all Palestinian resistance leadership fan pages, in support of their It is speculated that Facebook was under pressure from Israel, the US, or lobbyists who work for the Hebrew nation and oppose Palestinians and resistance movements, including Hamas. During a heated debate that I took part in, in the TV programme, \lquote Bil Masri el-Faseeh\rquote (In fluent Egyptian) aired by the satellite channel \lquote On tv\rquote , I came to realize the size of the impending disaster Egypt is about to face. A question was posed through t Those close to the political Islam circles, know well that their leaders are having internal fights among themselves using all weapons permitted and prohibited. But for example, in the Qemni\rquote s battle they come out togther as one man, they even distribut Hundreds of questions are persistently crossing my mind: Should the Ministry of Culture consult Dar al-Iftaa and the al-Azhar Scholars Front, and perhaps the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda network, before it decides to grant the state awards for this yea Is it professional of a journalist to cite only parts taken out of context and submit it to the Mufti to pull out a fatwa against those who disagree with him? Can a man with a pen take judicial pursuits as his favourite hobby, instead of opting to all the Let us admit without stubbornness that Egypt now is somehow unwell, and that the cultural and political climate is going through a moment of acute sorting out, and a turning point between a trend that seeks to take it back the caves of the past, and anoth But in spite of all this darkness, I believe that the hysteria of those neurotics in distress is a logical matter because in those cases where the disease controls the body, its immune system is weakened, and so the opportunistic microbes activate and man Where do we seek refuge, my Lord, from the venom of these scorpions messing around in our minds? Do we succumb to this evil giant that uses his powers against the creative, with a sword at times, and a stick or the whips of a guardian at others? And since we do not know another homeland to inhabit but Egypt, and because we also do not intend to sign the instrument of a waiver of the future of our children for the best interest of the sellers of religious mania, our main bet remains on the resilie The bottom line is, do not leave al-Qemni stand alone in a battle that bigger than him or any other one who stands alone. It is a matter of Egypt\rquote s future and position, we have to defend a homeland that is as beautiful as a garden that is big enough for a God be our savior The state award for the infidels The growing concerns and preparations between the security services in Germany in case of the implementation of terrorist attacks by the al Qaeda network with the approach of the date of the parliamentary elections to be held in the twenty seventh of Sept Ethiopian Agriculture Minister: Nile basin nations meetings aim to resolve conflict Ethiopian Minister of agriculture and rural development, Asfaw Dingamo, said Nile basin nations meetings discussed old issues that posed as obstacles to some projects. He said the meetings aimed to find a resolution for all the issues. Dingamo said in a statement following the Nile basin nations meeting that a commission will be launched within six months, comprised of representatives from the Nile basin countries. He said that, by this time, all pending matters should be resolved. Dingamo stated that the hydroelectric project linking Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia hopes to accomplish the developmental goals of the Nile basin countries. He said the meeting set to be held on August 11th in Egypt will discuss effective plans to launch th Yemeni Journalists Association's statement on death threats against colleague Morad Hashim, Al-Jazeera's office director in Yemen The Yemeni Journalists Association strongly condemns the death threats against our colleague Morad Hashim, director of Al-Jazeera Channel's office in Yemen and member of the Association, and considers those threats a degradation of ethics and a serious ag The Association expresses deep concerns and annoyance caused by the repeated series of threats and provocations against colleagues working in the office of Al-Jazeera Channel, which reveals uneasiness and discomfort from the professional role played by th The Association, renewing its condemnation of denunciation towards these threats that reflect cowardliness and lowness, holds in total clearness the full responsibility to the Government and the authorities and the security institutions as to the appreh The Journalists Association, while reminding the authorities of their duty to providing the protection of the souls and dignity of citizens, also reminds them that the colleagues working in the office of Al Jazeera Channel in Yemen have been and still are Also, a number of colleague journalists in the office were lately exposed to physical attacks, such as colleague Fadel Mubarak in the Abyan province who was attacked by members of the so-called Al-Harrak and members of the central security forces, in addi The Journalists Association, while citing all these serious abuses suffered by our colleagues members of the Association working in the office of Al-Jazeera Channel, voices its full and unlimited solidarity and support to them, as well as its commitment t The Yemeni Journalists Association in Sanaa Nahid Imam Dear Fisk, thank you I invite you my dear reader to reflect on the angry reading done by the veteran British journalist Robert Fisk on the recent report of the Arab Human Development recently issued by the United Nations Development Programme, where he posed the question: Fisk refused also through his angry reads how the Arabs, namely us, are resorting to the pretexts of colonial oppression and Western conspiracies as a justification for their disability to confront (the tyrant rulers). He then asked (angrily) why does lif No doubt that this angry read is worth a thoughtful through reading; irrespective of the justification of Fisk\rquote s anger, one can opt to assume good will and say that this anger is humane and good, and you have the right to enjoy it, because it is wonderfu It is true that among the Egyptian people are those who do not know the famous journalist, Khairy Ramadan, as well as not know Robert Fisk, but our people (of poor education) knows for sure \lquote Mr. X\rquote , and knows this movie starring Fouad al-Muhandis by heart Why does he see us so backward in Hi-tech, for example, but does not see our genius in this high tok-tok , take away and talk shows? Can\rquote t he see they\rquote re achievements in various areas?! Doesn\rquote t he see our unprecedented steps in the increasing of crime and family crimes? Take this for instance, a husband throws his wife out of the balcony and sits to read the Koran until the police is there to arrest him. Can\rquote t he see all this faiths and Can\rquote t Fisk see that our women are still the tell-a-tale Shahrazad who tells the stories of her tragedies in a \ldblquote contemporary\rdblquote movie that depicts the wretched place our women live in the best, for nothing more than her being Shahrazad, the only one who was Fisk entered the vicious circle that we know, but in the end, as we understand from his words, he throws the ball back at you, dear reader. Your street is not clean, and the problem is in your mind. The crisis of intellects, we know about it, and for thos Robert Fisk criticizes underdevelopment and corruption in the Arab world The fifth Arab Human Development Report issued last week raised a lot of comments in the foreign press covering the political, economic and social situation in the Arab countries, but the comment of the veteran writer Robert Fisk in the independent newspa Vesk has started his comment saying: let's talk with this terrible acuteness: Why is the Arab world very backward? Why are there so many dictators? And a few of human rights? Many a lot of state security and torture? and a horrible rate of illiteracy? Why Despite the recognition of vesk on the Western colonialism history and the evil plots of the West and the Arab controversy that it is impossible to be against the Kings and rulers and religious and Emams and the princes when the enemy is at the door, bu British writer reviewed the main points in the report, in whose preparation participated a number of arab analysts and academics, referring to the political and economic vulnerability and the environment in the region. Fesik added that he saw more than was stated in the report itself. When he visited the Middle East for the first time in 1976, it was crowded enough: Cairo's streets were full of smoke, its streets crowded day and night, with almost one million people liv I doubt that the origin of the problem is in the Arab mind. They do not feel their countries. They do not feel a sense of belonging as the one felt by Westerners. Most importantly, they are not able to choose real representatives, not even in Lebanon outs Fisk goes on to say that the first report of the Arab Human Development, which was issued in 2002, was very disappointing and pointed out that there are three obstacles to human development in the Arab world: knowledge and women's rights and freedom? And The writer refers that he was surprised with the mentality of the high-profile Cairo University students, while he was delivering a lecture at the same venue in which Obama gave his speech last month. There was a lot of well-cultivated girls in the lectur Yes it is possible to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict and rectify the imbalances present in the Arab society. However, there are also a lot of problems that should be solved such as domestic violence, which has become more prevalent in the Arab world than In the end, the writer says, that the West should with all means quit dealing with the Middle East militarily, and send Western teachers to Arabs, as well as scientists in different fields, and get back the troops. The Arabs are not challenging but they Of course the Arabs or the other Islamic states outside the Arab world like Iran and Afghanistan will not achieve equality between the sexes or democracy like West. Yet, their release from the custody of the West may contribute to the development of thei Bahrain's Chamber of Commerce refuses to implement the decision of cancelling the sponsorship system With the decision entering into effect today Naziha Saeed Naziha Saeed from Manama: The Bahraini Chamber of Commerce and Industry confirmed its position on the decisions of granting freedom of movement to foreign workers, which entered into effect today Saturday August 1st. the Chamber said in a statement it was its duty to recall and dr The Chamber also demanded that regulations allowing for the transfer of workers include the right of the employer to disbursement of fees and expenses related to recruitment, among others, whenever such expenses were mentioned in the employment contract. Starting from Saturday, the decision of cancelling the sponsorship system enters into effect, allowing expatriates and foreign employees the freedom of transfer from an institution to another without the approval of their current employer, with some regul The Indian Embassy in Bahrain announced a month ago it started imposing a financial guarantee of $2500 (about BD 945) on house domestics, as well as imposing a minimum wage of BD 100 per month, adding a new burden on Bahraini families. The Ambassador just Meanwhile, the Bahraini Ministry of Labor said the decision aimed to reaffirm the Kingdom's commitment to human rights standards, and to create a better environment to match the skills available with the required professions, in addition to reducing the c The Ministry of Interior to prevent \lquote TelQuel\rquote and \lquote Nichane\rquote for wronging the King. Tariq al-Atifi In the photo, Ahmed Bnchemsi posing in front of a poster of the confiscated \lquote Nichane\rquote edition \endash shot by (Ace Press) The Ministry of Interior has ordered yesterday, Saturday, the confiscation of two magazines, the francophone TelQuel and the Arabic-language \lquote Nichane.\rquote The confiscation was clarified to have been with regards to the last two editions of the two weeklies a The Ministry of Interior ascribed the decision of confiscating the two magazines run by Benchemsi, to the series of articles the magazines published that criticize the legal requirements in action, and said that the seizure was based on Article 77 of the Ahmed Nagim and Ahmed Benchemsi examining the confiscated editions of the \lquote Nichane\rquote According to the chapters that explained the confiscation, it turns out that the matter is related to one of the files that Ahmed Benchemsi was keen to publish on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the enthronement of King Mohammed VI. Apparently, t The \lquote TelQuel\rquote and \lquote Nichane\rquote got also the attention of the public opinion, especially after a confrontation broke out between Ahmed Benchemsi, director of the magazines and the Rachid Nini, director of al-Masaa newspaper, whereas the latter accused the firs . The director of TelQuel and Nichane, Ahmed Benchemisi, said in a press statement following the banning incident that the reason for the seizure magazines is in reality mainly due to the fact that they have been published, in cooperation with the French Le According to what observers see, the Moroccan authorities wanted the poll with results of not less than 99,9 percent if not 100 percent approving views by the Moroccans of the King's ruling. Benchemsi revealed that the authorities had informed him that it was not acceptable on principle to carry out an opinion poll on the King and that was the reason for the confiscation of the two weeklies. , explaining that Le Monde will publish the results of the poll next Tuesday The Minister of Communication, Khaled al-Nasiri, told Agence France Press that: the treatment Would be the same with any party that would publish the poll He added: The Royal regime in Morocco cannot be the subject of controversy through a survey, he said, adding \ldblquote If Le Monde publishes the poll it will not be allowed to be sold in Morocco. At laaaaaast Someone not from here Go back› DBA - A Palestinian official condemned the seizure by the Israeli authorities on Sunday of two Palestinian houses in the Sheikh Jarrah district in Jerusalem, before they were turned over to Jewish settlers, considering the act as another nail in the coff Palestinian presidency condemns the Israeli authorities' seizure of two houses in Jerusalem In statements to the press, the president of the Palestinian presidency office Rafik Al-Husseini said that Israel by seizing the houses of the Hannoun and Ghawi families in the district of Sheikh Jarrah, struck yet another nail in the coffin of the peace The Israeli police today has evacuated by force two Palestinian houses and delivered them to Jewish settlers based on an Israeli court decision in this regard. Al-Husseini confirmed that all documents prove ownership of these houses by the Jerusalemite f He added that the occupation forces evacuated and displaced these families with the purpose of establishing a Jewish settlement in their place, and that the case was now a matter of public opinion at the Arab, Islamic and international levels, and not Palestinian sources said a Palestinian was seriously injured while standing up to the attempts to seize the two Palestinians houses in Jerusalem. Violent clashes took place between Palestinians and foreign supporters, on the one hand, and the Israeli police and settlers, on the other hand, who started to evacuate the Ghawi and Hanoun families from their homes before seizing them. A number of Palestinians were injured during the clashes that took place in the surroundings of Umm Kamil's tent in the Sheikh Jarrah district, after the Israeli forces carried out the demolition of the tent. The Israeli authorities sent additional troops A large force of police broke into the two houses and evacuated their inhabitants by force, started to empty the premises of all their contents, before imposing a siege on members of the two families in a nearby place. An Israeli court had granted the two The Palestinians say that the Israeli authorities are escalating attacks on the Palestinian citizens in Arab districts in Eastern Jerusalem with the aim of forcing them to evacuate and confiscating their homes for the benefit of Jewish settlers. Print a copy E-mail: Iran at crossroads The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been suffering from division, lack of legitimacy, and a persistently growing frailty ever since the Iranian elections conducted several weeks ago. The current situation resembles the political turbulence From a historical perspective, the Iranian government relies on four sources for legitimacy, which are (1) its ability to run country affairs, (2) official religious authorities, (3) its commitment to retaining Iran\rquote s independence, and (4) its ability to This legitimacy has long suffered from frailty, even amongst the ruling regime and traditional Islamists. Ayotallah Ali Sistani (a prominent Shiite religious authority in Iraq) opposes the guardianship of Islamic jurists. Ayotallah Ali Muntatheri (who w On another note, the ruling regime lost an important platform, paving the way for political tyranny in Iran \endash which is the economical platform related to special bazaars and senior land owners. Therefore, the ruling regime enforced itself through other m At the end of it all, a financial military mafia took over the most important support foundation in Iran, which is religious authority. The revolutionary guard has now taken over the government with belief that the mission of religious figures is not to As was the case with the Shah regime, the strength of the current ruling regime is internally and externally based, subjecting it to turbulence. A comparison can be drawn between Jimmy Carter\rquote s election in 1976 and swearing-in Barack Obama in 2008; the The question is: where will all this lead to? In a partial sense, the future may depend on the result of a political crisis caused by Ayotallah Khamenei himself. The truth remains that the elections were forged, and that Khamenei attempted a \ldblquote soft coup\rdblquote , Changing the situation within either camp is political suicide. Khamenei and Ahmadinejad cannot confess to forging the elections; doing so would destroy what\rquote s left of their legal and political legitimacy. Former president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani faces str This opens the way to several possibilities. From a historical perspective, the only way for the ruling regime to maintain control was to divide the elite within the nation to two competing groups, and then eliminate one of them. The consequences will be Iran suspends the Umrah during Ramadan Iran decided, yesterday, to ban its citizens from performing the Umrah rites during the coming month of Ramadan over fears of the spread of H5N1, commonly known as swine flu, in Saudi Arabia. The Mehr News Agency (MNA) reported that the semi-official news were quoted from the statement by the deputy chairman of the committee on health of the Islamic Shura Council (parliament), Ali Hussein Shahriari, that the members of the committee reached a Meanwhile, the Saudi Council of Ministers stressed, yesterday, the obligation of the Umrah performers to abide by the precautionary conditions stated by the Ministry of Health against swine flu. The Saudi news agency quoted the Minister of Higher Education, Minister of Culture and Information on behalf of Khaled bin Mohammad al-Ankari as saying in a statement following the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers, that Health Minister, Abdullah Al-Ankari said that the Council reviewed a report by the Minister of Health on the latest preparations from all sectors relevant to the service of pilgrims and visitors to the holy city of Mecca and Al medina al-Munawara to receive the guests during the m He pointed out that the Council reaffirmed the importance of the commitment on the part of the citizens and residents to commit to the conditions and preventive measures against the disease as stated by the Ministry of Health. Iraqi government prepares to shut down websites The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) warns Government the Iraqi (government) against attempting to control the free flow of information and limiting the level of knowledge to citizens, by means of imposing censorship and control of the worldwide web usage in the country, as such control was in a clear violat Iraqi Communications Minister Farouk Abdel Kader acknowledged during a show on television, broadcast last week by Al-Hurra Iraq channel, that a proposal was submitted to regulate and control the use of the worldwide web in Iraq. - The Prime Minister requested there should be regulations and responsibility in terms of what is published on the Internet because it has become beyond the limits of control, Abdel Kader said. The directive was issued to set regulations and barriers to prevent any trends that are deemed contradictory with the ethics of the country, he told the TV program host Falah Al-Dhahabi in a special interview. This decision goes contrary to Article 40 of the Iraqi constitution, which stipulates that freedom of postal and telegraphic communication and correspondence and telephone and electronic and other means of communication is guaranteed, and shall not be controlled, tapped or uncovered. The director general of the communications and postal services department in the Ministry of Telecommunications Qasim Mohammed said the a system that would shut down websites calling for terrorism and sectarian violence, in addition to sites of pornograp The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory reiterates that justifications being voiced up, such as the protection of national security and ethical standards which are unacceptable to the society, are mere excuses to justify blocking of websites, web control an Iraqi MP Maysoon Al-Damluji described these acts as a contempt for the Iraqi citizen's intelligence and a bright and clear way to suppressing freedoms and return to dictatorship again. She told JFO that she will meet this proposal with total rejection inside the Iraqi parliament. The General Authority for Internet Services, a public body under the Ministry of Communications, started to grant licenses to Internet café owners in Iraq, a move which the authority said it was for the purpose of organization. The ministry justified in a statement published on its website, that this move was due to the importance of organizing of the work of Internet cafes in Baghdad and the provinces. JFO believes that some regimes do not want their peoples to have the ability to talk freely, thus taking the initiative to prevent the discussion of politics over the Internet, and usually calling for companies that provide Internet services to use monito Iraqi member of parliament at the committee of Culture and Information Mohammed Al-Khzaali, fears that this will be the beginning of an attack on the media. Al-Khzaali told JFO that we have our customs and traditions, and no one can to limit the principles of democracy and freedoms as they are guaranteed constitutionally. International laws and treaties ensure the protection of the freedom of expression and prevent the imposition of restrictions on it, as well as stress the illegality of blocking websites in any region of the world to the recipients. Dr. Hassan kamel, a media professor at the University of Baghdad, said such steps were disturbing and have serious consequences, and this is what incites us to seek constitutional guarantees to the right of access to information and the search for genui JFO indicates that the basic and fundamental principles of human rights recognize the right of individuals to express and transfer their views. The Observatory is surprised that some authorities feel that the freedom of expression and opinion is considere Iraq imposed strict governmental monitoring on the limited use of the Internet, as the Ministry of Communications and General Security controlled then this usage under the supervision of senior security officials in the former regime. Last year, three major international technology companies, i.e. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, signed an international agreement of principles ensuring better protection for the freedom of expression on the Internet, while promising standing up against offi The agreement stressed the importance of privacy as a human right and a guarantee to human dignity. JFO calls on members of the Iraqi parliament to maintain the fundamental principles of freedom of expression and democracy, and standing up against the governmental attempts that aim at imposing restrictions on public freedoms, given their supervisory rol American movie angers Egyptians, likens Sadat to dog His daughter calls on the government to take action as censorship authorities permit screening Al Sadat\rquote s daughter calls on government to confront insult to former president American movie \ldblquote I Love You Man\rdblquote has angered Egyptians, where deceased President Anwar Al Sadat was likened to a dog in several scenes that surfaced on the internet. Al Sadat\rquote s daughter has called on the government to take an official stand, stating that The movie is a 2009 production and was released in the United States this past April. It was a box office hit with 71 million dollars in revenues over 35 days only. The movie is a comedy and was written and directed by John Hamburg, well-known for his r The scene was for an actor called Peter walking his dog with a friend who asked him what the name of his dog was; Peter said his name was Anwar Al Sadat. His friend asks if it was because Al Sadat was a great man and wondered if Peter The camera then zooms in to the dog\rquote s face and likens it to the deceased president. The camera then moves to a picture of Al Sadat on the dog\rquote s wooden kennel. Al Sadat\rquote s name also appears on the movie\rquote s credits, where Al Sadat is played by the dog \endash a move which many considered to be a major and intentional insult from moviemakers. An insult to Egyptians The movie was permitted to screen in Egypt. Ruqaya Al Sadat, the president\rquote s son, said it was a severe insult to all Egyptians. She said: Censorship authorities are responsible for this. The nation should take an official and rather strict stand; the movie insulted a major Egyptian symbol, and has therefore insulted all Egyptians. Ruqaya Al Sadat praised Hussam Zaki\rquote s, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, response on Al Hayah channel, but said it was insufficient. She said: \ldblquote Al Sadat\rquote s family will have a reaction through the family\rquote s lawyer, Dr. Samit Sabri. This movie should have never screened. Censoring the scene is not enough.\rdblquote Al Sadat was previously targeted in the Iranian film \ldblquote Execution of a Pharaoh\rdblquote . Ruqaya Al Sadat suggests it is because he is the only Egyptian president who went to war, claimed victory, and issued a peace treaty. She believes this is why he remains targ Ali Abu Shadi, censorship authority chief, denied removing the scene and permitting the screening of the movie. He said the movie arrived to Egypt after moviemakers removed the scene. He stated that, had authorities seen the offensive shots, they would Egyptian outrage broke out last year over the Iranian movie \lquote Execution of a Pharaoh\rquote which discussed the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat. There were strong criticisms against the movie especially since the president\rquote s assassins were la Saudi media makes a stand against degrading programs with a campaign Never compromise your homeland Amjad Al-Muneef Several figures in the Saudi media launched an online media campaign--with the slogan Never compromise your homeland--that is aimed at showing the large opposition of the media to the program BOLD Red Line that is seeking to give a false and negative im The campaign said in a statement that it aimed at creating a state of mass refusal regarding what is being showed on some satellite channels that discuss issues in the Saudi society and consider them important and essential materials for their programs According to the organizers of the campaign, such programs encouraged the people that care for their country to create a motto We do not claim that we have an angelic community, but at the same time we do not accept defamation against our homeland and The campaign seeks to achieve a set of goals with two consistent aspects: media and mass. In the media aspect, the emphasis is on the necessity of solidarity between local media and its employees to support the campaign, through \ldblquote positive\rdblquote and active part The campaign also seeks to mobilize mass defense to preserve the reputation of Saudi Arabia through the clarifications of the suspicious and biased facts used in the programs, which aim to gain the excitement of the viewers at the expense of our count Al-Muneef emphasized that every citizen is considered to be a participant in this campaign that aims to respond to whoever tried to transfer a wrong image of our homeland. At the same time, he welcomed any partnerships and suggestions that can help the ca There is not a pavement left for a walker, a park for a lover of an oasis of refuge for a senior person who wishes to retrie Al-Sanaei Park will be turned into a garage. So decided the Beirut municipality! Two steps from the Faculty of Law, patiently awaited to be transformed to \ldblquote a national library, the place keeps some of the remainders of the good old days. It was establis The Sanayeh Park Is it forbidden to dream?! It's easy for a man to lay down on his couch at break time with the shisha hose in his hand and start judging people, cursing everything without doing a single useful work! Many such a man of our race! It's easy to sit in front of satellite receiver with 1000 of channels in an ambiance filled with the smoke of shisha and bacteria, manifesting your hatred to the corrupted media controlled by X current, or show your reservations towards the nation of The It has been said that: The only person who does not come under criticism is the one who does not do anything. Namely, the best thing he is good at is the art of laying idle. This is why I admire the youth business which tends to be positive-oriented in the way they see things. I met with a lot of young people who carry out good projects. Some of them started small projects, some established a small group, be it in a literary I liked, for example, the launching of the campaign of do not compromise on your country, carried out by a group of young Saudis who did not give in to yawning or shisha hosepipes, they considerably and started to work in order to achieve their dreams. The Beginning... and Ambition For a long time a lot of us have been whispering that they're upset in regards to every news about shedding the blood of a girl or a woman because of a rumor, a photo or even a mistake... We whisper, forget or try to forget until another crime reminds No Honor in Crime started as a wiki, where everyone can contribute with their opinions. Realistic ideas and Utopian ideas. The goal was to gather a tribe, an honest Jordanina tribe, a tribe that believes in justice, a tribe that demands justice and reje Some of us wanted to take their exasperation further and call for a red alert highlighting the danger of the society using the word honor to justify taking lives... the goal of our group online first, and then in real life so the result would be No Hon We started a dialogue ... to explore dimensions of the issue .... We wrote our charter ... We organized our ideas .... And we have decided that honor cannot justify injustice, cannot justify murder. Our ambition is to reclaim the meaning of honor again. We started in the capital, in Natheef Mountain... And in al-Gardins. And Youth Committee of the International Institute allowed us to record their meeting with us. Mohammed Shamma hosted us on his show, he asked about our movement, and we told him that our cause is not the cause of a woman, but the cause of society. Because real justice is justice complete, and it's our duty to preserve families. We don't have a list of goals, but we have faith. We believe that every act must be called by its actual name: a crime is a crime and murder is to to take a human soul, we believe that such acts must be punished for what they are: crimes should be punished as a crimes, and murder should be punished as mu But on top of all of this we believe that taking the life of a mother, a sister or a female cousin is contradictory to the word honor , and we believe that taking the life of a mother, a sister or a female cousin is the main reason of decay to any fa We don't have a list of goals... but we have ambition and hope in a Jordan where justice, forgiveness and honor prevail No Honor in Crime is youth community movement that doesn't follow any organization, but finds its calling in the spirit of volunteering and change to achieve justice. We initiate dialogue in schools, and amongst friends and family about the concept of h The MP, Walid Jumbalatt, did not wait for the air to clear up after the political sand storm his declared positions caused after he left the March 14 Movement, and rather confirmed it yesterday thus defining his new position saying that he represents an i The Jumbalatt\rquote s \ldblquote turning\rdblquote became the focus of the Lebanese events, yesterday, with all the schism it caused in the political queues that ruled the country over the past four years. Jumbalatt declared, yesterday, siding with the President of the Republic. Jumblatt completes his turning to the Center A bombing in Nouakchott targets the French Embassy Mauritanian police said that the perpetrator of the bombing - described as suicidal and that took place yesterday evening near the French Embassy in Nouakchott - is a Mauritanian citizen, and that he was under suspicion for several weeks. The AP correspondent in Nouakchott, Amin Mohamed, quoted security and judicial sources as saying that the bomber, Ahmed Wild Fih Al-Birka in 1987 and is Mauritanian. A security source said that the suicide bomber was wearing an explosive belt and blew himself up in a street behind the French Embassy in the capital, targeting French security agents working at the embassy. Al-Jazeera correspondent, Mohammad Al-Sufi, said that the French Citizens were out jogging. The two were slightly injured in addition to a Mauritanian woman who was passing. The AP reporter said the suicide bomber was of a darker skin color, approached the French citizens and blew himself up and his remains were blown in different directions. Witnesses said they saw the head of the suicide bomber and some of his body parts sc The Mauritanian security forces imposed a security cordon around the scene and closed all the access points leading to the embassy and the French media was denied access to the scene. . A source at the French embassy said that so far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack which took place before the embassy walls. An eye witness said the bombing did not cause serious damage to the building. This is the first bombing, described as being suicidal, in Despite growing al Qaeda activity in north-west Africa and the Sahara, in Mauritania, the attacks are rare. Last June Al Qaeda North African branch claimed responsibility for the shooting of an American Relief Officer in Mauritania, claiming it was a response to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In December 2007 the group killed four French tourists. The same year also saw three other operations against the Mauritanian army killing dozens of soldiers, and an attack to the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott took place last year. was sworn in as president following his victory in the presidential elections last month. Mauritanian authorities have announced that a cell specialized in explosive belts may enter the Mauritanian territory coming from al-Qaeda camps. Search is underway for the members of this cell. bombing comes three days after President The Prosecutor Assistant, Mustafa Wild Saeed confirmed earlier that security services had information about the intention of a number of suicide bombers to enter the country to carry out suicide bombings against Western interests in Nouakchott. one of Mauritania\rquote s largest trade partners and aid donors in 2007 allocating 93 million Euros (134 million U.S. dollars) to a four-year aid program. So far only 30% of this amount has been paid and Paris said last week it looked forward to release the res The European Union suspended aid to Mauritania in protest against the military coup which took place in August of last year, but expressed its possible intention to resume cooperation. was France Gamal Mubarak invites Egypt's youth for open and direct dialogue on Facebook Haitham Faris - Gamal Mubarak, Policies Secretary of the National Democratic Party (NDP), has invited all Egyptian youth to a Facebook conversation on Wednesday, August 12. stated that this dialogue aims to identify the views of young people, their aspirations and ideas on key issues and challenges facing Egypt and discuss the best ways to address them. The NDP site An elite group of youth from Teaching committees representing different Egyptian faculties and research centers will meet on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 with Secretary of the National Democratic Party policies, in an open dialogue on all issues of concern to young people related to the future of Egypt. The meeting will take place at the party headquarters in Cairo. The event, which will be broadcasted directly through facebook and the website \ldblquote Shareq\rdblquote , will be an opportunity for all Egyptian youth to participate in the debate through questions they can ask to Gamal Mubara The meeting is part of a series of similar events to be held in the near future, reflecting the importance of communication and dialogue with all segments of society in order to identify the different views and perspectives on the policies being implement A recent study revealed that the NDP is adopting the Barack Obama Method, using social media and Facebook in the American Presidential Elections. The study, titled Facebook and alternative media, showed that the NDP youth used Facebook to start groups such as \ldblquote Fans and supporters of Gamal Mobarak\rdblquote with 3000 members and considering his nomination The demand of every youth aspiring to prosperity a The study pointed out that several groups that have recently appeared, launched the debate around the nomination of Gamal Mubarak for the Presidency of the Republic, including the yes or no to the Gamal\rquote s nomination for the presidency, Gamal Mubarak, Observers noted that the NDP have come to realize the paramount importance of the internet which has become a constant headache for the party and the government, especially that it was the platform from which the famous strike and the so-called April move Sources within the party admitted that there is an electronic communications network following the trends in public opinion and the comments of visitors to websites and Facebook pages. They are also devising a plan to establish contact between the NDP and Layla was so excited about going back to her 7th grade class in school, just like all the girl students who were deprived of the privilege of going to school in Swat Valley due to the ban imposed by Taliban on girls\rquote education after the 6th grade, alleged \ldblquote I want to continue my education and I wish school will not be banned again, I want to be a physician in the future, I\rquote m so happy I\rquote m back to school,\rdblquote says Layla. Over the past two years, the education sector went through hard times due to the clashes between the security forces and the Taliban gunmen, which impacted negatively on the students\rquote educational and psychological state. Dia\rquote al-Din, a teacher and a school headmaster says: \ldblquote There were days when our girl students had to hide their books under their veils to look like other girls. It was a harsh experience. Going back to school is the beginning we have, but we are faced wit One of the examples of the damage in the educational sector in the Swat Valley was a school, among tens of others, that was razed to the ground for no reason. \ldblquote In the middle of a January night, unknown assaulters bombarded a school, so school stopped and resumed in tents three months after the incident before the tents were stolen, but here we are now restarting the school once again,\rdblquote says Fadl Aziz, another s Lessons on the floor, in tents, school classes without the most of basics, and despite the security conditions and the fear overwhelming the region, the wheel of education is still spinning. Maybe a number of schools in the Swat Valley and the Malkand region did not survive the firs of the warriors but this did not discourage this school and others from going on with their mission despite all the suffering. Taliban banned girls education allegedly for violating the Shariah The departure of Taliban from the Swat Valley allows girl students to bring out their books from under the veils I'm writing this article as the Fatah movement conference in the West Bank is in its final moments. An assessment of the conference can be established prior to the end of the event, as the key issues were made apparent from the second day of the venue. An Our first comment on the conditional attendance of the conference is that it was a reserved membership, and it was under scrutiny and omissions even in the last moments of the conference. Each bloc, each aspirant to the leadership of the movement in the W The second observation is related to the documents of the conference. Any conference held, whether it is a conference for the Federation of Students, or for a certain labor union, or a vocational league; its main task is to submit to its members a report Migrant workers and racism The Lebanon edition of FAO Magazine, published in English, uncovered the issue of racism in the Lebanese society as a problem that should be combated. The magazine quoted a report by the Human Rights Watch about Asian and African migrant workers being Hamas confronts Salafist Jihad supporters in Gaza This form of racism, existant in many countries of the world, should be fought with laws and a school education. Housewives should teach their children to respect those who work for them at home and act accordingly. The issue of migrant workers, coming fr Racism and ill-treatment of human beings because they have a different skin color or because they come from poorer environments, shows how retarded are our mindset and behavior. The idea that the Ethiopian or Filipino foreign worker is the hostage of the Lebanon is a small, not so rich country that imports foreign labor, because many Lebanese who are in need of work or employment, refuse to work and carry out the functions carried out by migrant workers. Even if he agrees to work under those conditions, h Respect and good morals are reflected in good conduct when dealing with any person working at the house, in an institution or a company. Lebanon's reputation among human rights institutions on the subject of human rights abuse of servants is shameful for And to prevent any person willing to pay the entrance fee from entering a private pool because he has a different skin color or because he is labeled as a foreign servant, is unacceptable. It seems as if the owners of these pools belong to an elite race a Due to recent increases in \ldblquote security violations\rdblquote Occupied Jerusalem \endash Al Sharq Al Awsat Thirty five year old Suhail Maghazi was busy handing out instructions to music band members when a massive explosion targeted the band\rquote s platform, on which the groom\rquote s relatives danced on this joyous occasion. Suhail only realized what happened two hours The incident occurred three weeks ago in the city of Khan Younis, south of the district. The target was a wedding ceremony; one of many during the summer months. The operation was only one of several others attributed to Islamist groups known as \ldblquote Jaljal Six women in the new twenty-seven minister government Mauritania appoints Al Naha Bint Mouknass as the first Arab Foreign Affairs Minister Eastern Areas Take the Lead New Faces Dubai - Mohamed Faal Muaweya Al Naha Bint Mouknass has been appointed as the new Mauritanian Foreign Affairs Minister, thereby becoming the first Arab Foreign Minister to ever assume such a post. The government is comprised of twenty seven ministers according to Prime Minister Moula Al Naha is the former Foreign Minister\rquote s daughter. She currently heads the \lquote Union for Democracy and Progress\rquote , a political party affiliated with current Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. She was elected to head the party which was initiated by her father and a group of friends in the nineties after his death. She was also one of the first parliament members to request the withdrawal of confidence from Ould AlSheikh Abdallah\rquote s government. She served as an advisory minister at the republic\rquote s presidency, and was removed from her post following a coup on August 3rd, 2005. She concentrated on serving her political party, and was able to enter the parliament in 2006. She received her primary, secondary, and post- secondary education in Nouakchott, Dakar, and Paris. She received a higher education degree in routing from the High institute for routing in Paris, and trained in French banks. The new government, which was appointed on Wednesday, has taken somewhat equal roles in Mauritanian areas. Eastern areas have taken the lead with ten ministers, followed by western areas with eight minister, bank areas with seven ministers, and North Wes \ldblquote Big families\rdblquote had notable presence in the government, especially from the areas of Atrarzah and Ainsheery. In return, a black minority managed to bag one quarter of the posts. Women have been most fortunate with six appointed female ministers, includin The government witnessed the introduction of several new faces in the defense, justice, internal and foreign affairs ministers. Three commissioners were appointed with a ministry degree. It is notable that the new government is free from opposition and Analysts think that the new government aims to please individuals, regions, and political parties affiliated with President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, and seek to support his political agenda which won voters voices during the first round of the presidentia Ould Abdel Aziz, who officially assumed his role on the 5th of August, appointed diplomat Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf as Prime Minister, responsible for formulating a new government. Ould Laghdaf will lead the first government following the presidential elections of July 16th, 2009. Ould Abdel Aziz had won the elections with more than 52% of the votes, amidst accusations of forgery from opposing parties. Iran: Indications of a change in the trials after the appointment of Larijani 's brother as head of the judiciary system Tehran \endash Mohamed Saleh Sadqyan, New York \endash life The supreme guide of the Iranian Republic, Ali Khamenei, appointed, yesterday, Sadeq Larijani, the brother of the head of the Shura Council (the parliament) Ali Larijani, as head of the judiciary, replacing Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi who occupied this offi The same sources suggested that Larijani will make changes in the judicial offices, on top of that comes the position occupied by the incumbent public prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, who supervised the preparation of accusation lists that were addressed to t Sadeq is Ali Larijani, 50 years old, is counted a young jurisprudents in the religious hawza and the judiciary institution. Hehad joined the Council of Guardians before he moved to the judiciary system. His stance towards the dispute between the Authorit Meanwhile, the MP, Pervez Sruri, chairman of the special parliamentary committee on the investigation into the situation of the detainees in the Kahrizak prison, said that the court would hold accountable the 12 policemen and the judge who were involved He pointed out that the inspection committee of the Kahrizak prison facilities revealed that it lacked the adequate provisions the to hold detainees, stressing that the judge who is ordered them to the Kahrizak prison will be subject to legal accountabili As for the allegations of The Rape of prisoners, he emphasized the the committee did not find any evidence on this matter throughout interrogating the detainees on July 9th. The losing candidate Mir Hussein Moussaoui revealed his intention to form the group Green Hope Way to continue his political demands within the framework of the constitution, pointing out that all social classes would be represented through the gro On the other hand, the revolution court declared, today, that it will put on trial seven Baha\rquote is for \ldblquote spying in favor for Israel, offending religion and defaming the Islamic Repubic,\rdblquote which could call for death penalty. In New York, the Israeli mission to the United Nations, informed the chairman of the Commission of Sanctions on Iran of the importance of adopting the Security Council of additional decisions that reflect the seriousness of Iran's non-compliance with its That came in a note verbale that was part of the reactions of states to the implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council number 1737, 1747 and 1803 related to the sanctions on Iran. The word of the day: There is such thing as impossible in basketball * Mohamed Al Shanti Numerous people along the Arab arena, whether observers, or spectators, sympathize with the Palestinian cause, and support a just and comprehensive solution to it. Those people followed with interest the resolutions of the recent general and important co Whether in Palestine or outside it, no one can deny that the ongoing frenzied conflict between the two influential movements on the Palestinian arena, which happen to be having exclusive possession of authority and struggling over how the Palestinian deci Within the context of such deteriorating conflict between the two parties, the features of a mini-state that belongs to Hamas started to appear in the Gaza Strip, in addition to another that belongs to Fatah in the West Bank, while the sought-after Palest This also caused the Palestinian stance to be scattered between two governments, one rules (Ramallah) and the other (Gaza)! No doubt that this Palestinian divide caused observers and supporters of the central Arab Cause to get confused while watching (Defenders of the Cause) turn not only to parties, but also to enemies, fighting over an imaginary authority, at the expense of The major problem is that each of the conflicting parties, Fatah and Hamas, started taking prisoners and hostages from the other. Each of the two movements now has prisoners and detainees from the other! Both parties now require a set of conditions to be fulfilled by the other. Meanwhile, the other party considers such conditions as orders that cannot be complied to or accepted. The failed (negotiations) between the two sides in the six rounds of talks in Till when will this absurd, dangerous game go on on the Palestinian arena? Such a game resembles a lost conflict between two prisoners sharing the same cell at one of the Zionist occupation prisons. I carried this question, together with other bewildering ones, in my briefcase, with the mutual accusations getting severer and severer on the night of the Sixth Conference of the Fatah Movement, in order to ask the Chief of Hamas Political Bureau for ans Finding Mr. Khaled Mashaal, who resides in Damascus was no easy task; amidst such violent Palestinian conditions. Having this interview required me to stay in the Syrian capital on hold for more than ten days. Throughout those ten days, I remained in cont Tariq Ramadan promotes \ldblquote modernist Islam\rdblquote Muslim intellect expelled from Dutch university for making an appearance on Iranian television Rotterdam city council and Erasmus University took the decision to expel Muslim intellect, Tariq Ramadan, for presenting a television program on Iran\rquote s official channel, Press TV. Ramadan serves as the city council\rquote s advisor in issues pertaining to integrating immigrants. He also hosts a weekly television program on Press TV called \ldblquote Islam and Life\rdblquote . Reports claimed Ramadan\rquote s TV program makes him a supporter of the Iranian regime, thereby contradicting his current posts in Rotterdam. Ramadan told reporters in a press conference he would contest the decision. Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported Middle East affairs expert Beatros Hendricks saying that Tariq Ramadan promotes \ldblquote modernist\rdblquote Islam catering for Muslims in the West, their living conditions, and the prevalent culture there. Ramadan believes that \ldblquote modernist\rdblquote Islam will help bridge a potential gap between Muslims and mosques in the West; a relationship which ensures Muslim loyalty to their homeland. Through this message, Tariq Ramadan evades any potential conflict with Irania Ramadan told reporters he would object to this decision Gheda, no right is ever lost if there is someone defending it. And if any is lost on this earth, it is never lost in the after life Injustice and conspiracy... it could be true or fabricated But where are the rights of Lybians and who will compensate them for the years of the embargo???? First of all thank you \rdblquote Ghayda \rdblquote for posting this. As for the issue discussed, it is too late to do anything about it now. What we have learned two things from this whole case in Lybia. First of all, never to count on the countries that we consider as friends, especially in this era of monopoly... In fact, our friends were the biggest beneficiaries from our embargo, like Tunisia, Egypt and Italy... Later on, Saudi Arabia and South Africa Secondly and most importantly, Libya learned never to count on friends but on politics whenever it came to foreign policy, without causing problems, especially when it came to powerful countries. In the end, what is done is done, we will regain our rights and the truth will be uncovered, sooner or later. And hopefully the Lybian citizen with recover..... Al Megrahi Without specifying an implementation date Malaysian model caning for alcohol consumption postponed to after Ramadan Kuala Lumpur \endash DPA A Malaysian model who was supposed to be caned for consuming alcohol was released today. The execution of her sentence was delayed to after Ramadan. An Islamic Sharia\rquote court in Pahang sentenced Kartika Dewi Shukarano, a Malaysian model of thirty two years of age, to six strokes and a fine of 5,000 Ringgits (1,350 dollars) after pleading guilty to drinking alcohol at a hotel nightclub in 2007. Kartika, who is a mother of two, was supposed to be caned this week but religious authorities postponed the sentence as it was \ldblquote inappropriate to execute the sentence during the month of Ramadan\rdblquote \ldblquote Star\rdblquote news website reported Muhamed Safri Abdel Aziz, state religion administration chief, saying:\rdblquote The sentence will still be executed. She will be caned after Ramadan. She was only temporarily released.\rdblquote Officials refrained from announcing the execution date. According to Islamic Sharia laws in Pahang, those convicted of alcohol consumption are sentenced to three years of imprisonment, six strokes, and a maximum fine of 5,000 Ringgits. Kartika will be the first woman to receive this sentence in accordance to Islamic Sharia. Islamic scholars said the sentence would be carried out when Kartika was fully clothed and with a cane that is smaller and lighter than the heavy length of rattan used in criminal cases. Gaza: Male teachers banned from teaching females, Islamic dress compulsory AFP Gaza: The new academic year began Sunday in the Gaza district, a week prior to its start in the West District, amid strong debates on educational authority procedures in imposing the \ldblquote Islamic dress\rdblquote on high school girls and the \ldblquote feminization\rdblquote of schools. Abu Hasira said: \ldblquote We request all school girls to commit to loose outfits.\rdblquote He said that a decision was issued by education officials to \ldblquote femanize\rdblquote schools, meaning that male teachers and administrators will be banned from working in girls\rquote schools. An official in a school in West Gaza said: \ldblquote The Islamic dress is compulsory on all female students and they must adhere to it. We confirmed this yesterday and girls who fail to commit to the new outfit will be banned from entering the school as of today. A poster that says: \ldblquote An important announcement for all school girls regarding the 2009-2010 dress code: please commit to navy blue dress, a while scarf or shaila, and black or white shoes. We ask all students to adhere to the above conditions\rdblquote is seen on Mikhaimar Abu Seidah, Al Azhar political sciences professor, said the commencement of the new academic year in Gaza one week prior to the West Bank indicates \ldblquote the beginning of a political division reflected in education in Gaza and the Bank\rdblquote An educational coordinator in Gaza said the decision to impose Islamic dress was \ldblquote a mistake\rdblquote . She said the decision to impose the Jibab violated human rights Wael El Bibleisi, teachers\rquote union representative in the Gaza strip, said \ldblquote imposing the Islamic dress was unacceptable if it comes without conviction. Islam is a religion that calls for ease, not hardship. The decision will be executed but without convic El Bibleisi said he was against the decision to completely \ldblquote feminize\rdblquote schools. \ldblquote Questionable male teachers should be re-located and the rest retained. I believe there will be difficulty in finding substitutes for the teachers who have been relocated, es Married to foreigners: ِ National cause for a mistreated mother Because they are my children my nationality is their right, did not escape the electoral syndrome. The gathering was organized by the National Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in front of the building of the Ministry of In The first land mine was overcome. The advocates calmed down a little, going back to the details of their suffering. Competing in visualizing them for media representatives. The first dictating to one reporter what to write, telling her: Say that I am A second land mine is avoided. Mothers step up to the Office of the Minister. The delegations representative the Izzat Al Horr explains the tragedy \ldblquote all over again\rdblquote . During the meeting, the women urged the minister to push the bill on the agenda of the Ca Lawyer Wafiqah Mansour, a member of the assembly delivered the statement that was read to the protesters in the outer courtyard. The statement called on the Lebanese state to remove its reservations on the second paragraph of Article 9 of the Convention f Next Tuesday at 4PM, mothers will mobilize in front of the Great Serail, a movement organized by \ldblquote My Nationality, a Right for me and my Family\rdblquote organization. This activity falls under the efforts to push for the draft amendment to the National Law to be a Saudi women.. pardon .. the jewels from one merchant to another. written by Khoulud Dl-Fahd, (17 August 2009 at: 20: 14) This field study comes within the framework of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, and consists upon a questionnaire concerning the cigarette and sheesha smoking in Iraq, the exposition of students to second-hand smoking in public places and in their homes, A field study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention on the use of tobacco among school students in Iraq, showed that the rate of hookah or sheesha smokers is growing twice a Among the students who didnt smoke cigarettes before, 13% said that they are willing to start smoking cigarettes in the year after the survey, while 29.2% stated they were exposed to tobacco in public places in the week prior to the survey. The results of the survey pointed out to the rates of smoking among women in Iraq. the study revealed that the rate of cigarette smoking among girls is currently 2.7 %. In addition to that, the rate of girls who never smoked cigarettes but are willing to Concerning ads, 59.6% of students for both sexes said they watched an ad against smoking in the past month, while 67.9% stated they saw a pro-smoking ad on the billboards, compared to 67.6% who saw a pro-smoking ad in the points of sale and 59.8% in the m As for the curriculum in Iraqi schools, 41.8% of the students interviewed assured their teachers spoke to them about the dangers of smoking in the past year. Dr. Hussein al-Jazairi, the regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean said tobacco usage is the main death reason in the world that could be prevented, and constitutes the most serious threat to public health. Tobacco is responsible for the death o Therefore, and since 1999, the WHO along with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Public Health Association in Canada, launched a Global Tobacco Surveillance System to monitor the tobacco usage in the world.__The Global Youth Tobacco Dr Naima al-Kassir, the representative of WHO in Iraq said the implementation of this survey, the second of its kind in Iraq after the first survey in 2006, comes as an attempt of the state of Iraq and the Iraqi Health Ministry to fight tobacco usage, in The survey gathered 2182 male and female students between 13 and 15 years of age from 25 schools in Baghdad. The response rate was 94.0%. The WHO East Mediterranean Regional Bureau posted the results of the survey on its website. Ameera Abd El Salam wrote Iraqi students prefer sheeshas on cigarettes . The United States released an Afghan detainee from the Guantanamo prison after he served about seven years and he was deported back to his country, according to what his lawyers confirmed yesterday. The US Federal Judge, Ellen J. Vanden Heuvel, had ordered, last month, the US government to release the detainee Mohammed jwad, one of the youngest prisoners in Guantanamo, and set a deadline for his release which expired on Monday. Lawyers of Jawad, who was arrested in 2002 on charges of throwing a bomb on two US soldiers, said he was tortured in Guantanamo detention camp, which the US president made an order to close it by the end of this year. Said David Fract, Jawad\rquote s layer, said that the Afghan president , Hamed Karzai, Shall meet with Jawad \ldblquote to welcome him back home.\rdblquote Meanwhile, the AFP quoted an Afghan activist as saying that Jawad was jailed in some prison in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The head of the Afghan Organization for Human Rights, Said Lal Gul, pointed out that lawyers from the assembly will meet Afghan detainee today, Tuesday, stressing that all those released from Guantanamo are transferred to a prison in Kabul before their fi He added that the Assembly will call for the release of Jwad because his detention is illegal , especially that he was a minor at the time of his arrest. Jawads lawyers said that he was no more than 12 years old when he was arrested. Nevertheless, refutes this claim and says that bone scan revealed that he was 18 at the time he was sent to Guantanamo in early 2003. In Guantanamo, there are still more than two hundred prisoners of which the Obama Department expects to put to trial before US courts or military commissions, while others are expected and to be returned to their homeland countries or to be resettled in o An Afghan young man released from Guantanamo Al Khawarej betrayel in Ramadan .. We are all Mohamed Bin Nayef They said they loved the Saudi state, jealous for it, but they got sick of what they claimed to be a deviation from its principle of and Islamic path following that of the good ancestors, but betrayal has nothing to do with the path of the good ancestors, What happened yesterday was an outright scandal for them. They are completely against the state, beginning with the royal family which strived and fought to sustain Islam, and maintained a principle of an \ldblquote Islamic State\rdblquote , protected by constants and moder They are khawarij outcasts who cannot comprehend this concept. Then again, perhaps they understand it, but are really aiming for authority while pretending that this was about religion. They are against society and reform; they can\rquote t target Mohamed Bin Nayef simply because we are all Mohamed Bin Nayef. A genuine Saudi, whose roots extend to the bases. He believes in modernization as we all do; modernization that enabled our nation and They hate successful people who understand them and are aware of their intentions. They targeted him in his area of strength \endash forgiveness. He realized they were sick and tried to help them, he could have simply abolished them, and nobody was going to b The state did not wish to turn them and their families into rejected outcasts but they keep breaking their promises, time and again. There are many hypocrites amongst them; what should be done now that they targeted a major authority figure? Lets reject the notion that allowed an ignorant man to kill himself yesterday and assassinate a Muslim on a Ramadan night. This is not Islam; we are Islam, Muhammad Bin Nayef is Islam. We are Shari\rquote a, we are the Islamic state. They are Khawarij. They They are a threat to the state, and an even bigger threat to religion. People should refrain from protecting them through allegations that criticizing Al Qaeda ideologies was a form of criticism of religion. Questions on Democracy and Arab women MPs Under the title So that your voice be heard \rdblquote the Arab Women Media Center held a training workshop for parliamentarian women from 8 Arab countries in cooperation with the Swedish Institute in Alexandria. Manassat covered the event, made some remarks, an The chairperson of the Centre for Arab Women Media Center and Professor Margarita of the Swedish \endash the launch The relation between Arab parliamentarian women and the media is foggy and full of and apprehension and lack of experience. The Media regards the parliamentary content as boring and not interesting which turns its attention away except when there is a dis In the period from 17 to 19 August, the Arab Women Media Center held a training workshop for 25 women; MPs, activists, and media women from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The workshop aimed Workshop Recommendations or Party demands? If things are weighed by the outcomes, then we must start where the workshop ended and support the ambitious recommendations the participation resulted in. It has been noted in the recommendations that the majority of them were too ambitious to be directe The recommendations, or better say the demands, such as: the media orientation to emphasize the importance of the quota, Changing the stereotyped image of women MPs in the media, The transforming the relationship between the parliamentarians and This aspiration, which may sound visionary, means, if anything, the need of the women MPs to be trained and qualified. Once a group of this category \ldblquote deprived of training meets who would fulfill this need even if partially, it will start burdening him wi Did Arab MPs, men and women, learn politics as being \ldblquote the art of make possible or rather \ldblquote the art of claiming the possible?\rdblquote Why were Gaza, Arab Africans and Morocco missing? Although the title of the workshop and the organizing party are all Arab, and although it was not declared whether that was one of a series of workshops aiming to cover the Arab world as a whole, it has been noted that the workshop included representative Asking the media woman, Mahasin Imam, head of the Arab Women Media Centre, whether that was due to funding issues, she denied saying that the session did not face any problem in terms of funding or facilities, but the Arab Maghreb has no women in parliam Having reminded her of the existence of women MPs in Tunisia and the Sudan who were not invited, she promised to rectify this in the future workshops. Iran\rquote s demonstrations presented in a movie for the first time in Venice The French news agency reported that a documentary on the Iranian protests following recent elections in June will be screened in Venice\rquote s 66th film festival, which runs from the 2nd to the 12th of September. The festival\rquote s spokesperson said the movie arrived to Italy and is currently being edited and finalized in an undisclosed area. The film, entitled \ldblquote Green Days\rdblquote , is directed by Hana Makhmalbaf (21 years ago) who said the movie \ldblquote presented Iranian society w Hana is Muhsen Makhmalbaf\rquote s youngest daughter, who is an international moviemaker. Her sister, Samira Makhmalbaf, established herself in the industry and gained international success. This is Hana\rquote s third movie after \ldblquote Joy of Madness\rdblquote , which was screened The Venice Festival administration had announced a surprise screening on the 12th of September, the festival\rquote s last day. Will this surprise be \lquote Green Days\rquote , the first Iranian movie on election protests? Or is there another surprise? Road accidents claim the lives of 6000 Egyptians in 2006 The Egyptian Interior Ministry's statement reported that in 2006, 6000 people were killed and 30,000 others were seriously injured in road accidents in Egypt. Egyptian roads are considered as the most dangerous in the world. The ministry said in its annual report, which was published on Sunday, that road accidents, which are the second most common cause of death in Egypt, cost the state the equivalent of 3% of the GNP. Road accidents is the second most common cause of death in Egypt Only on Saturday ten people were killed, according to a statement given by the ministry, which also revealed that a number of collisions had taken place, and cars had gone off the road. The statement attributed the responsibility for most of these acciden Egypt records more traffic accidents than any country in the world. Often these accidents are due to drivers disregarding the traffic laws; not enough road signs; and the bad conditions of the byroads. To combat this problem the Interior Ministry has doubled its fines, which have reached in 2006, 180 million Egyptian pounds (about 25 million euros), a rise of 33 percent over last year. Consequently, a truck driver was fined last year (2006) 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around 14,000 euros) which deserves to be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records. Many, likewise, foreign tourists were killed in road accidents in Egypt which has p The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its internet site that, The rate of fatal road accidents is very high in Egypt. We strongly advise against travelling on the roads at night. It warned, in particular, about small buses and the lack of resp Paris \endash The debate over Hijab in France moved into one of the swimming pools East of Paris after its management prevented a Muslim woman from swimming while wearing a swimming suit that covers her whole body, known as the Burkini. The French Carole headed to the police and the general prosecution, accusing the pool's management of discrimination and segregation. However, the police rejected her complaint; for the pool applied the law that states that men and women should wear regul Carole, who embraced Islam when she was seventeen, had used the pool in Emerainville, East of Paris last July, wearing a Burkini or what's known as an Islamic swimming suit, which is composed of three pieces covering the whole body but the hands, feet a However, the pool's management prevented her from using it when she came back to it in August. Pool management official Daniel Guillaume said that he reminded Carol of the rules governing all public swimming places that prohibit swimming while clothed, ac In a statement published by the French newspaper Le Parisien, Carole -35 years- said that she bought the swimsuit from Dubai, because she wanted to swim with her children without exposing her body, according to the teachings of Islam. She added: I understand this might be shocking, but it is simply segregation. I will fight to try to change things. And if I see that the battle is lost, I cannot rule out leaving France. Parliament Member André Green described Carole's behavior as provocative and said that wearing Burkini is ridiculous. Emerainville Mayor Alain Kelyor said all this has nothing to do with Islam, adding that the (Burkini) was not an Islamic swimsuit and that that type of suit does not exist in the Koran. A sign of servitude France is witnessing a wide controversy over wearing the veil and the burka (Niqab) after its ban in public schools in 2004. In a speech in the French Parliament two months ago, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the burka (Niqab) - a garment covering women from head to toe - reduced them to servitude and wearing it was 'unwelcomed' in France. We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, Sarkozy added. In June the French National Assembly appointed 32 MPs to a six-month fact-finding mission to look at ways of restricting burka use. The European Ifta Council issued a decision last month concerning the Niqab, as a message directed to the Western governments; the decision stated that wearing the Niqab is a right for any woman who wants to, and that such right should be observed. and t The Muslim minority in France is composed of 6 millions who represent 10% of the population, which makes it the hugest Muslim minority in Europe. A French woman prevented from swimming with the Burkini! Google launches two new products for Arab users Google launched two new services for Arab users: 'Google Sites' and 'Google News'. Google Sites enables users to easily create a website for free, in addition to gathering lots of information in one place; incuding videos, calendars, presentations, images Setting up or modifying some pages on Google Sites does not require any knowledge of HTTP, or any website designing skills. All contents added to the website become immediately searchable. Google Sites could be reached using any web browser. Two new services: 'Google Sites' and 'Google News' in Arabic As for Google News, it comes in four editions in Arabic for Egypt, Lebanon, KSA and UAE. This service allows users in these countries to browse local news through their country's edition, in addition to viewing the recent headlines in politics, business, Instead of reading only one article from one source about a certain story, the user will be able to view the most important news stories gathered on the front page, so that he wouldn't have to move between webpages to get the latest news. Through connecti Google News users can view the main headlines and some lines from brief news items, select what they see fit, and by clicking on them, the users get transferred to the website publishing the full news story, in order to get a broader view of the subject. Google News allows news publishers to benefit from the great opportunities offered by the Internet. With more than 40 million Arab Internet users, and over a billion people searching for news, Google News will help attract users to news sites. It will als Between sadness and surprise ... what is behind the closure of Menassat? Two years after its launch it is closing its office in Beirut, after the Dutch Foreign Ministry stopped funding it. Is the reason purely financial? Or is there a political background to this? Layal Haddad When the web site Menassat was launched two years ago about (2nd November 2007) the editing team did not take into account that their work would end suddenly, without prior warning. The website workers were informed last Friday that the office would be sh Of course the problem between the work team and the Dutch sponsors (of Free Voice organisation behind which is the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs) did not begin on Friday, but goes back to last May. That time the journalists at the Beirut office In Lebanon, authorities do not recognize civil marriage unless it has been celebrated abroad. A reality that has pushed travel agencies in Beirut to provide a practical offer for lovers: the organization of the marriage ceremony of patter you to peace in In 1936 the Lebanese law insured gave each of the eighteen religious communities (Sunni, Shia, Maronite, Catholic, Orthodox, Druze …) the right to develop and manage the personal status of their followers. Thus, marriage, divorce, and even inheritance am In 1951, Lebanese Parliamentarians and in 1998, the late President Elias Hrawi, suggested projects for the adoption of an optional civil marriage. In both cases, the projects sparked controversy and were therefore abandoned. As a result, Lebanese citizens who wish to have a civil marriage turn to Cyprus, only 30 minutes away from Beirut. That is why Nadia Travel, a Lebanese travel agency came up with a complete offer that facilitates marriage formalities for interested coup Only a religious marriage can take place on Lebanese territories. However, the Lebanese state recognizes a civil marriage contract made outside its borders. In the Cedar Land, one can have a civil divorce but never a civil marriage. When a woman opts for a civil marriage, her behavior is sometimes suspected Monique Zoghbi works in the field of management and human resources in Beirut. She had resorted to the \ldblquote Nadia Travel\rdblquote offer to marry Elie in Cyprus on the eighth of May last year. We got married in the Cypriot city of Nicosia in the presence of the representative of the Mayor, his assistant and the driver who picked us up from Larnaca Airport and then started taking pictures for us. The ceremony lasted seven minutes on the sound of I chose civil marriage because I refuse to let any religious authority control my life. Marriage for me is a formality. Commitment is what's important. If we had to get divorced, God forbid, I want that to be my decision, I refuse to be stopped by anyone, Certainly, our marriage caused absurd reactions from the side of some relatives. Unfortunately Lebanese mentality does not yet accept civil marriage. Some did not consider it to be a real marriage, but rather as a sort of cohabitation. When a woman opts f Dozens killed in the Breach of the Truce in Saada A Yemeni military source declared that dozens of soldiers and houthi militants were killed yesterday as clashes erupted and continued until today at dawn in the north of the country, following a truce that did not last long. The government accused Houthis of violating the cease-fire, while Houthis insisted on their commitment to the cease-fire. The French Press Agency (AFP) quoted the source saying that battles broke out between the Yemeni armed forces and the Houthi rebels in the areas of Al-Malaheez, Saadah and Harf safaian in the Omran governorate, he pointed out that dozens were killed on b Another military source said that despite the suspension of military operations, the rebels attacked army positions last night and the army retaliated. The Yemeni government accused the Huthis of violating the decision to suspend military operations in the Saada province, announced on Friday. An official source said the supreme security committee said in a statement that Houthis attacked government troop In a statement made by the official Yemeni news agency (Saba), the commission blamed the insurgents and declared them responsible for all the consequences of those violations. According to Yemeni security sources, the violations occurred three hours after the truce took effect at 6:00PM GMT on Friday. The cease-fire was to allow for humanitarian assistance to approximately 150 thousand people forced to flee their homes because A spokesman for the group said the decision to stop military operations didn't yet reach militants, confirming the group's commitment to the resolution. On the other hand Huthis group said that the security Commission rushed to the accusations, saying that its gunmen had not yet been informed with the decision. The Commission announced the cease-fire starting Friday 9:00PM local time (6:00PM GMT). In other news about the conflict, the Yemeni army denied the accusations made by Huthis, which accused the army of using White phosphorus During the air raids over the area of Saadah. The army said it does not possess this kind of bombs. The army also denied using Saudi weapons against Huthis who distributed pictures they said were of Saudi munitions used by the army in Saadah. Humanitarian appeals The director of Al Jazeera's bureau in Sanaa, Murad Hashim, said earlier that the decision to suspend military operations was issued in response to international and national organizations' calls. Humanitarian had been pleading both parties to cease fire Hashim added that the cease-fire was declared following a meeting between the Yemeni President With the secretary-general of Mohamed Abdel-Salam, spokesman Abdul-Malik Al Huthi, said to al-Jazeera that the cease-fire is a positive step, calling for a real ending of hostility. We are certainly committed\rdblquote he added \ldblquote If the Yemeni government would commit and present proof of god intentions, and manifested immediate cease-fire as well as presented a radical remedy for the issue of Saada. Al-Attiyah, on the other hand, called after a meeting with President Saleh parties to prioritize the National interest in the framework of the Republic and the Constitution when it comes to the resolution of all disputes through negotiations and dialogue. Al-Attiyah emphasized that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) supports maintaining security and stability in Yemen, but supports a solution to the problem of Saada through dialogue, negotiation and peaceful means. Civil marriage, the Lebanese way Marriage ceremony in Cyprus Beirut: A medical team from the American University of Beirut successfully managed to perform the first artificial heart plant in Lebanon, thereby saving a thirty seven year old patient who suffered from complete heart failure. Tarek Nour: Accusations against me are led by envy and female talk \lquote Al Qahera Wal Nas\rquote , which promotes itself as the boldest channel in Egypt, stood against two accusations \endash or rumors - before it could initiate its media services. The first accusation was initiated by Facebook groups which claim the channel\rquote s promos we We brought these accusations forward and this is what Tarek Nour had to say: As for Egyptian television, I can assure you that there is no war or competition because, at the end of the day, this is the state\rquote s television and my programs will be aired on t We asked Nour who was behind these rumors. He said: This is nothing more than competition-led envy; the person behind these rumors is a well known competitor. What I\rquote m hearing is nothing more than female talk. A press release issued by the American University said the operation was conducted on August 28th, ran for six hours and ended with success. All of the patient\rquote s vitals improved over the following three days. The release stated that Pierre Sfeir, the surgeon who conducted the operation, and Hadi Skory, the patient\rquote s cardiologist and heart transplant specialist, oversaw the oper The artificial heart which was implanted in the patient is called a left ventricular assist device as it replaces this ventricle in the heart, the main chamber in charge of pumping oxygenated blood on a regular basis through the aorta and pulmonary arte Sfeir said the operation was the patient\rquote s last hope, and it was a complete success. Skory said the patient\rquote s vitals were back to normal, and that the device was pumping blood as it should. The hospital\rquote s cardio department chief, Samir Al Alam, said that such transplant operations are usually a patient\rquote s last resort. Skouri said that 90 percent of of cardiac failures are caused by left ventricular failure. The two doctors assisted a medical team involving German surgeon Latif Arusglow, senior artificial heart expert in \ldblquote Thoratec\rdblquote , and an expert in clinical medicine sent by the company. The release said the patient, who is a father of four, is in good health and emotional condition. He is currently in the American University\rquote s intensive care unit. The artificial heart know as the left ventricular assist device which was implanted in the patient. First successful artificial heart transplant in Lebanon Saudi Arabia .. Unemployment among women shatters the dreams of female graduates amidst calls for administrative\~amendments Only 14% participation rate of women in the labor market Specialists confirm that there are between 3.5 and 5 million women in Saudi Arabia capable of working but suffering from unemployment, do not participate in the development efforts within their countries, resulting in a number of problems, particularly po The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Golden Grass company and founder of Saudi Voters Center and writer for AlAswak.net says: Female unemployment exists, and although the figures and statistics vary they remain horrible, between 3.5 and 5 million wo He also pointed out that one of the major effects of this unemployment is poverty, which infiltrates many homes and families of the kingdom, refusing the specificity of Saudi women argument that is often blamed for unemployment. Al-Rashid said that there's not enough explicit and clear instructions on what is permitted and what is not permitted in terms of gender mixing, on the ground religious police contradicts instructions from the Ministry of Labor.\~All of these factors are t He said: The state can address this problem while preserving customs and traditions and in agreement with the principles of Islam. It is possible to invest this labor force for the benefit, first of all, families but also the economy, instead of resortin Al-Rashid blames official regulations for the situation: We can not blame the private sector for the situation, regulations are the first to blame, along with the multiplicity of agencies responsible actually on the ground. We have a lot of examples wher When asked about the argument that says that Saudi women are not properly prepared for the workplace, Al-Rashid said: This is not in a serious argument, most job opportunities are in the service sector and do not require more than 36 hours trainings, tha The Princess Adela Bint Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz said in the paper she wrote as the main speaker at a forum of businesswomen in Al-Khobar that Saudi women represent 50% of the Saudi society, and the number of Saudi women working out of 494 out of 5 million For social researcher Lama Masoud, the basis of this phenomenon is the disparities between the educational system and labor market needs in the Kingdom, noting 20 000 Saudi women graduate from Saudi universities annually - 95% of them bear the title of un Supporting this argument, come the numbers published by the Department of Statistics and the Ministry of Civil Service, which reported that more than 120 thousand university graduates competed for five thousand job opportunities, showing the abundance of Masoud added in an interview for AlAswaq.net: There has been so far no concrete steps to cope with female unemployment which affects women's academic and professional future of girls in Saudi Arabia. In addition, society is still not prepared to accept Dr. Basma Omair Mouslih, Executive Director of the Khadijah bint Khuwaylid Center in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce said to AlAswaq.Net: The private sector is not to blame, the opposit is true. We have requests from many institutions in need of qualified Omair called for the abolition of Articles 160 and 114 in the new regulations of work and workers to prevent overcrowding of special work fields, and simply stating that interaction in the work space must conform to the Shariah, stressing that business ow Omair emphasized that the Center is putting all its energy to remove obstacles to women's work by removing any hindrance, identifying responsible ministries, dealing and following up with updates as soon as they take place. In addition, the Center prepare Omair also demanded that fields like law, engineering, accounting, technical support would be open to women. As opposed to restricting women to sectors such as education. Stating the Eighth Plan statistics which show that only 14% of the workforce in king Human rights activists and lawyers criticise the campaign to arrest those breaking the fast during Ramadan. Fears of a hard-line movement within the police force A respected man in his mid 40s old was arrested by the police in a humiliating manner. A criminal file was opened for him and he was held in the police station. But the crime that he had committed was, I was standing buying a bag of€ juice for my family The campaign, which resulted in the detention of 155 citizens, is not aimed at the pursuit of those that buy juice, but those who openly eat during Ramadan. They (the police) roam the streets and main squares in Aswan during the time prior to Fitar in The campaign provoked discontent among jurists and human rights activists. Gamal Eid, a lawyer and director of the Arab Network for Human Rights, criticised the campaign insisting that it was not legal. He described what the Interior Ministry were doing The purchase of juice before Fitar has become a crime to the Interior Ministry -archive photo. Eid said that the arrests of citizens on charges of breaking the fast had no legal grounding. He added it is the right of any citizen not to fast or fast during Ramadan. Even respecting other people's feelings is up to the citizen and no one has the ri Meshaal meets with Suleiman, agreeing to end the conflicts before the elections and a Fatah delegation leaves to Cairo soon Gaza \endash 'Al-Quds Al-Arabi' from Ashraf Al-Hour: An official in Fatah movement said that a senior delegation, which will probably be headed by Central Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad, will arrive in Cairo in a few days. This will be to deliberate with Egypt The Fatah official highlighted to 'Al-Quds Al-Arabi' that the Fatah delegation will head to Cairo right after winding up the Central Committee sessions, during which missions are assigned and the movement strategic plans for the upcoming period, including He pointed out that the movement delegation, probably headed by Azzam Al-Ahmad, will let the Egyptian officials know about the movement's attempts to resolve the pending issues with Hamas; security, elections and government, before officially receiving a According to the official, in case both Fatah and Hamas agree to the Egyptian proposal, there will be an invitation for both rival movements together with the rest of the Palestinian factions to sign the final reconciliation agreement in Cairo, right afte Cairo had postponed the seventh round of dialogue which was supposed to be held on August 25th till after Eid Al-Fitr due to the continuing difference in points of view between Fatah and Hamas. This was the second postponement in a row for this round. The Fatah official asserted that there were certain hints made by the Egyptians during the last visit of their security delegation which included Ramallah and Damascus; asserting that Egyptian officials will not allow any sort of procrastination regarding He expected that the Egyptian proposal would suggest that the elections be run according to the Mixed Election system: 75 proportional and 25 circles, and that the start of the execution of the Palestinian reconciliation should be accompanied by the forma The official stated that the last thing that had been agreed to with the Egyptians was the formation of a national unity government instead of the steering committees stated by the previous proposal. However, he didn't disclose the structure of the govern He also added that Egyptian senior officials will arrive in Gaza right after the agreement in order to supervise its execution, accompanied by an Arab League delegation. A Hamas delegation headed by movement leader Khaled Meshaal had met at a late hour Saturday with minister Omar Suleiman, director of Egyptian General Intelligence; surveying the latest developments regarding the reconciliation issue. After the meeting, Hamas Political Bureau member, Dr. Khalil Al-Hayei said that in a few days, the Egyptian leadership will be putting forth a proposal for resolving all the pending issues, asserting that agreeing to such proposal will be followed by invi In a statement for 'Safa' local agency, Al-Hayei, who is currently in Cairo, said that there had been deliberations and talks with the Egyptian leadership about the overall Palestinian condition, the future of the Palestinian cause and the Egyptian effort He added saying that during the meeting, the Hamas delegation felt that there was an Egyptian will that wanted to reach an agreement and to end the divide. He also asserted that Hamas was willing to make the reconciliation work. Al-Hayei denied any knowledge of the items of the awaited Egyptian proposal. However, he asserted that it would be the result of what had been agreed to throughout all the previous rounds. The Hamas senior official indicated that the ball is now in Fatah' Al-Hayei asserted that during the meeting of his movement's delegation with Genral Suleiman, it was agreed that a comprehensive agreement before next elections was indispensible, 'so that the next elections would be held in an natural environment of fairn Sources had earlier asserted to 'Al-Quds Al-Arabi' that President Mahmoud Abbass intended to issue a presidential decree next month, to set the date for running presidential and legislative elections in January 2010, which marks the end of the constitutio Sources confirmed that Abbass notified Egypt, a number of influential Arab countries and other countries that enjoy intimate relations with Hamas of his intention to hold the elections, even if an agreement with Hamas wasn't reached. Yesterday, Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Meheisan asserted that his movement was very keen on having the general elections on the constitutional date set to January 25th. He pointed out that Fatah would remain committed to the elections even if Hamas refused to hold it in Gaza, stating that next January represented a 'constitutional right' according to the Palestinian Basic Law. Meheisan blamed Hamas, accusing it of 'evading the elections for fear of the unfavorable results'. He added that Hamas didn't want to hold the elections even in 2020. Hamas is requesting that no elections should be held till a final agreement is reached w Meheisan didn't exclude that President Abbass might announce a date for the elections. He said that the elections would be held according to the Full Proportional Representation, in order to allow the participation of all factions. He believed that such s He said: ' Full Proportional Representation provides a representation opportunity for all governorates, with members of all political organizations, and thus Gaza would be powerfully present'. In case Hamas prevented Gaza from participating in the electio Source to 'Al-Quds Al-Arabi': Egypt will not accept any reason from the rivals for postponing the dialogue after putting forth the proposal for resolving the conflict in a few days. Eid said that this campaign is not the first of its kind, and there were attempts to enforce this two years ago in the governorate of Cairo. But they backed down from it, after arresting a number of people, because it was illegal. It expressed the silence Nejad Al Boraie, a human rights activist and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Egyptian Democracy Development Foundation, confirmed that there is no article in the law that explicitly allows for the arrest of those who break the fast during the The number of those breaking the fast who were arrested in Aswan Governorate alone reached 155 citizens. This was confirmed by the lawyer Khaled Ali, the Executive Director for Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, which confirmed that in the law there is no charg He criticised what he called as attempts to impose religion by force on citizens. He stressed that the minister for the Interior Ministry did not have the right to issue any resolutions that lays down any kind of sanctions even for the issuing of fines. The cases of detention, besides the fact that its not constitutional, was particularly discriminatory against the informal settlements where many people were arrested for simply being suspected by officers of breaking the fast. After they were arrested The Egyptian Interior Ministry's campaign is considered to be imitating the practice of some states who have a Muslim majority, such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who punish those who openly break their fast during Ramadan by imprisoning them for a month This punishment is inflicted on Muslims and non-Muslims alike in these states if they are caught red-handed with food and drink, or are smoking during the day in Ramadan. A cranky girl that everyone fears to confront. One that slaps a boyfriend when she refuses to perform the holly obligation of \ldblquote spoiling\rdblquote her boyfriend, that would yell at another friend if he's convinced that a woman is weak. In politics, she bears the bu And so society is divided between girls in pink dresses and others in pants like those worn by American women after the World War II. \ldblquote Some girls can only accept a situation that was imposed on them\rdblquote says Nada, who refuses to follow the herd of those who Girls of today, unfortunately, are full of contradictions. They oppose men's violence, but doesn't hesitate to slap him. Refuses the sexual way she is looked at but then plays the sexual game so well. Demands her independence but then asks a man to give h Sent by Dr. Tallal Harb (not verified) on Thursday 2009, 09-03-16: 20. Contradiction girls Rita Boulos Chahwan Society fears independent girls •I refuse the picture By Nermine (not verified) on Thursday, 2009-09-03 15: 08. I refuse the stereotype of a liberated girl just as I refuse the stereotype of a girl that stays home. We get lost in stereotypes in this society. I would have preferred to hear real life experiences and not conclusions based on opposites and Rita's persp She failed to establish the International Oriental Women Freedom Organization for she has witnessed the burrial of the last seed of the Women's Revolution with the widespread of diseases such as superficiality, revolutionary cosmetics, blown-up cheeks m And so society is divided between girls in pink dresses and others in pants like those worn by American women after the World War II. _Oh really? and where do I stand? I wear pink dresses (and by the way, this is an unfair stereotype based on colors). , the eternal conflict between women and men? only? And what about the conflict between women? and men ? How many same sex relationships have control and violence issues? How many women's rights organizations are unfair with their employees? It would · independently from the lover, brother or father. what about female lover? I may be going too far, or just wrong, I just wanted to share my opinion With recent statistics showing a decrease in Saudi women's participation in the labor market as well as an increase of the numbers of non-Saudi women of up to 77%, a number of specialists and concerned individuals started demanding legislative and adminis She also stated that empowering women requires a renovation of the infrastructure. Women wages are low, transportation is not available so working women are forced to hire a private driver which consumes a great part of her salary rendering the remaining Omair also noted we should not stop demanding the educational system to open new sections in fields needed for the labor market. The management and approach of education is important, indicating that the center is careful not to facilitate women integrati Closure of the Schutz American School because of swine flu By Tarek Hussein: news agencies confirmed the news which was broadcasted yesterday about the closure of the British School due to swine flu. It confirmed also the closure of the American School in the area of Schutz. \rdblquote According to the Egyptian Middle East News Agency it was decided to close the US and British schools in the Alexandria Governorate for an indefinite period after the emergence of two cases who were infected with H1N1 virus known as bird flu who were amon Reuters: Scientific normalisation with Israel:by Batir Wardam In the past weeks the local and international media have reported on the existence of so-called scientific cooperation projects between Jordan and Israel and sometimes the Palestinian Authority as part of a system of regional cooperation initiatives in Tourism, the environment and health has a regional nature that crosses borders. There must be a means of communication with the Israeli side at least to deal with the present and anticipated problems. People's attitudes and institutions of the relationshi In the private sector the situation is different, and remains a decision left to people in their desire for the establishing trade and economic relations with the Israeli parties. At the same time while the state does not force any of the citizens to norm Many states with political and border differences in the world use a methodology of scientific, technological and environmental cooperation to resolve some differences or at least for there to remain channels of communication on the scientific level. This The amount of political, economic, humanitarian and environmental harm which is caused by the Israeli occupation continues to make normalisation a rejected option restricted to limited activities that are hard to integrate together to form a system of reg ِ Yes or NO for Religion on ID Cards a Controversy that had a long history of debates in Egypt The trial against her was unfair and was not in line with our constitution. On the family's request, I now have taken over the case and will be in protest against the judgment,\rdblquote lawyer Shirin Ebadi said. [Lebanese] Internal Ministry adopts a \ldblquote Facebook\rdblquote approach without breaking the law, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar describes the publication of personal information of citizens as an adoption of a Facebook approach I swear by God that those [who set the houses on fire] are the true Muslims who care for God's Book. Don't tell me about distorting Islam's image and the rest of that empty talk. The only thing that really distorts Islam's image is our current weakness and humiliation, wrote Salaam, Allahu Akbar on Sabq.org. The Blue Jerboa -- A documentary film that attests to the tragedies of France's nuclear testing in Algeria The Egyptian Awareness Blog. by the mood of It's owner, who works for no one! @Mahmoud_Saber from Twitter: I\rquote ve heard unconfirmed news that Baab Al Shaereyya witnessed a five-meter deep landslide. Everyone says it\rquote s caused by the new subway construction works. joint cooperation
great step , to activate Arab cooperation . I believe that this step will help Jordan . To solve the energy crisis . 100.000 visitors could not visit the pyramids. 3abdul Salam from Syria says sarcastically that the benefits of officials visit is to improve the situation of the regions they visit in order to receive them. A Canadian report indicated that the wave of computer spying that affected many government sites originated in China A comment from Al-Shorouk website: Well, it's a bold idea, though a bit late. I hope it gets carried out in Major Cairo and all the other governorates God Willing A group of Jordanian nationals marched the streets of Jordan with a red donkey to showcase the absurdity of Valentine's Day celebrations. A high-ranking Israeli defense official said that Israel had no intention at the current stage to evacuate the 26 settlement outposts as it had promised, according to al-Safeer newspaper. A loophole in Twitter's system enables a teenager to strike with a malicious worm. A protest statement by Egyptian artists participating in the festival: Ahmed Abdullah and Yosri Nasrallah. A Saudi princess was granted refuge in Britain after she convinced the judge that she was in danger of death under an adultery charge. A statement of the Lebanese Society for Democratic Elections special voting day June 7 Abdul Salam, a blogger from Syria gives his opinion on the speech of Barack Obama on twitter Abu Ammar, an Egyptian blogger, wonders about the bravery of Arab rulers and whether they can stand in front of their people to address them like Ahmadinejad did Abu Garda will voluntarily appear in the ICC as he denies charges against him. He said: \ldblquote I\rquote m going. There\rquote s no problem. I\rquote m not involved.\rdblquote abualkhair : Our accounts on twitter are blocked too, and I was informed that I am not allowed any more to edit or post in any Saudi Journal.... and then what will come next? According the internet site for the Iranian Quds Press, Israel is able to confront the Iranian nuclear threat but as for the other countries, they alone should concern themselves with the problems they have with Iran. According to Al Watan newspaper, reports mentioned Al-Malki\rquote s intention to undertake a ministerial reshuffling, that may include ten ministers in order to revitalize the performance of his government, which entered its fourth year on the twentieth of the current month. According to Alarabiya.net, the Egyptian government can request to stop the implementation of the ruling to revoke the nationality from Egyptians married to Israelis, and appeal it in front of the Supreme Administrative Court. According to Aljazeera, the new unknown strain of swine flu has killed 61 in Mexico and has swept the US, infecting many people, according to reports. According to Arab 48 website: Zionism aims at increasing the size of Israel and decimating non-Jews in Israel. According to ART, the series producer denied that it would be broadcasted on the Israeli TV, saying that he signed a contract with the Palestinian TV to broadcast it. According to Human Rights Watch, 17 out of 27 Lebanese private pools do not allow domestic workers from Asian or African from swimming in the pools or entering the building all together. According to Moheet: demonstrators carried banners with the words No for the return of the dark ages written on them. They emanated slogans against the laws prohibiting wearing clothes that are considered indecent. According to official statistics, one third of adults in Turkey smoke, and 48% percent of Turkish men smoke. This places Turkey in tenth place in terms of cigarette consumption. According to presstv, Roxana\rquote s release is conditional to her not engaging in any illegal practices over the next five years. According to the director of Nadia Travel agency, his offer is quite popular. Every week, around three or five pairs travel to Cyprus to enter the golden cage. According to the Lebanese al-Mustaqbal newspaper, for the first time the voter will replace his thumb in a small box containing blue ink to emphasize that he gave his vote and so he cannot vote twice in the same elections. According to the Yemeni Economist the security authorities have clarified to the paper that the search is ongoing but that there is currently no information on the fate of the missing people. Ahmed's Blog: May Allah guide you to the right way Sarkozy. If it was in Tunisia we would say they have previous convictions for the war against Hijab, but coming from you? The country of Light president? Al Amuri MohamedSpainThe U.S. image has improved only in the media. People, especially in the Muslim world, consider America their worst enemy. Al Arabiya. net comment on the trial news and the alleged confessions: The trial of the objectors to the results of the presidential elections, turned into a trial of the West, the United States, and other states. He drew the public prosecution in the second round of the reformists trial, accused of directly to the United States, Western countries and the Gulf, of being involved in supporting the Velvet Revolution, and in training elements of it. Some of the detainees who appeared before the revolutionary court, admitted that he was to send Iran to the news media Hostile states, and some of them said that he met with U.S. intelligence officer in Iraq 's Kurdistan, and he talked about the task that parties and figures of Iran. -- also confessions on the role of Mujahedeen Khalq, the Iranian opposition placed on the list of terrorist organizations, and related to rehearse the industry of bombs Molotov cocktail to destabilize the security of the country, and assassinators. Al Hurra Channel website was concerned that this cell was interested in planning bombing some foreign cargo ships and oil pipelines. Al Jazeera correspondent, Mohammad Al-Sufi, said that the two French men were jogging and suffered minor injuries, as did a Mauritanian woman who happened to be passing when the explosion happened. Al Jazeera reports the formation of a new Mauritanian government Al Sharq Al Awsaat: The suspects have denied allegations, claiming that police forces extracted confessions through torture means. The court is set to issue a verdict within the next few days. Al-Ahram newspaper quotes the World Health Organization as saying that Egypt is at the forefront of countries at risk of bird flu. Al-Akhbar reports, which is on the brink of a real disaster, avoided required radical solutions and expeditious. But it is one of these solutions is the sacrifice of another green lungs in front of creeping Locusts? AlArabiya reports that Al Naha Bin Mouknass is one of six female ministers in the new Mauritanian government, comprised of twenty seven ministers. Al-Baghdadi confessed that he receives instructions that are ready to be implemented by the Emirs in Iraq, and that his role is limited to transferring these instructions and watching. Al-Hayat newspaper, unceasing talk about a 'moderate revolution' -a new description for fiery, impassioned political action. Aline Bnayan reviews women participation in the 2008 Olympics, held in Beijing. The article also gives an overview of the history of Muslim women in the Olympic Games. Al-Jazeera mentions some medical information relating to the current strain of the swine flu virus. Al-Maliki said: Some try to deny the fact that the detainee is Abu Omar al-Baghdadi because they didn't know about his arrest. Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper met the family of the poet, who was sentenced to prison for insulting the president. The family pleaded for a presidential pardon. Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights reports that Hamas detained Fatah members who were former members of the security service in Gaza. America must stop talking about democracy and freedom and humanity , that government which sent Monsters who raped children and killed civilians, does not deserve an opportunity to talk about things is not related to it. An American study confirms olive oil plays a vital role in protecting red blood cells from damage caused by oxidation. An article from Alalam Iranian news channel:There is less interest in what is happening in Iran!! An Egyptian official confirmed that Cairo received summons from Hamas Movement officials to open Gaza cross, and commented that Egypt is handling the summons to open the Gaza border cross, regardless who make it, confirming its responsibility towards the Palestinian people. An interesting piece on why closing down Guantanamo Bay is harder than it seems An invention that will allow paraplegics to open up to the world. An Israeli delegation led by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom withdrew from an International Parliamentary Union session, ongoing in Ethiopia, in protest against the participation of two Hamas members in the Palestinian delegation, Israeli sources said. An official accused Al Qaeda of executing the attack, saying The attack has the fingerprints of Al Qaeda, he continues, the truck was loaded with more than one ton of explosives. An old report from Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper which displays a history of struggles and criticisms against the series An opinion article on the Arabic Al-Arabiya satellite channel's website:The Iranian authorities banned this satellite channel from broadcasting from Iran for a whole week .The article is on the third Republic in Iran. And perhaps more importantly, does the people living in the Gulf understand the reality of what is being sowed and described as the iranian danger ? And the website of the Al Arabiya channel translates what Reuters reported. And the worst would be when one goes to the livestock market to buy a sheep, and the seller informs him that a sheep is worth 50 \ldblquote Khalijis!\rdblquote April has been the bloodiest month in the course of the year 2009; 250 were killed and about 700 were injured, according to Al-Arabiya. April has been the bloodiest month in the course of the year 2009; 250 were killed and about 700 were injured, according to Al-Arabiya. Arab coordination has reached various levels and scopes. Arab employment in the United States Arab Finance ministers approved the establishment of a council to coordinate financial policies between Arab countries in order to face the repercussions of the global financial crisis and its consequences. Arabawi, an Egyptian blogger, summarizes the comments of the Egyptian media on the strike. Arabs can not come out with influencing resolutions under their fragmented status, and while they have two different summits in two different countries in one day. Are there any other procedures the Saudi authorities should be adopting to facilitate the pilgrimage rituals? Article in Al-Qabas newspaper: Kouchner: Syrian-French consensus regarding Lebanon and disagreement over Iran. Assan Sherbel writes for Al-Hayat: Sometimes one might think that the Iranian regime is repeating the same mistakes made by Saddam Hussein's regime, despite the huge differences between the two regimes. Batir Rodham writes in the Jordanian newspaper, Addustour: \ldblquote Even though the state does not force any of the citizens towards normalization, it does not have the capacity to prevent it, if it did not constitute a threat to national security.\rdblquote BBC : a Turkish TV program asked the atheists to reconsider their attitudes towards religion and win a «grand prize » as counter part. BBC Arabic reported that Hamas also doubts the destiny of Shalit BBC reports that Roxana had gone on a two-week hunger strike. Belal Al-Hassan writes his remarks in Asharq al-Awsat paper about the problems of the conference: Membership, the documents, the role of security forces and the beating events, the participation of the Gaza inhabitants and the new leadership. Belgium has nominated Jean-Pol Poncelet, a vice-president at French nuclear group Areva, as a candidate to head the International Atomic Energy Agency. Billions of dollars are spent all over the world to control the avian influenza virus. Blogger Abu Aardvark commenting on the United Nations report. Britain secretly grant a Saudi princess political asylum fearing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. Al-Quds Brother Yasser What do you mean? Why should we not reply? But it seems that the United Nations had more than one opinion on the subject.A report from the Associated Press stressed that Israel and Hezbollah are keen to extend the truce that put an end to the July 2006 war. Cairo will host the forum from 12 to 14 may, 2009, in the Fairmont Towers Hotel. Comment from Islam Today website: The growing of the Algerian force is legitimate, why deny this country what may be acceptable for others to do? Let it become a naval force that would lead to making an Arab and Islamic fleet capable of intimidating the oppressors. Comment from the Masrawy website: Why not implement the punishment in public? Is it something we are afraid to show to the world, therefore the necessity to do it in secret? You only fear to show something to the people if you were sure it was wrong. Comments from Al-Jazeera.net Considering the low number of British forces in Iraq , I don't think that it would have a big impact , but certainly a step in the right direction Criticism has been growing against the Ambassador of Sweden in Israel Elizabeth Borsiin Bonaire following statement regarding an article published in the newspaper in Sweden which sparked broad dissatisfaction in Israel. Dalia Moagahed's interview with Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper Damascus relies on the arrest of A Siddiq to help the international tribunal to discover the truth in the assassination of Al Hariri. Despite continuing the construction of settlements in the West Bank, Israelis demand for leaving there is low Do you think that the Israeli war on Gaza is legitimate? does the britain era which protect all is over? and does this matter opens the door to prosection of islamic people who have taken refuge in england and the arab government s claime receive them ? Does the military obstruct the birth of democracy in Arab countries ? During the contest, the candidates will have the opportunity to develop their own project in a state-of-the-art workshop, built especially for the show, at the recently inaugurated Qatar Science Egypt did not witness any celebrations for the thirtieth anniversary of the peace treaty with the Israelis, while many celebrations were carried out in Israel. Egyptian security sources confirmed to Masrawi that an Egyptian soldier from the central security forces on the Egyptian-Israeli border was injured by Israeli bullets for reasons unknown for now. Elaph reports the formation of a new Mauritanian government Elections a real opportunity for Lebanese citizens to decide for the future of their country. Father of US Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to eight years in Iran for spying, said his daughter started a hunger strike five days ago, according to Moheet. Finally, an article in the Al Skhbar, says names things as they are on the subject of preventing foreign workers from entering swimming pools Following the US elections:What will become of the Republicans, and what will the Democrats do after the long Bush era? for all empoliss hotel pleas not comming isaed reception section just for resptionest pepole Foreign media is Iran's new enemy Former French President Jacques Chirac and Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen were among the European figures attending the Doha Forum, Aleqt.com reports. Free plane tickets to Lebanon for the Lebanese living in Canada to vote tomorrow French officials say that the naval base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the third largest oil -exporting country , will strengthen ties with this Arab Gulf state and strengthen efforts to combat piracy and protect trade. French President says that the veil or burqa is not welcome in France and wearing such represents a sign of the subservience and exclusion of women. from The Jihad watch blog: This is another example of muslim converts,who misunderstood this peaceful religion and believed in the idea that Islam promotes violence against non-believers. From Al Arabiya report: Kartika, mother of two, was set to be caned during this week, but the religious authorities in the state said that the sentence was postponed because it is not appropriate for her to be subject to the punishment during the month of Ramadan. From Al-Shorouk newspaper article: Hosni completely denied in an interview with the AFP yesterday that he was Anti-Semitic saying: If indeed I was Anti-Semitic, why have I been restoring all the Jewish temples in my country since 1998? From IslamOnline.net: Organizers of the Ramadan Tent on Second Life say that this event will be the first of a series of lectures given by famous Preachers and important religious figures. From Masreat blog: A taped recording of the Baab Al Shaereyya landslide From Ostoghomaya (Hide and Seek) blog: What does it mean to say they were detained for security reasons????? Are they eating napalm or dynamite? Not only that, but also organizing campaigns for their arrest... Have they become some sort of a terrorist group or a gang?? From the BBC report: On the other hand the return of the law to the Parliament was a shock to the women's organizations who have been working for over ten years to change the family code. From the comments section on the Beaches blog: Injustice and conspiracy... it could be true or fabricated But where are the rights of Lybians and who will compensate them for the years of the embargo???? by Rabih Al Rakoobee From the comments section on the Beaches blog: Ramadan Kareem Gheda Gheda, no right is ever lost if there is someone defending it. And if any is lost on this earth, it is never lost in the after life By Osama Germany often witnesses name debates such as controversy surrounding the name \lquote Heidrich\rquote , who was a Nazi military official, among other names Global Voices explains the idea behind the initiative and details on how it started. Google which owns the largest search engine will start selling electronic books on the Internet Governments take action to face a new strain of swine flu spread in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Great story.We need more of these initiatives that make a difference on earth, instead of all the agreements, slogans and conferences.It's initiatives like these that make a difference. Great words Sadati, I second what you said, leave them to their barking as you already said. Hamas applies the Islamic religion as a political and financial system. Hamas casts doubt on the fate of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.Can we consider this story a lie by President Mubarak? Hamas confirms that there are still many pending issues, while Fatah says the dialogue is in its final stages. Happy New Year He might be the first blogger to announce that he's become a professional one, but he is definitely not the first professional blogger in the Arab world. Here people are convinced that the Pakistani president was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and that she would have taken the presidency if she had stayed alive. hi lolo good morininghow are you ? Iwrite english my computer not write arabicIsee your message I vary happy Ihope take you shirt time take care your self hi my most lovely friend AbdulqaderI am madly glad to receive your fast letter. Your words such gentleand warm. So it is pleasant to me to speak and reflect with you on alife, about love, about the warm feelings. Now I trust in that thatthrough the Internet it is possible to find the person, the personwhich you becomes such expensive and lovely. The Internet - the finestthat was created by people. We on such distance, but we feel eachother, we feel as we breathe, as our heart as we think knocks. And itso is important. I very much like to represent what is not present, ithelps me to struggle with loneliness. And here now I write to you, Irepresent as we walk with you on park, we walk at warm night, whetherwe look at the moon and we think there is a life somewhere there far.Yes, it is imagination but as I wish to believe that it will be in alife. My imagination, it as my medicine against a pain, pains in ashower, against my loneliness. I so wish to create a family, I so wantchildren, I so want that I had a person who always, would awake meevery day early in the morning and spoke whispered to me on an earGood morning, the darling. And it would kiss me hotly on the mouth.As it is wonderful when there is such person who can embrace you whichcan protect you which I can tell to you love you my angel. I amsorry about you for the imaginations and dreams, but me is valid sothere is all no it. As I wish to escape to escape, I would go thoughat the end of the earth for the sake of the most lovely person....Today we went with the girlfriend on a film to a cinema, the film wascalled Uill Hanting. It is such interesting film, on viewing Icried, because that life which there is shown so real, so.... When wewalked with the girlfriend, I have started to tell to it that myrelations with you develop, I said to it, that if happens so I willleave Russia as you will be without me, I spoke to the girlfriend. Butmy girlfriend very clever woman and it simply consoled me and spoke,but as wash kid Ljudmila I will call to you every week, I will writeyou letters and you never will forget me. And its words were so warmfor me, that I began to trust in that that it for me as mum who speakskind words of the daughter....I will wait from you for the warmest and lovely letter my darlingAbdulqaderLjudmila Human Rights Watch has called on UAE government to formulate an independent institution with authority to investigate abuse and torment activities conducted by UAE police forces. I do not agree with you .
I am happy that the first festival of the WOMAD organization in the Middle East is held in an Arab country. Music is indeed the best way of rapprochement between peoples. I am not sure of my stance regarding Iran 's decision because the disease is spreading at an frightening way.And to cancel Hajj and Umrah this year,what about the next year,and the next? I am still in doubt about the current American administration. Does it want to spread justice? Or does it want to defame the former administration for personal interests. I believe that the issue of the separation of men from women that should not be a widespread phenomenon especially this openness in all the Arab countries as long as the organizer of the party and of course of course will not be in هرجلة and coeducation to each gender I believe that the state must also consider solving the problem of unemployment amongst young Egyptian men to reduce the phenomenon of marrying Israelis. So many Egyptians have resorted to this after running out of options here. I believe that these kind of bombings will only bring about greater social cohesion than there was before....only severe affliction separates these stupid people .. I can't find an insulting situation of women more than in Saudi Arabia, each time, the government came up with new banned thing that Women have to adhere to it, I even don't know if women have any rights in that country. I do not think that the pilgrimage would cause an outbreak of swine flu,especially when pilgrimage requires regular cleanliness and purity.Anway,Say: Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us . I do not think that the world's diseases will vanish now ...The solution is to ignore all this.. completely and live life our way I don't like Obama because he was born a Muslim but became a Christian. I don't understand the reason for the Egyptian government 's insistence on killing the pigs, so long as the infection is transmitted amongst humans. Really strange. I expect Mussavi to win the Iranian elections and become the next president, Obama is a reformer in USA, so an extremist such as AhmediNajad should not be the president. #Iranelections I hope to be in Europe or America on Christmas , I\'5C've heard much about the celebrations there and hope to see them in action I really hope the winner is lebanon... I see that no one likes Ahmadinejad in Iran . I strongly agree on this sentence, because the religion is sacred, and this is not a creativity, it's just an attempt to get fame! I think it is a positive step to activate the role of women in various aspects of life in the Arab world, and I hope that other Arab countries will follow the example of Kuwait in this regard I think it is an effective meeting since there will be medical check-ups. No doubt there will be abuses, but God is the protector in any case. I think that the hope that came with the arrival of Barack Obama to power in the White House should be used to find a just and lasting solution to the problem of the Middle East, and then he will enter history because he will change the world, and not only United States. I think the idea is right. We suffer from separating religion from the daily life.. Perhaps it is time to educate religious scholars to be in the same boat with what is going on in the community. I totally agree with you sirs. I support your cause, let them bark alone like I mentionned Before! I Want to Get Married blog: I was speaking for 15 million girls from the age of 25 to 35, who face everyday society pressures about them getting married until I\rquote ve had it, but now, praise be to God, I want to get married no more. I welcome this initiative but would it not also be useful to launch other campaigns in addition to this campaign to deal with the real problems in the Saudi society? I wonder if someone had documented the resolutions and criticisms from the United Nations and the international community which Israel completely ignored compared to those it had committed to? I wonder if the initiative includes civil and military aviation. I wonder what the reaction would be if this exhibition was put on here in the Middle East, in any Muslim country. I don't see it being positive. If he was a Muslim, and this is in the knowledge of God, then surely he has found his true fate, and God's mercy be upon him and all deceased Muslims. If they could have followed the site over the last three months they would have noticed the diversity of the articles published, and how they had improved. The numbers of visitors to the site had reached 4000 per day, said the the office manager, Lena Sahab. Important article in the Egyptian newspaper (Al Shrouq) about Iran and its neighbors. The talk is back to 1979, as the first revolution does not mean there is a second revolution coming soon. No one knows! In a comment on the Al Arabiyya website, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar expresses his view that the niqab is not obligatory and the comments of the French president are an internal affair. In a study of large-scale data breaches in 2008, Verizon Business found that cybercriminals profited mostly from exploiting careless mistakes. In an announcement released yesterday on the Noor Al Islam website, which is administered by Sheikh Mohammad Al Habdan Khuja, thirty five Saudi religious scholars warned of the consequences of violating religious teachings in the media. In my opinion, change is required, perhaps Ahmadinejad should not govern iran once again. In my opinion, the next thing that will be banned in Saudi Arabia is.... The Air. In the early hours of Sunday, the National Assembly elections were witnessing an historic event. Three female candidates have won election to the assembly, with two more on the threshold. In the wake of sending Obama a book, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday in an Americas summit held in Trinidad and Tobago that Venezuela will send an ambassador to the US. Interview with Dalia Moagahed on MBC Channel, where she talks about her new post and the challenges facing US Arabs and Muslims Investing in technology is a key component of modern development. Invitations to the wedding party include many celebrities in the Arab world Iranian diplomatic sources said yesterday (Tuesday) that the number of Iranians living in Syria ranges between ten and twelve thousand, and that the number of Iranian visitors exceeds six thousand per week. Is a wave of Islamophobia starting in Europe appearing on the earth and taking root? I am shocked by the number of Swiss who have signed this petition. What is the fate of Europe's Muslims if their image keeps getting worse? Is it possible to hold Palestinian elections under division between Fatah and Hamas, and in conjunction with the war crisis in Gaza? Is Saudi Arabia effective in its fight against violent extremist groups ? Is the news we hear these days about Women in Arab and Muslim countries are an outcome of an inerest in women issues and rights or simply a response to the pressure maintained on them by other countries. 'Is this report for fit to be a referential study on development issues in the Arab world? And further: will the tragic loopholes that the report overlooked provoke the Arab intellectuals to draft a counter-report?' Is this the beginning of a new Cold War? Islamabad requests information on suspects in London terrorist conspiracy Israel didn't even close to achieve any goal in Gaza and its aggression result was more deaths only, but at least the world is now aware of fact that Isreae is great in the commission of war crimes Israeli occupation army imposed curfew on Safa town, located in the settlement of Bat Ayin, Hamas\'5C' website reports. Issues discussed at the forum touch on basic Arab citizen interests It is clear that these explosions are sectarian in nature.But who is benefiting from this sectarian strife between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites at this stage, in particular with the approach of the date of the US withdrawal? It is not surprising that the Spanish government grants Muslims in Spain some concessions, to allow them to achieve a balance between their new Western life, and keep their faith and religious obligations. It is really wonderful to put smile and hope on the faces of thousands of innocent children who the blockade has stripped of everything that should be enjoyed by any child.Thank to everyone who made this wonderful job. It is really worring to see the increased extremism in the world, especially when this becomes public opinion of a whole state, and leads to the election of an extremist government It 's really a too late action, the first death case registered in Egypt was a girl coming from pilgrimage. It seems that the movie might also offend supporters of Al Qaeda leader Usama Bin Laden. Bruno says in the movie: \ldblquote Because your king Osama looks like a kind of dirty wizard or homeless Santa.\rdblquote It was the US Under Secretary of State for the Middle East, William Burns, who said that King Abdullah met with Israeli President Shimon Peres It was unfortunate that we only find two Arab figures from 22 Arab countries on the list, whilst two people are included from Israel alone. It's a great decision. I think it is correct too because during the fasting, the Egyptian street becomes chaotic. I think we will get to feel the essence of fasting even more with such decisions. God bless you. It's such a big event to have eight twins born alive, both for the delivery operation itself, and the fact of having to raise eight twins and deal with them. Jan McGirk discuss the possibility of the outbreak of swine flu in Israel Khaled Meshaal stated that the movement is aiming for a Palestinian state in the areas seized by Israel in 1967 Khalid Mashaal wonders: What does recognizing Israel have to do with an internal Palestinian reconciliation? Khomeini's revolution Kouchner: Syrian-French consensus regarding Lebanon Kuwait is having a test in democracy. Lebanon is this year's best tourist destination while Beirut is this summer's party capital. The tourism trade grew by 57.3 percent - during the last seven months the number of tourists exceeded more than one million. Let's hope that these reports result in something. Levini accused Netanyahu's government of providing lip service to the people. According to her, everything done by his government is superficial and made only for appearances. Lieberman accuses Iran of being a threat to the existence of Israel according to Press TV. Major contributors in the World Digital Library are national libraries and cultural centres from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Brazil, China, Egypt, the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia. Marawan commented on Al Arabiya website by saying:I was truly saddened by the news, Michael Jackson was a great artist. He sang for nature, the weak, the oppressed, and the poor all around the world. He is an artist worthy of appreciation and respect. Maria: Do you know other professional bloggers in the Arab world )with that I mean those who do not have any other income rather than blogging)?I think it 's interesting to add their website Mashi97 (said on Twitter), Someone added me just before to his friends list and wrote on his twitter page: I posted on twitter, after reading about the blocking of the site, that we all thank the Saudi Interior Ministry for warning us against it. Masrawy stated: Maoz said that he sought to present the harsh reality of the war in an attempt to relief his trauma and the haunting memories of the first man he killed. May God rest his soul in peace. May God remit his sins. He was loved by millions all over the world. May God's mercy fall upon you. You were a great benevolent man. Media spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Jamil Abu Bakr, had earlier demanded an apology from Pope Benedict XVI for the statements he made that were offensive to Islam and the greatest prophet. Mehdi Karoubi\rquote s candidacy raised a barrage of questions on the elections fairness, restating earlier charges against officials and prominent figures. Meshaal downplayed Iranian influence on the movement MohamedALSharji @Mashi 97 It is easy, dear you can open a new account!!! Moheet website says the attack on the Dutch Queen is likely to be a failed assassination attempt. nodistributed to the poor or even to school students Nour added that working with the camera takes you to a special, new and different world, since what the camera catshes is not what our eyes see. Obama describes netanyahu's speech as a positive forward step. Obama said that Turkey is an important ally and an important part of Europe, and that the United States supports Turkey's efforts to become a member of the European Union. Of course, but instead more should be learned about the positive aspects of the media and exploit it in the development of women's contribution to society. Oil is an essential factor in building this special relationship. Okbah: Although the great propaganda of the Iranian elections, I can not see how far it is real one and honest one, as all the decisions and privileges are controlled by the faqih and supreme guide. #Iranelections Oldest woman in the world, mother of ten, and still enjoys good health. one of leaders of Hamas movement considered Israel's refusal of shalit's release conditions as evading the prisoners exchange deal One of the many advantages of the newly released Apple iPhone 3GS is it that if it is stolen or is lost it is possible to know from afar where the device is located. Palestinian dialogue will face failure if it continues the same approach, according to the writer. Pictures for the exhibition and some art works of the participants Pictures of the relatives of the kidnapped fishermen in various demonstrations set up for their release Putin said that Iraq is an old and loyal partner of Russia. Qatari daily newspaper Al Raya gives its view on the agenda at the Doha Forum. Quoting from Hezbollah\rquote s al-Manar channel website, Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki said that the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad succeeded, during the last four years, in making Iran the most powerful country in the region. Rafat Bayat, a former member of the Iranian parliament, registered Saturday to contest the presidential elections, slated for June 12, according to Iranian media reports. Ramadan banquets are still taking place in the streets of Cairo! Ramadan told reporters he would object to this decision Rani Mukerjee is bouncing back and thanks to her, Salman Khan could soon be doing a Yash Raj film Reducing the impact of terrorist organizations in Iraq will lead to stability. Renewable energy will be the future's main power source Report: Britain Grants Refuge to Saudi Princess Who Became Pregnant by Adultery -- CNNArabic.com Reporting the story, the Youm Sabe' newspaper said the author of the book attacked Egypt on Aljazeera news channel. Researchers explained that this was due to the fact that students waste their time connecting with their friends, chatting with them, and exchanging jokes with them; which takes up most of their time, and they are not left with enough time to do their homework. Researchers from Britain and America, Egypt and Russia are currently working together to publish the full version of the codex on the Internet. Usually, however, from time to time parts of it are rediscovered. Russian oil company Lukoil signed a contract for developing West Al-Qarna oil field during the rule of Saddam Hussein. Samaha said at the end of the Syrian-Lebanese relations conference that the four Lebanese officers arrested on the murder of President Rafiq Al Hariri will be released within ten days. Same story in Canada where the headscarf problem was submitted to the FIFA Sarkozy faces Ramadan Saudi Arabia is amongst the Arab countries that do not have relations with Israel Saudi Arabia's complex filter system blocks more content than in any other Middle Eastern country, according to a new report. With Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia all declared Internet Enemies by the press freedom organisatin Reporters Without Borders, and the UAE and Bahrain under surveillance, the Middle East suffers some of the most stringent internet censorship in the world. Scientists discovered two genes in millions of people causing strokes Section 152 of the Sudanese criminal law enforces forty lashes for anyone who commits an inappropriate deed, offends the general public, or dresses indecently. Seventy eight nations from all over the world are currently involved with the agency, the London-based Arabic news website Elaph reports. Sheikh Al Azhar with Saudi students: There is no place for the Shiite doctrine in Egypt - Al-Arabiya Channel website Should this handshake have risen all these reactions by Egyptians? Some Muslims in France found nothing in this drink which provides an alternative to the alcoholic and spiritual drinks which guests usually drink at the concerts in Western societies Some one tweeted that: Paseij are marking by the night the houses they are going to attack, please remove these marks if front of the doors using fuel. #Iranelection Sonia Robla, International Criminal Court spokeswoman, said to \lquote Al Sharq Al Awsat\rquote that Abu Garda\rquote s voluntary submission could encourage other suspects to do the same. South Korea said on Thursday that the launch, which it considers a convincing military test, would be a major threat to regional security, according to Reuters State-owned Iranian media never reported her death, but Neda\rquote s death headlined international media. Satellite channels aired several videos of her bleeding to death. Statistic of the increasing interest in Twitter. Studies show that olive oil's role in protecting blood has a significant impact on heart disease. Sudan Threatens to Withdraw from the Arab League if the Arabs Do Not Take a Firm Stand on the Arrest Warrant for President Omar Al-Bashir sunburst Swiss FM defends meeting Hamas delegation, asserting that group is important playerز Syria News commented on the importance of competition between Google and Yahoo, especially with 40 million Arab Internet users online. That this is a really horrible act, where is freedom? The Algerian film Yellow House, directed by Amor Hakkar was a surprise win collecting a gold award in the film competition for long feature films The AP correspondent in Nouakchott, Amin Mohamed, quoted security and judicial sources as saying that the bomber, Ahmed Wild Fih Al-Birka in 1987 and is Mauritanian. The Arab Network for Human Rights - Saudi Arabia page. It contains appeals and statements in response to violations of human rights in Saudi Arabia. The Arab radio station site for the Islamic Republic (Iran) The Beaches' blog gives its opinion on the release of Megrahi and provide complete information about the case. The biggest lie in contepmporary history is the real continuing holocaust, is Gaza holocaust The blog that launched the initiative. Catherine Connors explains the main idea behind the initiative and what it aims to do. The city theatre in Beirut is hosting the Arab Festival for Contemporary Dance, which discusses the concept of Contemporary Dance and the European and international effects on its development in the Arab world. The coins collection was reclassified and indexed following scientific methods applied in the classification of international collections, and made available to researchers and scholars. The court justified its ruling by saying that even if the press is free to perform its enlightening and media mission, freedom is constrained by its responsibilities towards society. The debate over Hijab in France moved into one of the swimming pools East of Paris after its management prevented a Muslim woman from swimming while wearing a swimming suit that covers her whole body, known as the Burkini. The dialogue page on Facebook where youth can ask questions to Gamal Mubarak The director of the Chrysler company says he will resign after the government's two-month deadline ends to sign a Fiat agreement. The Egyptian Desert is still hiding a lot of secrets and antiquities. The Egyptian government always acts when it's too late. If orders are not issued from the superiors, no one moves. The Egyptian government arrested a terrorist cell that was planning to carry out a chain of bombing using electronic circuits. Use the radio and Television site regarding the former url. The Egyptian health ministry decides to cancel Iftar banquets for fear of spreading swine flu. The Elders website where the dialogue session will be broadcasted live The empowerment of Yemeni female activists in the media techniques The episode tackled the outrageous educational context controlled by those who are promoting their terroristic ideas under the cloak of religion. The euro seems to be a good substitute. The European right gain ground in the European Parliament elections due to rises in immigration to Europe and the financial crisis. The European Union is also an enemy of Iran.Is there fear of a scenario where colour revolutions are exported to the land of the Islamic Revolution (Iran)? The event was published on El- Jazeera channel The expected dialogue may end a long break between Iran and the United States. The following source is from the Palestinian Al-Ayam newspaper and contains information in Arabic on the news The forum will bring together speakers, investors, and owners of emerging companies who will speak about the success stories of their companies. The front included different parties with different political orientations. The Guardian reports that Obama visited CIA headquarters to calm the fears of CIA agents over potential prosecution. The head of cardiology at the hospital, Samir Alam, said that the operation to implant the left ventricular assist device was the last resort treatment after exhausting all other options. The head of Teachers syndicate in Gaza Wael Al-Balbissi said on wearing the Islamic dress: If it's not emanating from within inside a person, it is not acceptable. Islam is a religion about easiness not distress. If it is imposed, then no one will be convinced about what they're doing. The Holocaust is the big Lies Tsunami, the greatest truth is the Holocaust taking place in Gaza The Holocaust is the greatest lie, whilst the greatest truth is the holocaust of Gaza. The Houston Chronicle newspaper report : Williams said : ' I believe that what I did and said was emotional and unnecessary The image of the statue which looks like Michael Jackson in the inquisitor. The Internet interruption means to stop production in many institutions. the iranian television said on sunday that the police arrested members belonged to mugahi khalk dissent for the government involved in terrorist activities such as setting fire of vehicles and destruction of public property. The Iranians in Kuwait.Reactions in Arab countries have begun. Source: The Egyptian newspaper today (Al Masry Al Youm) The Iraqi government is seeking to establish good relationships with different countries. The Islamic Heritage contains many valuable works. The Jordanian Writers' Association is shocked by the prison sentence The Kazdar website stated that the Google News service comes in four editions in Arabic for Egypt, Lebanon, KSA and UAE. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was successfully able to convince prominent clerics to tame fundamentalists who adopts a policy of violence against non-Muslims as well as Muslims and governments they perceive to be infidels. The lawsuit targets Windows operating system and some Office programs which are the heart of Microsoft activities. The media have begun their search for details about Haifa Wehbe's wedding that might be disseminated by the organizers of the wedding event. The wedding arrangements were revealed, today: It is to be held in the Biel Hall, one of the largest halls that are located in the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center. The Middle East newspaper is recognition of nasrallah the membership of Shahabuddeen in the party the involvement in Egypt The Minister did not disclose the names of Gulf countries targeted by the cell. The minister of Interior has ordered the seizure of the last two editions of the weekly magazines, QuelTel and Nichane, over publishing a series of articles that criticize the legal procedures currently in force. The ministry is currently restoring a large part of its activity through Qatar, as a temporary solution. The Monetary Authority of the Palestinian Authority refused to recognize the bank or give it the necessary licence. The most valid question should be about how to improve relations between individuals directly instead of the negative stereotypes. The Netanyahu government is in front of a real test for the implementation of this commitment, in the light of the hybrid alliance that it's composed of. The new agency's director will have many crises to resolve. The New York Times was the first to report on the story about the memo on the methods of interrogation used. The official site for Google's new 'Ejabat.' The opinion of Israel, Barak Obama, Mubarak, Ahmadinejad and Mickey Mouse. Menassat The people of Damascus are upset about a British play that uses the name of their city for its title, after many found that the play presents a superficial and stereotypical view of Syrian characters, most of whom are depicted unfavorably. The proportion of voters surpassed the percentage of last elections in Lebanon, I think it 's a very high proportion. The question is: Does Netanyahu's administration seeks peace or just seeks benefits from calling for peace? The question is: How will the Arab audience react to this idea? The region\rquote s leaders have signed important agreements concerning the Monetary Union in December 2008. Central banks governors were hoping to choose a name for the currency and set its conversion rate by the end of the year 2009. The report calls for Israel, as the occupying power, to carry out the necessary planning to deal with the housing crisis faced by the Palestinians in east Jerusalem. The results of the opinion poll published by Maan News agency reveale that Mahmoud Abbas is ahead of Ismail Haneya at present. The return of the officer Islam, accused of torture, to his work, is a serious risk to the spread of the phenomenon of torture, and it reveals the extent of ineffectiveness in dealing with those who practice such things. The right approach builds an advanced society. The Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, was among the participants in a fund-raiser at the international conference for the three monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) in July 2008. The Saudi Shura Council directed bitter criticism to the Committee on Public Morality for interfering in woman's wear and perfumes. The son of the Shah of Iran speaks to the Al-Arabiya Channel. The Arab media has taken a look at Al-Arabiya Channel's past.Do you understand why Iran has banned this news channel? :-) The study, which was conducted by researcher Steven Cook, said Egypt seems like a stable nation, but the possibilities of political chaos over the short term (six to eighteen months) were not completely farfetched\rdblquote The survey released by El Nadeem centre on the Possible Life without Violence also indicated that women are refusing circumcision which is considered an aspect of domestic violence in the Egyptian society. The temple contains inscriptions of ancient Egyptian gods, and inscriptions of the kings Tuthmosis II and Ramses II. The UN Security Council said it would consider without delay the measures to be taken against those, including Eritrea, who help the armed groups that seek to topple the Somali government by force. The UNESCO is set to elect a new chied in October. Farouk Husni, who has been selected for candidacy by the Egyptian government, is anticipated to be the first Arab to head the organization, whose headquarters will be in Paris. The University is interested in the Aramaic language for its pilot role on the cultural level, and the instructions of the government to give this language all due importance to preserve it as well as its rich heritage. The Yemeni authorities have confiscated seven journals after being condemned to threaten the national unity. Fifteen journalists were arrested too in El Daleh for protesting and supporting these journals. There are fears of another Nahr el-Bared. There must be a decision to allow more women to participate in public life These are only negotiated Maneuvers, Israel could not risk ruining the deal, shaleet is اى politically important issue for them. This article from EGYNews talks about the NYT news report: This dilemma involves law and religious freedom. This is a crucial step towards a real participation of women in the political field in the future. This is a short report from the New York Times including more details about the attitude of the United Nations official. This number is much higher than the one previously reported. This was announced by the media only hours before the departure of the Minister of Defense Ehud Barak to the United States for talks aimed at narrowing the gap of disagreement with Washington on the issue of the settlements. This writer attributes Hamas' popular support amongst Palestinians to the fact that they view the Palestinian security service as an American sponsored force to eliminate fighters that resist the occupation. ThreatFire 3's ability to block installation of malware strictly by identifying bad behavior is phenomenal. It did a better (and faster) job than Norton AntiBot and even beat out Spy Sweeper, our current Editors' Choice for signature-based anti-spyware. This free tool is an excellent addition to your security arsenal. Three Nobel Prize holders and two presidents of USA universities are of the advisors' council members Thursday's (slightly) weaker than expected U.S. labor report for June continues to rattle around financial markets, setting a weaker tone across global markets (the U.S. market had fallen 2.9% on Thursday). The most significant move (percentage-wise) has come in the oil market, where the front end contract is now at $63.3pb. At various points in the first half of last week, it was flirting with $72pb. Oil is this down about 12% in a week, mostly\emdash but not all\emdash since Thursday morning. Global equities are generally weak, although not overwhelmingly so. The conspicuous exceptions are (once again) China on the strong side and India on the weak side (budget worries, see 2) below). Japan was down 1.4% overnight (and is down 2% since close Thursday\emdash i.e., just before the Labor Report); Hong Kong down 1.2% (down 1.1% since Thursday close); Korea was up 0.6% (up 1.3%), however. China was up 1.4% today and 2.8% from the close Thursday. To preserve the demonstrations enthusiasm, despite the authorities suppression; Moldavian Youth utilize the effectiveness of new technologies such as mobile SMS to the social networks, like facebook or microblogging site twitter. Today, Egyptian published another campaign calls for the support of Mr. Gamal Mubarak كنقيد told reporters. Transcriptions to campaign on delicious Truly a painful story... Where are UNESCO and the international archeological organizations? The silence of the regime in Lebanon, the domination of companies in the economy--and the destruction that follows--are sad. Twitter and YouTube revolution in Iran Unlike Nour El-Sherief's series 'Matkhafoush', 'Ana Alby Daleely' series succeeded in asserting that most of the Egyptian Jews belong to their country, without using a direct, crude approach, according to Day Press. Venezuela expelled the Israeli diplomats on the sixth of January and Israel had responded in kind. Chavez also accused Israel of committing acts of genocide. Video of the interview on youtube website Views always vary about whether to respect public freedoms or whether to respect religions and the feelings of others, the issue is complex and depends on the culture of people. Visit Gaza Watching TV programs and films currently and exclusively limited to users in the United States. We can know more the advantages of \lquote under why ...But in general it 's a good effort from him to win more popularity, especially among Egyptian youth. We must be realistic of the Palestinian situation in Lebanon, especially the relationship between the various organizations and the Lebanese security. We need ideas like these. Website Al-Hurra (in Arabic) publishes information on the news at the following link. Weddady@meedan: Although its clear demerits, the Iranian elections pose the sentence that change within the arbitrary systems is impossible. #iran #election Welcome to Bux.to!At Bux.to, you get paid to click on ads and visit websites. The process is easy! You simply click a link and view a website for 30 seconds to earn money. You can earn even more by referring friends. You'll get paid $0.01 for each website you personally view and $0.01 for each website your referrals view. 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What a wonderful idea for police officers to wear costumes to save children, like in the film Spiderman What do you think about , is usually already or slave , the teachings of Islam ?(I can't read arabic, but the 'is usually already or slave' needs to be changed as it does not make sense in English) When asked whether his position is really stalling the formation of the government, he said: \ldblquote there is a sufficient number of MPs in the Democratic Gathering Bloc to vote for the majority.\rdblquote When will the violence between Muslims and Christians in egypt come to an end? Where is the Egyptian ambassador and what is the Egyptian foreign affairs doing? This criminal is just a German extremist Nazis. But at the same time, where are the supreme officials and the Egyptian and Arabic media? whether he deserves the sentence or not and whether we gloat over him or not. Tat's God's punishment for those who wreak havoc on Earth . They will be humiliated here and will be punished severely in the hereafter. Allah is our Wakeel ( The Trustee, The One who gives the satisfaction and is relied upon.). Which embarrassment you are talking about, if they are not embarrassed at seeing all the scenes of blood and killing on all television channels even on their own channels, would they be embarrassed by the honesty and courage of Chavez. Who gave the right to such bad militias to murder??? Is it that easy for man to kill? Man owns his own life, not those militias, and if they deserved to be murdered, what did those militias do about Saddam Hussein? why ask my Why did not Barack Obama speak of Israel 's nuclear arsenal? Is n't this called bias? Why do Muslim rulers and Arabs refuse to hold fair elections same as in the West ? Why refuse Muslim rulers and Arabs held fair elections as happens in the West ? Writer Sheikh Ibrahim Abdullah thinks that Israel 's independence is imaginary and will eventually perish. www.sharek.eg, a website for an open dialog between Egypt's youth and Gamal Mubarak, where you can watch the dialogue live. Youm7: World newspapers expect Hezbollah victory in tomorrow's election battle Yousef Abu Abeed says on Twitter: 'Today is the tenth anniversary of King Mohammed - It seems that Morocco had made great strides.' Zohair Al Siddiq had a prominent role in the first report of the investigation committee. Arab commentators \endash forever skeptical of senators who voted for the Iraq war - were nervously watching Obama\rquote s next move in Washington Monday as reports suggested he was on the verge of making Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State. Despite the global financial crisis, both Ban and Gore said there was no time for delay in hashing out the specifics of how to cut greenhouse gases that contribute to warming the planet. We have to do it this year. Not next year. This year, Gore said. The clock is ticking, because Mother Nature does not do bailouts. \ldblquote Most of the cases known as honor crimes are in fact far from being honorable in any way,\rdblquote said the head of Jordan\rquote s Criminal Court, Judge Nayif A-Samarat this week. \ldblquote The motive for the killings, in most of the cases, is based on doubts and erroneous impressions which are soon dissipated once the crime has been committed.\rdblquote From Jeruslaem Post : Morocco and Algeria - like Israel, members of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue - are also seriously considering sending officers to the Naples-based project. If that happens, it will be the first time that Israeli, Algerian and Moroccan officers were cooperating at such a high level. \ldblquote It\rquote s like France saying it wants to pull out of the euro,\rdblquote Eckart Woertz, an economist with the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, said today in a telephone interview. \ldblquote The single currency is dead.\rdblquote Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of the oldest, largest indoctrinating organizations for the ideology known as jihadism, Walid Phares, director of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told FOXNews.com. Hey Samboussek, you seem to be ignoring cultural and historical factors here. Most New Yorkers celebrate Christmas but not all are practicing Christian. That's the historical legacy of Christianity in America. But if New Yorkers were given an additional day off for Eid al Fitr most wouldn't actually celebrate that day in a religious way. Paint on aoun's picture in daroun-harissa and ghazir Mobinil stock price goes sky high following the sale news. The US has voiced similar concerns when Iran launched their first satellite last month Antarctica's glaciers are melting more rapidly than previously known because of climate change, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report prepared in close collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey. The Israel Government Tourism Office is withdrawing a series of posters displayed in London Underground stations featuring a map that treats the occupied territories as part of Israel, after the advertisements were referred to the Advertising Standards Authority. - Guardian explained. Efforts to boost global growth will be more meaningful to oil markets than whether OPEC decides to cut oil output because prices reflect the economic slowdown AT&T the service provider for iPhones in the U.S. And Best Buy, the giant tech seller said they exhausted their pre-order allotments for the new 3GS iPhones After the Israeli offensive in Gaza ended in January a lot of the Western press left in the region did some interesting pieces on the tunnels. Attached is a great slideshow of images of the tunnels. Jewish journal believes the UN's Durban II conference in Geneva will be anti-semitic forum The Telegraph reports: More than 30 energy companies, including BP, Shell and ExxonMobil will be forced to tussle for contracts worth billions. '2008 was a year in which some progress for professional women was made, first with the appointment of the first female CFO in the country, and then with the draft legislation by the Shoura Council forbidding sexual harassment in the workplace.' The BBC report on the ship, alledgedly seized some weeks ago. The shpiment is in breach of a UN embargo on North Korean weapons: The UN resolution, which aimed to cut arms exports as a source of revenue for North Korea, also called for tougher inspections of air, sea and land shipments to and from the hard-line communist state. A simmering controversy over the new City-to-City program at the Toronto International Film Festival heated up a few degrees, as Jane Fonda, Wallace Shawn, and David Byrne signed onto a letter protesting the selection of Tel Aviv as the year\rquote s spotlight city. Turkey will be the seventh country in the European continent which bans smoking in all enclosed public places. I think what is exciting is that I am a woman. Especially at a time when so much is being discussed wrongly: of Islam not allowing women to have equal rights, that a woman can build a mosque Fadillioglu told DW news. Raymond Stock writes in Foreign Policy magazine : To say that Farouk Hosni doesn't much like Israel is putting it lightly. According to the Anti-Defamation League, he has called it inhuman, and an aggressive, racist, and arrogant culture, based on robbing other people's rights and the denial of such rights. Why do Islamist movements participate in a political process in which the rules are tilted so heavily against them? And how does this participation affect the political process as a whole? - asks Nathan J. Brown at the CSID conference. Hamas has moved from refusing to accept Israel's existence to focusing on Palestinian rights. Likud came to power in 2009. Unlike the reaction to Hamas's victory, no one is thwarting Likud's victory because of Likud's refusal to accept the two-state solution. Hamas repeatedly, as brokered by Egypt, offered a ceasefire to give a chance for a brokered and implemented peace settlement. What Hamas did was not break the ceasefire, it was to refuse to extend it. Let's move forward because emergencies really never wait. Let's stop, really stop the degradation of human atmosphere, says Sampaio. Here's to hoping Wikiepedia in Arabic keeps growing. Currently they are 99,336 articles in Arabic, whereas the English version has 2,884,862. Bloggers will be reporting live and direct from inside the G20 summit for the first time ever. Fifty bloggers from 22 countries have been invited to the summit on 2 April 2009 in London by a coalition of NGOs - the G20Voice - and the UK government. Good luck to Ahmad of Saudi Jeans - hope we can bring him into Meedan to report on some of his findings here too. Looks like the Israelis will play hard-ball until they get their apology \endash even if it doesn\rquote t seem like one will come anytime soon, if at all. A government spokesman said: \ldblquote We have no duty to supply [journalists] with press cards immediately; (we) have 90 days to decide about their status.\rdblquote Michael Evans of The Times in London makes a good point. We might now want to talk to the Taliban, but do they want to talk to us? The Taliban are in no sense defeated and no one is expecting the hard-core insurgency leaders, based in Pakistan, to start talking peace. The Pope says he is going on his eight-day tour - his first to the region as pontiff - as a pilgrim of peace. But Jordanian Islamist leaders have demanded that he apologise for a speech in 2006 that linked Islam and violence. Al-Wahash says the offspring produced by these couples later become a security hazard to Egypt by enlisting in the IDF. He claims these cases must be dealt with swiftly as the phenomenon was spreading. - Ynetnews added. It was my surroundings and social system in my country Algeria. We don\rquote t have total freedom and we can\rquote t say anything we like but the art generally - and rap especially - opened for me a window of expression with logic and a realistic vision for my people, says Algerian rapper, Sofyan SS. Abu Aardvark writes questioning the rationale behind imprisoning bloggers such as Ayyesh and Sa'ad: What's the long term plan? Listening to all the scare-talk about cyberwar, we tend to forget that the most gruesome wars today are being fought with machetes, AK-47s, and crude improvised explosive devices. Statistics provided by the candidates, who claim more than 100% of those eligible have cast their ballot in 80-170 cities are not accurate -- the incident has happened in only 50 cities, Guardian Council Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei to IRIB. Our study shows people who spend more time on Facebook spend less time studying, Every generation has its distractions, but I think Facebook is a unique phenomenon. Qatar Holding has today announced that following the proposed equity issue and loan repayment by Songbird Estates Plc ... it intends to become the largest shareholder in the company, the investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority said in a statement. Imagine if we could combine the power of a global ethic with our new power to communicate and organize globally. - UK Prime Minister Gordon Brownhttp://blog.ted.com/2009/07/tedglobal_day_1.php Lieberman welcomes Biden's remarks. I think this says it all. Biden needs to fix this. Obama pledged during the campaign to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital within the first few months of taking office. Picking a site proved challenging for a range of reasons -- from diplomacy to security -- and the decision took longer than expected, with Obama commissioning options from a research team. Ahmadinejad took 62.63 per cent of the vote, crushing Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main rival, who got just 33.75 per cent During a time of crisis, investing in infrastructure is the key that will drive the economy and help attract foreign investments will the world recovers, said Mattar al Tayer, chairman of Dubai's Roads & Transport Authority. The police will confront any kind of gathering or protest with force - Tehran police commander to AJE. 'At least 15 Jordanian lawmakers on Friday urged the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel in protest against debate in the Israeli parliament over regarding Jordan as an alternative homeland for the Palestinians.' When President Obama visited Normandy earlier this month, he was asked about his views on the French ban on head scarves. He reiterated what he had said in his speech in Cairo, that in the United States our basic attitude is that we're not going to tell people what to wear. As 2009 marks the thirtieth anniversary of Iran\rquote s Islamic Revolution, and with June\rquote s presidential elections and talk of engagement with the United States, the Islamic Republic has reached a crossroads in its brief yet tumultuous lifespan. - Cecile Coronato Xinjiang in western China is a province rich in natural resources - a fact not unconnected with the unrest in which 140 people have died in the past few days. The region\rquote s oil and gas riches have been a growing source of tension between the province\rquote s original Uighur residents and the mostly Han migrants from the east, who now make up the majority of the population. We the Egyptian youth, despise the theft and the disgusting act of stealing and practically COPYPASTING the ads/promos that are being aired. There are Creative and Insanely talented EGYPTIAN designers and thinkers out there. Do you really think slaughtering pigs in Egypt will prevent swine flu from entering through the airport in a man's lung?Killing 300,000 thousand innocent Egyptian pigs to prevent the swine flu from jeopardising our health is the most gruesome act of unjustifiable killing of animals I will ever witness. - Mostafa.net \ldblquote It is only a matter of time before someone we know gets sick. First the bird flu, then swine flu and now this. The government needs to do more to stop this spread of disease. We need to clean up our country,\rdblquote normal Egyptian citizen said. 'Fatah's sixth General Assembly has shown that the 44-year-old faction is still not ready to transform itself from a revolutionary movement into a governing body - one that cares about establishing institutions and infrastructure for the future Palestinian state.' alexlobov: seems twitter is mostly moussavi suporters, any ahmadinejad supporters want to make a case? im curious You need help not because you are poor, but because you are the future of Iraq - the full piece on Jolie's latest visit to Iraq The notion of converting conceivably every computer on the planet into a server is certainly not new. Indeed it is not. But looking at how the world is interconnected now - such concept needs to be implemented more than ever before. 'It gives a new image of Jordan. It offers an alternative direction to the mainstream. It is a street game and an eye-opener. We are here and are on our way.' Bloomberg defended his decision saying that there won't be any school, if it closes for every single holiday, By that logic and in the interest of fairness there shouldn't be any religious holidays. Juan Cole on the possible thought process behind Obama's change of heart re: torture photos. I have translated a comment from a reader of Al Mshaheer: Move on Al-Basher! May Allah\rquote s watchful eyes protect you, and we are praying for you, whom we deem the Arabs\rquote Lion. \ldblquote The market is expected to continue to suffer from pressure, because of uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook, the declining demand, and a large increase in inventory.\rdblquote 'Jackson was a man of multiple identities, which helped account for his enormous worldwide popularity. It seems clear that he was deeply traumatized by his rough show business childhood, and that things happened to him to arrest his development.' - Juan Cole Two Lebanese and a Palestinian.. it's amazing how people can sell their lands that easy. \ldblquote Lebanese media has been very forward in adopting neutral terminology, although other Arab media still uses words like \lquote sodomite\rquote and \lquote deviant,\rquote \rdblquote Ghassan Makarem of Beirut-based gay rights group Helem told MENASSAT. Hayfaa and Abu Hashima send invitations to a large number of Arab officials and ministers to attend their wedding party. They Want Us Exterminated Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq You can watch the offending clip in the attached article's video - and there's also some interesting comments as well. Today marks the 61st anniversary of the creation of Israel. And there's a million reasons to be upset about it. Says Will from Kabobfest blog. (Adds details, background) SANAA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Yemen announced six conditions on Thursday for a ceasefire with Shi'ite rebels, days after government forces launched an offensive against them in the Pictures Defaced * LOCATION Ghazir * DATE Jun 5 2009 * TIME 01:00 * CATEGORY ISSUE: Defamation: inflammatory speech, posters, billboards defaced SOURCE: UNVERIFIED Citizen Reports * ENTITY N/A * VERIFIEDOriginal ReportPaint on aoun's picture in daroun-harissa and ghazir 3 M14 list billboards burnt * LOCATIONBeirut * DATE Jun 6 2009 * TIME 01:00 * CATEGORY ISSUE: Defamation: inflammatory speech, posters, billboards defaced SOURCE: UNVERIFIED Citizen Reports * ENTITY N/A * VERIFIED NO * INCIDENT * NEARBY INCIDENTS Noise in Tripoli * LOCATION Tripoli * DATE Jun 3 2009 * TIME 01:00 * CATEGORY ISSUE: Disturbances: violence, intimidation, harassment, roadblocks SOURCE: UNVERIFIED Citizen Reports * ENTITY N/A * VERIFIED NOOriginal ReportHonks and loud music and blaring speeches in preparation for election. * Israel accuses group of bias * Army says militants used those with white flags as shields (Adds Israeli reaction, details) JERUSALEM, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch called on Israel on Thursday Kasab, 21, is accused of being a member of a group of ten members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba based in Pakistan, which carried out attacks in Mumbai for three days starting from November 26 last year. Former national security adviser Maj.-Gen. Giora Eiland stated that the present border line is the only one affording plausible defense for the State of Israel. According to the Jerusalem Post. Moroccan blogger wrote about the news and quoted secretary general of her Party for Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), who said: Her election reflects the image of a modern Morocco. This a slightly odd story and I can't find much on it at all at the moment. Very odd that Facebook have released no statement and that no Western media organisations have picked up on it. Makes me question whether it's true. Anyone found any comments on it in Arab media or blogosphere? The site became a handy reference for other groups promoting or noting the symposium and incoming links were made from HASTAC, the New Media Consortium, WSU\rquote s Pipeline news system, and WSU public computing desktops. Egyptian blogger Bent Masrya's questions about the panic that spread between Egyptians, and the Egyptian government measures after the WHO declared N1H1 as global pandemic. It's really great to see some great attempts coming from Gaza and made by the children. WTG Gaza. The resolution\rquote s advocates said that since about 12 percent, or more than 100,000, of the city\rquote s public school students are Muslim, they deserved recognition. lan iranian youth blogs live iran's revolt on twitter : some people are now parking their cars in middle of the street trying to block the vans. #iranelection Helena Cobban responds to AbuAardvark: I think this is a bad way forward.For anyone who wants to be able to pull a two state solution out of the present demographic morass in the West Bank, the top priority now is not the holding of elections....It is rather, the speedy and effective conclusion of a final-status peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. According to RFI, the other part of the new base equation is the UAE's desire to gain nuclear power for peaceful purposes by 2015. Although it is the third-largest oil producer worldwide, the country estimates greater electricity needs within the next 10 years. SandmonkeyI find it rather disturbing that the only newspaper to cover the Iran riots is rosealyusef #iranelection @totaliterin tweets: friend @K_alashnikova says #Hamas now teletubbies of Islamist movements ;] http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/mwf/103705/Palestinians-Israelis-Favor-Nonviolent-Solutions.aspx There doesn't seem to be a clear way out of the situation of Israel/Palestine even if negotiations at a government level appear successful the grass roots animosity will remain. What are the best solutions you've seen presented ? الأخبار - منوعـات - ماكين يستعين بغوغل للبحث عن مرشح لمنصب نائب الرئيس Was Youssef Chahine the greatest Arab filmmaker of all time? وقت الحروب، يجب تدمير الأماكن المقدسة للعرب، وهدم منازلهم، وقتل النساء والرجال والأطفال منهم.. تلك هي خلاصة فتوى أطلقها الحاخام اليهودي الأمريكي مانيس فريدمان عميد معهد بيت حنا للدراسات اليهودية بولاية مينسوتا الأمريكية، تعبيرا عن رؤيته بشأن كيفية تحقيق السلام مع الفلسطينيين. Traffic is really bad in Egypt. Rules are not abided by. It is even said that the number of innocents who die in car accidents every year is higher than that of war casualities. Is it only the American presence in Kuwait and Iraq that feeds the extrimist Qaeda presence in these and other countries or is it the growing tendency of dogmatic and intolerant tribal sectarianism that led for example to the lifting of the immunity of 8 Salafit deputies recently in Kuwait because of their participation in unofficial and banned tribal elections 10:32 - joelle: The material will be translated into Arabic as we go, to make it easier for people who aren't all that proficient in Arabic to keep up. 10:33 Pazuzu: Another part of the training will be offline, we'll be going to the different places in Lebanon. In the first 5 weeks there will be one offine meeting. More will be later on. For us to be able to give you a certificate by the end of the training, we will be following-up with you on moodle. 10:43 - Pazuzu: Personal Thought: When dealing with multilingual environments, getting the message to each and every participant is always a problem! One thing I liked today is that as soon as people were seperated into groups and Jessica started talking, participants started helping each other so that everyone understands how the project will be going in the future. Way to go! 10:48 - Pazuzu: Almost 50 participants are now writing down what they expect from the program... in total silence 10:50 - joelle: Expectations help you achieve your goals. The more specific you are in what you want, the easier it is to go after it and get it. Is $1.25 a day the right place to draw the poverty line? 28 July 2009: Amnesty International is seriously concerned at today\rquote s attacks by Iraqi forces on unarmed residents of Camp Ashraf which left several people injured and led to the arrest of at least eight others....Video footage seen by Amnesty International clearly shows Iraqi forces beating people repeatedly on different parts of the body... Al Jazeera readers respond to the news that many majority Muslim countries - particularly Turkey and the Palestinian territories - still have major reservations about US influence. AliDheren said on Twitter : Think before you tweet! Be responsible! Support #IranElection wisely. The games really did used to go on for ever, until someone won, but now they last a maximum of five days. They also have shorter versions that last a day or a couple of hours. Going to them is great, it tends to be more of a social occasion than anything. We even have a cricket pitch in Hursley if you ever come and visit. bballant: May the liberals, woman, and the youth of Iran prevail in today's election. Are there any articles on this aspect of him? Would certainly be interesting to read as there was conveniently no mention made of his repression in the western media. From @Brainpicker:#TED Mulgan shows encouraging evidence of global network of social entrepreneurs using practice, not theory, to ignite changeIs Meedan a part of this movement? \ldblquote Another bridge that we should build is to continue to get out of Iraq in a stable way that does not lead to further disruption of the country.\rdblquote CanIsrael: RT @octavianasrCNN: #iranelection Iranian voting was supposed to clos now but was extended by 2 more hours due to high turnout. cgear: TT 6/12: huge election in Iran. Obama's Cairo speech having effect; Ahmadinijad in trouble bc voters want better intl standing + stability Courtney C. Radsch said on his blog that throughout the week, supporters of the protesters around the world had been making their own computers available as proxies to Iranians who wanted to evade government censors. According to Al Akhbar newspaper Mustapha El Sayed has disowned the final version of the paper after UNDP staff deleted valuable contributions from George Abi Saab, Ahlam Mastaghamani and others in an attempt to soften the wording of the report to suit US and Isreali needs.http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/148137 DJ_JD: Record voter turnout in Iran. Should be interesting to see what happens. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8096411.stm filipinovoices interesting that SMS services in Iran is down during #iranelection day, volume of SMS increased during the run up to elections Women who demonstrate against the government in Iran are risking more than we can imagine. Demonstrators against the regime in Iran are faced with /> History, Foreign Policy, Middle East, South Asia, Religious Studies, War on Terror fustat RT @shahrzadmo Children accompany their parents in voting. They're allowed to stamp their finger like the others! :P #iranelection I'd be really keen to see something on this from Syria or Sudan. I'd also love to know more about what those 'personal items and consumer goods' were. Hi friend colleagues and family members this is a second announcement of a change to my personal email address in case ypu did not get my email about this change please note I chan ged my personal email address to please update this in your contact Are governments doing enough to protect it's citizens who have been detained as alleged terrorists by the US in Guantánamo? Stephen Fry's on next - one of the most loved of British figures: Stephen Fry follows his passions -- and they've led him to create brilliant characters, films, books and tweets. In his new documentary series Last Chance to See, he explores the shocking notion of species extinction. ran Events Feeds at http://iranfeeds.tumblr.com updates every 45 minutes with collated social media on Iran I think that the journalist wanted to tell bush how each iraqi feels, and it was the only way, of course its not the right way but i'm sure that he couldn't find another one. InfluenceComm: World Top 3: 1 - For the 1st time in 41 years, WHO uses the term Pandemic 2 - Iran: Election 3 - Attack in Iraq: 5 dead JonDelano: 80% voter turnout in Iran? Really? Talk about putting USA voters to shame. 61.7% of eligible voters in '08 voted; only 56.8% of adults. Translation: Fashishy: RT @Vahid (inEnglish):if havin trbl wit twitter filterin in iran, try usin FF n twitterfox addon #IranElection #meedan http://bit.ly/icFoj (expand) Misterarasmus explains to people how they can show their support to the Iranian people on Twitter. Syria's also facing a decline in oil output of around 1250 barrels per day compared to the same period last year, according to Syria News. This could have a significant impact on living standards and the economy. octavianasrCNN: RT @shahrzadmo: Reports says more that 80% are electing. This is very high, first time in the history of islamic republic #iranelection parastoo: @oliviertesquet getting sick of the president's policies? (economics, domestic politics, foreign politics, etc.) #IranElection PersianKiwi on today's protest at Imam Square: Everybody is peaceful and quiet - everybody is wearing black - the number of people is unbelievable - SEA OF GREEN - #Iranelection PERSIANKIWI FROM TEHRAN:WORLD MUST UNDERSTAND THAT PEOPLE WHO ATTENDED AHMADINEJAD RALLY WERE ALL CIVIL SERVANTS; THEY ARE SACKED IF THEY DON'T PARTICIPATE. of the votes for recent presidential elections , due disputes between supporters of both president re-elect Mahmoud Ahmadi Nijjad and leader Mir Hossein Mossavi . The UN Security Council meets tomorrow to take up the court's verdict, which has triggered worldwide condemnationA Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the council meeting was requested by France. Another piece on Egyptian succession, and another on Youm7 I'll post above. I don't think I've ever seen such heated speculation about an election that's not due to happen for 2 years. It makes you wonder whether something isn't afoot.... The amount of tweets coming out of TED is astonishing considering all these people must be watching the livefeed after TED banned Twitter from the auditorium. Understandable, for only 18mins a talk and at over $4500 a seat! @edwardharran: Job = done for $; Career = advancement & promotion; Calling = intrinsically fulfilling -Stefan Sagmeister #TED --> I want the latter. Raskin@TEDGlobal: Aza Raskin at #TED: Your train of thought is sacred, and we should never disturb it. [love that] scentart: I wonder what it's like to be in Iran today during the election. Anxiety? Anticipation? hopelessness? Apathy? Thanks for sharing this Simba. Euractiv reports, 'critics described the deal as no more than a new and expensive form of energy colonialism.' rickpuig on twitter is amazed by lack of interest in the Iranian elections. the character of mid east policy will be defined by the results of the friday election. Sarah_onweb suggested on Twitter: if uploading original pic of demonstrators in critical situations obscure faces as much as possible to avoid identification #iranelection SFGate.com weighs up the reasons to be skeptical: Mousavi's votes are perfectly one-half of Ahmadinejad's for the data set analyzed and the correlation coefficient is .9995 - almost one, which means almost perfect. That's weird, folks. shahrzadmo: Children accompany their parents in voting. They're allowed to stamp their finger like the others! :P #iranelection Sharek961 is inviting everyone to use them or abuse them. They want action in reporting the elections, and its up to the Lebanese to decide. Translation from Sheri789: RT @mirriaam Ayatollah Montazeri has declared 3 days of public mourning (via http://ff.im/42eIk) http://ff.im/42f3k #meedan #iranelection This piece is over two years old, but it raises the question of whether a hardline government that can bring calm to Somalia is better than the current chaos that allows piracy to be rife. Sustainabilitank.info: The Sustainable Development Media Think Tank - Obama’s renewed pressure for an Israeli-Arab deal. The Arab world needs another Sadat, and Saudi Arabia must start accepting the idea that the US will eventually look seriously at climate change and start diversifying its energy sector away from oil. Maybe it's a case of too little too late! Eight Kuwaitis have tested positive for swine flu on their return from an Omra pilgrimage to Mecca and have been admitted to hospital, the Kuwaiti health ministry announced on Tuesday. 'نوهت وزارة الخارجية الأميركية بجهود المغرب في المجال الديني، وبالدور الذي يطلع به لتحقيق التفاهم والتسامح بين مختلف الديانات، بينما سجلت تراجع الحريات الدينية في بلدان أخرى بالمنطقة، مثل الجزائر ومصر' So not wanting to give Siko all the glory, here's the second conversation on the first event! @soulucious (13:00) @wael yea, i felt the earthquake !(all times posted above are Cairo local time (GMT+3)) Via @thandelike: Comedian Rory Bremer on UK PM #TED appearance: global problems need Scottish solutionsWonderful. zouzis White House decided to seize on Mousavis buildup as a candidate capable of beating Ahmadinjed and leading Iran to change #iranelections A Forrester report expects the ebooks market to become a mainstream phenomena I remember that some British officials blamed the UK government for accepting the political asylum of some war criminals, and I think accepting the call of other punished people may be considered the same, as the both cases create disputes between UK and the other country. I wonder if such tech revolution can ever happen in any of the Arab countries? I'm quite baffled by how Saudi let this slip through. The Kingdom is ruled by Islamic Sharia, which essentially promotes compassion and justice. Its particularly ironic since Western, non-Muslim countries abide by minimum-age laws in marriage - truly Islamic virtues.I pity the girl and the psychological toll this must have had on her. I agree with this opinion. What a dictator most fear is that his people will revolt against him and that's why he controls them with an iron fist. Ahmadinejad accused the Rafsanjani family of money-laundering and plotting with other state officials to oust the incumbent from office, according to Middle East Times. Ayman Nour - the former presidential candidate who spent three years in prison - has accused Barack Obama of retreating on the issue of human rights, according to Iraq al Jded. The Pakistani government has blamed a Sunni militant group linked to al-Qaida for leading an attack on a Christian community at the weekend that killed eight people, including three women and a child. A French Muslim woman accuses authorities of discrimination after being banned from a public pool for wearing a burqini, a swimsuit that covers most of the body. 385 americans so far responded to aquestion paused by the Baltimore Sun:Iraqi forces have arrested five U.S. contractors in the killing of an American in Baghdad. Do you think Americans can get a fair trial in the Iraqi justice system? the vote is still on The patient had already passed the first critical 24 hours, and has not seen himself yet I find it irrelevant too! Important this, from @brainpicker:#TED Armstrong: Above all, discourage uncompassionate speech by religious leaders, political leaders, captains of industry I'd like to see Raul Castro succeed with his programs here. palfest team are thanking all the meedani for the dire effort being done with translation Latest news via PersianKiwi:Confirmed - Tomorrow FRIDAY prayers in Tehran will be led by Khamenei - #IranelectionToday ALL major universities in Iran are CLOSED for Sea of Green - #Iranelection sometimes originality not just blind imitation is the best solution I am afraid from Google to tell you the truth ya Tom. People are escaping Microsoft monopoly to Google's monopoly!.. Breaking news blog reports on fears of recurring fighting This week, Jordan's King Abdullah II named his eldest 15-year-old son Hussein as his heir to the throne.The announcement ended five years of speculation over the King's successor since 2004, when King Abdullah stripped his half brother, Hamzeh, of the title of crown prince. Latest news from israel today, the definitive source for a truthful and balanced perspective on Israel Shah Rukh Khan stopped by immigration officials in the US because of his name - Egypt's Al Shorouk reports. Then, is it just a policy to laugh at others. Have a speech here and there, and the same principles are adopted by each US administration, whatever the president is? Why PEPSI itself, why not any other company? if ahmedinijad loses , Obama will have a chance of a life time to win back Iran not as an allie but at least as a wise adversary, who is sometimes better then a friend who is a fool , as in the Old Arab proverb ( a wise enemy is much better then a a foolish friend) If he was Muslim, wouldn't his family have buried him by now?! I think your translation is good Yasser! Basically, by buying Friend Feed, Facebook has also hired some very useful former Google employees (Buchheit and Taylor) - at a fraction of the cost of buying Twitter. Esposito: believe that Israel has a perfect right to exist, to security and stability. The problem with US policy is that it has not shown it is committed to pursuing the same rights for Palestinians and in an even-sided way. As a result, many sectors of the population are moving closer to the right. Using Virtual Worlds to Launch Ideas, Research and Teaching Variety Review of the film : The whole film has only three exterior shots, the first of which is of a vast field of droopy sunflowers slightly animated by time-lapse lensing. The viewer is then plunged into the bowels of a lone Israeli tank I enjoyed following this feed update along with my radio. I was at work and was only able to listen to my radio. This Twitter feed was like my window to the world.. According to BBC:The indictment against the group said it sponsored Palestinian orphans and families in the West Bank and Gaza whose relatives had died or been imprisoned as a result of Hamas attacks on Israel. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, clashed in a TV debate broadcast live on Wednesday night., according to Tehran Times. According to Reham El Desoki an Egyptian Economist: \ldblquote Despite Egypt\rquote s population growth being stable at 1.9 percent annually, its natural resources have been gradually coming under pressure, presenting more challenges to the government in securing food and water, among other items,\rdblquote According to CNN the online networking sites Facebook and Twitter were back in business for Iranians Tuesday, a day after the government banned the country's access to them, a freelance writer said. he 28-year-old woman, who uses the name Shahrazad to protect her identity, said the sites were reactivated during the morning. According to Gulf news, The image of an early map drawn by Ahmad Ibn Majid in 900AH (about AD1500) and the copy of the school certificate of Ahmad Bin Saeed Bin Ghabash from the Al Falah School dated 1348AH (1948) convey evidence of technology and education in the country then. according to BBC Iran's Mousavi challenges Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameneiin a defiant statement on his website, he called for future protests to be in a way which would not create tension. According to Fares News agency Ahmedi nejad pointed at the deployment of foreign forces in the region, and reiterated that although their presence is maintained under the pretext of establishing security, it has not helped the security and economic and political growth of the region. According to Trend news Agency :The experts consider Saudi Arabia's decision to get involved in nuclear projects in the Middle East as a response to Iran's nuclear initiatives, with which the Kingdom has tense relations since the establishment of leadership of the Shiite clergy in Iran. according to BBC Despite the pullback from cities and towns, due to be completed on Tuesday, US troops will still be embedded with Iraqi forces. The Muslim women involved in governance at the Indian national level tend to be of a higher socioeconomic and educational status. The problem is a class problem. In the Southern states where Muslims have done better economically, women have more access to resources and are more empowered. Microsoft customers complained that the Vista system was slow The homepage of shortlisted Combatants for Peace: We are a group of Israeli and Palestinian individuals who were actively involved in the cycle of violence in our area. The Israelis served as combat soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinians were involved in acts of violence in the name of Palestinian liberation. The hompeage of the shortlisted Israel Women's Network: The Israel Women's Network (IWN( is a not-for-profit organization comprised of women who are united in their determination to improve the status of women in Israel, regardless of political affiliation, religious outlook or ethnic origin. His death prompted mass protests in France against anti-Semitism. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentence for Fofana - the life sentence means he must serve a minimum of 22 years. Read the full Doha Declaration. The upcoming recount of votes would decide who to be the next president of Iran. Whoever in power in Iran, would this affect Iranian foreigh policy towards a variety of issues including Iranian nuclear drive or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hariri recognized that Lebanon \ldblquote faces real threats and dangers\rdblquote but, he said he is ready to face that danger. Finally, Hariri stated he will inform the people of all developments with \ldblquote clarity and transparency\rdblquote . The detainees confessed to funding their activities through contributions from Islamic charities abroad and in one case robbed a jewelry store and murdered its Coptic Christian owner. I think this is an unfortunate turn of phrase. Talk isn't cheap, it's unbelievably important, so I think what Warren means is that talk alone isn't enough. Without actions to back up the words they're worthless. (eg. as much as Obama can tell Israel to stop settlements with all the right words, he needs to back it up with action) I think it is a good idea to help Saudis get married because it very expensive there andthe spinsterhood rate is high, like many arab countries. I think what he did was a symbolic action to express what his people really felt about the unwanted US invasion, even if the shoe hits Bush's face. It obviously won't cause any serious harm, so it's just a harmless, yet significant, way to express his anger. I think with the calls for superdelegates to cast their votes as quickly as possible, it will not take long before we know! I think it makes absolute sense that The Elders listen to people from all backgrounds in this conflict, and see the inequalities, the barriers, and the challenges to peace on the ground for themselves. I think sports can strengthen relations only on the national level, not on the governments level..what do you think Mike? I think there should be a change in the mindset of Saudi decision makers before there Saudi would advocate their country. I think having such a fake campaign should be directed towards changing the attitude of the government regarding human rights and other issues. I think it is a really big mistake to ignore such a bloody conflict while so many people in the world are protesting and expressing their anger for the civilian death toll.This will undoubtedly affect Obama's popularity in the Arab world. Arabian business picks up the story of the campaign and gives more background info to the Syrian telecom scene. Middle Eastern rappers have embraced Rap music and adapted it to express their native problems and feelings. I know that Muntadhar Al Zaidi has become a folk hero, but for me he's just a very courageous man but not a hero. I am quit sure he tought that throwing his shoes at U.S. president Bush was the right thing to do and the only way to express the anger and pain he felt inside. But, i think he was wrong. Violence is a solution but not the perfect one. but i can understand him. I know these probably won't be awarded retrospectively, but in terms of into Arabic translation I'm a fan of Khalil Jibran's The Prophet - the Arabic is outstanding. Great idea to award such a prize, I'm intrigued to see what people think. Indonesian authorities name their top suspect: Noordin Mohamed Top, said to be a key financier for the Jemaah Islamiah militant group but is now thought to have set up his own splinter group. Afghanistan: eight soldiers die in one day The King Abdul Aziz General Library in Riyadh acquired recently a distinct collection of rare Islamic coins. Read the BBC Arabic report of Justin Webb's interview with Obama in Washington ahead of his key Middle East tour. The greatest threat to Iraq security is the sectarian intolerance leading to accelerating violence, Regardless of the presence of occupation forces. Arabian Oil Co.\rquote s surprise increase in official selling prices to Asia, a key market for the state-owned energy giant, may signal that the country is preparing for further reductions in oil supply. \ldblquote The solution [to the current economic crisis] lies in balancing between responsibility and freedom, between market laws and public social responsibility represented by the modern state, the Qatari Emir told the Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade. Islam never seek for killing innocent people regardless their nation or religion The clashes come only a day after Sunni leader Hariri was named as prime minister, with the support of his parliamentary bloc and Amal, and followed Berri's re-election as speaker on Thursday. The detention is definitely a positive first step and I'm glad they are investigating . . not just the sheikh but also those who were aiding and abetting in the torture of the Afghan, It's important that . . the government recognises this is not an isolated incident., Sarah Leah Whitson, at Human Rights Watch told Financial Times. The Independent - a UK newspaper - reports: 'The Saudi Arabian princess persuaded the court that if she returned to the Gulf state she and her child would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law \endash specifically flogging and stoning to death. She was also worried about the possibility of an honour killing.' Women-only gyms have become popular in cities like Jeddah and Dammam in recent years after circumventing licensing rules by calling themselves beauty salons. Now I can have a good reason to invite my old relatives to use Gmail. They don't have to worry about reading a language they don't master quite well.Of course, machine translation still has a long way to compete with human translations, but it will not be too long till we witness the evolution of machine translations.. I am very sure! The girl's marriage was arranged by her father and backed twice by a judge on the condition that it was not consummated until she reached puberty. Her mother, who is separated from the father, objected to the arrangement and twice sought a divorce on her daughter's behalf. It was refused both times by the judge, Sheikh Habib Al-Habib, after the girl's husband refused to agree. Arab News reports on new video site NaqaTube: \ldblquote Our dream is to decline the number of visitors to YouTube. Our website has received from 5,000 to 6,000 visitors since its launch two months ago,\rdblquote said Abu Ibraheem. AP: US cautiously awaits Iranian electionIt is evident that the U.S. will be interested to see someone to replace Ahmadinejad as president of Iran. The U.S. hopes for more rapprochement with Iran if Mousavi, Nejad's stronger opponent, becomes President. Al Jazeera English report about the song and Duo can be found at this link on you tube The British-based academic, Nikolas Sarris, said: It was a really exciting moment. Although it is not my area of expertise, I had helped with the online project so the Codex had been heavily imprinted in my memory. I began checking the height of the letters and the columns and quickly realized we were looking at an unseen part of the Codex. Interesting that the Felesteen carried opposite to those leads mentioned in the Mark Lynch piece above ie. Netanyahu ignores the two-state solution rather than Obama endorses two-state solution. Does this reveal something of how the meeting was received in Palestine? This is all depressingly reminiscent of Iraq in the 1990s. The Americans are going through with their exit plans, I hope this paves the road for a safe and peaceful Iraq Al Ittihad: The difference between organ trafficking and the organ trade. A £1m permanent memorial to the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings is to be unveiled in the city's Hyde Park. Fifty-two people died and hundreds more were injured when suicide bombers detonated backpacks at four central locations on public transport. Families of those killed will gather later to see it publicly revealed. The perception is that while Obama has remained relatively quiet the widespread support, especially via social networks, for Mousavi has provided space for a narritive that has these protests as illegitimate. true? Facebook official announcement and explanation for the new feature on Facebook blog. IranElectionin youtube stars #Ahmadinejad 95 #Mousavi 66 in wordpress Mousavi 53% Ahmadinejad 47% #Iran ایران #iranelection آزادی رای #Freedom #Vote Live blogging Center for Study of Islam and Democracy conference on Meedan.net. www.product-reviews.net US billionaire may be the last space tourist, an industry which started in 2001 The spaceship Soyuz docked with the International Space Station carrying an American space tourist The challenge facing us is to re-imagine what it is to talk about democracy, democracy in the Muslim world, the role that governments in and outside the Muslim world needs to play. We need a new paradigm. Traditional Symposium Logistics The comments below are from readers of Al Arabiya, translated into English by Rima. Dates from a Western perspective : I used to think of dates as Christmas food, stuffed with walnuts and dusted with confectioners' sugar. They were good, but I would only turn to them once the supply of Christmas cookies was exhausted. That changed on Oct. 6, 2004 \emdash the day that date samples were available at the farmers' market in Santa Monica. Eurocentrique Obama administration asks twitter to hold off upgrade until after #iranelection issues subside says AFP The new prize was announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture The Guardian interviews a Syrian teen that's learning Aramaic. The American University in Cairo and the American embassy in Egypt denied Monday allegations that the university was receiving secret funding from the Pentagon after an Egyptian paper exploded the controversy in a press report Al Jazeera reports on the marches commemorating Al Nakba from the Palestinian territories. Session 10 begins, here's what it looks like: Everybody is diving into work here: the class movie group is interviewing Donatella right now about the workshop , the comic blog guys are researching, designing and building... Israeli military sweeps the area looking for Palestinian who killed Israeli settler boy occident.blogspot.com Revolutionary Guard warns protesters of dire consequences against any new demonstrations The fact that Google used the word igabat for the word answers using the Egyptian G pronunciation instead of the Standard Arabic J makes google look like catering only to the Egyptian crowd. I find that ignorant on google's side and a bit demeaning. Campagines are alot and we do here many strikes concerning what is happening in Egypt , we do they attack a social network that gathers people. Moreover such rumers about Gamal's Succession is not only from facebook, but many other sides and social communities. Egyptian diplomat ElBaradei is stepping down in November after 12 years at the head of the agency. Plunging squarely into one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. suggested on Sunday that the United States would not stand in the way of Israeli military action aimed at the Iranian nuclear program. Dr. Samir Alam, who heads the Cardiology Division, stressed that LVADs are a last-resort treatment. Although we are very excited to offer this new procedure to our patients, we cannot stress enough the complexity of this surgery and the fact that not all cardiac patients are eligible for this implant, he noted. Democracy is not simply about voting, but also it is about getting the media to side with the people not the ruling regime, this is why the internet, facebook, the blogsphere are important tools in empowering the people that is if no one pulls the plug to shut them off President signs law despite condemnation by human rights activists that it flouts equal rights provisions Original link isn't working - can we check. Really want to read more about this. Original link isn't working - can we check? I really want to read more on this story. This is the original link to the Raya article on this story:: Stars of Science program to be broadcast on May 29Arab television contest launched by the Qatar Foundation http://www.raya.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=435783&version=1&template_id=20&parent_id=19 This is the original link to the Maghribia article on this story:Young Moroccan qualifies for Arab finals for scientific innovationhttp://www.almaghribia.ma/Paper/Article.asp?idr=7&idrs=7&id=85034 The question I would ask Bret Stephens is how many Guantanamos does it take to protect American security? China's embassy plays down Algeria clashesChina's embassy in Algiers today played down violent clashes the previous day between Chinese and Algerian traders as an isolated incident. Stroke is the third leading death causes in the United States The authorities in charge of issuing vanity plates have released a list of nine prohibited three-letter combinations and ordered all branches to stop renewing plates that include them, according to Motoring. Space tourism, although is not a fashion yet, however, it provides support for space research www.dar-al-seyassah.com Al Sharq al Awsat in English, hints that AIPAC may have a hand in letters recently sent to Arab leaders: Since the US President\rquote s speech in Cairo last June that was directed at the Islamic world, US officials have sought to convince Arab states to take steps towards Israel in return for convincing Israel to take \ldblquote meaningful\rdblquote steps towards achieving peace. The Facebook homepage of the 9% Movement in Morocco (in French). The homepage of ImHalal.com, the world's first Islamic search engine. The homepage of the Venice Film Festival: The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance. First pictures from protests in Enghelab by Twitter user in Iran, Abbaspour. China is not the only country that blocks Youtube, the site has been previously blocked by Turkey and Thailand over some videos Irony at its best: 'In a move that is sure to shock even the most skeptical observer, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was named head of Fatah at the party\rquote s first congress in two decades. This unforeseen move marks a major strategic shift for the dominant Palestinian political party' Interestingly, the poll showed that Pakistanis are split on how to deal with the Taleban: 41 per cent support the military's offensive against the militants, while 43 per cent support dialogue. Disorganized queues, voters leaving *** Polling stations are very crowded and disorganized in Kfarchima, Baabda. People reported to be waiting for hours and then leaving without casting votes. Finding Atlantis would make the mythical city lose its charm in the minds of many. The real enemy of stability and security in any society is sectarianism it blurs the boundaries between enemies and friends every body is a potential enemy but who is the friend? alot of records ,but with a huge cost. Multiple Twitter Al Arabiyya: Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the U.S. and Israel have been trying to find common ground on the sensitive settlement issue, but he had no comment on the Maariv report. SculpturRicardo KhodakaramI did it for the first time in my life! And voted for Moussavi! #IranElection The winners and their entries are below; feel free to view them and leave a comment! The Palestinian branch of the Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir has rejected any notion of elections 'under the spears of occupation', with or without a national agreement between the two main parties Fatah and Hamas. AFP: Pakistan moved towards outlawing domestic violence when lawmakers approved a bill Tuesday that will punish those found guilty of beating women or children with jail terms and fines. A new law in Afghanistan requires women to be more submissive to their husbands and to have sex with them on command. Europe has criticized the law, saying it's worse than when the Taliban ruled the country. The new law allows the native people of Bolivia to vote I think this is not a formal, serious civilized slogan. Becuase there are a lot of people who have houses and comfortable living and also smoke, no that motivation to prevent it, esp in rich countries like saudi Arabia Military contains a security incident in Anfeh in northern Lebanon. 2ouwet preparing for a rally in Sioufi - 9am The contoversial cartoon publihsed on AEL website Plenty of rumors, help us sort through the noise. Comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner is on now, @brainpicker says it would be butchery to Tweet this, whilst @TEDGlobal says his impression of Bruno is so close its scary. PerisanKiwi: unconfirmed reports - Revolutionary Guard has been mobilised to secure Tehran - #Iranelection @totaliterin tweets: friend @K_alashnikova says #Hamas now teletubbies of Islamist movements ;] Authors Cry Foul Over Removal of Gay Book Rankings From Amazon.com Site, according to abc news. A previous Israeli-Syrian talks initiative was interrupted by Israel's deadly attack on Gaza in December of 2008 The suspects could be facing life in prison or capital punishment if convicted, according to Al Mustaqbal. The world average is 15 suicides per 100,000 people Interestingly, the Al Jazeera English report doesn't include any mention of conspiracy or murder, saying: The move was taken after the network aired an interview with Farouk Kaddoumi, a senior PLO official, in which he criticised Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. Open vs. closed content on the Internet: Wikipedia is actually a community of people with an information index who are talking to each other. It should not be compared to an Encyclopedia. If you write something on Wikipedia and it survives its not because you are necessarily the expert but its because millions of people have seen it and have allowed it to survive. Palestinian outlet Al Hayat al Jadid reports that the US Middle East envoy has canceled his proposed visit to Israel. Syrian blogger Ahmad B. asks What does Obama want? Blogger Ahsan from Pakistan speculates on the timing of the blast Jordanian blog Rani the Brainy describes qualification as a Jordanian dream and expresses excitement at the prospect of team Jordan at next year's world cup. Conservative political blog Hot Air is suspicious of the timing of recent events: Given the timing…one might also get a feeling that former-President Clinton\rquote s \ldblquote rescue mission\rdblquote to P\rquote yongyang on 4 August might have included language to the North Koreans that we\rquote d be willing to turn a blind eye once in a while if it helped to bring them to the table? Bloggers post translations of the front material, headlines and lead editorial of 'Khiaban' - 'The Street' underground newspaper. A much more in depth analysis from Salon.com: If Aghazadeh was pushed out or walked away because of differences over the election, it could signal a narrowing base of support for Ahmadinejad and signal that he will have to rely on more hard-line supporters in the new government he will form after his planned inauguration in August. Further clarification of the lawsuit in LA Times: 'Rokaya Sadat has filed a lawsuit against Minister of Information Anas Fekki for allowing the release of the I Love you, Man in Egyptian cinemas.' more spam emails make its more dangerous to use the net More from @javiermalagon on this idea to take sabbaticals:After his sabatical, everything became more enjoyable and the ideas developed in that year became their designs in next 7 years#TEDand he discovered that in companies like google and 3m employees produced more innovations in their personal time than working hours #TED European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has welcomed an unprecedented, videotaped offer by US President Barack Obama for renewed ties with Iran, according to DW. Jews and Muslims lave always lived side by side, take the example of Morocco where a jew originating from Essaouira is one of the chancellors of the King The problem, of course, comes when your name is Robert Smith. There can only be one. And there are only so many variations of Bob, Bobby, Rob, Robbo, Smitty, etc., until you just say the hell with the vanity URL and go back to id=666784098. The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation Egyptian SuperLuli, who is pretty much impressed by Iranian protests, wrote a post asking Iran to show the Egyptians how to rebel against their current status - despite the disagreements that might show between both countries! Rabbi Manis Friedman main article that caused the angry reactions, in Moment magazine. This has been incorrectly registered as English - the article is in Arabic. Access blocked for disabled - No passway for handicapped voters in Jdeydeh The product is a questions and answers service, a community-driven knowledge market site that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer questions asked by other users. The homepage of the first company in the world to produce camel milk chocolate, Dubai based Al Nasma. Dancing in the streets in Beirut. Traffic jam in Tarik El-Jadida, and people are reported to be dancing in the streets there. Official results as reported by Al Jazeera English Full text of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's June 14th Speech Talk to the other should be organized in an organized program to develop the world dialogue between religions to learn tolerance in dealing with the OTHER. Population growth, climate change, widespread mismanagement and increasing demand for energy could lead to a major global water crisis, according to the UN World Water Development Report. Israel's current full military assault on Gaza will only, once again, work against the hope of peace and stability in Palestine. I hope George R is safe in Gaza and I hope we might hear from him about the state of things there today. Can anyone speak to the significance of Ahmadinejad kissing the Supreme Ruler's shoulder rather than his hand--there is an awkward moment (as BBC describes it) 40 seconds into the video that indicates this interaction was at least not well choreographed and perhaps even unexpected. The MPAC's press release (including the full letter) explaining the need for Zakat-giving to be made easier in the US. Phase 1 of a 3-part documentary process, this film was made by my friends at Mov ng P eces. Please let me know what you think of it. They have entered the film into the Pangea Day film festival competition.... That is unless Bill Clinton inserts himself into the process and leads the way. This shows the truly international status of Mahmoud Darwish. A great decision by the mayor of Paris. God! I'm sick of such ideas..Why don't people respect for the sanctity of religions! I personally believe so, or at least keeping people under control. Or else why would they not convict them or anything? I'm a victim of this, my mum is far too tech-savvy for my liking. I already tweeted about this, it strikes me that this group's choice of name is one of the most unfortunate one's I have ever seen. No one seems to ask: Elders of what?Very unsettling.. Astonishing, Pritchard's filter system costs $0.005 a day to run. This could be huge in places where water is scarce. Are you talking to yourself again John ;) ? Al-Qaida's al-Zawahri calls Obama C. Powell and C. Rice House Negroes and criticizes the speech ahead of time .... The Arab League has criticised the decision, saying this decision doesn't reflect what was expected of this administration. The U.N. International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian peace has ended with participants urging Israel to support a two-state solution. The violence began after a 21-year-old local man accused of attempted extortion was found hanging in his jail cell Tuesday after an apparent suicide attempt. He was hospitalized in a coma, and that night the rampages began. Join the Meedan Arab TV monitoring team and help an international audience better understand the Lebanese elections.You can use this comment thread to post brief reports of coverage on Lebanese and Arab channels - from LBC to Al Manar, Al Jazeera to Al Arabiya. I've joined the conference online, and I admit it was enlightening. Even the conversation that took place on Twitter about Terrorism / resistance was nice..I only had a conservation about one of the hosts. I don't believe it was a good choice by the organizers to invite him, while we have alot of experienced bloggers all around the Arab blogsphere. Participants are split into groups working on several projects: creating a twitter system (e.g. for elections in Lebanon), a web comic / anime blog, a radio show, a video of the class, a video of Amman, and an online community for women I'm fascinated to see how this verdict is perceived in the Middle East. Thanks for posting the Shorouk News piece. That's official. It's an incredible and stupid thing that Israel is doing!! It is a smear campaign, and, as is obvious from the ugly crowds we see on television, it is inciting dangerous passions amongst ignorant white Americans (we should revivify the term cracker). It would not surprise me if there were an assassination attempt before the elections. I'm particularly struck by this:'When it is difficult is when we have to stick together, to do what we do.' A good message for all of us. I'm not sure Maren forces anyone to use Romanized script. I agree . Arab countries always woo the west in this way. I believe it is not out of real conviction of the role of women in public life. I second you in this Rana.. however, from another point of view.. what are the reasons behind a society having such huge number of executions? and what would force judges to go for the maximum punishment? Obama: Elections alone do not make the basis of true democracy Obama: There are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power Obama: Education and creativity will be the new currency of the new century Obama: Violence is a dead end. Hamas must put an end to violence and recognize past treaties Obama: The holy teaches that who ever kills an innocent it is as if he killed all man kind . Islam is not part of the problem but part of the effort to promote peace Obama: the first nation to recognize my country was Morocco Obama: The united States will partner with any Muslim country to help women pursue eduction and equal employment opportunities Obama: The United States does not recognize the legitimacy of settlements. Israel must take concrete steps to enable progress Obama: America has a dual responsibility to help Iraq to have a better resources and to leave Iraq to Iraqis Obama: 9/11 was an enormous trauma but it led us to act against our conscience and our ideals Obama: nearly 7 million Moslems enjoy higher income then the average american Obama: we will support human rights every where.There is no straight line to support this promise though Obama: Concerning democracy America does not presume to know what is the best for every one Obama: We cannot disguise the hostility towards any religion behind the pretense of liberalism ( in reference to France's prohibition of veil) Obama: We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan we seek no military bases their Obama: Human progress cannot be denied there is no need to have a contradiction between progress and tradition Obama: It is also undeniable that the palestinian people for more then 60 years they have endured of daily humiliations that come with occupation Obama: Rather then remain trapped in the past I made it clear to Iran leaders that we should move forward. We are willing to move forward without preconditions Obama America will not turn its back on legitimate demands of the Palestinians to have a homeland Obama: I consider part of my responsibility as the united States president to fight negative stereotypes of Islam wherwerever they appear Obama: Palestinians must abandon violence. Obama: we should seek a future where no nations have nuclear weapons First of all let me tell you this, Al Zaidy was not attempting to hurt Bush he was expressing the pain and the situation of losing hope that Bush caused in Iraq, and if you think that it is indefensible to throw shoes on people, so do the Iraqi people have another way to tell Bush that what he did to them is unforgettable crime. Elaph reports on the results of the Lebanese Elections. Elaph reports on the Egyptian effort to increase the price of the gas it sells to Israel. sorry guys, but why Jews are permitted to wear their religious signs, Christians are permitted as well, and Muslims are not, specially women. A jewel decided to be veiled so as not to get in dust. Can others respect freedom of religious practice in the same line as calling for freedom of ideology and thinking. I hope your blog has lots of readers AMMONNEWS \emdash Sources at Facebook said his profile was deleted after the number of his fans reached 10,000. The source stopped short from giving further details. The sources added that profiles of other Hamas leaders might be deleted, including that of Head of Hamas Political Bureau in Damascus Khalid Meshal, noting that the number of his fans reached 17,000. I second Yaserhk comment. If one country is allowed to have nuclear weapons in the region, then the rest of the countries should be allowed to have equal rights. I support openness in government and business - but I think the contract decision needs to be taken with great care. I hope we can bring some Iraqis in to discuss this. I second your opinion especially they are better than those held in other Arab countries .I have not witnessed just diversity and enthusiasm to make real change - in any other Arab country- as much as I've seen in this elections campaign.Lebanon is a rich country, and so is its elections. Get your hands off my country, Zimerman told the stunned crowd in a denunciation of US plans to install a missile defence shield on Polish soil. Apple starts the countdown for its downloader number 1 billion, the lucky winner The World Health Organization has informed its member-states that today it's declaring a Phase 6 pandemic alert. That means a new flu virus is spreading widely in two or more regions of the world - reports NPR on its blog. I wonder if Goo I wonder what this will do for Buneeri's business? I agree Haisam Agreed. I feel it should be able to happen - I'm imagining a parallel dual language real time feed - as the ScribbleLive feed embeds easily, but I certainly don't possess the technical nous to suggest how to go about it. I hope it doesn't spark more trouble, that's the last thing Europe needs right now. I would love to have some Meedani taking video clips of the road show. Possible? This is so inspired. I wish it would be opened for the rest of the world. atighehchi: if true, serious @mehrvazh reports 3 dead in Azadi sq, Tehran. I'm trying to verify that by looking up more reliable tweeters. #iranelection The controversial Shi\rquote ite law provoked tens of Afghan women to run a protest rally in Kabul, demanding review of the rule The bow shot of Obama to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is causing a lot of stir among the Neo-Cons in the States ,yes they are back and found an opportunity. The suggestion of a handshake between the two heads of state struck a nerve in Saudi Arabia Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman's comments raised doubts about the arrest of a shadowy figure said to be the leader of the local Al-Qaeda umbrella group blamed for a wave of bloodshed, even as Iraq's prime minister hailed the capture. Facebook group raises 'broad objections to the draft of the new Beirut municipality' to put a carpark under the Sanayeh and Sioufi gardens. The group has nearly 2000 members. Yes George, You can say that about the comments, In my opinion, you'll not find any Israeli wants his government to return al Golan, But in the other hand, there are some peoples who know that it was a Syrian land and Israel took it in 1967 Twitter is going crazy, trying to keep up!@coots: #TED: Morozov KGB used to have to torture people to get the data on a Facebook page.@iamhelenharrop: is the internet a catalyst for change or an opiate for the masses? Internet = pornography and cats, not human rights watch (Morozov) #ted Love the title. Manchester had an excellent Palestinian Literature Festival in 2006 with many of the same participants, it's a shame it's never been repeated. I'd thoroughly recommend going to see people like Ahdaf Soueif and Nathalie Handal if you're in the region. I'd like to see this NYT article translated into Arabic. I'd like to read more about how I can get the most out of the social web whilst also protecting my personal data effectively. Do you know of anything? TED Global attendee @ruthannharnisch tweets: #TED U prof Shereen El Feki challenges culture clash of West/Islamic cultures, says we will mesh more than mash or clash. One of the aims of the service is to boost the Arabic language content on the web and provide a platform to users to help each other. Whatever is hapening in Iran is inspiring to all see this comment from one twitter user, he criticizes the other bloggers for being so attached to Iran news and he says it is time to take care of our own Egypt that is going down on all levelsإحنا قربنا نخلص من مولد انتهابات إيران ده؟ مصر بتجيب جاز يا اخوانا Is it approved for an enemy and prohibited for a citizen?? Ahmadi Najad is trying all possible ways, last was accusing Hashimi Rafsanjani and his son of corruption Akhbar Al Alam (World News) outlines the history behind Russia and Turkey's growing ties. Great news! ( I used to be a women's football coach, fun times) Al-Amour told his family by telephone about his condition, and they in turn called the Israeli prison administration to have him moved from the Gilbo'a Prison to another where he can be treated properly. Finally, Karen Armstrong, religious scholar and TED Prize winner is up, speaking on compassion:#TED Armstrong: As a religious historian, I've become acutely aware of the centrality of compassion in every religion. It's too early to start losing faith in President Obama. The bombing caused the two-story mosque to collapse resulting in many casualties Lubna Hussein found guilty and fined as protesters clash outside Khartoum court over 'unconstitutional' decision, said The Guardian. pl Tom can you make it some how simpler to be easy to understood. Try to read this article, it contains variable issues. The editor turns from one issue to another, but all are relevant and interwoven I sent this to Zeinobia:@Zeinobia Great all public then - can you share? It seems the Egyptian gov went back on any agreement you're reportingShe sent this back:@meedan I do not know about that Huda seems confident plus her lawyer is a big NDP pro-regime one I just want to say that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the friend of my friend is my friend too, while the friend of my enemy is my enemy and the enemy of my friend id my enemy too. I want to donate to the Gaza humanitarian effort - where is the best place to donate? I would like to hear an analysis on the differences in relations between Great Britain and Iran and The United States and Iran I want to ask how the US will relate to Hezbollah and Hamas if Iran moves towards warmer relations. I want to add that the elections happen once every 4 years. I want to know if Muslim practice in Second Life reflects the diversity of Muslim practice in the real world. For instance, do Muslim avatars dress in particular ways? Do they fast during Ramadan? I'm interested to know what people in Dubai think about this. Is the idea of taking the metro to work a prospect people will take up? I'm interested to know if you support this Jarelkamar? I want to know, did Picasso ever visit the Middle East? The report also praised the environmental work carried out in Abu Dhabi, describing the Abu Dhabi Emirate Environment Strategy 2009-2013, adopted by the Emirate, as a 'model' and called on Arab countries to follow this model. Fawaz A. Gerges Carnegie Scholarnoted in an article published by CNN that Ironically, during the 2005 presidential election, candidate Ahmadinejad said he would loosen state control over people's personal affairs. Trying to garner support among women and young voters, in one of his pre-election television interviews he questioned the role of the morality police As Douglas Farah points out on the Counterterrorism blog, Osama bin Laden did mention Nigeria in a video message in 2003, but the problems we are seeing now are much more localised: The truth is that there is a large and radicalized Muslim population in northern Nigeria, where 12 of the states (out of 36 in all) have imposed Sharia law. Lebanon has charged six more people with spying for Israel's notorious intelligence agency, Mossad, judicial sources say. The six, all Lebanese nationals, are accused of charges ranging from providing Israel with information to help its armed forces to visiting the enemy country -Israel -- without permission. I'm interested to understand how the original list was put together. Did the company hire a group of scholars? And what do scholars think about the community fine tuning the search? I have nothing to say except that I'm so terribly excited to see this movie! Maybe it will erase the painful memories of watching Towelhead. I was also intrigued by this version of events, I'd like to see some sources and an explanation of why the arrest wasn't mentioned - it was just a little too early to contact Zeinobia. Barenboim\rquote s visit stirred controversy in the most populous Arab country. Several lawmakers and media organizations accused Culture Minister Faruq Hosni of promoting normal ties with Israel. I doubt we'll see anything new. Obama will continue to push Mubarak for reforms behind closed doors but will keep the public criticism to a minimum. And I think in these early days that's definitely the right plan of action, even if it does upset some of his liberal supporters. Being democratically elected by the Palestinians, Hamas is becoming harder to ignore Weaver became an Internet sensation during the 2008 presidential campaign and has long sought an interview with Obama. He even went to Washington for Obama\rquote s inauguration in January, but was unable to get through security lines for the ceremony. The Israeli military issued orders on Thursday to stop the preparation work for the Pope's visit in Aiyda refugee camp in the southern West bank city of Bethlehem. Scholars from Al-Azhar have issued a statement demanding that the president intervene to ban the screening of Khaled Yousef's new controversial film Shehata's Shop. Elissa\rquote s friends have tried to convince her to attend the wedding. If the Israeli government wanted to promote joint life, joint citizenship and joint educational opportunities then there shouldn't be separate systems, Ben-Arie added. If from day one a state places a student in a separate education system, then of course the two populations are going to grow up as two essentially separate bodies of citizens. Adding the @palfest Twitter feed again. Iranians have launched an online petition to urge the US President Barack Obama to respect the Iranian identity of the Persian Gulf. Sorry, didn't post my own link (see comment below): I believe Influenza is the real enemy for human beings. Countries must join efforts to combat it, instead of wasting their money on weapons and other countries' destruction. I take it that fraud is not yet confirmed as the cause of Salah Izz Al Din's financial demise? Individuals and businesses with legitimate business models also have to file for bankruptcy when they fail. What is the evidence he was corrupt? I believe the verdict against Islam Nabeeh was historical, and he should not return back to his position again. I think people make the decision primarily for money. I also think that eventually, and maybe not until a peace agreement is reached and a Palestinian state founded, migration to and from Israel and Palestine by Arabs and Jews could play a big role in diffusing tensions and humanising the other. I think change is utterly needed, not only in the US, but in the whole world.I can see this as another step towards this change. I think it is about time that women have their freedom everywhere in the world. Religion should not be an excuse to take away women's freedom. I hope that the civil society in Sudan will revolt against this law and this court decision and that this law will be changed. I think the debate here is whether these 'Goodwill Ambassadors' actually do any good. Sudan has seen plently of celebrities jet in to tell the world of the atrocities happening there, but what good has that done? I've attached a British tabloid newspaper piece on Jolie's visit - most of the huge article concentrates on her clothes and her husband. I think Ed Husain is correct - the Holocaust is a case of a supreme failure of our humanity. We are all witnesses to it and should remember it. I think the way Naif al Mutawa has channeled his energy into creating a positive representation of Islamic principles is really something to be admired. I think this is the result of being Dubai or UAE is the shelter of thousands of working hands from different countries, Arabic, Asian, or even European. While Jordan is similar to Egypt work depends on the governmental sector is a wide range of jobs, which are considered safe by lots of workers and employees. I believe it's an outrageous that Police arrest people for not being so religious . Fasting is a pillar of Islam such as prayer and Hajj and Zakah . what's the next step ?? Police arresting people for not praying or giving their money to the poor . this is a great step backwards in a state that adopts an exterior secular system. I think it's hard for people from outside the Middle East to understand that although Jordan has diplomatic normalization with Israel, there is great pressure on government to not do anything more to improve relations more broadly. I think it is unfortunate for the pro-Palestinian movement that Galloway is becoming its de facto figure head in the UK. He does not have a broad base and does not have a progressive view of how governments should be run. I think it would be fruitful for the future to involve more Eastern European and CIS voices in the dialogue - and in the partnership as well. South-East dialogue could give new ideas and results. I think that is a good opportunity to change wrong Islamic concept in the west world and highlighting the real image of it, he did what the ex-president failed to do,he distinguished between islam and extremityhe deserve people love. I guess George, US problem is not with warm or cold relations with Hezbollah or Hamas. It is rather a reason to attack.. or impose more interventions in interior affairs. So my 2 cents is that, it will not differ much. The same treatment between US and Iran will stay the same. I actually think Obama has a good position on this - fewer nuclear weapons means a safer world. The final Doha Declaration expressed strong support for Sudanese President Omar Bashir, but otherwise included garden-variety banalities, says foreigh policy blogger and academic Marc Lynch. Reporters Without Borders has voiced serious anxiety about the plight of Canadian reporter Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, who were kidnapped by armed men nearly ten months ago and are still being held hostage in Mogadishu. Guys!The much anticipated webcomic Comicat! is now up and running!http://comicat.typepad.com/my-blog/Stay tuned for more updates later today!! Give your reaction to Barack Obama's historic Cairo speech. The secretary general of the Jordanian Ministry of Culture launched the forum on Sunday, according to Al Rai. Leaders of the Joint Meeting Parties have announced they would stage a sit-in in solidarity with seven newspapers the government suspended over charge of supporting people against the unity. Recently Facebook announced it will enable an option for users to customize the privacy for every shared piece of content on their Facebook profile.The new feature, which is currently in beta testing, is thought to help professionals \endash for example- who want to keep in touch with friends while still connecting with current or future employers. The Al Quds capital of culture website reports how the festival will travel around several Palestinian cities in the West Bank including Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Rammalah and Jenin. The Serbian government declared July 17 a day of mourning for the deceased Serbian tourists in Egypt. Libyan authorities have reported an outbreak of bubonic plague in the Mediterranean coastal town of Tubruq, and the World Health Organization was sending a team to investigate, a WHO official said. - Reuters added. Bikya Masr reports 12 dead: The accident again highlights the massive numbers of deaths in road incidents in the country. According to the ministry of transportation, some 6,000 people are killed annually in road accidents in Egypt. Non-government affiliated observers, however, argue that thousands more are killed and not reported. Al Watan newspaper reports on the Iranian President's visit to Syria. Daily News Egypt announces the two films at this year's Venice Film Festival and provides an idea of what The Traveler will be up against in the competition. Moroccan blog The View from Fez announces it will publish any paparazzi shots of the stars in Morocco, although the writer is struggling to think why they may have chosen such a location: It is hard to imagine a more peculiar pairing than the light and fluffy American TV series Sex and the City and the Kingdom of Morocco. Even harder to imagine why such a notion would come to mind. Nissan Motor Co. Monday announced plans to slash more than 20,000 jobs world-wide, shift production out of Japan and seek government assistance from Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere, part of a broad new effort by the Japanese car maker to weather the economic downturn, WSJ reports. Egypt was the first African country to record a case swine flu, according to the BBC. The West Bank-based online news agency Palestine News Network reports that the literature festival is being supported by the British Council - a UK cultural body. Agha: Ahmadi supporters expected this speech. They will try to justify the correctness of their position by Khamenei's backing. Bahrain has shut down its oldest daily newspaper in reaction to an article that suggested Ahmadinejad was Jewish. Bizarre! George Mitchell, a retired US senator, served as special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Clinton administration and brokered the landmark Good Friday accord in 1998 that ended decades of bloody violence in the conflict, reports Al Jazeera. Israel's FM does not believe that the West Bank settlements an obstacle for peace, says Reuters AlHayah newspaper reported Sunday that Facebook activists have launched a campaign aimed at the Facebook administration to request the restoration of Haniyeh\rquote s page, and the retention of all Palestinian resistance leadership fan pages, in support of their right to freedom of expression. Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas responds to the news that foreign workers in the country will be allowed to change sponsor depending on their record. Is this the first step towards naturalizing immigrants? Syria's Al Watan reports that the Turkomen and Arabs of Kirkuk are united against a referendum on the fate of the city. Meshaal says the challenge for the U.S. and European Union is to make Mr. Obama's appeals a prelude to sincere policy changes, as he put it, reports the Voice of America - the US public diplomacy channel. Doctoral student develops a way to type without using hands says Fox News Nytimes reports: According to Lebanon\rquote s tourism ministry, the Lebanese economy had only recently started to bounce back from an 11 percent decline in the number of tourists after the 2005 assassination of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. The Moroccan delegation, led by Prime minister, Abbas El Fassi to represent H.M. the king during the celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the Libyan September 1st revolution, left the festivities when it noticed the presence, among the guests, of the president of the so-called SDAR, along with a delegation, said MAP The best piece I've read on the incident, in The National: In the United States, the bitterness expressed by some of the Lockerbie victims\rquote s families has also been unfortunate. Never-ending grief is understandable, but in the absence of justice, vengeance is a poor substitute, and insisting that al Megrahi die in prison would have been no more than that. Oldest woman so far is 130, the same age as Stalin and Einstein Mousavi, who served as the last prime minister of Iran until the post was abolished, is widely remembered for steering the country out of an economic meltdown during the times of economic uncertainty in the 1980s when an eight-year war imposed on Iran by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. More than 300 days after her abduction, a fellow traveller revisits his time with Amanda Lindhout Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, stresses in a blog post that only corporate and personal information of its employees were pilfered, not Twitter accounts. The Palestinian FM Dr. Riad Al-Malki affirms that the Israeli settlements are an impediment for peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. will life not pass without a lantern for our kids?We can compensate for lots of luxuries and depend on the basics to get rid of such economic crisis.you must stoop if you have a low door Germany prepares for possible terror attacks: The article says the US has warned Germany about possible terror attacks in the build up to parliamentary elections due to German troop presence in Afghanistan. Do we think it's in any way linked to Marwa's story? Slightly odd that this story is being pushed by the J-Post and no one else. A comment from their website suggests that this might have happened back in January: Why is jPost posting this now? Slip propagandha? Is there no translation for Human Rights Watch? Conflict Forum's Alastair Crooke on the Western view that Hamas is an 'extremist' group: The pursuit of this narrow formulation of moderates versus extremists has yielded the perverse result - not of bringing nearer a Palestinian state - but of pushing it beyond reach, possibly for good. alexlobov: RT @keyvan: It was their plan 2 send less ballots 2all stations that were likely 2 vote more 4 Mousavi They're out of ballots! #IranElection To general audiences, bin Laden\rquote s words are cut more evenly, slightly towards religious justification. To Western audiences, very pronounced 53% of the time he uses policy justifications. To Muslims\emdash 33% of the time, he talks about policy justifications. Daily News Egypt reports: The gas deals with Israel have been met with vehement local opposition, especially because of the initially favorable price. The opposition was spearheaded by the popular campaign to prevent the export of Egyptian gas. Is Mousavi still working within the framework of the Islamic Republic or is he now looking to challenge the establishment, not just the election result? Examples of social innovation from Geoff Mulgan:#TED Mulgan: More examples of economic adaptation: timebanks, parallel currencies, fast colleges, transition towns#TED Mulgan: When times are hard, people have to do things for themselves. Example: Urban farming. Interesting point via @brainpicker: #TED Khanna: If we focused on reconstructing infrastructure, the Middle East would be a far more peaceful region I tend to find the idea of censoring art problematic. But I also find the idea of art designed to offend problematic too. That there is a wide Gulf between the Arab states and Iran is evident, it is made of a sea of misunderstandings and bad intentions. No one is trying to bridge the gap instead they dig it deeper and wider. talking about how twitter.com helps when covering news. How it's very close to real time. and updates are provided faster than any other source in a concise way. I say no matter what price it is there is no way going back only forward all the way to freedom and democracy.secular democratic Iran I like to name her Persia .The great Persia.FREEDOM COME WITH PRICE.IT IS PAINFUL IT IS BLOOD .But once it gain its goal its sweet and cherich I agree, but I also want to add that emerging economies have similar responsibilities, if not more due to the large numbers involved. I'm not sure this will impact the Middle East. We already do not have enough technology to be impacted.. however, it might be a good news for Egypt to celebrate from a distance.. Not sure it's going to be a long term solution to the problem.... I went to see an Egyptian film yesterday and every other advertisement before the film was a Smoking causes....... commercial. I think the UK has it right, ban smoking in public places and then put such a high tax on cigarettes that it becomes too expensive. I disagree, because we've failed with dialogue with our governments in the region. Its high time for action now. I am still wondering is there any Arabic lady has participated with such charity to be able to win? I don't know why, but I don't expect this from Morocco. Here in Egypt? Yes. But Morocco, no. I don't buy it is by Al Qaeda. I've heard a lot about their involvement in different bombing events that I am not really sure if its all lies or true.What I know for a fact that Iraq is about to enter a new era of big mess - and God only knows when such mess might end. I myself believe in words coupled with deeds and not words alone. I do not believe in politics that lacks genuine purpose to change the situation. When you promise that then we need to see an indication that shows us that these changes are coming, not just words and speeches antoniuspius: Evidently Iran is the poster-child for stable and open democracy in the Middle East. Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi face a tough week ahead after Iran's Supreme Leader warned against further protests.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the opposition they would be held responsible for violence and rioting, and warned of consequences for further protests.So how should the opposition respond? Give your views in the thread below. The Israeli government spent almost $ 10.5 million on security measures for the Pope's visit, according to Novosti Nasrallah denies any relation with Ez din, and declare that the total amount that Ez din lost is $400 m. So Unbelievable . but that's the kind of mentality that makes Muslim societies always tending to erase personal freedoms in favor of religion's laws and commandments . That always happens when a certain ideology/religion/concept becomes more important than the individual . claiming it;s for the good of all individuals . Congratulations to Anees on taking the initiative here - I can certainly learn from this experience in my own community. I second you in this Yaser.. Obama Vs democrats Obama Calls for Plan on Withdrawing US Troops from Iraq Obama Asks Arab Leaders for Concrete Steps Regarding Israel Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English) Obama: many are skeptical that real change can occur. If we choose to be bound by the past we will never move forward Obama: US. and the Arab world need sustained efforts to find common grounds Obama: we will encourage more American students to study in Muslim countries Obama: It is easier to blame others then to look inward . it is easier to look at what is different and not to look at what is common I'd love to see a translation of this post on the Bruno affair. Al Manar reports: A new episode in the psychological warfare between Hezbollah and the Israeli enemy was launched… From Breaking News blog : Two military officials told The Associated Press that one British commando died during the early morning raid. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the death had not been officially announced. Arab media scholar Marc Lynch explains how he believes Barack Obama can make the location of Cairo work to his advantage in his speech to the Muslim world on Thursday. I am the definite winner of this presidential election, he told a news conference in Tehran. AJE guest Farzad Agha:No change in position from Khamenei. I don't believe the meeting tomorrow with the Guardian Council will do much good, the speech was a full endorsement of Ahmadenijad. The speech threatened demonstrators with consequences behind the scenes. Crispin Black, a former intelligence analyst for the government, said the claims were particularly worrying. \ldblquote Frankly it's a worry that they even know what the layout of the building is. If you know how the security service, or the FBI or whoever it is, do a stake out, how they put bugs into your lavatory and all the rest of it, then that's going to be of value to al-Qaeda.\rdblquote Yasser Ahmed\rquote s father says the arrests were at the request of the British authorities, and were connected to terrorism allegations, according to Syria News Wire blog. Reports say that the scandal is delaying a civil nuclear deal between the US and the UAE British intelligence officers were complicit in the detention of two UK citizens currently being held in Syria, according to their families and a Labour peer. Says the Guardian Al Jazeera reports that Mousavi wouldn't call for more protests, but at the same time I'm watching Al Jazeera English describing other candidates and Mousavi's wife calling for more people on the streets. Everything is becoming very serious, today will be crucial.... - AJE correspondent. Al Jazeera reported that 5.4 million people die annualy because of smoking. Research has shown that millions of people carry mutations in their DNA which increase chances for stroke TIME magazine presents five reasons to doubt Iran's election results looking at how the elections were monitored, the way the results were announced, the distribution of votes, and the results compared with polling from before the elections. The Washington Post reports on a poll executed by a US non-profit weeks before the elections shows that Ahmadinejad has support at a margin of 2 to 1 just weeks before the elections. Al Jazeera English reports that a group led by BP (British Petroleum) has won the right to develop the Rumaila oil field. AJE also reports unconfirmed reports that Rasfanjani is in Qom trying to rally support for Moussavi. The BBC reports the findings of the latest investigation into the harm caused by smoking shisha: People who smoke shisha, or herbal tobacco, can suffer from high carbon monoxide levels, its research revealed. It found one session of smoking shisha resulted in carbon monoxide levels at least four to five times higher than the amount produced by one cigarette. Reuters reports the incident, claiming 14 deaths: Reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road conditions cause many road crashes in Egypt, a popular tourist destination. Ok Anas , it is your opinion and we are to respect it but a leader is still the icon of the people ion front of other nations First panel presentation: Developing Democracy in the Arab World - By Geneive Abdo, The Century Foundation Olivier Tesquet@parastoo Have you noticed a real difference, compared to former elections? #IranElection Olivier Tesquet@jadi Do you think head of the state is aware of the Internet wave? If so, are they afraid? #IranElection What play do you mean? ANIMAL FARM? Any decent translation of the text of the speech would be much appreciated. Watching Al Jazeera English, it fairly clear that even the AJE correspondents didn't have a great idea of what Khamenei had actually said due to the awkward (according to @meedan rough) translation. This is also in Italy: 'Inter Milan football coach Jose Mourinho has been criticised by an Italian Muslim leader for suggesting religious fasting marred a player's performance.' Where have you seen Egyptian Muslims breaking fast in daylight Ghaydaa? Are you saying this has become commonplace? The British people, what do you think or will you refresh hatred because of the attacks? It somebody thought by banning a page or blocking a service they will silence people, they are mistaken.Circumvention tools are growing more stronger,free and available. If one service is halted, 10 other are found in the same day. The internet is an open medium, and shall stay as open. If spies use journalism as a cover, and combatants are unable to tell the real journalists from the undercover operatives, then they might assume that everyone claiming to be a journalist is actually a spy, says offiziere.ch blogger. If Turkish media reports are to be believed Barack Obama could use the AoC Forum to launch his boldest move yet - a meeting with Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami. If Ahmadinejad lost, what would it mean for Hamas? Hezbollah? The Middle East? We want to hear your views. If Jumblatt is so well known for his political unpredictability, did Hariri make a mistake in being so reliant on him for an absolute majority in parliament? If Israel is having nuclear weapons, them muslims should have too, what ever the country It may be that Iran is Shiaa, but at least they may face Israel in case of using nuclear weapons, so yea I agree but with restrictions, any other Arabic country would be better. Israel refuses to release 1500 out of 11 thousand Palestinian prisoners and describes Hamas' demands as \ldblquote impossible to accept,\rdblquote risking the whole deal to fail ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly\rquote s Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Wednesday recommended a punishment of three years for sexual harassment at the workplace. Man shot in foot in front of electoral officeA Lebanese man was shot in his foot during a fight in front of the electoral office of an independent candidate Menassat looks at the Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary Rafsanjani's daughter and family released from detention Some people opposed launching the festival on 24 April, because it coincides with Saddam's birthday, according to Al Qabas. Emergency state declared in Thailand in an attempt to quell down anti-government protestors YouTube's announcement on their blog fbnm #iranelection Brave and proud Iranian people, don't give up!! the more they try to stop you, the stronger your voices become!! Jordanian artists will perform a play by Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous, according to Addustour. Another quote from Mazrui on the investigation: We have to go and investigate the truth of the matter independently and come out with practical solutions that are relevant to the prevailing circumstances and are supportive of other peace processes within the region. A direct fallout is that the girl\rquote s biological mother, Khurshid, who separated from her husband eight years ago, laid fresh claim to the girl on Sunday and even approached the police, reports the Times of India. TheLove_Goddess: It's young people and women--yes, WOMEN--who may determine the outcome of the election in Iran today. Spectacular! Here is the head of the FBI's thoughts on the matter, in an open letter published here on the BBC:Your action in releasing Megrahi is as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law. Here's a link posted by @TEDGlobal: Richard Bernstein/sharing and shares. Charities sell donated public company shares & convert to cash, http://www.friendsofhumanity.ch #TED The Red Shirts are supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship The Charter of Medina reminds us that the Prophet in worldly affairs, in relations between humans, we have to have the same rights for everyone. We must be honest with each other, with our regime and candidates, and never engage in tribalism, chauvinism, or racism. We must use our liberty to secure our liberty for all. One of Obama's new tactics is to target high value drug traffickers in the country, but even that has come under fire. From the Abu Muqawama blog: Are we really going to spend our time, money and precious assets going after the Pashtun Pablo Escobar? Again, why are we in Afghanistan? To fight drugs? A little money invested in projects like this could save an absolute tonne in the long run. Fair play to Nassif! The economy will inevitably depend on security though. Who'd invest in a war zone? The withdrawal is not the doing of President Barack Obama. Rather, it was negotiated during the Bush administration, at\emdash more to the point\emdash the Iraqi government's insistence. The Iraqis are the ones who wanted, and ordered, us out. Even if John McCain had won the 2008 election, we'd still be pulling out of Iraq. Arabic influence is demolishing step by step, even women, why? The change in tactics will mark a new era for Google's attempt to make money from YouTube. The service is tremendously popular, but also tremendously expensive to operate, and Google has been working hard for months to come up with a more successful financial formula for sharing video. media is mostly controlled by government in the Arabic countries. Original link and video footage from ABC news (22 April) shows brutal torture methods employed by the Prince. A man in police uniform is seen in the video as well. Is this power and money taking the law in its own hands at the fullest? The generational gap is not about old and young generations failing to connect it is rather about a different attitude a different outlook to the world . Personally i feel the young is more mature than the older generations, their world will be hopefully a better place to live in but it will take them perhaps more than one generation to build this better world Segregated weddings have always been popular in the Muslim community. The London Muslim Centre has facilitated them for over five years. It is part of the attraction for Muslim families so they can celebrate their happy day in a religious atmosphere, a custom which is also found in other religious traditions represented in Britain. The goal of NASA's Digital Learning Network is to enhance the agency's ability to deliver unique content by linking students and educators with NASA experts. This election result must mark Nuri Al-Maliki's greatest achievement to date as Iraq's prime minister. Providing such services will enable lots of other Arab users to log in to the internet services as they avoided it before for shortage of knowledge about English.It is nice to follow the global news in Arabic as well.... The World Summit Award (WSA) is the global initiative to select and promote the world's best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Part of what's needed is a new kind of language - that encourages Israel to think outside the narrow 'security' box it has established for itself, and to see that it will achieve peace only when legitimate Arab grievances are dealt with through concerted negotiations. I too support compromise, collaboration and peace. The Alabama was the sixth ship to be hijacked off Somalia's Indian Ocean coast in a week, and was believed to be the first American-flagged merchant vessel to be attacked by pirates anywhere since the early 19th century. Every story about Iran is contested - CBS reports on a big story circulating Twitter that Iranian footballers wore green wrist bands apparently in support of Mousavi - but CBS is hesitant. How Gulf states deal with falling oil prices is a challenging policy problem for the region. Unless there is some kind of strategy that addresses directly the pubic opinion within Israel Obama's tough approach will not go far in dealing with a prime minister who was elected because of his known hard-line policies and whose religious-nationalist coalition partners as the times notes refuse to give away land. Stem cells is as much controversial issue as cloning and maybe more Power cuts are a familiar problem right across the Middle East, but surprisingly The National today reports that it is even a growing issue in the UAE: \ldblquote A chronic shortage of electricity in the northern Emirates is a serious economic and environmental threat, a government study has found.\rdblquote Like most protracted controversies, the one over Darwin in the Arab-Muslim worlds perhaps tells more about those in the debate than about the subject of the debate itself. It is time for scholars of the Arab and Muslim worlds to revisit Darwin. A discussion of obesity in the gulf, encouraging participation with a Dubai exhibition to improve education as to what people can do to fight obesity with lifestyle changes. This is awful - I love Cairo and this part is the best of what Cairo has to offer. Killing people who come to enjoy it is senseless. This is a great book about the recent history of Syrian television dramas going back to the 1990s when I understand they began to challenge the much watched Egyptian dramas for the crown of Arab TV. It is amazing. What a statement Obama makes to the Arab world. This is his first interview! Could not be more symbolic. With this Obama sets his agenda: engagement, dialogue, and progress. In spite of the incredibly tense situation in the region, I do believe this is very hopeful. This is a big landgrab for Twitter territory. The microblogging service is still working out similar features itself. Currently, users can only Twitter to the entire Internet or followers they have approved. Facebook lets users sort out where and when they want people to see individual thoughts. This makes me think how far behind we are in the Arab world when it comes to the e-book revolution. The establishment of the bank also highlights the extent of Hamas' power in Gaza, says pr-inside. Mighty Samson play uses mythology to illustrate the Arab Israeli Struggle, according Moheet. A small, singe-engine plane burst into flames in Holy Cross Cemetery just south of Butte, Montana. All 14 people on board were killed, many of them children, according to Daily News We are now in the SAE Institute Amman, 4 floors below the ground, surrounded by high-tech equipment, sliding glass doors, and smooth electronic beats. we're following this election closely in syria I remember Mubarak's campaign in Egypt's 'first ever democratic elections' of 2005 - it was glossy, professional, seemingly open, with strong branding across lots of media and hoards of communicators getting out the message. Egypt's pretty fast on the uptake with new media strategies in the Middle East - does that mean that it's democratic? Wonder why I've lost my faith in Microsoft products long ago? - it's a big company, but committed many failures that made it near to lose its fame.. I just wonder if those stupid Afghani men killed all women, how will they live then??? I'm looking forward to the creative ideas people will do with this new application.. I agree with Hiba.. people have to respect others' believes before calling it freedom of expression, believe or creativity. Nothing in life is without limits.. I pity these women, but sure its a huge step forward towards gaining their rights in Afghanistan. I do understand but do not think she did the right thing, because if her beliefs are that strong she should have proved it with her words and her attitude not by using another name because using one's true identity to prove himself right will leave a stronger effect on people's minds, that's my opinion. I'm all for reviving compassion. Easier said than done though... As an Egyptian, I just feel this is amazing!.. add to that Ahmed Zoweil and Dalia Megahed.. seems Obama is not just looking for a current situation, but in deep understanding of history.. Very glad to be here in Jordan with active group of people. It is truly sad and terrible thing. It\rquote s Sunday morning, and you want to take part in the great democratic tradition of voting, but you don\rquote t know where you\rquote re supposed to cast your ballot. - Now Lebanon explains how to vote! It's bizarre that so little of this made any international news, especially seeing as the recent surge in anti-Muslim immigrantion sentiment seems to get coverage. I noticed you and @Zeinobia commenting on the Youm7 report, I'd also seen it and I agree with you: propoganda. Great work, I'm excited for more updates! It's funny how most of these events are just used by people to slam the celebrities involved. Take this guy's comment on the Huffington Post: How about she visits quietly and without cameras so it seems more, you know, genuine? I think he's missing the point a little. It\rquote s regrettable looking at Muslim countries with their huge potential, to see that many have become big wastelands. There are few positive indicators\emdash whether because of brain drain, poverty, etc. Most Muslim countries are lagging behind. Human rights violations are no longer the priviledge of state security forces. Corruption is also no longer the priviledge of the elite. Interesting George, thanks for the comment. I had this discussion earlier with Fadi. Surely it's indefensible to throw things at people in an attempt to hurt them? Its controversial.. but will the rest of Arab regimes follow in her footsteps? Looks like a great talk, can't wait to see what TED Fellow Shereen El Feki has to say on her blog. Here is an update on yesterday's sessions. A land of golden beaches and stunning mountain landscapes. Landscapes that change with the seasons, but are always bathed in the warm sun. The daylight rising over Lebanon brings endless opportunities of fun, beach, nature and outdoor activities. You\rquote ll never know what to choose. Whatever it will be, an unforgettable time awaits you under the shiny Lebanese sun. This also seems like the kind of intiative that could be exported to other energy-stricken costal cities - Karachi instantly springs to mind. That is really cool. Such invention is a wide step in technology industry . It spreads the base of usage and contains those handicapped who have really mental abilities but without use for not being able use computer keyboards. This is a terrible story, if true. Interesting to read the Algerian objections to the way the case was handled in the French courts though. Apparently Mami's son is now 3 and living in France, I just hope Mami takes appropriate responsibility. that's one of the most brutal war crimes by American soldiers in Iraq. a 14 year old! goodness. The workshop is absolutely fantastic so far.our team , so called Ghost Busters are working on our project which will be a documentary about Amman's oldest areas Al Rainbow Street , where we will be filming a couple of the areas residents and explore their feelings towards the renovation of this area by Jabal Amman's Residence Association....coming soon !! :) I am very interested in seeing how the Rapid Response mechanism will operate. Seems like a good idea, and here is hoping that it works. Iran told: Free UK nine IranVote: Guess whom China & Russia want to win? #iranelection #iranelections #Iran ایران آزادی رای #Freedom #Vote #World no such thing as CHANGE !!! Italy is facing a 75 percent increase of migrants over the past year. Bab El Hara on Youtube Parastooback home. have shown a green V sign to several people and have seen many hopeful faces. many voters are still in queues.. #IranElection Barak gave Netanyahu the golden opportunity to form the government, a step that is highly questionable 11:22 - Pazuzu: A tour around the room showed that the participants are (as expected) words like training , funding, 'photoshop, I am not a professional, peacebuilding are heard everywhere 11:23 - Pazuzu: Another interesting observation is that some table are using only arabic, others are using only english and some are mixing the too. A high level of flexibility 11:17 - Pazuzu: An unplanned enbergizer: Participants have been advised to change locations and groups to maximize communication and get to know even more people! (I can hear a how are you doing conversation taking place on the table next to me) 11:02 - Pazuzu: And now participants are reflecting on what skills or help they can provide to others 11:05 - Pazuzu: Communication is increasing as participants are getting more and more confortable and with each other. 12:29 - Pazuzu: And we're back with a picture of the cloud of resources that participants will be exachanging during this project. That's a lot of resources! Lebanon launched a manhunt on Tuesday for an Islamist militant being held on terror charges who escaped from the country's largest prison in a pre-dawn jail break, according to AFP As a monounsaturated fat, Olive Oil is seen as the greatest exponent I completely see how Iraqis feel real anger about the past five years, for sure. But what if Al Zaidy had hit Bush in the face, or someone else, and caused real harm? Is that a good thing to do? Although the European Parliament is not the decision-making body in the European Union, yet, leaning towards right wing will have its effect on the general policies of the EU. While this is a positive development, I think the reason behind it is western pressure on the Saudi and Egyptian regimes. Despite the cultural diversity at the American University in Cairo, there is still a huge gap between foreign and local students on its campus Though he is a Jew, but to be a Jew is not a crime our issue is with the Israeli, not the Jews. He does not deserve to be tortured such a way. It is a barbarian crime. No religion can accept such a severe crime. For Paul Woods, analyst for the e-mail security company Message Labs, the spam figures from Microsoft came as something of a surprise. According to a leading Brotherhood official, the move comes as these bloggers continues his push to create a new space for discussion over the Islamist movement in Egypt. His arrest signals that he is getting too popular for the government\rquote s desire. For those of you that didn't see it, last week's Newsweek had a good cover piece on 'the myth of Eurabia' Given the stakes here I am still quite surprised that voter turnout wasn't higher. Still these Lebanese elections out-performed the European elections by some margin in terms of voter turnout. Bahador Nooraei B.some places are running out of paper ballots. it was said before election that there is an excess of over 10 million! WTF? #iranelection Frankly speaking, I was shocked by this news. I didn't imagine Obama will do this.. at least that fast. Live streaming of the Carnegie panel discussion starting at 12:15 EST, that's 17:15 GMT Some governments are declaring war on blogs and are busily blocking political websites, according to the FT. The U.N. watchdog's inspectors had not yet verified the source of the particles, according to Al Arabiya According to reuters the move is likely to strain relations further between London and Tehran following Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election and a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats. Al Malla said in the press conference that he removed the character and not the actor, according to Al Riyadh newspaper. ccording to Zeinobia:The drivers are calling for an open strike and this open strike will include 15,000 drivers who will camp as it seems in their garages. The demands of the drivers are specific : 1- To receive incentives. 2- To Cancel all the unjust traffic bills by police constables. Malaria kills about one million people annually, and 9 out of 10 of them are Africans, according to Voice of America. 24 representatives from multinational and Arab companies will be present at the conference, according to Elaph. Israel does not believe that the involvement of the security council contributes to the political process in the Middle East, its ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, said. According to News,com.au Human rights abuses stemming from male guardianship and sex segregation in Saudi Arabia, according to Human Rights Watch. Egypt has begun a mass slaughter of thousands of pigs in an effort to prevent swine flu spreading, according to the BBC. Training started today and Joi started to explain about 3D online games like world craft and how social it is just as a part of web 2.0 Chan started a minor media storm, but his words reflect a general Chinese attitude. The session began with a video of the Iran election images and tweets. Powerful! according to @TEDGlobal Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said. The reading of Season of Migration to the North started with Elias Khoury reading the first scene from the novel in Arabic which was then read in English by author Lalami. Egyptian blogger Zeinobia expresses dismay at the story (including a translation of the offending work in her post): I am so angry for those who reported Mounir to the authorities !! Are we living the Nasserite era with reports writing again !!?? I wonder where are the human rights organizations in Egypt ?? Is not this an attack on freedom of expression ?? Preston Gralla asking Obama to support the so-called Internet freedom initiative, which would give $50 million for censor-busting technologies like proxy servers; If President Obama and Congress want to spread freedom throughout the world and save Iran. Britain Will Act to Bar Terrorist SympathizersNew Measures Also Intended to Expand Deportations brianmainsRT @keyvan RT @mahdi: Vote for Mirhussein Mousavi on CNN quick poll (http://cnn.com) [RT Please] #IranElection A lighthearted take on Khamenei's speech: Ayatollah Warns Iranians: I am Following You All on Twitter A simple mouse click will now allow users to read messages in other languages The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom sent a letter to President Obama regarding his upcoming meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: USCIRF urges your Administration to establish a timetable with the Egyptian government for implementation of specific political and human rights reforms. After a string of high profile financial scandals, the UAE sets up a specialized financial crime unit. A month after the start of the trial, Fofana admitted to having stabbed and set fire to Halimi, pouring flammable liquid over him and setting it alight. After the Revolution in Iran, Parsa was tried and found guilty [by a revolutionary court] of financial corruption and spreading moral corruption in the ministry while it was under her guidance. She was executed on May 8, 1980. Five years after the famous protests in Kiev's Maidan Square another technology - Twitter - will usher in another revolution in neighbouring Moldova. some people, we want this visit every day and every where, to have a rest that day and renew our streets too some buyers of personalised vanity plates deliberately choose Arabic letters which turn into words like SEX, according to AFP. Some Pictures from the film some Arabs have many thoughts but there is no way to work on these thoughts to become projects. Some cities already participate and before the 28th due to the lack of power Some mixed feelings: @jenbrea: A bit dismayed that Parag Khanna almost completely ignored Sub-Saharan Africa. I'm also not really certain what his message was. #TED #fbBUT@nauiokaspark: Great presentation by Parag Khanna at #ted on the dangers of clinging to existing arbitrary national borders Some infor on the speaker: Paul Romer is developing a radical new model of growth and governance, which calls for the establishment of city-scale special administrative zones. Some background on the Jawad case from the Daily Kos blog: Mohammed Jawad by many accounts was 12 or 13 yrs old when he was first tortured by the Afghans and told his family would be murdered if he didn't 'confess' that he had thrown a grenade while he had a fallen wall on top of him. After his 'confession' he was rendered to GITMO where he still is imprisoned. Some background on Jawad from the Daily Kos blog: Mohammed Jawad by many accounts was 12 or 13 yrs old when he was first tortured by the Afghans and told his family would be murdered if he didn't confess that he had thrown a grenade while he had a fallen wall on top of him. After his confession he was rendered to GITMO where he still is imprisoned. But do I sense an general Arab defensiveness over the report, possibly because of it being highly critical but so true? or is there another political game at play here? That list has so far reached 270 candidates competing for 128 seats, By law, food venues must remain closed until Iftar in the Gulf area, even though many expatriates and non-Muslims reside in the Gulf.I was really surprised to see Egyptian Muslims not fasting this year ... Even though it's claimed they are some of the most religious people in the world. For those not living in the US, who would you like to see become the next US president, Obama, Clinton or McCain? bossladynyc: I've never been interested in the politics of my country until today - a student voting in today's elections in Iran. Sound familiar? :) Paulahoch: Social Media in Iran Elections: But, this hasn't stopped many Iranian voters who are turning to social media.. http://bit.ly/surNe The BBC Arabic asks readers if they feel the economic crisis affected their basic rights The BBC has some eyewitness reports of the violence: I saw dead bodies lying in the street this morning. It was horrible. I've never seen such a sight. bazi6Felix GruberElections in Iran, i hope Hossein Mussawi will make it. Cause Ahmadinedschad has no idea of politics and ethics. bschwag: A good explanations of the nuances behind the Iran election: http://bit.ly/ELyVs May have some unexpected repercussions. While United States politicians were busy While few were willing to criticize a member of the royal family openly, Alwaleed's own brother Prince Khalid bin Talal lashed out, attacking Alwaleed for violating Islamic principles. On Friday afternoon, witnesses said, Prince Khalid appeared on a religious television channel and strongly denounced films and the film festival, insisting they should be banned. The BDS campaign stresses the need to boycott Israel and demands the world to hold Israel accountable for its war on Gaza Youm 7 corroborates the Mesryoon story, mentioning its source as the president of the High Council for the Protection of Ahl al Bayt, Mohammed Al-Derini Follow @beirutspring on twitter to get bits and pieces and opinions from the news in Lebanon. Follow it on twitter The history and background of the rift between the Brotherhood and king abdullah detailed and analyzed by Marc lynch TangoInTehran Obama says no difference between Mousavi & Ahmadinejad, both hostile to the West - http://tinyurl.com/nm4zqd #iranelection Tehran Iran 16 An event featuring noveslists Paul Auster and Enrique Vila-Matas gets lost in translation The museum\rquote s opening was previously delayed due to security fears. An interesting exchange on Twitter:@Monkchips: thinking. why am I more compassionate than many religious people? isn't compassion built into religion?@tmtek: @monkchips the answer for @meedan is that often religions act as a more effective tool for clearing the conscience than for building it. As Obama and Medvedev exchanged pleasantries, the real business was being done behind the scenes as Pepsi Co. announced they would be investing $1 billion in Russia over the next three years. The causes of the unemployment seem clear, but what are the long-term psychological and economic effects? Commenters on this Emirates Today article appear supportive and proud of this expensive infrastructure development, like this one:'The experience gained from being involved in this project must be put to building metro networks in the rest of the UAE and the Arab cities.' So it seems like the competetion now mostly between Ahmadinejad and Mir Hossein Mousavi.Wonder if there are any surprises to come? China who is largely dependant on heavily polluting coal, had issued a policy document calling on rich nations to reduce emissions by 40% Mousavi has embraced sweeping reforms in his bid to unseat Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Reformist in April called for a departure from an ideology that quiets the voice of dissent and limits social freedoms. Follow local reports on Obama's cairo speech on Meedan's translated Twitter feed. Follow the latest world wide reactions, and protests in solidarity with the Iranians as their protests continue over the result of a contested presidential election.Join our team of citizen editors to report on news as they happen. Al Arabiya reports on the horrible and unprecedented torture methods that the homosexuals in Iraq are suffering. BBC on the background behind the latest clashes: Hundreds of people have been killed since the rebellion broke out in 2004. The president has accused the rebels of trying to overthrow the government. The rebels accuse the government of corruularly angered by tption and discrimination, but are partiche government's current alliance with the United States. Al Jazeera English reports the intergovernmental agreement to prevent high risk groups from making the pilgramge, although: Abdullah al-Rabeeah, the Saudi health minister, said on Wednesday the kingdom has no plans to restrict the number of visas it issues for pilgrims, though numbers are expected to be lower. The Guardian reports on the sophisticated Saudi content filters: Blocking is done according to two lists: one of immoral (mostly pornographic) sites; the other based on directions from a security committee run by the ministry of interior. Citizens are encouraged to actively report immoral sites for blocking, with hundreds of requests made every week. Here's Mona EL-Tahawy on Afghanistan's elections: Reports the Taliban sliced off the index fingers of two Afghan women who dared to vote in their elections last week were a reminder, if we needed any, who the polls\rquote biggest losers were. The BBC reports on the largest marine offensive since Vietnam: Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces, said Brig Gen Nicholson in a statement. The Moscow authorities are afraid of spontaneous mass protests in the regions...and for this reason Russian television is showing what is happening in an exclusively negative light Sudan Tribune questions interpretation of court ruling Egyptian Khawater asks, 'Should this citizen be humiliated on the grounds of his guilt until proven innocent? ... the lack of clarity leaves it to each officer to decide who's doing what.' The poem contains references to God, some phrased as questions, likening him for example to a villager force-feeding a duck. The duo's song includes lyrics in Arabic, Hebrew and English and calls for peaceful coexistence in the Middle East. This morning's speaker list includes net watchdog and Harvard professor Jonathan Zittrain, Internet scientist Evgeny Morozov and wonderful web designer Carlos Ulloa amongst others. Sure to be exciting stuff. The Lebanese Elections Blog is critical of Biden's statements on Lebanese Elections. Syria is full of ethnic minorities that have their own specific language and culture, it is great to see initiatives support that diversity. Global Voices reports on the Iraqi bloggers' reactions to the brutal tortures. All Beirute news features a post about the many Lebanese returning home to vote in Sunday's general elections. An accompanying op-ed on NOWLebanon makes an important point too: It is absurd that 19 years after the end of the civil war, Lebanon is still unable to provide 24 hours of electricity. True, the power sector\rquote s problems are myriad, but the incoming government should make reforming Electricité du Liban (EDL) not just a priority, but the priority. Demonstrators gathered in major cities in France, the United States and Germany on Saturday to condemn Iran's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tehran. Kuwait is trying to reduce the number of foreign workers in the country by stopping hiring them in the public sector. Muslim governments face a challenge to really believe in civil society. How do you get an authoritarian regime to promote civil society? For Western governments, it\rquote s about buying into a new paradigm, different kinds of civil society, perhaps royalty-backed civil society or state-backed civil society. Daniel Barenboim's Facebook page has over 8,000 fans and lots of useful links about his work. Canadian news site CBC also reports Geithner's visit: The Obama administration, just like the Bush administration, has to walk a fine line between insisting that the U.S. remains open to foreign investment while guarding against the type of public furor that ended up blocking the efforts of Dubai-owned DP World to manage six of the largest ports in the U.S. in 2006. Obama and President Ali Abdullah Saleh spoke for 25 minutes on Thursday in the first direct discussion between the two leaders about the future of suspected terrorists and how their countries could work together on counterterrorism policy, a senior administration official said Friday. 'Son of a Palestinian man and an Israeli woman, Juliano talks from a Jewish point of view about making the movie, what the Freedom Theatre means to the Palestinian people, and how the Israeli media warps Palestinian issues and prevents a peaceful resolution in the region.' Davis spoke to AFP after he was elected: I am very moved by my election which I see not only as a vote of confidence in me but as an expression of support for the line I have taken which is inspired by the struggle led by Nelson Mandela against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Egyptian blogger speaks about what he sees as the real reasons behind the decision to kill all pigs. Twitter feed for '#preztrip' - Follow in Arabic or English. Twitter feed for 'ObamaSpeech' - Follow in Arabic or English. Twitter updates: #rfconlinemedia Updates from the festival team from every city: read the translated entries here A fascinating Al Jazeera English exposé on the Iraqi organ trade, where donors receive $3000 whilst buyers pay up to $15,000. Good analysis from ABC on what effects an investigation into the policies of the Bush administration could have on Barack Obama time in office Analysis from News Line Toronto which is reporting a number of stories coming out of Indonesia: The attacks in Jakarta Friday exhibited the hallmarks of a JI operation, planning, secrecy and coordination. Several media outlets reported that the suspected bombers were disguised as guests. Kudos to the ENJN for blogging the AoC. BBC announces Mitchell's arrival in Egypt, whilst trying to give an idea of the scale of the US diplomacy push over the next few weeks to try and restart the peace process. Iraq is bleeding tens of victims daily due to sectarian violence, I only wonder where all the guns/explosives come from. Egypt is now entering a period of political transition with the expectation that President Hosni Mubarak\rquote s almost twenty-eight-year tenure will shortly come to an end. The transition will further weaken the capacity of the Egyptian government to manage economic, social, and foreign policy challenges, thus sharpening the potential for political instability Thousands flocked to the capital's Zawra Park to be entertained by musicians and poets, as police patrol cars were festooned with flowers. New updates from Henning Mankell and Suheir Hammad on the authors' blog. Hopeful, moving posts. A lot of palestinian voices are condemning this action. Said, according to his widow Miriam, saw a special role for music in the conflict. \ldblquote Edward always said that music made people emotionally receptive. It also gives people a goal they could work towards in partnership, which opens the channels of communication.\rdblquote Al Hayat reports on the recent complications. Regarding the objective of the secret program, the Wall Street Journal says it was to capture and kill Al Qaeda operatives Chinese news agency Xinhua reports anonymous sources revealing that Abbas has put forward a proposal for a national unity government. must men wear speedo stlye swimwear in french swimming pools - View topic :: Total France Translated Twitter Feed on hashtag '#iranelections' in Arabic and English Translated Twitter Feed on hashtag '#ahmadinejad' in Arabic and English Translated Twitter feed on keywords 'Iran Elections' in Arabic and English Translated Twitter Feed on keyword 'Iran' in Arabic. Voting in Saydeh calm and relatively cleanJust voted in Saydeh B1... Some names are missing from some lists but the process is clean and people are calm2009-06-07Saida Voter name not on List *** Twenty-two-year-old voter went to vote for the first time in Beirut 3 at the Renee Mouawad school Verdun but his name was not on the list. Divorcee on two voting lists.A Catholic woman in Ashrafiyeh, who had divorced her Orthodox husband, was found to be on two voting lists - the Orthodox list and the Catholic list. Fist fights errupt in SaidaFist fights erupt between supporters of PM Fouad Saniora and candidate Osama Saad in Saida.2009-06-07Sidon Distributor of faulty ballots arrestedMinister Baroud ordered the arrest of a person caught distributing faulty lists at Room (jezzine) polling station2009-06-07Jezzine District Voters in line by 7 will be allowed to voteBaroud: Every person within the perimeter of a voting center can vote even after 7 as long as they got in line by 72009-06-07All over Lebanon Smooth Elections in Ein Al Roumanehelections seem to go smoothly in Ein Al Roumaneh disctrict of Beirut2009-06-07Ein Al Roumaneh Abou Jamra slaps voterJust in: AbouJamra slaps voter at polling station near Sodeco in full view of observers2009-06-07Sodeco I am monitoring Arabiya and my colleague augusto is on al jazeera we are twittering live using those two hastags #lebanonelections #sharek961later will try to post more organised commentsstill need ppl to help monitoring Lebanese channels! it's like a festival in lebanon today! According to Twitter users in Iran, Ahmadinejad will speak at 2230 local time tonight on national channel IRIB to clear the air over recent accusations flying about - that may well be after the election campaign is due to end. Some interesting Arabic TV content at Arabia Tube - but this is already filtered: Twitter feed for 'lebanonelections' - Follow in Arabic or English. Twitter feed for '#sharik961' - Follow in Arabic or English. Like Aljazeera\rquote s \ldblquote Mapping the War on Gaza\rdblquote with Sharek961.org people across Lebanon can send in reports related to the election through SMS, Tiwtter, email, and the web and Sharek961 will anonymously publish these citizen reports alongside news reports, blog posts, photos, videos and tweets in one place, on an interactive map. 30 minute lines in JbeilI voted!I had to wait for about 30 minutes in Jbeil. Was not a nice a experience2009-06-07Jbeil There will be some filtered Arabic TV content on Link TV's Mosaic channel: Scuffle in ClemenceauOne person was injured in a scuffle that erupted in front of al-Mustaqbal movement's office in Clemenceau.2009-06-07Clemencou It is time for the 2009 elections and the approach of candidates to Internet and social media is different this time around. - OnOffBeirut writes. Donna D. R. wrote: Also Meedan is putting lots of efforts in monitoring the elections. I will be doing my best, together with some of them, to report about how Arab media is covering the event. But we need more volunteers! So, pls, if somebody is interested to help us setting an Arab Media Monitoring Task Force (there are so many channels to watch!) I don't think its easy for someone to slow down the election process, but its slow because there is many people r voting and the elections procedures makes it slower.90 m to go !!! Clashes interrupt votingLebanese army intervenes after clashes erupt between registrars in Kherbit Rouha in Rashaya, stopping voting process for half an hour.2009-06-07Rachaiya Police control trouble at Sodeco polling station.There are reports of trouble at a polling station in Sodeco Beirut One but the Lebanese Armed Forces are said to have controlled the situation. One man was arrested. Expatriates not on list, Jdeideh2009-06-07JdeydehNO Mokhtar Eido's office attackedMokhtar Eido's office was attacked by gangsters in the Bachoura area2009-06-07Bachoura Broken car windowsNew TV showing broken car windows in Tripoli... Is this fair? Press TV says: 'the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been given [an extra] 1,184 seconds on television (19':44''), while the three other candidates each have about one minute. ' IntimidationSome people i know from the south that r not with hizbullah r 2 scared 2 go & vote Crowded, slow voting *** People waiting hours to vote in haret hrek, aoun just came. General not happy with the preparations made for voting in Haret Hreik. Fawda, and voting is too slow. Too many people. You can watch Arabic TV at LiveStation: Clash between Hezbollah supporter and police.A clash broke out earlier between a Hezbollah supporter and police at a polling station in the Zahle neighbourhood of al-Maalqa. The incident occurred in a mixed Shia/Christian area. Army on civilian clash, citizen observer intimidatedA conflict in tannourine that involved leb army beatng up 2 guys, was followed by army after filming. The officers threatened me & asked 2 delete the film2009-06-07Tannourine Arrested for wrapped papers.Another person in the southern town of Abbasiyeh also was arrested for possession of wrapped papers for a candidate in violation of the law. Army officer arrested.A Lebanese Armed Forces officer has been arrested in Halba, Akkar District, for bribing voters. Reports do not confirm which party he was working for. Lunch breaks at the polls.Voting booth #1 at the School of Ras Beirut was closed for two hours so that the supervisor could have his lunch break. A question needs answer from any participant in sharek961:Does really Abo Gamrah trying to slow dowin the voting process and locking the voting centres in al Shareifiah? Thanks alot mohamed for that clarification, but I just heard it in El Mostakbal channel Long waits for votingHello! Just wanted to make a point this morning took me almost two hours to vote in Beirut 3. For some reason there was a very strong feeling amongst...2009-06-07Beirut III Slow, but calm process.The Zahrani area sees a calm election process. Voters said that the elderly were allowed to go ahead in line which slowed down the process and although it was a lengthy, archaic procedure, it went well. Polling station closed.Polling station closed in Halba because identity papers issued last week after the deadline for issuing them are for non-eligible voters. Phones not allowed in polling place.Bechmizzine: Phones are not allowed in the polling place. The absence of any types of cameras is a good thing. Lebanese Forces play anti-FPM tape in Jbeil.عناصر من القوات اللبنانية تبث شريط معادي للتيار الوطني الحر في جبي Political party members present by polling stationRepresentatives of the Hezbollah party and the Amal movement present at a polling station entrance in Marjaayoun (this is illegal). Poor organization, polling station too small. Hadath ibly: tiny polling station - tiny stairs - horrible organization - should have been done in a bigger place. Youth party members get involved.Adolescents from various parties around Beirut are passing out candidate lists into passing cars. High turnout, polite military *** Just got back from voting in Dhour Shweir. High turnout. Soldiers surprisingly polite when I took pictures. Scuffle in ZahleNBN: reports of a scuffle between Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar\rquote s bodyguards and Lebanese troops in Zahle.2009-06-07Zahle Peaceful voting, no incidents.Damour, Lebanon: Voting is proceeding peacefully here, and news reports the same elsewhere with a few minor incidents. Perhaps it's to catch people 'off-guard' because no-one would think that religion fanatics would steep so low as to cause such a tragedy during such a religious season. If this doesn't show these extremists as hypocritical, I don't know what does! How can you claim to be defending the values of Islam and then show complete disregard to the sanctity of Ramadan? The Telegraph focuses on the IRA victims' families reaction after the release of Megrahi: Victims\rquote families reacted with anger, arguing that the Prime Minister had chosen to \ldblquote disregard\rdblquote their pain because he did not want to jeopardise lucrative oil deals. Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Syria and willing to resume if they are Wall street Journal believes the poor Human Rights situation in Somalia is the reason for piracy Egyptian blogger Zeinobia argues that Egypt cannot afford to be spending money on luxuries and should be focussed on finding other sources of income apart from tourism and the canal. Khouloud Al Fahed, Elaph Blog: Though she agrees that his actions were unacceptable, she insists that his audacity was a slap in our society's face. There are many people like Jawad, but they are too hypocritical to let it transpire. What may be the impacts of such an appointment on the Mdle East ? The New York Times sees that Europe is leaning away from the mainstream left because of the financial crises Is the problem related to the troubles aroused after the gossips of importing steel from Ukraine, or the problem is related to his extravagant wealth, or even to the fear of power. Or some others want to put hands over his economic group!!!!!!!!!! Human Rights Watch deems Israeli internal investigations already carried out into white flag killings inadequate, and demands that Israel conduct thorough, credible investigations into these deaths to tackle the prevailing culture of impunity Obesity is a growing problem in the Arab world, with various souces suggesting that over 60% of Saudi's, over 60% of Emiratis and over 60% of Bahrainis are overweight. More alarmingly, a significant proportion of those overweight are children.In Forbes' 2007 list The World's Fattest Nations, Kuwait placed 8th (ahead of the US), with Egypt in 14th and the UAE in 18th. The Crisis lead fewer rich and more poor around the globe . BBC Arabic hosts a lively discussion on this topic. You can WATCH the entire CSID Conference on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 LIVE by clicking here: http://live.csidonline.orgPlease do watch it online, and then let us know what you think about it and about what the speakers said. You can WATCH the entire CSID Conference on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 LIVE by clicking here: http://live.csidonline.orgPlease do watch it online, and then let us know what you think about it and about what the speakers said. The BBC sheds a little more light on the programme that probably led to the PA's decision: The accusation appeared to relate to a programme in which Farouk Kaddoumi - one of Fatah's founding members - alleged that Mr Abbas had collaborated with Israel to kill Mr Arafat. A wonderful image (via @iamhelenharrop): if the internet had a mascot it would be a bee, because the fur to wing ratio means they shouldn't fly but they do (@zittrain) #ted Report from the Guardian Doubts the Authenticity of the painting found : The London-based Art Loss Registry said it had no record of any paintings missing from the Kuwait National Museum, and no record of this particular painting as missing at all. Reports coming out of Egypt suggest that 306 Shi'is, amongst them influential cleric Hassan Shehata have been arrested in Cairo on suspicion of undermining national security. It is thought that this is the latest in an ongoing dispute following the discovery of a Hizbollah cell planning to attack targets in Egypt. Some fingers are pointed at Taliban, as the group declared alert against US plans A correction to myself, Islam is the 3rd religion in the US. The US government set the whole world up rise down when Taliban destroyed Poza's statues, does not Al Aqsa deserve it? Validating incidents that are coming in. Follow live on LADE website: http://www.observe.ladeleb.org/%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%A8%D8%A9... مخالفات موجودة علی موقعنا في الخريطة:http://bit.ly/Rd0cgThank You Further statements from Ken Loach, Rebecca O'Brien, and Paul Laverty at The Guardian. The Gazan El-Felesteen leads with Meshaal's comments from Cairo that there had been developments in a proposed prisoner exchange deal with Israel, though the deal was still in its infancy. Cooperation seems positive, but this just reminds us how far off any talk of comprehensive peace really is. Long queues at polling booths in Kartaba, Jbeil, rumoured to be caused by problems with voters' IDs. The BBC describes the festival as a major boost for the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, who celebrated last month's withdrawal of American forces. Soaring online demand stretching companies' ability to deliver content as net uses more power and raises costs Check out Eman Mohammed's photostream of this event on Demotix. Really impressive - and beautiful blue skies filled with kites. Just checked these Libyan sites for updates and found almost nothing - http://www.alfajraljadeed.com/- http://www.aljamahiria.com/- http://www.libya-watanona.com/ Youtube Video of the Message Food prices inflation is, unfortunately, the Lebanese Minister Mohammad al Safadi, warned traders from manipulating prices, even offering a hotline. I will have to wait to ask my friends who are fasting about prices. the Blu-ray format is doing extremely well despite the state of the economy. Wall Street Journal asks for the reader's comments and opinions on the release. The series of bombings appeared to show that the group's capacity to wreak mass havoc at short notice still exists An interesting piece from Aleph, quoting an expert blaming improving living standards and growing inactivity for rising obesity levels in Saudi Arabia. Jordanian sympathy for poet accused of defamation, Writer's Union announces public support and freedom first Horses in there different kinds, are among few animals types that are very close to humans in all times The BBC believes the ban is to do with video of Tibetan protesters violently clashing with Chinese Blogger Jane Smith says: 'Anything which encourages people to read more, and more widely, has to have at least some good points: but the lack of monitoring and control in Book Army's system leads me to suspect that while the intentions behind it are good, it is unlikely to achieve that aim for some time yet.' Elizabeth Arrott from VOA believes that: although Gadhafi's Libya has a troubled past, the country, with one of the world's largest oil reserves, holds out the promise of a lucrative future. Leader of the opposition in Tzipi Livni, believes Netanyahu's government will be bad for Israel Reuters relies heavily on Al Khabar's scoop, but includes an interesting view from a senior security source: The West is a hypocrite. It wants to fight terrorism but it pays ransoms to free its hostages. This is not the best way to combat Al Qaeda, Black Hummers and body guardsIn Kisrwan, black Hummers and armed bodyguards of candidates are roaming the place with the candidates and creating fear and mistrust. Black Hummers and body guardsIn Kisrwan, black Hummers and armed bodyguards of candidates are roaming the place with the candidates and creating fear and mistrust. I like your translations Hiba! I like this, seems an appropriate halal name too. Microsoft are quite far behind the game with this. www.Yamli.com is an excellent service and has been around a long time for achieving the same thing on the web. Marwa El Sherbini was stabbed to death in a German court, after she won a defamation case against her killer because he insulted her for wearing the Islamic headscarf - calling her a terrorist.The 32-year-old Egyptian was the wife of Egyptian academic who was on a scholarship in Germany. Her husband was also hurt in the incident and is now in critical condition in hospital. Lebanese Armed Forces men harassed a woman with her kids because of an orange flag flying from her car in Zahle. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's blog was hacked by one of Mir Hussein Mousavi's supporters. The hacker has published several \lquote my vote is Mousavi' slogan on Ahmadinejad's blog, global voices reported on their website Al Arabiyya reports a figure of $3.8 million stolen - as opposed to the BBC 's claim of $7 million, and also says that the money was salaries of Iraqi police at the interior ministry Actress and activist Mia Farrow announces her fast in a letter on the Huffington Post Typically business-like comment from Branson: The initiative will leverage the solid financial backing of Aabar and the pioneering technology and strong global relationships of Virgin Galactic. Twitter feed for 'lebelections' - Follow in Arabic or English. A comment on the deal from the chairman of Aabar: Virgin Galactic is the leader in the realm of space tourism. Aabar\rquote s stake will open a new avenue of opportunity for Abu Dhabi in this unique and dynamic business [and] complements its aim to be the international tourism capital of the region. A comment on boing Boing blog : This just proves that the ancient Egyptians had cosmetic surgery, though how much of it they did *before* death would be interesting to know. How come no one has invented that time-TV yet? Comment from youtube : This is so ridiculous especially since I have seen Muslim men in America drink beer. If she is going to be caned those barbarians should cane all of the other Muslims who drink around the world but hide it from other Muslims. I wonder what other sins the other Muslims commit? Are they perfect? Comment on the Mail Online Report :And of cause American has no blood on its hands. Then why did it pay out $61 million dollars to Iran for shooting down Flight 655 and killing 290 people. And as for showing remorse even after that they refused to say sorry or admit responsibility. Let them get their own house in order. Slightly bizarre comment from one of the articles about this story: the demand for housemaids of Saudi nationality is reportedly higher than that of other nationalities due to a purported fear of foreigners 'practicing magic'. Magic?! Informed Comment includes a round up of Syrian press on the Obama visit. Blog post on Beliefnet.com about the Newsweek article: The terrible thing about Eurabia [is that] it fosters and amplifies ethnic and religious hatred against all muslims by lumping them together with single, diabolical intent. Commentary by Hamid Dabashi: Iran conflict isn't class warfare - 'The fact is that we really don't know how this uprising is going to pan out, and yet we seem to be in too much of a rush to assimilate it backward to inherited assumptions that may have lost their validity in face of this new reality.'One of the better reads on the Iranian uprising so far. Halim Rane: We are only limited by our thinking and our ideas. We can have a just peace by any definition if people thought that was good and possible. Who would have thought there would be an end to apartheid, that there would be a concern for environmental sustainability at the higher levels of government? We can achieve peace in the Middle East if we think we can. Tweet: RT from Iran: it is said mosavi will release his announcement in 1 hour #iranelection (09.47GMT) Telegraph reports that Iran is cracking down on twitter. Comment from blogger Banoota on the Egyptian Chronicles site: Hacking is a crime, regardless of what the motives behind it might be. There are better ways to bring one's point across without resorting to these childish games. IranElection09 posted on Twitter: Today is maybe the most important day in iran's history, will we see Tiananmen Sq.? It seems ppl don't care and still will go #iranelection Comment on Razan Khatib's blog post announcing the service and you can get an invite for folowen! Interesting comment on the Kipp Report: It seems absurd that a TV channel would allow the airing of something so explicit in Saudi. But do you think that incidents like this one, which gain international attention, will lead to the erosion of conservatism in the kingdom? A comment from the Haaretz website: Israel must face its critics and deal with them, attempting to deny them will be seen as a sign of weakness, not strength. A bad policy such as this damages Israel and should be stopped immediately. Al Arabiya comment: Obama's true colours showMEDont tell me he is better than bush or is here to change things. Obama is just words. puts on a show of rightful indignation against settlement expansion and then follows it with an agreement to continue to screw over Palestinians. Palestinians have the right to react to being abandoned and ignored in whichever way they see fit. Comment from Al Arabiya article:Obama is all words and no actionUSA Citizen What's wrong Obama, did the Israelis get your tongue. I would bet the world that Obama will do nothing to stop Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine. If Obama acts on his words of freezing settlement activity, the israeli mossad will assassinate him Arab readers comment on the tests and the disparities in the condemnations and attitude towards North Korea and the rest of the (western) nations that are allowed to posess nuclear weapons. Juan Cole comments: The fall-out from such an attack [by Israel against Iran] on US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would be dire, which is one reason I'm quite sure Obama does not want such a thing. Some great comments on Phil Weiss's excellent Monodoweiss blog, which as one user points out, is ruthlessly titled: Israel expels \lquote Nakba\rquote from schools (or did it just flee on its own?) Bizarre comments in Iran's newspapers about the ceremony: What we saw yesterday shows the divine legitimacy of the president. Tweet from @meedan's @farsitrans:MSG VIA TEL: SPECIAL FORCES GATHERING IN AZADI SQ.. PEOPLE IGNORED WARNINGS & POURING TOWARDS AZADI SQ.. DANGER IN D AIR.... Some really insightful comments (and some less so...) from the British Army Rumour Service website. It's a war we just can't win and there's no need for us to win it. The Afghans aren't a danger to Europe. Really interested comments from lawyer and commentator Nomi Bar-Yaacov on Iran's relationship with Hamas: The entire policy of trying to isolate Hamas and not letting them govern has led to, among other things, their very strong links today with Iran. Various Tweets:@TEDGlobal: TEDGlobal has begun. Introductions and acknowledgments from Chris and Bruno. EXCITING! #TED (16:07)@javiermalagon: laptops and tweeter banned from ted! #TED@akreye: Official #TED start now. Big buildup who the mystery guest might be. Tim knows but isnt telling merialchemy tweets : Very ironic that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan was questioned and detained at Newark Airport. His new movie is about racial profiling... The Transportation Ministry has been working on the project for over a year and says its main purpose is to create uniform roadside spelling for more than 2,000 names of cities, towns and villages. Viva Palestina has called on President Obama to end the siege of Gaza in a letter found here on Global Research. The BBC covers Al Maliki's US visit: Behind the optimistic talk about withdrawal, reduced violence and the increased capabilities of Iraqi security forces, lie two facts - there are still around 130,000 American troops inside Iraq, and fatal attacks remain an everyday occurrence. Local newspaper The Australian covers the opening exchanges in the ensuing legal proceedings, also claiming that the plotters sought religious authority for their plans from religious leaders in Somalia. All Syria's coverage of Jawad's arrest A useful BBC round-up of opinion pieces in the Arab press Details on what the Louvre project entails as the French President inaugurates building plans A group of men charged with gruesome killings in Iran are acquitted by the Supreme Court, reports say. AMEInfo reports: The GCC currently has 8,212 registered Twitter users with the UAE accounting for about 60% of all GCC users. A rally against the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being held in Tehran, in defiance of a government ban on protests, reports the BBC. New York Times Reports : It is hardly the first show on this subject, but the humor in many of the works is refreshing. The artists are overwhelmingly young and Internet-savv Reports on the talks between Obama and Mahmoud Abbas as well as news that Hamas considers the talks dissapointing and adding nothing new. Reuters reports: srael's Defence Ministry said on Monday it had approved construction of 50 new homes at a West Bank settlement as part of a plan for 1,450 housing units, an expansion that defies a U.S. call for a settlement freeze. LAtimes reports: Last year, the Coachella Valley produced 20,687 tons of dates with a market value of $32.1 million, according to the annual crop report. Jensen's farm produced about 480,000 pounds of dates, with roughly 70% going to fill orders for the Muslim observance. The BBC reports on the riots: French youths set 317 cars on fire and wounded 13 police officers overnight during a series of riots on the eve of the Bastille Day holiday, police say. Paris police said 240 people had been arrested, almost double the number held after unrest on the same day last year. Israeli daily Haaretz reports: The government has set itself three weeks to decide whether to allow Egypt to reopen the terms of its gas supply agreement with Israel. TED Global reports: Jonathan Zittrain at #TED: At all times Wikipedia is 45 minutes away from utter destruction. It's a thin geeky line that keeps it going.@brainpicker: #TED ZIttrain: At any given moment, more ppl trying to fix problems on Wikipedia than there are problems arising \endash reason for Wiki success BBC quotes a statement from Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion that : Etisalat appears to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application... independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorised access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smartphone. The Times introduces SBY's main rivals in the elections, and suggests the competition may be closer than expected: the complicated electoral system makes the results unpredictable, and there is still potential for the return to power of dark and unsavoury characters from Indonesia\rquote s past. The BBC gives an insight into the uphill struggle faced by Fatah at this conference, and the internal divisions that are threatening any hope of a viable peace solution. MENASSAT takes a look at the Arab media coverage two weeks after the heavily contested presidential elections. Nokia's introduction for Ovi Maps for mobile The AP reports the story, quoting chief justice Abdul-Raouf Halabi as saying: Showing a woman's hair is forbidden (in Islam), We will not allow people to corrupt morals. This (dress code) will improve work in the courts. Gulf News Report : It's very peaceful here and we'd like to keep it that way, but what can we do if the government lets him in, said Bennie Wong, 58, who has lived across the street from the estate for 15 years. A report in Al Masry Al Youm says that one of the daughters of Anwar Sadat is filing a lawsuit against the Interior Minister for releasing the film - she's not filing a lawsuit against the makers. Report in the Egyptian socialist paper Al-Shaab refers to the Zionist party Kadima but refrains from celebrating the hack. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: 'Attitudes toward America rose slightly in U.S. allies Egypt and Jordan and registered some improvement after Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last month.' A BBC report on a fiery exchange of words as US Special Envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holborne raises concerns of ballot stuffing and fraud: The meeting was described as explosive and a dramatic bust-up. Mr Holbrooke is said to have twice raised the idea of holding a second round run-off because of concerns about the voting process. An earlier report: In an exclusive interview, Mustapha Kamel El Sayed explains to Fatemah Farag why he has dis-owned the Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) to be launched in Beirut next week Great post on Foreign Policy's net.effect blog on how the tools needed for cyber attacks are becoming cheaper and more widely available Report from 2008 looking at whether Michael Jackson had converted to Islam. BBC reports that along with rejuvenation, a rewording of the Fatah charter will also be discussed: Another key test will be whether the conference alters the wording of Fatah's charter, which refers to eradicating Israel. The draft document proposes to keep the option of armed struggle if peace talks with Israel fail. A 2006 piece by Al Arabiyya on the organ trade in Egypt, claiming sick Saudis are willing to pay up to $80,000 for new organs, paying the doctors, the agents to find the donors, officials and donors. The National reports: The demonstration, the first major display of labour discontent since the economic crisis began last year, was triggered by a lack of overtime pay caused by the postponement or cancellation of construction projects. AFP reported: State media published a decree appointing the government of 27 ministers, mostly composed of supporters of Ould Abdel Aziz in the presidential election last month. For the first time Mauritania will have a woman as foreign minister, Naha Mint Hamdi Ould Mouknass, who heads up a small pro-Aziz party. An interesting AJE report on the background to these talks, and why Egypt's stance is likely to cause controversy with other Nile countries. An Al Jazeera English video report on human trafficking in UAE: Al Jazeera met Svetlana, a Uzbek forced to work in the sex trade in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. She recounted how she was offered a job as a waitress, but the woman who had originally promised to help her in Tashkent took away her passport and threatened to harm her family if she did not co-operate. Video report about Fatma Shama and her new position Short video report from Iraq that shows the damage done to the site when it was used as a military base. A BBC video report befort Khamenei's endorsement of Ahmadinejad, as the trial of 100 protesters continues. Detailed profile of the group by the Council on Foreign Relations. As foreign fighters leave Iraq, the group's activities are certain to expand. The Times reports: 'Nato\rquote s new chief has called on its European members to find more troops for Afghanistan to stop the country becoming \ldblquote a Grand Central Station of international terrorism\rdblquote . ' Al Masry Al Youm (The Egyptian Today) reports: 'State Security Court postpones trial of a Hezbollah cell' A report from local Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk, with user comments on the story. Al Arabiya reports the launch of the movement, which aims to launch its own website in the near future and to start addressing businessmen in order to take part in the initiative. Report from Awid Website : Malian sociologist Alou Badara Macalou said since certain traditions have become socially acceptable, women do not question violence toward them, or fight back. \ldblquote Are these women aware or take part in movements to protect their rights? They remain largely untouched by efforts to change the status quo because they have yielded to the pressure of tradition. Wired.com reports, Most of Somalia's modern-day pirates are fishermen who traded nets for guns. They've learned that ransom is more profitable than robbery, and rather than squandering their loot, they reinvest in equipment and training. Today, no ship is safe within several hundred miles of the Somali coast. Let me just hear my husband\rquote s voice. His disappearance was so sudden…me and my family kept asking ourselves: why is it happening, says Wife of Khalil 'Abdul Rahman 'Abdul Karim al-Janahi who was arrested at Riyadh airport in April 2007. Interesting report from an Egypt Today magazine report re: organ trafficking. Published in 2006. Bikya Masr reports the story: The German man who stabbed Egyptian woman Marwa El Sherbini 16 times in a Dresden courtroom in early July is to face a life sentence if convicted on murder charges, the German prosecutor said on Tuesday. It comes nearly two months since the murder sparked global condemnation at what many argued was proof of growing Islamophobia in Europe. YNet reports the response of Israeli Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein: Are these the moderate leaders the world wants us to hold negotiations with? he asked. My feeling is that we are not interested in listening to the voices calling for an armed struggle, for the right of return and for the establishment of a capital of their own in Jerusalem Very interesting report #IranElection Crisis: A Social Media TimelineThis timeline uses Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Wikipedia to paint a broad picture of the situation, as well as the growing conversation around it Algerian daily Al Khabar leads reports on the story, announcing details of the ransom deal, which could reach €5 million, although it is still unknown who paid the sum. Congresswoman Schakowsky from Illinois is leading the calls for the US to end its contracts with Blackwater: \ldblquote The behaviour and actions of both the company's leadership and a number of individuals employed by the company have harmed our mission in Iraq and Afghanistan and endangered the lives and welfare of our troops and diplomatic personnel serving overseas.\rdblquote Aleqt.com spots that Barack Obama is now more popular than Bin Laden in the Islamic world. UN says Egypt pig cull real mistake.Oops. BBC: First, a suicide bomber - who was reportedly wearing a police uniform - detonated his explosives vest. The second blast followed as people gathered at the scene of the first explosion. There are fears that the death toll will rise further, police say. The Times reports: 'At 42 billion barrels, Libya has the largest proven oil reserves of any African country \emdash equal to about 3 per cent of the global total. Its gas reserves are some 1.5 trillion cubic metres, the fourth-largest in Africa.But Libya remains relatively unexplored, and the potential for fresh discoveries means that the true total could be far higher.' The Lebanese election result provides Barack Obama with his first victory in the Middle East as the failure of Hizbollah to take power through the ballot box is a positive blow for moderates in the region. Said the Telegraph. The existence of a few women who have shone in the Arab media does not prove that the marginalisation of women is a thing of the past, said Moroccan journalist Khadija Sabil. She said that the image of women in the media reflects their position in society. For people like me with friends and interest in Lebanon, the blogosphere soon became an indispensable addition to the daily dose of BBC and Lebanese media, says writer Sune Haugbolle. Blogging offered a unique way to share and discuss their war experience. The Egyptian Pound is now worth less than the Sudanese Pound after it was worth $4. Cotton production has also suffered, after producing long staple cotton, we moved to cotton infected by worms to no cotton production at all, says blogger Cat of Desert. \ldblquote News is inconsistent about the material and human damage on both sides due to a media blackout and a government blockade on communication in Sa\rquote ada and Amran,\rdblquote said the sources. US Says N Korea is testing a long-range missile that could threaten its security Dosova claims she never visited a doctor and that her sense of humor is the secret of her longevity The Saudi government is saying one thing to the Human Rights Council in Geneva but doing another thing inside the kingdom, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. It needs to stop requiring adult women to seek permission from men, not just pretend to stop it. Even as many African countries continue to make hard-earned econncial toll of malaromic progress, the fina remains a roadblock to these economies reaching their full potential, says Sue Mbaya from The Huffington Post. Despite beliefs that PCs and mobile devices are more vulnerable to cyberattacks, the report found that 99 percent of all breached records were compromised by from servers and applications, Verizon said. Mondoweiss blog reports that Viva Palestina has finally been allowed in to Gaza, but only for 24 hours. Includes an excellent Press TV report from Gaza. LA Times Middle East blog Babylon and Beyond says Jumblatt's move could weaken the US backed coalition. Half of the billion were only in the last few months says The iPhone Blog website The Guardian is doing a great job liveblogging what's going on. Check it out here. Interesting recently was YouTube has announced that it is getting only a tenth of the traffic it usually gets in Iran despite being deluged with videos from the country. Al Jazeera broadcasting an episode of Qaradawi's programme debating if cinema and theatre are halal or haram instead of covering the elections looks a bit strange.. IRIB - state TV channel in Iran - is largely ignoring the protests, and talking instead about international meetings. This article in Al Jamahiria lists all the presidents in attendance and lauds the weapons on display at Colonel Qaddafi's celebrations to mark 40 years in power. The Guardian reports of Gordon Brown surprise speech on the need for a global approach to the world's problems. Iranian university student Telmah Parsa writes on the divergent groups\emdash Iran\rquote s young hipsters versus their deeply religious parents\emdash that could sway Friday\rquote s presidential election, Bikya Masr on the Nile Basin Initiative: No water war for now. Zaina Abu Hamda writes about the difficulties of her childhood, having to cross a checkpoint every day to go to school. A more extensive summary of the report by Donald MacIntyre in The Independent. I find it almost unbelievable that the official Israeli response is so blasé as to describe these accounts as hearsay. Surely someone has to be held accountable for this. Women presenters feature prominently on Saudi television - not least Risala, MBC, ART, and Al Arabiya. In fact, Muna Abu Sulayman, a valued member of the Meedan steering committee and one of the most famous Arab presenters, is Saudi. Interactive Internet TV offering an alternative platform for videos and a space for free expression Several comments highlights a Chinese trend of thought that does not think democracy is necessarily a good idea for all people. Just had this from @Zeinobia on Twitter:@meedan thanks for ur interest,by the way my sources are different newspapers and websites Readers comments hit to a possible mini-civil war in Pakistan with space for foreign involvement Al Jazeera English TV: Report has destroyed the Israeli army's reputation. Iranian state English language outlet Press TV: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hails the massive turnout in Friday's crucial election leading to his landslide victory, while insisting that his re-election was not a fraud. Mr Rassam is accused of spying and inciting unrest over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in June. Nine embassy employees were arrested but he is the only one to be charged. raqi soldiers paraded through the streets in their American-made vehicles draped with Iraqi flags and flowers, chanting, dancing and calling the pullout a victory. Mr Abdul-Jawad was detained a week ago for questioning. But his lawyer said the interview, which aired on the Lebanese-based LBC satellite TV station, was manipulated. He also said his client was not aware in many instances that he was being recorded. The LBC chief, Pierre Daher, refused to comment on the allegations. Another blog opened to help Iranians know how to setup a Tor relay or Tor bridge to protect their online communication. Some 85 confirmed swine flu cases have been reported in Iran, most of whom were among pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia. The US drone attacks were cited as one reason why militants in Waziristan recently scrapped a peace deal with the Pakistani army. The research -- conducted by stem-cell scientist Ji Wu and his colleagues at Shanghai Jiao Tong University 9 people have been arrested and charged in Tunisia, accused of a terrorist plot targeting US soldiers stationed in the North African country.The pro-US Tunisian government has detained over 1,000 Islamists in recent years and is reported to have a wide-ranging network of informants. A guy was arrested in Akkar for distributing money to people before going to vote. Mediators were sent to calm tempers in order to avoid a spread of violence of the type that erupted after the deaths of two teenagers in a Paris ethnic suburb in October 2005. The rampage spread across the country and thousands of cars were burned as youths from immigrant families fought police. Sadiki Basiri from Afghanistan was honored for founding a learning center that provided for the education of over 2,700 girls in six schools and 200 women at four literacy centers throughout Wardak province. The teenager's application for asylum was turned down when he arrived in New Zealand last December. The refugee status appeals authority has now ruled that the teenager, whose identity is suppressed, fled Iran as a result of fear of persecution after a voluntary paramilitary group tried to arrest him for a crime he says he didn't commit. Skype has enormous global street cred and is making aggressive moves to increase its already significant market penetration. The BBC has a nice audio clip of Hussein talking about being arrested and why she wants to go to court to face the charge: I want to change this law, because this law doesn't match in constitution. Dozens of doctors working in teams over 30 hours performed the world's first simultaneous partial-face and double-hand transplant during the weekend, to a 30-year-old burn victim. Somali pirates have seized a British-owned cargo ship and a Taiwanese ship, maritime officials say, after capturing three other vessels over the weekend, according to the BBC. Around four boats managed to enter the Gaza Strip since August 24, however, two boats were denied access since December 27. Iranian media reported the detention of eight local staff at the UK mission over their alleged role in the unrest. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband dismissed the allegations as baseless. Al Jazeera reports on the indictment of the US soldier. In the fifteen comments added Al Arabiya readers, there were four main ideas. to show US support for the Pakistani people, their democratically-elected leaders and opposition party leaders.How this must grate to Pakistanis (and Egyptians for that matter) after how many long years of Musharraf's military dictatorship propped up by the White House. congrats to the Muslim world for yet another big and bold step backwards. the web site slogan or ad campaign should say: \ldblquote imhalal.com, bringing back the middle ages to cyber space\rdblquote or we are proud to remove 'information' from Information Technology The Iran opposition led by Mir Hossein Mousavi faces a very difficult choice today after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned there would be 'consequences' for further protests. Do they continue the protests in defiance? Do they lower their expectations in an effort to negotiate? Do they bring foreign parties to the table? Add your comments and links here. @Zeinobia agrees with the ban on internet porn, but fears the possible consequences of a law she describes as too general and vague. There are mixed views of the speech on Twitter and other social networks - help us collate the best of the analysis here. The Brisbane Times runs an interesting aspect of the story: the fact that the plot was reported in the media before the raids had even been made. Egyptian blogger Zeinobia points out the controversial nature of the decision, calling the move a daring step on behalf of the government. (With pictures) The Google Arabia Blog is a chance for users to gain insight from Googlers focused on the MENA region and Arabic language on our products, reports Zawya. The Saudi Ministry of the Hajj provides information on swine flu risks during the pilgrimage. Tom, do not forget that it is her opinion and it is everybody's own view and doctrine to have his own principles and rules regardless the main bases of practice An ominous tweet from Cairo based @jmayton: just spoke with a friend who works in Indonesia government. situation not good - updates to come Tweet from @TEDGlobal:Touched by Stephen Fry's reminiscences of Douglas Adams. I miss him every day because I want to know what to think about things. #TED Tim Marshall reports for Sky News from the streets of Tehran. Those laws had angered Nato countries weighing up US calls for more troops. From London to Ottawa, officials questioned whether they should risk their soldiers\rquote lives to bolster an Afghan government that not only failed to protect women but was also planning to reverse their hard-won freedoms. Injaz was born on April 8. Both coalitions accused of distributing false lists of candidates at polling booths in Halba, Akkar District, leading to disqualified ballot papers. A petition on Twitter (twitition) demanding Google Earth to update satellite images of Tehran, Since the Iranian government is blocking internet access - so Google should update the satellite images so people can follow the movement of protesters. Lots of great comments coming out of Zittrain's talk, can't wait to see this later. Now it's Evgeny Morozov's turn. There is a signficant gap that Obama, Europe\rquote s leaders and leaders in the region face between what people want and what their governmetns will allow them to have, and at times what Western governments will allow them to have. The bombing comes barely a week ahead of a deadline for US occupation troops to withdraw from Iraq's cities, towns and villages. The agreement calls on US forces to leave Iraq altogether by the end of 2011. - AlManar TV mentioned. The bombing, described by the Iranian media as a suicide attack, came at a time of heightened tension ahead of upcoming presidential elections Al Arabiyya on the planned international roll out: Almsick said Al Nassma is being marketed as a luxury product and plans to be the Godiva of the Middle East. We want the Al Nassma brand to be recognized for outstanding quality and exquisite taste, he stressed. the daily mail online: Ahmadinejad steals Obama's slogan: Yes we can: We demand a legal probe on the basis of Article 111 of the Constitution, which is a responsibility of the Experts Assembly, stated the letter, which was written by the head of the organization of former reformist lawmakers. Article 111 says if the supreme leader becomes incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties, he will be dismissed. From abc wesite: I was definitely concerned with wanting to really make an authentic portrait of an Arab American family, said Dabis. Because I felt like there was no representation, no authentic representation of Arabs in films and in the media in general. The aim, said the army statement, was to carry out attacks from Lebanon on targets abroad and create terrorist cells to monitor Unifil and the army in order to carry out terrorist attacks on them. \ldblquote While the moon landing was a huge leap for humanity, DubaiSat-1 is a huge leap for the UAE\rquote s science and technology initiatives, and for our nation\rquote s aspirations,\rdblquote Director General of EIAST Ahmed Al Mansoori, said in a statement. The actions of certain persons continue to contribute to political and economic instability in Lebanon and the region and constitute a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, Obama said in his statement. First of all, the opinions published in my name are solely my own, and do not represent the official policy of any Jewish movement or organization. - Manis Friedman comments on his previous remarks. Techmology blog said: I would however encourage the CITC to focus its efforts on internet predators and perverts and leave those citizens who simply seek to better our country alone. In a comment from Huffington Post: The discussion has started.. Why not? This is more civilized than war… From the Dutch Newspaper nrc: Dutch AEL chairman Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda initially agreed to remove the image, but republished it after a decision last month not to charge anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders for putting the famous Danish cartoon of the prophet Mohammad - with a bomb in his turban - on his website. The Jerusalem Post reports: An Israeli is not the type of person that you want all your neighbors to know you're dating, chuckled Menachem Klein, a former Israeli negotiator and Bar-Ilan University political science professor. NYT reports the latest in a string of militant attacks in recent weeks: Two militants who were about to be captured by the police killed themselves on Friday by blowing up their explosive vests, wounding three policeman and three civilians. From Reuters India : * Vavasi Group is headquartered in New Delhi and has interests in telecoms, real estate, renewable energy, steel and cement, according to its website. From CNN Report : In a report posted on its Web site, the Times said Farrell called the newspaper's foreign editor before dawn and said he was extracted in a commando raid after a fierce firefight. Reuters reports on the instability of the North Caucasus region: Islam's holiest month of Ramadan has been marked in Russia's south by a wave of suicide bomb attacks and armed assaults on police and security forces in Chechnya, where Russia has fought two separatist wars, and neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan. 'Lebanon's opposition groups formally informed the president on Tuesday of their rejection of a proposed government line-up by prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, raising the possibility that Hariri will step aside.' (with reporting from Reuters) Berkman Center for Internet & Society report page with an introduction to the report and the possibility to download the entire report on Arab blogosphere. Google is announcing the launch of Google Sites in Arabic, a free application that makes creating a web site as simple as editing a document, making it faster and simpler for Arab users to share local language content online, according to AME info. Dr al-Mutawa's letter to his children: I told the writers of the animation that only when Jewish kids think that THE 99 characters are Jewish, and Christian kids think they're Christian, and Muslim kids think they're Muslim, and Hindu kids think they're Hindu, that I will consider my vision as having been fully executed. From The German Newspaper Spiegel : According to a report by Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, Seyam moved to Germany in 1988, married a German woman and then left for Bosnia in 1994, where he joined other Muslims in waging jihad during the Balkans war. From Morocco Board blog :Actually, I am surprised that many Moroccans, including yours truly, were surprised by Muammar Gadhafi\rquote s actions. Libya was Polisario\rquote s major supplier of arms and funds in the seventies and eighties. Arab Crunch tech blog states that Syrian Internet users are human beings and should be treated equally online, like any other people in the world. From the Independent's article: In the January 8 edition of Comment, Mr Galloway said of Israeli policy: Collectively punishing people is a Nazi tactic; he said the Palestinians were under the iron heel of a brutal apartheid-style occupation and asked Which other country could murder United Nations employees? The economist reports, One result of the continuing turmoil is that the relationship between Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, and Mr Ahmadinejad has come under some strain. Mr Khamenei, against previous practice, overtly supported Mr Ahmadinejad in the political turmoil that followed the elections. But in doing so, he has personally come under criticism for the first time. From the article in The Times: Alireza Nourizadeh, director of London\rquote s Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said Britain should have taken a stand by sending nobody, and that its decision would have disheartened the thousands of Iranians who risk their lives by demonstrating against the regime. \ldblquote I am really shocked... It was a sort of recognition of Ahmadinejad,\rdblquote he said. An article in Ennahar newspaper: Many series fans are pleased in Ramadan this year, with broadcasting the series 'Ana Alby Daleely', which is about the life of late artist 'Laila Mourad', who left an unforgettable imprint within the journey of Arab Singing. Boomberg.com:Clinton said that through past negotiations, Israeli leaders \ldblquote have moved to positions they never would have thought they could have advocated.\rdblquote A well-known hacker has come forward and claimed the whole thing was his prank, according to Gawker blog. I think the cross-religion appeal is really important at a time when there is so much division between world religions. I may head out today and try and get myself a copy.... Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary when British troops first landed in Afghanistan and Iraq under Tony Blair, says: Britain has a proud record of bringing to justice those who commit atrocities and mass murder. Galina Bleikh, one of the artists involved in the exhibition, wrote on her website: \ldblquote In the warped world of extremism, love in the heart of a woman is replaced by such hatred that even motherhood is replaced by desire for annihilation and mayhem.\rdblquote A timeline of developments in North Korea's missile program The Guardian: 'Amid a swirl of rumour, two alternative sets of statistics purporting to represent the reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi as the true winner of Iran's disputed presidential election have been circulating in Tehran.' Al Sharq Al Awsat: Zerdari says his country's nuclear systems are in safe hands. The Art Newspaper says: 'From the days of the monarchy, France has very deliberately made culture a partner in its foreign policy.' Al Watan newspaper reports on the Turkish President's visit to Syria A good session by most accounts, I'm excited to be proved wrong by this Gordon Brown speech later on. Another session: Seeing is believing begins in 5 minutes. I'll be back to cover Session 3 Connected Consequences tomorrow morning 08:30 BST (GMT+1). Watch out for Shereen El Feki's blog update later! Glenn Chapman from the AFP reported the new study saying: Governments in the Middle East and North Africa are clamping down on Web freedom while they invest in plugging their countries into the Internet Age. Jumblatt has a history of sudden changes. What are your views on this latest announcement? jdudar: If elected, Ahmadinejad will allow some Guantanamo detainees to be released into Iran for holding. George Weyman from Meedan weighs in on Gamal Mubarak's addressing the Egyptians through Facebook. Benedict's Holy Land tour also will take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories. JulieMercer Mousavi's newspaper says he's calling for a peaceful march on Valiasr street Monday and a nat'l strike Tuesday. From HuffPost #Iranelection Julian Kossoff Comments on the incident : Meanwhile, there won\rquote t be any Orthodox Jews penning a place card for Mr Fitzpatrick in the future either. Like the Muslim weddings, all Orthodox Jewish religious ceremonies are gender segregated. John, I will ask Hassan what he thinks about this. Joi is taking pictures of all participants as they introduce themselves to upload to the group blog they will set up and link it to their name / blog / twitter feed!Participants come from various backgrounds: video production, journalism, graphic design, business, media etc… Jeffery Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs: \ldblquote Having an ambassador in Damascus is something that is in the US interest to help promote channels of communications, dialogue and diplomacy with the Syrians,\rdblquote jmsardo: Followin #iranelection in iranian news channel http://www.presstv.ir/ (in english). Ahmadinejad gets 70% in the channel's internet poll !! JanieAngus RT @zahrahb Dear world, we are an independent country, we can solve our problems ourselves, thanks 4 ur kindness #iranelection The Netbooks seems to be a strong competitor to Mac computers The couple, who own a Greek restaurant in North Carolina, tried for years to have a child and attempted to adopt in the US where they married 15 years ago. But the age of Mr. Andros, 70, and other factors stood in their way. Check those 2 websites:snopes.comwikileaks.org Olivia Sterns tried to connect between Kilo's release and Obama's willingness to establish democracy and ensure the continuity of the peace process in the Middle East. By now, there is no one in Kuwait that doesn't know the name Dr. Aseel Al-Awadhi. Kuwait is small, I know, but she is arguably one of the most well known, non-former MP, candidate in the country. Why is that? Even if the conference was a success, still it is an elitist event with top religious figures conversing among themselves. But at the level of the layman there is no such an effort to exchange views and the wide gap between people of different faith is getting wider every minute thanks to the media negative reporting of religious conflicts , locally and internationally The Toronto mayor strongly urged national governments to engage, empower and resource the world's cities so they can successfully combat climate change. We occupy only two percent of the area of the world but represent 80 percent of the emissions, he added. The Microsoft exec in charge of Windows urged some companies this week to dump Vista deployment plans and shift to Windows 7, the upcoming OS the company has promised to ship in the fourth quarter of this year. Amazing event ! it wasn't expected to get the coverage it did, but most important with or without Guinnes book, these kids were actully having fun for the first time since the ongoing israeli seige started , and the whole world watched them doing it when no one saw it coming from GAZA. A big debate happened in the workshop about a Youtube animation movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXMIQDVOs98showing the arabs as stupid and terrorist, most of the attendants think it shows a bad image and few of them think its funny and irony. The same thing happen with DVDs several yeas earlier . Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley have determined that ozone is a dangerous form of air pollution that can shorten lives. Jazeera English puts the death toll at 16 in a story filed forty minutes ago. Salvatore Nigro talking about his Education for employment foundation - aiming to achieve youth potential in the marketplace. He's talking now about the project in gaza - a man called Mohammed, who is actually in the audience, studied accounting in Gaza and is now working in Dubai. Nell Derkic talking about Tomorrow's Youth project The spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet, he warned, adding that suspected rogue nuclear states, such as North Korea or Iran, may only be persuaded to abandon their quests if the big nuclear powers set an example. Net watchdog and speaker in this session Jonathan Zittrain also warned about unexpected dangers in this great Op-Ed in the New York Times a few days ago: Some are in plain view. If you entrust your data to others, they can let you down or outright betray you. YJS warned about risks of exploiting political crisis for justifying violations of freedoms and harming press or tracking journalists. Lebanon's Hezbollah savors increasing legitimacy Hezbollah and Egypt trade accusations over Hezbollah agents in Egypt Hezbollah admits his agent arrested in Egypt and denies allegations of terror attack plot Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's party plans to ban Palestinians in Israel from marking the anniversary of the Catastrophe in 1948, when millions were forced to become refugees. Despite, Israel celebrated its occupation on Palestinian territories as independence day this year on April 29, in accordance with the Hebrew lunar calendar. Mohammed VI's facebook page has 21,760 fans. Here's a note from a member: I wish you a Ramadan Kareem to all Moroccans and to their leader His Majesty King Mohammed VI who God protects for us. according to New York times Andrew Refkin Generation E is global . another global fact is tthat the world\rquote s poorest places are living in, and dying in, mountains of garbage. A lack of functional government and enough income to build systems for handling waste of all kinds, combined with the world\rquote s accelerating urbanization, is creating astounding situations Green and 3 other soldiers raped the 14 year old girl, according to Day Press. Many across the world have condemned these felonies as war crimes and they opened Green, the shooter, to a possible death sentence, accordint to The Huffington Post According to Latin American Herlad Tribune, the Palestinian National Authority will open an official diplomatic office in Caracas at the beginning of the week, an event for which Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki is traveling to the Venezuelan capital. According to Muzzle Watch, Moshe Yaroni says that \ldblquote having Lieberman make a statement supporting a boycott of Durban II is just as distasteful as having a hatemonger like Mahmoud Ahmedenijad speak at the conference.\rdblquote After the results are audited by Ernst & Young, Facebook expects to adopt the new terms. The New York City health department dispatched a team of investigators to a private school in Queens on Friday after dozens of students complained of symptoms that officials believed were consistent with a strain of swine flu that has swept Mexico City. An unusual strain of swine flu has been detected among victims of a large outbreak of a severe respiratory illness in Mexico, prompting global health officials, fearful of a potential flu pandemic. Ahmadinejad told delegates at the summit in Switzerland on Monday, that after the Second World War the United States and other nations had established a cruel, oppressive and racist regime in occupied Palestine, according to Al Jazera The Economist reports, Change, if it comes, may be slow. The last serious effort to allow civil unions was in 1998. But campaigners notched up a small victory earlier this year when the interior minister, Ziad Baroud, ruled that Lebanese citizens would have the option of removing their religious-group classification from their national identity cards. Recently, in a meeting in Alexandria according to a UPI reportHopes that the 10 Nile Basin countries would sign a water-sharing agreement to settle one of the planet's most contentious water issues have been dashed -- for now at least -- after Egypt and Sudan rejected any cuts in their traditional quotas Spam makes up close to 100 percent of all e-mail traffic on the Internet, according to Microsoft. According to the Iraqi el Sabah Newspaper those involved in corrupt activities are nearly 2772 people according to a report issued by the anti-corruption committee, with atotal value of 650 Billion Iraqi d.inar According to the Telegraph, Clive Stafford Smith from Reprieve, said: We are told that al Libi committed suicide in his Libyan prison. If this is true it would be because of his torture and abuse, if false, it may reflect a desire to silence one of the greatest embarrassments of the Bush Administration. According to Haartz The documents, which Iran transferred to the IAEA several years ago, show that Tehran decided in 1987 to purchase the centrifuges it is using to enrich uranium. Egypt's state prosecutor accused Hizbullah of planning to carry out attacks inside Egypt, according to The Daily Star. Egypt's state prosecutor accused Hizbullah of planning to carry out attacks inside Egypt, according to The Daily Star. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that, across the world, as many as 5,000 women a year may be victims of honour killings. In the Arab world, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq have the highest number of reported cases, according to the Arab Human Development Report 2009. Analysts think Mousavi could beat Ahmadinejad in today's poll, according to The Nation. According to Al Jazeera report, that the release of photos of abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004 caused widespread anger. And that the administration of George Bush, the previous US president, had argued against the release of the photos in part by saying it violated the privacy rights of the detainees and military personnel. The documents are so similar that in order to figure out the differences, you've got to read both documents side to side You can go to jail for blogging or Tweeting something because you're not a journalist and therefore not entitled to the protection of the law, according to the fakeplasticsouks blog. The vote lasted for a week and ended earlier today. Hospitals in Baghdad are receiving a new type of victim these days: young men attacked for being gay, according to Niqash. Hospitals in Baghdad are receiving a new type of victim these days: young men attacked for being gay, according to Niqash. According to About.com, Algerian pretended to have had election Others blacklisted include homophobic US pastor Fred Waldron Phelps, as well as Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, former leaders of a violent Russian skinhead gang which committed 20 racially motivated murders, AFP reports. Well, I'm sure that reporter wished he could shoot Bush dead instead of throwing his shoes in his face. Right, internet chez moi, game on. More from PersianKiwi: chanting 'my brother - my martyr - I will claim your vote for you!' - #IranelectionAttached is his/her twitter feed. Well, this garden is the only space for the poor people in this area. And its funny how this is happening at the same time in Beirut and Tel aviv. Dr Halim Rane has a Bachelor of Human Sciences degree in Sociology and Islamic Studies, a Master\rquote s degree in Media Studies, and a PhD in International Relations. Dr Rane is currently the Deputy Director of the Griffith Islamic Research Unit and a Lecturer in the National Centre of Excellence in Islamic Studies Australia. the Global Trailblazer Award, was given to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is also co-founder of Vital Voices. The Associated Press obtained a copy of a letter from the Justice Department informing two members of Congress that a key deadline in the inquiry expired Monday. The inquiry has become a politically-loaded guessing game, with some advocating criminal charges against the lawyers, and others urging the matter be dropped. I attended the screening in Amman last night. There was no discussion after the play but instead not a single sound of applause. Indeed! I think that the real work of the group would begin now - I'm sure there's a tonne of OpEds in the major newspapers that are well worth reading and translating. Great fact: @laurenthaug: 90% of feature request in MS Word are for features that already exist Aza Raskin, exposing bad interfaces #Ted Rob analysis few points in the last article by Egyptian writer Fahmy Howedi about the Iran demonstrations in his Tuesday column at Dar Al Shourouk - Howedi is considered one of the top 2 or 3 most influential Arab journalists. Al Arabiya analyzes the situation of Iranian politics after Ahmadinejad won second presidency. Hamzah, 29, had held the post when Abdullah first ascended to the throne in February 1999 following the death of their father. At the time, Abdullah said Hamzah's position as crown prince was in line with his father's wishes, but later stripped him of the title because it restrained his freedom to study, travel and live a normal life. Voting campaign launched on 4 newspapers in Jordan on Sunday: Al-Rai, Al-Dustour, Al-Ghad and Al-Arab Al-Youm A similar campaign in Kuwait : The ministry spokesman said that according to law No. 44 of 1968, anybody caught eating, drinking or smoking in public during the daytime in Ramadan, along with those who compelled or abetted them to do so, would be given a fine of up to KD 100 and/or a prison sentence of one month. Sudden fever or a sudden cough.Other symptoms may include:- headache- tiredness- chills- aching muscles- limb or joint pain- diarrhoea or stomach upset- sore throat- runny nose- sneezing- loss of appetite A video interview with The 99 creator Naif al Mutawa on Kuwaiti TV. CNN's interview with Obama: The United States is absolutely not giving Israel a green light to attack Iran. We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East, Obama said, referring to Iran's nuclear ambitions. Interview with the Director of the film Cherine Dabis Beirut will see some 250 activities between now and April 2010 relating to the book, publishing, and how to encourage young people to read. Some 300,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements Israel has built in the West Bank, and another 200,000 live in Arab East Jerusalem, areas home to some 2.5 million Palestinians seeking independent statehood, according to Reuters. Their dependence on fossil fuels coupled with what some see as short-sighted energy policies earned them the dubious distinction of placing at or near the bottom of a survey of 56 industrialized or industrializing nations, the report by a German environmental group said. heyg1: that was it 100% shore just heard a gun shot #iranelection Khanna is talking a lot about how China has risen to international dominance: Pillars of its strategy: Diplomacy, demography.#TED Khanna: Independence alone, without infrastructure, is futile. Great news that the Dutch government is leading the way in the return of looted artefacts from Iraq. 15,000 pieces were taken from the National Museum in 2003, with 7,000 still missing. That's what happens when security forces are disbanded. social networking service are more and more into the daily life of every body on the globe . The loss of ice shelves does not affect sea levels -- floating ice contracts as it melts and so does not raise ocean levels. But their loss can allow glaciers on land to slide more rapidly toward the sea, adding water to the oceans. Todays speech is one of the most historical speeches ever, the man knows what he is talking about, and I totally agree with him on everything...even though he didn't talk about Israel's nuclear power and whether he is going to work on that matter or not, but I agree that we need to stop all the violence and extremism in order to live in a better world... During the conference, the Palestinian and Iranian delegations held up photos of Palestinians killed during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead and scenes of destruction from the Gaza Strip. Five out of nine local staff from the UK embassy detained in Tehran have been released, Iranian officials say Juan Cole usefully (and briefly) explains the ethno-religious history of conflict in northern Iraq: The angry Sunni guerrillas are the ones most likely behind the bombing on Thursday. That is,the massive ethnic cleansings in Iraq, under the nose of the US military forces, bodes ill for Iraq. Sarkozy defended the project, saying access to civil nuclear technologies was crucial to the development of countries in the region. If they don't develop, how will they be able to fight against extremism and terrorism? he asked. DUBAI // Iranian protesters were this morning ordered to disperse on the fifth day of demonstrations outside the Iranian consulate. Book Army aims to connect you to books that you will enjoy reading. We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that Germans are anti-Islam from this event. Let's remember Dr El-Sherbini won her defamation case in court. This is about one deeply bitter individual who committed a very serious crime. However awful and wrong, this case is not a societal trend. Just to explain a little bit about the Lebanese elections:Its elections for deputies, we have 128 deputies since 1992. 64 Muslims & 64 Christians There is many parties are competing each other and they r divide in 2 groups: 8 March and 14 MarchAnd following the statistics in Leb, the competition will be only between (20-25) seats from the 128. Pope Benedict called in his Easter message on Sunday for a renewed push for Israeli-Palestinian peace just weeks before he travels to the Holy Land for the first time as pontiff. Robert Fisk calls into question the credibility of Obama's speech and warns it will not change a thing, according to Islam Online. Dr. Mohammed Fahad al-Qahtani is a professor at the diplomatic institute and he is also a human rights activist who advocates increasing personal freedoms as a strategy for tackling radicalization. Unfortunately his article was blocked from publication in print, but did appear on the web. This came from Saudi Jeans blogger Ahmed al-Omran. Except that Portsmouth is a pretty wet port town on the south coast of England. Depthrot The youth may be wiser than us to use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) rather than Bullets which leads to Fratricide. #iranelection Daily News Egypt: As of this week, the Ministry of Endowments began distributing a book titled, \ldblquote Sexual Harassment: Causes and Solutions,\rdblquote among imams at mosques nationwide. Daily News Egypt reports from the first day of the cancelled moulid. Demi Moore, the actress, has said on Twitter that she was in tears after watching Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent performance. The National ( citing AP) : Speaking at a press conference he called to respond to the police recommendation, which was announced on Sunday, Mr Lieberman said he did nothing wrong. \ldblquote If I had to do it again I would do precisely the same thing,\rdblquote he said. Mr Lieberman said he doubted he would be charged, but if he is, \ldblquote there is no doubt that I will step down at that moment\rdblquote . Arab Lebanese Struggle Movement Secretary General, former Deputy Faysal Al-Daoud, said that Saad Hariri's vacation is considered to be a negative indicator. He added that it is deemed necessary for Hariri to come back to Lebanon to explain himself, as it seems he took his vacation for political reasons. The BBC reports some of the different reactions to the election results in Kuwait. The US is set to contribute more than US$2 billion in aid to Israel over the 2009 fiscal year, a February 3 Congressional Research Service report said. Al Arabiyya reports Mahmoud Abbas' call for elections, emphasing his willingness to accept the outcome and leave office if Hamas win. Telegraph reports, The West wants to detach Syria from its radical allies and resolve its confrontation with Israel. This would transform the Middle East, isolating Iran and weakening Hamas and Hizbollah with a single blow. Security officials who showed off the painting, The Naked Woman, said yesterday that it went missing from the al-Ahmadi Hall of the Kuwait National Museum after the Iraqi invasion that started the Gulf War. Kelly told reporters at the Department's daily press briefing that the U.S. government considers the practice \ldblquote unacceptable.\rdblquote He said Israel stamps some American passports with restrictions that they may enter Judea and Samaria but not Israel. Michael Evans makes a good point that Israelis will likely find the choice of name 'The Elders' is an uncomfortable reminder of the viciously anti-semitic Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. However, the remainder of this article is a fairly aggressive critique of Jimmy Carter's efforts to bring Hamas and Hezbollah into negotiations. A former Defence Department official says it\rquote s now make or break for the Obama administration regarding the Jawad case: \ldblquote This is the Obama administration's time to decide what they will do when a habeas judge orders a person released, but they can't in good conscience let him go.\rdblquote Increasing tensions between Israel and Hizbullah are the result of growing concern that Syria will transfer balance-altering weaponry to the Iranian-backed group in the event of a new conflict with Israel, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post. Our assumption is that whatever Iran and Syria have, Hizbullah could one day also have, the official said this week. From the Guardian's article: In the episode of The Real Deal Galloway made references to Gaza being a killing zone, an area of mass murder, and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from Southern Palestine into Gaza. He ended the edition by dedicating the programme to the brave men, women and children of Palestine. You will overcome, I believe that. Al Mesryoon reports that two visits to Iran, last year, were the reason behind the launching of the campaign of arrests which affected Shehata and his followers, and it is likely they will be facing charges of affiliation with Hezbollah on the organizational level as a result to the ongoing investigations. Inner City Press reports, While invocation of terrorism has become the ultimate trump card in such debates, the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions has previously had to consider whether Rachid Mesli is a prisoner of conscience, who was detained solely because of his activities as a human rights advocate. Al Bawaba reports, The exhibition, held at the Jewellery Court in Deira City Centre, delves into the many daily aspects of Emarati life in the past and also touches elements of national identity. Youm7 reports that Alexandria's beaches have banned women wearing the hijab, whilst making the wearing of a bikini a precondition for swimming in the sea. ArabianBusiness.com : Economists in the region said Saudi and UAE officials would be seeking assurances on the recovery of the US economy from Geithner. Secretary Geithner's visit will be like a progress report on the state of the US economy, said veteran Riyadh economist John Sfakianakis.. The Associated Press: Sudanese woman to give up immunity to stand trial Dar Al Hayat reports, They should also realize that their cooperation on the border, at least in coordinating and exchanging ideas and resources, spares them from facing the unknown. The fear of this unknown has inevitably required the increased height of barriers between them. Dar Al Hayat said that the heated debate was unprecedented in Iranian political history. The government says that the repatriation process of housemaids from Middle Eastern countries is still ongoing, with Foreign Employment Minister Keheliya Rambukwella adding that the outflow of maids to these countries has seen a drastic reduction. Local ENglish-language paper the Jakarta Globe reports that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) is on target to achieve the 51% needed to avoid a runoff. The article said:A Sudanese woman said today that she would continue her campaign of defiance after being convicted by a court of indecency for wearing trousers in public.Lubna Hussein said she would refuse to pay the 500 Sudanese pound (£127) fine imposed on her by a judge who ruled that she should not face a punishment of 40 lashes. Iranian state channel Press TV reports that 'Iran's Intelligence Ministry has arrested a number of 'main agents', who masterminded the 'recent' post-election violence in Tehran.' Sounds like they think it's all over. The National reports: The government\rquote s conditions for the truce include a rebel withdrawal from all districts, the removal of checkpoints and disclosure of the fate of kidnapped foreigners, which it blamed on the rebels. Haaretz reports: The indictment states that a Hezbollah agent established contact with Sultani in 2008, when he participated in a Balad party delegation to a Morocco summer camp, along with delegates from other Arab states. Ynet reports: An indictment was issued Monday in the Petah Tikva District Court against a 23-year-old resident of Tirah for threatening State security. Rawi Sultani was indicted for allegedly being recruited by Hezbollah to collect details on Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi. Syria denies hiding anything from the IAEA investigators, according to Al Arabiya. Bikya Masr metioned in his blog that till Saturday, no foreign major news outlet except the AP had reported on the incident Rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday it had received reports suggesting hundreds of people, mainly civilians, may have been killed in a week-old Nigerian military offensive in the oil-producing Niger Delta. AP reports, Islamic insurgents attacked a government checkpoint in Somalia's capital on Saturday, sparking a gunbattle that killed at least five people on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. AP reports, The bloodshed threatened to chip away at public confidence in the U.S.-backed government as it seeks to project a sense of normalcy ahead of next year's national elections, including an announcement last week that all concrete blast walls will be gone from Baghdad's main roads by mid-September. A court in Cairo has issued a ruling that bans pornographic websites in Egypt, state news agency Mena reports. Reuters reports, Defeated opponents denounced his poll victory last month as a fraud, but former colonial power France said it was ready to re-engage with the Saharan country, applauding his tough anti-terrorist stance. My mistake - this is the Saudi team from a few months back on the way to play in Iran. This is really interesting Samboussek - do you have specific experience to draw on? That's so stupid and has nothing to do with Islam! Actually, Women (including Khadija the wife of the prophet Mohammad) at the early days of Islam were running business independently without such rules and constrains! The National reports the deaths of 8 people en route to Dubai. Great vision ya Ed, I knew there was a play on Jordan in this story somewhere... UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown takes the stage as a mystery guest. Having heard him speak before, I'm fairly sure it'll be a mystery to everyone else why he was invited. Syrian President Bashar Assad blames the failure of the talks on Israel Great to see Google getting involved and supporting a good cause in Egypt. The Youm7 link, mentioning discussion taking place in a Facebook group I'm currently trying to find. All very interesting. Here's the link to the full Foreign Affairs Committee report cited in the article rabaylRT @Elizrael Im afraid Mousavi will B another Khatami, unable 2 make a difference. The Velayat-e Faqih system needs 2B changed #IranElection Rami Olwan does PhD research on CC and takes Jordan as a case study, Dolly, the first cloned animal of the world, was born in 1996 in Edinburgh. An engineer in Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate said that it makes no difference. It is just a matter of foreign affairs. Do you think Obama is going to change anything with his speech today before the Muslim world I saw your Scribble live feed Tom - looks impressive. Doesn't have cross-language element with Arabic though, and only uses Google MT API for other languages (no improve tools). We have to help get the word out there that translation is really important. Perhaps socialism is the new wave after capitalism. People have endured too much due to capitalism consequences. In a statement, the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, or EFSA, said it rejected the offer because it breached the equal opportunity principle between shareholders. A spokesman for the regulator declined to comment further. A great man, indeed. an Iranian blogger answered alexlobov on twitter saying Ahmadinejad followers r hard working poor people have no time to be behind pc For GeorgeWeyman: There isn't.. But I'm talking about the sudden interest for women in the middle east and the recent talks about signing SIDAW ?I like that of course! I mean, I love to hear more and more about women talking leadership positions in Arab countries.. but imposed actions are not effective on the long run. Are not meaningful either. An excellent response to the US State Department report by Sumayyah Meehan, critical of the Saudi governments lack of action in the subject. rt @Bahram81 PressTV: gun shots heard in Freedom sqr. ppl running scared. Me: false rumor to prevent more ppl joining #iranelection Twitter feed from the Global Blogger conference in Cairo. Tweets and replies about Palfest. The full objecting letter, written and signed by the 50 artists, can be read here. A tweet from @ sana_sky: 9 days to Dubai Metro! 10 stations will open and the most useful for us is Deira City Centre station An interesting tweet from @jerusalembureau on the matter. Despite the turmoil, the conference still set the world's first world strategy agaisnt racism. Despite the slump in art sales and the economic crisis, the carpet sold for nearly $5.5 in a Sotheby's auction in Doha, Qatar. Although visitors from the Gulf might often feel cheated, an official from the Egyptian Hotel Association doesn\rquote t believe their complaints are justified: \ldblquote This is to help [tourists] feel that we take them seriously. It\rquote s not that we\rquote re cheating them. But we have to take their complaints seriously.\rdblquote Although it might seem protection for the youth from porn sites, but its yet another way of legalizing censorship. Today they ban porn sites, tomorrow they'll ban political sites.. and all under the title of protection. Although the results are not final, yet Bouteflika's five competitors do not stand a chance Despite the rhetoric, UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams says 'war in South Lebanon is unlikely,' adding that 'regional players have overcome the incidents that overtook Lebanon in the past 30 years.' The Iranian parliament on Thursday rejected two of the three proposed female cabinet ministers and approved only Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi as Health Minister, the first-ever female minister in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic. The Muslim Brotherhood disagree with the police's actions: \ldblquote It is horrible what is going on and we cannot stand by and allow this to continue, because we want to live in a free society,\rdblquote said Ahmed, a member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood. \ldblquote Religion is not compulsory and this should be maintained.\rdblquote Hamas has rejected requests by the ICRC to visit Shalit. HRW also said that Israel has deprived Palestinian prisoners of family visits. Khamenei certainly raised the stakes with the threats against the protesters. But threats aside, I think he offered very little in terms of reassurance of legitimacy that might make the marches stop. Essentially he has pushed Iran to the brink and is hoping to call the opposition's bluff, but I've yet to see any evidence that they'll back down. Rafi.ki is a project for using web tools for learning. They bring schools together and share resources. Apparently the name means friend in Swahili. The CEO just praised Mohammed from Gaza - and asked him to stand up - having heard that a previous ngo in the marketplace helped Mohammed find a job in Dubai after training him up. A recent report, about managing the health effects of climate change focused on six key areas: patterns of disease and mortality; food security; water and sanitation; shelter and human settlements; extreme events; and population migration. In his adress Nejad stressed the close commonalities between the three countries. They also have common enemies and friends, he said adding that there are crippling and complicated problems in the region whose roots should be identified. Rana, do you think there will ever be a movement in Egypt to reconsider capital punishment? Hey Randa - my favourite walk in Cairo takes you along Muez Al Din street from Al Azhar street to the citadel. It's absolutely fabulous. I also took the Meedan CEO Ed Bice on the same walk when we were in Cairo. Cool links mike. I think probably Biden screwed up and that we should expect to see some correction in the next few days -- I hope. Robert Fisk: An interval here for lunch with a true and faithful friend of the Islamic Republic, a man I have known for many years ... He has often criticised the regime. A man unafraid. But I must repeat what he said. The election figures are correct, Robert. roemermeier:Iran elections: experts expect head-to-head-race between Ahmadinedschad and his opponent. #iran #election #elections Richard Sambrook, Director of BBC Global News, is skeptical of all the rumors going on about the Iranian elections and stresses the need for trusted sources. Raymond Jahan - @StopAhmadi NEWS: Woman CONFIRMED shots were fired in Tehran, 5 ppl got shot, 4 ppl died #IranElection reyhaniRT @shahrzadmo: Reports about chinese pens whose ink turns invisible after a while is true. Take your own pen for election #iranelection 1:28 - Pazuzu: And in the last minutes, participants are going bac each to his/her table and will focus on thinking about 2 to 3 areas of their plan that they consider to be the most important. Pope Benedict visited Palestinian refugees this week in the West Bank, voicing sympathy for their frustration over six decades since they lost their homes in what is now Israel, According to AxisMundi Jerusalem blog. A group of elder statesmen and former world leaders on Thursday visited a family evicted by Israeli police from their house in east Jerusalem and told them to not give up hope of one day being able to return to their home. Zaher Bassioni says Palestinian society is becoming 'more extremist in all forms due to the prevailing feelings of frustration and the absence of a positive future vision' Party leader who made film linking Koran to Nazism accused of inciting race hate Zeinobia writes about the impact of Rotana in Egypt, and how this deal will increase their domination: I am totally against this deal, in fact I am against the domination of Rotana on our Egyptian and Arabic entertainment scene , I swear I feel so sad and angry when I know that an Egyptian singer has joined Rotana or has renewed his or her contract with it !! Zahrahb: A doctor in Hazrate Rasool hospital confirmed 7 ppl killed in Azadi sq. #iranelection zouzis Ahmadinejad: Days of some countries imposing their will on others are over. #iranelections Increased demand from music downloaders has sent the original cast recording of the song she performed up the iTunes singles chart, and to top it all off, Boyle has said she has already had a meeting with Sony BMG with a view to releasing an album. Yes, I think he was having some issues in both France and Switzerland A question from a reader of this blog entry:Is journalism above the law? Question: How can we connect people like an activist in Mauritania, a Muslim country which elected a civilian leader, to the American public in a way that conveys what they need as support?Answer: Contact CSID. Sara Freitekh writes about what happened when The Elders met Sitt Khadija, director of the Qalandia Camp Handicraft Cooperative: \ldblquote Sitt Khadija\rquote s\rdblquote first question was directed at the Elders: \ldblquote What will you do differently this time for a change after all these years?\rdblquote Sasa from Syria says on twitter:We've had 6 months of Obama's rule-by-love. I fear we will have 4 years of this. 4 years of waiting for him to actually do something. Sasa from http://newsfromsyria.com captured Washington's turnaround in policy towards Israel with this tweet: I NEVER thought I would read this sentence in my lifetime: 'The US has led international condemnation of Israel...' SahandK RT from Iran: New information isn't coming from many students anymore. A lot have been arrested #IranElection Saudi Jeans, Saudi blogger, reports from the G20 summit. I will be lurking the blog. And maybe also contributing under a pseudonym from another civilization I'll be updating this thread as much as possible today - please help by adding your links to interesting developments, whether that be tweets, flickr photostreams, YouTube videos, breaking news articles or any other information from the web about what's going on in Iran. I will be in Istanbul following this channel obsessively. Bring it on! I would be interested in more information regarding censorship in Egypt. As far I can tell there isn't much active censorship (filtering software, blocked sites, etc), most of the censorship happens after-the-fact when the government arrests, imprisons, and tortures perceived dissidence. The unusually high number of death sentences so far this year has unleashed a debate about the ineffectiveness of capital punishment as a deterrent to violent crime, which has been on the increase. While some, mainly Muslim clerics, say that the death sentence is prescribed for certain crimes in the Quran, others are calling for its abolition. The meeting will also discuss cooperation between GCC countries and Yemen. US-Arab relationships will suffer a major setback if the reports are true, espicially after Obama's recent address from Cairo - which makes one wonder if this is Israel's intent. The American University in Cairo's Virtual Newsroom will broadcast live to the internet on Saturday, May 16 at 9 am EST. Anyone in the world with broadband access can participate in a live chatstream while the Center for Disease Control briefs journalists and bloggers on swine flu. Special guests include members of Global Voices. We should definitely be there translating this. Digital books will be available for sale online by Google 60 people, many of them Iranian Shi\rquote ite pilgrims, were killed in Baghdad when two powerful devices were detonated by female bombers in what appeared to be a coordinated attack. Stefana Broadbent at #TED: It's amazing how much parenting is going on over Skype Stefana Broadbent takes to the stage, discussing tech + democratisation of intimacy, breaking the imposed isolation of work/school (@iamhelenharrop)@brainpicker: #TED Stefana Broadbent counters argument that social media are making us dissociate from the public The BBC has a video clip of the huge record bid. A UN spokesman told its reporter: The symbolism of thousands of children, in one of the world's most locked-up communities, creating beautiful kites, letting them soar upward, is truly beautiful. This seems so obvious, I can't believe no-one told the UK/US governments that this would be a consequence of non-engagement with groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Sadly, an all too typically short-sighted policy. Juan Cole argues eloquently against this kind of non-diplomacy in Engaging the Muslim World for exactly this reason. The headline of this article on Lebanese paper Al Safeer highlights exactly the risk AbuAardvark (Marc Lynch) mentions below: Biden gives green light for Israeli attacks against Iran I dearly hope this isn't the case. 10:28 - Pazuzu: In our program we'll be using a learning program called moodle. The success of this training relies on the level of participation. Whether the White House's media offensive is a success or not, it won't be easy for Obama to convince the current Israeli government that peace is in everyone's interest. As one Saudi civil servant put it: We think Obama maybe came at the wrong time [because], unfortunately, with the current Israeli government, we think there is no hope to make any progress. Whether the Nabucco pipeline goes ahead or not, the move by Erdogan is as clear a sign as Turkey can send to the EU. As one Turkish political scientist put it: \ldblquote Turkey is not an EU member country, nor should it be expected to become one soon. There is no rational reason why Turkey, as a country that is not an EU member yet, should synchronise its foreign policy with Brussels.\rdblquote Syria: Linkedin Kicks Off Syrian Users! SAWSAN SALAMEH: We need to increase the number of women that have higher education like PhD, because it will give a chance for other women to work hard, to get higher education, so it will give a chance for girls to go on. Gul will also attend the opening ceremony of Dedeman Hotel (formerly Le Meridien Hotel) in Damascus. CS Monitor reports: Israeli officials said that while they welcome the Elders, the group was making a mistake by having planned to visit the Gaza Strip and meet with Hamas officials there. A spokesman for the Elders' visit, however, said the Gaza portion of the visit had been postponed due to security concerns and would not elaborate. The event will also highlight Sharik961 and Meedan's efforts to help make it cross-language reporting tool for the upcoming elections Siepie00 RT @persiankiwi: high level of false information on twitter quoting us - BEWARE - #Iranelection Today and the near future will be affected by: with the exception of Europe, there is a process of de-secularization of societies and that goes right at the heart of how people perceive modernization and modernity. There are examples of a challenge to the idea that modernization is to be equated with secularization and Westernization. Now the turn of Mozilla developer Aza Raskin, talking about the next stage of the browser. The Monetary Council will be tasked with technical requirements, preparations for the Central Bank, and the single currency, according to the Saudi Gazette. A new interactive feature will debut on Earth Day, April 22, that allows visitors to view a collection of astronaut photographs of Earth A collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia is up for auction in Las Vegas \emdash a potentially lucrative coincidence a day after the singer's death. Tony Blair will be happy; the report commends him for 'making an important contribution to Palestinian economic and institutional development.' Not sure how many people would agree with that praise. Gul will paritcipate in several activities in Syria and will meet Syrian MPs, according to Akhbar Al Aalam. It will be intetrestig readig to arabians and ukrainians in Kiev. Similar goes to similar.As good, as bad also. Customers will have a wide range of choices to make as three big phones are released in the same week It would be nice to get this article human translated. Does Dr bin Abdullah al-Lehidan say anything specific about finding replacements for Saudi's oil reserves? Share your videos with friends, family, and the world Thousands of supporters watched Andry Rajoelina take the oath of office at the municipal stadium in the island nation's capital, according to AP. Watch the clash between Ahmadinejad and his opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi, on Iranian TV. Ahmadinejad tried to tie Mousavi to two past presidents, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, whose governments Ahmadinejad claimed were corrupt, according to The Guardian. another person was afraid to say a word about the topic Former Civil-war captive stresses importance of free press as he returns to Lebanon Migahed stressed that the very foundation of her work was to inform President Obama on Muslim thinking methodologies and what Muslims seek from the United States. She said that Washington wants to hear Muslims, and that she believes she has the capability to voice Islam through her work in the Gallup center and with several prominent figures such as John Esposito The Supreme Leader of Iran has called for an investigation into allegations of vote tampering.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the Guardian of Council to investigate the result after defeated opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi wrote a letter of appeal following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's poll victory.The Ayatollah had earlier said the result was a 'divine assessment'. Microsoft Corp. will not dump Vista when Windows 7 launches and plans to keep selling it to computer makers The new terms of use were not clear to all users as well as the period of voting was short . Shorouk News reports: 'This crime sparked outrage in Egypt and the Islamic world, where many cities saw demonstrations against the crime.' This was an awful crime - but surely an isolated one? A video showing demonstration pro Iran in Munich on YouTube. A valid qualm methinks: @iamhelenharrop: slightly rankled by the whole 'we R all about sharing ideas but only through us' approach #TED is taking re: filming etc IFRC (Interntaional Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) delegate thanked the Syrian Red Crescent volunteers for their great efforts especially during the 2006 war on Lebanon. Thanks for this comment Egyptian! Thanks Egyptian! Can you add more links to this thread? Thanks alot Donatello for that compliment about meedan's activity and believe me we all as the meedani translators ready for any such task, it seems fantastic and enjoyable Thanks, Donatella. Great to be working with you and Creative Commons. Any volunteer translators who want to help us with video translation of the workshop should send me a meedan message. Thanks Ahmed for all these questions, They are on the head, no, in the head. But here is the answer, they went to have a nap and may be back soon in shaa Allah !!!! Thanks for this post Jafra! I'm so glad to hear from you on this topic. As for your problems uploading, I will log this bug with our developers right now - can I check are you using Firefox3 or IE6? These are the two browsers we are currently fully supported on. Thanks for these tweets Yaser - be great too if you could add the link to the original tweet on Twitter. Thanks for posting this Abdellah - what do you think about this story? Thanks for this feed Olfa! It was an amazing speech to watch simply for historical value. Thanks for your comment Bodihandoq - we'll get this human translated as soon as we can. Thanks for posting this - really so interesting ya Lasto! Thanks for this Yaser - we now have an event up for egyptian responses, be great to hear these views there. Thanks for spotting this Eman. Thanks for finding this blog post! I want to see what my friend Wael thinks of this - he's a Palestinian entrepreneur I met at OTT09 in Amsterdam, based in Germany. Maybe he can shed some light on anti-Muslim sentiment in the country from his experience. Thanks Mohamad! Thanks for translating these comments for Arabic readers Hiba - are they representative of the whole set of comments? shahrzadmoCandidates who voted, are not allowed to appear in different voting places due to matter of advertisement. #iranelection shahrzadmoResult of #iranelection In New Zealand: 279 Mousavi - 90 Ahmadinejad Syrians seen and heard voting in Halba. Unknown which list they are voting for. Interesting to read the Gaza-based Felesteen report on the meeting, though they do rely quite a bit on agency copy. Egyptian newspaper Al Akhbar rounds up from the Arab League summit in Doha. The Economist isn't too sure the US will of much use to the Kurds regarding natural resources though: As Kurdish-Arab relations in Baghdad worsen, the Americans may be starting to side with the more important of the two sides: the Arabs. A final settlement between Iraq\rquote s Arabs and Kurds looks no closer than before. The Guardian presents the official election statistics by region, asking: Whether you believe over 99% turnouts anywhere is one thing, but this data is only the beginning. NYTimes discussing the reaction of several legal and national security experts to these memos and whether they think President Obama\rquote s call for moving on from this chapter is the right decision. Local newspaper The Daily Star reports that both sides are keen to work together and compromise: Concerning Hizbullah\rquote s role in the cabinet-formation pro\-cess, Fneish said his party was \ldblquote taking initiative\rdblquote in cooperaing with Hariri to end political disputes and guarantee a calm atmosphere for dialogue in order to reach a \ldblquote satisfying\rdblquote conclusion to the process. Israeli online newspaper Haaretz says Netanyahu's government has placed Iran's nuclear program at the top of its agenda When Netanyahu and Lieberman were elected to the new Israeli Knesset, their slogan was to put an end to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. So basically the possibility of new israeli aggression toward the Palestinians and specifically against Hamas is still there, said political strategist Mokhaimar Abu Sada to Press TV. 'It's our territory and it's our right to enter, to impose Iraqi law on everybody,' told Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman, General Mohammed Askari, Dubai's Al-Arabiya satellite news channel. 'They have to submit to the law, and to Iraqi sovereignty. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Danish Prime Minister and now NATO chief, speaking in Turkey today said he\rquote s \ldblquote deeply distressed\rdblquote for the Danish cartoons: Richard Armitage, the second in command at the State Department under President Bush, told Al Jazeera English in an interview to be aired Thursday that had he known then what he knows now about the torture of detainees, the right thing to do would have been to resign. The two main candidates in Iran's presidential election have claimed victory, after extended voting as huge numbers of people turned out to vote, according to the BBC. A French consular official told AFP a certain number of French nationals were detained along with other foreigners after the attack and asked to leave Egypt at their own expense and without any legal case against them. This was a move taken to silence us, the body's Geneva representative Abdel Wahab Hani told reporters. We upset everybody, including the Europeans and Americans by criticising them too, so there was no one to stand up for us. A recent report argued that Israel itself has dropped its objection to Hosni's candidacy, as a gesture to President Hosni Mubarak. According to the French news agency AFP, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to drop Israel's objection following a personal request by Mubarak at their meeting this month. - Acording to Ynetnews. Iran and Russian maintain that this power plant is not designed for military purposes BBC News reports on the expulsions and other recent activity targeting Shia Muslims in the country. Coming to this country is a privilege. We won't allow people into this country who are going to propagate the sort of views... that fundamentally go against our values., Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told BBC. Lebanese Elections 2009 page on facebook, with slogan Vote for peace not war The long-form videos page at YouTube The Study's page on the ONI website. Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the civic area will span 260,000 square feet and comprise pavilions, plazas, canals and alleyways. (About 65,000 square feet will be dedicated to exhibitions.) A dome 590 feet in diameter will hover over much of the complex. See illustrations here. More than 40 000 people have votes till now in Matn district and also 40% of the total voters of Lebanon. voteforiranGood roundup of election-related posts (http://cli.gs/Z99qM2) #iranelection Great images of Abdel Moneim in court in this Youm7 article. Photos from yesterday's protests. Amazing BBC pictures that give an idea of the scale of these celebrations. Al Akhbar's photos from election night. The BBC includes a lot of background on Indonesia in its report, also supported by live coverage from Jakarta. According to the Microsoft report, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Serbia are the countries suffering the most from malicious software or malware. Vodafone, Hermez, Motoral, IBM, ABAN, and Biocity will be present at the conference, according to Almasry Alyoum. The pants size 50 times larger than a regular size 40 trousers, according to WAM. The UN security council statement at the end of the meeting encouraged supporting and rebuilding the collapsing Palestinian economy, according to WAM. Jerusalem is on high alert Thursday as Israeli settlers threaten to storm Al Aqsa Mosque, according to PNN. An Israeli official said that borders with Gaza were sealed tight and that they are worried about that Egyptian border, according to Al Moslem. Egypt considers the Israeli nuclear arsenal as the largest threat to the stability of the Middle East, according to Almesryoon. Accodring to Syrian news station, Kilo was arrested on 14 May, 2006 against the background of signing the Beirut - Damascus Declaration, which called for the correction of the Lebanese-Syrian relations and the demarcation of the border between the two countries and the exchange of diplomatic relations between them. theevilhour asked on Twitter [8:30 GMT] : #iranelection Mottaki says UK has been planning this revolt for a year? haha Does that explain why some Basij are Arab speakers? Lebanese politics blog Qifa Nabki asks three interesting questions about Hariri's decision, the first of which: Why has it taken Hariri sixty-nine days to put together a cabinet that spurns Aoun\rquote s demands? In other words, if he was going to deny him the Telecommunications and Interior ministries, why didn\rquote t he do it a lot earlier? Disorganized queues, frustrated votersPeople upset because of poor organisation in the queue more than 2h for each one. Khirbet kanafar. West Bekaa. Disorganized queues, frustrated votersPeople upset because of poor organisation in the queue more than 2h for each one. Khirbet kanafar. West bekaa Google already has developed one operating system - Android, which is targeted at mobile phones, and which itself is expected to be used in some netbooks. The company said the two are separate projects. The first sign to your answer appeared by the dismiss of Iran and UK diplomatic delegations from the both country Abdel Rahman Al Rashed writing for al Sharq al Awsat highlights the fact that Iran has greatly benefited from the US interventions in the region. The US has attacked Taliban, Saddam Hussein and now Moujahedee Khalq. Across the Atlantic, the US Marine Corps is giving Boeing $500,000 to expand its UAV research: The Marines are looking into the possibility of dispatching unmanned aircraft as cargo carriers in place of trucks driven by flesh-and-blood troops. Such a development would help ease Nato's reliance on the few roads into Afghanistan that have been constantly targeted by the Taleban. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has come out in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Speaking at Friday prayers the Iranian Supreme Leader warned against further protests following Saturday's disputed presidential election result.Rioting after the election is not a good way. It questions the election, he said.---What did you think of the speech? Give your views in the thread below. No access for eldery and disabled in Mount Lebanon *** Report says there was no passway for handicapped voters and that it was hard even for old people to reach the voting booths Rewind one year and imagine Bush making that speech to remind yourself how momentous it was. Still words clearly aren't enough and Obama needs to make good on his promises. Adnan_Z_Manjal RT @ahmed They also blocked the Twitter page of activist @abualkhair. Do they seriously feel threatened by a mere 140 characters? Pathetic. Ez din or Madov LEbanon?There's still a lot of people who lost their money with this guy and they refused to sue him because he's a good guy, as they said. A nice article written by al-akhbar newspaper. The Kindness of Strangers - Jonathan zittrain's #TED Talk at TEDGlobal, here's a little about the man himself: Jonathan Zittrain wants to make sure the electronic frontier stays open -- and he's looking to the Internet's millions of users for its salvation. Great - I look forward to following the discussion Hundreds of readers of Al Arabiya commented on this report on the death of pop legend Michael Jackson. Banksy said: This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off. according to the BBC. Radio Free Europe said A new website is using video satire contributed by participants around the world as a tool to embarrass the Iranian government. A reader of USATOday website commented on the AP report saying:'This is what you get with a Pentagon full of Vietnam losers another commentator said:Obama will keep us in these places for 100 years The deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Robert Mahoney, says her sentence is too harsh. The interior minister says in Friday's statement that authorities seized two Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition from the men's homes Saudi Jeans blog comments on the censorship saying: what CITC don\rquote t seem to realize is that blocking profile pages on Twitter does not prevent the users from updating. Go figure. The Embassy of Pakistan in Kuwait came to know that Kuwaiti govt has launched a campaign at a large scale against all expatriate labor working in Kuwait and as such more than 200 workers were being arrested weekly. I'll likely try and find a copy for myself too. At least one person has been killed after a suicide bomber reportedly blew himself up near the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Although he was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, Jackson reportedly converted to Islam in 2008. Jackson's brother, Jermaine Friday -- who converted to Islam in 1989 -- reported that Jackson took a great interest in Islam after being shown books from his trip to Mecca. Israeli warplanes bombed an area by the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt on Tuesday, several hours after a rocket fired from the coastal territory struck inside an Israeli town, Palestinian witnesses said. I have to say I think Google is doing a better job than Apple. It's a fantastically forward thinking organisation that benefits so much from allowing user to develop the applications, I'm sure this will be the way with the new OS too! Open source is the way forward... I have to agree with weddady on this one: Although I'm not a fan of the burqa, it's not Sarkozy's place to decide, and his argument has virtually no merit. Any opposition to the burqa should come from within the Muslim community itself or not at all, and certainly not in the form of a ban imposed by a government. On twitter @brainpicker will be an important source again:#TED Khanna: China isn't buying Russia, it's leasing it. That's what I call globalization Chinese-style.#TED Khanna: Colonies were once conquered, countries are now bought.#TED Parag Khanna opens Worldview Rethink session saying 90% of people in the world never leave the place they were born This seems to be a healthy sign .... here is the english wikipedia page for fatah ... We have to take some of the tension out of this and remind ourselves that it is illegal for men to wear swim shorts in France, and instead must wear Speedo style swimming trunks. http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewtopic.php?p=667996 Great work on the translations Yaser, also fantastic effort by Sharek 961. The syrian Israeli peace process reminds me of George Orwell's War is Peace in his master piece 1984.I hope actual peace can be reached one day. The BBC reports that Palin will step down on 26 July: I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together, she wrote on her Facebook page. There have been speculation that she might be preparing to make a bid for the White House in 2012. Personally speaking I don't mind joint talks between both of them.. what I do mind however is showing any form of welcoming from our side to any of the Israeli political representatives; whether its the prime minister, the president, or an ambassador or a minister! When his brother, Jermaine Jackson, read out a statement to the press, he ended it with something like 'may Allah be with you Michael'. Even if he didn't actually convert, safe to say he had an appreciation for Islam. When I asked some people about Obama's visit to my surprise they knew nothing about it. Their retort was that they wanted to make a living and provide the necessary food for themselves and their families. When I discussed this news with a friend who is very much into politics, he replied firmly: Hezbo ALLAH will never be disarmed, even if Palestine is back!..What I understood is that the relationship between Damascus and Tehran will never be weakened - at least at the time being.. ie. the above solution is like an impossible case.. I have a question. Is there a symbol of Ramadan used throughout the Middle East, or the Muslim world in general? Dr. Mustafa Ceric the Grand Mufti in Bosnia is often described as the most liberal Grand Mufti in the world in this interview that was conducted in 2007 he reflects on the importance of interreligious dialogue and on tolerence as the essence of Muslim shariah Food for thought, that last point. How would Gaza be different if we could invest in building decent infrastructure? Graham Holliday blogs on this at the Frontline Club: How would the U.S. government have reacted if, say, a North Korean hack was found crossing the U.S. border illegally? Or, how about if an Iranian journalist had been found in the possession of confidential U.S. government documents like Roxanna Saberi in Tehran? I wonder how ready the U.S. government would be to pardon them? AL Arabiyya reports the case of a Saudi man in the Phillipines, where organ trafficking is punishable by up to 20 years in jail, trying to marry a woman for her kidney. Global Voices cover the Gazamom issue with echoes from bloggers around the world. Gordon Brown at #TED: We have the means by which we can create a truly global society, with a global ethic. We should not lose the chance.Seem relevant to Meedan anyone? The Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abdul Rahman al Sudais, surprised listeners to his Friday sermon last month when he said traffic violations amounted to misconduct in Islam, adding: \ldblquote Many scholars and heralds lost their lives in car accidents because of speeding and not paying attention to traffic lights.\rdblquote Fadi, certainly Mr. Wilders is an extremist. And like any extremist he is an embarrassment and a liability to his nation and his culture. The laws under which we live have not modernised with our economy. Despite a new constitution in 2005, a comprehensive peace agreement and the protocol of human rights, women are still constrained \endash not only in their freedom of dress but also their freedom to work. Journalists are prevented from speaking out and people are detained without reason. vvanwilgenburg Some intelligence reports suggest that Ahmadinejad might have genuinely won the election. http://is.gd/14hNV [BBC] #iranelections 1:08 - Pazuzu: If we were to summarize the overall spirit in the room, I would use two words: Optimism, Serious thinking , And seriously enjoying our time Millions were in mourning for pop legend Michael Jackson Friday, a day after he died of a heart attack.Fans poured onto chat forums and social networking sites to remember the star and his music.In the Middle East, one question was dominating the coverage: did the troubled star convert to Islam before he died? Hamas has a lot more diversity than has been brought to public light. before she wakes up to the phone ringing. She picked up the phone to receive her friend Nadia\rquote s tense voice asking to meet her urgently in the office at this Fry reveals his Cambridge colours: @iamhelenharrop Cambridge produces martyrs, Oxford burns them an old saying from @stephenfry #ted Fisk: When people begin to utter threats in this way, you can't help but think that they are worried. Khamenei has seen films of how many people have been on the streets, he should be worried. Officials from 35 nations failed to agree on a successor to Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a second day of voting on Friday, according to The New York Times. Clintons translation fail: she gave Putin a button to symbolize a new start between US and Russia. When we talk about the Qur\rquote an, it is very specific: it is a book. But when we talk about Islam, what are we talking about? What type of Islam are we talking about? There are actually many Islams. We also often use \ldblquote Islamic\rdblquote very liberally. Some people use it just to gain something out of it, to sell ideas or goods or to stain things\emdash Islamic terrorism, Islamic bombs, etc. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the national state is a very fragile entity so the ability of the state to promote the participation of women is affected by security. Good explanatory paragraph from The Times' report: UAVs are favoured for such missions because they can stay airborne for long periods \emdash often more than 24 hours at a time \emdash and are much quieter than fighter jets or helicopters. UAVs also have the advantage of removing pilots from danger because the drones are controlled by satellite from bases miles away, even continents away. Just the 50 cities it is then! I don't know what everyone's complaining about.... That is cool Tomi, do you mean Israeli turn around the tree?! They ban raising pigs except for scientific research, then the abundance are slaughtered and eaten? An interesting idea: Charter cities@brainpicker: #TED Paul Romer's big ideas: A Charter City \endash \~attract investors for infrastructure, families for culture. We can scale this model.#TED Paul Romer: 3 rules for a charter city: 1) Charter 2) Uninhabited land 3) Partnerships between nations If we encourage the US to promote democracy in the Muslim world, we need to make sure the US understands Islam in the Muslim world. They need to take into account tribalism, for example. Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett: Without any evidence, many U.S. politicians and \ldblquote Iran experts\rdblquote have dismissed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\rquote s reelection Friday, with 62.6 percent of the vote, as fraud. Their shock is entirely self-generated, based on their preferred assumptions and wishful thinking. I don\rquote t understand the position of the judge. So he wanted the husband to nullify the marriage, but when the husband refused, he decided to stick to his earlier bizarre verdict? asks Saudi Jeans. Why it is some how late to call for the self determination after time goes away. Each Arerican president during his reign starts to achieve specific goals, but after his reign is over another person; the humane, starts to homeginate his decisions. Palasteniens needs more care from the whole worls. James Drummond reports: The picture elsewhere in the Gulf is far from rosy although not as bad as in Dubai. The Jordan times reports on the event and the discussions that followed In an opinion piece for Al Shabiba, Ghazee Al Saadi writes a first 100 days style piece, looking at Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In efforts to acknowledge the works of the late Palestinian poet, the mayor of Paris announced that the city will name a street or square after Mahmoud Darwish.The news came as Bertrand Delanoë was in Ramallah recently expressing solidarity with the Palesitinian people and culture. This NY Times leader questions Mousavi's optimistic polling: One cannot know whether the election was stolen, or won legitimately. Foreign observers are often lured into thinking that the people they most see and talk to represent the prevailing opinion in an entire country. Actually, I didn't read anywhere that an agreement was definitively signed about developing Kish. There were reports of an agreement back in April, but since then, there have also been reports that Iran wanted to develop the field itself. There were discussions apparently. In fact, I think a case could be made that this is essentially the same argument as with the Sarkozy-burka issue - something along the lines of he's trying to protect French secularism in the same way the Mufti of Jordan is protecting Islam. I'll think this through tomorrow, too late to make more sense. Tareq Nour actually said on tv that he indeed took the ideas from western ads and commercials and eastern-ized them...the man admitted it.And he is not the first one to do that in Egypt,they steal movie ideas,commercial ideas,album covers ideas...they copycat almost everything,so why this man in particular? Well those 2 sites that Joi Ito mentioned briefly and I liked to share them with everybody.http://snopes.com is about urban legendand the second one: http://wikileas.org and its a secret wikis where everything get leaks will be published on it.I might miss type it the first time I don't really like this suggestion. I feel it would be better if the reward would be something like a job. Facebook and other commercial sites are not good places to start any aggressive actions (political, human rights) etc. because they are still businesses and they will always pass on information to governments While much more research is needed to confirm and explore the findings, the work raises the tantalizing possibility As the events accelerate in the aftermath of the Iranian election, Meedan brings you the views of the Arab World.Meedan will be providing different viewpoints from mainstream media, blogs, and of course twitter. While France-Syria relationship blooms, Obama is still a little hesitant to announce a new US-Syria understanding, saying: There are aspects of Syrian behavior that trouble us. Despite the criminal lack of coverage of Algeria in the Western press, the attached timeline from Reuters shows just how relentless the campaign of attacks has been over the past couple of years. As Israel threatens to demolish some 88 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, Israeli police describes it as a terrorist attack, while drivers' family insists it was an accident. While US officials have continued to insist that the timetable for removing troops from Iraq remains in place, a growing trend of violence and a delay to Iraq\rquote s national parliamentary elections has led to considerable speculation that the US won\rquote t ultimately abide by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) deadline to have troops out of the nation by the end of 2011. Meanwhile, Robert Gates has said on a visit to Iraq that its security situation has improved amazingly in the past three years. He is in the country to see how US troops are adapting to their new non-combat role since withdrawing from all urban areas at the end of June. In an unlikely turn of events, TED goes wild over Gordo:When gordon brown is finished with his unexpected speech most of the audience performs a standing ovation #ted (unusual to an Italian)BTW, we will be posting Gordin Brown's talk to TED.com tonight. Everyone should watch it. Wish all world leaders thought like him. #TED A report on Shorouk says that it's expected that the detainees will be released within the coming days, and that many are from Bahrain and are not Egyptians. Paris Mayor ''I believe that culture, law, the dignity of a people, are elements that relate Paris and all the Palestinian people in the strife for peace. ' Ashark Al Awsat reports sources in Iran claiming that the election was rigged. Interesting comment piece by a British QC: An important part of making the world a safer place for innocent people is to make it a lot less safe for their tormentors. In comments to the UK newspaper The Times, Abdulla of Jordan said the US was finalizing an ambitious 57-state solution for peace that he is helping to prepare. The king said the plan would include proposals to settle Israel's disputes with Syria and Lebanon. Al Arabiyya leads with one senior reformist's testimony that there had been no fraud in the election: The 10th (presidential) election was different and it took two or three years to work on it. I think reformists took action to sort of restrict the (supreme) leader, Mohammad Ali Abtahi told a revolutionary court. Earlier report where Mouna Naïm, in an article for Paris' liberal Le Monde, speaks with young women at Riyadh's King Saud University about their frustrations Ayman Nur was attacked Friday evening on his way to a Ghad party meeting, according to Al Arabiya. Ayman Nur was attacked Friday evening on his way to a Ghad party meeting, according to Al Arabiya. Another group supported the law or even thought that it wasn't enough. Like for example Abu Taleb (fourth comment):In fact, three years is not enough, it should be at least ten years.Or Min Wara' Al Karrat (fifth comment):So the Hijab doesn't protect women from sexual harassment after all, the problem is in men. Why can't they see women as their sisters? Men should wear the Hijab While the sectarian fighting that nearly ripped Iraq apart has died down, the row between northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region and its Shi'ite Arab-led government in Baghdad is seen by Washington as one of the greatest threats to the country's fragile stability. Defending his decision in a television address on Thursday, Ahmadinejad said the three women were chosen after close examination. I am against belittling women. We have to carve out the way, he said. In a new step towards supporting online file sharing ideas, Opera Software introduced Unite, a tool that can give users the ability to have their web server within Opera 10 browser.Users can choose files from their hard drive and make it available through the browser. These files can then be shared with everybody online, or can be limited to a group of friends with a password. If laws, tribunals and those accused of honour killings are criminalized will it have an impact on attitude? At a news conference in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry played what it said was a videotaped confession from the men. AJE interview with Israeli spokesperson: How can report be true if the soldiers are anonymous? It could all just be hearsay.An odd logic, but she's sticking to it. A 2008 article by Al Ahram Weekly outlines the new measures introduced to cut road accidents: The new law did not prevent people from driving in the wrong lanes in this particular case though the offence carries a fine between LE1,000 to LE3,000, points out Heikal. Nobody feels any real optimism about any law passed by the government and the new traffic law is no exception Meanwhile here in Egypt, religious authorities have issued a fatwa saying that the players don't have to fast - allowing them to focus on their game ahead of the World Youth Championship in Egypt due to kick off on September 24 just days after the end of Ramadan. This has caused controversy of entirely another kind, even though the players refused. In this now famous case, Tunisian human rights activist Khedija Arfaoui was jailed for 8 months for posting on her Facebook about the organ trade in Tunisia. Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, post links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. Friend Feed buyout by Facebook Vista gives less control to the user of his own device. Waltz with Basheer was a very well done movie artistically speaking, although I would disagree with some of the ideas it presented. It would be very interesting to see what this movie has to offer. Violetta, you have to be careful! The Time's annual list of the 100 people who affect our world the most. Foreign Policy's list of the world's worst sons, including two sons of Arab leaders. A reader of this blog post calls on God to support and reward those who keep young Muslims from deviation. This would suggest that ImHalal.com has a potential role much greater than seeking profit as a business. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the meeting to more than 500 business leaders:For those who are directly or implicitly lobbying against climate action I have a clear message: your ideas are out of date and you are running out of time, \ldblquote The situation has become very scary,\rdblquote said parliament member Abdulrazzaq Al-Hijri of the recent escalation in violence. Former Iranian President Abou El Hassan Bani Sadr, who took part in the anti-Shah student movement during the early 1960s, said in an interesting interview with Euronews: \ldblquote If the movement continues the way it does the repressive forces will not shoot into the crowd.\rdblquote \ldblquote But greenery is not just trees,\rdblquote Former Green Line president Salman Abbas explained, \ldblquote Parents don\rquote t take their children out to play in the streets. A public space means the social concept of making room for children to play outdoors and providing people a space to relax and get away from their crowded everyday life.\rdblquote Speaking at the opening in Dakar of the Symposium on the United States of Africa, he said: Europe's strategy is crystal clear. It consists, through the establishment of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM), in cutting off North Africa from the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. The country's regime has no choice but to return to the principles of the constitution and if it does not, then people will force it to return, Mr Mousavi said. The more people you arrest, the more the movement will spread. The killings and arrests are a catastrophe, people will not forgive those behind such crimes. \ldblquote We need to understand better how words are taken because this sort of thing is wrong and must be ended,\rdblquote the elderly scholar said. \ldblquote What should happen is a discussion about the work, not the man. By simply condemning the writer for his words will not create a society that thinks deeply about their faith.\rdblquote Beautiful. A McAfee spokesman said that his company is already working well and competing against free antivirus offerings already on the market. Three years ago, Microsoft entered that market with Live OneCare, which turned out to be a commercial flop. It announced plans in November to kill that product suite, saying it would launch the free Morro service by the end of 2009. Syrian blogger Maysaloon says: 'Now perhaps I am being a little slow, but how could the causes that he identified earlier have anything to do with Islam when they are actually caused by the shambolic (and very very secular) governments of the Arab world.' Muallem said that the talks are not to be used as a cover to launch attacks on Lebanon or Gaza. The king has repeatedly said that the sky is the limit when it comes to freedom of expression but still we see such cases getting to court and such sentences passed down.Another stump on creativity. Till when? Ahmed Tibi said: \ldblquote It's an attempt to rewrite the history of the area and to ensure one narrative which is the Zionist narrative. By all means we will continue to commemorate the Nakba every year.\rdblquote Ahmadinejad said his critics will not succeed in harming his relationship with Khamenei: \ldblquote Your efforts will bear no fruit. This road is closed for those devils who dream about harming our relationship. Their dream will be buried along with them.\rdblquote Ahmadinejad said that he would propose Fatemeh Ajorlou for the welfare and social security ministry and Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi for the health ministry. \ldblquote At least one other woman will be presented,\rdblquote he added. Another Iraqi academic told the LA Times that even with the emergence of this new political platform, nothing is certain in the national elections in January: \ldblquote [The alliance] has got a new name, but it's the same faces and probably the same program. The election is wide open. Anything could happen. The situation is deteriorating by the day ... We are gravely concerned about the fate and well-being of the civilian population trapped inside the city, said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman of the Office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UBS said average property prices have already fallen at least 25% to approximately AED1400 per square foot, but anticipates that prices will become even more attractive in the second half of the year. This is a very elite sort of affair. Very few people get to see it, said Timur Goksel, a lecturer at the American University of Beirut who once proposed that the U.S. government should sponsor acts like Snoop Dogg as a public diplomacy tool. An event has to be steered toward a larger audience to have any public diplomacy effect. Israel has a sovereign right to decide how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions whether the United States agrees or not, Joe Biden, the US vice-president, has said. I saw the plane approach and then go away again, said Houmed Msaidie, the Comoros' former defence minister, who had gone to the airport to meet his mother-in-law. I just could not understand it. Khaled Meshaal, Hamas chief, says there is no plan to create an Islamic emirate in Gaza, according to the Gaza-based FPNP. Opening of the Armenia-Turkey border will reduce cost of Armenian exports specifically that of mining products, Transition Economies Institute expert Lev Freinkman said. \ldblquote Turkey has larger, competitive and attractive market.\rdblquote Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani said that a majority of people are of the opinion that the actual election results are different than what was officially announced. - Press TV said. If you take the case of Guantanamo, the day that you have access to ICRC archives, you will see that the ICRC's work to improve conditions of detention and treatment has been enormous, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president, Jakob Kellenberger told a news conference. The head of the Supreme Council for Egyptian antiquity, Zahi Hawass, has said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that the authorities have decided to ban tourists from several tombs and replace them with copies: including those of Nefertiti, Seti I and Tutankhamen, which were found intact and full of incredible treasures in 1922 by Briton Howard Carter. The Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told the delegation that it was time for the Palestinians to win their 'freedom and national rights guaranteed by international law,' according to this report in PNN. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said that Mr. Obama had decided to stop in Riyadh the evening of June 3 because he \ldblquote believes it\rquote s a chance to discuss a lot of important business.\rdblquote Zahi Hawass said humidity and fungus are eating into the walls of the royal tombs in the huge necropolis on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor, which is swamped daily by several thousand tourists. Many radical Islamic groups have utilized social networking sites such as Facebook in order to recruit, disseminate propaganda, and fundraise, according to Steve Emerson, terrorism expert and founder of the non-profit research group The Investigative Project on Terror. A veteran reporter once said that the good questions usually do not get any answers. That the Israeli spokeswoman is being evasive means that the report is absolutely true and that it did break the silence There are many things in our life that we would need to abandon if environmental concerns were to be taken in consideration, not just cars, said Ali.This is absolutely true, but there are two logical conclusions that you can reach from this - I fear Ali has picked the wrong one. Definitely, the next government of Karzai will include some violators of human rights, commanders and warlords, said Mohammad Qasim Akhgar, an Afghan writer and analyst. Too many things have changed today, especially with the reception Morocco's autonomy proposal for the Sahara has had on the international level, Mohammed Qassal, Deputy Chairman of the General Contracting Union in Morocco said. I think that things have started to change in Algeria as well for resolving the crisis and opening the borders. Mohyeldin said: There has been some criticism that Gaza has become a bastion or a safe place for a lot of foreign fighters ... and that is something that many here, in particular from Hamas, believe undermines Hamas's ability to rule. The Middle East director of Hum French civil aviation officials said 66 of the passengers were French. Three small babies were also on board, officials said. This is a serious flaw in IAF security, explained one IDF officer familiar with the results of the inspection. We need to view what happened as if spies succeeded in entering the base. - Jpost reports. Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie has said Iraq will not let Blackwater continue working in the country because of its poor reputation. A Web designer said that, the visit is related to the Egyptian portrait in front of the whole world. Egypt just wants to look the pioneer and leader of Arabs A Muslim commentator said on twitter that the sentence underscores the US. double standard practice Another resident said: We did not sleep since yesterday because of the huge numbers of shells targeting this neighborhood. We call upon God to end our ordeals. Tahran Bureau says that although Dastgerdi is the first female minister since the Islamic revolution, however she is not Iran\rquote s first female minister. Farokhroo Parsa was the minister of education in the second and third cabinet of Amir-Abbas Hoveida, where she became a minister in 1968. Mousavi said: Killing innocent people is condemned. The way the issue [Holocaust] was put forward [by Ahmadinejad] was incorrect. Suleiman said that the Israeli threats, repeated almost on a daily basis recently, expose the enemy government's tendentious intentions toward Lebanon. They call on us to work seriously to close ranks and speed up the formation of a national unity government, he said in a statement released by his office Tuesday. Nouri al-Maliki says that he hopes Iraq will give 15 billion cubic meters of gas annually to the Nabucco project Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the Palestinian cause is like our own, while al-Malki praised Chavez as the most popular leader in the Arab world, in part for his staunch support of Palestinians. Syrian Justice Minister Ahmad Hamoud Younes said: \ldblquote The number of wife killing has increased recently on the pretext of adultery, and the cancelled article number 548 of the penal law pardoned those crimes.\rdblquote Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the peace process: Essentially, we have not done a good enough job demonstrating to Israelis how our initiative can form part of a peace between equals in a trouble land holy to three great faiths. Itram Washah, coordinator of the video programme at the host orga Winning the competition is an opportunity for me to show that I'm rooted in the Middle East just as much as the other applicants. That Israel is for me what Morocco is for them, said Shlomi. Neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has said it fears instability in Yemen could allow it to become a launch pad for a revival of a 2003-2006 campaign by al Qaeda militants to topple the U.S.-allied ruling Al Saud family. JPost said: There are no guarantees the Arab world would move forward with steps of normalization toward Israel if Jerusalem declared a settlement freeze, according to assessments reaching Jerusalem, even though US President Barack Obama still believes he can convince Saudi King Abdullah to make some gesture toward Israel. A man was killed last week in Turkey for enforcing the smoking ban, I'd hate to be the one enforcing such a law in Iraq. It could be a potentially unifying point though I guess... The Sudanese journalist said that the application of this section of the criminal penal code is damaging to a girl\rquote s reputation in the Sudanese society. She disclosed that one of the girls was \ldblquote so terrified\rdblquote before the judge that she urinated on herself. Korean Committee of Space Technology said it is going to launch satellite for to serve mankind Blogger Zeinobia in her twit feed said: don't like the parts concerning minorities in Islamic world,especially in Egypt and Lebanon, I don't like ignoring the Israeli aggression. She also said:I don't like the part where he ignored the Israeli nuclear arsenal The [Iranian] government has realised that artists are capable of influencing the masses and especially the youth. That's why they are tracking us down, they are afraid of us.Said Iranian actress Negar Shaghaghi I am honored to lead Marrakech city hall, Mansouri said. I hope to be able to measure up to this new challenge. A court in Berlin said that he could name the child Jihad or Holy War of the type the Taliban wage against British and German soldiers in Afghanistan because it was an accepted Arabic first name term. Iran tells the US we will hold you responsible if Israel attacks.Now that seems a bit much..... The most surprising thing to me is how a person can kill a close relative, Rana Husseini told Wide Angle. Zeinobia said: Save UNESCO From Farouk Hosni, and I second her. Efforts are ongoing to release 9 foreigners, who the authorities say the Houthi rebels have kidnapped in Yemen's volatile province of Saada. - Said Saba news. SANA said that several top level Syrian officials were attending the Symposium including the Ministers of Culture, Information, and Telecommunications, in addition to the Vice President. DHL Express said the transactions, which were on behalf of its customers, involved correspondence, personal items or consumer goods, said spokesman Jonathan Baker. The U.S. government has not alleged that DHL transported shipments of strategic sensitivity to these countries, he added. The transactions, the company said, represented a tiny fraction of its business. Dar Al Khalij said that the reason behind delaying the release of this info was a fear of causing disturbance in Lebanon. LA Times reports, Camp Ashraf, as the facility is known, illustrates the complex relationship that has emerged between Iraq and its two biggest allies, the U.S. and Iran. The camp dates back to the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein invited the MEK to establish a presence in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Al Arabiya said that the attempt also aims at attracting foriegn investments into the country. Al Arabiya said that the attempt also aims at attracting foriegn investments into the country. Carole also told Le Parisien: I thought that it could enable me to enjoy the pleasure of bathing without uncovering myself, as Islam recommendsI just wanted to be able to swim in the pool with my children. I understand that it might shock people, but I am annoyed because I have been told that it is a political matter. Lubna in an interview with Al-Watan: I don't want a media battle with the Public Security Forces [Police] and when asked about the accusations made by the police she answers: Well in that case why weren't the men arrested too?http://www.alrakoba.com/news-action-show-id-11832.htm Shooting broke out late Friday in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott between armed men and police, hours before a presidential election was due, security sources said. One of the armed men was wounded and threatening to blow up an explosives-filled belt. Witnesses said another gunman was arrested while a third escaped. Reporters Without Borders said the move bodes ill not only for the union's independence but also for Tunisia's already extremely limited degree of press freedom. Nawara negm Twitter over Iran:She says: Though I do not like politicians I like both those who support Musavi and those who support Ahmedinijad because they are willing to go to the street to express their opinion both desrve respectوالله انا معجبة بالاتنين، انا مش باحب اي سياسيين، بس الناس اللي تنزل في الشارع عشان مبدأ، سواء انصار موسوي او نجاد يستاهلوا الاحترام On Sunday, Mohamad Khatami, the former reformist Iranian president, who is backing Mir Hussein Mousavi's candidacy in the Iranian presidential election, answered questions from the internet, including from bloggers, Facebook members and Twitter Blogger Bikya Masr writes: Mohamed Salmawy, a prominent writer, Chairman of the Egyptian Writers Union and the Arab Writers Union, said that Stock\rquote s article \ldblquote not only attacked Farouk Hosni, but it also attacked the Egyptian intellectuals and writers[ who] advocate non-normalization with Israel and who are opposing the Israeli policies Blogger Riemer Brouwer wrote his detailed speculations regarding the elections, he started his post saying: It's difficult not to get caught up in the predictions game, even though the dangers of that were apparent in 2005, when Michel Aoun turned most forecasts to mush. This time, however, things appear to be different. the ynetnews.com has interviewed experts who said that Iran's Jews to vote for Ahmadinejad although he's denied the Holocaust a number of times, and continues to threaten Israel, but the majority of Iran's 25,000 Jews are still expected to support the current president in Friday's elections. 'They want to be on the winning side,' experts explain Somali lawmakers at one time stood proclaiming \ldblquote God is great,\rdblquote after the announcement of the deputy speaker through a microphone. A team replaced the man's nose, palate and upper lip, along with some skin, muscles and nerves with those of a dead donor. The two men sold Skype to eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion Israeli blogger Ibn Ezra highlights parts of the report that caught his attention: What words can I put down as commentary for this? Mousavi just said his prayers @ the HQ and is moving toward ministry with 30000 supporters #iranElection This article has been human translated by Pazuzu_hsp. The BBC recently put together a really useful map of the battles being fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan, known irritatingly in foreign policy circles as the Af-Pak war. The Jordanian government on Monday criticized what it called the Israeli encroachment on Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem and other steps that sought to change the Arab nature of the eastern sector of the city, Kuwaiti health authorities quarantined the infected soldiers and tested them and gave them the suitable health care, according to Al Watan. Ebay has set a price tag of at least $1.7 billion for Skype. Bikya Masr covers the story, raising an interesting question: Is Egyptian society becoming more violent, as activists are warning? The New York Times highlights the French confusion over Islamic clothing and explains: A burqa is the all-enveloping cloak, often blue, with a woven grill over the eyes, that many Afghan women wear, and it is almost never seen in France. The niqab, often black, leaves the eyes uncovered. Randa's translated some comments from Al Mshaheer - linked above. Aljazeera interviewed Shahrazad, an Iranian blogger who is Tweeting the events in Tehran, about Twitter's role in the Iran protests. A Comedy Central blog takes a satirical look on the announcement and creates an interesting discussion @JavierMalagon: 200 years ago no one dream of reaching aristocracy level, today everybody wants to be famous and it is possible. Blame youtube #TED Never before the expectations of what human beings should achieve with little have been so high #TED Few years ago that was thought as Sci-fi, now its really happening. What's impossible in front of science? The Palestinian Liberation Organization has officially accepted the two-state solution since November of 1988 if the Palestinian state is built on the entire area of the West Bank, something that seems near to impossible if the nearly 200 illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank remain intact. Dozens of people have been killed in multiple explosions around Iraq in the worst day of violence since US forces withdrew form Iraqi towns and cities last week.Several attacks in Baghdad have left at least 8 dead, however the most deadly attack took place in the northern town of Talafar, near Mosul, where a double suicide bombing is estimated to have killed at least 34 people. Benedict XVI's visit to the Middle East may be a 'pilgrimage', but it is also a political opportunity. Doesn't seem like the best way to protest your innocence, but the Khaleej Times reports that one of the accused shouted out 'We are at your command Nasrallah' while in court. We may need to change the intro on this - Mubarak has now clarified his comments. A decision is still out on his candidacy for 2011. HTA may pretend to be a sunni movement, but I am sure that no sunni belief calls for killing innocent people or even using violence to call for Islamic unity. This may at least put an end to lazy US analysts and politicians who all too often bundle Hamas, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood together (I'm looking at you Mitt Romney) This could mean big trouble, and after Khamenei's earlier threats wouldn't come as a surprise. Some might be interested in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments yesterday (May 19) about US humanitarian aid to Pakistan. She held a press briefing on this topic. The full responses are at the URL below It might be worthwhile for a conference concerend with bottom-up knowledge production to allocate a session on learning and knowledge exchange practices that are not necessarily based on new media technlogies. If not then I fear the conference might just be another fair for new-media products, even if they are open-source. And it might not be long before US troops in Iraq are facing the same issue either \endash a new study by the Pentagon recommends a complete ban on tobacco products for all military personnel. Lieberman's party proposes ban on Arab nakba.It really is scary that this group are so close to power. he United States, hailing a national mood change against the Taliban in Pakistan, offered humanitarian aid for civilians fleeing a Pakistani military offensive to crush the militants. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled 110 million dollars in emergency aid to show US support for the Pakistani people, their democratically-elected leaders and opposition party leaders. Turkey's application to accede to the European Union (previously the European Communities) was made on 14 April 1987, and still the membership bid is surrounded by a lot of controversy. Readers of the Saudi Al Watan are pretty happy to hear of Al-Zaidi's impending release. Review of the film on Rotten tomatoes: A portrait of our times painted from an immigrant's mirror, Amreeka should be seen by every American. The government of the Maldives decided to let Islamist parties organize to prevent them from going underground. A humiliating story for the UK government, but a great example of some of the privacy issues surrounding Facebook. Great piece from Bikya Masr on the story with an excellent opinion from Gamal al Banna - brother of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan: these fatwas give a bad impression of Islam and are not conducive to opening a conversation between people over the role of religion in daily life. Most telephone lines down, internet down. Basij being attacked and shooting throughout Tehran. #iranelection #iranelections #Tehran #Azadi Khelil played down an increase in price saying it would be difficult in the current economic climate, but believed that between $50 and $55 a barrel was achievable. Check out their interview with key WEF personalities like Saed Erekat and Rami Khouri Al Jazeera English: The defence said Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam's mostly Sunni Muslim inner circle, had spent most of his time on diplomatic missions outside Iraq and was not involved in atrocities. The verdict against Mr Aziz was a political decision, Badee Izzat Aref, one of his lawyers, said. Al Jazeera reports on the IAEA findings in Syria. Somar from the Syrian Talk blog was looking forward to the boycott campaign since it was one of the first mass protests by Syrian youth. The final evening celebration was so hard, as the Israeli soldiers locked it and the British Council invited the Palfest to be hold in. This fest shows the great suffering and struggling of the Palestinians living their daily life. Cheb Mami was one of a group who abducted and beat the woman in the Algerian capital, Algiers, in 2005. Still pregnant They said she came to Algeria believing she was on a business trip, a few days after telling Cheb Mami that she was pregnant. She said that she was drugged and taken to a villa in Algiers. There, three people tried to perform an abortion. Reports were initially conflicting on the number of casualties and fatalities and there is yet no word on the cause of the crash. Karen's TED Prize wish was to create a Charter for Compassion. It's going to be launched on 27th September along with the Dalai Lama, streamed live at TED of course. The Bush administration had refused to release the photographs, saying they could generate anti-American outrage and may violate the country's obligations to the detainees under the Geneva Conventions. Is it concerning that Daniel Williams' article has found its way onto the US Copts Association website? Are there Egyptian Copts out there who do not share his view? Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little is a cut above most chapter books. Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little is a humorous chapter book about a nine-year-old year who procrastinates about doing an assignment - reading the book Stuart Little - and come up with some wildly imaginative ways to avoid reading Stuart Little. Persiankiwi from Tehran posted [ 08:39 GMT] : hospital source - please give blood - severe shortage in all hospitals - #Iranelection Robert Tait writes in the Guardian: It sounds like the beginning of a joke: what do you get when you put a Muslim imam, a Greek Orthodox priest, a rabbi, a Buddhist monk and 10 atheists in the same room? Viewers of Turkish television will soon get the punchline when a new gameshow begins that offers a prize arguably greater than that offered by Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The Guardian's Stuart Jeffries says: Brush up your Hegel, SarkoIn this piece he distinguishes between abstract and concrete freedoms and frames Sarkozy's comments on the wearing of the burka in such terms. Philosophical and well worth a read! The Istanbulian journalist Emre Kizilkaya wrote his thoughts and impressions on the mosque in a blog post. ahmed esmat wrote on Twitter: The thing is that the European media isn't covering the murder of the Egyptian Dr. Marwa in Germany.Now let's talk about fairness. Adrian Hamilton writes in The Independent that What is wrong is what we want elections to achieve in places such as Afghanistan: The joke circulating Afghanistan is that the election results have now been declared and that Ahmadinejad has won with 42 million votes. Judging from the video, it would appear that the rumors that Microsoft plans to attack Google (Google reviews) in their upcoming ad campaign are well-founded. For example, the line \ldblquote telling you we found 47 million links isn\rquote t always a great response to your query\rdblquote is a clear shot at Google\rquote s results.- Adam Ostrow from Mashable wrote. Ben Parr posts #IranElection Crisis: A Social Media Timeline Doug Coleman write in Read/Write Web that according to Radio Free Europe, Facebook is the 10th most popular site in Iran and political activists are becoming increasingly active on the site, and that this is not the first time Iran has blocked Facebook. Written on the website GreenForIran an announcement for 20th of June protest:Iran 4pm Enghelab Sq. to Azadi Sq.Please join Mousavi, Khatami, Karoubi and others for The Protest. Henry McDonald writes in The Guardian about the lessons the British government can learn from the historical peace talks in Northern Ireland. He says the most important question is 'whether there are elements of the Taliban who are as rational and pragmatic as the key figures in the Provisional IRA turned out to be.' The Iranian authorities have imposed harsh restrictions on foreign media, confining journalists to their hotel rooms and workplaces and shutting down offices of news organizations. Arab media was not exempt from harassment, but like all things Iranian in the Middle East, the opinion is always divided. - Alexandra Sandels wrote for Menassat Donatella Della Ratta has put up a blog post at Media Oriente: PA and Jazeera have historically not gotten along, this latest controversy ends up simply generating more PR for Jazeera. shahrzadmo wrote on Twitter [10:00 GMT] : Parsine: Mousavi resigned from all governmental positions #iranelection The BBC's report on the story: Moneer Said Hanna's family said he wrote satirical poetry for fun, to entertain his work colleagues, and never meant to hurt anyone. The case was largely unknown until the family asked a newspaper to publish an appeal for clemency. Al Arabiya reports on the book being distributed to mosques that the Egyptian government hopes will educate society about sexual harassment. The New York Times writes about few lessons learnt about the strengths and weaknesses of Twitter based on the latest events in Iran. Kathy Riordan wrote about Neda, the 16-year old Iranian who was shot dead in the street in Tehran, on the 20th of June while watching the protests with her father.The video of her last moments was circulating intensively online, causing lots of people -like Kathy- believe Neda will become the face of a revolution. monaeltahawy wrote on Twitter [06:44 GMT] : Silence of Arab regimes is deafening. Surprise! For ordinary Arabs: will they catch the contagion of Iranian courage? #iranelection Melissa J. Perenson writes in PC World her thoughts comparing physical ownership to purchase in the digital realm. There will also be instituiotns and individuals on both sides who seek to thwart the progress. In a world where security interests often trump respect for human rights, the US should make sure it does not forget the Iranian people in order to improve relations with the Iranian government. An earlier report says some 3,000 job seekers succeeded in finding employment at the 2009 Jordan job fair and Training Expo A report published in March revealed that the government invested $1,100 in each Jewish pupil\rquote s education compared to $190 for each Arab pupil. The gap is even wider when compared to the popular state-run religious schools, where Jewish pupils receive nine times more funding than Arab pupils. As an Arab, I am amazed to see some other nation who believe they are not dead. People are fighting for what they think is right. They didn't give in. They are not afraid..I am impressed and amazed.. and wish so bad such liveliness would be transferred to our nations someday.. All focus now on that meeting tomorrow with the three losers - what will Mousavi say? He's in a corner for sure. I just wanted to say that George:Israeli killed lots of the innocent Palestinians, and destroyed many buildings and the main infrastructure of Palestine, then why, if true, to make it forbidden for some Palestinians to do some thing similar though only online. Nice stuff from Mr.Fry: @eRomanme: the real mistery of life is in the visible not in the invisible. Fry. #tedglobal How many lives can be saved if more money can be allocated for medical research instead of waging wars? How many times I heard the words clarity and transparency. I really wish he'd be unlike the rest. How long will it be for Obama's dream of a peaceful and prosperous Iraq to become a reality? The poll also shows that many inside Pakistan, like many in the West, are against the US drone attacks in the tribal regions. 67 per cent opposed US military action on Pakistani soil - showing that Obama will have a fight on his hands to continue using drones. Recently, a Sarajevo-based publishing house created 613 replicas of the Haggadah, to distribute them around the to all faiths at book fairs across Sarajevo so that locals can see how a Jewish religious text united Christians and Muslims in even the direst of circumstances And France says it is a liberal country.. I wonder in what sense now, when the simplest basics of freedom of choice doesn't exit.I don't like burka myself, and will never wear it.. but I should however accept if somebody chooses to wear it. There are interesting parallels about how OBL\rquote s statements can translate into important and real policy implications. For instance, many followers said that they became religious only after joining the movement. From the Israeli Newspaper haartez : Like Beaufort and Waltz with Bashir, two of the more prominent Israeli films of the last decade, Lebanon is based on events that took place in the first Lebanon War. Maoz, who wrote and directed the film, served in the war as a combat soldier. This week The Economist also published a special report on the Arab world to coincide with the release of the AHDR, here's a look at what has changed since their last special report on the region in 1990. As we say on the basketball court in my neighborhood: No harm no foul! I think it's a purely symbolic act until the shoe hits the face. Perhaps that's not fair generally, but in this case it was such a strong political statement, and so little physical harm intended. Having used Maren a little bit, I think it's fairly intuitive - although I've never been an expert at romanized Arabic. It does seem to have messed with my Arabic keyboard selection though...... Be sure to add http://discuss.barcampuae.org/ to your favorites, that page will be the BarCamp UAE idea nerve center until the event commences. Powered by IdeaScale, the site allows you to register your ideas for discussion (and everyone who attends BarCamp should have something to discuss!), and allows others to vote/comment on the same. I was just in my local supermarket in downtown Cairo, when this news came on the TV, causing considerably more outrage and anger amongst the customers than what followed immediately - Netenyahu's renewed refusal to freeze settlement construction. I think what Ghaydaa said is certainly true: the incident has ballooned into becoming a national and political issue in Egypt. KOKHAV HASHAHAR, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli police evicted Jewish settlers from a West Bank hilltop on Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from Washington, where he was To be a Jew is not a crime to be killed for, and so to be a Muslim too.Let religion and religious rituals out of your dispute How does piracy in the Indian Ocean affect geopolitical concerns in the Middle East? What do the realities look like? On the one hand, progress in Turkey, Indonesia, potentially in Iraq. But we also see backslide in Iran, Pakistan, and elsewhere… Elections have taken place and that gives us hope, but it is often a process where the government retains power or where the military does or intervenes. How to get involved with Sharek - Report the news of what's happening with the Lebanon Elections from north to south, east to west. How did Kuwaiti authorities allow half a million people registered with bogus companies in? DId they just not notice or did they turn a blind eye? I think the Bahraini policy of banning the sponsor system will be far more successful than mass deportation in the long term. How will Iran's claims to have broken a spy network accused of seeking information on its nuclear program impact on Western fears over Iran's nuclear ambitions? How would the Arab countries respond to that - especially that they depend primarily on the income they receive from selling crude oil. How will Israel accept the establishment of a Palestinian State given the issue of settlements? Is American strategic interest in line with Israeli interest? How will Western governments respond? Will they be tempted to support and perpetuate the regimes? What George W. Bush ran into: don\rquote t announce you\rquote ll promote self-determination and democracy because the risk is that you\rquote ll reinforce that the West and those who promote greater participation are being hypocritical if you aren\rquote t willing to \ldblquote allow\rdblquote the results of self-determination. How does the chief justice's order differ from Frech President Nicolas Sarkozy statements about possibly banning the niqab? Should governments or public authorities be allowed to prescribe citizens' dress codes? How can Sony rediscover its flair? How can USA fights terrorism and permits it to spread at the same time. I remember a word for an American official in the voice of America during 11 sept. attacks. he said: Bin Ladin is the monster that we created. How can we have projects without talks?If people do not feel and believe in the harmony between different religions, then it will never happen!Talk is cheap, but working on it is hard.. and may lead to more clashes if its not built on deep understanding - or at least I think so. How should the pro-Syrian opposition respond to the latest attack? Keyvan Nayyeri#IranElection is a disaster for liberty & honesty in the world. No one and no mechanism has stopped Ahmadinejad from lying and fraud! Whatever happens with the choice of candidates tomorrow, Iranian nationalism will not be dimmed, and the West will have to deal with what it has. Iranians may disagree about much, but the pride and place of its position in Middle Eastern politics is irrefutable. And that, it would seem, will include the continuation of the nuclear program, peaceful or otherwise. How to limit your exposure:One of the ways to lessen the chances of coming in contact with the source of a current virus or bacteria, whatever that may be at that time, is to be suspect about where our food comes from and how it was harvested and processed - GroundReport blog. Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty: Many experts are claiming that the margin of victory was the result of fraud or manipulation, but our nationwide public opinion survey of Iranians three weeks before the vote showed Ahmadinejad leading by a more than 2 to 1 margin. Q&A: Deadly ethnic riots in China's northwest Can't wait to see what Mousavi says - this is political high drama I can not be with or against without a proof!!! I do not really believe Israel will attack Iran at this time, and for many reasons.. one of which the long distance between Iran and Israel, and secondly because there is no clear reason to do so now in the first place..What I am dead sure of however, is that Israel is planning for something else, and this play is to divert people's attention.. I can't wait for this option because I face this problem myself - I feel exposed with all my opinions concerning politics for example, that might not be accepted within my company or between certain group of friends.I wish I'd feel more safe then.. I still don't understand how could they doubt women's ability to lead. Wasn't Queen Belqees mentioned in the Quran to be a wise and fair ruler at her time?.. are we going forward or backward?! I can't wait to have my personalized URL! Not to undermine the severity of what happened, but the incident has ballooned into becoming a national and political issue in Egypt. There is no conspiracy against Islam here, its nothing more than a hate crime conducted by a racist individual.Hate crimes happen every minute, and racist individuals exist everywhere - even in Egypt. no, it will not. US uses the nuclear power as a reason to impose more sanctions on Iran. And both Mousavi and Ahmedinajad are perusing the same program.. so no difference with external relations with Iran will been seen whether it is any of both. The whole matter may not be related to Europe, or the target country. It is mostly related to the emigrants' living levels which go beyond the recognized poverty global levels, whether they are from MENA or Africa in general Somalia has not had a functional government since its dictator was overthrown by warlords in 1991. Poverty has driven a large number of locals to piracy, while black market sales of weapons run rampant. I have been trying to find out WHERE the satellite was made. Given that I am from the Arabsat generation, I am still waiting for an indigenously designed, built satellite to be launched by any Arab state. I'm still not convinced ebooks are any good at all, regardless of who is making them. Juan, it is undeniable that Obama has a way of connecting with people. In this he is truly a global leader for this global generation. Nothing remarkable about this article, I just like the idea of Egypt's number one guessing game With all the crackdown of the Egyptian police on activists it's no wonder the turn out was low. One can only hope that this power and oil struggle ends with what's best for the Malagasy people. The outlook is grim. it doesn't matter whether he was a celebrity, as long as he is a human being and did that horrible thing, he and anyone else like him, deserve what he got, 'There is no doubt that the name of the Iranian sea will be never changed since changing the historical name of a place is a political move which casts doubt on territorial integrity and identity of Iranians, Khatami told reporters after Persian Gulf meeting for arrangement of Persian Gulf encyclopedia in Tehran Wednesday' The RSF's list of the 13 so-called Internet Enemies A list of major attacks in Iraq since Jan. 1 by AP The focus of discussion is not to make out Sectarian strife among countries or peoples. It is just to clarify that dressings are related to freedom of belief, let every one wear whatever he-she wants. I do not think this will anything but to confirm the perception of Israel's never ending maneuvering when it comes to a peaceful Middle East.I hope that one day Israel will reveal their vision of what they believe is an appropriate peace in the Middle East Whoever the winner is,8 March Coalition or 14 March Coalition, I believe the real winner is the Lebanese who won't stay passive but will all take to the constituencies to cast their ballots. Their enthusiasm is unbeated.لا يهم إذا كان الفائز هو كتلة 14 آذار أم 8 آذار. الفائز الحقيقي هو الشعب اللبناني الذي لا يبقى ساكنا بل يسرع إلى الدوائر الانتخابية. إن حماستهم لا مثيل لها. To Catch up Queen Rania's updates on Twitter, follow her Twitter account. Will at KABOBfest has some interesting thoughts on the story. He says the dog\rquote s name \ldblquote is clearly to mock Sadat and elicit cheap laughs. But I am not sure it is intended to demean Arabs. I am not even sure if most viewers know that Sadat or Egyptians are Arab.\rdblquote We now have translations coming in from @PouyanA @Sheri789 @xsam0 @Fashishy @Sarehs @Danamainz on Twitter. Hey Lasto - these sources are German, Amerian and Russian - any sources from Libya itself to see what's being said there? I'm not sure how this move would address the key concern of the opposition - that the election was rigged. I'm not sure I understand the issue. Saudi schools are segregated. So, how is harassment is an issue at schools? Not sure about the 'Is Nigeria the next Somalia?' headline, but a post on the Jawa Report claims that Nigerians have been spammed with emails from 'Al Qaeda's Somali affiliate' I'm not convinced, it sounds a lot like hearsay. I wouldn't put it past the Egyptian government though.... اPeace upon you .... , يوفقج, Doctor... And الفبركة to make immediate pant that the current did declared bankrupt after the advisory opinion of the Scientific Salafi Movement pant «joongang» the problem of the danger they might be, يوفقج and the promise of 16. Israel has always insisted that Palestinians involved in killing Israelis will never be released. This change is seen by observers as a retreat. Lotfan on Twitter:Please RT: Demonstrators should not gather in a single main spot, they should spread around #iranelection #gr88CONFIRMED: Riot police, brought from other cities, have been settled in Shiroudi stadium south of 7 tir square Perhaps this puts an end to the Muslim Brotherhood idea of a US conspiracy to oust Egypt from international influence. Hmm. This is the case with bad deeds and misbehaves that we control and we do ourselves, but what about other condemnations because of the government regarding our dignity !!! Four years were needed to prove that Mohammad has nothing to do with the alleged dirty bomb affair It's a wrap up here for today. More exciting stuff to come tomorrow. I shivered when I saw the video - I didn't expect such beautiful voice. We should never judge people by the looks. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, the question remains is the Gaza Strip liberated or transformed from an occupied territory into an open air prison? ghida Fakhry has just wrapped up so I'm going to eat - haven't yet had breakfast or even lunch... man the hunger. 'It got to the point they all sounded alike' - participant airs her views The inquiry has become a politically-loaded guessing game, with some advocating criminal charges against the lawyers and others urging that the matter be dropped. Dr. Shaheed dedicated the award to everyone in the Maldives, to his family, to his colleagues in the former cabinet who joined him in creating a more democratic Maldives. To the current president for relentlessly challenging autocratic order, and to the outgoing president for having the good grace to step down after he lost the election. It starts with women and may end with men!!!!!!! Arabs started to be sceptical about Obama's presidency. These phone calls will probably revive faith in Obama as a symbol of change. The results of the contest were announced last week. And one of the contest's judges, Erik Lindner, said Shlomi's concerns about using her real name were unfounded. Poems were judged on style and language, not theme or name - the Jerusalem Post reported. The Muslim Democrat of the Year Award for 2009 is being presented to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed. Their selection during the recent Gaza war instantly made them - Awad, especially - targets of the country's hard-line left and hard-line right. Both said it was wrong for them to represent the country and called on the duo to quit the competitio women in Jordan have achieved a great deal in progress almost in all major sectors . Moreover , women in higher education are in the forefront in Arabic countries.Their enrollment in universities are higher than men .The same applies in schools and all education centres in Jordan . The people paid a heavy price and society is looking for someone to express its views clearly. - the writer, director and star of a new play about life in Gaza. We're back here for day 2 of the Creative Commons workshop. Joi has started off by talking about searchability of websites and blogs and how these days its very important to attract traffic to your site, legitimately. Good writing, human readable constant URLs and getting people to link to your site will all increase your page rank. Yesterday I visited \ldblquote The Freedom Theatre\rdblquote in Jenin, together with Michael Palin and other members of the Palfest Delegation. The visit, and the work we did together confirmed what I already knew: political resistance without the support of culturally expressed resistance, w I shared this elsewhere, but it seems everyone wants to have their say:Briget Bardot appeals against Egyptian swine flu slaughter I have seen some eastern Christians separate the sexes. It seems a bit strange to me as a westerner, but I think it would be the height of rudeness to comment on it. I chalk it up to cultural differences, not religious ones. Of course, in Islam it can be much harder to draw that line between religion and culture. 'The defendants looked shocked at the verdict and relatives of Hisham Talaat Moustafa jostled with reporters to prevent them photographing his reaction. ' The man, who asked not to be named, has lived in Sheffield for four years, but is not allowed to work despite speaking fluent English because his application has not been determined. 2:59 Pazuzu: And we're back again with tutorials about the things that we will be using during the training, we are learning how to use moodle, google search, google groups and google calendar We're back ...Joi is talking about The Stack:EthernetTCP/IP HTTP/The Webcreative commons We're back from our break and Majd is showing us her online TV channel http://www.aramram.com called Aramram. It's Arabic-language content for now, but they may add other languages if there is enough demand. Joi is giving her some good pointers about keeping the main page less graphic-heavy so it takes less time to load. I understood that LBC was Saudi owned. Is that why the government has decided only to close its offices in Jeddah rather than ban the channel completely in Saudi Arabia?http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?c=3 Thoroughly excellent analysis of the speech by Abu Aardvark, who also promises a review of Arab media responses in the next couple of days. Clear and well written, he seems to thing Obama did a good job yesterday, whilst also warning that English language Egyptian blogs may not be the most representative way to gauge Arab public opinion. American schools have worked wonders for the region's elites. Now we must raise the standard of education for all. I posted this article here to give another example of censorship in the Kingdom. I am told the key hashtag is #iranelection - whereas the Lebanese elections were #lebanonelections ... confusion over the hashtags here it seems to me. We should just use keywords. Jim fitzpatrick is a rude ungracious wedding guest who criticised a muslim wedding he was invited to for being segregated then left. Rude Banning religious symbols isn't an uncommon practice in Europe. France banned them in public schools, effectively forcing Muslim women to chose between wearing their hijab and attending public school. Turkey did them same for higher education institutions, which means if you were a female who wore her hijaab throughout high school, you have to take it off in order to attend college. For me this was a powerful and balanced speech that wouldn't have been half as effective if it was delivered by any other US president. His own personal story and multi-cultural background makes him more real and his message more approachable. Saudi businesswoman Banaja has been at the forefront of an ongoing campaign against the requirement for businesses to have male director-generals, a movement she helped to launch two months ago, according to Gulf News. This is a horrible interview. Israeli spokeswoman hasn't answered a single question and has just claimed that 75% of casualties in Gaza war were Hamas. She refuses to deal with the Breaking the Silence report as the soldiers remained anonymous and there is therefore nothing provable. I was surprised to see that people in parts of Cairo felt this earthquake quite strongly (Dokki), whilst in other parts they felt nothing (Abdeen, Mohandisseen, Nasr City). The speech has been described by the White House as an important step forward and a welcome answer to President Obama\rquote s address to the Muslim world ten days ago. Twitter snapshots and running notes of some of the action from yesterday's session. I wish they'd put up more videos though. For all those interested in an in depth analysis of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Karim Sadjadpour's profile of on of the world's least understood leaders is required reading. I wonder how many of these deported workers are Egyptians ? Many of them paid handsome somes of money just to get to Kuwait. Though it might be a sound decision yet it is tragic and will have latter on some serious conscequences in the Egyptian community. But some good news? The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, who joined forces with AQIM in 2007, has decided indiscriminate violence does not achieve much. But will the current PR success last for drones? One of the reasons for the public outcry in January was the use of UAVs by the Israeli military in Gaza and there were countless reports of civilians being hit by missiles fired by drones. But if a war has to be fought, would you prefer the weapon of choice to be drones or cluster bombs? To clarify this is a search on @palfest - I'm now going to add a search on palfest to include @palfest tweets. i couldn't complete his speech..5 mins and he started to say the old known words I wasn't tempted to get the new radiohead album, i've never been a big fan of radiohead as it always makes me depressed! I guess it shows that i get emotionally involved in their music but that doesnt mean i like it ;) I've never been a huge fan of Bremner, but the TED crowd seem to be loving it... In fact, the TED crowd have seemed to love everything they've seen - has it all been that good or is everyone just being nice? Anglo-Libyan blogs is not thrilled by Al Megrahi's reception in Libya and argues that he is in fact a murderer that killed hundreds of Libyans in prison since he was working with the Libyan intelligence. Not all countries embraced the event. While some international companies will individually dim lights, the only two Group of 20 nations not participating were Japan and Saudi Arabia, according to the Earth Hour organizers. Egypt hasn\rquote t witnessed a major militant attack since bombings in the Sinai resorts of Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab between 2004 and 2006. Those attacks killed more than 150 Egyptians and foreign tourists. The Egyptian government has not released any figures. The Egyptian consulate in Israel said the issue was too sensitive to comment on, while Israeli officials could not be reached for comment. The network has not imposed a comprehensive ban on Hamas sympathizers, though, and several other Haniyeh fan groups continue to operate. Bird flu was not only a fatal disease, but it was an economic problem specially in agricultural communities. None of the tv news networks are discussing #IranElection the writer of these line also said to twitter users Sry to anyone who is frustrated/confused by my tweets. Yes, I'm Iranian, Yes, I have tons of family there, and Yes, I'm very concerned. Whether or not the Swedish paper\rquote s accusations are genuine is yet to be revealed. However, one fact has already been established: after so many years of Western inclination to dance to the relentless crying violin of the Jewish melancholic victim serenade, the Western media is now changing its appetite, it is willing to confront Jewish institutional crime. One member of the Egyptian-American Business Council doesn't expect too much pressure to be put on Mubarak: I think President Obama is adopting the attitude of \lquote it\rquote s none of my business\rquote , or in other words, he understands the circumstances of each country, and he won\rquote t use democracy and internal issues to pressure the regime. The death penalty is not proven to be a deterrent, and is often wrongly applied. Netanyahu never uttered the term \ldblquote Palestinian State\rdblquote yet he withdrew form Hebron in 1997 Obama made no mention of the violence Israel has inflicted upon Palestinians, only the reverse. Obama did not swear on the Bible this time! Why doesn't the Egyptian government do the same? Why would this name not be acceptable? That's what's perplexing. It shows how misunderstood the term / name Jihad is. Why wasn't I surprized after I read this news?.. Nothing really works between Arabs? is this that true? Why we use the western rap and the West does not use our oriental music Why would calling your mother to tell her you loved her imply you were about to commit murder? I better watch out what I say on the phone. Why the photos should be released, by Clive Staffor Smith in The Guardian:We can't learn from history if evidence is suppressed why is there a cnn headline news channel when 90% of the it's entertainment news? Further details of The Elders\rquote visit will be available in coming weeks. To keep up to date with all of their activities please go to our connect page. Media representatives who wish to be kept informed are kindly asked to use the media contact form. Whose benefit that results from this flow of attacks,.......USA, Sunna, Shiaa, Iran or whom. can any body tell me? I won't say I'm optimistic about how authentic this discussion will be, but it's good to see Gamal trying. Egypt was one of the last places I thought I'd see an Obama-isation of politics. The vast majority in Israel would not support a One-State Solution, most of them support Two-States, however, what is are the specifications of this \ldblquote Independent Palestinian State?\rdblquote The UEA won't be the first country in the Middle East to embrace women's football: Israel, Egypt and Morocco all have national teams and since 2003 there has even been a Palestinian women's side. if something like this will be banned then.. stop the crouds from useing the busses and to pray in puplic and close many puplic places around the city ... why its just the ramadan banquetsi doubt the purposes behind this If only all the US no-bid contracts for re-building Iraq had been handled in this public of a manner, perhaps more would have been done. Despite being a bit of a crude idea, I do hope that encouraging such openness in government & contracting will create a fair & competitive environment that benefits Iraqis. If I were Pakistani, the threat I'd be worrying most about is the economy: The International Monetary Fund on Friday boosted a loan extended to Pakistan late last year by $3.2 billion, bringing the total value of the aid package pledged to the South Asian nation to approximately $11.3 billion. lozahRT @Ssirgany Great analysis on #iranelection by @aslanmedia Iran's Riveting Political Drama http://bit.ly/UBsT7 I find myself having basically no real opinion regarding this. It seems like part of the usual media circus, a pretty ineffective act, even politically, and it doesn't speak very well to the horror that we have created in Iraq. It's not easy to put aside worries when basic food prices jump during Ramadan, as is apparently the case in Syria according to Al Watan. regarding women sports, it is not forbidden for recreation. It is in religion. But be careful, it is not permitted for men to see women in such situations. This my caution. It's hardly surprising that the US wants to get out of Iraq as quickly aspossilble though, since their casualties currently stand at 4,329 - and Obama has decided the focus should be on Afghanistan. What better way to raise awareness of the issue than through mosque Imams? Egyptians are known to be some of the most religious people in the world. I'm happy to see this initiative which addresses a growing concern in Egyptian streets through practical means; the approach should be able to reach a wide audience. It's not the state's job to censor media. Those who protested the Danish cartoons should take note. Once again a Scandinavian country is taking a line that seems to support free media, though this time it is the Israelis who are angry. Great link Tania - thanks for sharing. What evidence is there of foreign pressure on Marrakesh to have a female mayor? What will Lawand Hajo be remembered for in Syria? What forces people risk so much for a better life away from home and rather in Europe? What's next for Iran? What\rquote s the issue that emerges? In light of Gaza, what can people expect to look for, how cynical will they be? I challenge anyone to name five Muslims who have significant positions within the current administration. There have to be certain signals and follow-ups on that. What impact can broadband, internet access and social media tools have on countries in the Middle East? What is most important for evaluating 'gender equality'? What impact does the current political crisis in Iran have on the Arab world? What impact or danger does stories like this pose to actual journalists currently working in conflict zones? What does the Muslim Brotherhood think of this series? what is the need of blaiming the Islamic ladies who wear religious dress, Who stated that the Hijab is not sign of Islam, its the fact some of bit knowledge religious persons are declared about the one. And what does politics got to do with technology? I totally believe, Microsoft decision is unjustified. How does the Spanish windpipe transplant rate alongside recent scientific breakthroughs? What's Zeinobia's source on these secret negotiations? Wael Al Abrashi? What's Zeinobia's source on these secret negotiations? Wael Al Abrashi? What would the implications of your position be for services in which the state is involved, such as teaching and nursing? Should women wearing the burqa be allowed to teach in French schools? Regardless thereligion, what is the difference between the death of Marwa El Sherbeiny in Germany and Halimi in France? I think both are because of Nazism. What is the extent of the sectarian divisions in Yemen? What would be the future of the peace process under Netanyahu's administration? In what way would it be in the interest of the child to stay married to her father\rquote s friend? asks Saudiwoman's blog What qualities do you think are most important in a novel? What is happening in Swat will be likely seen as a real litmus test of Barack Obama's ability to limit the Taliban whilst bringing the Muslim world behind his policies for the region. What is even more puzzling than the international feminist silence is the Arab silence. It is difficult to find Arabic and/or muslim resources on the subject, outside the sudanese circle. What could Obama do to broker negotiations? What do you think Shiite women in Afghanistan can do to have this law overturned? I understand it also bans women from leaving their homes without the permission of their husbands. What does this latest attack mean for global security? What are local Lebanese channels saying about this story? I'd be interested to compare Al Manar and Mustaqbal's coverage. What would it take for a president to bring about significant change, especially when you take into account what his/her partners will be? What can people around the world do to help alleviate the suffering in gaza? According to the American chamber of commerce in China, China remians one of the top three priorities for American investors. However, about third of American companies, working in China, expect a recession due to current economic slowdown. mastazi @cmhensch I hope this not being another Tiananmen Sq. But, sadly, I think it won't be another Berlin wall falling. #IranElections In theory, LBC should have pretty good relations with the authorities in Saudi Arabic since the network is backed financially by the Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is also a member of the Kingdom\rquote s Royal Family. Speaking outside Al-Hussein bin-Talal mosque in Amman, Benedict said that because of \ldblquote the burden of our common history so often marked by misunderstanding,\rdblquote Christians and Muslims alike should \ldblquote strive to be seen\rdblquote as faithful worshipers of God. Now talking about his project Papercraft: @TEDGlobal: Carlos Ulloa at #TED: When I see people using Papercraft, they forget they are using a browser. They are like children. @brainpicker: #TED Carlos Ulloa on is open-source project, Papervision 3D http://blog.papervision3d.org AMAZING If, or when, Jawad steps on to a plane back to Afghanistan he won't face any further incarceration, with one of his lawyers saying: The Afghan government has told us that they believe he has suffered enough and they don't have any plans to prosecute him. when we lose the reason to stay alive ? Like I always say, Give peace a chance. Still, Mr. Nur should spend more time supporting the President and his country. Who's side is he on, anyway? Attacks like this leave me speechless at the wanton destructiveness of mankind. just a hint: are all those who are against the results of the Iran elections get confirmed their opinions before judging? The nation's 50-seat parliament doesn't have the power to challenge Kuwait's ruling Sabah family, but it does have the power to slow up building projects and policy changes. The African Union Peace and Security Council said Friday that Rajoelina's rise to power \emdash backed by the military and the country's highest court \emdash is illegitimate, unconstitutional and could be interpreted as a coup, according to CBC News. Great package from the New York Times on the growing problem with a useful timeline-graphic. A gallery of pictures of some of Banksy's works on display in Bristol. An amazing collection of photographs of the Somali pirates and the battle to halt their operations. Our group (Criss, Farouq, Mohammad & Kareem) will be producing a video documentary on this workshop. We will be asking both students and faculty about their reasons for being here, their evaluations of the workshop and their group projects. The plan so far is to produce a clip of about 5 minutes, but this may change as circumstances dictate. Al Arabiya covers the Launch of Herdict in Arabic. Mohammad Khalfan al Rumaithi, the president of the women\rquote s football organisation, said: \ldblquote We would like women\rquote s football to be as successful in the UAE as men\rquote s. Our main objective is to create a league before 2012. Then a national team who can participate in Asia. Then maybe we can look to achieve worldwide exposure and aim towards the Olympic Games.\rdblquote Arab Democracy blog:This is a vibrant section of the country that should certainly be reckoned with, but they are probably a visible and noisy minority. This is a repetition of the heavily mediatised anti-Chavez rallies in Caracas a few years ago. Organised by the discredited elite and attended by the cosmopolitan middle class, Female maktoob blog discusses the issue in depth with various points of view Festival Blog: we'll be writing every evening of the festival to keep you up to date with what's going on. A blog post by Cairo based LA Times writer Amro Hassan reporting the story of the fatwa: While religious pundits hailed the authority's fatwa, moderate observers opposed the unprecedented attack. The Islamic Legislation Authority has never before issued a fatwa stating that a particular writer is a criminal and infidel. Another excellent live blog from Nico Pitney, really compelling reading. From the Babylon and Beyond blog: Maybe if we were leading normal lives I would consider giving up smoking, said Haidar Latif, 40, as he puffed on a cigarette in one of Baghdad's cafes. But we are facing tough times. Our minds are tired and we need to smoke. South/ South blog: \lquote This couldn\rquote t have happened because we all thought our candidate would win\rquote is not enough of a reason to use and re-use loaded political vocabulary about a major election in a developing Middle Eastern country. Great blog Mai - I think Obama's hard work actually begins now... Feminist Collective blog: most readers agree with their reasonings but some find it an overreaction Michael Tomasky's blog: The way the customs and normal practices were broken; the way the results were announced so prematurely; the way the internet and cell-phone capabilities were shut down; the way dissent is being shut down. These are anti-democratic practices to put it mildly, and they are hallmarks of coup-like behavior. Meedan's own blog comments on the landmark significance of the deal: Yahoo is making a big deal out of this - proving that the Arabic speaking world is seen as an important emerging player in the social web. But possibly it bucks a trend. Maktoob\rquote s founder points out that it is the first time an American tech and media company has acquired an Arab-grown tech and media company. News From Syria blog explain's the two-fold user suffering of censorship in Syria. Newsweek blog Wealth of the Nations - UNDP to Arab World: Make Stuff, Not War highlights the economic volatility of the region and high unemployment rates Notes from this morning's TED University sessions. AJE correspondent in Iran (lots of noise):Ahmadi supporters enjoyed the speech, emotions running high and Ahmadi supporters excited. Baseej militias will tighten security on the streets. A female correspondent of Dunya News, Maheen Usmani has recently resigned on protest of Sexual Harassment by Managing Director Yousuf Baig Mirza. Hi إكرامي - surely swine flu is a global pandemic now. It's not just coming from the USA, and many other countries other than Arab countries are battling to fight it. Hey Toleen, I was following the #gv09 conference on ScribbleLive the other day, it seems pretty simple and conducive to effective and timely live blogging- you can track Tweets and the hashtag - and it seemed to work on the TransBrowser, maybe give it a try for day 2 and post the feed link here?http://www.scribblelive.com/ HI Tomi, but do not forget that it is shame too to avoid what is going on home. This man is protesting the American intervention in his country. He saw that it is the way he can express it that way. Others preach, while others pray. It all depends. But every one even artists should have a role. It is not against art. Besides, he is a man in the country Hello Juan. I am Fathy. For long time we did not talk. I hope that all is fine with you. Hi Mohamad - we can translate sites if you add them in the link bar at the bottom of the thread.Can you help us understand how these sites are relevant to the creativity workshop? http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?v=65 Hi Yaser - you're saying that the government should also analyze its performance at Ramadan? Hey Yaser. Do you feel that the Arab world is losing influence or that Arab women are losing influence within the Arab world? Hi, this is Rima. I was particpating in SMEX Beirut training today. It was great. I learned many new things and I am looking forward to starting the online training. Thank you SMEX for offering this wonderful training and thank you Meedan for posting what we did online. marwayehia on twitter : Shockd & sad 2 c Cairo British council library closing.I spent my 4yrs n college doing researches there Miriiam: i cant believe it they r kiling innocent people #iranelection A user named SandieGuy threatened to cut her arm on Twitter.com Egyptian blogger shares his thoughts about smoking on World No Tobacco Day. The film trailer on You tube Poll supervisor slows down voting process.Official complaints have been made to the Ministry of Interior criticizing the poll station supervisor at the school of Khadiga Al Kobra, Aicha Bakkar, for deliberately slowing down the voting process. The project of making of Jordan an alternative homeland for Palestinians also aims to turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into an Arab-Arab conflict. Our group's project is to create a web blog called: Comicat! (has a double meaning in arabic & english) It portrays everyday life events in a comic strip, our hero is a cat .. sometimes playful, sometimes calm, witty, adventurous, even wise! It\rquote s not just Egypt that is benefitting from Gulf tourists either \endash both Lebanon and Syria are seeing Arabs flock to their cities, with an official at the main land border between the two countries reporting that \lquote some 30,000 tourists from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates arrived via Syria\rquote last Sunday. Mustafa Barhumeh accuses the Press and Publication Department of lack of vision and authority to bring such a case up in the first place With the new features, a Facebook user can elect to have each individual piece of content they upload into the news stream viewable to \ldblquote Everyone,\rdblquote which means that anybody on Facebook, whether or not they are logged-on, can see it. As violence increases, President Obama will be under further pressure to justify America's war in Central Asia. As one former army officer put it: Fixing Afghanistan is not only unnecessary, it\rquote s also likely to prove impossible. Not for nothing has the place acquired the nickname Graveyard of Empires. Some Palestinians though believe certain groups are making money out of the tunnels by imposing taxes on the trafficked goods As years pass, Palestinians loose their land in favor of the Israeli settlements and the wall Tweep @iamhelenharrop gives a nice equation: connectivity x devices = democracy ... this is flawed logic - internet is used for propoganda: spinternet (Evgeny Morozov) #ted keyvan Mousavi fans: do not listen to estimations such as 70% win! These may be rumors by Ahmadinejad to convince you about winning. #IranElection Massoumeh Torfeh said on the Guardian that the Revolutionary Guards aim in killing a young girl -like Neda- is clear: to frighten other girls away from coming to the streets. Very useful thanks Mohamad. The Morocco Board interviews the Moroccan-American Hip-Hop Artist RS-LOU. An excellent interview with Ayyash by AlMasry AlYoum (English): \ldblquote I\rquote m considered a moderate Islamist so I can say that my detention is proof that the regime in Egypt doesn\rquote t separate between an extremist and a moderate Islamist, he said. Videos from performances, and 2 messages from festival patron Chinua Achebe and John Berger The New York Times article drew attention and many people twitted the article and commented on it saying that social media rocks The Al Jazeera article in which Kaddoumi makes the allegations of Abbas' collaboration to assasinate Arafat. Al Jazeera's piece on anniversary celebrations, with user comments debating whether the moon landings even took place. The article below from aawsat is an old one and talks about a previous seizing of the two magazines. Interesting piece in Haaretz about the peace process. In 1991, the Soviet Union's downfall and Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War pushed then-Syrian president Hafez Assad into the peace process with Israel. The current riots in Tehran should be impelling his son Bashar to start the second chapter. Great feature in the LA Times. One Afghan woman said: \ldblquote There's been no strong debate over women's rights in this election; it's just not a priority. None of the major candidates speaks very boldly on the subject. It has faded into the background.\rdblquote An excellent article by Ben White in The Guardian giving the history of the wall and the legal ruling against its construction. His conclusion: There is a term for unequal separation in international law \endash apartheid. The wall urgently needs dismantling; but it is only one part of a bigger whole. An Op-Ed in The National describing this as the last thing Palestinians need, claiming it shows the extent of the internal divisions in Palestinian political factions: other Hamas spokesmen linked the group to \ldblquote Ramallah\rdblquote , a not-so-subtle allegation that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas sponsored it to weaken Hamas\rquote s grip in Gaza. A (long) but well written Op-Ed in the New York Times arguing that the lunar landings marked the death of the US space program. Opinion piece from Sharq al-Awsat: Iran is at a crossroads and there are numerous possibilities for its future, including, according to the writer, the possibility of a revolution. Arabic article of Manar TV on the issue: US-Israeli pressure to divert the tasks of UNIFIL and the variation in opinion regarding the Khirbat Selim incident A Guardian piece on former Chief of Policy for Tony Blair, turned activist for radical social change. I'm excited to hear what this man has to say! Wikipedia's article on how Ponzi schemes work: a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earne Interesting article on Foreign Policy as a freelance journalist takes a trip inside Hamas's movie studio Review by Kate Lowenstein: \ldblquote The Seen and the Hidden\rdblquote might be illuminating for those who see the veil as a backward Islamic practice and nothing more\emdash but most will already understand that, while this fraught religious symbol is, yes, a tool of oppression in some circumstances, it is also a custom that\rquote s been proudly maintained by Muslim women around the world Good piece on the LA Times' Babylon & Beyond blog on the various different explanations for the blast. Nice piece on The Huffington Post about the role of America's first ever African-American Attorney General in the possible prosecution of members of the Bush administration Opinion piece in Al-Hayat questions whether Facebook, with groups such as In Morocco, I'm a 9%, poses a challenge to Arab governments. An opinion piece from this month's Guardian concluding that: there are interesting ethical questions involved. It might be blasphemous to suggest this, but in the interests of global health, perhaps hajj should close for 2009. Another interesting post that needs translation into English. Long piece in today\rquote s New York Times about the case. More quotes from Hussein: \ldblquote Thousands of women are punished with lashes in Sudan but they stay silent. The law is being used to harass women and I want to expose this. Long, congratulatory piece by the Agence Maghreb Arabe Presse on the king's achievements: Ever since his accession to the throne in 1999, the sovereign has consistently voiced firm resolve to press ahead with this comprehensive reform process and see through the various projects initiated in different areas. Interesting article about the response, or lack of, to Hussein\rquote s arrest from Western feminists: \ldblquote The rise of shariah law constitutes the major global change in women\rquote s status during this era, yet Western feminists remain pathetically silent.\rdblquote Fascinating piece from Foreign Policy reporting another of Obama's strategies to reignite the peace process: letters reinforcing the Mitchell message sent to 7 Arab nations. An excellent piece in the Guardian assessing the possibilities and limitations of Obama's strategy in the Middle East: Mr Obama has got the Israeli leader wriggling on a political hook and he should not let him go. US officials are also forcing Arab hands. They have to turn the Arab Peace Initiative from a declarative document into a plan of action. An article of the Hunffingtonpost on the subject concluded with a remark by Former FBI agents and federal prosecutors who said that spying on mosques is one of the government's best weapons to thwart terrorists, From the press release: \ldblquote The Arabic Channel will also become an important new medium for Arab people to learn more about China.\rdblquote It will interesting to see how the channel portrays the current crackdown on China\rquote s Muslim minority, the Uighurs, in the western province of Xinjiang. Some of them were physically and sexually abused while others complained that their employers did not give them their salaries, Butch Pajarillo, Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA) media officer told the Philippine Daily Inquirer over the phone. Others said they were forced to work beyond their working hours and were left starving for several days, Pajarillo added. An extract from a letter to the Israeli government from several human rights organisations in the country: The health and proper functioning of a democracy is expressed, in part, by the legitimacy which it accords organizations that criticize the conduct of the authorities. Their activities enrich democracy, strengthen it and are vital for its existence. Extract from the Babylon & Beyond blog about the TV show: The 32-year-old Jeddah resident shows off his room as the theme song from the movie Swingers plays in the background. The red-themed room contains perfumes and an Arabic book, \ldblquote 101 Questions About Sex. At one point, Abdul Jawad whips out a sex toy. Nice piece on the re-emergence of Shimon Peres in frontline Israel politics. An introduction to the history and importance of moulids in Egypt (via @jonjensen) Information on the shortlisted History in Action Project Team from the ALF website: The History in Action Project Team decided that an alternative approach to the past was much needed in order to sustain peaceful future in the region. The team has shown much courage in facing public opinion in their countries to break with the general feeling in the region that nothing can be done. Great notes from yesterday's Connected Consequences session from The Guardian. Zittrain and Morozov's talks seemed particularly excellent. Running notes on Parag Khanna's talk from the TED Blog. Explanatory note: I'm sitting at the Alliance of Civilizations marketplace of ideas trying to report what's going on. It's a very wide ranging conversation, so bear with me on this. Lots of good ideas, from people who look serious - but also very keen that their idea stands out above the rest. Millions of people marching in absolute silence. #IranElection Brilliant summary of varied responses to this story by Marwa Rakha on Global Voices. A live feed of twitter reports from the Adham Center conference on blogging. The strategies and ultimate goals are the same for any kind of torture: to humiliate, disembody, extract confessions and permanently terrorize the victims to prevent further 'disturbances'. Israel's UN envoy: Lebanese fear Hezbollah:During a special Security Council session on the Middle East, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev read excerpts from letters written by Lebanese citizens in which they demanded that Hezbollah refrain from storing weapons in the basements of homes. From @Kawdess on Twitter:@meedan A commenter an @talkislam pointed out that it isn't the first Islamic search engine; gummah.com preceded it From @KevGlobal: PM Gordon Brown is talking at #TED . You can tell this is a mostly international crowd. They applauded. From TEDxCambridge: Zittrain: Remove the rules and the sign posts and you may end up with a space where people are more human with each other #TED #fbThis is surely what Meedan is about: making that space. From an editorial in today's Daily Star: The fact that Syria can\rquote t completely police its border with Iraq \endash just as the US is lax on its own southern border \endash is largely irrelevant. The question is whether Syria is doing what it can to halt the atrocities that are taking place in Iraq. Amazing to see Mohammed from Gaza talking about how he found a job thanks to a training tool online.He's now an accountant in dubai. It fair to question the motives of Al-Kaddoumi and Al-Jazeera,, especially that its role in internal conflicts in Palestine is highly debatable.However, it is very unfair to silence the voices that contradicts with the PA. From The Times: Farid Walid, who was shot in Nisour Square two years ago during a massacre that killed 17 Iraqis, said: \ldblquote Everybody here knows of cases where Blackwater guards shot innocent people without a second thought. They are a symbol of the occupation. Nobody will forget. But Iraqis might think at least a little differently of America if the killers are put in prison.\rdblquote Interesting comments from a \lquote senior American military official\rquote on Israel\rquote s mood regarding Iran: \ldblquote Yes, they\rquote re anxious. But we\rquote re not having regular conversations where they\rquote re coming in and saying, \lquote Stop your engagement now, bomb Iran tomorrow.\rquote \rdblquote nice having you here today george This is really good to see. Whilst Dubai and Abu Dhabi invest so heavily in importing foreign culture with projects like Le Louvre, I feel it's really important to encourage emerging Emirati artists and culture. Good to see Ehud Barak acknowledging that any attack on Iran would have pretty severe consequences on Israel\rquote s neighbours: We are not blind, whatever we do can have implications on our neighbours and others, we are trying to take that into account. This is good to hear - we hope for more good news through the day. Excellent to read about this from a Yemeni source. This is a pretty hard hitting report - and Alexa tells me the Yemen Times is based in Sana'a. How does this compare to Arabic reporting of the conflict from Yemen? From saudi Arabia AishaShokry said on twitter: Obama's speech holds very mixed thoughts, after each great flirt he brings a very big issue in his interest, analysts have a long job today! It's fascinating to watch how the Iranian reformers are being perceived around the Arab world - surely the Saudis would much prefer Mousavi to Ahmadinejad, but not if he's going to take power by popular pressure. Oddly, as this article in Time shows, there was little coverage in the Middle East of China\rquote s crackdown on its Uighur population. \ldblquote Many Arabic news media covered the story only sporadically or failed to pick up on it until days after the riots began, and opinion writers had very little to say about the Muslims in China.\rdblquote Too bad that researchers didn't tackle the positives one gains from using social networks like Facebook. Also I disagree that having low grades is equivalent to being dump; it might be an indication but not a clear evidence after all. Piracy is expected to continue to flourish if no real solution is presented Useful to set the context here - Fatah has said it will hold elections on 25 January in the West Bank even if Hamas refuses to do so in Gaza. Intercultural Communication and Leadership School is about building a set of leaders through interactive teaching. Communication skills, emotional intelligence skills, conflict resolution skills. The Pope is scheduled to visit Jordan, the West Bank, and Israel from 8 to 15 May. The Palestinian Authority planned to bring Benedict to the refugee camp in order to explain the plight of Palestinians under occupation. Most Israelis were born in the region or the wider region, so historically they are part of the region. It will be the European Jews who will feel like they are the minority now but they have a lot of advantages in terms of what they\rquote ve accomplished in Israel that the whole region can benefit from. Interesting to see Mitchell's visit comes as the UK is praising Syria for 'taking steps to promote peace and stability in the Middle East'. From the Huffington Post: Green told the judge he merely followed orders from other soldiers involved in the attack. You can act like I'm a sociopath. You can act like I'm a sex offender or whatever, Green said. If I had not joined the Army, if I had not gone to Iraq, I would not have got caught up in anything. Who else might make FP's world's worst sons list? From arabianbusiness: Initially, 11 trains will run on the Red Line, which is expected to carry 3,500 passengers per hour in each direction. The RTA said 90 percent of Red Line stations were ready for operation, even if they didn't look it from the outside. From Breaking News 24/7 : The charges against the AEL \ldblquote illustrates what Muslims have been saying for decades,\rdblquote Bouzerda said in a response published on the league\rquote s Web site. \ldblquote Freedom of expression is only a pretext to make life bitter for Muslims … and if (they) try to bring this hypocrisy to light, that right is denied them.\rdblquote Juan Cole posts on Iran and on the huge crowd that had amassed for Friday prayers: In the end, the security forces deployed motorcycles, beatings and tear gas in an attempt to break up the multiple demonstrations. Crowds fought back, including by setting trash fires to burn up the tear gas and by waving burning cigarettes in front of each others' faces. who do you think will win the bid? Tweet from @meedan's @farsitrans:FaceBook Comment: armed police all the way from Haft-e-Tir Sq to Azadi Sq - even little ally ways are controled #meedan Twitter: @waleednassar: @mahmoudtaji Felt the #earthquake in Giza. I'm next to Cairo Uni. Tweet on the theme of Paul Romer's talk: #TED Romer: China's growth took off in 70s. Hong Kong became a market model which leaders could copy on the mainland. Twitter @BreakingNews: USGS spokeswoman tells BNO News there are reports the earthquake was also felt in Cairo, Egypt. No serious damage expected Tweets:@ahmedesmat RIP Dr.Marwa El-Sherbini (she was murdered in Germany),Let's talk now about accepting the OTHER.@MohammadAsfour Racist killing of Marwa El Sherbini who was 3 months pregnant in a German court http://bit.ly/6QgN0 There's now a twitition: Google Earth to update satellite images of Tehran #IranelectionSince the Iranian government is blocking internet access Google should update the satellite images so people can follow the movement of protesters A reader comments: 'Call it the Persian Arabian Gulf or the Arabian Persian Gulf and give us a break from this nonsense' New York Times journo Nicholas Kristof tweets: Khamenei's tough speech and the Basij's boldness give me a v bad feeling that Iran is headed for a Tehran Tiananmen. PersianKiwi: news - Mousavi & Khatami have delivered joint letter to Ministry of Justice demanding release of protestors - #Iranelection PersianKiwi tweets unconfirmed - we are hearing that Majlis Khobregan is calling emergency meeting - if confirmed - critical event! #Iranelection Haaretz quotes an activist on board the vote: We didn't come with guns and weapons, but with just humanitarian aid, in an attempt to break the siege of Gaza and to tell the apathetic world about what is happening in the Strip, especially after the last war, said Huwaida Araf On Twitter, @somemuslim tweets: In any case, it's pathetic that the west has issues with women who want to cover up, but not those who want to wear practically nothing. happysphere said on Twitter [06:28 GMT]: #IranElection #Tehran #Neda It took just one bullet to kill Neda. It will take just one Neda to end Iranian tyranny. From FreeP.com Report : She was in court before Wayne County Circuit Judge William Callahan in Detroit on June 16 to change her name. She said she had previously changed her name because her family had fled oppressive rule under Saddam Hussein and was scared of retaliation. From the Gulf News report: Investigations with the defendants - two Lebanese, five Palestinians, one Sudanese and 18 Egyptians - revealed that they had planned to attack Israeli tourists in the Sinai Peninsula and ships using the Suez Canal, Egyptian TV also quoted legal official as saying. From The Telegraph report :.\rdblquote Farrell said Munadi went forward, shouting: \ldblquote Journalist! Journalist!\rdblquote but dropped in a hail of bullets. \ldblquote I dived in a ditch,\rdblquote said Farrell. From AlWatan: On this occasion, the Turkish President had an interview with private TV channel \ldblquote Dounya\rdblquote , in which he praised how Syria dealt with indirect talks with Israel, and stressed that such negotiations «have progressed», and would have become direct if it weren\rquote t for the Israeli aggression on Gaza. \ldblquote This will endanger Somali journalists and we will be seen as spies for foreign countries,\rdblquote said Somali freelance journalist Ismail Yabarow. In the few programs I watched for him.. .I felt like he seems a little bit tensed and biased.. I just don't feel at ease with his way of expressing himself. Mapping Iran\rquote s Blogosphere on Election EveBased on The Internet and Democracy Project monitoring of the Iranian blogosphere on election eve, it looks like Mousavi has broader support in the online blog community than Ahmadinejad please, when you remember Neda from Iran, try to remember the thousands of martyrs in the West Bank last January. They includes lots of inocent women , children, kids and husbands. Daily Dish- The Atlantic magazine: It's increasingly clear that Ahmadinejad and the old guard mullahs were caught off-guard by this technology and how it helped galvanize the opposition movement in the last few weeks. That's why they didn't see what those of us surgically attached to modems could spot a mile away: something was happening in Iran Moheet.com reports on the actress' plans after 5 years of information gathering and for fear of the dissappearance of Darfur's culture. From the ibn Ezra blog: In Israel, Haaretz broke the story and currently is featuring the story on its English website. It is curious that the Hebrew version of Haaretz has the story placed \ldblquote under the fold\rdblquote . The Jerusalem Post is not even covering the story yet and Ynet has a small headline in its news section. The BBC, by contrast, is carrying the story as its main headline. From al muhajabat Blog : In the written statement release by Callahan and the 3rd Circuit Court, they also stated, \ldblquote Judge Callahan and the court have the greatest respect for spiritual practices and all religious preferences. Had he been informed that the head covering had some religious significance, the judge would have permitted Ms. Albaghdady to continue wearing in court. From blog for All Blog : It was looted from the Museum of Kuwait, and bore markings from the museum. Based on the photo, it looks like the painting was damaged by those taking and storing it; particularly by folding the painting, which caused serious creasing of the painting. From Bing Boing Blog : Who says you need a fancy sonic blaster or a high-priced Israeli security team to thwart Somali pirates? A group of around Egyptian fishermen apparently escaped from their high-seas captors the old-school way, overpowering the pirates and seizing their weapons. From jawa report blog : Seriously, it's as if people forget that treason is considered the worst crime a person can commit. So, when Europeans claim they don't have the death penalty they are misleading you. They don't have the death penalty for normal criminal activity -- even murder. From the Google blog: 'Language barriers can be a primary source of accessibility problems on the web, and automatic translation, though not perfect, provides a useful solution.' From the Reuters blog: The Qataris are used to providing a helping hand when it is needed. They came to the rescue of British bank Barclays last year, picking up a stake which is now showing a hefty profit on paper. Porsche may be a trophy asset, but Qatar should use its strong position to demand the kind of performance you\rquote d expect from the marque. From The CommonWeal Blog : Will the Ramadan story become a staple in religion news coverage in the U.S. media, much as stories about Passover, Easter, Christmas and Good Friday are? It\rquote s not easy for religion journalists to come up with a fresh angle for these stories! From Kuwait Times blog : Zain had said it was in talks to sell its African assets- excluding Morocco and Sudan-after French media and telecoms conglomerate Vivendi broke off talks on buying the operations. From maddie's blog : It's a wonderful community filled with Islamic and Arab culture related projects and events! I was there too, hanging out with visitors, help the managers from time to time with their events and such. May Allah bless them all. They really have done and still do such a special thing for us and others curious about Islam. It is a dream come true for every Muslim! From mujahideenryder blog : What a load of rubbish! This is like saying pizza represents Italian extremism. It\rquote s not necessary for eating, but rather a symbol of the Italian mafia and fascism of Benito Mussolini and such it is incompatible with the freedom and democracy of America. Okay, maybe it was a bad example, but you get the point. Blogger Hareega says: Abuse is another excuse the French have for banning the burka. They assume every woman wearing the burka is being forced to do so by her husband. This is actually true in a few cases. However in France a woman can get a divorce is she is being abused by her husband, and there are shelters everywhere for women who suffer from domestic abuse. Egypt: Abu Musa [ Saturday, May 23, 2009 ]Israel and its U.S 5th column, AIPAC decide what the Egyptian government does. From the BBC's article: In July, Arab health ministers said people aged over 65 and under 12, and those with chronic diseases, would be excluded from the main Hajj pilgrimage this year. Belief.net says of Michael Jackson, 'His death has clearly touched muslims as one of their own, and the question of his belief only adds to the mythos he leaves behind.' Taiwan news reports, The Sultan of Oman is in Tehran for talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, making him the first foreign leader to meet with the embattled Iranian leader after the disputed election. farangisari [07:19 GMT] : THIS JUST IN!! Protesters have gathered in meydone Azadi (freedom sq.) 50 minutes ago! Oman is in need of natural gas and liquefied natural gas to feed its energy-hungry industries. Iran, meanwhile, holds some of the largest gas reserves in the world, making it a logical partner for Oman, the Petroenergy Information Network reports. From my perspective (Portland, Oregon, USA) -- this is terrifying. Heated discussion between readers on the seperation of Islam and art of creativity Since Perves Mushrraf left office, the country witnessed series of attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds Reporters without Borders offers a chronological account of the press freedom violations in Iran. Mahdi TaghizadehRT @Thomas_Erdbrink: In Saadat abad (nw-tehran)people can't vote because they've ran out of ballot papers. #IranElection Mahdi TaghizadehIn pictures: Poll fever in Iran (http://ping.fm/o4PCN) #IranElection Mahdi TaghizadehRT @bahadorn: Karroobi supporters are going to light candles in front of The Ministry of Interior: http://is.gd/ZG9q #iranelection Hakaya Festival on facebook Hold on, Richard Bernstein isn't on my list. He's on stage anyway, and apparently he believes that capitalism and the greater good are complimentary rather than contradictory. No matter what people might say, but I am impressed by the Iranian's government's will to compete other powers in the region. Sadly, a lot other countries lack such persistence. Very brief piece in the New York Times about the game, but just wondered if anyone can explain to me why both teams were carrying flowers before the game? Looks particularly odd... Addressing the UN last year Mr. Mesli said of Algeria, This is not just for the Human Rights Council's credibility but also for the entire system of protection of human rights in the United Nations. More updates and results coming from Jessica over in Beirut tomorrow, stay tuned! Pakistani site The News reports that Saudi Arabia is reluctant to conceed any ground to Israel until it fully withdraws from occupied Palestinian land. File sharing site The Pirate Bay comes out in support of Iranian protestors. Zawya publishes a press release by ONI announcing the release of the new study. Egyptian news site Moheet explains how the approach of this treatment is different from others. Meedan, he is Austrian, not Italian!!! nariman_sam protesters decide to shout Ya Hossein Mir Hossein instead of ALLAH O AKBAR at 10 PM to prevent State TV abuse #IranElection Moroccan blogger cabalamus writes about his country's campaign against Shia influence Nabili: Baseej militias have now been given free reign to enforce the will of the Supreme Leader on the streets. Speaking to evacuees from the Gaza periphery in the Lakhish region, Netanyahu said the sovereign government of Lebanon would be responsible for any violent action against Israel, adding that I hope we don't come to that. this is a result of people's complaints, according to Al Watan We need some statistics about Arabic use on the web. I see some research needed here. Given the highly fluid use of Arabic online (from colloquial using Arabic script to high Fusha) we need to know how services that enable romanized Arabic use are going to take off. so we're all waiting for Joi to arrive..He's running a bit late due to a meeting he was in...mean while we are discussing the projects and working on them. We create the problem ourselves We are a group of trainees in a workshop on creative media online. We are discussing the issue of women empowerment in Jordan. We have some questions to share with you. Around 90 000 plates are to be replaced. We fear in Egypt that the avian flue would campaign with swine flu and form a new strong virus - that can spread between humans..God bless us! Muslims in Britain, what is your reactions towards this memorial day? With US pastor Rick Warren condeming interfaith dialogue as insufficient earlier this month, can interfaith summits such as this provide useful results in diffusing tension between world religions? True we could Tom - we can use the IBM Transbrowser as we did for twitter feeds. I'm keen - but the challenge is also shaping a space as cross-language from source. Since the 2005 Peace Deal there have been sporadic clashes. The most recent being in December 2008. Could this ruling re-ignite a civil war and undermine the 2005 peace deal? TechCrunch post where they published Twitter financial forecast. The European Photo Agency has posted a photo of a newspaper being issued by Iranian protesters. It's called Street because all photos and stories are from demonstrators on the streets of Iran. Distribution has been focused on Iranian Internet users in Tehran. BBC published the celebration in pictures Haaretz publishes a response from the US: U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the report was inaccurate and that Washington stood by its position that all settlement activity must end. BUT at the same time: Western officials said the United States was moving in the direction of making allowances so Israel could finish off at least some existing projects. Global Voices Online runs an excelent piece rounding up Egyptian media and blogosphere responses to the news. Washington Post reports: Ajmal Kasab said Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was the main mastermind behind the case, along with others who engineered the attack and dispatched the gunmen to travel by ship from Karachi by the Arabian Sea to Mumbai. The attackers had to change boats four times in order to reach their destination. Peace activists call on the European Union to end its trade ties with Israel An insecure regime doubting its own citizens is most probably t the beginning of the end A cautious, but refreshingly optimistic view on the speech from The Guardian: in all, this was a brave speech by a man who is undoubtedly sincere about his aims. Whether it turns out to be a groundbreaking speech depends on whether he can turn noble words into bold action. A sympathetic, if cautionary, look at Palin's rise to fame and equally rapid decline: A Sarah Palin who stepped down for the sake of her family and her media-swarmed state deserves sympathy even from the millions of Americans who despise her. A Sarah Palin who resigned in the delusional belief that it would give her a better shot at the presidency in 2012 warrants no such kindness. A really fascinating look at how the speech was received in various parts of Iraq, courtesy of NYT's excellent Baghdad Dureau blog. I particularly like the photo. Yes, if we want to grow a stable global economy we must learn to specialize. Yes I thought this was very shaky - Cast lead was despicable from any point of view given the high death toll, especially among women and children, and the big questions over the way the assault was conducted. But I think Obama has to point forward. yea dear George, we as persons can repent, but the government, how can it repent after lots of misbehaves towards the people, particularly the high prices that all are suffering from. Right, back to the plan: Geoff Mulgan (subject of the below Guardian article and former chief of policy for Tony Blair) is talking on social innovation and systemic change (more from @brainpicker) Yes it does look like the Iranian elections were tampered with. The margin of victory granted Ahmedinejad was just too good to believe. Saudi Arabia denies claims that it is willing to allow Israel air force to fly through saudi airspace to attack Iran This project was created by the CIT Academic Technology Services PLACE with the generous support of the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning. Shortage of water in Palestine and the Israeli actions with regard to International Law Maktoob Business reports the story. Curiously, the original report from The National - UAE daily - seems to have mysteriously disappeared. Al-Arabia:The EU however, doesn't exactly see Moujahedee Khalq as a terrorist organization. The European Court of Justice, for example, overrules the EU's decision to freeze bank account of Moujahedee Khalq in 2008, without making any recommendation on whether or not to consider the organization a terrorist one. Al Jazeera English quotes some of the soldiers interviewed in the report: Better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy, one soldier is recorded as saying, speaking about instructions given to him in advance of the operation. According to Almasry Alyoum newspaper, Tantawi clarified his opinion saying: «Imagine a girl is raped while she is going to university or anywhere else and she gets pregnant as a result. If she is pure, she can go to the doctor at the beginning of the pregnancy to remove all traces of this rape attack and protect her dignity». The LA Times quotes a Hamas Interior spokesman that Moussa, his aide, and a Hamas negotiator died in an explosion, and speculates that Moussa's aide caused the explosion with a suicide vest. Look, obviously, the president is concerned about anything that raises the cost of living in a fragile economic time, - Reuters quoted The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. AFP quoted lieberman saying :But we think that as in any place, babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about an absolutely complete freezing of settlements, AFP reports Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the UN Refugees Agency, as saying:A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Saada city where the situation is deteriorating by the day.We should pay lots of attention to this unfolding situation. Iraqi daily Al Sabah quotes government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh as saying he hoped the Kurdish elections would kick start a meaningful dialogue between Irbil and Baghdad. Skyping with the guys from Jazeera Incredible pictures from the ardous journeys tens of thousands of migrants take every year seeking refuge, asylum and economic opportunity. Google traffic monitors noticed a drop in the number of Chinese visitors to the site, which freached zero by Tuesday morning Here's the full interview between Ustaz Ahmed Ali - editor in chief of the Qatari Al Watan - and Khaled Meshaal, as printed in the Palestinian Watan Voice. The original is to be found somewhere on http://www.al-watan.com Huffington Post gathers press clippings reporting on Talaat Moustafa's death penalty. This highly contested election is yet more evidence for the how our database can add value by providing - in the long run - rich nutritional information about each source whether it be a major outlet or someone on Twitter. That can help us determine what is worth listening to. This is absolutely astonishing. Whilst I would commend the rescuers, it seems crazy that people could fly on a plane which was banned from French airspace after faults were found during tests in 2007. This previously unseen Pan Arab program will star 16 Arab students from 11 countries. This comment piece on Now Lebanon disagrees with Kouchner though. Syria is still not ready to let go of Lebanon and instead wants to play a coercive role in this country\rquote s internal politics. This is a really fascinating post - thanks for bringing it in. Can we get some of these comments tracked in this thread? That man is incredible, but I think it is far better for Chavez to attend that meeting. It is better to know what is going on and face it instead of withdrawing. But why Israel is trying to attend that meeting. Chavez is to attend to vote against any nonhuman resolutions. Besides having his alley in Cuba as well. This Syrian says Ramadan is a time for reflection, and for fixing things that are going wrong in our lives. This article is Arabic original. The language detection has failed on this occasion. This article just published by the Egypt Radio and Television Union for the state newspaper Al Gomhuriya suggests that Ramadan banquets are continuing despite swine flu. This is an open thread for longer explanations of your views about Barack Obama's Cairo speech. You can write in Arabic and our translators will attempt to translate into English (and vice-versa). Exactly. That's what I was going to ask. Do you think music -or arts in general- can have national boundaries? Interesting comments on this Al Jazeera report about Tariq Ramadan. One says 'In Gaza children are dying with support from Western countries and the west talks about democracy and freedom .. we invite support for Mr Ramadan in his position against the Dutch government' This is a comment from Al Arabiya's article on Michael Jackson's death. This is a comment from Al Arabiya's article on Michael Jackson's death. This is Al Arabiya's report on the settlement plan at Adam. It would be great to get the comment thread translated and see what people are saying. Here's a video repor on the plight of one of Egypt's most reconisable Ramadan images: the lantern, at the hands of Chinese imports. this is super. Thanks, Simba. Thanks, Rami. At 1421GMT today the NY Times filed the following:Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said a total of 24 people, including six Hamas police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed and 150 were wounded. I believe that arresting an Arab president..... this is a good site for charity workcheck it and take your chancehttp://helmena-lebladna.tripod.com/index.htm That is the point toleen, The poorer classes! Results of such flourishing economic conditions of the higher classes result usually in widening the gab between the rich and the poor. So how can all citizens living is improved during that era of flourishing. Lots of efforts are required to suffice the sophisticated requirements of work market, especially within NGOs. This is Marc Lynch's article translated into Arabic by Abdellah: This is the American Cancer Society Link with loads of information about breast cancer treatments. I'd really like to know more about how Doctor Youssef's treatment works. Sounds very cool wish I could go! Seems like there is the possibility that this will be period of growth in the number of female journalists ... when all you have to be able to do is Twitter, you start to hear many more voices .... This looks like a really useful took to track news. Here's a fascinating op-ed from The National on of Jumblatt's reputation for changes of allegiance, also analysing his motives behind this U-turn. This session is relentless, now 3D web designer Carlos Ulloa is on stage: @TEDGlobal: Carlos Ulloa at #TED: 3D in the browser can give every user a unique experience. They can explore, move around, interact.@rom: Ulloa talks about Flash, 3D and interactivity. #TED wish someone will talk about HTML5 too hehehehe This is a really excellent blog round up and a fascinating issue. This debate is not just in the blogosphere, but in the national press as well. Here is a piece in Al Riyadh supporting greater freedoms for women in Saudi Arabia, showing this is a debate the authorities want to endorse. Scary statistics ya Nousha. I really think more serious research needs to be carried out, and people need to be made properly aware of the dangers of sheesha smoking. Exactly the kind of news I didn't want to see today:Counter-terrorism chiefs are worried neo-Nazis are plotting a 'spectacular' terrorist attack on Britain to fuel racial tension. Those r some lebanese websites to follow the elections from:www.lebanonfiles.comwww.tayyar.orgwww.lebanese-forces.comwww.elnashra.comwww.almanar.com.lbAlso me and some of my activists & journalist friends and sharek 961 and other people will be tweeting the elections under: #Lebanonelections Here's an episode of Soatak Wassal on YouTube - enjoy! G.ho.st homepage, where you can sign up for the free beta version of the Virtual Computer and take your desktop with you wherever you go. I've had a quick test and it looks like an impressive and fairly powerful bit of kit - let Meedan know what you think! Such a sad story, they were a rare kind of organization! Here's a great piece questioning what actually happened, the sequence of events and the implication of Yemen: How was it that a suicide bomber stood only a meter away only injured the prince's middle finger? A fascinating 2008 New York Times piece on G.ho.st, including information on the G.ho.st Peace Foundation, a non-profit section of the company. Here's a quote attributed (unconfirmed) to Gordon Brown that may get you thinking: foreign policy has to be run by listening to bloggers around the world Discuss! This is a brilliant point. But I suppose what then becomes complicated is understanding whether, for example, Heba Qotb's TV programmes are haram. What do you think? One of several Facebook groups supporting Gamal Mubarak for president. Is Islam relevant to democracy building in Muslim countries? asks Laith Kubba, Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa Program at the National Endowment for Democracy. Egyptian blogger @3arabawy responds to the news (Sat 9th May, 10:58 in reply to @lastoadri): It's not neutral. She's not ordinary person.She's wife of dictator.Twitter & YouTube r used here for beautifying thuggish regime.Is this just Queen Rania manipulating Web 2.0 as a PR tool, or is she genuine in her desire to use social media 4 social change (@queenrania 9th May 14:06) ? Are more women in the Arab world becoming more visible on the social, economic and political level? Sorry, will Islam seek revenge, or what is supposed to be the victim seeks it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Police officers are the ones to serve the society. Could search engines help fight the spread of viruses and infections across the world? CAN I GET English - Arabic & Arabic - English Translator Email Do you agree with Zeinobia - will this be a staged and ultimately meaningless gesture, or does it mark a sincere move by Gamal Mubarak to engage with the Egyptian public? Can you explain what you mean by this Yaser? Are Flickr, Twitter and Wikipedia reliable sources for news on breaking events? Do you think this scenario would take over?.. and if yes, do you believe Egyptians will accept?Could that be the straw? - I wonder Do you think Egypt would succeed this time as it has in the June 08 truce? Do you really think there is hope?Two years for killing someone?!.. is this enough? Do you believe such move will really encourage Al Basheir to go to the court? - I believe its different situation where pride plays a rule. Do you think traveling by plane is no longer the safest way any more? Do you think this is on purpose - like facebook incident a week ago?? Do we know what the majority of Saudis think about this? Are Egyptian authorities doing enough to ensure people are safe on the roads? For the myriad activists who support freedom for bloggers and writers in Egypt, do the recent detentions mark a new battle in the struggle for internet freedom? Is there another Islamic country have the audacity to make such constitution Would Erdogan's storm at Davos strengthen or weaken Turkey's role in the Middle East? Will the new version of windows makeup for the negative feedback of windows vista, which was a failure attempt to match Mac? Does the memorial reminds the British of the Muslims' deeds and hatred and avoidance arise again? We need British in YorkShire and Leeds participations Will talks between Obama and Mubarak solve anything? I think @justimage captured the feelings a lot of people in the region have towards Mubarak with this remark on Twitter: \ldblquote Obama wants progress in Middle East peace so he holds talks with its most hated individual\rdblquote Would Hillary Clinton be a good US Secretary of State for the Middle East? Will Hamas agree to recognize Israel? I will argue that this question is much less significant for the Obama Administration than observations one can make by monitoring the behavior of Hamas. Evidence shows that the movement is responsive to change. - Dr Mohamed Nimer Would we benefit from further space exploration, a mission to Mars for example, or would this be an expensive waste of money? Will this significantly affect Egyptian tax revenues? Would it help if the US cuts its military involvement world conflicts and direct attention to solving its home economy? Will the day come when Bush would be sentenced to International Court of Justice, charged with war crimes? Will such a move actually help? Not in the slightest, says Barbara Straw, a professor of large animal clinical science at Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine in East Lansing: It doesn't make any sense to kill pigs. Would the international community recognise an elected and united Palestinian government if Hamas were to win?Would new elections serve to benefit Palestinians or would they create further divisions? Would these two trojans kill the legend of the \ldblquote Mac Fortress,\rdblquote one of the main features favoring Mac over Windows? Should Americans care if John McCain can\rquote t remember how many houses he owns? Is Oman following the if you can't beat 'em join 'em policy? Or it's just being realistic and is seeking more sources of natural gas in addition to its existing providers (Qatar)? Have world leaders done enough to bring the violence between Israel and Hamas to an end? Was Muntadhar Al Zaidi's shoe attack on George Bush a valid expression of political outrage, or an unjustifiable criminal act? Is it pre- planned. to make rebels better the the national president?Can some one tells me if so why? and by who? Do you think any Arab president would perform a similar interview in his country? can the change of Iran elections results transform the disturbed situation between both USA and Iran, though Obama declared that both Ahmedinajad and Mousavi do not like USA? Could there be a ban threat for this website, if it allows too much freedom of expression? Does any one observe this performance as a type of naturalization with the Israeli cpunty, and acceptance of what adopts in its external and interior policy. If you have a comment add it? But pay attention art is a core of policy and does not have a supreme neutral nature. It is used in peace and war as well. Is this the beginning of the end for the Arabic script? is this the real photo of the sandstorm?! Is there any news from the NDP on this? Are the police acting solo or is it government backed? Isn't it how it is put all together? as if it's the first time we hear such speech that is always titled as initiating the peace process!..it's been said over and over, that amazingly I failed to find proper reviews for Arab writers.. people seem to have lost their will to even comment.. Should this project be established to provide electricity from the MENA region to the MENA region? Does the world need any proof to recognize the Israeli state towards anyone who tries to face, besides how can Israel call for barbarianism suppression and it is the symbol of barbarian antagonism against humanity. Does not anyone know what happened in Gaza and the massacre of innocent the childer and oldaged. Is Holocaust denial inherently hateful? Where should we draw the line between free speech and hate speech? Is this any different from his current government? Do they really want to diffuse it in the first place? I think this was a huge mistake that will only add fuel to the fire in an already flaming region. Worth thinking ahead - what will be the best ideas in the marketplace next year in Brazil? Does it worth such a treatment!!!!!!!! Can anyone explain the Bahrain censorship? I did not think Bahrain had very restrictive press environment. Do the Muslims in Leeds suffer from avoidance because of these attacks as two of the four people were belonging to the neighborhood? Is the Arab world doing enough to combat obesity and inform people of the long term risks? Does OBL invoke policy grievances more often that relgion to justify his belligerency?Does OBL invoke religion more often than policy amongst Muslims? Does this represent a new trend in anti-hijab sentiment amongst Egyptian authorities? Is Iran's UN envoy guilty of double standards for accusing Israel of disrupting the UN interfaith conference? Are Obama's comments further evidence of a tough stance on Israel, or has Biden revealed underlying policy contradictions in Obama's administration? Can this action be a result of the freedom of journalism. Does freedom give any one the chance to say any thing without control. Could this be the start of a series of restrictions against Egyptian internet users? Can the Egyptian economy afford to be so reliant on canal revenues and tourism - two areas likely to be hit - during a global economic crisis? Can any one from Chicago covers this conference and tell us what will happen there? Could the marketing people at Nike perhaps see a bottom-up, global, underdog, 'air Jordan' marketing opportunity in this story? Someone should suggest this to the people at the Nike marketing agency Weiden+Kennedy Any idea where his statement will be released/streamed? Should Arab nations be willing to normalize relations with Israel before a settlement halt has been agreed? Should Palestinian citizens of Israel celebrate a day they describe as their catastrophe? Is anyone at the conference considering using Twitter and making a #csid09 or something along those lines? It may be appropriate if there is an emphasis on the important role of technology and emerging media in achieving peace - something I wholeheartedly agree with. Do we have stats on water illness and deaths in the Middle East? Is there a vaccine?It can take five or six months to come up with an entirely novel influenza vaccine, John Sterling, editor in chief of Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, said in a statement - reports UPI. Here's the report from Libya Al Youm (Libya Today) - and guess what, it's from Reuters. Along some interesting shots Zeinobia comments : I do not know what to say for now !!!! Another term !!!?? Is he series ?? He is 81 years old !!?? It seems that Washington did not approve his son !! Here is a selection of comments from Al Arabiya. Here's the Human Rights Watch statement on its blog: 'Karzai has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election,' according to the group's Asia director. Here's the Romney quote: http://donsingleton.blogspot.com/2007/05/muslim-brotherhood.html Here's a comment on an Islamic Board thread about this issue:'Subhannallah their policies are getting more ridicolous! Doesn't the French government have more important things to solve than discussing women's wardrobes!' Here's the full UNESCO report, published yesterday.It provides the starting-point for the major challenge of restoration and conservation. Here is a report on the story in the Kuwaiti Al Qabas - i really love the picture! This is the Marwa El-Sherbini facebook page where one fan called Baraka says: 'Allahu Akbar!!!May Allah raise our sister Marwa, her child and family to the highest station of success in Al Aakhira. May she forever join the ranks of Allah's Elite! Allahumma Ameen!' Here' Hopkins project that he's just introduced to the audience:@brainpicker: #TED Hopkins -Transition Network \endash viral, open-source tool for tracking peak oil & climate change http://is.gd/1ID7h Here's the website for Charter for Comapssion and some more tweets from @brainpicker:#TED Armstrong: People often want to be right instead of compassionate. Here is the article metioned by Yasmina below: Obama has asked Congress for minor changes in U.S. law that would permit aid to continue flowing to Palestinians in the event Hamas-backed officials become part of a unified Palestinian government. Here, the article is deemed to offend Bikya Masr's Orientalism Watch: Since when does wearing a veil mean one is intolerant? .... This one is simply not good and dispicable coming from the New York Times. Syria and Turkey have many economic agreements, according to Syria-news. We have differences between democracies. But there are some basic democratic principles that are applicable everywhere.For example, promoting good governance: We have to have a genuine democratic process across the Muslim world. You cannot pick and choose who to talk to. The separation between powers. There are many Muslim countries that are not democratic, and there are many Muslim democracies. So many of the governments today, even if they hold elections, are still security states. One can think of the North African countries. One needs to recognize that some of our allies have a velvet glove but there is an iron fist inside that velvet glove. Conflicting views on the impending release among relatives of those killed: one says it is about \lquote giving Gaddafi what he wants\rquote and shows \lquote that the power of oil money counts for more than justice, one another says he does not believe al-Megrahi is guilty and that \lquote the sooner he is back with his family the better\rquote . Army movements in Beirut 1The Lebanese Armed Forces are making movements in downtown Beirut - three tanks and personnel carriers - as part of the tight security measures in place today. Army movements in Beirut 1The Lebanese Armed Forces are making movements in downtown Beirut - three tanks and personnel carriers - as part of the tight security measures in place today. Are countries using counter-terrorism as a means of stifling human rights? There is a strong consensus in the anti-military camp that 'theatres of war' like Afghanistan and Gaza are used to refine this technology. Investors in companies like BAE must consider where their money is going. There are chances to set this asteroid of course failing to do so may result in Armageddon. Just about 18 percent of these workers are highly-qualified and have technical skills while about 8 percent of them are illiterate, which means that it is possible to dispense with large numbers of them since they don't meet employment requirements, the people told Al Rai. One thing that won\rquote t have been on the table is the recent allegation from rebels in the north that the government forces have used white phosphorus. At the moment, the US will want a strong ally in Sana\rquote a, whether that ally is complicit in human rights abuses or not. Of course, the allegations have been \lquote strongly denied\rquote by Yemen\rquote s ministry of defence. Hopkins on new energy challenges (via @ruthannharnisch):#TED Rob Hopkins: The Transition Network faces peak oil challenge squarely, solutions-focused to help people respond to conditions.#TED Rob Hopkins: The real world isn't Second Life; we can't create new resources with the click of a mouse. honeebrown My avatar is green, my location Tehran in support for all Iranians who want fair elections Tehran #Iranelections It is just a note: Dialogue should start from the family to the outer society, citizens should learn how to involve into a dialogue and the then the circle will be widened automatically to the nations, nations are just groups of people. The BBC, still restricted in covering events in Iran, quotes former vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi I say to all my friends and all friends who hear us, that the issue of fraud in Iran was a lie and was brought up to create riots. Human Rights Watch Asia urges Chinese authorities to address their ethnic policies rather than simply use repressive measures after some 140 people were killed in riots in restive Xinjiang region. Hey Anas - is there anywhere we can watch Bab El Hara online? Yet another attempt to displace anything Arab or Islamic from Jerusalem, will this ever end? The question is not Should we engage with the extremist parties. We have to. The question for me was whether this address was designed to scare the opposition into compromising on their demand for a fresh vote, or whether it was indeed a statement of intent that all subsequent protests would be crushed. Interestingly, an Iranian official from the trade body said they would attend next year\rquote s Electronic Entertainment Expo in the US but will not be able to exhibit: \ldblquote It is difficult given the relations between Iran and the USA. Certainly all of us here today will be at E3 next year, but there will not be a dedicated Iran stand such as you see in Cologne today.\rdblquote Many advocate for a message of resistance to oppression, but Nimer argues that a focus on the positive and engaging the opposition is a stronger stance. Few visitors, Muslims Christians or Jews, would suspect that they could be at risk of swine flu inside the Holy Land! Finally Al Jazeera at 11.30 pm Lebanon time is back to live report from the country with 6 correspondants on the field. I agree - especially when we are working with the Alliance of Civilizations on the Media Rapid Reaction Mechanism. And there are areas of discussion - press freedom, ownership/control of media etc that are as relevant in the East as they are in the Mediterranean. Here is a 'lens' on the Lebanese election. A feed from twitter on the following parameters: #lebanonelection OR lebanon OR election OR #sharek OR #sharek961 OR #LADE since:2009-06-06 near:Beirut, Lebanon within:50mi Here's the full transcript of the speech Obama gave today in Moscow. Here are details of some ships believed to be under pirate control and some facts about the increase in piracy. Here is a post originally in Farsi by @gonahkar two hours ago and translated from Farsi to English by the Meedan volunteer farsi translation team working under the twitter ID @farsitrans [trans]RT @Gonahkar As I age, my hatred for the nasty, dirty world of politcs increases. My soul and politcs do not mix. #meedan #iranelection Here's a speaker list for the first session of the day: Radical DevelopmentPaul RomerMichael PritchardWilliam KamkwambaRob HopkinsTim BrownMore on who each of those people are when they take the stage at TED Global 2009. Here's a very interesting blog entry (via @jiliancyork): she was arrested with other women at a cafe in Khartoum for indecent dress (sounds vague?). This doesn't really happen in Sudan, you just don't get arrested for wearing pants!A Sudanese official said she was actually arrested for smoking shisha. Again, you don't get arrested for smoking shisha.So why was Lubna arrested? Great piece in Time about the growing tension between the Kurds and the government in Baghdad. While the rest of Iraq was in the grip of insurgency and sectarian civil war, the Kurds quietly advanced their economic-development policies, building an international airport, business hotels and hydro-electric dams and \emdash most important \emdash doing oil deals. In regards to the ulammah, we are not looking to have an organization similar to the Catholic Church. If we can just get them to align in support of, say, peaceful resolution of conflicts, respect for human rights, one person one vote, etc. At the end of the day, you would probably see a stronger movement than even what the Catholic Church can produce, since it is so top-down. Talking about New Media. Distributing and gathering news. New and innovative ways in generating content. And going along with the trends and trying to adapt them to news.Jazeera english has trouble in getting distribution for english language networks. especially USA market.Take content and make it as free as possible and as available as possible. To further distribution. Nate Silver although not arguing for Ahmadinejad, but he says that the statistical report being touted as evidence of a rigged election is deeply flawed, and compares it to the US presidential elections saying that the methodology will give the same result for the two election results. As Palestinians and Arabs move closer to peacemaking, the Israelis move closer to obscurantism. After a round of passionate nominations from the blogosphere, and direct invites to some of the world\rquote s most interesting bloggers, we are happy to announce that we have filled all 50, G20Voice places at the G20 Summit in London April 2. The government can facilitate people-to-people dialogue without becoming too involved. Some of the steps to implement to encourage people-to-people interaction include cultural education exchanges, privately funded research and scholarships, conferences for students/activists/scholars, mobilizing US public opinion, educating US population about Iran and Iranian democratic movement. Iran\rquote s well-educated, young, vibrant population has the potential to encourage democracy A transparent, open, accountable government is the best kind. An informed citizenry is the sword and shield of a republic. The US government has open-source sources but they are limited. This must change. Julian Parra from Global Voices said: Televised confessions in Iran have many raising their eyebrows after a series of high-profile reformists have been placed in front of a camera and confessed to more or less the same crimes, phrased in very similar ways. Mari Luomi is a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and a doctoral candidate at Durham University Amina Rasul-Bernardo, Lead Convenor of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, brings a unique perspective on the discussion of the future of democracy in Muslim contexts via her topic on the issue of The Role of Religion in Peacemaking: The Philippines 'Ulama. The concept lies on the basis that everyone is able to teach something and learn something in return, so it is open for all participants to talk, share, discuss, debate, enquire and learn, reports Startup Arabia. In World War II, it was hidden from Nazi officers by the museum's chief librarian, Derviš Korkut. A Muslim, Korkut worked with his Croat colleague to risk his life in order to smuggle the Haggadah out of Sarajevo. According to common tales, the book was hidden under a floorboard of a small mosque nestled in a nearby mountain until the end of the war. About 15,000 artifacts were stolen from the museum, and the lead U.S. investigator said last year that trafficking in those items helped finance al-Qaida in Iraq as well as Shiite militias. Families who lose their homes are faced with the choice of moving into cramped tenement buildings with relatives or renting new homes. They face \ldblquote significant hardships\rdblquote , including having their property destroyed and struggling with debts from fines and legal fees, the UN report added. Strategies aimed at modifying the regime\rquote s behavior affect the people, and the US government should not ignore that. Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, already faces costly power outages of up to five hours a day in the industrial zone of the commercial hub of Jeddah. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. Currently, folowen uses Google AJAX Search API to find user profiles on 19 different social media sites including three Arab ones: Questler, Ikbis and Watwet. As Greek Orthodox Palestinian Christians were marking the Holy Saturday, (Saturday of light which comes just one day before Easter), Israeli soldiers surrounded the Holy city of Jerusalem and the Church of Holy Sepulcher. I\rquote m flying to London later tonight to blog the G20 Summit. 50 bloggers from 22 different countries have been invited by a group of British NGOs to provide a different kind of coverage for this global event, where world leaders will meet to discuss the current economic crisis and try to find answers and solutions. More from there later… Interesting disucssion on the event, danish media, integration etc. on the ambassador's blog The new Arabic Channel will reach the Middle East and North Africa via signals on Arabsat and Nilesat. It will also reach the Asia-Pacific region by Chinasat 6B. Nearly 300-million people in 22 Arab countries will be able to watch programs from China's Arabic Channel with their satellite dish. The debate over Obama's economic rollouts has, at least, turned socialism and capitalism into political terms When the richly talented young actors \endash and acting students \endash showed us parts from their new play about life in the Palestinian refugee camp, they confirmed this to be right. It was quite an explosion of emotional and intellectual expression. In a few moments they told us more about the Palestinian situation than many newspaper articles could have done. Wikipedia is very often ranked first in search results because of this Usually, al Qaeda is linked to Islamic extremism, but perhaps it is corruption and dictatorship that are feeding and serving al Qaeda the most, not only in Algeria but all over the Arab world, where there is no freedom of expression especially when dealing with a sensitive issue such as Corruption Designer often forget about URLs and concentrate on making pages look nice, adding flash etc.. Telepresence does bring us one step closer to the feeling of sitting across from a friend in a cafe. Kudos to Cisco for applying their flagship technologies to social justice and reconciliation work. Quoting North Korea The U.S., Japan and the south Korean puppets are raising a hue and cry over the quite legitimate satellite launch projected by the DPRK. Such behaviors can never be allowed as they are a wonton violation of the international law on free use of outer space and a smear campaign against the DPRK. Dr. Funk: It would be wise for the US government to actively recruit Muslim Americans to positions where the sensitivities Muslim Americans have would be greatly beneficial. Al Quds Al Arabi reports: The [Ahram] newspaper said that the Hezbollah case was part of what it called the greater conspiracy against Egypt, in which the Lebanese organizations of Hezbollah, the Islamic resistance movement Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were also involved, in addition to the media herald, al-Jazeerah satellite channel. Al-Watan newspaper reported on Sunday that Saudi plates normally had three Arabic characters and three numbers but the growing fashion is for auto owners also to display a version using the Latin alphabet and some buyers of personalised vanity plates deliberately choose Arabic letters which turned into words like SEX, ASS and NUT. On the right of return: It is possible that some Palestinians may accept or prefer restitution and relocation to other parts of the Arab world instead of returning to lands in what is now Israel. In the same vein that OBL plays on the policy issue to manipulate Muslims to join his cause, Western nations must address these grievances with substantive action so that they do not provide proof for those who are skeptical about their rhetoric. OBL has been following the advice of his senior strategists. Similar groups and movements in the past tried to use abstract notions of the Islamic state and failed. OBL\rquote s strategists noted that using feelings of disempowerment, cases of foreign interference, etc. would draw people\rquote s attention. In many such cases the court consists of just one policeman and a single judge \endash with the policeman acting as the complainant, prosecutor and sole witness. And in a growing number of cases, the accused don't even reach court. One man, in dread of what might happen to him, died recently after falling off a building where he had sought shelter after being chased by the security police. In the UK now, schools are no longer being closed but students with symptoms are requested to stay at home and take antiviral drugs. Well I do hope that you guys in Lebanon at Smex and you guys in Meedan can eventually cooperate for the translation of all this.. we can also help at CC spreading the word thru our community were there are some very good Arabic writers.. henin Mankell added as a final comment that: Nothing is too late. Everything is still possible! In an ironic twist, one of the titles in question was Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 - the book that introduced the concept of Big Brother. The story, considered a modern classic, has become synonymous with political spin and remote surveillance - and many Kindle owners could not help but see the juxtaposition as amusing. In continued defiance, Lubna Hussein has gone to jail rather than pay the $200 fine: I won't pay. I'd rather go to prison, Hussein told AFP by telephone before she was taken to jail, though her lawyers said they would try to persuade her to pay up. In May French's Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said Saudi Arabia and France were close to finalising a civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement. Here's the latest peice from Al Jazeera English on the trouble in China's western region. You can also follow AJE's correspondent there on Twitter http://twitter.com/melissakchan The report says testimonies show the massive and unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians was a result of Israeli military policy, articulated by the rules of engagement, and encouraged by a belief the reality of war requires them to shoot and not to ask questions. Spokesman Noureddin Mezni said armed men attacked the Unamid staff residence in Zalingei at 0430 (0130 GMT) and abducted the pair, whom he described as civilians. Mr Mezni said the abductions were the first of Unamid members, although there have been a series of kidnappings of aid workers in the region. Observers say the opening of the Aramaic academy showed a more relaxed and confident attitude by the regime. Scholar George Rizkallah dedicated his 2007 Aramaic textbook to the great leader and patron of the sciences and education Dr Bashar al-Assad. A large portrait of the president hangs in the principal's office, as in all public buildings in Syria. I personally strongly protest the many obvious violations and I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade, the Reuters news agency reported him as saying. The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny. BBC Report The Scottish government did take a courageous step by releasing Al-Megrahi to spend his last days with his family, whether they did it for compassionate reasons or purely for business is for you to decide. The hompeage of shortlisted The Parents' Circle: We strive to offer a breakthrough in people's frame of mind, to allow a change of perception, a chance to re-consider one's views and attitudes towards the conflict and the other side. Pop music video creates intense discussion on And Far Away's blog on stereotypes and what it means to be an Arab The company surveyed over 4,500 consumers in November last year about their feelings and experience towards different brands. Communities in India have realized that having women who are educated and affluent but without access to political power does not look good. Geneive Abdo added that in Iran that was the case, where the Iranian state felt threatened by criticisms made by multilateral institutions and Western states and women's rights were repressed. Freedom House declared Iran as one of the countries that most represses civil society, freedom of expression, Internet content, students and other activists for ambiguous offenses such as offending Islam, etc. The New York-based advocacy group said in a report workers on the flagship cultural project - which includes branches of the Guggenheim, Louvre and New York University (NYU) - suffer a \ldblquote cycle of abuse\rdblquote that leaves them \ldblquote deeply indebted, badly paid and unable to stand up for their rights or even quit their jobs\rdblquote . Jordanian blogger The Enchanted Fairy reacts to the festival and write in depth on its activities. The campaign is based on the World Court ruling outlawing Israel's wall in July 2004 The Egyptian woman was stabbed to death on Wednesday after she had won a defamation case against the man, Egypt\rquote s Youm El Saba\rquote a newspaper reported late Thursday. According to security sources in the German city, Marwa Al Sherbini, was stabbed inside the court during the trial. The Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, who attended the inauguration of this event, took the opportunity to appeal to all Lebanese political players to agree and dialogue. Aleqtisadiya delves into the details of the upcoming GCC monetary union pact. HRW called on the international institutions to demand concrete assurances workers would not be exploited in the construction of the development, aimed at transforming Abu Dhabi into an international cultural hotspot. Alejandro Beutel, from the University of Maryland, and Imad-ad Dean Ahmad, from the Minaret of Freedom Institute, focus their address on the future of the relations between the United States and the Muslim World on the extremist ideologies propagated throughout the Muslim World by Osama bin Laden and his allies. She focused on the 1995 Beijing platform called on countries to reform gender representation, which has yielded notable successes.She addressed the increased participation of women in three states - Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India - and on national efforts, in particular, to facilitate engagement. Biden, the highest US ranking official to visit Lebanon in 26 years, stated \ldblquote We will evaluate the shape of our assistance programs based on the shape of the new government\rdblquote . Biden then did a lovely rhetorical circle by stating that \ldblquote I do not come here to back any particular party or any particular person. I come here to back certain principles.\rdblquote The news site reports on how the death sentence caused worry in the Egyptian Borse and a fall in stocks of Talaat's group Dutch Education, Culture and Science Minister Ronald Plasterk said the ancient artifacts were surrendered by Dutch art traders after police informed them they were stolen. U.S. customs authorities and Interpol had alerted Dutch officials that the items were being sold here. Reuters said that one of the detainess confessed to wiring money to members of a terrorist network. Saberi, a freelancer who worked for National Public Radio, the BBC and the Fox News television network Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull said the killing was one that horrified the nation. [It] raised the spectre of anti-Semitism among western Europe's largest Jewish community, he said. Most of the trial took place behind closed doors. With the verdict now out in the open, there are concerns it may spark a new wave of racial tension. A CSID conference participant poses the following question to Sudha Ratan, author of \ldblquote Integrating Women into Democratic Governance\rdblquote -- What is needed in terms of going forward to enable or empower women to participate more effectively? The religion aspects seem to have less of an effect than class and other issues. Venezuela expelled Israeli diplomats on Jan. 6 to protest the Gaza offensive, and Israel later responded by kicking out Venezuelan envoys. Chavez has labeled Israeli leaders genocidal. Maria Khoury writes about her experience of celebrating Easrter in Palestine. Prime Minister Stephen Harper noted earlier this week that Canada was reluctant to get drawn into any Afghan electoral politics, but said: The concept that women are full human beings with human rights is very, very central to the reason the international community is engaged in this country. The young woman who agreed to ensnare Halimi in a honey-trap by suggesting the meet and go for a coke, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Now aged 21, she was 17 at the time of the kidnapping and was said to have been persuaded to take part by someone she knew from her children's home. News coming in on this: RT @BreakingNews A major earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 has struck 80 miles from Iraklion in Crete, Greece. As usual, an interesting piece at the Huffington Post suggests the US is ill-positioned to question Beijing's tactics against the Uighurs because of the 'global war on terror'. Muslims in the United States and around the world are reacting in real time when events like the Mumbai attacks happen, often to condemn the violence when some mainstream media pundits are busy saying that none of them cares, or worse. The problem is not that there is an entity called Israel, the problem is that the Palestinian state is not existent. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians need to change their narrative. Once peace takes hold, people will be conditioned by it and you will no longer have people who have spent their entire existence in a state of conflict. Regular schools are not enough for children in underprivileged neighbourhoods - children are poorly linked to the wider society, reports one of the MarketPlace of Ideas guests. We are waiting to move the Egyptians pyramids too from cairo The best way to protect your privacy is to control the conversation about yourself. One strategy is to become more public. SMEX: What has been particularly interesting and exciting for us at Social Media Exchange is the focus on Arabic we've seen, both with the emergence of sites like Meedan and the attention of companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook, which released an Arabic-language interface in March. But still, as a recent Meedan post notes, the Arabic Web is struggling. The last warning scene was the one to cause most trouble with Egyptian authorities creative commons attribution license: basically if you use any of their footage you have to mention that the footage is from and owned by Al- Jazeera. This can apply both to profit or non profit organizations using the material. Good piece in the Guardian by the diplomatic editor Julian Borger. He says that Russia is willing to cooperate with the US on issues of nuclear arms and terrorism, but not on Nato enlargement in the former Soviet Union. Joi just started and its going to be a technical sessions that includes copy rights issues the issue of : who owns culture? Who owns history ? was brought up.making the footage from the war on Gaza available, makes a part of history available to everyone. One of the largest works in the exhibition is a painting of the chamber of the House of Commons populated with chimpanzees, said the Times. But while Ahmadinejad was publicising his modern ideas, he also \lquote named a hard-line loyalist with strong ties to the Revolutionary Guard and the pro-government Basiji militia to oversee the country's vast intelligence infrastructure.\rquote After all, you can\rquote t expect the president to change too much. no, what will happen if the operating system in English and I am going to think in Arabic, for I do not know English, will this program be able to understand the codes in the mental interference????????? In many ways we are lucky. Globalisation, satellite TV and the internet has given us opportunities that the majority of the generation before us had not even imagined would be possible. Opportunities not only to watch \endash but also an opportunity to interact. But, as the San Francisco Chronicle points out, Obama didn't mention any of the journalists detained by US forces in his speech on World Press Freedom day earlier this year. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a letter to Obama: The overseas detention of journalists without due process has markedly damaged U.S. prestige worldwide and especially in the Muslim world. But it\rquote s not just Jewish locals who are annoyed by the weddings \endash an Arab local told Ynet: \ldblquote We hear weddings from all directions. It's very disturbing. Christians hold their weddings at banquet halls, but Bedouins celebrate in their own yards, and the noise is a nuisance not just to their neighborhood but to the entire area.\rdblquote Women parliamentarians are isolated from women activists on the ground in Afghanistan. This is a by-product of history, where women activists tend to write off the entire political structure which they see as being corrupted by warlords. Seems like Haifa's acting role as a woman wearing the Niqab in the film is big news for Arab media and showbiz sites Also surprising, perhaps, was that it was discount PC maker Gateway that topped the chart among Windows PC makers. 12:45 - Pazuzu: And so the participants start their coffee table conversation revolving around the following question: If you were designing the training process, what would you do to make it successful and to keep participants engaged? Thus, the same dance between America and Iran is being played out in Lebanon. However, all we be pleased that the tempo is slower and although there is no love music the death metal has at last been put away. The West supports peaceful nuclear power programmes in the region, but is cautious in its backing, given its ongoing standoff with Iran which it accuses of building a nuclear bomb. Tehran has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying its nuclear ambitions are to meet swelling domestic power demand. We are live on skype with Mohamad and Ahmad from Aljazeera. We're following closely here at SMEX in Lebanon, especially as we're getting ready to launch an online/offline training of trainers in digital and social media at the end of this month...Is there anyway for us to embed the meedan feed into our blog? Also, we're totally up for helping with translation of materials and video. Can't wait for today's feed. Jessica My theory on women is that women are the canary in the coal mine: what happens to women is a clear indication of the way that societies go... The status of Muslim women and the ways in which they have been allowed or not allowed into democratic governance gives us a view on democratic governance in a country. Here's a woman minister who has stirred things up here in Egypt: Moushira Khattab - lauded as a crusader for human rights and lambasted as a threat to traditional values. Here interviewed by Egypt Today magazine.http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8616 This is true here in Palestine as it was once true in South Africa. What culture means when we talk about the final fall of the ugly, racist system of apartheid, can never be exaggerated. And this will once be true even for the Palestinian people, today suffering under occupation, repression and \endash apartheid! True culture will always be part of the resistance here in Palestine. These needs are shared by non-Muslims in many countries, so why are we singling them out. Why can\rquote t we address these needs in the context of development just like in other countries\emdash India, China, Brazil. Can we really talk about one Muslim world in one bloc? Doesn\rquote t it make more sense to look at Muslims in Nigeria, for example, in the context of Africa? This debate is not about Islam\emdash it is about Muslims, the people who are facing problems, people in 80 nations, people who are challenged to address their needs. The website of the project, where people can send and publish their confessions mocking Iranian authorities. This author asserts that it is high time for the Western World to reassess its political economy of the Muslim world relations. - Anwar Haddam The conflict is moving to an ethno-religious conflict more now, moving beyond a territorial and security conflict. Joi is going around and helping groups to get moving on their projects. Many tools mentioned: technorati, twitter, friendfeed, flickr, delicious, youtube, facebook... This is a problem of Muslims there, but we live in a global village and Muslims are one-fifth of the global population so we all have an interest in addressing that need, whether or not we are Muslim. About 2/3 of population is under 30, and the government has taken big strides in providing education but has not made much headway in providing those educated people with employment. Nearly every Iranian between 25 and 29 years of age is unemployed. Despite these economic problems, civil society remains vibrant. Without talking to the elected representatives of the Palestinians, there can be no progress in the peace talks says the Arabisto website Any time there is a conflict within different ideological perspectives, women often take the blunt. In Afghanistan, a lot of civic society disappeared and political arena was taken over by warlords and fueled by external actors, eventually replaced by the repressive Taliban and its repressive interpretation of shari'ah that truly limited women\rquote s access to, for example, healthcare Afghanistan and Pakistan have a significant number of women in Parliament. India is an exception because it has not reserved seats in National Parliament for women. 9.1% of parliamentarians in India are women, and less than 1% are Muslim women. Obama wants to change a widely held preception in and of the Muslim world. This can only be changed with a final settlement. The elements necessary are clear: full withdrawal for full peace. It is considered a nice achievement to invite ENJN to blog from Meedan during the AOC in Istanbul 12:31 Pazuzu: The participants are now discovering with Hala the learning process that will be adopted by SMEX during this training. Wolrd Cafe is the next exercise we'll be doing. This process was developed in 1995 for brainstorming and coming up with new ideas. Israeli leaders blame Hamas for not moving forward with peace. But just before the elections, Netanyahu said, before coming to power, he would not accept any agreement that his predecessors may have forged before Likud\rquote s victory. One of my favourite tweets of all time: @Jayrosen_nyu says: No politician in our time has lived her political life at a wider variance from verifiable fact than Palin. That is why rage surrounds her. One of several Facebook groups opposing Gamal Mubarak for president. Keep checking back here, as more and more blog entries from people working for peace in Israal and Palestine are published on The Elders' website. Now this will give rise to another rising and again in the end the Muslims would be the losers I am waittttttttttttttttttttttting!!! Wow this is a really interesting find. I'd like to know how you think this article relates to the work the British Council is doing in the Middle East. Obama: COUNTRIES WHERE WOMEN TO BE EDUCATED ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE PROSPEROUS Obama: America's bond to Israel is unbreakable Obama: Any world order that elevates one nation or a group of people over another will surely fail He added that once a decision is taken on the closure order of the prison, the question that will be presented is on the destination to which the 240 detainees of Guantanamo will be transferred, pointing out that President Obama will never take any step that can put at risk the security of the United States and the American people. It adds: 'US immigration authorities in New York denied that Khan was detained and questioned for two hours at theNewark airport or that the actor was singled out because of his name or Asian identity. ' If the UAE is successful in its bid, this would be the first time a major international agency was located in the developing world, reports GulfNews.com. Incidentally the Mufti of Saudi Arabia called for resisting the corrupters in such cases According to an IDF spokeswoman, the soldiers shot at the man after he cocked his weapon at them.The military is still investigating the incident and the IDF commander who oversees that sector has been in close contact with his Egyptian counterparts. Evidence shows increase in number of executions as homosexuals plead for asylum in Britain. The ability of the state to promote women\rquote s access to participate in political institutions is dependent to some extent on civic societies to function effectively. Those civic society institutions that can function effectively create a more pluralist voice that can moderate clergy who may seek to limit women\rquote s participation in democratic governance. Abbas pledged to guarantee honest elections and that if Hamas wins, he will hand over power to the radical movement because we believe in democracy. Meanwhile, Abbas said he wants to continue peace talks with Israel, but reiterated that these talks would only resume on the basis of the Arab peace initiative issued at the Arab summit held in Beirut in 2002. The New York Times found an article on nuclear disarmament written by student journalist Barack Obama on March 10, 1983 for the Columbia University student newspaper. It would certainly buy back some needed good-will from the American left if Obama would take a strong position on disarmament. Nablus Governor Jamal Muheisen blamed Israel for the delay. \ldblquote The issue of the fighters and their strike is a just one, but the Israelis are delaying their case despite of the commitment of all of those on strike with all of the signed agreements with the Israeli side.\rdblquote A perspetive from someone close to the eventِى Great thinking T om - would be good to get this started. Reuters said that the riots are the largest Tehran have witnessed since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Netanyahu\rquote s remarks on the Gaza withdrawal, a senior fellow a think-tank in Washington said: \ldblquote Netanyahu\rquote s remarks should be viewed as part of the Israeli and Palestinian consensus against unilateralism. It enabled militants to claim credit without reciprocal conces According to Times online, the list which includes Hamas MP Yunis al-Astal, also other Arab and Muslim preachers Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri al-Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique, the Muslim activist Abdul Ali Musa (previously Clarence Reams), the Hezbollah terrorist Samir al-Quntar and Nasr Javed, leader of a Kashmiri terror group. The study mainly focused on the Levant; Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and indicated that \ldblquote high temperature and lack of rain will lead to low levels of river flows, slowing down the rate of filling up underground water reservoirs, raising the sea level and making the whole region more arid\rdblquote . Microsoft claimed the problem was because of a network issue that we encountered while doing routine maintenance.\rdblquote Iranian Press TV reported. According to AFP The French foreign ministry called for the immediate release of the lecturer and the embassy staff member, while British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the trial was the latest Iranian provocation. AFP also said that The hearing was not open to foreign media, the confessions were reported by the Iranian state news agency IRNA The penalty was part of a settlement with DHL concerning shipments to Iran, Sudan and Syria and failures to meet recordkeeping requirements, a US Treasury Department statement said. Al Arabiyya quotes the leaders of PAS youth movement: This concert will certainly bring idle people out and destroy their morals, Nasrudin added. Tweet from @PUBDIP : German court lets boy be named 'Djehad' . I am surprised German authorities control how parents wish to name a child! Monodoweiss blogs with a disturbing Israeli telecoms commercial, the tagline of which runs: What do we all want? Some fun, that\rquote s all. He then adds And what\rquote s more fun than not seeing the Palestinians around anymore, thanks to the 10 meters high wall? Arabian Business' 2008 piece on the beginning of Al Nasma: The general manager of Al Nassma added: Our product development for this exclusive chocolate has been meticulous and we have chosen only the finest ingredients to make sure we develop a premium product. Some foreign nationals arriving in Israel at the country's main airport in Tel Aviv, meanwhile, have reportedly been asked to sign pledges not to enter Palestinian Authority territory without coordinating such visits with the army. The workshop is being run by Joichi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons in partnership with the Royal Film Commission of Jordan and in cooperation with the SAE Institute The research, however, is highly controversial and many scientists doubt whether the Chinese team has proved that its ovarian stem cells can give rise to functional eggs and mouse pups. Ministers brace themselves for increasingly bloody conflict in Afghanistan as death toll eclipses that of Iraq Syrian foreign minister reiterates the importance of returning to the 1967 border lines as grounds for peace A Palestinian minister points out that there are over 50 Israeli plans to Judaize Jerusalem. The report notes that Iran has taken steps to not repeat Iraq\rquote s mistake in putting all its nuclear eggs in one facility. Repeated strikes against underground bunkers still may not set back the country but a few years. On Thursday, as the occupying Israeli state, marked an internationally-rejected annexation of East Jerusalem, PM Natenyahou said that Jerusalem 'was and will be the united capital of Israel'. The footage is already in Italy and the young director is finishing the editing and post-production at a secret location thereby avoiding strict Iranian censorship, one of the festival's spokesmen told AFP. Regarding President Obama, Mr. Meshal said, \ldblquote His language is different and positive Robert Tait described the Ayatollah's speech as 'extraordinarily hard line and uncompromising', Robert Fisk also found it forced Mousavi into a corner. For the opposition I fear it is now all or nothing, double or quits. But I hope there is room for negotiation. Description of the Baths annd short history note about them The first Durban anti-racism conference in 2001 declared Zionism as racist creating official American and Israeli antagonistic stands McCain tweeted Chavez's book as best cure to insomnia. The Obama administration described Netanyahu's speech as positive, a comment that raised huge concerns among Palestinians. Four personnel carriers carrying soldiers arrive in Martyr's Square as several helicopters circle above. Security presence is increasing. Putting words in UNIFIL\rquote s mouth | Menassat Senator Kyl also expressed concern that President Obama would either need to postpone his announced closing of Guantanamo, or bring a large number of detainees to the United States for trial. Nevertheless, people are back out in the streets of Tehran on Monday Al Aqsa institue projects that more stones will be stolen and called on the UNESCO to protect the site, according to Al Jazeera Naseej provides the detailed daily schedule of the Arabi Poetry Forum. The embassy stated the infected soldiers came from other countries and were just passing through the military bases in Kuwait, according to Moheet. According to a new study by property consultancy firm Colliers International, Dubai's real estate market has seen an average decline of 40 percent in sales prices in the last six months. According to the Al-Hayat report: It is likely that the well known website Facebook is under pressure from Israel, the United States, and lobbies that are resisting the Palestinian people and movements of the Palestinian Resistance, among them Hamas. Usually at this time of the year in Morocco, a series of festivals and cultural events that mark the eminence of the summer begin. They are annual gatherings that attract a growing number of artists, local and international alike, according to Global Voices. According to official statistics, between 2000 and 2008 alone, the Israeli authorities demolished more than 670 Palestinian-owned structures in East Jerusalem due to lack of permit - reports Islam online The conference will discuss the possibility of establishing an Arab nongovernmental network to encourage investments in technology, according to Naseej. According to America,Mr. Obama's this visit may will be formed business schedules bethween the each countries, rather than the israel & palestinian issues Manar Al-Hashhash is the founder and manager of development company Dot Design, according to this Pipl search. A day after dueling high-profile speeches over the handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, legislators and administration officials continue to voice both support and opposition to President Obama's plan to close the prison camp, according to PBS. According to Global voices feed Golamhussein Karbaschi, a leading reformist campaigner in Iran's presidential election, twittered [fa] that all copies of Ettemad Meli, a reformist journal, were collected by the authorities because Mehdi Karoubi, a reformist candidate,accused President Ahmadinejad of being involved in financial scandals. The Middle East has potential for 17 million mobile broadband subscribers and Africa has around 24 million users, Delta Partners said, adding this would represent a market worth $6 billion by 2011. A leaked report blaming Hezbollah for the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister has reignited tensions between Sunnis and Shias ahead of a next month\rquote s parliamentary elections, Said the Times. The wall will be enhanded with barbed wire, according to Al Youm Al Sabe' According to Xinhua website, President Abbas urges factions to form a unity government According to Mousavi's Facebook page, the rally is on:The CRUCIAL Demonstration on Saturday 16:00 in Tehran and all around the world, please spread this message around G21 MidEast reports, Analysts agree that Arab bloggers have made sure to get a big share of the blogging pie in a time when citizen journalists across the globe are scrutinizing the mainstream media with their subjective take on the political and social arenas. The Times says that despite calls from top British generals for more soldiers in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown is set to stick to current troop levels. Arab news reports, The According to WIRED website Last year, we read the fine print in the U.S.-Iraq security deal, which took effect on January 1. As we noted, the pact gave Iraqis primary jurisdiction over U.S. security contractors, effectively closing a loophole that had given guns-for-hire a \ldblquote get out of jail free\rdblquote card. Gates said that the US already has a number of terrorists in its prisons and there has been no escapes before, according to moheet. Israeli forces take their positions in Jerusalem in anticpation of clashes, according to Miftah. According to Maktoob, The UAE government said it was disappointed by the report, which it said tried to sensationalise drawbacks in the country's labour policies without recognising the progress it had made. Menassat reports that Wael Abbas has traveled the world, giving speeches at conferences about human rights abuses in Egypt and the role of blogging in exposing rights violations committed by the state. According to the ministry's official results, the pro-West majority won 71 seats in the 128-member parliament, while the Hezbollah-led opposition secured 57 seats. According to this blog, 'Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi was one of three women whom President Ahmadinjad had put forward for parliament\rquote s vote. The parliament rejected two other female nominees \endash for the posts of ministers of education and welfare.' In a related development, the American newspaper Los Angeles Times reported that the administration of President Barak Obama asked the Congress to make minor adjustments to the US law, for it to become possible to deal with a Palestinian unity government, including among its ministers some leaders from the Hamas movement. Meanwhile... There may be dark clouds on the horizon for realations between Iraq and US forces, with the Washingotn Post rporting US forces as being restricted by their Iraqi hosts. In such cases, the Israeli police open fire to kill especially if they know the driver is an Arab. None of he attackers has survived so far. In a reaction from another Arab country, the Mufti of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Haddad, has called on Muslims to delay any pilgrimage to Mecca for the next two or three weeks because of the outbreak. He also recommended that Muslims pray in the open air to avoid contracting, or spreading the swine flu, Press TV said. A press release revealed today that the meeting, headed by Kuwiti finance minister Mustafa Al Shamali, shed light on the importance of Arab financial policy coordination in order to combat economic downturn, while taking into account several fiscal justifications and considerations. A press release revealed today that the council, headed by Kuwiti finance minister Mustafa Al Shamali, shed light on the importance of Arab financial policy coordination in order to combat economic downturn, while taking into account several fiscal justifications and considerations. Hatem Abdel Qader, advisor to Salam Fayyad, Palestinian Prime Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, said \ldblquote We have invited people and national, religious, and institutional parties to participate\rdblquote Abdel Qader said that the prevention of the fanatic-induced march towards Al Aqsa mosque by Israeli police forces was likely, affirming that police authorities have hinted at this. \ldblquote Our Constitution respects freedom of thought and freedom of expression, but that should come with respect for society as a whole, and for moral behavior,\rdblquote said Taher Naser al-Hmood, Iraq\rquote s deputy cultural minister. \ldblquote It is not easy to balance security and democracy. It is like being a tightrope walker.\rdblquote An Israeli government spokesman said it was their policy not to comment on such cases, according to the BBC. Saberi's father, who is in Tehran to pursue her daughter's case, said on Saturday that Roxana had called from prison to say she was on her fifth day of hunger strike and would continue to refuse food until she is released, reports Iranian news channel Press TV. Ma'an news agency reports: Meeting with residents of Qalandiya camp, in the shadow of Israel\rquote s massive Qalandiya military checkpoint, the world leaders listened to locals\rquote tales of life under occupation. The delegation will later meet Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and hold a press conference. Middle East conflict has been partly based on Israeli domination of fertile lands and vital water resources. In the occupied West Bank, Israel has been exploiting vast areas of Palestinian lands for the sake of settlement activities, as Palestinians only receive small quantities of water, compared with large quantities for Israelis The study showed that UAE workers were the most worried over the labor market situation, with 74% voicing their concerns, versus only 58% in Jordan \endash the least affected nation by the global recession Chavez had kicked out the US ambassador to Venezuela in September, which led Washington to respond in kind.The dispute was over an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close friend of Chavez\rquote . The Somali parliament\rquote s verdict will not include two quasi-independent regions north of the country, which are Puntland and the Republic of Somaliland. A real challenge awaits the government in the practical implementation of this decision, which ultimately aims to combat insurgency and soothe opposition against current Somali president, Sharif Ahmed. The Somali parliament\rquote s verdict will not include two quasi-independent regions north of the country, which are Puntland and the Republic of Somaliland. A real challenge awaits the government in the practical implementation of this decision, which ultimately aims to combat insurgency and soothe opposition against current Somali president, Sheikh Sherif Sheikh Ahmed. Injaz was born weighing 30kg after scientists took DNA from the ovary of one camel and put it into an egg from a surrogate mother. Born in 1801, Rifaa Tahtawi was one of the leaders of the scientific renaissance in Egypt. He spent some time in France where he studied translation before returing to Egypt. She was born in the same year Stalin and Einstein who became history by now Maybe the feelings of the speech being an anticlimax mean he was being realistic in what he thinks he can achieve? It would be easy to make grand statements that win public approval in the region, but were ultimately just talk. But surely religious observance is a matter for the individual and his relationship with God, not for the police? But won't more loudspeakers lead to more noise? But could we not run the site through the Meedan MT and link it through here? That would allow translation improvement, no idea how the functionality of the site would be affected though. Unfortunately, this world seems to be structured in such a way as to bail out the unforgivable mistakes of the rich, and punish the slightest mistakes of the poor. And it\rquote s not just the UK wooing Gaddafi. John McCain praised America\rquote s former foe as a peacemaker in Africa on a visit to Tripoli last week, saying: \ldblquote Ties between the United States and Libya have taken a remarkable and positive turn in recent years.\rdblquote Also, Washington is expected to approve the sale of military equipment to Libya in the near future. And as problems grow between the ethnic groups, it is the extremists who will benefit from the power vacuum. From the Washington Post: \ldblquote The deep mistrust and lack of security coordination between the two sides has allowed al Qaeda and other militants to thrive, as has northern Iraq's remote and mountainous terrain, where such groups can hide out between attacks.\rdblquote Meshaal denied the occurrence of any developments with regard to negotiations on the deal to exchange prisoners. He attributed the cause to Netanyahu's way to deal with in this issue, believing that neglect would lead to lowering the ceiling of the Palestinian demand which was presented by Hamas for the release of Palestinian prisoners. And here's the idea: Koska has invented a new syringe, same cost as a traditional one, that breaks if you try and reuse it. This is also, as I understand it, the cut and thrust of Juan Cole's latest book Engaging the Muslim World, which I must find time to read in the next couple of weeks. He also writes the wonderfully well-informed and reasoned blog Informed Comment. And here's (perhaps) why they should, by Michael Tomasky in The Guardian:These photos could so enrage people that it would dramatically endanger those soldiers. And here is a link to Koska's revolutionary syringe (cost $0.05) It was necessary to make a decision ... I understand that the closure could hurt the economy, but the obstacles are becoming intolerable and burdensome, Saudi businesswoman Aliya Banaja said according to Menafn.com. I am pleased to hear Google are keen to show they care about increasing Arabic access to the Internet. WEAVER: I suggest that we have french fries and mangoes every day for lunch. OBAMA: See, and if you were planning the lunch program it'd probably taste good to you but it might not make you big and strong like you need to be and so we want to make sure that food tastes good in school lunches but that they're also healthy for you too. WEAVER: I looooove mangoes. Many Palestinians believe there is not enough basis for two-state solution on the ground Tom, I am curious to know whether water rights agreements between Turkey and Iraq have been renegotiated since the start of the war. It would be great to be able to access data on flow rates. hey georgeweyman the blog is up and running now! Please give it a look! http://comicat.typepad.com/my-blog/ Hey Dona - this is incredible. Lots of people couldn't come to the workshop because they didn't have English?? How can we reach them and help them get involved - do you have an email list? Fantastic stuff Tom - get the word out that we're doing this. I have been tied up organizing on the spot Farsi translation newsroom. Do tweet out about our thread! Yaser - surely a lantern is not a luxury good? In countries with very low income and poor electricity infrastructure, a lantern is a way of seeing in the dark. OK we now have @anasqtiesh @yaserhassan and Rania all translating this Twitter feed from the global blogger conference in Cairo into Arabic. Enjoy. What a huge challenge, I agree with the idea that sometimes somethings are so big that we just don't begin to deal with it.Here's Pritchard's idea to clean water: #TED Pritchard: Invented LifeSaver bottle to purify water (in his garage. Apparently garages are very useful for inventing things.) Global Voices Online rounds up some of what Syrian are saying about the campaign on blogs and twitter. Gates is looking to reassure that even with dwindling US military resources in the country, it will continue to act as negotiator between Arabs and Kurds: We are ... willing to assist in resolving disputes over boundaries and hydrocarbons, disputes that require continued commitment to the political process by word and deed. Notification seems polite at least, but, going one more step - how about the photo team cleans up the yard before taking the pictures? Maybe a sort of global gentrification project? It seems that there ought to be an index that calculates the average cost in a given country for the minimal food, clothing, shelter, health care, and transportation needed to subsist and hold a job. To simply draw a line in the sand, for example $1.25, suggests that everyone above that line is outside of poverty, and, as such, perhaps not deserving of attention. Protests of around 15,000 people against disputed legislative elections seemingly materialized out of nowhere on Monday and Tuesday in central Chisinau after an SMS campaign initiated by critics of the government. China appeared to block Twitter across the country and Internet access in a western province on Monday, after ethnic riots killed at least 140 people in the remote region. Government sources in Israel seem to prefer the Japanese candidate, Yukiya Amano, rather than South African candidate Abdul Samad Minty, according to The Jerusalem Post Obama\rquote s plan about the stem cells funding ban is likely to stir controversy. That link looks like an interesting survey of Arabs regarding internet control and censorship, but the translation isn't totally understandable :( Apparently Mr Zittrain (@zittrain) is up first, any minute now. Whilst we wait, here's a Guardian piece on yesterday's highlights. It appears the earthquake epicenter was near Crete, according to this from @5thestate Apparently this man once trained to be a Buddhist monk before joining Big Tony at No. 10, and now he's the director of http://youthfoundation.org This is really interesting: we are particularly struck by how many links come from the poetry cluster, which rarely links to political sites. In general, if I was going to affiliate with any single demographic in a given election, it would be the poets. Pirates of the Indian, seem to be unstoppable, they are well armed and prepared for all kinds of battles Mulgan's talk sounds like exactly the kind of ambitious stuff that TED is famed for, can't wait to see it uploaded on to TED.com.#TED Mulgan: Embed restless, continuous innovation into society, then grow and scale what works It seems odd that Abbas refers to new settlements and not to all settlements. To me it suggests there could well be a deal allowing a limited number of houses to be built or completed, as is being reported in various pieces.Any deal would be completely unacceptable to Palestinians and would represent a massive blow to the credibility of Obama and Abbas. It seems fairly flawed in practice. I tried a few naughty searches to see how well it worked, sadly ImHalal failed at the first hurdle: oral. (Caution advised if you're expecting a pure website to arrive top of the list)Interesting idea, part of a few recent decent, moral protecting Islamic websites along with NaqaTube. Party supporters loitering in polling placeThe FPM supporters are staying inside the elections room after voting and the internal security forces are not interfearing - Andket-Kobayat. Abu Aardvark reflects on how the meeting was portayed in Arab media: Obama's two-state solution message was carried widely, as was Netanyahu's reluctance to make any meaningful commitment to anything. Joi is talking about the different copy right laws, to know more about it go to http://creativecommons.org/license/ TED Zittrain on how random act of kindness model is evidenced everywhere on the web. Example: Wikipedia(via @brainpicker)So true, for example the wonderful volunteer translations on Meedan! Morozov is cautious on the dangers of repressive governments using what he terms the Spinternet (ie a tool for propoganda)@lucadebiase: Evgeny morozov: blogs are not only low cost media for protest. They are also low cost political manipulation media #ted Bikya Masr reports Rasfanjani's attempts to resolve the crisis: His comment that no Islamic rulership could be established without popular consent was interpreted by conservative clerics as criticism of the country\rquote s political system. One senior cleric and member of the constitutional oversight panel accused Rafsanjani of ignoring Islamic principles. Huffington Post reports the new Twitter service with an interview with its founder: It all started a while after the riots in Iran, and I realized the potential of Twitter, Nil said. There are an infinite number of uses for Twitter, and I thought 'What can I do that is new and creative and might benefit the people of Israel?' The article challenges China's claim that it is not afraid of the internet after blocking Youtube service for its users Hossam El-Hamalawy asks on AlMasry Alyoum where is Iran? in the Egyptian local press, despite the dominant presence of the new events among the country's social media networks. Is it because it is a threat to the Arab regimes if learnt by or exposed to people? Al Quds Al Arabi editor asks why more wasn't achieved at the Doha Summit. Middle Eastern critics question the US standards, noting that although US sensibilities constantly expect, and demand, the singling out of any country, leader or group it deems criminal or terrorist, Israel is treated on different standards. using Facebook is hardly an obama-isation of politics, the tool is a mere interface but the gap between the two ideologies is very wide. I agree though that we cannot really judge the intentions.It might be a sincere attempt to engage, still even then I highly doubt that the organizers will let be real and sincere. Internet usage is already heavily censored in the kingdom; sites dealing with porn, dating, gambling, alcohol, drugs, and homosexuality are all banned. So there is a question over why the Saudi government feels it needs to make the rules even stricter. ElBaradei is highly respected for his professionalism and neutrality during his period of work with the IAEA. Jihad Watch readers debate the recent escalations The piece about IDF troops wanting more moral guidance came from today's Haaretz: Speaking at a seminar yesterday in Jerusalem on \lquote War and Peace in Jewish Heritage\rquote , Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeister acknowledged an inherent tension between protecting soldiers and avoiding harm to innocent civilians. Ahamdinejad accusing rivals of Hitler tactics - according to Reuters Many accuse Karzai of allowing the controversial bill to become law as part of a deal with hardline Shiite leaders who will guarantee the President support at the polls in return for the legislation. Human Rights Watch said such a deal should be \lquote unthinkable\rquote . Marc Ginsberg, a former US ambassador to Morocco, makes a similar point about Mubarak\rquote s usefulness to the White House: \ldblquote As pleased as Washington may be with Egypt's newly invigorated regional role, Mubarak faces daunting domestic challenges that could impair Egypt's re-emergence and America's go-to Arab ally.\rdblquote I have to leave now. I tried to add URLs from different sources, including Arabic Iranian Media. I will be a way for about 5 days outside Cairo. See you next week and Enjoying...... :-) Competition should yield great and creative inventions, customers should be happy Knowledge and culture should be free - glad I'm witnessing the dawn of global cooperation to have the world digital library up on its feet. I expect it will have a vital rule for scholars and normal readers in the near future. The United States must make a clear distinction between forcible regime change and democracy promotion and acknowledge that peaceful means are the only legitimate methods for building democracy. - Atef Al-Saadawy Media should edit what really happens regarding the global events, with no fabrifactions. This is why media would achieve its goal of narrowing the gap between nations and groups Summer is coming, it is the season of flies and bugs. Be careful ! If is not the state responsibility, it is then ours. It is our lives to care for The Hamas charter should be amended or completely scrapped. For Hamas leaders to be taken seriously as future statesmen, the charter must be changed because, for instance, it does not distinguish between Jews and Israelis. Not all Israelis are Jewish. Palestinians should not mourn Israel's creation. They should celebrate what a failure it has been.(kabobfest)Don't u think that inspite of the US support to Israel, it is still a pariah? No state shall acquire land by means of war or move its citizens to occupied territory -- Geneva Convention. Sharek.eg, the government site hosting the discussion alongside Facebook, looks like it will need some work before the big day, Lots of photos of Gamal in action. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi marks the 40th anniversary of the 1969 coup which brought him to power on September 1 with controversy raging around him, as it has done for much of the four decades of his rule. Started in 1970, Earth Day celebrates the environment and natural resources of our planet The World Digital Library's website has put up the Japanese work that is considered the first novel in history, for instance, along with the Aztecs' first mention of the Christ child in the New World and the works of ancient Arab scholars piercing the mysteries of algebra, each entry flanked by learned commentary. Egyptian experts warn the disease could reach Egypt from Israel as fast as it reached the US from Mexico Dr. Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a non-resident senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institute. Coming from a background in public diplomacy and foreign policy, Dr. Telhami will address the aftermath of 9/11 and future engagement with the Muslim World. The crew of \lquote Maersk Alabama\rquote tell their story during the hijack of the ship. This sounds like good news and bad news at the same time as one does not choose their genes Palestinians honour dead from 1976 clashes with Israeli army The poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself-by selling his nine-year-old daughter, reports the News of the World. YNet claims that contrary to other reports, SBY may not get the 50% needed to avoid a run off. Egyptian daily news site Al Masry Al Youm reports that five thousand police officers were in the area of the court ahead of the decision to uphold Talaat Moustafa's death penalty. Sha'ab news in Egypt says Abdel Moneim's escape from Egypt caused great embarrassment, and suggests a number of officials may have been involved in helping her get away. Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan links Gordon Brown's indecisiveness over whether to support IRA victims seeking compensation from Libya to his perceived weakness as a prime minister. translator Email send to : shakeeralishakeer@yahoo.com Zittrain echoes Gordon Brown yesterday: @tedtochina #TED Zittrai The Internet is not a noun, it is a verb. It is saying to us, let's march. The majority of Muslims globally want good governance, power sharing, and the rule of law. Some do not. Many governments want democracy in Muslim-majority societies, but some look at the outcome of elections and do not. I love this attitude, inspiring stuff: I am therefore faced with two options; I either choose to be a spectator of events hoping that a positive change will be achieved, or choose to be an initiator and become involved in achieving change and being influential within my community. Many analysts believe that Algeria is facing a similar problem to Somalia, with many of its nationals, who fought alongside militant groups in Afghanistan and Iraq, now returning home to launch national campaigns. Antoun thinks there is no use, he said : \ldblquote Good luck to the winner this weekend, it sure won't be Lebanon.\rdblquote Vice-President Biden is in town and among the tabouleh surrounding his visit he has said nothing new. The policy that US will tie aid to votes was reiterated and the standard we support no one except for the people that we support..... One suspects that many stars might have ignored these messages as just the ramblings of the sad Morozov expands on the ideas outlined in earlier talk (see Shereen El Feki's blog): #TED Morozov: Authoritarian regimes use internet to learn how to manage info, share blame for failed policies, increase legitimacy.#TED Morozov on the Iranian Twitter counter-revolution: Government using activists' Twitter activity to identify & nip conflict sooner. The article mentions what was written in the report about the war in Gaza and the crimes committed by both parties Al Jazeera English notes that progress on the exchange of prisoners was also discussed during the visit. The cloning is a controversial issue . The film shows Iranian society going through a revolution, with all its hopes and doubts through the story of a depressed young Iranian woman caught up in the political events, a statement quoted Makhmalbaf as saying. Bassam Haddadin disagrees with the boycott and says the only solution is dialogue. Arabic poetry (Arabic, الِشعر العربي ash-shi`ru 'l-`arabiy) is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Our present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed, or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter. Everyone thinks there is something in the air.. but no one can predict what is going on. The latest victory of Ahmadinejad in Iran's elections will make it harder for the U.S. President Obama in his country's conflict with Iran, says Ramzi Baroud, and adds that Israel will try to keep the war option available Many think chances of creating a viable Palestinian state have long receded: Fatah and Hamas are at logger-heads, Gaza is contained by an on-off state of siege, and Israeli building continues in the occupied West Bank now encircled by a wall which encroaches on the 1967 border. Rami al-Meghari - a Palestinian journalist working in Gaza - suggests that the blockade has crippled the strip's infrastructure, including education. Islam is too powerful to be left in the hands of the ignorant\emdash look at bin Laden. James Paul's comments on Iraq in full. Leadbeater believes that TED feeds into a public demand for new ideas, a hunger no longer fed by politics. \ldblquote Very few politicians have anything interesting to say, so there\rquote s a thirst for ideas from scientists, from social entrepreneurs.\rdblquote Former AP bureau chief returns to the city where he was held hostage to talk about the challenges of being a modern-day reporter Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, in addition to about 180,000 Israelis living in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. The Series has been lacking novelty of late, if they don't do some drastic improvements their viewer ratings are going to plummit. It is so heartbreaking for me as Egyptian to know that such blood shedding is taking place in my home land, especially when it comes to our guests who come to Egypt from allover the world to enjoy its weather, history, and old civilization. Qifa Nabki suggests Jumblatt could be the kingmaker:'Does Jumblatt\rquote s approval of a cabinet lineup that the opposition will almost certainly reject suggest that he is returning to the March 14 fold?' Juan Cole provides some backgroung information on the festival, quoting an Iraqi official: Gen. Abd al-Karim Khalaf, speaking for the Interior Ministry, called the performance of the Iraqi security forces superb, and said that they had demonstrated their competency in their first big test. Juan Cole offers in-depth analysis of both Khamenei and Khatami's remarks. LynnBracken RT the night is ours, cry out from your roofs tops. Light candles and put them in the street. #iranelection #iran #gr88less than 10 seconds ago from web The Washington Institute for Near East Policy says the time is right for Obama to push Mubarak on domestic reform: With a transition in Egypt in the offing, President Mubarak's visit would be the right time to reintroduce governance issues into the bilateral agenda in a serious, if less public, way. Egypt's long-term stability, influence, and relevance are at stake. Hundreds of tunnels have been dug under the Gaza strip in the past two years, says Xinhau Plans to build a spaceport in the capital \endash fuelled by a $280bn deal with Sir Richard Branson\rquote s Virgin Galactic \endash will also give the UAE\rquote s space aspirations a boost, experts say. The 32 per cent stake in the company means Abu Dhabi will have exclusive rights to offering space tourism flights. Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah says nearly two thirds of all Gulf state development projects have been postponed or canceled - a huge cut back for sure. Journalist Jon Jensen (@jonjensen) tweets: Moulid of Sayeda Zeinab canceled due to swine flu. Impossible. I highly doubt Cairo can keep 1 million revelers away. Obama Says :it was Islam that carried light and paved the way to european renaissance President Karzai should not sacrifice women for short-term political deal-making, said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. He is playing with fire. How will he be able to refuse demands for similar discriminatory laws from other communities? Paul Bedard says: 'While it is good to have a popular president, the poll found that the world still disdains America and is unwilling to join Washington in most major hot spots.' Peres: We want to see Lebanon truly independent; to see it as a normal country, without a foreign military inside it, without a strange dagger pointing at its heart. We have no ambition in Lebanon. We do not want a speck of its land, a drop of its water. Hizbullah's arms' caches are a danger to Lebanon more than to Israel. Peres: Hizbullah established a state within a state, and army within an army; an organization thirsty for blood in a land yearning for peace. It is not Israel which is a danger to Lebanon. The land of the cedars is cursed by Hizbullah. A comment underlying the picture of the three leaders smiling says: the realty U.S. must face Iran is a player Afghanistan and Pakistan its allies John Gitting's argues that, like Tibetans, China's Uighur population never really wanted independence. But poor governing and blatant racism has stoked tensions to breaking point. Hassan Nasrallah says the Arab world has the money and the power to stop the attacks on Gaza. Is he right? heyg1 says: at least 20k people are there - the biggest march in 30 years in tehran from Vanak Square Khaled Diab says: 'Some experts observe that Islam's scientific heritage equips Muslims to look positively upon modern science. In fact, many Muslims believe that modern science confirms the Qur'an.' Saif al-Islam Gaddafi says Libya will resist any compensation demands: He told Sky News: They have their lawyers, we have our lawyers. It is now obvious that the British authorities were not telling the truth when they denied knowing that Binyam was in Morocco, said Clive Stafford-Smith, director of legal advocacy group Reprieve. Again the question for the police and the public must be, how far up the political ladder did this knowledge go? Nokia business manager said: \ldblquote Location based services play a pivotal role in the evolution of the Internet by making it relevant and personal. With Ovi Maps, we\rquote ve integrated the mobile experience with the traditional desktop experience which allows people to pre-plan their journey at home on their PC or Mac and synchronise with their mobile device.\rdblquote BBC News Defense and Security correspondent says: 'What is striking about this latest attack, and so worrying for the Pakistani authorities, is the timing and choice of target.' @moftas tweets : Egyptian foreign ministry: Our calls helped release the kidnapped fishermen. As in put them in enough despair to risk their lives and run The Arabist on claims that the Megrahi release was linked to UK oil interests in Libya. Islam Today says Blackwater 'is a symbol of the participation of private companies in the wars of the twentieth century, and its employees angered Iraqis, who believed that they act without any accountability.' Think about it, others will read it through a brain-computer interface, says Resource Shelf website Former Vice President Dick Cheney says transferring suspected terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to the United States would be a bad idea. Nassif says Lebanon needs to make more use of water: \ldblquote We have plenty in the sea. I use water from the sea. It only needs to be pressurized and kept in special tanks. Water, even pressurized, is much less expensive than fuel.\rdblquote This Haaretz report says that the move by Britain will have no significant effect on the Isreali navy, it could encourage other countries to cut arms exports to the country. But will it? The organisers are live blogging the event with Cover it Live, Meedan is translating Zaher Bassioni writes a passionate case for why young people can create change in Palestinian society. saeed valadbaygi writes - in his blog- a min by min update about Iran protests with citizen journalism videos and photography. Matthew Duss writes in The Guardian about the Bush administration's desire to use torture to find links between Iraq and Al Qaeda Nile Gardiner Writes in The Telegraph Blog : He is reviled across most of the free world, and has a shameful record of oppressing his own people. He deserves to be treated with utter contempt when he arrives in America, and the message should be sent loud and clear to Tripoli that he should pitch his tent elsewhere. Militants have many methods of provocation, I wouldn't have listed the burqini as amongst them. I think this is more an ill-timed enforcement of French swimming rules that forced me into speedos during my childhood. Definitely ill-timed though. So to sum up, the debate here is about whether Facebook is primarily trying to challenge Google or Twitter with this purchase of FriendFeed. But what about Facebook users - what will this buyout do for them? This video could also eventually be posted on DotSub Nanotechnology could transform the world, but whether than transformation will be beneficial or destructive is yet to be seen. You can comment directly on this story onto this Iraqi news site Al Sumaria TV. You can find a couple of pictures of the images deemed offensive in the attached piece on Ynet. My non-political thought was that they are pretty impressive pieces of art, not just an awful Photoshop job. you can watch the episodes of the first three parts on youtube, here:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_playlists You can WATCH the entire CSID Conference on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 LIVE by clicking here: http://live.csidonline.orgPlease do watch it online, and then let us know what you think about it and about what the speakers said. You can WATCH the entire CSID Conference on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 LIVE by clicking here: http://live.csidonline.orgPlease do watch it online, and then let us know what you think about it and about what the speakers said. Omar Karami not allowing people to voteAt the Zahria polling station in Tripoli, Omar Karami followers are questioning who each person is voting for, and are allowing in those voting for Omar only, while the others are set aside. Every day should be Earth day . One should wonder, Is it Shalit who is captured in the Gaza Strip or he is the one capturing the 1.5 million Gazans? Juan Cole is particularly critical of Netanyahu's unwillingness to cooperate and highlights the problematic nature of the talks. He's particularly scathing about the Israeli PM's demand that Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state. The Shia Family Law regulates the obligations of men and women, including the obligations of women to satisfy men sexually. Indeed, it allows a husband to withhold maintenance (ie, food) from a wife who refuses to satisfy his demands. The Royal Decree that was issued naming HRH Prince Hussein, the eldest son of King Abdullah, as Crown Prince effective July 2, 2009. There's one line in the NYT article that sums up the process for me: The trick, analysts said, is persuading both sides to act simultaneously when each wants to see the other move first. Indian officials blame Pakistan because of sole surviving militant's confession, while Pakistani officials deny allegations. writer Stuart O'Neill highlights the fact that while there are critics on all sides from all countries involved there is a general consensus that a regional approach, implemented with effectiveness, is an outcome that could be effective. Eliminating the \rquote safe-havens\rquote for the Taliban and others is a prime target for all forces Haaretz article clarifying rabbi Friedman point of view. He said that his answer in Moment was misleading and that he does believe that any neighbor of the Jewish people should be treated, as the Torah commands us, with respect and compassion. The Viva Palestina homepage charts the progress of the convoy, and the difficulties and frustrations of waiting in Cairo for 10 days, with pictures: This is a victory for the people of Gaza. We were determined not to be denied in bringing humanitarian aid to the children of Gaza. The silence of the world is deafening as the people of Gaza suffer 1 Where to Begin This book was created by a team of individuals who each, in their own field, are actively participating in the ever-expanding Internet by pushing its reach farther than ever before. The massive popularity of wireless networking has caused equipment costs to continually plummet, while equipment capabilities continue to sharply increase. We believe that by taking advantage of this state of affairs, people can finally begin to have a stake in building their own communications infrastructure. We hope to not only convince you that this is possible, but also show how we have done it, and to give you the information and tools you need to start a network project in your local community. Wireless infrastructure can be built for very little cost compared to traditional wired alternatives. But building wireless networks is only partly about saving money. By providing people in your local community with cheaper and easier access to information, they will directly bene fit from what the Internet has to offer. The time and effort saved by having access to the global network of information translates into wealth on a local scale, as more work can be done in less time and with less effort. Likewise, the network becomes all the more valuable as more people are connected to it. Communities connected to the Internet at high speed have a voice in a global marketplace, where transactions happen around the world at the speed of light. People all over the world are finding that Internet ac- cess gives them a voice to discuss their problems, politics, and whatever else is important to their lives, in a way that the telephone and television sim- ply cannot compete with. What has until recently sounded like science fiction is now becoming a reality, and that reality is being built on wireless networks. 1 But even without access to the Internet, wireless community networks have tremendous value. They allow people to collaborate on projects across wide distances. Voice communications, email, and other data can be exchanged for very little cost. By getting local people involved in the construction of the network, knowledge and trust are spread throughout the community, and people begin to understand the importance of having a share in their communications infrastructure. with each other. In this book we will focus on wireless data networking technologies in the 802.11 family. While such a network can carry data, voice, and video (as well as traditional web and Internet traf fic), the networks described in this book are data networks. We speci fically do not cover GSM, CDMA, or other wireless voice technologies, since the cost of deploying these technologies is well beyond the reach of most community projects. Purpose of this book The overall goal of this book is to help you build affordable communication technology in your local community by making best use of whatever resources are available. Using inexpensive off-the-shelf equipment, you can build high speed data networks that connect remote areas together, provide broadband network access in areas that even dialup does not exist, and ultimately connect you and your neighbors to the global In By using local sources for materials and fabricating parts yourself, you can build reliable network links with very little budget. And by working with your local commu- nity, you can build a telecommunications infrastructure that bene fits everyone who participates in it. This book is not a guide to configuring a radio card in your laptop or choosing consumer grade gear for your home network. The emphasis is on building infrastructure links intended to be used as the backbone for wide area wireless networks. With that goal in mind, information is presented from many points of view, including technical, social, and financial factors. The exten- sive collection of case studies present various groups attempts at building these networks, the resources that were committed to them, and the ultimate results of these attempts. Since the first spark gap experiments at the turn of the last century, wireless has been a rapidly evolving area of communications technology. While we provide specific examples of how to build working high speed data links, the techniques described in this book are not intended to replace existing wired infrastructure (such as telephone systems or fiber optic backbone). Rather, these tech- niques are intended to augment existing systems, and provide connectivity in areas where running fiber or other physical cable would be impractical. We hope you find this book useful for solving your communication challenges. Fitting wireless into your existing network If you are a network administrator, you may wonder how wireless might fit into your existing network infrastructure. Wireless can serve in many capacities from a simple extension (like a several kilometer Ethernet cable) to a distribution point (like a large hub). Here just a few examples of how your network can benefit from wireless technology. By implementing a common set of protocols, manufacturers world wide have built highly interoperable equipment. This decision has proven to be a significant boon to the industry and the consumer. Consumers are able to use equipment that implements 802.11 without fear of \ldblquote vendor lock-in\rdblquote . As a result, consumers are able to purchase low-cost equipment at a volume which has benefitted manufacturers. While new protocols such as 802.16 (also known as WiMax) will likely solve some difficult problems currently observed with 802.11 they have a long way to go to match the popularity and price point of 802.11 equipment. As equipment that supports WiMax is just becoming available at the time of this writing, we will focus primarily on the 802.11 family. There are many protocols in the 802.11 family and not all are directly related to the radio protocol itself. The three wireless standards currently imple- mented in most readily available gear are: Ratified by the IEEE on September 16, 1999, 802.11b is probably the most popular wireless networking protocol in use today. Millions of devices supporting it have shipped since 1999. It uses a modulation called Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) in a portion of the ISM band from 2.400 to 2.495 GHz. It has a maximum rate of 11 Mbps, with actual usable data speeds up to about 5 Mbps.  802.11g. As it wasn't finalized until June 2003, 802.11g is a relative late-comer to the wireless marketplace. Despite the late start, 802.11g is now the de facto standard wireless networking protocol as it now ships as a standard feature on virtually all laptops and most handheld devices. 802.11g uses the same ISM range as 802.11b, but uses a modulation scheme called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). It has a maximum data rate of 54 Mbps (with usable throughput of about 22 Mbps), and can fall back to 11 Mbps DSSS or slower for backwards compatibility with the hugely popular 802.11b.  802.11a. Also ratified by the IEEE on September 16, 1999, 802.11a uses OFDM. It has a maximum data rate of 54 Mbps, with actual throughput of up to 27Mbps. 802.11a operates in the ISM band between 5.745 and 5.805 GHz, and in a portion of the UNII band between 5.150 and 5.320 GHz. This makes it incompatible with 802.11b or 802.11g, and the higher frequency means shorter range compared to 802.11b/g at the same power. While this portion of the spectrum is relatively unused compared to 2.4 GHz, it is unfortunately only legal for use in a few parts of the world. Check with your local authorities before using 802.11a equipment, particularly in outdoor applications. 802.11a equipment is still quite inexpensive, but is not nearly as popular as 802.11b/g. In addition to the above standards, there are a number of vendor-specific extensions to equipment, touting higher speeds, stronger encryption, and increased range. Unfortunately these extensions will not operate between equipment from different manufacturers, and purchasing them will effectively lock you into that vendor for every part of your network. New equipment and standards MIMO and WiMAX) promise significant increases in speed and reliability, but this equipment is just starting to ship at the time of this writing, and availability and vendor interoperability is still uncertain. Due to the ubiquity of equipment and unlicensed nature of the 2.4 GHz ISM band, this book will concentrate on building networks using 802.11b and 802.11g. Question and Answer If you are new to wireless networking, you likely have a number of questions about what the technology can do and what it will cost. Here are some com- monly asked questions, with answers and suggestions on the listed page. Power  How can I supply power to my radio equipment, if there is no grid power available? Do I need to run a power cable all the way up the tower? How can I use solar panel to power my wireless node while keeping it on- line overnight? on a battery? Management How can I monitor and manage remote access points from my of fice? breaks? What are the most common problems encountered on wireless networks, and how do I fix them? Distance How good is the range of my access point? Is there any formula I can use to know how far I can go with a given access point? How can I know if a remote place can be connected to Internet using a wireless link? The manufacturer says my access point has a range of 300 meters. Is that true? How can I provide wireless connectivity to many remote clients, spread all around the city? Is it true that I can reach a much greater distance adding a tin can or aluminum foil to my AP's antenna? Can I use wireless to connect to a remote site and share a single central Internet connection? My wireless link looks like it will be too long to work well. Can I use a repeater in the middle to make it better? Should I use an amplifier instead? Installation How can I install my indoor AP on the top of a mast on my roof? Is it really useful to add a lightning protector and proper grounding to my antenna mast, or can I go without them? Can I build an antenna mast by myself? How high can I go? Why does my antenna work much better when I mount it \ldblquote sideways\rdblquote ? Which channel should I use? Will radio waves travel through buildings and trees? What about people? Will radio waves travel through a hill that is in the way? How do I build a mesh network? What kind of antenna is the best one for my network? Can I build an access point using a recycled PC? How can I install Linux on my AP? Why should I do so? Money How can I know if a wireless link is achievable with a limited amount of money? Which is the best AP with the lowest price? How can I track and bill customers for using my wireless network? Where to Begin Partners and Customers If I am supplying connectivity, do I still need service from an ISP? How many customers do I need to cover my costs? How many customers will my wireless network support? How do I make my wireless network go faster? Is my Internet connection as fast as it can be? Security How can I protect my wireless network from unauthorized access? Is it true that the use of open source software makes my network less se- cure? How can I see what is happening on my network? Information and Licensing What other books should I read to improve my wireless networking skills? Where can I find more information online? Can I use parts of this book for my own teaching? Can I print and sell copies of this book? See About This Book for more details. 11 Case Studies No matter how much planning goes into building a link or node location, you will inevitably have to jump in and actually install something. This is the moment of truth that demonstrates just how accurate your estimates and predic- tions prove to be. It is a rare day when everything goes precisely as planned. Even after you install your 1st, 10th, or 100th node, you will still find that things do not always work out as you might have intended. This chapter describes some of our more memorable network projects. Whether you are about to embark on your first wireless project or you are an old hand at this, it is reassuring to remember that there is always more to learn. General advice The economies of developing countries are very different from the developed world, and thus a process or solution designed for a more developed country may not be suitable in West Africa, or Southern Asia. Specifically, the cost of locally produced materials and the cost of labour will be negligi- ble, whereas imported goods can be much more expensive when compared to its cost in the developed world. For example, one can manufacture and install a tower for a tenth of the cost of a tower in the United States, but the price of an antenna might be double. Solutions that capitalize on local competitive advantages, namely cheap labour and locally found materials, will be the easiest to replicate. Finding the right equipment is one of the most dif ficult tasks in developing markets. Because transportation, communication and economic systems are not developed, the right materials or equipment can be difficult and often impossible to find. A fuse, for example, is difficult to find, thus finding wire that has a burn-up at a certain amperage and can substitute is a great advantage. Finding local substitutes for materials also encourages local entrepreneur- ship, ownership, and can save money. Equipment enclosures Cheap plastics are everywhere in the developing world, but they are made of poor materials and are thin, thus mostly unsuitable for enclosing equipment. PVC tubing is far more resilient and is made to be waterproof. In West Africa, the most common PVC is found in plumbing, sized from 90mm to 220mm. Access points such as the Routerboard 500 and 200 can fit into such tubing, and with end-caps that are torched-on, they can make very robust waterproof enclosures. They also have the added bene fit of being aerodynamic and un- interesting to passers-by. The resulting space left around the equipment as- sures adequate air circulation. Also, it is often best to leave an exhaust hole at the bottom of the PVC enclosure. The author did find that leaving open holes can become a problem. In one instance ants decided to nest 25 meters above ground inside the PVC holding the access point. Using a wire mesh cover made from locally available screen material is advised to secure the exhaust hole from infestations. Antenna masts Recovering used materials has become an important industry for the poorest countries. From old cars to televisions, any material that has value will be stripped, sold, or re-used. For example, you will see vehicles torn apart piece by piece and day by day. The resulting metal is sorted and then tossed into a truck to be sold. Local metal workers will already be familiar with how to make television masts from scrap metal. A few quick adaptations and these same masts can be re-purposed for wireless networks. The typical mast is the 5 meter pole, comprised of a single 30mm diameter pipe which is then planted into cement. It's best to construct the mast in two parts, with a removable mast that fits into a base which is slightly larger in diameter. Alternately, the mast may be made with arms that can be securely cemented into a wall. This project is easy, but requires the use of a ladder to complete and therefore some caution is suggested. This type of mast can be augmented by several meters with the use of guy lines. To sturdy the pole, plant three lines 120 degrees apart, forming an angle of at least 33 degrees with the tower. Above all: involve the local community Community involvement is imperative in assuring the success and sustainability of a project. Involving the community in a project can be the greatest challenge, but if the community is not involved the technology will not serve their needs, nor will it be accepted. Moreover, a community might be afraid and could subvert an initiative. Regardless of the complexity of the undertaking, a successful project needs support and buy-in from those it will serve. An effective strategy in gaining support is to find a respected champion whose motives are palatable. Find the person, or persons whom are most likely to be interested in the project. Often, you will need to involve such champions as advisors, or as members of a steering committee. These peo- ple will already have the trust of the community, will know who to approach, and can speak the language of the community. Take your time and be selective in finding the right people for your project. No other decision will affect your project more than having effective, trusted local people on your team. In addition, take note of key players in an institution, or community. Identify those people whom are likely to be opponents and proponents of your pro- ject. As early as possible, attempt to earn the support of the potential propo- nents and to diffuse the opponents. This is a dif ficult task and one that requires intimate knowledge of the institution or community. If the project does not have a local ally, the project must take time to acquire this knowledge and trust from the community. Be careful in choosing your allies. A town-hall meeting is often useful to see local politics, alliances, and feuds in play. Thereafter, it is easier to decide on whom to ally, champion and whom to diffuse. Try to not build unwarranted enthusiasm. It is important to be honest, frank, and not to make promises that you cannot keep. In largely illiterate communities, focus on digital to analog services such as Internet for radio stations, printing on-line articles and photos, and other non- textual applications. Do not try to introduce a technology to a community without understanding which applications will truly will serve the community. Often the community will have little idea how new technologies will help their problems. Simply providing new features is useless without an understand- ing of how the community will benefit. When gathering information, verify the facts that you are given. If you want to know the financial status of a company/organization, ask to see an electricity bill, or phone bill. Have they been paying their bills? At times, potential beneficiaries will compromise their own values in hopes of winning funds or equipment. Most often, local partners who trust you will be very frank, honest, and helpful. Another common pitfall is what I call divorced parents syndrome, where NGOs, donors, and partners are not told of each others involvement with the beneficiary. Savvy bene ficiaries can earn handsome rewards by letting NGOs and donors lavish them with equipment, training and funds. It is impor- tant to know which other organizations are involved so you can understand how their activities might impact your own. For example, I once designed a project for a rural school in Mali. My team installed an open source system with used computers and spent several days training people how to use it. The project was deemed a success, but shortly after the installation, another donor arrived with brand-new Pentium 4 computers running Windows XP. The students quickly abandoned the older computers and lined-up to use the new computers. It would have been better to negotiate with the school in advance, to know their commitment to the project. If they had been frank, the computers that are now sitting unused could have been deployed to another school where they would be used. In many rural communities in under-developed economies, law and policies are weak, and contracts can be effectively meaningless. Often, other assurances must be found. This is where pre-paid services are ideal, as they do not require a legal contract. Commitment is assured by the investment of funds before service is given. Buy-in also requires that those involved invest in the project themselves. A project should ask for reciprocal involvement from the community. Above all, the no-go option should always be evaluated. If a local ally and community buy-in cannot be had, the project should consider choosing a different community or beneficiary. There must be a negotiation; equipment, money, and training cannot be gifts. The community must be involved and they too must contribute. Ian Howard Case study: Crossing the divide with a simple bridge in Timbuktu Networks ultimately connect people together, and therefore always involve a political component. The cost of Internet in less developed economies is high and the ability to pay is low, which adds to the political challenges. Attempting to superimpose a network where human networks are not fully functioning is nearly impossible in the long term. Trying to do so can leave a project on unstable social ground, threatening its existence. This is where the low cost and mobility of a wireless network can be advantageous. The author's team was asked by funders to determine how to connect a rural radio station with a very small (2 computer) telecentre to the Internet in Tim buktu, the desert capital of Mali. Timbuktu is widely known as an outpost in the most remote area of the world. At this site, the team decided to implement a model which has been called the parasitic wireless model . This model takes a wireless feed that is spliced from an existing network, and extends that network to a client site using a simple bridged network. This model was chosen because it requires no significant investment by the supporting organization. While it added a source of revenue for the telecentre, it did not add a significant operational cost. This solution meant that the client site could get cheap Internet, albeit not as fast or as reliable as a dedicated solution. Because of opposed usage patterns between an of fice and a telecentre there was no perceptible slowing of the network for either party. Though in an ideal situation it would be best to encourage more development of the small telecentre into an ISP, neither the telecentre nor the market were deemed ready. As is often the case, there were serious concerns about whether this telecentre could become self-sustaining once its funders departed. Thus, this solution minimized the initial investment while achieving two goals: first, it extended the Internet to the target bene ficiary, a radio station, at an affordable cost. Second, it added a small additional revenue source for the telecentre while not increasing its operational costs, or adding complexity to the system. The people Timbuktu is remote, though having a world renowned name. Being a symbol of remoteness, many projects have wanted to stake a flag in the sands of this desert city. Thus, there are a number of information and communications technologies (ICT) activities in the area. At last count there were 8 satellite connections into Timbuktu, most of which service special interests except for the two carriers, SOTELMA and Ikatel. They currently use VSAT to link their telephone networks to the rest of the country. This telecentre used an X.25 connection to one of these telcos, which then relayed the connection back to Bamako. Relative to other remote cities in the country, Timbuktu has a fair number of trained IT staff, three existing telecentres, plus the newly installed telecentre at the radio station. The city is to some degree over saturated with Internet, precluding any private, commercial interests from being sustainable. Design Choices In this installation the client site is only 1 km away directly by line of sight. Two modified Linksys access points, flashed with OpenWRT and set to bridge mode, were installed. One was installed on the wall of the telecentre, and the other was installed 5 meters up the radio station's mast. The only configuration parameters required on both devices were the ssid and the channel. Simple 14 dBi panel antennas (from http://hyperlinktech.com/) were used. To disconnect the client, the telecentre simply unplugs the bridge on their side. An additional site will eventually be installed, and it too will have its own bridge at the telecentre so that staff can physically disconnect the client if they have not paid. Though crude, this solution is effective and reduces risk that the staff would make a mistake while making changes to the con figura- tion of the system. Having a bridge dedicated to one connection also simplified installation at the central site. as the installation team was able to choose the best spot for connecting the client sites. Though it is not optimal to bridge a network (rather than route network traf fic), when technology knowl- edge is low and one wants to install a very simple system this can be a rea- sonable solution for small networks. The bridge makes systems installed at the remote site (the radio station) appear as though they are simply con- nected to the local network. Financial model The financial model here is simple. The telecentre charges a monthly fee, about $30 per connected computer to the radio station. This was many times cheaper than the alternative. The telecentre is located in the court of the Mayor's office, so the principle client of the telecentre is the Mayor's staff. This was important because the radio station did not want to compete for clientele with the telecentre and the radio station's systems were primarily intended for the radio station staff. This quick bridge reduced costs, meaning that this selective client base could support the cost of the Internet without competing with the telecentre, its supplier. The telecentre also has the ability to easily disconnect the radio station should they not pay. This model also allowed sharing of network resources. For example, the radio station has a new laser printer, while the telecentre has a color printer. Because the client systems are on the same network, clients can print at either site. Training To support this network, very little training was required. The telecentre staff were shown how to install the equipment and basic trouble shooting, such as rebooting (power cycling) the access points, and how to replace the unit should one fail. This allows the author's team to simply ship a replacement and avoid the two day trek to Timbuktu. Summary The installation was considered an interim measure. It was meant to serve as a stop-gap measure while moving forward with a more complete solution. While it can be considered a success, it has not yet led to building more physical infrastructure. It has brought ICTs closer to a radio solution, and re-enforced local client/supplier relationships. As it stands, Internet access is still an expensive undertaking in Timbuktu. Local politics and competing subsidized initiatives are underway, but this simple solution has proven to be an ideal use case. It took the team several months of analysis and critical thought to arrive here, but it seems the sim- plest solution provided the most benefit. Finding solid ground in Gao One day's drive east from Timbuktu, in Eastern Mali, is Gao. This rural city, which seems more more like a big village, sits up the the river Niger just before it dips South crossing into Niger and onto Nigeria. The city slopes into the river gently, and has few buildings taller than two stories. In 2004, a telecentre was installed in Gao. The project's goal was to provide information to the community in the hope that a better informed community would yield a healthier and more educated citizenry. The centre provides information via CD-ROMs, films and radio, but the cornucopic source of information for the centre is the Internet. It is a standard telecentre, with 8 computers, an all-in-one printer, scanner, fax, a telephone and a digital camera. It is located a bit outside of downtown, which is not an ideal location for attracting customers, but the site was chosen because of its sympathetic host. The site received funding for all construction needed, and equipment and initial training was supplied as well. The telecentre was expected to be self-sustaining after one year. Several months after its opening, the telecentre was attracting few customers. It used a modem to dialup to connect to an Internet provider in the capital. This connection was too slow and unreliable, and so the funder spon- sored the installation of a VSAT system. There are a number of VSAT systems now available to the region; most of these services have just recently become available. Previously only C-band (which cover a larger area than Ku-band) systems were available. Recently, fiber has been laid in almost every subway tunnel and canal throughout Europe, and thus it has supplanted the more expensive satellite services. As a result, providers are now redirecting their VSAT systems to new markets, including middle and West- ern Africa, and South Asia. This has led to a number of projects which use satellite systems for an Internet connection. After the VSAT was installed, the connection provided 128 kbps down and 64kbps up, and cost about $400 per month. The site was having trouble earning enough revenue to pay for this high monthly cost, so the telecentre asked for help. A private contractor was hired, who had been trained by the author to install a wireless system. This system would split the connection between three clients: a second bene ficiary, a radio station, and the telecen- tre, each paying $140. This collectively covered the costs of the VSAT, and the extra revenue from the telecentre and the radio station would cover sup- port and administration of the system. The people Though capable and willing, the author's team did not do the actual installation. Instead, we encouraged the telecentre to hire the local contractor to do it. We were able to reassure the client by agreeing to train and support the contractor in the ful fillment of this installation. The premise of this decision was to discourage a reliance on a short-term NGO, and rather to build trust and relationships between domestic service providers and their clients. This approach took much more time from the author's team, perhaps twice as much, but this investment has already be- gun to pay-off. Networks are still being installed and the author and his team are now home in Europe and North America. Design choices Initially, it was conceived that a backbone connection would be made to the radio station, which already had a 25 meter tower. That tower would be used to relay to the other clients, avoiding the need to install towers at the client sites, as this tower was well above any obstacles in the city. To do this, three approaches were discussed: installing an access point in repeater mode, using the WDS protocol, or using a mesh routing protocol. A repeater was not desirable as it would introduce latency (due to the one-armed repeater prob- lem) to an already slow connection. VSAT connections need to send packets up to the satellite and back down, often introducing up to 3000 ms in delay for a round trip. To avoid this problem, it was decided to use one radio to connect to clients, and a second radio for to the dedicated backbone connection. For simplicity it was decided to make that link a simple bridge, so that the access point at the radio station would appear to be on the same physical LAN as the telecentre. In testing this approach functioned, though in the real world, its performance was dismal. After many different changes, including replacing the access points, the technician decided that there must be a software or hardware bug affecting this design. The installer then decided to place the access point at the telecentre directly using a small 3 meter mast, and to not use a relay site at the radio station. The client sites also required small masts in this design. All sites were able to connect, though the connections were at times too fee- ble, and introduced massive packet loss. Later, during the dust season, these connections became more erratic and even less stable. The client sites were 2 to 5 km away, using 802.11b. The team theorized that the towers on either side were too short, cutting off too much of the Fresnel zone. After discussing many theories, the team also realized the problem with the performance at the radio station: the radio frequency 90.0 MHz was about the same as the frequency of the high-speed (100BT) Ethernet connection. While transmitting, the FM signal (at 500 watts) was completely consuming the signal on the Ethernet cable. Thus, shielded cable would be required, or the frequency of the Ethernet link would need to be changed. The masts were then raised, and at the radio station the speed of the Ethernet was changed to 10 Mbps. This changed the frequency on the wire to 20 MHz, and so avoided interference from the FM transmission. These changes resolved both problems, increasing the strength and reliability of the network. The advantage of using mesh or WDS here would be that client sites could connect to either access point, either directly to the telecentre to the radio station. Eventually, removing the reliance on the radio station as a repeater likely made the installation more stable in the longer-term. Financial model The satellite system used at this site cost approximately $400 per month. For many IT for Development projects this expensive monthly cost is difficult to manage. Typically these projects can purchase equipment and pay for the establishment of a wireless network, but most are not able to pay for the cost of the network after a short period of time (including the recurring Internet costs and operational costs). It is necessary to find a model where the monthly costs for a network can be met by those who use. For most community telecenters or radio stations, this is simply too expensive. Often, the only feasible plan is to share the costs with other users. To make the Internet more affordable, this site used wireless to share the Internet to the community, allowing a greater number of organizations to access the Internet while reducing the cost per client. Typically in Mali, a rural community has only a few organizations or companies that could afford an Internet connection. Where there are few clients, and the Internet connection cost is high, the model developed by his team included anchor clients: clients whom are solid and are low-risk. For this region, for- eign NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations), the United Nations Agencies and large commercial enterprises are among the very few whom qualify. Among the clients selected for this project were three anchor clients, who collectively paid the entire monthly cost of the satellite connection. A second beneficiary, a community radio station, was also connected. Any revenue earned from the beneficiaries contributed to a windfall, or deposit for future costs, but was not counted upon due to the small margins that both of these community services operated on. Those clients could be disconnected and could resume their service once they can afford it again. Training needed: The contractor taught the telecentre technician the basics of supporting the network, which was fairly rudimentary. Any non-routine work, such as adding a new client, was contracted out. Therefore it was not imperative to teach the telecentre staff how to support the system in its entirety. Lessons learned By sharing the connection, the telecentre is now self-sustaining, and in addition, three other sites have Internet access. Though it takes more time and perhaps more money, it is valuable to find the right local talent and to en- courage them to build relationships with clients. A local implementor will be able to provide the follow-up support needed to maintain and expand a net- work. This activity is building local expertise, and demand, which will allow subsequent ICT projects to build on this base. Fantsuam Foundation's Community Wireless Network Kafanchan is a community of 83,000 people located 200 km northeast of Abuja, in central Nigeria. Kafanchan used to be known as a busy and thriving town as it was the host of one of the main junctions of the national railway. When the railway industry was booming, almost 80% of Kafanchan's populations relied on it in one way or another. Following the complete breakdown of the Nigerian railway system, the population of Kafanchan has been forced to go back to its original source of income, which is agriculture. Kafanchan is a poorly connected area in terms of fixed telephony and Internet connectivity. Today, no fixed telephony (PSTN) is available in the area and GSM only just arrived in 2005. However, the GSM coverage is just as poor as the quality of the service. At the moment, SMS services are the most reliable communication service because voice conversations tend to cut off in the middle and suffer heavy noise. Poor access to electricity brings further challenges to the people of Kafanchan. The national electric power company of Nigeria, generally known as NEPA (National Electric Power Authority), is more commonly known to Nige- rians as Never Expect Power Always. In 2005, NEPA changed its name to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). Kafanchan is receiving power from NEPA on an average of 3 hours per day. For the remaining 21 hours, the population relies on expensive diesel generators or kerosene for illumination and cooking. When NEPA is available on the grid, it provides an unregulated voltage in the range of 100-120 V in a system designed for 240 V. This voltage must be regulated to 240 V before most loads can be connected. Only light bulbs can be fed straight to the grid power since they can handle the low voltage without damage. Project participants Given the challenging background of Kafanchan, how could anyone come up with the idea of establishing the first rural Wireless ISP in Nigeria there? Fantsuam Foundation did and they made it happen. Fantsuam Foundation is a local, non-governmental organization that has been working together with the community of Kafanchan since 1996 to fight poverty and disadvantage through integrated development programs. Fantsuam's focus lies on micro finance, ICT services and social development in rural communities of Nigeria. Becoming the first rural wireless ISP in Nigeria was part of their mission to be a recognized leader in the provision of rural development initiatives, as well as the foremost rural knowledge economy driver in Nigeria. The Wireless ISP of Fantsuam Foundation, also know as Zittnet, is funded by IDRC, the International Development Research Centre of Canada. IT +46, a Swedish based consultancy company focusing on ICTs for development, has worked together with the Zittnet team to provide technical support for wireless communications, bandwidth management, solar energy, power backup systems and VoIP deployments. Objectives The main objective of Zittnet is to improve access to communications in the area of Kafanchan by implementing a community wireless network. The network provides intranet and Internet access to local partners in the community. The community network is formed by community-based organizations such as educational institutions, faith-based institutions, health services, small enterprises and individuals. Power Backup System In order to provide a reliable service to the community, Zittnet needed to be equipped with a stable power backup system that would make the network run independently of the NEPA. A hybrid power system was designed for Fantsuam, consisting of a deep- cycle battery bank and 2 kW (peak) solar panels. The system can charge from three different sources: a diesel generator, a solar array, and from NEPA when electricity is available. The network operation center (NOC) of the or- ganization runs completely from solar energy. The rest of the Fantsuam's premises runs from NEPA or the generator via the battery bank, which pro- vides uninterrupted voltage stability. The NOC load has been separated from the rest of the load of Fantsuam to ensure a reliable power source to the critical infrastructure in the NOC, even when the battery bank is running low on power. 24 solar panels with a nominal power of 80 W have been mounted to the roof of the NOC to provide power to the system 24/7. Simulations with the best existing solar data reveal that Kaduna State, where Kafanchan is located, receives at least 4 sun peak hours during its worst months which stretch from June to August (the rainy season). Each of the solar panels (Suntech 80 W peak) provides a maximum current of 5 A (when the solar radiation is highest during the day). In the worst months of the year, the system is expected to produce not less than 6 KWh/ day. The solar system has been designed to provide 12 and 24 V DC output in order to match the input voltage of all low power servers and workstations for NOC infrastructure and training classrooms. The solar panels used are Suntech STP080S-12/Bb-1 with the following specifications: � Open-circuit Voltage (VOC): 80 W (Peak) The minimum 6 KWh/day that feeds the NOC is used to power the following equipment: The power consumption for servers and LCD screens is based on Inveneo's Low Power Computing Station, http://www.inveneo.org/?q=Computingstation The total estimated power consumption of the NOC is 5.6 kWh/day which is less than the daily power generated from the solar panels in the worst month. The NOC is built by locally made laterite brick stones, produced and laid by youths in Kafanchan. Network Operating Center (NOC) A new Network Operating Center was established to host the power backup sys- tem and server room facilities. The NOC was designed to provide a place safe from dust, with good cooling capabilities for the batteries and the inverters. The NOC uses natural methods and is made from locally available materials. The building is comprised of four rooms: a battery storage room, a server room, a working space and a room for equipment storage. The battery storage room hosts seventy 200 Ah deep cycle batteries, as well as five inverters (one of them pure sine wave), two solar regulators, power stabilizers and DC and AC disconnects. The batteries are stacked vertically on a metal shelf structure for better cooling. The server space accommodates a rack unit for servers and a fan. The room has no regular windows, to avoid dust and overheating. The server room and battery room face south to improve natural cooling and to help keep the room at an appropriate temperature. The server room and the battery space require effective low cost/low energy cooling as they need to operate 24x7. To achieve this goal, natural cooling techniques have been introduced in the NOC design: small fans and extrac- tors and thick walls of bricks (double width) in the direction of the sunset. The south side of the building hosts 24 solar panels in a shadow-free area on its metal roof. The roof was designed with an inclination of 20 degrees to host the panels and limit corrosion and dust. Extra efforts have been made to keep the panels easily reachable for cleaning and maintenance. The roof has also been strengthened in order to carry the extra load of 150-200 kg. The NOC building is constructed of locally produced laterite mud bricks. The material is cheap since it is frequently used and comes from the top layer of soil. The bricks are produced locally by hand using a low-tech pressing technique. Omolayo Samuel, one of the staff of Zittnet, does not fear the height of the 45m tall tower as she is aligning the antennas hosted in the top of the tower. Physical infrastructure: A communication mast Most potential clients to Zittnet are located between 1 km and 10 km from the premises of Fantsuam. In order to reach these clients, Fantsuam established a communication mast on their premises. In October 2006 a 45m (150 foot) tall self- standing mast was installed at Fantsuam Foundation. The mast was equipped with grounding and lighting protection as well as a mandatory signal light. A metal ring was buried at the base of the tower at a depth of 4 feet. All three legs of the mast were then connected to the grounding circuit. A lightning rod was mounted at the highest point of the mast to protect the equipment against lighting strikes. The rod is made of pure copper and is connected to the earth ring at the base of the mast using copper tape. The signal light mounted at the top of the mast is a requirement from the Civil Aviation Authorities. The light is equipped with a photocell which enables automated switching based on the level of ambient light. In this way, the light comes on at night and goes off during the day. The wireless backbone infrastructure is built using SmartBridges multi-band access points and client units from the Nexus PRO TOTAL series. The units are designed for service providers and enterprises to establish high performance point-to-multipoint outdoor wireless links. They come with an integrated multi-band sectoral antenna that can operate both in 2.4 GHz and 5.1-5.8 GHz frequencies. The Nexus PRO TOTAL series offers QoS for traffic prioritization and bandwidth management per client using the IEEE 802.11e compliant WMM (WiFi Multimedia) extensions. The network topology of Zittnet in October 2007. Currently, the topology of the network is a star topology with two access points in the communication mast at Fantsuam's premises. One access point hosts a 90 degree sectoral antenna (blue dotted lines) and the other access point provides omnidirectional coverage to the surroundings (red dotted rings). Clients that are located within the area between the dotted lines are connected to the sectoral antenna, while the remaining clients are connected to the omnidirectional antenna. Plans are underway to expand the wireless backbone by setting up two wire- less repeaters. One repeater will be located in Kafanchan city using an exist- ing NITEL tower to enhance the wireless coverage in the city center. The second repeater will be established in the Kagoro Hills, a small mountain group with a relative altitude to Kafanchan of about 500m, which is located about 7 km from Kafanchan. This repeater will provide coverage to many surrounding towns and may even enable a long-distance link to Abuja. Zittnet connected its first client in early August 2007. Two months later, no less than eight clients are connected to Zittnet. These clients include: The general hospital New Era Hospital Jagindi Street Clinic (health clinic) Zenith Bank Low buildings Most client premises are single-story buildings with a height of no more than 3 meters. Many houses have very weak roof structures which makes it im- possible to mount equipment on the roof, as physical access is not possible. The low buildings force us to mount the equipment at a fairly low height, as clients can not afford to invest in small (10 m) masts to host the equipment. Most installations make use of water tanks or a simple 3 meter metal pole attached to the wall of the premise. When the equipment is mounted low, the first Fresnel zone is not cleared and lower throughput is experienced. Although the landscape in Kafanchan is very flat, vegetation in the form of thick mango trees easily block the line-of-sight. Lightning strikes Heavy thunder storms are frequent during the rainy season in Kafanchan. In September 2007, a nearby lightning strike damaged equipment mounted on a mast, as well as its power supply. At the moment, the access point and its PoE injector are grounded to the tower itself. Further means need to be in- vestigated to prevent damage to equipment caused by nearby lightning. The Zittnet team is currently working on improving the surge protection by adding extra coaxial surge arrestors. Furthermore, the shield of the UTP cable connecting the access point with the NOC will be grounded using grounding blocks and fasteners. Low Quality Equipment Unfortunately, a lack of quality products on the market is a widespread prob- lem across the whole African continent. As most sub-Sahara countries lack policies for quality assurance of imported goods, the market is flooded by cheap and very low quality articles. Since quality products are hard to find, you often find yourself buying locally available merchandise that breaks even before it is put into operation. As no sort of warranty exists for these minor purchases, this ends up being very expensive. This problem is almost always present in common accessories such as power sockets, power bars, RJ45 connectors, CAT5 cabling, and other low-tech equipment. Business Model The only alternative for Internet access in Kafanchan is via satellite. During 2006, Fantsuam had a subscription of 128/64 kbps dedicated bandwidth at a cost of $1800 USD/month. This huge monthly cost of connectivity has been a big burden for Fantsuam and a constant stress of being unable to meet the monthly bill. As an alternative to the high risk flat fee model, Fantsuam has implemented a system called HookMeUP provided by Koochi Communications. The sys- tem offers flexible Pay-As-You-Go charges over broadband VSAT Internet connections to countries across sub-Sahara Africa. This kind of access model is typically found in airports, hotels or large shop- ping malls in western countries where end-users buy vouchers online and log in using an access code. The HookMeUP system offers a 512/256 kbps dedicated VSAT connection to Fantsuam (from their ground station in the UK). Fantsuam buys vouchers from Koochi Communications and resells them to its local clients in Kafanchan. In this way, Fantsuam is no longer stuck with a fixed monthly cost but has only to pay Koochi for the bandwidth they actually have consumed. The risk of buying expensive international bandwidth has now been transferred to the Internet provider instead of the end user, at a cost of a higher price for the end user. Fantsuam foundation now acts as a reseller of vouchers from Koochi and a supplier of wireless infrastructure to the end users. The Wireless Community Network now provides the Fantsuam Foundation with five sources of income: Installation of client premises equipment (one occasion per client) Leasing of wireless equipment (monthly cost per client) Reselling wireless equipment (one occasion per client) Installation of wireless hotspot at client's premise (one occasion per client) Reselling of vouchers (continuously) The voucher system is based on three parameters: access time, data limit and validity time . Whichever parameter runs out first will consume the voucher. Access time Data limit (MB) Validity time Price (USD) USD / h USD / 700 MB 30 min 5 1 day 0.80 1.60 The greatest advantage of this system is that Fantsuam Foundation no longer has the burden of a huge monthly bill for international bandwidth. Having a flat-fee model means that you are forced to sell a certain amount of bandwidth every month. With the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) model, Fantsuam's income from reselling vouchers depends on how much bandwidth their cli- ents consume. The client pays in advance (pre-paid model) with the result that Fantsuam will never end up in huge debt with the provider. The pre-paid model works well in Africa since people are familiar with this model from mobile operators. It is even used by electricity companies in some counties. The pre-paid model is appreciated by many as it helps them to keep track of their expenditures. One of the main limitations of the PAYG model is the lack of flexibility and transparency. The current PAYG system provides very little feedback to the user about consumed time or volume. Only when the user logs off will he/she be informed about how many minutes are left to spend. However, the business model seems to fit the local reality of Kafanchan and many other rural communities in Africa quite well. Although there is room for improvement, the advantage of avoiding debts is far greater than the disadvantages. With time, when the number of clients have increased and they can rely on a substantial monthly income from the wireless network, it might be beneficial to go back to the flat-fee model again. Clients The clients are free to use the Internet access for any purpose. For example, Isaiah Balat is reselling vouchers (that he bought from Fantsuam) to his clients. His Internet cafe hosts 10 computers that all are connected to Zittnet. The clients purchase vouchers from the owner with a margin of 25% over the price offered by Fantsuam. In return, clients that do not have access to a computer connected to Zittnet can access the network though the PC's at Isaiah Balat's caf�. The New World Hotel is another client that aims to create a similar business model but on a larger scale. They will provide wireless Internet access to all of their rooms and offer access to Zittnet's uplink by reselling vouchers. Other clients, like the General Hospital and the Jagindi Street Clinic, are us- ing the Internet access for professional and private use without reselling access to its clients. The quest for affordable Internet in rural Mali For several years the international development community has promoted the idea of closing the digital divide. This invisible chasm that has formed separating access to the wealth of information and communications tech- nologies (ICT) between the developed and the developing world. Access to information and communications tools has been shown to have a dramatic impact on quality of life. For many donors fatigued by decades of supporting traditional development activities, the installation of a telecentre in the devel- oping world seems like a realizable and worthwhile effort. Because the infrastructure does not exist, this is much more expensive and difficult to do in the developing world than it is in the West. Moreover, few models have been shown to sustain these activities. To help mitigate some of the cost of bringing the Internet to rural areas of the developed world, the author's team has promoted the use of wireless systems to share the cost of an Internet connection. In November of 2004, an affiliated project asked the author's team to pilot such a wireless system at a recently installed telecentre in rural Mali, 8 hours South-West by four-by-four from Bamako, the capital. This rural city, located on the margin of a man-made reservoir, holds water for the Manitali dam that powers a third of the country. This location is fortu- nate as hydroelectric power is much more stable and available than diesel generated power. While diesel generated power is far less stable, some rural communities are lucky to have any electricity at all. The city is also endowed to be in one of the most fertile regions of the country, in its cotton belt, Mali's main cash crop. It was believed that this site would be the least dif ficult of the rural areas in Mali to make a self-sustaining telecentre. Like many experiments, this pilot was fraught with challenges. Technologically it was a simple task. In 24 hours the team installed an 802.11b wireless network that shares the telecenter's VSAT Internet connection with 5 other local services: the Mayor, the Governor, the health service, the district's Mayor's council (CC) and the community advisory service (CCC). These clients had been selected during a reconnaissance two months prior. During that visit the team had interviewed potential clients and determined which clients could be connected without complicated or expensive installa- tions. The telecentre itself is housed at the community radio station. Radio stations tend to be great sites to host wireless networks in rural Mali as they are often well placed, have electricity, security and people who understand at least the basics of radio transmissions. They are also natural hubs for a vil- Providing Internet to a radio station provides better information to its listeners. And for a culture which is principally oral, radio happens to be the most effect means to provide information. From the list of clients above, you will note that the clients were all government or para-governmental. This proved to be a dif ficult mix, as there is con- siderable animosity and resentment between the various levels of govern- ment, and there were continuing disputes regarding taxes and other fiscal matters. Fortunately the director of the radio station, the network's champion, was very dynamic and was able to wade through most of these politics, though not all. Design choices The technical team determined that the access point would be installed at 20 meters up the radio station tower, just below the FM radio dipoles, and not so high as to interfere with coverage to client sites below in the bowl-like depression where most were found. The team then focused on how to connect each client site to this site. An 8 dBi omni (from Hyperlinktech, http://hyperlinktech.com/) would suf fice, providing coverage to all client sites. The 8 dBi antenna that was chosen has a 15 degree vertical beam- width, assuring that the two clients less than a kilometer away could still receive a strong signal. Some antennae have very narrow beam width and thus overshoot sites that are close. Panel antennae were considered, though at least two would be required and either a second radio or a channel splitter. It was deemed unnecessary for this installation. The following calculation shows how to calculate the angle between the client site's antenna and the base station's antenna, using standard trigonometry. tan(x) = difference in elevation + height of base station antenna - height of CPE antenna / distance between the sites tan(x) = 5m + 20m - 3m / 400m x = tan-1 (22m / 400m) x =~ 3 degrees In addition to the equipment in the telecentre (4 computers, a laser printer, 16 port switch), the radio station itself has one Linux workstation installed by the author's project for audio editing. A small switch was installed in the radio station, an Ethernet cable was run through plastic tubing buried at 5 cm across to the telecentre, across the yard. From the main switch, two cables run up to a Mikrotik RB220, access point. The RB220 has two Ethernet ports, one that connects to the VSAT through a cross-over cable, and the second that connects to the radio station's central The RB 220 is housed in a D-I-Y PVC enclosure and an 8 dBi omni (Hyperlink Technologies) is mounted directly to the top of the PVC cap. The RB220 runs a derivative of Linux, Mikrotik version 2.8.27. It controls the network, providing DHCP, firewall, and DNS-caching services, while routing traffic to the VSAT using NAT. The Mikrotik comes with a powerful command line and a relatively friendly and comprehensive graphical interface. It is a small x86 based computer, designed for use as an access point or embedded computer. These access points are POE capable, have two Ethernet ports, a mini-pci port, two PCMCIA slots, a CF reader (which is used for its NVRAM), are temperature tolerant and support a variety of x86 operating systems. Despite that the Mikrotik software requires licensing, there was al- ready a substantial user base in Mali. The system has a powerful and friendly graphical interface that was superior to other products. Due to the above factors the team agreed to use these systems, including the Mikrotik software to control these networks. The total cost of the RB220, with License Level 5, Atheros mini-pci a/b/g and POE was $461. You can find these parts at Mik- rotik online at The network was designed to accommodate expansion by segregating the various sub-networks of each client; The AP has a virtual interface on each subnet and does all routing between, also allowing fire-walling at the IP layer. Note: this does not provide a firewall at the network layer, thus, using a network sniffer like tcpdump one can see all traffic on the wireless link. To limit access to subscribers, the network uses MAC level access control. There was little perceived security risk to the network. For this first phase, a more thorough security system was left to be implemented in the future, when time could be found to find an easier interface for controlling access. Users were encouraged to use secure protocols, such as https, pops, imaps etc. The affiliate project had installed a C-band VSAT (DVB-S) system. These satellite systems are normally very reliable and are often used by ISPs. It is a large unit, in this case the dish was 2.2 meters in diameter and expensive, costing approximately $12,000 including installation. It is also expensive to operate. A 128 kbps down and 64 kbps up Internet connection costs ap- proximately $700 per month. This system has several advantages compared to a Ku system though, including: greater resilience to bad weather, lower contention rates (number of competing users on the same service) and it is more efficient at transferring data. The installation of this VSAT was not ideal. Since the system ran Windows, users were able to quickly change a few settings, including adding a password to the default account. The system had no UPS or battery back up, so once a power outage occurred the system would reboot and sit waiting for a password, which had since been forgotten. To make this situation worse, because the VSAT software was not configured as an automatic background service it did not automatically launch and establish the link. Though the C- band systems are typically reliable, this installation caused needless outages which could have been resolved with the use of a UPS, proper con figuration of the VSAT software as a service, and by limiting physical access to the modem. Like all owners of new equipment, the radio station wanted to dis- play it, hence it was not hidden from view. Preferably a space with glass doors would have kept the unit secure while keeping it visible. The wireless system was fairly simple. All of the client sites selected were within 2 km of the radio station. Each site had a part of the building that could physically see the radio station. At the client site, the team chose to use commercial, client grade CPEs: Based on price, the Powernoc 802.11b CPE bridge, small SuperPass 7 dBi patch antennas and home-made Power Over Ethernet (POE) adaptors. To facilitate installation, the CPE and the patch antenna were mounted on a small piece of wood that could be installed on the outside wall of the building facing the radio station. In some cases the piece of wood was an angled block to optimize the position of the antenna. Inside, a POE made from a repurposed television signal amplifier (12V) was used to power the units. At the client sites there were not local networks, so the team also had to install cable and hubs to provide Internet for each computer. In some cases it was necessary to install Ether- net adapters and their drivers (this was not determined during the assessment). It was decided that because the client's networks were simple, that it would be easiest to bridge their networks. Should it be required, the IP architecture could allow future partitioning and the CPE equipment supported STA mode. We used a PowerNOC CPE bridge that cost $249. Local staff were involved during the installation of the wireless network. They learned everything from wiring to antenna placement. An intensive training program followed the installation. It lasted several weeks, and was meant to teach the staff the day to day tasks, as well as basic network troubleshooting. A young university graduate who had returned to the community was chosen to support the system, except for the cable installation, which the radio station technician quickly learned. Wiring Ethernet networks is very similar to coaxial cable repairs and installations which the radio technician already performed regularly. The young graduate also required little training. The team spent most of its time helping him learn how to support the basics of the system and the telecentre. Soon after the telecentre opened, students were lined up for the computer training, which offered 20 hours of training and Internet use per month for only $40, a bargain compared to the $2 an hour Providing this training was a significant revenue and was a task that the young computer savvy graduate was well suited for. Unfortunately, and somewhat unsurprisingly, the young graduate left for the capital, Bamako, after receiving an offer for a government job. This left the telecentre effectively marooned. Their most technically savvy member, and the only one who was trained in how to support the system, had left. After much deliberation, the team determined that it was best not to train an- other tech savvy youth, but rather to focus on the permanent local staff, despite their limited technical experience. This took much more time. Our train- ers have had to return for a total of 150 hours of training. Several people were taught each function, and the telecentre support tasks were divided among the staff. Training did not stop there. Once the community services were connected, they too needed access. It seemed that although they were participating, the principals, including the mayor, were not using the systems themselves. The team realized the importance of assuring that the decision makers used the system, and provided training for them and their staff. This did remove some of the mystique of the network and got the city's decision makers involved. Following training, the program monitored the site and began to provide input, evaluating ways that this model could be improved. Lessons learned here were applied to other sites. Financial Model The community telecentre was already established as a non-profit, and was mandated to be self-sustaining through the sale of its services. The wireless system was included as a supplementary source of revenue because early financial projections for the telecentre indicated that they would fall short of paying for the VSAT connection. Based on the survey, and in consultation with the radio station that manages the telecentre, several clients were selected. The radio station negotiated contracts with some support from its funding partner. For this first phase, clients were selected based on ease of installation and expressed ability to pay. Clients were asked to pay a subscription fee, as described later. Deciding how much to charge was a major activity which required consultation and expertise that the community did not have in financial projections. The equipment was paid for by the grant, to help offset the costs to the community, but clients were still required to pay a subscription fee, which served to assure their commitment. This was equivalent to one month of the service fee. To determine the monthly cost for an equal slice of bandwidth we started with the following formula: VSAT + salaries + expenses (electricity, supplies) = telecentre revenue + wireless client revenue We had estimated that the telecentre should earn about $200 to $300 per month in revenue. Total expenses were estimated to be $1050 per month, and were broken down as: $700 for the VSAT, $100 for salaries, $150 for electricity, and about $100 for supplies. About $750 in revenue from the wire- less clients was required to balance this equation. This amounted to roughly $150 from each client. This was just tolerable by the clients, and looked feasible Because this was becoming complicated, we brought in business geeks, who modified the formula as such: Monthly expenses + amortization + safety funds = total revenue The business experts were quick to point out the need of amortization of the equipment, or one could say re-investment funds as well as safety funds, to assure that the network can continue if a client defaults, or if some equipment breaks. This added about $150 per month for amortization (equipment valued at about $3,000, amortized over 24 months) and the value of one cli- ent for default payments, at $100. Add another 10% to account for currency devaluation ($80), and that equals an expense of $1380 per month. In trying to implement this model, it was finally determined that amortization is a con- cept that was too difficult to convey to the community, and that they would not consider that clients might default on payment. Thus, both formulae were used, the first by the telecentre and the second for our internal analysis. As was soon discovered, regular payments are not part of the culture in rural Mali. In an agrarian society everything is seasonal, and so too is income. This means that the community's income fluctuates wildly. Moreover, as many public institutions were involved, they had long budget cycles with little flexibility. Although they theoretically had the budget to pay for their service, it would take many months for the payments to be made. Other fiscal complications arose as well. For example, the mayor signed on and used the back-taxes owed by the radio to pay for its subscription. This of course did not contribute to cashflow. Unfortunately, the VSAT providers have little flexibility or patience, as they have limited bandwidth and only have room for those that can pay. Cash flow management became a primary concern. First, the revenue foreseen in financial projections showed that even with an optimistic outlook, they would not only have trouble earning enough revenue on time to pay the fee, but getting the money to the Bamako-based bank also presented a problem. Roads near the village can be dangerous, due to the number of smugglers from Guinea and wayward rebels from the Ivory Coast. As projected, the telecentre was not able to pay for its service and its service was suspended, thereby suspending payment from their clients as well. Before the project was able to find solutions to these problems, the cost of the VSAT already began to dig the telecentre into debt. After several months, due to technical problems, as well as concerns raised in this analysis, the large C-band VSAT was replaced with a cheaper Ku band system. Although cheaper, it still sufficed for the size of the network. This system was only $450, which by ignoring amortization and safety margins is affordable by the network. Unfortunately, due to default payments, the network was not able to pay for the VSAT connection after the initial subsidized period. Conclusions Building a wireless network is relatively easy, but making it work is much more of a business problem than a technical problem. A payment model that considers re-investment and risk is a necessity, or eventually the network will fail. In this case, the payment model was not appropriate as it did not con- form to fiscal cycles of the clients, nor did it conform to social expectations. A proper risk analysis would have concluded that a $700 (or even a $450) monthly payment left too narrow a margin between revenue and expenses to compensate for fiscal shortcomings. Following training the network operated for 8 months without significant technical problems. Then, a major power surge caused by a lightning strike destroyed much of the equipment at the station, including the access point and VSAT. As a result, the telecentre was still off-line at the time that this book was written. Commercial deployments in East Africa Describing commercial wireless deployments in Tanzania and Kenya, this chapter highlights technical solutions providing solid, 99.5% availability Internet and data connectivity in developing countries. we focused on delivering services to organizations, typically those with critical international communications needs. I will describe two radically different commercial approaches to wireless data connectivity, summarizing key lessons learned over ten years in East Africa. Tanzania In 1995, with Bill Sangiwa, I founded CyberTwiga, one of the first ISPs in Africa. Commercial services, limited to dialup email traf fic carried over a 9.6 kbps SITA link (costing over $4000/month!), began in mid-1996. Frustrated by erratic PSTN services, and buoyed by a successful deployment of a 3-node point-multipoint (PMP) network for the Tanzania Harbours authority, we negotiated with a local cellular company to place a PMP base station on their central mast. Connecting a handful of corporations to this WiLan pro- prietary 2.4 GHz system in late 1998, we validated the market and our tech- nical capacity to provide wireless services. As competitors haphazardly deployed 2.4 GHz networks, two facts emerged: a healthy market for wireless services existed, but a rising RF noise floor in 2.4 GHz would diminish network quality. Our merger with the cellular carrier, in mid-2000, included plans for a nationwide wireless network built on the existing cellular infrastructure (towers and transmission links) and proprietary RF spectrum allocations. Dar es Salaam is very flat, and because the cellular partner operated an analog network, towers were very tall. A sister company in the UK, Tele2, had commenced operations with Breezecom (now Alvarion) equipment in 3.8/3.9GHz, so we followed their lead. By late 2000, we had established coverage in several cities, using fractional E1 transmission circuits for backhaul. In most cases the small size of the cities connected justi fied the use of a single omnidirectional PMP base sta- tion; only in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, were 3-sector base stations installed. Bandwidth limits were configured directly on the customer radio; clients were normally issued a single public IP address. Leaf routers at each base station sent traf fic to static IP addresses at client locations, and prevented broadcast traffic from suffocating the network. Market pressures kept prices down to about $100/month for 64 kbps, but at that time (mid/late 2000) ISPs could operate with impressive, very profitable, contention ratios. Hungry applications such as peer-peer file sharing, voice, and ERPs simply did not exist in East Africa. With grossly high PSTN international charges, organizations rapidly shifted from fax to email traf fic, even though their wire- less equipment purchase costs ranged from $2000-3000. Technical capabilities were developed in-house, requiring staff training over- seas in subjects such as SNMP and UNIX. Beyond enhancing the company skills set, these training opportunities generated staff loyalty. We had to com- pete in a very limited IT labor market with international gold mining companies, the UN, and other international agencies. To insure quality at customer sites, a top local radio and telecoms contractor executed installations, tightly tracking progress with job cards. High temperatures, harsh equatorial sunlight, drenching rain, and lightning were among the environmental insults tossed at outside plant components; RF cabling integrity was vital. Customers often lacked competent IT staff, burdening our employees with the task of configuring many species of network hardware and topology. Infrastructure and regulatory obstacles often impeded operations. The cellular company tightly controlled towers, so that if there was a technical issue at a base station hours or days could pass before we gained access. Despite backup generators and UPS systems at every site, electrical power was al- ways problematic. For the cellular company, electrical mains supplies at base stations were less critical. Cellular subscribers simply associated with a different base station; our fixed wireless data subscribers went offline. On the regulatory side, a major disruption occurred when the telecoms authority decided that our operation was responsible for disrupting C-band satellite operations for the entire country and ordered us to shut down our network. Despite hard data demonstrating that we were not at fault, the regulator conducted a highly publicized seizure of our equipment. Of course the interfer- ence persisted, and later was determined to emanate from a Russian radar ship, involved in tracking space activities. We quietly negotiated with the regulator, and ultimately were rewarded with 2 x 42 MHz of proprietary spec- trum in the 3.4/3.5 GHz bands. Customers were switched over to dialup in the month or so it took to reconfigure base stations and install new CPE. Ultimately the network grew to about 100 nodes providing good, although not great, connectivity to 7 cities over 3000+km of transmission links. Only the merger with the cellular operator made this network feasible�the scale of the Internet/data business alone would not have justi fied building a data net- work of these dimensions and making the investments needed for proprietary frequencies. Unfortunately, the cellular operator took the decision to close the Internet business in mid-2002. Nairobi In early 2003 I was approached by a Kenyan company, AccessKenya, with strong UK business and technical backup to design and deploy a wireless network in Nairobi and environs. Benefiting from superb networking and business professionals, improved wireless hardware, progress in internetworking, and bigger market we designed a high availability network in line with regulatory constraints. Two regulatory factors drove our network design. At the time in Kenya, Inter- net services were licensed separately from public data network operators, and a single company could not hold both licenses. Carrying traffic of multiple, competing ISPs or corporate users, the network had to operate with total neutrality. Also, proprietary frequencies, namely 3.4/3.5 GHz, were not exclusively licensed to a single provider, and we were concerned about interference and the technical ability/political will of the regulator to enforce. Also, spectrum in 3.4/3.5 GHz was expensive costing about USD1000 per MHz per year per base station. Restated, a base station using 2 x 12 MHz attracted license fees of over $10,000 year. Since Nairobi is a hilly place with lots of tall trees and valleys, wireless broadband networks demanded many base stations. The licensing overheads simply were not sensible. In contrast, 5.7/5.8 GHz frequencies were subject only to an annual fee, about USD 120, per deployed radio. To meet the first regulatory requirement we chose to provide services using point-point VPN tunnels, not via a network of static IP routes. An ISP would deliver a public IP address to our network at their NOC. Our network conducted a public-private IP conversion, and traf fic transited our network in private IP space. At the customer site, a private-public IP conversion delivered the globally routable address (or range) to the customer network. Security and encryption added to network neutrality, and flexibility, as unique sales properties of our network. Bandwidth was limited at the VPN tunnel level. Based on the operating experience of our sister UK company, Virtu- alIT, we selected Netscreen (now subsumed under Juniper Networks) as the vendor for VPN firewall routers. Our criteria for wireless broadband equipment eliminated big pipes and feature-rich, high performance gear. Form factor, reliability, and ease of installation and management were more important than throughput. All inter- national Internet connections to Kenya in 2003, and at this writing, are carried by satellite. With costs 100X greater than global fiber, satellite connectivity put a financial ceiling on the amount of bandwidth purchased by end-users. We judged that the bulk of our user population required capacity on the order of 128 to 256 kbps. We selected Motorola's recently introduced Canopy platform in line with our business and network model. Broadband Access, Ltd., went live in July 2003, launching the Blue network. We started small, with a single base station. We wanted demand to drive our network expansion, rather than relying on a strategy of building big pipes and hoping we could fill them. Canopy, and third-party enhancements such as omnidirectional base stations, permitted us to grow our network as traf fic grew, softening initial capital expenditures. We knew the tradeoff was that as the network expanded, we would have to sectorize traffic and realign client radios. The gentle learning curve of a small network paid big dividends later. Technical staff became comfortable with customer support issues in a simple network environment, rather than have to deal with them on top of a complex RF and logical framework. Technical staff attended two-day Motorola training sessions. A typical PMP design, with base stations linked to a central facility via a Canopy high-speed microwave backbone, the network was deployed on building rooftops, not antenna towers. All leases stipulated 24x7 access for staff, mains power and, critically, protected the exclusivity of our radio frequencies. We did not want to restrict landlords from offering roof space to competitors, rather to simply guarantee that our own services would not be interrupted. Rooftop deployments provided many advantages. Unlimited physical ac- cess, unconstrained by night or rain, helped meet the goal of 99.5% network availability. Big buildings also housed many big clients, and it was possible to connect them directly into our core microwave network. Rooftop sites did have the downside of more human traffic workers maintaining equipment (a/c) or patching leaks would occasionally damage cabling. As a result all base stations were set up with two sets of cabling for all network elements, a primary and a spare. Site surveys confirmed radio path availability and client requirements. Survey staff logged GPS positions for each client, and carried a laser range-finder to determine height of obstacles. Following receipt of payment for hardware, contractors under the supervision of a technical staffer performed installations. Canopy has the advantage that the CPE and base station ele- ments are light, so that most installations do not need extensive civil works or guying. Cabling Canopy units was also simple, with outdoor UTP connecting radios directly to customer networks. Proper planning enabled completion of many installations in less than an hour, and contractor crews did not need any advanced training or tools. As we compiled hundreds of customer GPS positions we began to work closely with a local survey company to overlay these sites on topographical maps. These became a key planning tool for base station placement. Note that the point-point VPN tunnel architecture, with its separate physical and logical layers, required clients to purchase both wireless broadband and VPN hardware. In order to tightly control quality, we categorically refused to permit clients to supply their own hardware� they had to buy from us in order to have service and hardware guarantees. Every client had the same hardware package. Typical installations cost on the order of USD 2500, but that compares to the $500-600 monthly charges for 64 to 128 kbps of bandwidth. A benefit of the VPN tunnel approach was that we could prevent a client's traffic from passing over the logical network (i.e. if their network was hit by a worm or if they didn't pay a bill) while the radio layer remained intact and manageable. As it grew from one base station to ten, and service was expanded to Mom- basa, the network RF design evolved and wherever possible network elements (routers) were configured with fallover or hot swap redundancy. Major investments in inverters and dual conversion UPS equipment at each base station were required to keep the network stable in the face of an erratic power grid. After a number of customer issues (dropped VPN connections) were ascribed to power blackouts, we simply included a small UPS as part of the equipment package. Adding a portable spectrum analyzer to our initial capital investment was costly, but hugely justified as we operated the network. Tracing rogue operators, confirming the operating characteristics of equipment, and verifying RF coverage enhanced our performance. Fanatical attention to monitoring permitted us to uptweak network performance, and gather valuable historical data. Graphed via MRTG or Cacti (as described in chapter six), parameters such as jitter, RSSI, and traf fic warned of rogue operators, potential deterioration of cable/connectors, and presence of worms in client networks. It was not uncommon for clients to claim that service to their site had been interrupted for hours/days and demand a credit. Historical monitoring verified or invalidated these claims. The Blue network combined a number of lessons from Tanzania with improved RF and networking technologies. Lessons learned For the next few years satellite circuits will provide all international Internet connectivity in East Africa. Several groups have floated proposals for sub-marine fiber connectivity, which will energize telecommunications when it happens. Compared to regions with fiber connectivity, bandwidth costs in East Africa will remain very high. Wireless broadband networks for delivery of Internet services therefore do not need to focus on throughput. Instead, emphasis should be placed on reliability, redundancy, and flexibility. Reliability for our wireless networks was our key selling point. On the net- work side this translated into sizable investments in infrastructure substitution, such as backup power, and attention to details such as crimping and cabling. The most ordinary reasons for a single customer to lose connectivity were cabling or crimping issues. Radio failures were essentially unheard of. A key competitive advantage of our customer installation process is that we pushed contractors to adhere to tight specifications. It was common for well- managed customer sites to remain connected for hundreds of days with zero unscheduled downtime. We controlled as much of our infrastructure as pos- sible (i.e building rooftops). As attractive as potential alliances with cellular providers seem, in our experience they raise more problems than they solve. In East Africa, Internet busi- nesses generate a fraction of the revenue of mobile telephony, and so are marginal to the cellular companies. Trying to run a network on top of infrastructure that doesn't belong to you and is, from the point of view of the cellular provider, a goodwill gesture, will make it impossible to meet service commitments. Implementing fully redundant networks, with fail-over or hotswap capability is an expensive proposition in Africa. Nonetheless the core routers and VPN hardware at our central point of presence were fully redundant, configured for seamless fail-over, and routinely tested. For base stations we took the decision not to install dual routers, but kept spare routers in stock. We judged that the 2-3 hours of downtime in the worst case (failure at 1AM Sunday morning in the rain) would be acceptable to clients. Similarly weekend staff members had access to an emergency cupboard containing spare customer premises equipment, such as radios and power supplies. Flexibility was engineered into both the logical and RF designs of the network. The point-to-point VPN tunnel architecture rolled out in Nairobi was extraordinarily flexible in service of client or network needs. Client connec- tions could be set to burst during off-peak hours to enable offsite backup, as a single example. We could also sell multiple links to separate destinations, increasing the return on our network investments while opening up new services (such remote monitoring of CCTV cameras) to clients. On the RF side we had enough spectrum to plan for expansion, as well as cook up an alternative radio network design in case of interference. With the growing number of base stations, probably 80% of our customer sites had two possible base station radios in sight so that if a base station were destroyed we could restore service rapidly. Separating the logical and RF layers of the Blue network introduced an addi- tional level of complexity and cost. Consider the long-term reality that radio technologies will advance more rapidly than internetworking techniques. Separating the networks, in theory, gives us the flexibility to replace the existing RF network without upsetting the logical network. Or we may install a different radio network in line with evolving technologies (Wimax) or client needs, while maintaining the logical network. Finally, one must surrender to the obvious point that the exquisite networks we deployed would be utterly useless without unrelenting commitment to customer service. That is, after all, what we got paid for. More information Case study: Dharamsala Community Wireless Mesh Network The Dharamsala Wireless-Mesh Community Network came to life in February 2005, following the deregulation of WiFi for outdoor use in India. By the end of February 2005, the mesh had already connected 8 campuses. Extensive testing during February of 2005 showed that the hard mountainous terrain is most suitable for mesh networking, as conventional point-to- multipoint networks, cannot overcome the line-of-sight limitations presented by the mountains. mesh topology also offered much larger area coverage, while the �self healing� nature of mesh routing, proved to be essential in places where electricity supply is very erratic at best. The mesh backbone includes over 30 nodes, all sharing a single radio channel. Broadband Internet services are provided to all mesh members. The total up- stream Internet bandwidth available is 6 Mbps. There are over 2,000 computers connected to the mesh, The broadband internet connection is putting the mesh under great load. At present, the system seems to handle the load without any increase in latency or packet-loss. It is clear that scalability will become an issue if we continue to use a single radio channel. To solve this problem, new mesh routers with multiple radio channel support are being developed and tested in Dharamsala, with an emphasis on products that meet our technical require- ments and our economically viable. The initial results are very promising. The mesh network is based on recurring deployments of a hardware device, which is designed and built locally known as the Himalayan-Mesh-Router The same mesh-routers are installed at every location, with only different antennas, depending on the geographical locations and needs. We use a wide range of antennas, from 8 - 11 dBi om- nidirectional, to 12 - 24 dBi directional antennas and occasionally some high- gain (and cost) sector antennas. The mesh is primarily used for: Internet access File-sharing applications Off-site backups Playback of high quality video from remote archives. A central VoIP, software-based PBX is installed (Asterisk) and it provides ad- vanced telephony services to members. The Asterisk PBX is also interfacing the PSTN telephone network. However, due to legal issues it is presently used only for incoming calls into the mesh. Subscribers use a large variety of software-phones, as well as numerous ATAs (Analog Telephone Adaptors) and full-featured IP phones. Dharamsala installer working on a tower The encrypted mesh back-bone does not allow access to roaming mobile devices (notebooks and PDAs), so we have placed multiple 802.11b access- points at many of the same locations where mesh-routers are installed. The mesh provides the backbone infrastructure while these APs provide access to mobile roaming devices, where needed. Access to the mesh back-bone is only possible by mesh-routers. Simple wireless clients lack the intelligence needed to speak the mesh routing protocols and strict access policies. The mesh channel is therefore encrypted (WPA), and also hidden to prevent mobile devices from finding it or attempting to access it. Allowing access to the mesh only by mesh-routers allows for strict access control policies and limitations to be enforced at the CPE (Client Premises Equipment) which is a crucial element needed to achieve end-to- end security, traffic-shaping, and quality-of-service. Power consumption of the mesh-Router is less than 4 Watts. This makes them ideal for using with solar panels. Many of the Dharamsala Mesh routers are powered solely by small solar panels. The use of solar power in combination with small antennas and low power routers is ideally suitable for disaster areas, as it very likely to survive when all other communication infrastructure is damaged. Networking Merida State The city of M�rida lies at the foot of the highest mountain in Venezuela, on a plateau at about 1600 m. It is the capital of the state of Merida, and home to a two- centuries-old university, with some 35,000 students. The Univer- sity of Los Andes (ULA) deployed the first academic computer network in 1989 which, despite economic limitations, has grown to encompass 26 km of fiber optic cable over which both a TDM and an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network are overlaid. In 2006, over the same fiber optic cable, a 50 km Gigabit Ethernet network has been deployed. Merida is one of the three mountainous states of Venezuela, where the Andes reach 5000 m. Nevertheless, many places in the city and the surrounding villages are out of reach of the fiber optic ring. The university operates a communication server with telephone lines to provide remote access to its network, but local calls are charged by the minute and many villages lack phone lines altogether. For these reasons, efforts to develop wireless access to the university's network, called RedULA, were undertaken from the very beginning. The first attempts took advantage of the existing packet network operated by radio amateurs. As early as 1987, amateurs had a gateway with an HF (High Frequency ) station working at 300 bps for contacts overseas, as well as several VHF ( Very High Frequency ) stations linked at 1200 bps that crisscrossed the country. While the rugged mountains of the region are a big obstacle for laying cables and building roads, they can be helpful in deploying a radio network. This task is aided by the existence of a cable car system, reputedly the highest in the world, which links the city to a 4765 m peak. On its way to the peak, the cable car passes by an intermediate station called La Aguada, which is 3450 m high and has an astounding view of the city of M�rida and other villages at distances up to 50 km. Packet radio Local amateurs operate a packet radio network. Initially it worked at 1200 bps, using VHF amateur FM voice radios connected to a personal computer by means of a terminal node controller (TNC). The TNC is the interface between the analog radio and the digital signals handled by the PC. The TNC keys the Push To Talk circuits in the radio to change from transmit to receive, performs modulation/demodulation and the assembly/disassembly of packets using a variation of the X.25 protocol known as AX.25. Gateways between VHF and HF radios were built by attaching two modems to the same TNC and computer. Typically, a gateway would connect the local VHF packet network to stations overseas by means of HF stations that could span thousands of kilometers, albeit at a speed of only 300 bps. A national packet radio network was also built, which relayed on digipeaters (digital repeaters, essentially a TNC connected to two radios with antennas pointing in different directions), to extend the network from Merida to Caracas by means of just two such repeater stations. The digipeaters operated at 1200 bps and allowed for the sharing of programs and some text files among amateurs. Phil Karn, a radio amateur with a strong background in computer networks, wrote the KA9Q program that implements TCP/IP over AX.25. Using this program, named after the call sign of its developer, amateurs all over the world were soon able to connect to the Internet using different kinds of ra- dios. KA9Q keeps the functions of the TNC to a bare minimum, harnessing the power of the attached PC for most processing functions. This approach allows for much greater flexibility and easy upgrades. In Merida, we were soon able to upgrade our network to 9600 bps by use of more advanced mo- dems, and several radio amateurs were now able to access the Internet through the RedULA wired network. The limit on the radio bandwidth available on the VHF band puts a cap on the highest attainable speed. To in- crease that speed, one must move to higher frequency carriers. Amateurs are allowed to use 100 kHz wide channels using UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) signals. Digital radios coupled with 19.2 kbps modems doubled the transmission bandwidth. A project was developed using this technology to link the House of Science in the city of El Vigia, to Merida and the Internet. UHF antennas were built at LabCom, the communications laboratory of ULA. A UHF antenna for packet radio developed at ULA, LabCom. Although El Vigia is only 100 km from M�rida by road, the mountainous ter- rain called for the use of two repeaters. One is located at La Aguada, at 3600 m altitude, and the other at Tusta, at 2000 m. The project was financed by FUNDACITE MERIDA, a government institution that promotes science and technology in the state. FUNDACITE also operates a pool of 56 kbps tele- phone modems to provide Internet access for institutions and individuals. The need for two repeater stations underscores the limitations imposed by using higher frequency carriers, which require line of sight to establish a reliable transmission. In the much lower VHF band, signals are easily re flected and can reach beyond hills. Sometimes it is possible to reflect signals using a passive repeater, which is made by connecting two directional antennas back to back with a coaxial cable, without any radio. This scheme was tested to connect my residence to LabCom. The distance is only 11 km, but there is a hill in between that blocks radio signals. A connection was made by using a passive repeater to reflect off La Aguada, with the two antennas of the repeater pointing 40 degrees apart. While this was very exciting and certainly much cheaper than access through the telephone modems, a faster medium would obviously be needed for a wireless backbone to connect remote villages. We therefore explored the use of 56 kbps modems developed by Dale Heatherington. These modems are housed in a PI2 card built by Ottawa amateurs, and connected directly to a PC using Linux as the network operating system. While this system functions very well, the emergence of the World Wide Web with its plethora of images and other bandwidth-hogging files made it clear that if we were to satisfy the needs of schools and hospitals we had to deploy a higher bandwidth solution, at least on the backbone. This meant the use of even higher carrier frequencies in the microwave range, which entailed high costs. Fortunately, an alternative technology widely used in military applications was becoming available for civilian uses at affordable prices. Called spread spectrum, it first found a use in civilian applications as a short-reach wire- less local area network, but soon proved to be very useful in places where the electromagnetic spectrum is not overcrowded, allowing the bridging of distances of several kilometers. Spread spectrum Spread spectrum uses low power signals with its spectrum expanded on purpose to span all the allocated bandwidth, while at the same time allowing a number of users to share the medium by using different codes for each subscriber. There are two ways to accomplish this: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS). In DSSS the information to be transmitted is digitally multiplied by a higher frequency sequence, thereby augmenting the transmission bandwidth. Although this might seem to be a waste of bandwidth, the recovery system is so efficient that it can decode very weak signals, allowing for the simultaneous use of the same spectrum by several stations. In FHSS, the transmitter is constantly changing its carrier frequency inside the allotted bandwidth according to a speci fied code. The receiver must know this code in order to track the carrier frequency. Both techniques exchange transmission power for bandwidth, allowing many stations to share a certain portion of the spectrum. During the First Latin American Networking School (EsLaRed '92), held in M�rida in 1992, we were able to demonstrate this technique. We established some trial networks making use of external antennas built at the LabCom, allowing transmission at several kilometers. In 1993, the Venezuelan Ministry of Telecommunications opened up four bands for use with DSSS: In any of the above bands, maximum transmitter power was restricted to 1 Watt and the maximum antenna gain to 6 dBi, for a total EIRP (effective isotropic radi- ated power) of 36 dBm. This ruling paved the way for the deployment of a DSSS network with a nominal bandwidth of 2 Mbps in the 900 MHz band. This tech- nology satisfied the needs caused by the surge in World Wide Web activity. The network started at LabCom, where the connection to RedULA was available. LabCom housed an inhouse-built Yagi antenna pointed towards a corner reflector at Aguada. This provided a 90 degree beamwidth, illuminating most of the city of Merida. Several subscriber sites, all sharing the nominal 2 Mbps bandwidth, were soon exchanging files, including images and video clips. Some subscriber sites that required longer cables between the antenna and the spread spectrum radio were accommodated by the use of bidirectional amplifiers. These encouraging results were reported to a group set up at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, in 1995. This group was aimed at providing connectivity between the Computer Center, Physical Sciences Building, and the Technology Building at the University of Ile-Ife in Nigeria. Later that year, the network was set up by ICTP staff with funding from the United Nations University and has been running satisfacto- rily ever since, proving to be a much more cost-effective solution than the fiber optic network originally planned would have been. Back in Merida, as the number of sites increased, the observed throughput per user declined. We started looking at the 2.4 GHz band to provide additional capacity. This band can carry three simultaneously independent 2 Mbps streams, but the effective range is lower than what can be achieved in the 900 MHz band. We were very busy planning the extension of the backbone using 2.4 GHz when we found out about a start-up company that was offering a new solution that promised longer distanc es, dramatically higher throughput, and the possibility of frequency reuse with narrowband microwaves. Broadband delivery system After visiting the Nashua, New Hampshire, facilities of Spike Technologies, we were convinced that their proprietary antenna and radio system was the best solution for the requirements of our state network, for the following reasons: Their broadband delivery system employs a special sectored antenna (Figure 11.9 with 20 dBi gain on each of up to 22 independent sectors. Each sector transmits and receives on independent channels at 10 Mbps full duplex, for an aggregate throughput of 440 Mbps. Frequency reuse on interleaved sectors makes for a spectrally efficient system. Figure 11.9: Spike Technologies' full duplex, high density sectoral system. The narrowband digital radios can operate anywhere from 1 to 10 GHz, with a coverage of up to 50 km. The radios work with a variety of cable TV modems, delivering a standard 10Base-T LAN connection to the subscriber. At the base station, the sectors are interconnected with a high-speed switch that has a very small latency (see Figure 11.10), allowing applications such as streaming video at up to 30 frames per second. Each sector acts as an independent Ethernet LAN. Spike Technologies' system interconnections. At the subscriber site, a similar radio and modem provide a 10BaseT connec- tion to the local Ethernet. The subscriber end of the link. With funding from Fundacite, a trial system was soon installed in Merida, with the base station located just above the cable car station of La Aguada at an altitude of 3600 m. Figure 11.12: Installation above Merida at La Aguada, at 3600 meters. Initially only 5 sectors were installed, with a beamwidth of 16 degrees each. The first subscriber site was at Fundacite's premises, where a satellite system provides Internet access. Sector two served the Governor's Palace. Sector three served FUNDEM, a relief organization of the local government. Sector four served a penitentiary near the town of Lagunillas, about 35 km from Merida. The fifth sector transmitted to a mountaintop repeater close to the village of La Trampa, 40 km from La Aguada. From La Trampa, another 41 km link extended the network to the House of Science in the town of Tovar. On January 31, 1998, a videoconference between the penitentiary and the Justice Palace in Merida proved that, aside from Internet access, the system could also support streaming video. In this case it was used for the arraignment of prisoners, thus avoiding the inconveniences and risks of their transportation. The success of the trial prompted the state government to allocate the funding for a complete system to give high-speed Internet access to the state health system, educational system, libraries, community centers, and several gov- ernmental agencies. In January 1999 we had 3 hospitals, 6 educational institu- tions, 4 research institutions, 2 newspapers, 1 TV station, 1 public library, and 20 social and governmental institutions sharing information and accessing the Internet. Plans call for 400 sites to be connected within this year at full duplex 10 Mbps speed, and funding has already been allocated for this purpose. Figure 11.13 shows a map of the state of Merida. The dark lines show the initial backbone, while the light lines show the extension. Figure 11.13: The Merida State network Among the many activities supported by the network, it is worthwhile to mention the following: Educational: Schools have found an endless supply of material of the highest quality for pupils and teachers, especially in the areas of geography, languages, and sciences, and as a tool to communicate with other groups that share common interests. Libraries have rooms with computers accessible to the general public with full Internet capabilities. Newspaper and TV stations have an amazing source of information to make available to their audience. Health: The university hospital has a direct link to the intensive care unit, where a staff of specialist physicians is always on duty. These doctors are available to be queried by their colleagues in remote villages to discuss specific cases. A group of researchers at the university is developing several telemedicine applications based on the network. Research: The astronomic observatory of Llano del Hato, located on a mountain at 3600 m and 8 degrees off the equator will soon be linked, al- lowing astronomers from all over the world access to the images collected there. Field researchers in many villages will enjoy Internet access. Government: Most government agencies are already connected and starting to put information online for the citizens. We expect this to have a profound impact on the relationship of citizens with the government. Relief agencies and law enforcement agencies make heavy use of the network. Entertainment and Productivity : For people living outside the city, the opportunities offered by the Net have a signi ficant impact on the quality of their lives. We hope that this will help to reverse the trend of migrating out of the countryside, alleviating the overcrowding of the urban areas. Farm- ers have access to information about the commanding prices of their crops and supplies, as well as improved agricultural practices. SUPERCOMM '98, held in Atlanta in June, cited the Merida broadband deliv- ery network as winner of the SUPERQuest award in category 8-Remote Access as the best in that particular field of nominees. Training Since our earliest efforts to establish a computer network, we realized that training was of paramount importance for the people involved in the network construction, management, and maintenance. Given our very limited budget, we decided that we had to pool our resources with those of other people who also required training. In 1990 the ICTP organized the First International School on computer network analysis and management, which was attended by Professor Jose Silva and Professor Luis Nunez from our university. Upon returning to Merida, they proposed that we should somehow emulate this activity in our university. To this end, taking advantage of my sabbatical, I spent three months at Bellcore in Morristown, New Jersey, and three more months at the ICTP helping in the preparation of the Second Networking School in 1992, where I was joined by my colleague Professor Edmundo Vi- tale. I spent the rest of my sabbatical at SURANET in College Park, Mary- land, under the guidance of Dr. Glenn Ricart, who introduced me to Dr. Saul Hahn of the Organization of American States, who offered financial support for a training activity in Latin America. These experiences allowed us to launch the First Latin American Networking School (EsLaRed'92) in Merida, attended by 45 participants from 8 countries in the region, with instructors from Europe, the United States, and Latin America. This hands-on training lasted three weeks, and wireless technologies were emphasized. EsLaRed'95 gathered again in Merida with 110 participants and 20 instructors. EsLaRed'97 had 120 participants, and it was endorsed by the Internet Society, which also sponsored a Spanish and Portuguese first Networking Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1998 with EsLaRed responsible for the training content. Now ten years later, EsLaRed continues to expand its training efforts throughout South America. Concluding remarks The Internet has an even more profound impact in developing countries than elsewhere, owing to the high cost of international phone calls, faxes, magazines, and books. This is obviously exacerbated by the lower average income of people. Some dwellers in remote villages that do not have telephones are experiencing a transition from the 19th to the 21st century thanks to wireless networking. It is hoped that this will contribute to the improvement of lifestyles in the fields of health, education, entertainment, and productivity, as well as create a more equitable relationship between citi- zens and government. References Recent wireless data transmission technologies allow the creation of high speed, geographically separated networks at a relatively low cost. If these networks are built around the idea of removing restrictions to data access, we call them free networks. Such networks can bring great bene fits to every user, independent of the their political, economic, or social conditions. This kind of network is a direct response to the often restrictive commercial model ruling over much of our modern western society. In order for free networks to flourish, wireless technologies must be adapted and put to the best possible use. This is carried out by groups of hackers who do the research, investigation, development and implementation of pro- jects, as well as permit free access to the knowledge gained. Chilesincables.org endeavors to promote and organize wireless free net- works in Chile in a professional way. We do this by providing education about the related legal and technical aspects of wireless networking; encouraging the adaptation of new technologies through adequate research; and stimulating the adaptation of these technologies to meet the specific needs of Chilean communities and society. Description of technology We employ a variety of wireless technologies, including IEEE 802.11a/b/g. We are also investigating recent innovations in the field, such as WiMAX. In most cases, the equipment has been modified in order to be accept external locally built antennas which meet local telecommunications regulations. Even though a majority of wireless hardware available on the market will suit our goals, we encourage utilization and exploration of a few vendors that al- low for better control and adaptation to our needs (without necessarily in- creasing the prices). These include Wi-Fi cards with chipsets offered by Athe- ros, Prism, Orinoco, and Ralink, as well as some models of access points manufactured by Linksys, Netgear, and Motorola. The hacker community has developed firmware that provides new functionality on this equipment. For the network backbone itself, we employ Open Source operating systems, including GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Minix. This fits our needs in the areas of routing as well as implementation of services such as proxies, web and FTP servers, etc. In addition, they share our projectطs philosophy of being free technology with open source code. Uses and applications The networks implemented so far allow the following tasks: Transfer of data via FTP or web servers VoIP services Audio and video streaming Instant messaging Exploration and implementation of new services such as LDAP, name reso- lution, new security methods, etc. Services provided by the clients. The users are free to use the net's infrastructure in order to create their own services. Administration and maintenance The operational unit of the network is the node. Each node allows clients to associate to the network and obtain basic network services. In addition, each node must be associated to at least another node, by convention. This allows the network to grow and to make more services available to every client. A node is maintained by an administrator who is a member of the community committed to the following tasks: Maintenance of an adequate uptime (over 90%). Providing basic services (typically web access). Keeping the clients updated about the node's services (for example, how to get access to the network). This is generally provided by a captive portal. The general administration of the network (speci fically, tasks related to de- ployment of new nodes, selection of sites, network's topology, etc.) is carried out by the board of the community, or by technicians trained for this purpose. Chilesincables.org is currently in the process of acquiring legal organization status, a step that will allow the regulation of its internal administrative proce- dures and the formalization of the community in our society. Training and capacity building Chilesincables.org considers training of its members and clients to be of vital importance for the following reasons: The radio spectrum must be kept as clear as possible in order to guarantee adequate quality of wireless connections. Therefore, training in radio communications techniques is essential. The employment of materials and methods approved by the current regula- tions is a requirement for the normal development of the activities. In order to comply with Internet standards, all of our network administrators are trained in TCP/IP networking. To ensure continuity in network operations, knowledge of networking tech- nology must be transferred to the users. To support these principles, Chilesincables.org undertakes the following activities: Antenna Workshop. Attendees are trained in the construction of anten- nas, and introduced to basic concepts of radio communication. Operating Systems Workshop. Training on the implementation of routers and other devices based on GNU/Linux or other software such as m0n0wall or pfsense. Basic networking concepts are also taught. Promotion and Advertising. Events for different communities that pursue our same goals are promoted. These include college workshops, lectures, free software gatherings, etc. Updating of Materials. Chilesincables.org maintains a number of free-access documents and materials made available to people interested in a specific activity. The pictures on the following pages present a brief account of the activities in our community. Figure 11.14: Omnidirectional slotted antenna workshop. In this session, attendants learned about building antennas and related theory. Figure 11.15: One of our staff members lecturing on the implementation of a m0nowall-based router in the administration of a node. Figure 11.16: Detail of mini tower with samples of antennas, cables and pigtails. Figure 11.17: Wireless station and parabolic antenna used for the transmission of Santiago-2006 FLISOL via streaming video. Figure 11.18: Location of the other end of the link. Figure 11.19: Schematic representing Santiago-2006 FLISOL video streaming transmission, using free software. The wireless transmission speed achieved was 36 Mbps at 1 km. Chapter 11: Quiani node. This is one of the world's highest nodes. Its located at an elevation of 4000 m, about 2000 km north of the country�s capital. Figure 11.21: Node in southern Santiago, consisting of a 15 m tower, a Trevor Marshall 16+16 antenna, and 30 clients. The node is connected to a downtown node more than 12 km away. Figure 11.22: Downtown node connected to the Santiago southern node. Note the parabolic antenna for backhaul and the slotted antenna to connect the clients. Implementation of node over a water tower in Batuco, Metropolitan Region, providing backhaul to Cabrati telecenter. Figure 11.25: Workshop on Yagi antennas organized by our community. Participants are building their own antennas. Long Distance 802.11 Thanks to a favorable topography, Venezuela already has some long range WLAN links, like the 70 km long operated by Fundacite Merida between Pico Espejo and Canagua. To test the limits of this technology, it is necessary to find a path with an unobstructed line of sight and a clearance of at least 60% of the first Fresnel zone. While looking at the terrain in Venezuela, in search of a stretch with high elevation at the ends and low ground in between, I first focused in the Guayana region. Although plenty of high grounds are to be found, in particular the fa- mous tepuys (tall mesas with steep walls), there were always obstacles in the middle ground. My attention shifted to the Andes, whose steep slopes (rising abruptly from the plains) proved adequate to the task. For several years, I have been traveling through sparsely populated areas due to my passion for mountain biking. In the back of my head, I kept a record of the suitability of different spots for long distance communications. Pico del Aguila is a very favorable place. It has an altitude of 4200 m and is about a two hour drive from my home town of Merida. For the other end, I finally located the town of El Baul, in Cojedes State. Using the free software Radio Mobile (available at http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html), I found that there was no obstruction of the first Fresnel zone (spanning 280 km) between Pico del Aguila and El Baul. Action Plan Once satisfied with the existence of a suitable trajectory, we looked at the equipment needed to achieve the goal. We have been using Orinoco cards for a number of years. Sporting an output power of 15 dBm and receive threshold of -84 dBm, they are robust and trustworthy. The free space loss at 282 km is 149 dB. So, we would need 30 dBi antennas at both ends and even that would leave very little margin for other losses. On the other hand, the popular Linksys WRT54G wireless router runs Linux. The Open Source community has written several firmware versions for it that allow for a complete customization of every transmission parameter. In particular, OpenWRT firmware allows for the adjustment of the acknowledgment time of the MAC layer, as well as the output power. Another firmware, DD-WRT, has a GUI interface and a very convenient site survey utility. Furthermore, the Linksys can be located closer to the antenna than a laptop. So, we decided to go with a pair of these boxes. One was config- ured as an AP (access point) and the other as a client. The WRT54G can operate at 100 mW output power with good linearity, and can even be pushed up to 200 mW. But at this value, non linearity is very severe and spurious signals are generated, which should be avoided. Although this is consumer grade equipment and quite inexpensive, after years of using it, we felt confident that it could serve our purpose. Of course, we kept a spare set handy just in case. By setting the output power to 100 mW (20 dBm), we could obtain a 5dB advantage compared with the Orinoco card. Therefore, we settled for a pair of WRT54Gs. Pico del aguila site survey On January 15, 2006, I went to Pico aguila to check out the site that Radio Mobile had reported as suitable. The azimuth towards El Baul is 86, but since the magnetic declination is 8� 16, our antenna should be pointed to a magnetic bearing of 94. Unfortunately, when I looked towards 94, I found the line of sight obstructed by an obstacle that had not been shown by the software, due to the limited resolution of the digital elevation maps that are freely available. I rode my mountain bike for several hours examining the surrounding area looking for a clear path towards the East. Several promising spots were iden- tified, and for each of them I took photos and recorded the coordinates with a GPS for later processing with the Radio Mobile software. This led me to refine my path selection, resulting in the one depicted in Figure 11.26 using Google Earth: Figure 11.26: View of the 280 km link. Maracaibo's Lake is to the West, and the Peninsula of Paraguan is to the North. The radio profile obtained with Radio Mobile Figure 11.27: Map and profile of the proposed path between Pico Aguila, and Morrocoy hill, near the town of El Baul. The details of the wireless link are displayed in Figure 11.28: Figure 11.28: Propagation details of the 280 km link. In order to achieve a reasonable margin of some 12 dB for the link, we needed antennas with at least 30 dBi gain at each end. Antennas High gain antennas for the 2.4 GHz band are not available in Venezuela. The importation costs are considerable, so we decided instead to recycle para- bolic reflectors (formerly used for satellite service) and replaced the feed with one designed for 2.4 GHz. We proved the concept with an 80 cm dish. The gain was way too low, so we tried an offset fed 2.4 m reflector. This offered ample gain, albeit with some difficulties in the aiming of the 3.5 beam. Several tests were performed using various cantennas and a 12 dBi Yagi as a feed. We pointed the antenna at a base station of the university wireless net- work that was located 11 km away on a 3500 m mountain. The test site sits at 2000 m and therefore the elevation angle is 8. Because of the offset feed, we pointed the dish 14 downward, as can be seen in the following picture: Figure 11.29: 2.4 m offset fed reflector with a 12 dBi antenna at its focus looking 14 down. We were able to establish a link with the base station at Aguada, but our efforts to measure the gain of the setup using Netstumbler were not successful. For a meaningful measurement of the gain, we needed a signal generator and spectrum analyzer. These instruments were also required for the field trip in order to align the antennas properly. While waiting for the required equipment, we looked for an antenna to be used at the other end, and also a pointing system better suited to the narrow radio beam. In February 2006, I traveled to Trieste to partake in the annual wireless training event that I have been attending since 1996. While there, I mentioned the project to my colleague Carlo Fonda, who was immediately thrilled and eager to participate. The collaboration between the Latin American Networking School ( Es- LaRed) and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Phys- ics (ICTP) goes back to 1992, when the first Networking School was held in Merida with ICTP support. Since then, members of both institutions have col- laborated in several activities. Some of these include an annual training school on wireless networking (organized by ICTP) and another on computer networks (organized by EsLaRed) that are hosted in several countries throughout Latin America. Accordingly, it was not dif ficult to persuade Dr. Sandro Radicella the head of the Aeronomy and Radio Propagation Labora- tory at ICTP, to support Carlo Fonda's trip in early April to Venezuela in order to participate in the experiment. Back at home, I found a 2.75 m parabolic central fed mesh antenna at a neighbors house. Mr. Ismael Santos graciously lent his antenna for the experiment. Figure 11.30 the disassembly of the mesh reflector. Figure 11.30: Carlo and Ermanno disassembling the satellite dish supplied by Mr. Ismael Santos. We exchanged the feed for a 2.4 GHz one, and aimed the antenna at a sig- nal generator that was located on top of a ladder some 30 m away. With a spectrum analyzer, we measured the maximum of the signal and located the focus. We also pinpointed the boresight for both the central fed and the offset antennas. Figure 11.31: Finding the focus of the antennas with the 2.4 GHz feed We also compared the power of the received signal with the output of a commercial 24 dBi antenna. This showed a difference of 8 dB, which led us to believe that the overall gain of our antenna was about 32 dBi. El Baul Site Survey Once we were satisfied with the proper functioning and aim of both antennas, we decided to do a site survey at the other end of the El Baul link. Carlo Fonda, Gaya Fior and Ermanno Pietrosemoli reached the site on April 8th. The following day, we found a hill (south of the town) with two telecom towers from two cell phone operators and one belonging to the mayor of El Baul. The hill of Morrocoy is some 75 m above the surrounding area, about 125 m above sea level. It provides an unobstructed view to- wards El Aguila. There is a dirt road to the top, a must for our purpose, given the weight of the antenna. Performing the experiment On Wednesday April 12th, Javier Trivio and Ermanno Pietrosemoli traveled towards Baul with the offset antenna loaded on top of a four-wheel drive truck. Early the morning of April 13th, we installed the antenna and pointed it at a compass bearing of 276, given that the declination is 8 and therefore the true Azimuth is 268. At the same time, the other team (composed by Carlo Fonda and Gaya Fior from ICTP, with assistance of Franco Bellarosa, Lourdes Pietrosemoli and Jose Trivio) rode to the previously surveyed area at Pico del Aguila in a Bronco truck that carried the 2.7 m mesh antenna. Figure 11.32: Poor weather is common at altitudes of 4100 m above sea level. The Aguila team was able to install and point the mesh antenna before the fog and sleet began. Figure 11.33 shows the antenna and the rope used for aiming the 3 radio beam. Power for the signal generator was supplied from the truck by means of a 12 VDC to 120 VAC inverter. At 11 A.M in El Baul, we were able to observe a -82 dBm signal at the agreed upon 2450 MHz frequency using the spectrum analyzer. To be sure we had found the proper source, we asked Carlo to switch off the signal. Indeed, the trace on the spectrum analyzer showed only noise. This confirmed that we were really seeing the signal that originated some 280 km away. After turning the signal generator on again, we performed a fine tuning in elevation and azimuth at both ends. Once we were satis fied that we had at- tained the maximum received signal, Carlo removed the signal generator and replaced it with a Linksys WRT54G wireless router configured as an access point. Javier substituted the spectrum analyzer on our end for another WRT54G configured as a client. Figure 11.33: Aiming the antenna at el Aguila. At once, we started receiving beacons but ping packets did not get through. This was expected, since the propagation time of the radio wave over a 300 km link is 1 ms. It takes at least 2 ms for an acknowledgment to reach the transmitter. Fortunately, the OpenWRT firmware allows for adjusting the ACK timing. After Carlo adjusted for the 3 orders of magnitude increase in delay above what the standard Wi-Fi link expects, we began receiving packets with a delay of about 5 ms. Figure 11.34: El Baul antenna installation. We proceeded to transfer several PDF files between Carlo's and Javier's laptops. Figure 11.35: Screenshot of Javier's laptop showing details of PDF file transfer from Carlo�s laptop 280 km away, using two WRT54G wireless routers, no amplifiers. Note the ping time of a few milliseconds. Figure 11.36: Javier Trivio (right) and Ermanno Pietrosemoli beaming from the El Baul antenna Figure 11.37: Carlo Fonda at the Aguila Site Merida, Venezuela, 17 April 2006. One year after performing this experiment, we found the time and resources to repeat it. We used commercial 30 dBi antennas, and also a couple of wire- less routers which had been modi fied by the TIER group led by Dr. Eric Brewer of Berkeley University. The purpose of the modification of the standard WiFi MAC is to make it suit- able for long distance applications by replacing the CSMA Media Access Control with TDMA. The latter is better suited for long distance point-to-point links since it does not require the reception of ACKs. This eliminates the need to wait for the 2 ms round trip propagation time on a 300 km path. On April 28th, 2007, a team formed by Javier Trivio, Jose Torres and Francisco Torres installed one of the antennas at El Aguila site. The other team, formed by Leonardo Gonzalez V., Leonardo Gonzalez G., Alejandro Gonzalez and Ermanno Pietrosemoli, installed the other antenna at El Baul. A solid link was quickly established using the Linksys WRT54G routers. This allowed for video transmission at a measured throughput of 65 kbps. With the TDMA routers, the measured throughput was 3 Mbps in each di- rection. This produced the total of 6 Mbps as predicted by the simulations done at Berkeley. Can we do better? Thrilled by these results, which pave the way for really inexpensive long distance broadband links, the second team moved to another location previously identified at 382 km from El Aguila, in a place called Platillon. Platillon is 1500 m above sea level and there is an unobstructed first Fresnel zone towards El Aguila (located at 4200 m above sea level). The proposed path is shown in Figure 11.38: Figure 11.38: Map and profile of the 380 km path. Again, the link was quickly established with the Linksys and the TIER supplied routers. The Linksys link showed approximately 1% packet loss, with an average round trip time of 12 ms. The TIER equipment showed no packet loss, with propagation times below 1 ms. This allowed for video transmission, but the link was not stable. We noticed considerable signal fluctuations that often interrupted the communication. However, when the received signal was about -78 dBm, the measured throughput was a total of 6 Mbps bidirectional with the TIER routers implementing TDMA. Figure 11.39: The team at el Aguila Although further tests must be conducted to ascertain the limits for stable throughput, we are confident that Wi-Fi has a great potential for long distance broadband communication. It is particularly well suited for rural areas were the spectrum is still not crowded and interference is not a problem, provided there is good radio line of sight. Acknowledgments We wish to express our gratitude to Mr. Ismael Santos for lending the mesh antenna to be installed at El Aguila and to Eng. Andres Pietrosemoli for sup- plying the special scaffolding joints used for the installation and transporta- tion of the antennas. We'd also like to thank the Abdus Salam International Centre of Theoretical Physics for supporting Carlo Fonda's trip from Italy to Venezuela. Figure 11.40: The team at Platillon. From left to right: This work was funded by IDRC. Good evening. Welcome to tonight's program Pioneers of change in the Middle East. Joining us this evening is Neil MacFarquhar United Nation's bureau chief for the New York Times. I'd like to acknowledge Booksenk \{\'5Cfs26\}who is co-sponsoring tonight's program. My name is David deWilde I am a trustee of the World Affairs Council. A quick word about the council The World Affairs Council of Northern California provides a forum where leaders of all sectors can join members of the public to engage in dialogue that deepens understanding and leads to the basis of informed action. To learn more about our organization visit our website at www.itsyourworld.org If you\rquote re unable to attend the program the council offers two great ways to stay connected: you may listen to our weekly radio show called \ldblquote It is Your World\rdblquote on Monday evenings on KQED or visit our website for audio and visual recordings of all our past programs. Tonight\rquote s program is being recorded for \ldblquote It is Your World\rdblquote . We thank our audio engineer David Augovee. Let me quickly announce two upcoming programs. Next month on Wednesday July 8th join the council on welcoming Jon Summers a former country representative of the Asia Foundation who is based in Islamabad to discuss the great adversities and changes that currently affect Pakistan. Then of Friday July 10th we are pleased to host an open reception with photographer Mark Edward Harris for the council\rquote s new photography exhibit \ldblquote Inside North Korea and Iran\rdblquote . Both of these events will take place here in the council auditorium at 6pm. Finally please locate the blue question cards that have been placed on your chairs. Please write your questions for Neil MacFarquhar and hand them off to the council staff members who will be passing around the room. We will use your questions during the Q&A session in the latter half of our program And most importantly please turn off all cell phones and anything else that might interrupt our program. It is my privilege to introduce our speaker Neil MacFarquhar we are especially fortunate to have him with us here tonight. In light of the events unfolding across the Middle East most notably in Iran. We are becoming increasingly aware of the challenges that journalists face and accurately reporting these events. Neil MacFarquhar\rquote s exposure to the Middle East started early at age 3 when his family moved to Libya. He speaks Arabic and spent 25 years in the region including 5 years based in Cairo as the Bureau Chief of the Times. Covering swath of countries from Morocco to Iran and seven years as a correspondent for The Associated Press during which he lived in Israel Kuwait Saudi Arabia and Cyprus. He is currently the United Nation\rquote s Bureau Chief for the New York Times and he has just written a new book about his experiences and encounters in the changing Middle East entitled: \{\'5Ci1\'5Cfs28\}The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah \{\'5Ci1\'5Cfs28\}Wishes you a Happy Birthday. I\rquote ll leave the explanations up to him. He has also written a very fascinating novel called: \{\'5Ci1\'5Cfs28\}The Sand Castle which I think you should \endash you\rquote ll also find very interesting. His thoughtful and penetrating reporting is rich in inside not only into the personalities of the Middle East but into the challenges of life as a journalist there He is here tonight to share his insight into the men and women working for political and social change in the Middle East Please join me in welcoming Neil MacFarquhar. (This working? Yeh) Good evening and thank you all for coming. A couple of weeks ago president Obama responded to a question about the upheaval in Iran by saying when it comes to grappling with certain issues even make little difference whether Mahmoud Ahmadi Najad or Mir Hussain Mussavi prevails. The American president\rquote s overall reaction to the crisis has been measured and struck the right tone. I do not agree on that one point. Perhaps he was referring starkly to the nuclear issue where the policy of successive Iranian governments has not varied all that much. A question of tone rather than substance. But if we look at it to the prism of domestic matters the differences between the two camps could not be starker. To draw an example from my book and I may do this more than once tonight I would like to take a simple aspect of life in Iran it may not be that simple but skiing. You might think skiing is not an obvious choice a concern of only Iran\rquote s elite or at least the middle class. This is true to an extent but the way that the authorities dealt with sports speaks volumes about the difference in Iran between the hard liners and the reformists The first time I went skiing in Iran was in 1993 and the slobs were segregated by sex there were skiing slopes for women and there were skiing slopes for men. The base gondola ran for 15 minutes for men and 15 minutes for women. And the day I was there no one had told the South Korean ambassador about that system and so he was standing in the women\rquote s line next to his wife and guards coming and taking him out of the women\rquote s line and he got into a fist fight with the revolutionary guards. And in those days there was no advertising in Iran in those days at all so all the buildings were painted with slogans like all Muslims revere the athlete. And they had also... there was a building right on the bottom of the slopes that everybody told me had once been a bar but I couldn\rquote t prove it and it was now fitted by it was really loud loudspeakers through which they send the call to prayers And the day I was there it was Friday and you know we have been listening over the past couple of weeks we have been wanting to hear what happened on the Friday\rquote s prayer sermon because it was just a big political speech. On Friday if you were there at noon skiing they blasted the entire sermon over the slopes and it was so loud that I kind of I was worried about avalanches Now I went back in 2003 and I should say also that I was there in 1993. I was actually arrested because I had arrived in 1994 and I didn\rquote t have my reporting permit yet and you need to have a permit to ask questions and so they throw me into jail and I found out that all my fellow inmates were… I am getting ahead of myself here.. Women when they ski they have to wear the nylon they have to wear the nylon version of the chador it is like so many spinnakers coming down the slopes so men who wanted to ski on the women\rquote s slope would cross-dress and they wear that nylon thing and then they would get caught because they skied a little bit too aggressively and they get thrown into the same jail that I was thrown in so that\rquote s how I got to meet a lot of them. So then I went back in 2003 and the place changed you know there was still a woman at the very base of the slope telling all the women going in to tuck their hair and as soon as they got on the lift they ignored it and up the slopes you know men and women were kissing at least you know a sort of they can get together on the tables in the restaurants it was a completely different atmosphere. It was -you know- the stretch of time and also just because the Iranians are really good about pushing for change and pushing up against those rules they do gradually make a difference but whenever \endash you know-there is a sort of a setback every time the hard liners come along and we are seeing the biggest setback we have ever seen take place over these past couples of weeks But today I kinda wanna talk about agents of change and I would like to focus on what actions that outsiders be they governments like the United States or private organizations interested in civil liberties might take to help affect change in the Middle East. As Dave said that I\rquote ve lived in the Middle East for about 25 years roughly half my life and it seems to me the way American expatriates live in the region is enormously emblematic of all the troubles the United States faces in grappling with the people their culture and Islam their main religion. I grew up in one of those infamous oil compounds called Marsa Brega then a town of about 10000 people which\rquote s more or less completely isolated from Libya itself. It is 11 square miles boarded by the Bengazi highway to the south and by the Mediterranean sea to the north and was fenced off. Libyans had to leave the compound at the end of the working hours at 5 o\rquote clock each day. No Libyan families were allowed to live there. The most telling example of our isolation was when we learnt about Gadhafi ceasing power from the BBC World service. I must confess that as a small kid I never really noticed the absence of Libyans the town was idyllic. I saw elementary school set right across the street from my house most afternoons after class I would run down and swim and sail in the Mediterranean which lay a couple hundred yards away across the south flats. It was a lot going up there like the club men or perhaps Texas on the Mediterranean I never met many Libyans except on occasional trips to the bakery just outside the compound gates which bake short crisp blows of Italian bread or I met them on longer family\rquote s excursions to the bazaar in Bengazi the nearest big town about two hours drive away. Eventually Egyptian movies were played a couple nights a week at one theatre and I remember my parents ventured out to see an early Omar Sherif epic something about boatmen along the Nile with a lot of fight and belly dancing scenes. We kids never went to the Arab movies it was uncool. By the time Gadhafi came to power the government got around to ordering the company to allow Libyans to live in Viga I had left. It was only later at Stanford University that I began wondering about what I had missed. I had never even learned Arabic properly. I tried to make up for lost time going back to study the language Periodically I decided it was irrational to be drawn back to such a seemingly hostile alien part of the world. And I would sign up for economics or Chinese art and try to forget all about the Middle East. But the exerts of gravitational pull they proved impossible to counteract When I first went back to the region as a correspondent in 1988 I carried some of those old prejudices with me. Take the women I always figured that underneath those veils they dressed like nuns. And then they most certainly have invented the practice men and women were not so good looking. So I actually met some of the strong educated Saudi women for example it was a revelation When I started to write my book I want to convey some of my impressions meeting those kind of characters My first assignment back was actually to Libya within 2 weeks of moving to Cairo. I thought that was entirely appropriate. Not least because sometimes when I look at the region there is just 2 people left. I feel like there is just 2 people left from my Libyan boyhood. Me and Gadhafi! Or the brother leader as he likes to be called In attempt to make it seem like Libya has developed a refined form of democracy Gadhafi forces everyone to attend popular community meetings usually a couple times a year. He extensively throws up all public policy to debate. It was mostly a show; no important decisions like anything to do with the oil industry are ever broached. But sometimes the outcry from those does couch some of his more lunatic suggestions like having all children home schooled. At the one I went to a woman started worrying about why he changed the calendar. Gadhafi had moved it from the year of Mohammed\rquote s death and then to his birth where as most muslims use the year of Mohammed\rquote s migration from Mekka to Medina. So at the time I was there there was 3 dates in play and nobody knew whether was supposed to be 1369 1429 or 1431. So I was at one of these popular community meetings and a woman stood up and says: \ldblquote why can\rquote t we just be normal?! Like every other country\rdblquote now that\rquote s may be a rather simplistic rallying cry but it is a telling one because it is a widespread sentiment so I tried to write about men and women who attempt to bring the Arab world closer in step to the rest of the world. And I tried to do it without writing too much about violence but I know that events that are violent tend to monopolize our attention and so I wanna talk a little bit about that I think the coverage of the Arab \endash Israeli fight exemplifies that kind of distortional curse because of this over emphasis on bloodshed. The fight between Israel and the Palestinians is basically a fight over control of territory over land. The Hamas movement is a distillation of Palestinian anger in the face of both living under seemingly endless occupation and the widespread corruption among the traditional Palestinian leadership so those little two props need to be solved. Ending the occupation and fostering better Palestinian leadership. But that tends to get lost in breaking news about suicide bombers and air strikes on Gaza. The current fixation is exaggerating the role of Iran in the equation and paying the conflict as an extension of Tehran\rquote s quest for the nuclear technology. But that\rquote s how the conflict takes on the shape of global confrontation that far outstrips reality The ability of Hamas to challenge Israel military is non existent. And the Palestine issue has never been popular among Iranian public. It is just meant to attract Sunni Muslims. It feeds Iran\rquote s ego that it is more important than it actually is. Finally I get the sense that both sides had become more intransigent because they begin to believe in their own importance. I just wish those American leadership would have said listen; you are ten million people taking up far too much the world\rquote s time and attention considering your numbers. Fate has placed you next to each other where you\rquote re going to remain forever whether you like it or not. So get on with it. The one area where it is not exaggerated is that solving the conflict would remove the sting from so much extremism. If the Palestinians accept the peace deal where would that leave the region\rquote s radical movements? Where would Hezbollah be without the rallying cry in Jerusalem? It would become one Lebanese political party among many. Certainly not defame but reflective of its actual weight in the world. Where would Iranian fulminating about the question of Israel be if the Palestinians themselves had recognized it? no place. So I do think the conflict is important in terms of its potential to change decades of history but the focus has been misguided. The same can be said on the question of reform of political and social change as well. I do think it has the power to transform the region but it is a long term slog and ultimately a domestic one. One that has to be solved locally. The Bush administration tackled the issue by saying it wanted to promote democracy. As I pointed out in the book this is gregarious right but the emphasis utterly misguided. In June of 2005 secretary of state Condoleezza Rice gave her famous speech at the American University of Cairo saying: for far too long Americans had supported dictators and that lack of democracy only ended up fostering extremism. She was right in just her very next breath she said she just came from Jordan. But the king and queen were making strides towards reform and now for a local audience that immediately undermines the policy. Jordan just like every other Arab country is a police state it has a photogenic royal couple who say the right modern things abroad when it comes to Islam peace and the role of women. But make no mistake about it as my friend calls it it is an inconspicuous police state whereas the Jordanian poet I focused on in the book says: \ldblquote it is the best of the worst.\rdblquote Until the United States starts interacting with these countries in a way that reflects the reality of their citizens; it will lack credibility among ordinary people. I think there are three main ways that the United States can go about it: now I have been criticized for being overly simplistic on these points because they are not exactly soaring or noble. American foreign policy needs a kind of back to basic restructuring when it comes to dealing with the Arab world. Americans can both improve the lives of the average Arab and in the process serve their own interest not least by improving America\rquote s image but turning to a time when we were known for defending the little guys. When we did the right thing. That ideal always reminds me with a few lines from a speech that Roger F. Kennedy gave in South Africa in 1966 in which he said: \ldblquote We must recognize the full human equality of all our people before God before the law and in the councils of government. We must do this not because it is economically advantageous although it is; not because of the laws of God command it although they do; not because people in other lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do.\ldblquote The United States has lost sight of that noble ideal in its dealing with the Arab world. We should be pushing for equality for everyone there because it is the right thing to do. One reason that Washington has had so few successes in the region is that it\rquote s policies there have too been based on expediency if Arabic dictators said the right thing they were our friends no matter how long they stay in power or how they treated their own people. Nobody believes anymore that the United States stands up for the little guy. Nobody believes that what the United States proposes is for their good. And anyone who agrees with Americans instantly becomes suspect labelled to stooge. The post 9/11 emphasis on introducing democracy is a growing example of a policy that failed to inspire much hope because it was not presented in a way that the average Egyptians Palestinian Syrian or Saudi ever believed that it was being done for them. My time in the region convinced me that often the right thing to do is not to try to convert Arabs to American values to the way that we do things. But assist them in addressing human values. Too often Americans officials sound like they wish they just became more American projecting our image on the places just won\rquote t fit plus democracy has been completely discredited by what happened in Iraq which was sold as the arrival of democracy. For people with no political experience they now equate democracy as blood shed anarchy and chaos. But they can be a shared vocabulary by putting the emphasis on values like justice which exists and is actually emphasises in the Quran. So the first lesson I take away from that in terms of what American\rquote s foreign policy should be is that you have to address the concerns of the people in their own countries at their level. The most basic concerns that all parents have about things like their children\rquote s education. One of the Saudi reformers in the book is Fawizia Al-Bakr a professor of education and one of the brave women who took to the freeways in the women driving demonstration in Riyadh in November 1991 when some 50 women took their cars out demanding the right to drive. Professor Bakr has faced a kind of an official boycott ever since. But she always advocates for what she considers is right. She told me about going to her son\rquote s elementary school to find out exactly what was on the curriculum. She discovered that some 60% of the classroom time was devoted to religion which had zero application in the modern world. She reeled off a long random list for me. Fourth graders are taught how to clean themselves in the Islamicaly acceptable manner after going to the bathroom in the desert for example. What Saudi family she said to me in frustration ever goes camping in the desert anymore without either a chemical toilet or even a permanent toilet except in tent built in their traditional family camp ground. In an elementary school text book one lesson incorporated a Hadith saying from profit Mohammed: \lquote The Muslim should seek knowledge as far away as China if necessary.\lquote When Mrs. Al- Bakr attended a middle school traffic safety day she has discovered that one of the discussion\rquote s sessions was focused on the risk of being tortured in the grave if you died on a traffic accident while living contrary to God\rquote s commandments this is what Mrs. Al - Bakr said to me. Teach the students how to think give them a scientific project teach them skills. If you go to the objectives of the education the practices in all the schools all you find is religion That kind of frustration creates an opening for the American government but it was lost post 9/11 by the confrontational approach with Washington demanding immediate changes in the curriculum because it helps breed foot soldiers for Al Qaeda. Those demands brewed all manners of resentment. It is an act of Christianity attacking Islam of the entire crusade resurrected. The smarter way to go about it would be for the American government to find ways to raise the kind of questions that Saudi parents ask. Why the Arabs who once kept science alive now so weak at it? why are the enlighten days of the Iraqi leader Haron Al - Rachid left in the medieval dust. How comes such wealthy countries have fail to produce any Arab Microsoft any Arab Apple Computers any real modern innovation of any sort. Western governments reformists say should question why curriculums are so weak. Why Arab societies contribute virtually nothing to the world of scientific or technological advancements. It is the kind of question that the people who want change in the Middle East ask about all the time. And if whatever administration in Washington raised the question that way it would be more effective. It would put those regimes on the defensive push the need to explain themselves explain their failures without seemingly to directly confront or disavows their beliefs and values. So this is the first lesson the criticisms should be raised in such a way where all Arabs with a sect or religious thought that they had an ally. The second thing I learnt about basing American foreign policy on the right thing to do is that we have to speak out in support of all agents of change no matter how weak they are or whether we think their goals coincide exactly with ours or not. Agitators need American support not directly not an endorsement but it just helps them immeasurably when the American government signals that it is watching. That\rquote s the president Obama has done well with in regard to Iran. Saying that the rest of the world cares what happens to the people there. It is an imperfect instrument but those kinds of statements can make both the government hesitant in the extent of its crack down and embolden those out marching on the streets just knowing they have an ally helps people push for change. Again and again on my trips around the region for example the extraordinary people that I profiled would tell me that the United States should not be pushing democratic election so hard. First of all it automatically gave democracy a bad name. Because the US is so disliked . And second the countries are just not ready. Mentally people have spent so many decades under repression so the political process is more or less dead everywhere. The only groups who are prepared and would thus win are those of religious fundamentals. For what many activists wanted was for US to push on civil right issues. The right for activists to speak out freely in their own countries to print their own newspapers to form their own organizations to agitate without the fear of arrest or being beaten the ideas for Americans either as a government or through human rights or other private organizations to speak out to improve the systems and to defend individuals trying to change those system when they are arrested or otherwise abused. The third thing about basing our foreign policy on doing the right thing is speaking out constantly against all forms of repression. And in particular about the damaging role of the secret police in daily life. Washington needs to speak out not just about who is repressed but who is doing the repressing. Virtually are pumped up by vast intelligent agencies using the war against terrorism and usually the war against terrorism as a cover. Governments in countries like Morocco and Egypt have all deployed the security agencies to silence critics. There were reports in recent years that Washington shipped suspects to those intelligent agencies to outsource torture unless unfortunately a case has been made between Washington and the most hated institutions in all those countries known universally by their Arabic name the Mokhabarat. For Washington barely speaks out against this course especially against their allies. We go back to king Abdullah the second of Jordan he speaks English well he went to Deerfield academy he says nice things about the United States and Israel and says the right things about modern Islam He has a pretty modern wife who takes on all manners of international causes. But Jordan is a police state one telling example I found was a young Jordanian poet name Samir El-Koda. He is a short stocky thirty five years old with shaved black hair whose day job is supervising constructing projects as a civil engineer. In the spring of 2004 he attended a cultural festival. To recite a poem depicting Arab leaders as somewhere below extremist guerrillas pirates or high Romans on the scale of honourable professions. Even while he was reciting the poem he knew that an immediate summon from Jordanian intelligent police was inevitable. Sure enough he was held on for questioning within days. Samir had been through it before sentenced by a state security to a year in jail for slander in 1996 writing and setting a sarcastic political poem which marked how Arab leaders pretend to gain their public consensus. When Samir told me was this: we are hungry for freedoms like the right to express ourselves but our country lives under the fist of the Mokhabarat the security apparatus must be consulted about everything done here. The same is true for all Arab governments if you give a speech against the policy of the government it is a threat to security. If you demonstrate against this or that it is a threat to security. It hits on all aspects of life and it is a severe hindrance to change. The United States must make this clear that when it comes down to the struggle between the agents of change or the agents of the security apparatus. Let\rquote s support the agents of change. I should note that one key reason the US has avoided pushing too hard for real government reform in the region is that the fear of radical Islam will win at the polls a dicey proposition From my experience the bulk of the Arabs don\rquote t want change the despotic regime they have now for despotic regime based on religion. They just desperately want a little freedom and they think the religious parties are the only groups strong enough to get it for them. It is a gamble but it certainly appears to be a better proposition than what they live under now. People are hungry for change in the region. We just have to look at what\rquote s happening now in Iran as a prime example. A friend once described his elderly mother watching I believe the election returns from Peru on Al \endash Jazeera satellite television and moaning aloud whether or no a real election returns in the Arab world. I actually devote a whole chapter in the book to the Al-Jazeera because it is a prime example of where outside perception in internal reality clash. Because it gives an important platform to decadence and government critics Jazeera is a tremendous source of change in the Arab world. Can it do it on its own? No the regimes are too powerful but it has made people aware that there is an alternate reality. There is much more discussions in other media on issues like corruptions and torture because Al-Jazeera dared to break the ground. American efforts to create an alternate was an expensive flop not least because American politicians interfered all the time with the content. There was a serious criticism over broadcasting an interview with the head of Hizbollah for example but by any standard he was a man who viewers wanted to know more about. If there was one lesson about the media abnormalities is that politicians make lousy editors. now I see all those questions spanning up over there and I think I am gonna stop there but the one question I always get so I will address it so our moderator does not have to is how I came up with the name of the book. I actually wrote the book in San Francisco after I left the Middle East I was living here and I would write every morning and then ride my bike over the bridge then go to work and vice versa. And I was trying to cope with the title because I want to convey that it was something about stories that I wanted to tell not stories that I had to tell like I usually did it in newspapers and I wasn\rquote t having much ideas so I had a title party at my house here in San Francisco and I got a lot of red wine good food invited over about twenty friends and we put up a piece of paper and they would shout out titles and I liked a lot of those titles a lot there was titles like Waiter Shake and my personal favourite is Baksheesh: The Quest for Change in the Middle East. But my editor was not amused by many of those and so When you work in Hizbollah control territory you have to fill out a bunch of paper work to get your press pass that\rquote s been the southern region of Beirut and the southern part of Lebanon and one of the questions they ask you is what\rquote s your birthday so I filled that out and then on my next birthday in my email inbox there was a message from hizballah@hizballah.org and if you wanna read the full message I am afraid you have to get the book. And now I have to take your questions. Thanks very much Neil we got a number of great questions including some from the students who got a bit of short change just before the session began. Perhaps the first broad overall question: \lquote what is your long term prediction for the government of Iran? Will Iran become a democracy?\rquote How long is long term? I think that in the long run is inevitable that the regime there is gonna have to change just because demographics are working against them. The country is 70 million people and 60% of them are under the age of 28 and even though when you look at \endash you know- the fights that are going on in the streets it is that\rquote s one of the remarkable things about what has happened in the past few weeks is really is a cross section of society but you know the hard core demonstrators tend to be students and the hard core people doing the repression are also students. The Baseej sort of paramilitary are students. But when you work in that country one thing you are really struck by is just how much they are aware of whats going on in the outside world and you know those Baseeji volunteers the ones who are doing the repression mostly from a lower class or poor neighbourhoods and one of the reasons they sign up is because they get a stipend and they get a reserved spot in university and so I just think that \endash you know- the young Iranian generation is really aware of.. Again-one of the things I was saying in the speech about how out of step they are with the rest of the world and how stifling that system is. and \endash you know- if you look at the pattern there have been patterns in the waves of demonstrations and setbacks in 1999 when they were on the streets and there was a hard repression and then they quieted it down for a while and then in 2003 they were back out again there was a huge ground swell this time not least because the government sort of broke its back \endash you know- people voices matter so I think it is inevitable in the long run but I think that at the moment just gonna be a terrible period of oppression. And what do you think that the US response should be to the events that are going on there has been considerable debate here about that? I mean I think that saying Mussavi or Ahmadi Najad would be the same was a mistake but I think overall the tone has been correct as I said because I think that \endash you know- especially in the United States we could barely remember what happened last year but countries like that really have much longer and more developed sense of history so the fact that the United States had a hand over throwing the government in 1953 feels very current to them and they \endash you know- occasionally you do see Mussavi\rquote s picture is held up when he was the prime minister in 1953 that the CIA helped overthrow is held up in demonstrations so I think that saying it is up to the Iranian people but at the same time saying that the outside world cares about what happens with those demonstrators on the streets is the right way because it is sort of it endorses what they\rquote re doing it is imperfect you\rquote re not gonna stop it. I mean had an editorial in this morning saying cruiser under rated CIA sponsored cruiser under rated but I just don\rquote t think that the world works that way anymore. And \endash you know- you have to allow countries to develop on their own and help the people that are doing it but again just- it has to be internal it just doesn\rquote t stick. And next question is: \lquote would you like a glass of water?\rquote I think I have some water here I got a glass here Oh great You have written both in your novel and then in your book quite a bit about what\rquote s like to be a working journalist and it\rquote s been a considerable discussion in the press recently about the difficulty of getting at the truth in the Middle East perhaps everywhere And particularly in regard to what\rquote s going in Iran. Could you comment and you\rquote ve written several articles recently about Iran talk a little bit about what it is like to try to get at the truth in the current situation in Iran. Now The Sand Café was set in Saudi Arabia it was sort of a look at \endash you know- how reporters cover wars and our frustrations. It wasn\rquote t so much on the streets a little bit of it was about \endash you know- how you get information in a place like in Saudi Arabia but Iran is always a very interesting case because despite all the rhetoric of being anti-American they would it is like \endash you know- children who want respect and love so they act up only because dealing with the press so would walk into the office and they would say America is terrible #NAME? you have to fill out a form a list of all the people in all the government and all the government agencies you want to see and you are never sure you have to listen at all in countries in the Middle East and in Saudi Arabia in a good day you get 2 so you give a list of 20 because you\rquote re never sure which one you will get and Iranian give a list of 20 and they would say none of these people ever gonna see you and then you way around for week and you go see academics and \endash you know- you go skiing and then you come back and you call everyday and by the end of the week you usually get 15 of them. So it was always a place that was very open to discussion and it was interesting to talk to people until the situation like this happened and I was on the streets when the student demonstrations in 2003 came along and they unleashed the Baseej and in the first night I made a mistake of standing on the cul de sac and one came around the corner about ten minutes after I got there and he had a chain they were smashing over cars they were smashing all the house lights they were smashing everything and I was trying to phone I had a sort of portable satellite phone I was trying to talk to New York. The people they were giving us shelter \endash you know- there is You can\rquote t blame them in that situation because their families were with us there they gonna get in a lot of trouble so we managed to call our driver who snuck up drove the car and got away and then we went back there the next night when I say we our local reporters who\rquote s been doing such a fantastic job and also they are trying to shut down and we were just standing among some student demonstrators on the street and just like the shower bricks and I mean real bricks came down and so everybody scattered and I lost the Iranians that I usually work with so I knew where the apartment was where they were staying so I had to cross a little field when one of those Baseejs came on me and he had a stick just like that and he does this full swing and he catches me right there and I had the satellite phone in my pocket and he shattered the satellite phone and so I went to the apartment where we were staying. You know it was a kind of watching on the streets It was just really vicious they were just going down the street and if there is anyone on a motorcycle they would hit them and make them fall off the bikes and just really nasty and then my colleague heard them say hey there is an American here and he was distributing dollars and they meant me because I was the only American around And then we are gonna get you out of here anyway just lie on the floor don\rquote t talk don\rquote t go near any window and so I stayed that way for about.. we got in the demonstration about 10 about 2 in the morning they decided to calm down and I thought they had to get out there but they didn\rquote t quite know how so they finally they summoned in the car the father of the man in the apartment and they put me in the chador which is about time tradition in Iran but\endash for anybody but just for the two yards from the front door to the car. and they -You know- both women put on chadors and they don\rquote t usually wear but the full rap and went back and drove into the car and I sat down between them and they both sat by the windows very slowly out there but the streets were just it was amazing they had brought in all drugs in army trucks and it was just full of them and so \endash you know- my heart really goes out to the people who are facing that now because it is a scary situation and they are really kind of they are being brave about going out in the streets and confronting it. Thank you A couple of other students have asked: \lquote what do you consider to be the biggest misconception about the Middle East?\rquote Well and I said this to them I am sorry I repeat myself because I said a little bit of this to them in a previous time about the thing but that you have to write about I mean when I kind of look back over the time period I have been there as a reporter there was the first gulf war there was the first Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation there was the 9/11 and its fall out there was American invasion to Iraq and so you just covering these stories of explosions and attack and people \endash you know- begin to get the impression that the region is just a sort of full sea of mass gunmen who hate the United States and they have women who if they went unmute they would say rescue me. so I am trying in the book to give other impressions I talk about \endash you know- the most famous Lebanese chef on TV and the things that he cooks I spent time with another famous Lebanese a diva named Fairouz I talked to a Kuwaiti sex therapist who has her own call in show on satellite TV I just sort was trying to get the flavour of the rest of the region. \endash You know- the people there certainly hate the violence too and there is a lot more to their lives than that . With your knowledge of the language how are the Americans and the US treated in the school text books does the government say one thing for their national press and another sometimes opposite thing for the students in the Arab streets? You know text books was a thing I really didn\rquote t look into how they talk about Americans there sorry that one thing maybe I should have done but I never did. But just as an American in general I was always treated very well almost because they sort of feel like they have no control over how their governments were chosen so they don\rquote t blame me for mine and but the only exception to that was in 2003 and 2004 because when they were watching American soldiers walk roll through Iraq and just fight Iraqis every night on TV and then they saw me on the street I mean obviously nothing I faced came remotely close to the danger for the correspondents working in Iraq but you know like in Egypt Egypt has very garrulous people they like to joke and ask you where are you from and what\rquote s going on and they say where are you from and I always hesitate I didn\rquote t want to lie because I didn\rquote t feel there was always danger but I would say New York and that way it takes a minute or two to click that I was an American and then the \endash -- would stop and occasionally I was walking on the street and somebody would throw something at me but I think that \endash you know- that whole sort of technology chewing gum kind of \endash you know- attraction to the United States they still \endash you know- they hate the policies in the Middle East they hate the way the region treats the Middle East but they still kind of look at the United States as a place that \endash you know- a land of opportunity I mean its a cliché but they do I mean our favourite example as reporters is some incredible demonstration in Iran with tens of thousands people screaming: \lquote death to America\rquote and you stop the first person to interview why? And at the end of the interview they say: \lquote hey how can I get a visa?\rquote but I think.. my personal favourite the incidence was in 2004 I broke a tooth in Saudi Arabia and I had to go to a clinic and so I just went to a clinic at 8 in the morning and I went to the very first dentist that I could and he was from Syria and I said where you train other than Syria he said: \lquote no no I did all my training in Syria\rquote and he is arranging his tools and \endash you know- doing all that stuff and so I was like trying to brag my brain to think what I could remember about medical schools in Syria and then he said: \lquote why where are you from?\rquote And I said: \lquote New York\rquote and he said: \lquote American! That not a very popular thing to be open wide! But he did a very good job and it is still in there so..fine Can you explain why President Ahmadi Najad appears to have ignored fixing Iran\rquote s economy? You know I interviewed him last September and I asked him that repeatedly and he finally got mad at me and his aids said don\rquote t let him lose his temper I think that he thought he was and he just is not very good at \endash you know- he is not very good at economic policy because they subsidize a lot of goods and they made an announcement that they are going to lift the subsidy of gasoline and I think it might be everybody is riding the streets anyway and that may give them even more reason to because when they tried to do it a couple of years ago they had riots there as well and I think there is a real tension there also between sort of \endash you know- state control and free enterprise and \endash you know- trying to.. they nationalize so much things as a part of the revolution they took over a lot of companies and sort of.. They fight over that just as much as they fight over politics whether it should be centralized under government control or whether it should be a private economy. And he\rquote s just done a lot of things in terms of handing out \endash you know- more sort of just money basically giving grants to people and raising government salaries and things like that without return in investment private investment has been weak so job creation is weak I think it is officially about 17% but it is probably 30% and inflation is running at 25% so he just hasn\rquote t \endash you know- manipulated the levels of economy very well he is not very good at it. One of the members in the audience asks: \lquote has there been a change in the thought process within the security council particularly with China and Russia with regard to the recent developments in Iran both in nuclear tension and support for recent reform movements there? The security council works incredibly slowly so those events are very much too recent got them to have reacted but I think that in general there is a hesitation from the Security Council to take on anything that it considers as domestic matter Because they really sort of feel that \endash you know- once you\rquote re interfere in one country\rquote s domestic affairs you\rquote re gonna start interfering in everybody\rquote s and so as long as it is seen as \endash you know- It is now my pleasure to introduce our distinguished guest for the evening Dr. Mohammed Hafez is a visiting professor who had a diploma in political science at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Prior to this position he was a Harry Frank Guggenheim foundation fellow and a United States information agency fellow. He is educated; he got at UCLA where he got his BA in international relations. He went to get his MA at the University of Southern California and received his PhD at the London School of Economics. He is the author of three books including: \lquote Why Muslims Rebel: Repression And Resistance In The Islamic World\rquote \lquote Manufacturing Human Bombs: The Making of Palestinian Suicide Bombers\rquote and his most recent book \lquote Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom\rquote here to discuss the history and complexity of suicide bombings both in Iraq and elsewhere please join me in welcoming Dr. Mohammed Hafez. Thank you Mr. Bonney for this kind of introduction and thank you to the World Affairs Council and the United States Institute of Peace for facilitating this talk and thank you all for being here today. I am always delighted to have an audience. Hardly days passes without news about suicide attack in Iraq? If you reflect at prior to 2003 Iraq never experienced a single suicide bombing. Yet today Iraq is the lead nation in which suicide attacks take place. Even with the surge and the general decline in violence from its 2007 peaks Iraq continues to suffer high rates of suicide terrorism. Increasingly, we are seeing insurgents use female suicide bombers to execute their missions. Now the phenomena of suicide bombers of course is not unique to Iraq. In the contemporary era beginning in 1981 we had suicide attacks begin in Lebanon and they spread to this date to about 27 countries Interestingly, prior to 1995 there were mainly two countries played by suicide attacks Sri Lanka and Lebanon. And Lebanese mainly attacking the Israelis while today suicide attacks have spread to 27 countries including Britain, Spain, obviously Iraq Afghanistan,Pakistan and many other countries. To date we have on record at least 1800 attacks worldwide. as many as 900 have taken place actually over 900 have taken place in Iraq so half of that total of 1800 have taken place in Iraq. Most intriguing about the case of Iraq is that many if not most of the suicide bombers are actually not Iraqis. At least until 2006 it appears to be that most suicide bombers come from abroad. They come from neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Kuwait and others and from as far away as North Africa and ---. I call these murders without borders because this is truly the first phenomena well it is not the first phenomena actually but it is one on the scale that we have seen in Iraq this is quite unprecedented. In my book I go through various nationalities of the suicide bombers and in according to my researches as many as 19 nationalities represented. Iraq being one but 18 others obviously non Iraqis. It is this facet of that Iraq suicide bombers that I wish to focus on today. In the past we used to ask a difficult question. What kids, young men and women what motivates young men and women to strap exploses around their bodies to blow themselves up to kill others. In Iraq the questions have become even more complex. What motivates a Tunisian living in Italy to make his way to Iraq to blow himself up in order to kill others? What motivates a Belgian woman a convert to Islam her name is Muriel Degauque to travel with her Moroccan husband to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq? How can we explain this phenomenon? In my book \lquote Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom\rquote I point to several factors for in this talk I am gonna point to 5 briefly five factors that I believe came together as if in a perfect storm to make volunteerism and recruitment in Iraq at the level that it reached at the magnitude that it reached there. So I labelled these factors as follows: grievances networks opportunities strategies and mythologies I am gonna briefly talk about each and hopefully take the Question & Answer period to elaborate as necessary. So let me begin with the first factor and let me say this: one can not simply point to any of these factors on their own to explain suicide bombings in Iraq as a matter of fact each of these factors on their own would not have produced suicide attacks at least on the scale that we've seen to date. But together they really help explain the magnitude the scale of this deadly phenomenon. The first are grievances. The war in Iraq took place in the context of heightened Muslim grievances against the United States. so when the US invaded Iraq in 2003 there was no shortage of sieving Muslim rage that could be mobilized against the United States. What are the sources of those grievances they are many but here let me focus on three. First there was the actual invasion of Iraq. To many in the United States and even in the Western world this was an opportunity to liberate a country from tyranny to get rid of a very brutal dictator and give freedom and democracy to Iraq. This is not how most Muslims saw it. If you travel in the streets of Cairo or Amman or other places or if you watch satellite TV like I do like al-Jazeera and some other channels no one would point to the invasion of Iraq as an attempt to liberate it from tyranny and a dictatorial rule. The common refrain that you hear from Muslims is that there is tyrants all over the place in this region. Why focus on Iraq why not Saudi Arabia why not Egypt why not elsewhere. And so to many of them this talk this pre text was a flimsy pre text to invade Iraq and it held back to old imperial pretenses about mision civila streets or about white man's burden to bring civilization to the uncivilized world and in doing so concurring and swallowing all these Muslim lands and territories. So to many people in the Muslim world the invasion was a sign of US arrogance in its use of power. And this was also about to many of them this was about making the region safe for the arch enemy of Muslims as they saw it Israel. To them this was an invasion intended to remove first Iraq which was a country supporting the Palestinians and refusing to make peace with Israel next you would move on to Syria and next to Iran and certainly you would then make the region safe for Israel. And finally this was about blundering Muslim oil. Again this is a Muslim view this is not my view or certainly the view of people in the United States in general although this is a view shared by the opposition or opponents of the war. We can debate the veracity of these executions but the point here is to see it from the perspective of Muslims and that\rquote s how they saw the invasion of Iraq. The second grievance that many Muslims could point to it is that the fact that the war in Iraq took place at the height of the Palestinian uprising against Israel. This was known Al-Aksa uprising. Some of you may question: \lquote what is the relationship between Al-Aksa uprising and what\rquote s going on in Iraq?\rquote Well people were watching images of the Palestinian uprising. This was certainly one of the most brutal periods in the history of the Arab - Israeli conflict. The apprising features the most recent blood lining between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The Palestinians used suicide bombers to kill hundreds of Israeli civilians and the Israelis used its mighty arsenal to crush the uprising and in the process killing thousands of Palestinian civilians. These images were blustered on satellite TV. So if you were a Moroccan if you were an Indonesian if you were a person living in Europe you could see those images and certainly the feelings of many Muslims were sympathetic with the Palestinians and not so with the Israelis. This of course was not the view shared by the US in the context of a war on terrorism. The US and the Bush administration in particular took the position that Israel has the right to defend itself and in doing so taking whatever measures are necessary to crush the uprising. The third grievance actually developed as the occupation developed so you get things like battle of Fallujah Abou Gharib and Haditha and so for an American audience it is difficult to imagine these events from a Muslim perspective but if you watch again satellite TV or if you travel around in the area these are not presented as in neutral terms these are represented in highly charge inflammatory terms in many ways. So to sum up this part what all these grievances amounted to was that if you were angry at the United States in 2003 and 2004 Iraq presented you an opportunity to go and express your rage by fighting against the US and its project in Iraq. So this was a mobilizing card. And in itself it was not enough to get people to Iraq but it was an important mobilizing theme that came up over and over often framed in terms of humiliation in terms of fighting arrogance and in terms of years of subjugation and old imperial manoeuvres in Iraq. The second factor relates to networks. So if you were an angry Muslim sitting in Europe in Saudi Arabia in Jordan in Turkey or somewhere. It is not enough for you to be angry to make your way to Iraq you had to know someone you had to be connected to someone who knows someone who could get you to Iraq. And this is where networking became very important and it is often under played in the analysis of suicide attacks but I would argue that without networks despite all the anger you wouldn\rquote t get suicide bombings. at least not the rate we have seen to this date. Where did these networks come from? Well since the early 1990s there has been a sort of a tradition I mean if one could call it that of Muslims mobilizing in defense of coreligionists in foreign conflicts. This began in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in the early 80s then you get Bosnia and then Chechnya and other conflicts. And in each attempt going to those conflict zones to help fellow Muslims you are recruiting a new generation of radicals. It is sort of thinking of it is passing the pettan from one generation to the next. So when the war took place in Iraq you had a template for mobilizing Muslims from one area to another to help their coreligionists. But also you had people who were in place that were able to get things going. Now why did these networks mobilize? To many this was a classical defence of Jihad. If Iraq, if you ever wanna find the classical defence of Jihad this would have been at a Muslim country although the leadership of that country was not an Islamic leadership it was quite secular. But nonetheless the most people in that country they were Muslims they were being attacked for reasons that many Muslims did not accept and then they saw it as a classical Jihad in defence of Muslim land. so if you want ever to mobilize this would be the situation. So you have the anger and you have the networks mobilizing people towards Iraq. But then the question arises: \lquote why would the Iraqis take in these foreigners? Why would they accept them and let them in?\rquote after all if you are a foreign fighter going to Iraq it is not simply that you could walk in and set up shop you have to know someone you have to have connections with the local population you have to have their blessings and maybe even their support. This is where the third factor comes in. the factor of opportunity. The fact that a Sunni insurgency developed in Iraq really open the way for foreign fighters to come into that country. The Sunni insurgency that began in the Anbar province served as an opportunity for foreign recruits to find a local alley. The Sunni insurgents were not going to stop in the way of foreign fighters who are targeting the Iraqi police the military individually, essentially institutions that displaced the hegemony of the Sunnis in Iraq and gave it to their Shiet counterparts. And the Iraqi nationalists in many way benefited it from foreign fighters in Iraq and particularly in two ways. One, they could be deployed against the Shiets many of the suicide bombers actually took place against Iraqi police security forces which were seen as sectarian and predominately Shiet but second target was mainly Shiet civilians. You often see pictures of bombings in Shiet mosques in their Hussainiat or in their markets or their religious festivals. So this is, so the Iraqi nationalists were happy to let the foreign fighters attack these targets and they didn\rquote t wanna be tainted with the image of killing their fellow country men but at the same time this was an opportunity to strike back at those who had displaced them from power. But the second way that the Iraqi insurgence benefited is that the many of the foreign fighters actually brought in money. Not necessarily the individual fighters but the networks that brought them often came with a lot of money when you meet with Iraqis and talk they often are --- how come these foreign fighters bring with them so much money Al-Qaida in Iraq which is sort of the main gateway for a lot of these foreign fighters had so much money that it could pay salaries where as other insurgents could not. The fourth factor that came into play is strategy. The suicide bombers were not deployed randomly in Iraq. And they were not deployed just simply at striking here and there haphazardly but rather they were targeted for a particular strategy. The group that deployed suicide bombers in Iraq the most is Al\endash Qaeda in Iraq This is the one that we hear about a great deal in the news. Like all other insurgent groups Al-Qaeda in Iraq wanted to humiliate the United States and drive it out of Iraq But Al-Qaeda had a particular interest that was somewhat different from the other insurging groups. First of all Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a small insurging group. Most of its attacks amount to about 15 to 20% of the total insurgent attacks and this is somewhat puzzling because when we are watching CNN or Fox or whatever news we watch you often hear about Al-Qaeda in Iraq as if it is the only insurgent group but that is not the case. It is actually one of the smaller groups in the insurgency. But because it is one of the smaller groups in the insurgency to make a name for itself it relied on spectacular attacks Attacks at UN buildings at Red Cross buildings at US areas, various embassies and attacks on Shiet civilians and Iraqi government. Abou Mosaab Al-Zerkawi who is one of the founders or the key founder of Al-Qaeda in Iraq he in particular had visions of grandeur he always saw himself as a leader and to be a leader you had to make a name for yourself in the Iraqi insurgency and the way you do it when you have a small cadre and not a lot of essentially you are a foreigner so naturally you are gonna be a small player in a big sea with big fish. You, he, went for the big spectacular attacks and that quickly elevated him to one of the leaders of the Iraqi insurgency. But the second thing that Al-Qaeda in Iraq wanted to do is wanted to make sure that two things did not develop in Iraq. Two things did not develop. The first is they did not want an Iraqi state to stand on its own two feet. If you have an Iraqi state that is viable with an army with security services with police with institutions that deliver goods and services to the public then you are finished as a small group as an insurgent group in Iraq because the government would be seen as ligament it would have the capacity to crush any rebellion and it would have the capacity to certainly remove smaller groups like Al-Qaeda in Iraq. So this helps explain why many of the suicide attacks actually target Iraqi police Iraqi government forces and their institutions. But the second thing that Al-Qaeda in Iraq did not want to happen is to see Iraqi Sunni and their insurgent factions reconcile with the government. This is to some ex .... well, it is not really happening as much as we would like it to but it is certainly happening much more than it was in the last few years. But to the extent that the Iraqi government and the Sunni insurgency and more broadly the Sunni communities could reconcile and make a deal to have a new Iraq and new order that is not necessarily under the Baathist tyranny. That in itself would signal the end for Al-Qaeda because the price that Sunni insurgents would pay for such a reconciliation is to hand over these individuals that are blowing up the police that are blowing up government facilities and killing Shiets. So Al-Qaeda in Iraq use suicide attacks to polarize Sunnis and Shiets. They targeted Shiet communities to make sure that the Shiets became angry enough that they would strike back at the Sunnis and indeed this is what happened. By the way, this is not unique to Al-Qaeda this is an old revolutionary strategy. You strike at one group to hope to provoke them or a government to hope to provoke it and in the process that government overreacts. In many ways, this was Al-Qaeda strategy in 9/11. It struck as in a very provocative way killed a lot of people certainly in New York and Washington and elsewhere in the hope to provoke the United States to go to overreact and by doing so it polarizes the world. Muslims would have to side with Muslims and non Muslims with the West if you will. The same thing happened in Iraq by striking at the Shiets. You begin to get the death squads you begin to get the militias that are killing Sunnis. The Iraqis call it (Katel Ala Al Haweya) meaning killing based on your identity card. They would find out you are a Sunni that\rquote s good enough reason to kill you. That polarization helped Al-Qaeda and that is why they pursued this tactic. So far, I have given a lot of factors that I think went into producing a campaign of suicide attacks in Iraq. But the profound question remains to be answered why individuals from around the world agree to play the role of suicide bombers? Ok, organizations wanna do it you have angry people although in the past angry people expressed the rage in violent ways that were not necessarily suicidal or perhaps even non violent ways. But why did this.. why did individuals agree to strap a bomb or to drive the explosive laden car or truck why would they do that? I argue this bring.. I argue that.. well this brings us to the fifth factor which I call mythology of martyrdom or the culture of martyrdom. To me, this is at the heart of the explanation of why individuals volunteer for suicide attacks. Again, this culture of martyrdom relates back to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In the early 1990s certainly in the 80s but particularly in the 1990s there were suicide bombers beginning to develop in the Arab - Israeli conflict initially in Lebanon and later on Palestinians against Israelis actually Israeli soldiers and then later on Israeli civilians. The use of suicide attacks by these individuals was actually applauded by much of the Muslim world. To many Muslims the suicide bombers against Israel was a heroic act. This was not an act of desperation or an act of brutal or merciless murder. This was an actual heroic act in defence of land in defence of honour and for in defence of one\rquote s religion if you will. The tactic receives near universal support from the Arab media even at times Al-Jazeera if you watch a reportage on suicide bombings I remember one time there was a period when there was a low of suicide attacks and you could tell that the media was somewhat disappointed at suicide attacks against Israel. And the media was somewhat disappointed and then was a spectacular attack whether in Tel Aviv Haifa whenever was I don\rquote t recall and Al-Jazeera gets on with continuous coverage and getting callers to call in and one caller after another was praising these attacks as heroic and saying: \lquote I wish I would have done it.\rquote sort of expressing that sentiment. By the way when I travel in the Middle East and I talk to people many people share the view that these are heroic figures that this is not something to be rebuked but this is something to be honored. And they are seen as individuals that would do things that I wish I could do but I don\rquote t have the courage or I don\rquote t have the faith to do something like that. So the tactic received near universal support from Arab media Muslim clerics and the mass publics. Even movie stars and singers paid homage to the suicide attackers against Israel. Now this precedent I think enabled suicide bombings in Iraq in three ways First, they turn the suicide bombers as I said into heroic figures to be emulated. Suicide bombers were venerated as if they were gods on earth. Many young men were inspired by their example. And indeed sometimes you would even read statements by suicide bombers talking about this individual that has done this attack or this heroic figure that has done something of that sort. They provide.. The second thing that these precedence the Palestinians suicide bombers and the Lebanese suicide bombers against Israel did is they provide ready made arguments to justify killing oneself on the one hand and killing civilians on the other. Now if you read the classical Islamic tradition in Islam I am glad to say this in Islam it is a sin to kill yourself. It is considered a cardinal sin in the same way as it is in Christianity and Judaism and in the Abrahamic tradition in general. But, with the suicide bombers or those that dispatch suicide bombers were able to argue that this is not suicide this is actually martyrdom. This was a ready made argument developed in one conflict that the dispatchers of suicide attacks in Iraq were able to use in Iraq by saying this is not suicide this is martyrdom. And as for killing of civilians they also developed a lot of arguments to justify well these are not really civilians or to the extent that they are civilians it is ok to kill their civilians because they kill our civilians and until the other side stops we will stop. So what the earlier use of suicide bombings did is created a template if you will of arguments justifications, rationalizations that one could take from one area and apply it to the other. And the third way that the precedent of suicide attacks in earlier conflicts helped Al-Qaeda in Iraq in particular is that Al-Qaeda in Iraq was able to argue how is Palestine different from Iraq? Or how is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict different from Iraq? Palestine is a country occupied by foreigners non Muslims. Iraq is a country occupied by foreigners non Muslims. In Palestine, the Israelis use collaborators. In Iraq, the Americans use collaborators. Both of these conflicts have the hands of the US and so how is this different from the other? So I think this culture of martyrdom is really one of the core factors at the heart of this volunteerism that helps explain why an individual living far away could make his way to die and kill in Iraq. And so in conclusion well, I started up by saying that these five factors came together and I stick by that I think if one were to point to a single factor that is overwhelmingly important in this phenomena I would argue that the culture of martyrdom is it. And we have to work on ruling back that culture of martyrdom. Part of that has to deal with ending some of the conflicts that produced that culture of martyrdom. The Arab Israeli conflict. But it also has to do with dealing with the media dealing with Muslim clerics Muslim communities to say that this tactic is not heroic. This tactic is not martyrdom but it is suicide. This tactic is not about liberation but it is about murdering civilians and murdering innocents. And I think until we are able to do that we will continue to see the growth and spread in suicide attacks worldwide and particularly in the Muslim world. So I thank you for you audience I'll be glad to take your questions now. Thank you. Thank you very much Dr. Mohammed Hafez. We\rquote ll now take questions from the audience. The first one comes from a marine officer a former marine officer in Iraq during the invasion. Welcome wherever you are in the audience. Muslims in Iraq particularly Shiet Muslims in the South and Kurdish Muslims in the North gave reception that was certainly accepting even celebrating as a liberation from your remarks is sounds that has changed how did it change if it did change? Well, certainly the Kurds received US invasion very well and they continue to benefit from the presence of the US in Iraq. I don\rquote t think on the part of the Kurds that has changed. On the part of the Shiets you always had a sort of a mixed reaction. The predominant shiets reaction was to welcome the occupation initially or not the occupation per se but the liberation in the sense of getting rid of Saddam Hussain and the Baathist state. But even there you had a split between whether called the Badr corps those are associate with Abdul Al Aziz Al Hakim faction in the Islamic supreme council of Iraq as it is called and Moktada Al Sadr who always lived in Iraq who was seen who presented himself as an Iraqi nationalist. That on the one hand did not like the Baathist but on the other hand did not see the US as his savior or the savior of the Shiets. And from early on he was calling for the end of the occupation. So in that respect that did not change there were some changes there but my comments the overwhelming weight of my comments have been making here about the external Muslim world and how they perceive the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. They, unlike the Kurds and the majority of the Shiets in Iraq did not see it as welcomed liberation. Again as I said earlier they were saying: what about the other tyrannous if you are genuinely interested in spreading liberty why did you go after Iraq and not those other ones that are very aligned to you very much aligned to you. The next question from our audience if the Muslims\rquote anger was caused by the US invasion I think you indicated it was certainly partlly caused by that why are suicide bombers killing Iraqis? Sure. Very good question and indeed most suicide bombers in Iraq target number 1 Iraqi police and security forces and number 2 Shiet civilians. And even in 2003 there were attacks on the US but since then they have really dwindled there was recently an attack that killed some US forces there. But nonetheless what the insurgents in particular Al-Qaeda in Iraq argues that to the extent that America can occupy continue to occupy Iraq and even govern Iraq they are relying on Iraqi police and security forces. So the Iraqi police and security forces are not something separate from the US military they are an auxiliary force they are indeed its eyes, its ears even its tongue if you will because Americans don\rquote t speak Arabic. So Zarkawi would often say if there was no one to translate for them they would be deaf. If there was no one to speak for them they would be mute. If there was no one to spy for them they would be blind. And therefore they would be forced to leave. So the logic that they use is that these are collaborators and he has this line also that I found intriguing I don\rquote t know why maybe I am getting a little bit too.. well, this is not a healthy development to be interested in what psychopaths are saying I am quoting him perhaps too much but he has this line that intrigued me, he said why is it ok to kill an enemy if he has blond hair and blue eyes? But it is not ok to kill him if he has dark hair and brown eyes? They are one and the same he is an American Muslim that stands with us as our friend and an Arab collaborator if you will that stands with the other side is our enemy even if we share the same spot of land with him. So that\rquote s the logic that they use to attack the Iraqi police and security forces. I would like to add a supplementary question to that The Iraqis that are being killed are not all or even mainly collaborators they are just ordinary people in the markets in the streets there is certainly some police and military who are being attacked but what about all the ordinary people women and children as well as old men anyone who happens to be in the way? Of course, this is also a great question. The way that they would justify it as they and this is where Zarkawi really goes off the deep in and subsequently his successor Abu Hamza Al Mohajer. What they argue is that the Shiets in Iraq are not a neutral party here even Shiets civilians because the Shiets initially welcomed or as he said they welcomed the invasion despite the fact that there was some opposition among the Shiets but generally speaking the Shiets did welcome the invasion. He says because they have done so they provide shelter and a cover for the Americans. They provide political legitimacy for Americans. Because the Shiets participate in elections and do not engage in resistance against the US occupation they are part and parcel of the problem so killing them in general is not a problem for him. Now of course this is highly tendentious reading of the situation but that\rquote s how he explains it and then he goes on to dig into deep Islamic history to point an example where in Islam there were once scholars that debating the issue it is permissible for Muslims to kill other Muslims who are serving as a human shield for the enemy. Now this is a situation where an enemy comes and gathers Muslims if you will and puts them as human shields as they were advancing and the scholars were debating well what we do it is a sin to kill fellow Muslims but they are being used as human shields and some scholars argue well if you have to and there is no other way and if you don\rquote t do it you will loose the fight then it is ok to kill the human shield. So Zarkawi is sort of digs up this archaic tradition and I am not sure if it is a well accepted tradition in Islam to justify the mass killings of Shiets because he says symbolically they serve as the human shield for the American occupation. It is a slightly different question but related to the same subject. Do any or many of these suicide bombers show signs of mental illness depression etc. before they perform these acts? Do they have anything in common with the student gunman in the United States schools? That is a tough question to answer largely because we don\rquote t have access to the subjects. Many of the suicide bombers when they carry out their act obviously they die so you can not interview them and prior to their act chances that they are not gonna speak or to be subject to sort of strenuous psychological evaluation Having said that I would say that generally speaking the consensus of academic research on this is that these individuals are not natural suicidal. People that would have carried out that suicide in any case. This is a political phenomena this is an ideological phenomena this is not one about personal pathology or psychopathy. So I don\rquote t really buy the argument what we know from family members that have talked about their sons that went to Iraq and most often it is their sons not daughters. They would say things like: he was not very religious and he was not very political. But lately he is seeing images on TV or lately he has become somewhat politicized or has become more religious. And the next thing we know is that he is off to go to do the minor Pilgrimage in Mecca called The Omra or to go for a job in Dubai and you know we say ok fine or he wants to go with his friends on a vacation and the next thing we hear is that he is in Iraq. We never hear anything from him until we get a call from a stranger that says: congratulations, your son has achieved martyrdom. So, not many families would say that their sons tried suicide before or were particularly depressed individuals although they do point that they were angry in some respects about maybe the economic condition or some sorts of injustice. In many ways these are idealists. I remember being a twenty year old that at one point being an idealist interested about the world things broader than myself, interested about changing the world for the better and being motivated about it so I think that is the same situation there. The next question that was asked what have you learned from interviews with suicide bombers who have failed Sure. There were certainly, there were suicide bombers that have failed. I think it depends from context to context. In the case of Iraq since this is the focus of my talk. It is really difficult to gage the veracity of the confessions made by people who have failed in their suicide attacks. We have some individuals that get on TV and say well I thought that I was a simply delivering a truck somewhere and the next thing I know is that someone must have detonated it from a far or one person saying that we were drugged or you know we have our hands hand cuffed to the wheels and things like that. I generally don\rquote t buy those arguments, why? Because I\rquote ve watched many videos of the suicide bombers prior to their missions. That is one way to get access by the way to their thoughts but even that somewhat problematic because it is highly propagandistic at that point but to the extent that they are doing their operations you see them smiling often running to their vehicles and you know these guys are driving to a taxi and often followed by a car that\rquote s filming them so this is not necessarily about coercion as it is often portrayed among those who are captured for their foiled suicide bombers. You know look, if I was a foiled suicide bomber and I wanted to get out easily I would have to say look I really didn\rquote t wanna do it they made me do it and I think that\rquote s a general argument to .. that you get from the confessions. It varies with the Palestinians. The Palestinians are less repentant. Sometimes you would hear a Palestinian say well god decides what time people go and god did not want me to go at that moment but if I had a chance I would do it again. So you get variation across conflicts. This is from a Muslim member of our audience who says: I am always forced to defend this question: why are most suicide bombers of the Muslim faith and not for example Buddhist in Tippet. Is there anything in the history or culture of modern Islam that makes it easier for Muslim men and women to perform these acts? And you might extend that there is a question: Is use of martyrdom or suicide bombing found in the Quran. Ok. I\rquote ll treat those as two questions. I\rquote ll start with the second; it is indeed true that the issue of Jihad and martyrdom are in the Quran. Jihad is much more central to orthodox Islam than is martyrdom. But the Quran is full of verses about if you die in the path of god you become a martyr and you have the rewards with god and there are several rewards some of sort we are familiar with them but there are others we are not familiar with them and I am not gonna go through the list. But nonetheless martyrdom in classical Islamic tradition is not about blowing yourself up; martyrdom in the classical tradition is about fighting a regular fight, and dying. You could even be not be fighting but let\rquote s say you are soldier in defending Muslim borders for instance and someone… you know, just you die in the process… you because your intention is to defend Islam you are a martyr. But also because if you are a woman that dies during giving her child birth You are also a martyr if you are a scholar travelling and you die while doing your scholarship you are a martyr so there are various categories of martyrdom in Islam. By the way, it is also found in Christianity in Judaism so Islam is not unique in that respect. But nonetheless, I go back to the original question and I share your frustration because I am always asked that question. Is there something particular about Islam that makes Muslims more likely to carry out suicide attacks than others? And it is a tough one to answer because if you look at the list of 1800 suicide attacks worldwide most of them are carried out by Muslims. Most of them have taken place in the Muslim world so naturally one would draw this sort of inference that this has to do with Islam. But it as a social scientist I have learned that correlation is not causation and as a historian to some extent I would like to be a more of historian than a social scientist these day having the historical perspective you would realize that martyrdom is found in all traditions but you don\rquote t have to go deep into history just you know say after world war 2 you had the Kamikaze the Japanese using Kamikaze attacks suicide attacks missions to protect their country as they saw it of course. Then you have the Tamil tigers. Prior to 2000 Most suicide attacks were carried out by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka the Tamils are not Muslims they were fighting a nationalist struggle they adopted somewhat of a quasi-Marxist socialistic ideology so that was not even an Islamist movement or Muslim. So historically you see examples but the example I would like to give is the example of Samson the last of the judges of the children of Israel. Samson if you know the story he was you know this figure very powerful captured by the philistines had his eyes hooked up he was tormented and he was brought to this temple to be essentially to entertain the philistines and ultimately be killed. Well, through some sort of a plan he was able to get to the center of the temple bring down the pillars and in the process kill all the philistines and himself and as he was doing this act he said let me die with the philistines so that was an actual act of martyrdom in early record of history so martyrdom can be found in all traditions. Muslims need not to be apologetic in about the fact that there are Muslims carrying out suicide attacks all one needs to point out is all the social problems all the political problems in the Muslim world. You have a region in the world that has nearly all the governments and tyrannical governments. You have a region in the world where you have a lot of foreign intervention a lot of conflicts ethnic conflicts nationalist conflicts and so those kinds of conflicts is what breads this kind of tactic, and Islam then becomes the vocabulary to justify those. It is not the source of the motivation but it is the rationalization for the act. Anyway, I am a bit too long winded on that one but I\rquote ll take another one. We have another question that takes you back in the history here. Did Islamic suicide killing begin a thousand years ago with the Shiet Assassins or Hashisheen sect in iraq? Well, that\rquote s almost a rhetorical question because yes, I mean the Assassins the Hashasheen as they were called although obviously they were not the suicidal militants that we know today because there was not a technology of blowing yourself up but even this issue that they were always determined to die is somewhat contested in the scholarship lately but nonetheless we know about the Assassins is these are individuals shiets and the Ismaeli sect that didn\rquote t like the Sunni rulers and they would plan for a long time often taking years maybe even decade or at least a decade to plan a certain assassination and the plan often involved a killing that really prevented that individual from escaping. So essentially it amounted to a suicide attack many people point to the Assassins as the forerunners to contemporary suicide bombers. I disagree. I think the phenomena has much more contemporary roots than historical ones but... and certainly the Sunnis of Iraq they don\rquote t point to the Assassins as an example of why they\rquote re doing what they doing today. Could you comment on the role of the imams the religious leaders in encouraging or fighting to discourage suicide bombers? It is a good question I share your sentiment and this is the point that I concluded with is that Muslim scholars, they come of.. There are two sources of Muslim clerics and scholars. There are those that are tied with governments and there is abundance of those whether it is the Saudi government the Egyptians Al Azhar institution or you know every Muslim country has a kind of a scholarly elite that is paid by the state, they are in the state\rquote s payroll and naturally they are much more establishment scholars much more conservative scholars. Now these scholars condemn the attacks in Iraq they condemn the attacks in Saudi Arabia in Morocco, Britain elsewhere but where they fail to condemn them sometimes they do but often times they don\rquote t is against Israel because you know to do so is akin to a political suicide it is like saying it is like Barak Obama for instance or Hilary Clinton standing up saying I am not for apple pie and baseball and things like that sort. Well, that\rquote s how deeply rooted this Arab-Israeli conflict in the sort of the imagination in the Muslim world and to say that im gonna call Palestinians as murders against Israel to them that\rquote s a problem. So that\rquote s the sort. The other clerics that you have also the anti establishment clerics these are the ones that are not funded by the state and sometimes they are radical or they constitute the radical elite among the Islamist movements. These certainly are not apologetic about Palestinian suicide bombers and nor are they apologetic about what\rquote s happening in Iraq. Some of them consider the Shiets to be heretics. They consider them to be collaborators. And so killing them off all well that\rquote s what they get for doing what they are doing. So they come of two sources if you will and both of them are problematic because if you have an inconsistent message about when suicide bombing are permissible and when they are not if you have that kind of view then a person like Zarkawi or Al Qaeda could always say well how is this different from here and indeed this is what they have done. Question asks: what social economy background do most of the suicide bombers come from? They come from all use of life. They, some are poor some are middle class. A lot of them tend to be more middle class and some come from affluent families. There is no pattern in terms of socio-economic status. The only profile that one could draw up of a suicide bomber in the contemporary era if you will are that they are male and now there is more female but generally they are male and that they are in their early twenties. I think in Iraq, the average is about 22 but we\rquote ve had a range from 18 to even 60 year something like that. But that is not much of a profile really. Here is.. it seems a challenging question I think besides usual recommendations that is write to your congressman or congress person to declare your concerns what else can the concerned American do to help improve or change our relationship with Muslim countries such as Iran and Iraq? Well, less invasions always help. And I think but generally we have really fallen into this clash of civilization thesis. That is prevalent on radio shows and TV news shows like I donna want to pick on anybody I donna know if I am allowed to mention these but you know the usual suspects that portrayed us as a problem of Islam and the Muslim world and then that the west is superior in some respects and this part of the world, is still barbaric and this is a natural clash of civilization. The more we engage in this kind of discourse the more we fall in line with well, Bin Laden is saying because Bin Laden whenever he hears someone write a book or say something about this is a clash of civilization Bin laden shaking his head yes this is a clash of civilization we Muslims need to stick together they are gonna naturally stick together and this is a brutal fight until the end. The more we demythologize that and make it less about religious and more about political problems that could perhaps be dealt with. Some of them can be dealt with but some can\rquote t the more we\rquote re likely to end this process or end this problem quicker perhaps. You've cycled around this question I think quite a bit. The question is: what is the fundamental motivation of the suicide bombers? What changes do they expect to achieve by their actions? Good question. It is hard to know what their fundamental motivations are because that really means going into their heads and even if you go into their heads I mean how many of you really know what our motivations are. If you asked me few years ago where I would be I tell you I wouldn\rquote t be here I would be doing something else but so the motivations issue is really difficult but one thing that I do say in my book and other writings that whatever motivation the suicide bombers have whether it is a escapism whether it is truly genuine religious belief that I am doing the right thing for god or it is a nationalist belief that I am doing this to protect my community and there are a lot of them that do it by the way saying that I know nothing will change but at least I get to strike back and be able to make a statement of objection of resistance to an unjust condition even though I know nothing will change. All these individuals with different motivations took this narrative of martyrdom and sort of they take in their desperate motivations and packaged it within the spare of martyrdom that I am dying in the path of God in defense of my religion in defense of my honor in defense of my land and in doing so I aim I am gonna get the rewards that god has promised the martyrs and in doing so ultimately Muslims will triumph or my community will triumph because no one can stop a person determined to fight even till his death. You often hear these individuals saying I love death more than you love life or as much as you love life and if I am willing to die for my cause are you willing to die for your cause? And that is the essential difference despite the fact that you have all the planes all the missiles all the technology while I have is faith while I have is this determination to fulfill my objective and that is something that you can never buy with all your weapons or with all your money and can never overcome with all your weapons so I think this is the narrative that they have used to justify their motivations but going inside their head it is really difficult to know what really is driving their attacks. This question refers to the large number sort of check on that but at least there was one or two. But the broader question is you know when you\rquote re looking at the aggregate data this appears to be a Muslim problem and I refer back to my earlier answers that this has to deal with contemporary issues it doesn\rquote t necessarily have to deal with Islam per se. People are looking for an ideology to justify it. Islam as a prevalent religion of the area so naturally you gonna rely on that to rationalize the strategy but again is this about people reading the Quran and then becoming suicide bombers? No! it is about people deciding I want to do something I want to do a suicide attack and then you open up the Quran to find the rationalization to do so. So somewhat crude but I think this is how that sequence works. We\rquote ve spent a thousand years on these questions and answers. Here we are up to the present day how do you explain the significant upsurge of violence in Iraq over the past few days in Baghdad, Basra and Liwa? Well, generally the trend has been a decline from the peak of the 2007 but then a plateau to about going back to the levels of late 2005 which were pretty high. You know, one cannot explain changes in the matter of a few days. You have to look at several months or you know over the period of years of this conflict has carried on. But generally I think in my book I talk about why suicide bombings tend to peak there.. you know you see a general range of attacks then every once in a while you see a spiking attack and then going back to the normal range and then a spike again so was intrigued by those spikes and I try to see under what\rquote s circumstances do they happen? And they happen generally under two circumstances. One, when there is a political progress. There is a new Iraqi election a new constitution; a new government there appears to be an initiative for new reconciliation between people. So the more you have those things that look like Iraq is turning a corner and there about to turn a new page and things are gonna be good the suicide bombers increase or suicide attacks increase to deliver the message that all these political theatrics are not gonna change a thing on the ground. The other development is when there is declarations of counter insurgency operations or actual counter insurgency operations so the US goes to Talafar it does the Baghdad camp plan and then there is a surge. By the way when you had declaration of the sergeant you had US troops going in you had suicide attacks being the highest in 2007 they reached about 300 attacks in 2007. so and again the message there is no matter how many soldiers you through at this no matter how much you try to defeat us with spectacular attacks killing a lot of people you are delivering the message that your tactics and strategies are not gonna work against this. So that\rquote s my answer I don\rquote t know about this latest period there is this issue between Shiets in the South Moktada Al Sadr fighting against the Badr Corps which have really taken over the interior ministry so that could explain the Basra thing. Well, I\rquote ll stop there. A question about religious schools. This question points out that there are religious schools in Pakistan as well as in the Arab part of the Middle East. What is the role of the madrases as a breeding ground for suicide bombers? We know about suicide bombers in generally and Islamist terrorism or suicide bombers in particular and Islamist terrorism in general is that this is not a phenomena that is related to madrasas. Most Islamists and radical Islamists come from technical faculties so this is an engineering problem not a madrasa problem. If you wanna deal with this problem you close all the faculties of engineering and physics and all that so these are individuals that often come from the secular social, or hard sciences if you will I haven\rquote t met many political scientists who wanna blow themselves up yet So but not really one connected to madrasa. Marc Sageman did in his book on Al Qaeda networks looked at the profiles of the core leaders of Al Qaeda and the people around them and he found that none of them came from madrasas. Well, just generally speaking this is not related to madrasas It is just a mythology that\rquote s all there. We have a question about money effect. Several questions about money. Who pays for the bombs? What is the role of money in encouraging bombers by subsidizing them and also by awarding money to their families when they die. Let me answer that in two ways generally speaking this is not a phenomena mainly dealing related to money. People don\rquote t blow themselves up because they are trying to make a buck whether for themselves obviously not for themselves but for their families or someone else. I think that\rquote s a general answer Having said that I think from conflict to conflict the role of money might vary a bit In the case of Iraq suicide bombers have to bring their own money because they have to pay smugglers in Syria to make it into Iraq. And there is a bit of a selection bias on the part of smugglers smugglers don\rquote t bring in people that need to be paid for they bring in people that already have money That\rquote s why we have a lot of Saudis. I think, that\rquote s one of the reasons that we have a lot of Saudis in Iraq. But anyway so to say that people in Iraq are blowing themselves up at least the foreign fighters part because of money I don\rquote t think there is any empirical evidence for that. Now since 2006 we are seeing more Iraqis becoming suicide bombers and increasingly we are seeing women do that And some people have suggested maybe this is an opportunity for women if you\rquote re widowed or you know if you\rquote re a person trying you know to feed your family this could be a way Al Qaeda might pay you to do that. I don\rquote t know I haven\rquote t really seen much evidence of that but that is a possibility In the case of the Palestinians also this is not a problem mainly of money but there have been Palestinians paid. Saddam Husain who used to cut out checks for $25000 to families but generally speaking in the Palestinian case if you become a suicide bomber your family suffers it doesn\rquote t benefit why because the Israelis want to blow up your house too your whole family is rounded up they\rquote re often interrogated in not the most you know, friendly conditions if you will so I don\rquote t really see this is a problem related to money. One final question Why do the suicide bombers sometimes target mosques? Well, if you\rquote re trying to kill a lot of people you wanna go to a place where a lot of people are congregating that\rquote s one and secondly in a mosque you know during, let\rquote s say Friday prayer a lot of people make it to the mosque you know few minutes before the ceremony begins and all that and it requires a lot of security checks. Actually they place a lot of security checks around mosques but I really think that the answer has to deal with attempting to kill a lot of people in the most… sort of more bank for your buck, if you trying to kill so many people you wanna go to a place where they are mostly gathered. Thank you Dr. Mohammed Hafez. Thank you.