Israel receives Hezbollah report on Ron Arad

Israel has received a report from Hezbollah on airman Ron Arad who went missing in Lebanon in 1986, under a deal for a prisoner swap expected to take place next week, Israeli media said on Saturday.

The cabinet has approved the deal under which it is to release five Lebanese prisoners, the remains of Hezbollah fighters and a number of Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

The media reports, which were not immediately confirmed by the government, said the Lebanese group Hezbollah said in its report that Arad had died but it had no specific information.
Officials had made it clear the deal would go ahead only after Israel received intelligence on the air force navigator missing since a mission over south Lebanon during the country's civil war.

According to news reports, Hezbollah told Israel through U.N.

negotiator Gerhard Konrad that Arad is dead.

Israel wanted the Shiite militia to explain how it reached that conclusion and why it could not locate Arad's remains.

The government is to decide on Tuesday whether to go ahead with the exchange without specific new information.

Goldwasser and Regev were captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid in July 2006 that sparked a devastating 34-day war in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his cabinet the two soldiers were dead.

Arab League to hold crisis talks on Sudan

The Arab League said Saturday it would hold an extraordinary meeting at Sudan's request after reports prosecutors of the International Criminal Court may seek the arrest of President Omar al-Bashir.

The 22-member body received "an official from the Sudanese government and examined the latest developments in the situation between Sudan and the ICC," Hisham Yussef, Secretary General Amr Mussa's chief of staff, told reporters.Earlier Sudanese ambassador to Egypt Abdel Moneim Mabruk told the official MENA news agency that his country had made a request to the league secretary general to hold crisis talks.
The call followed reports ICC prosecutors will seek Bashir's arrest as they open a case covering crimes committed in Darfur over the last five years.ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced on Thursday that he would unveil a new case on Darfur and name suspects next Monday.

U. S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Friday confirmed newspaper reports that ICC prosecutors would seek an arrest warrant for Bashir.

It would mark the first-ever bid by the ICC, based in The Hague, to charge a sitting head of state.

The Sudanese government reacted angrily to the news with the state minister for foreign affairs Al-Samani al-Wasila telling AFP that any decision about the president could "destroy the peace process." Sudan rejects the court's jurisdiction and refuses to surrender two war crimes suspects already named.

There were fears that the move could trigger a military response by Sudanese forces or their proxies against U.N. and African Union peacekeepers.

On Tuesday, seven UN peacekeepers were killed and 22 were wounded in an ambush of a UN convoy in Darfur that some blamed on state-backed militia.

Qatar frees Saudi coup plotter after 12 years

Qatar has freed the longest-serving Saudi prisoner who was sentenced to death for his role in an attempted coup against the Qatari emir in 1996, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.
Pardoned by the emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani after spending nearly 12 years in prison, Wabran Al Kulaib was released and returned home on Tuesday.His freedom followed an approach by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, the newspaper added.
Kulaib was the only Saudi among 19 people sentenced to death after an attempted coup the Qatari authorities said was foiled in February 1996. The sentence was later reduced to life in jail.
Kulaib, who worked as a passport officer at the Salwa crossing on the Saudi-Qatari border, was arrested in the Qatari capital Doha in 1997.
He was accused of facilitating the entry of Qatari nationals involved in the coup.He attracted public attention by staging a hunger strike in 2006 to protest his mistreatment in a Doha jail. Since then, the Saudi Human Rights Society has been involved in efforts to secure his release.
The pardon comes as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, whose relations had been frosty for years, rebuild normal diplomatic links with Riyadh's nomination earlier this year of an ambassador to Doha six years after it recalled its envoy.

Saudi king to launch inter-faith forum in Madrid

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, whose country is home to Islam's holiest shrines, will launch an inter-faith conference in Spain later this month, the palace has said in a royal statement on Saturday.
The Saudi monarch "will inaugurate the international dialogue conference which will be held under his auspices in Madrid on July 16-18," a statement carried by the official SPA news agency said.
The agency said the king had left for Morocco on a private visit ahead of the conference due to be attended by Christians, Jews and Muslims.
In March, King Abdullah proposed talks among the three largest monotheistic religions in a first for the kingdom, which hosts Islam's two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina.
Last month the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL) said the Madrid meeting would bring together representatives from the "followers of God's messages and other cultures."The conference will "discuss cooperation between communities from different religions and cultures over common human values," the MWL's secretary general Abdullah al-Turki said.
Leading Islamic scholars meeting in the holy city of Mecca in early June also proposed creating a center to promote relations between religions.
Last November King Abdullah met Pope Benedict XVI during the first official visit to the Vatican by a monarch from the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom.

Dozens killed in Syrian prison riot: rights group

At least 25 inmates were shot dead by Syrian security forces during a riot in a jail for political prisoners in the mountains outside Damascus on Saturday, according to a human rights group."Islamist prisoners started a riot inside the prison this morning," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received in Nicosia, quoting a political prisoner in the jail contacted by mobile phone."Shooting is continuing against the prisoners," the London-based group said, adding that a number of inmates had climbed the roof of the military prison in Saydnaya, north of Damascus, to escape the violence.
It said the number of dead was now 25.
The group said it had received phone calls from relatives of prisoners asking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to intervene to stop the clashes in Saydnaya, an ancient town with biblical connections.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian authorities.

Israel orders razing of Jerusalem 'terrorist' home

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday ordered the demolition of the houses of two Palestinians behind recent deadly attacks against Jews after the attorney-general said the move was legally viable.

Israel wants to destroy the homes of a Palestinian who killed three Israelis in a bulldozer rampage in Jerusalem on Wednesday and another who shot dead eight pupils at a seminary in the city in March. Both lived in the vicinity of Arab East Jerusalem. "Barak has ordered the army to start a process for obtaining demolition orders for the terrorists' houses," said a defense official, who declined to be named.

Menachem Mazuz, the attorney-general, gave his legal response following a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday that Israel should destroy the homes of "every terrorist from Jerusalem" after a Palestinian killed three Israelis in a bulldozer rampage. "The decision comes following the attorney-general's opinion, which said there was no legal obstacle to destroy the terrorists' houses," the defense official added.

Mazuz said in his opinion: "In light of repeated rulings over the years by the Supreme Court, it cannot be said that there is a legal objection ... to demolish houses in Jerusalem, but the move would create considerable legal difficulties."

Blue Israeli ID cards

Israeli authorities say Wednesday's attack and the fatal shootings of eight seminary students in March were carried out by Palestinians who held blue Israeli identity cards that give them wide freedom of movement.

Mazuz warned that apart from legal challenges in Israeli courts, a resumption of the practice of house demolitions could draw international condemnation. "The detailed inspection of the circumstances surrounding each case should be conducted by the Shin Bet and the army in coordination with the Justice Ministry," Mazuz said.

Olmert told an economic conference in the southern resort city of Eilat on Thursday that Israel should "be tougher in some of the means we use against perpetrators of terror.

If we have to destroy houses, then we must do so." Israel abandoned the demolitions of homes of Palestinians involved in attacks against its citizens after human rights groups challenged the practice in Israel's Supreme Court. Defense and legal officials met on Thursday to discuss the issue.

Some 20 people live in the home of the attacker who killed two women and a man in Wednesday's bulldozer rampage. They said they had no prior knowledge of his intentions.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally, after capturing the area in a 1967 war, and gave Palestinians there and in some adjacent villages the same blue identity cards issued to its citizens. Palestinians want parts of Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Ex-Abu Ghraib prisoners sue US firms for torture

Four Iraqis announced Monday in Istanbul they are suing two U.S. firms and their employees for allegedly torturing them at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad five years ago.
Their lawsuit is against private security contractor CACI International and two of its interrogators, Daniel Johnson and Tim Dugan, and the translation agency L-3 (formerly Titan Corp) and its interpreter, Abel Nakhla, lawyer William Gould told AFP.Their complaint was to be lodged Monday at courts in Maryland, Ohio and Washington
-- the U.S. states where the alleged torturers live
-- as well as Michigan, where L-3 recruited most of its interpreters, said Gould in Istanbul, where he met with his clients from Iraq.
He said the court cases would show that the accused were in Abu Ghraib and involved in a conspiracy that included the torture of the plaintiffs.
Abu Ghraib prison became infamous after the publication in 2004 of photographs showing Iraqi detainees being humiliated and abused by their U.S. guards.
The scandal led to the sentencing of 11 soldiers to up to 10 years in prison. This the second set of lawsuits against CACI and L-3. Another group of former Abu Ghraib prisoners filed complaints against the two firms last year in the states of Washington and California.
One of the current plaintiffs, Suhail Najim Abdullah Al-Shimari, 49, was taken from his Baghdad home in November 2003 and spent more than a year at Abu Ghraib, where he claims to have been subjected to electroshock and night-long cold showers in the winter.
Sa'adon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, 39, said he was repeatedly beaten at Abu Ghraib and tied to door handles.
Taxi driver Mohammed Abdwihed Towfek Al-Taee, 39, was taken to Abu Ghraib in 2003.
He has scars on his leg and head that he said came from beatings with an iron rod. "I wish I would be the last person to be detained and to be tortured," he said.
Abu Ghraib was closed in 2006.

Jordan charges Dutch MP over “Fitna”

A Jordanian prosecutor charged far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders on Tuesday with blasphemy and violation of publishing laws over his film judged anti-Islamic.

Jordan's publishing laws ban insults against Islam and religions.

The charges also include defamation and violation of online publishing laws, according to Tarek Hawamdeh, a lawyer for some 30 Jordanian media outlets which filed an official complaint earlier this month seeking court action against Wilders.
Wilders's 17-minute film "Fitna" ("discord" in Arabic), which links the Muslim holy book, the Quran, with terror attacks, has sparked uproar in Muslim countries. "Punishment could be up to three years in jail. Wilders has been summoned to appear before the court.

He will be given 15 days to comply, otherwise, an arrest warrant might be issued through the Interpol," Hawamdeh told AFP.

Dutch prosecutors said Monday that the Wilders's documentary, though offensive to Muslims, did not give rise to a punishable offence. "Several of the utterances are indeed offensive about Muslims but were made in the context of public debate," they said in a statement. "In public debate, statements can be shocking, sharp or offensive, but that does not make it punishable."The kingdom has condemned the film and some Jordanian MPs called for Amman to break diplomatic relations with The Hague

Don't take sides in Israeli-Palestinian conflict: poll

The first global public opinion poll about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict released Tuesday found that majorities in 14 out of 18 countries polled believe their government should not take sides in the decades-old Middle East conflict.
It also revealed that most people support a greater role for the United Nations, from guaranteeing security of the countries involved to sending peacekeepers to enforce an eventual peace agreement.According to the poll – which was conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org and covered 18,792 people in 18 countries and the Palestinian Territories – 58 percent of respondents said they did not believe their country should take a side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Twenty percent said their country should support the Palestinians, while only seven percent supported the Israelis. Egypt, Iran and Turkey were the only countries favoring the Palestinians.

American view

Even Americans overwhelmingly said their government should not take sides.
In a finding that goes against the common assumption that Americans overwhelmingly support Israel, seven out of ten Americans said they thought their country should not take sides in the conflict. Of the rest, 21 percent said it should take Israel's side compared to only 3 percent who supported taking the Palestinians side. “Israel is liked a lot more and if you force them (Americans) to choose, Israel gets more sympathy,” Steven Kull, director of WorldOpinion.org, told AlArabiya.net in an interview. “You ask them which side they blame more, and more blame Israel than the Palestinians, but if you look more closely there are huge numbers that refuse to answer or say they don’t know.” Americans, said Mr. Kull, are unequivocal that U.S. policy needs to be even handed in dealing with the situation. “There is a discrepancy in this sense between the public and government foreign policy,” he added.At 86 percent, Egypt was the only country to overwhelmingly support taking the Palestinian side and to say that Palestinians are doing their part to resolve the conflict.
A similarly large percentage said neither Israel (88%) nor the U.S. (86%) is doing their part well.

Country assessments
Israel received the worst ratings about whether it is playing a positive role in the conflict, with majorities in thirteen out of fifteen countries asked this question saying that the Israelis are “not doing very well” or “not doing well at all.” Arab countries and the United States did not fare much better.
Fifty-nine percent of those polled view America’s role in the conflict negatively, as do 46 percent of Americans themselves.
A majority, 54 percent, of those polled also said that Israel is not playing a positive role while 47 percent say the same for the Palestinians. The United Nations Security Council, however, fared far better in terms of people’s perceptions about the role it should and could play. Respondents said they believed the United Nations should play a greater role in the conflict, especially if an agreement is eventually reached. All but one of the 17 countries asked had majorities or pluralities that supported sending U.N. peacekeepers were an agreement reached, with an average of 67 percent favoring and 20 percent opposing such an idea.
The predominantly Muslim countries of Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and the Palestinian territories in particular supported U.N. involvement, from protecting Arab countries in case of an Israeli attack to sending peacekeepers.

UK adds Hezbollah's military wing to terrorist list

Britain on Wednesday moved to ban the entire military wing of Hezbollah, adding it to its list of designated terrorist groups.

Toughening its stance on the Shiite Lebanese movement, the Home Office (interior ministry) move makes it a criminal offence to belong to, raise funds and encourage support for the group's military wing.

The ministry said it took the action because Hezbollah's military branch was supporting militants in Iraq and Palestinian terror groups.

London has already banned Hezbollah's External Security Organization (ESO), which it considers the organization's "terrorist wing".Home Secretary Jacqui Smith laid the order in parliament, which, if approved, would substitute the existing proscription against the ESO."Hezbollah's military wing is providing active support to militants in Iraq who are responsible for attacks both on coalition forces and on Iraqi civilians, including providing training in the use of deadly roadside bombs," junior Home Office minister Tony McNulty said."Hezbollah's military wing also provides support to Palestinian terrorist groups in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad."It is because of this support for terrorism in Iraq and Occupied Palestinian Territories that the government has taken this action."Proscription of Hezbollah's military wing will not affect the legitimate political, social and humanitarian role Hezbollah plays in Lebanon, but it sends out a clear message that we condemn Hezbollah's violence and support for terrorism," he said.The home secretary can proscribe any organisation she believes is "concerned in terrorism", which means committing, participating, preparing for, promoting, encouraging or otherwise being concerned in terrorism in Britain or abroad.Groups can also be banned for glorifying terrorism.Proscription also makes it a criminal offence to wear clothing or carry articles in public "which arouse reasonable suspicion that a person is a member or supporter".More than 40 groups are classed as international terrorist organisations

-- including the ESO

-- and proscribed under Britain's Terrorism Act 2000.Two are proscribed for glorifying terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2006.

Fourteen organisations in Northern Ireland, among them the Irish Republican Army (IRA), are proscribed under previous legislation.Hezbollah is on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organisations and as such Washington has no dealings with the group.

The movement is taking part in Lebanon's new government of national unity.Hezbollah, which claimed to have forced Israel's pullout from south Lebanon in May 2000 after two decades of occupation, sees itself as the legitimate "resistance" to the Jewish state

Jerusalem bulldozer attack injures dozens

A bulldozer slammed into a commuter bus, other vehicles and pedestrians in Jerusalem on Wednesday, causing dozens of injuries in an apparent deliberate attack, police said.

Israel's Channel Two television said at least one person was killed and some 30 were wounded.

"A suspect driving a tractor ran over a number of vehicles and Israelis in the street, on Jaffa Road. Israeli police arrived at the scene. Many people were injured," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, where a single-decker commuter bus, its side slashed by the tractor, stood on its side in one of Jewish West Jerusalem's main streets.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said there were dozens of casualties.

At least three other vehicles appeared to sustain damage, including a van whose entire front section was crushed.

A radio reporter at the scene said after the tractor hit the vehicles, a man climbed onto its cab and shot at its driver several times. "I saw the tractor's shovel turn to the bus and deliberately hit it.

It hit other vehicles as well," another Israel Radio reporter said. The driver's condition was not immediately known

today the 26th of june .. the UN world day for support of torture victims

Israeli soldiers recount torturing Palestinians

One posed for a photo as she scrubbed a Palestinian corpse. Another stripped a man to his underwear and then beat him. A third helped cover up the abuse of a young boy.

The six Israeli women who feature in the documentary "To See If I'm Smiling" each wrestle with memories of their compulsory military service that they would rather erase. "To See If I'm Smiling", set to air this weekend, is expected to draw ire in the Jewish state for directing criticism at the military over the torture of Palestinians under occupation.
But after years of trying to bury the past, these women decided to speak out in a film that explores the dark side of Israel's 40-year-old occupation of the Palestinian territories."It's easy to finish your military service and push it to the back of your mind," said director Tamar Yarom. "But these girls are telling their personal stories -- which are not always very nice -- to show people what is going on."All but one of the women spent time as conscript soldiers in the Palestinian territories during the uprising that erupted in 2000.

In the film, they recount their memories from that period, describing how they coped with military machismo and with the residual guilt about what they witnessed.One girl who had wanted to save lives as a paramedic said she ended up scrubbing corpses to hide signs of abuse by Israeli soldiers.

Visibly distressed, she looks for the first time in years at a photo of her and a dead Palestinian man. "How in hell did I think I'd ever be able to forget?" she says, brushing away tears.
"Warped situation"
Yarom hopes the documentary will prompt soul-searching in the Jewish state, where military service is a core part of national identity, and encourage other traumatized ex-soldiers to talk about violence they may have inflicted or witnessed."This country (Israel) is in a coma.

With all the bombs and attacks, we are numb," Yarom said."People feel we are in a war of survival and it's better not to criticize soldiers, because they are the ones protecting us," she said.Israel's army said in a statement that soldiers adhere to a strict ethical code and that in exceptional cases, where the code is violated, an investigation is launched.

It said the number of ethical violations involving Palestinians had "consistently dropped" since the events described in the film.Yarom expects the film to provoke criticism both from the Israeli left -- because of her sympathetic portrayal of the soldiers -- and from the right -- which often balks at criticizing the army.Yarom said personal experience prompted her to make the film. As a support soldier during the earlier uprising of the 1980s, she was shown a Palestinian torture victim but failed to speak out.

Almost two decades later, she still cannot shake the image of the man, slumped over a generator, his neck bent to the side and his face covered in blood."It's the kind of picture that stays with you forever," she said. "During my service I detached myself. When you try to re-attach yourself afterwards it's painful."Although female soldiers are kept out of the front line, Israel is one of the only countries to enforce military service for women. Yarom aims to highlight the fragility of some girl soldiers -- many still in their teens when they start their two year army stint -- and the violence into which they are thrust. "You expect women to be more sensitive to suffering and more empathetic to the other side.

But the strength of the film is how it shows what happens to human beings in such a warped situation, and how women are not immune," Yarom said

Bahrain bans websites for stirring sectarian strife

Bahrain has blocked three websites it said were implicated in fuelling sectarian strife, said the official state news agency of the Gulf kingdom, which has a majority Shiite population and is ruled by Sunni Muslims. The move comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa set up a committee this week to monitor sectarianism and comments disparaging the royal family in the media, religious sermons or on the Internet. "The Ministry of Information has issued a decision to shut down three Internet sites found implicated in stoking sectarian strife in Bahrain, which is in breach of the press and publication law," the Bahrain News Agency report said.
A local newspaper said the blocked sites included one close to the main Shiite opposition group, al-Wefaq.
The websites were accessible for web surfers outside Bahrain on Tuesday. "We are with the idea of fighting sectarianism and support national unity, but we are worried the committee will stop any opposition views," Wefaq spokesman Faheem Abdulla told Reuters. "We are calling for clear definitions of sectarianism ... if there is balanced opposition, it should not be blocked, whether Sunni or Shiite," he said.
Last week, thousands of Shiites protested in Bahrain against a Sunni politician's comments they said insulted a Shiite cleric revered in the U.S.-allied island of about 1.05 million people. Shiites have long complained of alleged discrimination in jobs and services, a charge the government denies. In 2006, Bahrain appointed a Shiite as a deputy prime minister for the first time since its independence in 1971. The country, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, witnessed anti-government riots and protests in the early 1990s which the authorities said were led by Shiite opposition groups.

Aziz lawyer offers to support London mayor

The lawyer for Tareq Aziz on Wednesday offered to support London Mayor Boris Johnson who is being probed for possession of a cigar case belonging to Iraq's former deputy prime minister. "I am ready to contact Johnson, stand by him and provide all necessary support in this ridiculous investigation," Badie Izzat Aref told AFP from the Jordanian capital Amman."Johnson did not steal or commit any crime, he simply took a souvenir.

He has always respected Tareq Aziz, who wishes Johnson had taken other valuable things, like his notebooks, which have been seized by the invaders."
The 43-year-old former journalist has admitted to having found the red leather cigar case among the debris of Aziz's home in Baghdad while visiting Iraq as a reporter after the U.S. -led invasion of 2003.

He wrote about it at the time and kept it as a trophy of his trip. Johnson, who took office last month, said on Tuesday he even has a letter from Aziz's lawyers stating that fallen dictator Saddam Hussein's senior aide wanted the mayor to keep the cigar case as a gift. Aref had no knowledge of any such communication, "but I am ready to send him the letter," he said. The London mayor has jokingly said it was "incredible" that he was being investigated while leaders like U.S. President George W. Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair were not being pursued.

Aref agreed. "Blair is the one who should be investigated and put on trial for his role in invading Iraq and for killing thousands of innocent people," the lawyer argued.Aziz, 72, who like Saddam had an affinity for Cuban cigars, and seven others are on trial in Baghdad over the execution of 42 merchants accused of racketeering while Iraq was under U.N. sanctions. He turned himself in to U.S. forces in April 2003 after they overthrew Saddam.

Brad and Angelina donate $1 mln to Iraqi kids

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated one million dollars to support the education of 8,000 children in Iraq and the United States affected by the war, a charity said Wednesday.

The iconic Hollywood couple made the donation to the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict via their charity, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

A statement from the Education Partnership said the money would be split evenly between U.S. and Iraq non-profit groups.
Money will pay for basic necessities, including books and supplies to help send Iraqi children to school.

Aid will also go to refugee kids, and to school rehabilitation programs. The foundation will also help children in the United States who have a military parent killed in Iraq, or who are separated from a parent stationed in the country.

"These educational support programs for children of conflict are the best way to help them heal," Jolie, who has visited Iraq twice in the past year, said in a statement.Pitt added: "We hope to encourage others to give to these great organizations."Pitt, 44, and Jolie, 33, have donated millions of dollars to charity over the years. Jolie has long been an advocate for refugees and is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

20 june is a world refugees day

Israel's Peres and Amr Moussa in verbal dispute

Arab League chief Amr Moussa and Israeli President Shimon Peres exchanged harsh words on Wednesday about the stalled Middle East peace process, a witness to the row said.

The dispute erupted at a working lunch during a conference of Nobel laureates at Jordan's World Heritage Site of Petra, said the witness who was attending the luncheon.

Peres said in a speech that Arabs "should follow the path of peace like the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and (late) King Hussein" of Jordan, who both signed peace treaties with Israel, sparking Moussa's ire, the source added.
Moussa interrupted Peres and told him: "You are a maestro in talking, but don't take us for granted because we are not fools," according to the source."You talk about peace, but we did not hear Israel's opinion about the Arab peace initiative," Moussa reportedly added.

Moussa was referring to the 2002 plan by which the Arabs offered to fully normalize relations with Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

In a tit-for-tat reply Peres said: "We have withdrawn our army from Gaza and removed our settlements there, but Hamas continues to fire rockets. Stop the rockets and we will give you something fair."But Moussa rebuked him saying: "Stop building settlements.

You keep constructing settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes.

What peace are you talking about?

"Moussa then stormed out of the room only to return after being persuaded by Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir, the source added.Continued Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem is seen as a major hurdle to peace efforts.Twenty-nine Nobel laureates are meeting in Petra for talks focusing on the global food crisis and other development issues.

Iraq launches new crackdown on Shiite fighters

Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops launched a new operation against Shiite fighters in the south of the country early on Thursday after the expiry of a four-day deadline to surrender arms."The operation started overnight.
The situation is normal and there has been no trouble," said Colonel Mehdi al-Asadi, police spokesman in Maysan province where the crackdown against the militiamen has been launched.
Asadi said the details of the operation would be announced at a press conference soon.Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had given a four-day deadline to Shiite militiamen in Maysan and in its capital Amara to lay down their arms which expired on Wednesday.
Dozens of Shiite militiamen surrendered to Iraqi forces hours before the deadline and police also recovered hundreds of landmines.U.S. commanders say Maysan has become a major centre for arms smuggling into Iraq from overwhelmingly Shiite Iran just over the border.
The current operation follows a similar crackdown launched by Maliki against Shiite militia in the main southern city and oil hub of Basra in March.That crackdown set off intense fighting between troops and militiamen, mostly from radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, in Shiite areas across Iraq in which hundreds of people were killed before a May 10 ceasefire.

Refugees are the essence

Some have an almost religious faith that Israel will one day cease to exist. Others maintain that Israel will end if the Arabs optimise their conviction that it is an alien entity in the region, incapable of reaching a just peace because it seeks to dominate rather than to assimilate. Odder yet is the belief that peace is the key to Israel's inevitable destruction. Unless Israel can be delivered a major defeat just once, proponents of this belief hold, normalisation is the most powerful weapon against it, because it would then be torn apart by its internal contradictions.
There is no proof of the potential efficacy of either the major defeat concept or the normalisation weapon, even if Ben-Gurion had raised the spectre of the latter.
Unfortunately, the reiteration of such unsubstantiated claims becomes a form of opiate for the people, a mystical alternative to the summoning of collective will, the formulation of a strategy for resistance, and the proactive exploitation of Israel's internal contradictions.
Plurality within the framework of Zionist unity has never been a sign of a weakness that, if left to its own dynamics, would lead to Israel's collapse.
To the contrary, it is a sign of strength. It is indicative of the ability of that plurality to organise itself, in accordance with the rules of a democratic process and on the basis of certain principles of a national consensus.
Moreover, to add insult to injury, those people who appeared in this region from all corners of the earth did not come from a single nationality or even, necessarily, from a democratic culture in the countries they hailed from.
Yet they succeeded in creating a national bond, or call it what you will, that could serve as a basis for the rules of a communal democratic game for Jews without their polity breaking down along tribal, sectarian or cultural divides.
Meanwhile, 60 years after the Nakba, the Arab peoples, who speak a single language and who had formulated an Arab national project long before the birth of colonialist Zionism, are still reluctant to respect the rules of a democratic game for fear that that will lead to dissolution into hostile parties, tribes and sects.
The memory of the Nakba will not help create democratic institutionalised systems of government in the Arab world or realise Arab unity. Such tasks require the unification of diverse interests or the domination of an overriding interest, and the creation of identity-shaping institutions, value systems and books, all of which reproduce it in shape and form.
Nor are they part of confronting the Nakba. Rather they are a part of confronting dictatorship, the absence of the rule of law, the personification of political life, oppression and corruption with an alternative political project founded upon national agendas and capable of transcending protest to offer realistic options.
None of this will happen until it becomes an aim in its own right. However, the memory of the Nakba is important. Indeed, it is as vital to this nation as air and water. There can be no national identity without collective national memory. I stress the memory of the Nakba . If the actual Nakba had not occurred, the Arabs may have been better off and they may have even realised a form of unification like other peoples. However, the Nakba, like the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the June 1967 war, is also a stage in the formation of collective Arab memory, as distinct from other national collective memories, and it remains the most significant stage in the formation of modern Palestinian identity with all its positive and negative traits.
The memory of the Nakba has a political dimension that is rarely discussed, especially now that the current "peace process" has transformed the Palestinian cause into the cause of the territories occupied in 1967, even though that political dimension should be the most important facet of the process. Even under the logic of the negotiating process and its stylised rhetoric that is divorced from reality and captive to wishful thinking, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, even a fully sovereign one, can not be regarded as a compromise solution unless it is recognised that the Palestinian tragedy began not in 1967 but in 1948. Even a bi-national state is a compromise solution from this perspective since it recognises a priori that the country was Arab in its entirety before being subjected to a protracted armed robbery in full view of the 20th century.
To date the "problem" to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 is to refute the Palestinian cause. To acknowledge the Nakba is to acknowledge the historic injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people in 1948, which, in turn, is a prerequisite to the search for relatively just redress for this people. Justice (relative to the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people in 1948) is not a negotiable principle. If negotiations were based on this principle it would be merely a matter for negotiations to work out how to translate it on the ground. In the absence of a common principle, on the other hand, negotiations must inevitably fall prey to the balances of power, which as they stand would impose an Israeli solution. This is how Israel perceives the negotiating process and has always perceived it and this is why Israel will only accept a negotiating partner that accepts an Israeli solution. The memory of the Nakba is vital because its most salient consequence is the refugee question, which is still alive and waiting for a solution today.
Certain parties here and there are keen to drop this matter from the international, Arab and national agenda, even though it started out as an international question with respect to which the Palestinians obtained international resolutions in their favour even before the international community recognised them as a people with the right to self- determination (if the partition resolution effectively recognised this right it is also the resolution that effectively justified the theft of half of Palestinian land).Palestinian refugeedom is not a state of mind to be indulged when the spirit takes one, as some poets and novelists seem to imagine.
It is a permanent state characterised by the loss of home, citizenship, fundamental rights and hope. It is a state of obliviousness and oblivion for some Palestinian elites who have abandoned hope of victory and given themselves over to solving their own problems through politics.
In the meantime, the Palestinian refugee camp, especially in Lebanon, has become a place of accumulating misery and wretchedness in the absence of any attainable hope for return, which had justified the permanence of the camp, and in the absence of the option of resistance from the outside, which had once transformed the camp into a school of national liberation struggle. What is the sinificance of the Palestinian refugee camp in an Arab country without the option of resistance from the outside and without the hope for return in the near future?The Palestinian national liberation struggle began as a refugee movement, waging armed struggle from the outside.
The camp was the centre of that movement. Were it not for armed struggle it would not have been possible to sustain it. The camp was by definition a temporary condition until the realisation of the right of return -- a base, school and community for the resistance. Once these reasons for its existence ceased it became nothing but a ghetto of poverty and misery.
These are the conditions that produce Shaker Al-Abbasi and others, and that produce crime and political apathy.
They might also engender local community gentrification drives, as occurred in the Yarmouk camp, or they might simply drive people out, as occurred in many camps in Lebanon. If the refugee camp is to be salvaged from its wretchedness and preserved for the purpose for which it was meant to serve there must be a national project for resistance for which the camp serves as a centre. Has any thought been given to this of late? I suspect not. Certainly indifference to the fate of the inhabitants of Al-Barid River and of the refugees of Iraq, and the neglect of their fate on the part of the current official Palestinian leadership in particular, form a painful episode that compels us to contemplate such questions.
In some Arab countries, the memory of the Nakba was used to justify the inhumane treatment of Palestinian refugees. That way they would remember they were refugees, or so the official thinking went. Sadly, such treatment was not so much a reminder of the Nakba as an extension of it. Indeed, it was part and parcel of the Nakba. The Palestinians have not appealed for citizenship in this Arab country or that. More importantly, they were hardly in need of additional persecution and maltreatment to remind them of their original towns and villages and the homes they were forced to flee, the keys to which are still passed from generation to generation as they fluctuate between hope and despair.Meanwhile, the shift of the centre of gravity of the Palestinian national movement from the outside to the inside
-- and from the 1948 to the 1967 reference point
-- failed to produce a unified Palestinian strategy for resistance. In fact, it appears to have led to a vertical rift, the most dangerous aspect of which is not plurality within the framework of a liberation movement but fundamental division over the very strategy of the movement. No liberation movement can sustain this, which is a division over both aims and means, and not just a power struggle, as ugly as that is already.Undoubtedly, the neutralisation of the roots
-- the Nakba and the cause of seeking refuge
-- and the neutralisation of the role of the refugees themselves as communities were instrumental in creating that polarisation inside a non-sovereign Palestinian Authority governing entity. On anniversary of the Nakba we must not only recall the rights of Palestinian refugees. We must also remember to ask ourselves what role the Palestinian Diaspora and refugees should play in the framework current Palestinian policy

Refugees are the essence

Some have an almost religious faith that Israel will one day cease to exist. Others maintain that Israel will end if the Arabs optimise their conviction that it is an alien entity in the region, incapable of reaching a just peace because it seeks to dominate rather than to assimilate. Odder yet is the belief that peace is the key to Israel's inevitable destruction. Unless Israel can be delivered a major defeat just once, proponents of this belief hold, normalisation is the most powerful weapon against it, because it would then be torn apart by its internal contradictions.
There is no proof of the potential efficacy of either the major defeat concept or the normalisation weapon, even if Ben-Gurion had raised the spectre of the latter.
Unfortunately, the reiteration of such unsubstantiated claims becomes a form of opiate for the people, a mystical alternative to the summoning of collective will, the formulation of a strategy for resistance, and the proactive exploitation of Israel's internal contradictions.
Plurality within the framework of Zionist unity has never been a sign of a weakness that, if left to its own dynamics, would lead to Israel's collapse.
To the contrary, it is a sign of strength. It is indicative of the ability of that plurality to organise itself, in accordance with the rules of a democratic process and on the basis of certain principles of a national consensus.
Moreover, to add insult to injury, those people who appeared in this region from all corners of the earth did not come from a single nationality or even, necessarily, from a democratic culture in the countries they hailed from.
Yet they succeeded in creating a national bond, or call it what you will, that could serve as a basis for the rules of a communal democratic game for Jews without their polity breaking down along tribal, sectarian or cultural divides.
Meanwhile, 60 years after the Nakba, the Arab peoples, who speak a single language and who had formulated an Arab national project long before the birth of colonialist Zionism, are still reluctant to respect the rules of a democratic game for fear that that will lead to dissolution into hostile parties, tribes and sects.
The memory of the Nakba will not help create democratic institutionalised systems of government in the Arab world or realise Arab unity. Such tasks require the unification of diverse interests or the domination of an overriding interest, and the creation of identity-shaping institutions, value systems and books, all of which reproduce it in shape and form.
Nor are they part of confronting the Nakba. Rather they are a part of confronting dictatorship, the absence of the rule of law, the personification of political life, oppression and corruption with an alternative political project founded upon national agendas and capable of transcending protest to offer realistic options.
None of this will happen until it becomes an aim in its own right. However, the memory of the Nakba is important. Indeed, it is as vital to this nation as air and water. There can be no national identity without collective national memory. I stress the memory of the Nakba . If the actual Nakba had not occurred, the Arabs may have been better off and they may have even realised a form of unification like other peoples. However, the Nakba, like the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the June 1967 war, is also a stage in the formation of collective Arab memory, as distinct from other national collective memories, and it remains the most significant stage in the formation of modern Palestinian identity with all its positive and negative traits.
The memory of the Nakba has a political dimension that is rarely discussed, especially now that the current "peace process" has transformed the Palestinian cause into the cause of the territories occupied in 1967, even though that political dimension should be the most important facet of the process. Even under the logic of the negotiating process and its stylised rhetoric that is divorced from reality and captive to wishful thinking, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, even a fully sovereign one, can not be regarded as a compromise solution unless it is recognised that the Palestinian tragedy began not in 1967 but in 1948. Even a bi-national state is a compromise solution from this perspective since it recognises a priori that the country was Arab in its entirety before being subjected to a protracted armed robbery in full view of the 20th century.
To date the "problem" to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 is to refute the Palestinian cause. To acknowledge the Nakba is to acknowledge the historic injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people in 1948, which, in turn, is a prerequisite to the search for relatively just redress for this people. Justice (relative to the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people in 1948) is not a negotiable principle. If negotiations were based on this principle it would be merely a matter for negotiations to work out how to translate it on the ground. In the absence of a common principle, on the other hand, negotiations must inevitably fall prey to the balances of power, which as they stand would impose an Israeli solution. This is how Israel perceives the negotiating process and has always perceived it and this is why Israel will only accept a negotiating partner that accepts an Israeli solution. The memory of the Nakba is vital because its most salient consequence is the refugee question, which is still alive and waiting for a solution today.
Certain parties here and there are keen to drop this matter from the international, Arab and national agenda, even though it started out as an international question with respect to which the Palestinians obtained international resolutions in their favour even before the international community recognised them as a people with the right to self- determination (if the partition resolution effectively recognised this right it is also the resolution that effectively justified the theft of half of Palestinian land).Palestinian refugeedom is not a state of mind to be indulged when the spirit takes one, as some poets and novelists seem to imagine.
It is a permanent state characterised by the loss of home, citizenship, fundamental rights and hope. It is a state of obliviousness and oblivion for some Palestinian elites who have abandoned hope of victory and given themselves over to solving their own problems through politics.
In the meantime, the Palestinian refugee camp, especially in Lebanon, has become a place of accumulating misery and wretchedness in the absence of any attainable hope for return, which had justified the permanence of the camp, and in the absence of the option of resistance from the outside, which had once transformed the camp into a school of national liberation struggle. What is the sinificance of the Palestinian refugee camp in an Arab country without the option of resistance from the outside and without the hope for return in the near future?The Palestinian national liberation struggle began as a refugee movement, waging armed struggle from the outside.
The camp was the centre of that movement. Were it not for armed struggle it would not have been possible to sustain it. The camp was by definition a temporary condition until the realisation of the right of return -- a base, school and community for the resistance. Once these reasons for its existence ceased it became nothing but a ghetto of poverty and misery.
These are the conditions that produce Shaker Al-Abbasi and others, and that produce crime and political apathy.
They might also engender local community gentrification drives, as occurred in the Yarmouk camp, or they might simply drive people out, as occurred in many camps in Lebanon. If the refugee camp is to be salvaged from its wretchedness and preserved for the purpose for which it was meant to serve there must be a national project for resistance for which the camp serves as a centre. Has any thought been given to this of late? I suspect not. Certainly indifference to the fate of the inhabitants of Al-Barid River and of the refugees of Iraq, and the neglect of their fate on the part of the current official Palestinian leadership in particular, form a painful episode that compels us to contemplate such questions.
In some Arab countries, the memory of the Nakba was used to justify the inhumane treatment of Palestinian refugees. That way they would remember they were refugees, or so the official thinking went. Sadly, such treatment was not so much a reminder of the Nakba as an extension of it. Indeed, it was part and parcel of the Nakba. The Palestinians have not appealed for citizenship in this Arab country or that. More importantly, they were hardly in need of additional persecution and maltreatment to remind them of their original towns and villages and the homes they were forced to flee, the keys to which are still passed from generation to generation as they fluctuate between hope and despair.Meanwhile, the shift of the centre of gravity of the Palestinian national movement from the outside to the inside
-- and from the 1948 to the 1967 reference point
-- failed to produce a unified Palestinian strategy for resistance. In fact, it appears to have led to a vertical rift, the most dangerous aspect of which is not plurality within the framework of a liberation movement but fundamental division over the very strategy of the movement. No liberation movement can sustain this, which is a division over both aims and means, and not just a power struggle, as ugly as that is already.Undoubtedly, the neutralisation of the roots
-- the Nakba and the cause of seeking refuge
-- and the neutralisation of the role of the refugees themselves as communities were instrumental in creating that polarisation inside a non-sovereign Palestinian Authority governing entity. On anniversary of the Nakba we must not only recall the rights of Palestinian refugees. We must also remember to ask ourselves what role the Palestinian Diaspora and refugees should play in the framework current Palestinian policy

Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. António Guterres, on the occasion of World Refugee Day, 20 June

Every year, millions of people around the world are on the move in search of a better life. Some leave home looking for work or higher paying jobs. Others are pursuing educational opportunities or just want a change of climate. Yet for many, leaving homes and their homelands is not a choice.
Refugees are the people who take to the road against their will. Chased out of their villages and towns and separated from their families by conflict or persecution, refugees move only in search of safety.
Today, World Refugee Day, is the occasion to remember those tens of millions of refugees and others who have been forcibly displaced, and to recall what makes them different. In an age of increasing globalization, when more and more people are on the move, refugees are not unique because they are away from home. What sets them apart is that they cannot return there.
A shrinking world and growing global labour market, signs of our economic interdependence, have been a boon for many. But they have also fed anxieties. And when stoked by populist rhetoric, concern about rising migration and national cohesion can easily become intolerance and exclusion. The result, too often, is a rejection of anyone who is different, whether they are looking for opportunity or pleading for protection.
In such an environment, immigration policies and borders are tightened to the point that many times they keep even those in desperate need of refuge and protection. That is both unfortunate and unnecessary. Although not easy, it is still possible to identify the refugees among the mixed migratory movements.
In recent years, with the end of a number of long-running conflicts, the number of refugees worldwide as well as the number of people asking for asylum has declined to its lowest levels in decades. This is welcome news. It should help us to de-politicize the issue of refugee protection and to combat intolerance.
But while refugees may be the most visible among the forcibly displaced, they are not the only victims. At the same time that global refugee numbers have fallen, many more people fleeing conflict are living in refugee-like conditions within their own countries, not wanting or unable to go into exile. They also deserve international protection, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has expanded its aid to them.
World Refugee Day is the occasion to call attention to the millions of refugees and other displaced around the world and to their urgent needs, from water and shelter to protection and tolerance. Please join us in this effort. Whether in remote camps or in nearby neighbourhoods, there are always ways with which we can help them. It begins by remembering that they did not leave home by choice.

Thank you.

Egypt population "major challenge": Mubarak

Egypt's population could more than double to 160 million by 2050, hindering social and economic development unless something is done about the "urgent" problem, President Hosni Mubarak warned on Monday.

Mubarak, who has in the past blamed population growth for draining state resources amid rising discontent at rocketing food prices, said that rampant reproduction was a "major challenge" and "fundamental obstacle" to development.If nothing is done, Egypt's population of 78 million will almost double to 160 million by 2050, Mubarak said at the opening of a population conference.

But if measures are taken to slow population growth, the population will reach 100 million in 2025 and 120 million by 2050, he quoted experts as saying.

Population growth is "a major challenge for this generation and the generations to come," Mubarak said on Egyptian state television, and a "key obstacle to our efforts for development and improving the standard of living.

"A baby is born in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, on average every 23 seconds. The population has more than doubled in 30 years and today around a third of Egyptians are under 15.

Despite having an official growth rate of seven percent, Egypt suffers from rampant unemployment and 40 percent of the population lives on or around the poverty line of two dollars a day.Rising inflation means that the cost of living for the average household has risen by 50 percent in 2008, according to the U.N.'s World Food Program.

Sporadic protests have taken place in recent months against the high cost of living and reductions in subsidies on such staples as bread.

Mubarak mentioned improving the status of women and reducing illiteracy as key to reducing the population growth rate.

As in previous speeches, he stopped short of calling for birth control measures in the highly religious nation, largely Muslim but with a significant Coptic Christian minority.

Mubarak has in the past called on religious leaders and government ministries to "educate people about the problem."

Iraqi wins Miss Headscarf contest in Denmark

Iraqi-born Huda Falah was on Tuesday named Miss Headscarf 2008, beating 46 contesters in the competition organized by Danish public broadcaster DR.Falah, 18, won the competition that was open to anyone aged 15 or older.

"The woman is like a diamond and you don't show it to everyone," Falah said in an interview with the broadcaster, adding she entered the competition in order to help bridge the divide between Muslim and Danish youth.The broadcaster's 15-19 online community DR Skum announced the competition in May, but underlined it was a fashion contest, not a beauty contest and open to anyone - regardless of religion.Skum then said they believed the project would display the 'cool Muslim women' who 'often make up a very fashion-conscious and style-confident part of the Danish street scene'.
"The royal blue headscarf makes a sharp contrast to her dark brown skin," said one of the two fashion judges, Muslim fashion commentator Helen Latif.Co-judge and fashion expert Uffe Burchardt said Falah's headscarf had "a fantastic and stunning colour that really shows attitude and impact.

"Falah, currently studying to become a social or health worker, said she had worn a headscarf since she was aged nine after seeing her mother and cousins wear them.Muslim headscarves or hejab have recently been the focus of a heated debate in Denmark amid a proposal that judges should be banned from wearing hejab or other religious symbols like a crucifix, turban or skullcap in courtrooms.Muslim organizations said they feared the proposed move will likely be extended to other groups like nurses, doctors and police officers.

Egypt's parliament outlaws female circumcision

Egypt's parliament outlawed female circumcision except in cases of "medical necessity" on Saturday, a condition which could undermine the ban, parliamentary sources said.
The new legislation is part of a bill on children's rights which has been the subject of fierce parliamentary debate for several weeks.
The parliamentary sources added that female genital mutilation, dates back to Pharaonic times in Egypt, and will now be punishable by a jail term of between three months and two years or a fine of 1,000-5,000 Egyptian pounds (190-940 dollars).
Circumcision involves the partial or complete removal of the woman's external genitals and has remained widespread in Egypt despite the efforts by political and religious authorities to stop the practice.
The health ministry tried in 1997 to ban the tradition, which affects both Muslim and Christian women in Egypt, and introduced curbs which allowed only doctors to carry out the operation and solely in "exceptional circumstances."The restrictions were further strengthened in June 2007 when Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali issued a decree
-- rather than law
-- banning all doctors and members of the medical profession from performing the procedure.The new law, which takes immediate effect, toughens penalties for anyone who is convicted of flouting the ban.Those who supported the practice argued it was appropriate when female genitals protruded too much, adding that it was needed to preserve the woman's virtue."Nothing in Islam forbids circumcision," said Saad al-Katatni, president of Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.Female circumcision can cause death through hemorrhaging and later complications during childbirth. It also carries risks of infection, urinary tract problems and mental trauma.

Tunisian police fire on protesters, one dead

Tunisia's government regretted on Saturday the death of a man killed by security forces during protests over unemployment and high inflation but insisted the government had to prevent violent protests.
Hafnawi al-Maghazoui, 22, was killed by a bullet in the lung when police opened fire, while 22 other protesters were wounded; union leader Adnen Hajji told Reuters.
Social unrest has rumbled on in Redeyef and the wider phosphate mining region of Gafsa for two months.
Police made brief arrests in Redeyef in April after clashes with stone-throwing demonstrators.Since January Gafsa has seen sporadic protests against a rise in the cost of living and corruption.
"The security forces came under assault from thrown flammable objects and were obliged to intervene to neutralize certain people who were making them," said an official in Tunis who declined to be named.
Police fired guns to disperse hundreds of youths rioting over joblessness and rising living costs in southwest Tunisia, leaving one dead and several injured.
A government source put the toll of injured at three police officers and five demonstrators.
"We regret this incident," Justice and Human Rights Minister Bechir Tekkari said at a news conference, a day after violent protests left one dead and several injured.
"Such disturbances are rare in Tunisia," he added.He stressed that security forces were determined to prevent any threats to public order and defended tough police action to protect people.
"We won't tolerate any use of violence," he said, referring to protests in the region against unemployment.Friday's clash took place in Redeyef, in a mining region some 350 kilometers (217 miles) from the capital Tunis.The minister rejected claims that police fired without warning, saying that security forces acted lawfully.
He said the situation spiraled out of control when police attacked a group of individuals who were making Molotov cocktails after some were thrown at security forces.Rising food and fuel prices have sparked riots and strikes around the world in recent months.

Iraqi dad says US forces killed son in cold blood

Iraqi teenager Abbas Khadum died in his father's arms; one of 25 men locals say were shot dead in a single day by U.S.

troops in a crackdown on Shiite militiamen in east Baghdad.His mother fought back tears while his father held a picture of the 19-year-old, his hair slicked back and dressed in a smart shirt buttoned up to his chin, as he gave his version of how U.S. troops had killed his son.

"In the middle of the night, the Americans positioned themselves on a roof of a nearby building site which overlooks the wall," Khadum's father, Abu Abbas, said, his bespectacled face framed in a traditional red keffiyeh scarf.

"At dawn, I stepped out of my house to go to prayers, and I found a bloodied body on my doorstep.

It was a laborer who had come to work on a building site close to the wall."Neighbors telephoned me to say I shouldn't go out because the Americans were shooting anything that moved.
"A little later, Said Saad, a man who sold drinks, who everyone in the district knew, was also killed.

Then one of my neighbors, Sabah Mahdi, had his head blown off by a bullet," Khadum's father said, as his wife wept.

"About 11 am, my son was due to go to university with his friends.

With all the shooting, he told them not to come and meet him at the house, but to wait a few streets away.

"He left and then a few minutes later, I was called and told he had been wounded.

I raced to him.

He had been shot in the back, at shoulder level. He was still breathing. He died in my arms as we took him to hospital," he said.That evening, a US soldier went to photograph the body at the mortuary and told Abu Abbas that the teenager was shot after attempting to bring down the wall.Khadum had not been in trouble before and "was not involved in politics," his family and friends said.

"It is true that people used to try and knock down the wall, but they came from other districts," his father added.Responding to claims his son was placing roadside bombs, Abu Abbas said Shiite militiamen "don't plant bombs on main streets in Baghdad in broad daylight."
Roadside bombs
U.S. forces, for their part, said Khadum was one of 11 "special group" criminals

-- a term used to describe fighters armed, funded and trained by Iranians

-- attempting to plant roadside bombs. His parents say he was just walking to university.

Khadum's family live in the heart of the Shiite-dominated Al-Obeidi neighborhood, where many followers of firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are rumored to have sought refuge after being driven out of nearby Sadr City.

The neighborhood has been a regular scene of bloody battles between U.S. soldiers and Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias.

Mahdi army militiamen fought deadly street battles with U.S.

forces in the Shiite slum Sadr City for seven weeks until a truce was agreed, which took effect on May 10.Khadum's family home, an anonymous rectangular building with an iron gate, is around a dozen meters (yards) from a wide main road, part-hidden by a large concrete wall erected in mid May by U.S. f

orces to disrupt militia activities.U.S. forces built concrete barriers throughout Baghdad in a bid to prevent insurgents launching roadside bomb attacks on military convoys and to block militia movements.

People angry at the presence of the ugly grey barrier protested and launched regular attacks against it, to bring it crashing down.

But, according to Abu Abbas, American forces hit back. That same day, May 21, saw a total of 25 people, all men, killed by American gunfire close to the Al-Obeidi wall, according to the district's residents.

Cameraman Wissam Ali Ouda, who worked for private Iraqi television station Afaq, was among those killed; shot dead returning home after work.

Comedy on Mideast conflict debuts in Hollywood

Comedian Adam Sandler is back on the big screen this weekend, looking for laughs with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a backdrop in his new movie "You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

"The comedy is about an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian hit man who join forces against a new common enemy in New York City, but the question is will anyone laugh?Director Dennis Dugan maintains "it's not as crazy as it sounds," despite the fact that many critics are aghast at the idea of making light comedy out of such thorny material.
"The people living in conflict in the Middle East are the same people living in one neighborhood in New York -- except that while there may be rivalries in Gaza, they don't hate each other in Brooklyn.

Everybody just gets along," added Dugan.

"They treat each other more as people than as rival factions.

""Zohan" is an anti-terror agent and hero in Israel who, exhausted by the conflict at home, fakes his death to make his dream come true: becoming a New York hair stylist.In New York, Zohan marvels at Jews and Palestinians living in peace until a Palestinian hit man arrives in the Big Apple to exact revenge.

But before the drama unravels in a spray of blood, the two end up joining forces against a new common enemy.John Turturro plays a Palestinian villain named "Phantom" in the movie.

"Zohan is faking his death, but little does he realize that Phantom also has his own dreams of not fighting anymore," Tuturro said at the news conference.

"If Zohan is the Jewish James Bond, Phantom is an Arabic Eminem.

He has gold teeth, he always wears shades, and he has his own chain of Muchentuchen restaurants.

Basically

-- and ironically for a guy named Phantom

-- he's living off his fame not only as a freedom fighter of the people, but as the man who got the Zohan.

"The plot was an idea of Sandler, now 41, who teamed up with friends and scriptwriters Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow.

Apatow has penned some of Hollywood's biggest quirkiest comedies: "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (2005); "Knocked Up" (2007) and "Superbad" (2007).
Arab actors vs Israeli actors
"'You Don't Mess with the Zohan' is a comedic way of sort of getting at the 'West Side Story' aspect of life," joked Dugan who said he saw Jewish and Arab actors ended up in perhaps unexpected dialogue on the set.

"One of the great things on the set

-- and we didn't do this intentionally

-- was that we had many scenes that involved all the Arab guys and the Israeli guys in the same scene, meaning they were all called to the set together," said Smigel.

"Everyone would be eating lunch together.

They had a lot of passionate discussions, but it was very friendly, very healthy, very open-minded. It was really cool to see

-- some of the guys have said to me that it's the most they've every talked to an Arab or an Israeli before," he said.

"Toward the end of the shoot, I heard from some of the actors that they'd grown up hating or mistrusting all Israelis or all Arabs - until they came here."

"They actually said the shoot was a life-altering experience," added Smigel."Even though we make the point in the movie, I think it was a shock to everyone to see how much they all had in common. Look, it's not like we think we're solving anything with this film; we just wanted to be funny.

"But even for me, as a Jew, it was very interesting to feel as close to the Arabs on the set as I did to the Israelis," he added.Old stereotypes, however, die hard.

Sayed Badreya, an Egyptian actor who plays a Palestinian cab driver, said Hollywood had been a dream since he came to the United States to study film.

"When I first came here in 1979 and first sought acting jobs, the only roles available were roles as terrorists.

I was young and fit and too good looking to be a terrorist, so I couldn't get a job," he said."I grew my beard, put on weight, and got a job right away.

Since then, for 20 years, I've had one line in every movie I've been in: 'In the name of Allah, I kill you all.'"

Peace between Syria and Israel is a prerequisite for peace in the Mideast

The sudden surge in talks about resuming Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations is suspect because there is little to indicate that Israel is willing to meet the minimum requirement for peace: withdrawal from Syria’s Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appears to be finding a deviation from his political troubles at home with the renewed focus on Syria.The US is talking in favour of Syrian-Israeli negotiations, but that should be seen as Washington’s need to show progress in Israeli-Palestinian talks by somehow diluting Syrian reservations.
There is a conviction among many that the US is posturing without really meaning to encourage Syrian-Israeli talks.
Then there is the Lebanese angle. The crisis in Lebanon will never be solved as long as Syria and Israel do not make peace.
Even at that, there is no assurance that the Lebanese parties would be willing to make peace if Syria shifts its position after making peace with Israel.At the same time, there is a strong camp within the Israeli body politic in favour of peace with Syria.
That camp includes President Shimon Peres who has said that if Syrian President Bashar Assad is serious about reaching peace with Israel, he should either visit occupied Jerusalem or invite the Israeli prime minister to Damascus for talks.
Peres is citing the example of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat who visited occupied Jerusalem and addressed the Knesset.
Had Sadat not done so, there would not have been Israeli-Egyptian peace, Peres argues.
Notwithstanding all these, reports in the Europe-based Arabic press say that peace negotiations between Israel and Syria could resume as early as next week.
The reports quoted Syrian officials as saying that the goal of the negotiations was to find an encounter point for the two sides.
“When we say that the negotiations are serious, we mean that the other side is committing to a full withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 borders,” said an unidentified Syrian official.That is precisely the sticking point, since Israel is not willing to relinquish the Golan Heights it occupied in the 1967 war.
The border that Syria is talking about includes a small strip of land on the shores of Lake Tiberias that Israel occupied in 1948 in violation of the UN resolution that specified the borders of the Jewish state.
The Syrians say that in 1995, the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin committed himself, to the American administration, to an Israeli withdrawal to the borders of June 4, 1967.
Israel has never agreed to this interpretation.Olmert has also denied that he had committed to withdrawing from the occupied Golan Heights as a precondition set by Syria for renewing peace negotiations.
The source of scepticism over prospects for genuine Israeli-Syrian negotiations is the reality that no Israeli government would be ready to give up the Golan Heights, which accounts for the bulk of Israel’s water sources. With the deep divide between the Syrian demand for June 4, 1967, borders and Israel’s refusal to give up the Golan, the scepticism is all the more powerful.
However, recent reports indicate that the two sides have made progress.According to the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al Hayat, a recent round of talks between the two sides, under Turkish mediation, was aimed, among other things, at setting a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal to the June 4, 1967, borders.Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem told the newspaper: “There will not be a situation in which Syria advances even one step (in the peace process) without a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
This is not a prerequisite; it is our right.
”According to a report in the Arabic daily Al Sharq Al Awsat, Syria has not yet been asked to break its alliance with Iran and Tehran had expressed understanding with the negotiations and that Iran itself was “holding talks with other sources”.
The paper also reported “significant progress” in the Syria-Israel diplomatic negotiations and that the two sides were on the verge of transition to direct talks, but that such discussions were dependent on regional and political conditions.
The report says that there had already been agreements concerning the main principles of security arrangements, water, borders and normalisation.
He said that Israel agreed that the security arrangements between the two sides would be implemented temporarily until trust is built between the two sides.Burying scepticism, one hopes that there is substance in these assertions. Peace between Syria and Israel is a prerequisite for peace in the Middle East.

Women plead with al-Qaeda to join jihad

Women are challenging al-Qaeda's refusal to include females in its ranks as an "equal rights" debate rages in the Muslim terrorist organization, press reports said on Sunday.

In an online response to a female questioner, al-Qaeda second in command Ayman Al-Zawahiri said in April that a woman’s role was limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaeda fighters, UK daily The Telegraph reported.

The remarks prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, desperate to fight for al-Qaeda.
One woman, who dubbed herself a “companion of weapons”, wrote a 2,000-word essay of protest at the organization's position, the paper said. “How many times have I wished I were a man ... When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri said there are no women in al-Qaeda, he saddened and hurt me,” she wrote.

“I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless.” Such postings have appeared anonymously on discussion forums of websites that host videos from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said SITE, which monitors the forums.According to the Telegraph, Zawahiri said a Muslim woman should “be ready for any service the mujahideen need from her,” but advised against traveling to a war front like Afghanistan without a male guardian.

Egypt's emergency law leaves trail of tears

About 18,000 Egyptians detained without charge
Fifteen years after police took away her husband, Zeinab Ahmed says she has lost hope he will return to help raise their daughter, born while he was in jail.
Mohamed el-Leithi stood trial in a military court with dozens of Islamists charged with belonging to the radical group Vanguards of Conquest.
He was acquitted but remains in jail under an emergency law that allows police to hold suspects for long periods without charge.

"Where is justice?" said Ahmed, wearing a black veil that only showed eyes welling with tears. "Drug dealers get out of jail. Murderers get out of jail. What has he done?"

About 18,000 Egyptians are detained without charge under the emergency law, in force since Islamist militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Amnesty International says. The prospect for their early release diminished this week when parliament extended the law for two years.
Local and international human rights groups accuse the ruling establishment of using it to crush dissent.
Ahmed and others with family members in detention share tales of months spent trying to find out where their relatives are detained, fruitless court release orders, financial hardship and traumatized children visiting their fathers behind bars.
During eight years when Leithi was in a prison about 450 km (300 miles) south of Cairo, Ahmed said she visited him only a handful of times a year because she could not afford to travel.
"I don't have money. My father was supporting me financially. He died.
Now my brothers support me," she said. Both Leithi's parents died when he was in jail. Mohamed Abdel-Moneim said it took him six years to find out the whereabouts of his son Amr, who has also been in jail since 1993... "
Tired? I have been running around for 15 years ... filing lawsuits," the 67-year-old retired civil servant said, choking back tears.
Torture
The government says it uses the law, which also allows authorities to send civilians for military trial, only to target terrorism suspects and drug dealers.
"If you knew the number of sabotage crimes that have been thwarted ... you would have said: 'Thank God the emergency law exists'," Moufid Shehab, a state minister, said this week. Analysts and human rights groups note 27 years of emergency law failed to stop militant attacks such as the bombings that rocked Sinai between 2004 and 2006, killing scores of Egyptians and foreign tourists.
They say the law has contributed to the rising influence of the police in public life and to what they say is systematic torture inside prisons and police stations. The interior ministry says it does not condone such practices and prosecutes officers who torture suspects."The government cannot live without a state of emergency," said Mohamed Zarea, director of the Arab Penal Reform Organisation, which offers free legal aid to detainees.Zarea was a detainee himself.
In 1988, he was kept in custody for 75 days for suspected links with an armed leftist group.
He says he was subjected to "all kinds of torture".
"It was torture that makes you wish you could die," he told Reuters, sitting behind a desk at his office in downtown Cairo.
"All kinds of torture, from beating to electric shocks to sleep deprivation, to being questioned while people next to you are beaten up ... to threats of sexual assault. All kinds." Zarea won a lawsuit against the government granting him 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,900) in compensation for his detention.
He used the money to set up his human rights group.

How the Internet is challenging Egypt's government

Although the general strikes of April 6 and May 4 drew limited public participation, they have revealed an important new political phenomenon in Egypt: political mobilization by young, second-generation internet users via blogs, YouTube, and Facebook.
After two years of intensive government efforts to outmaneuver the opposition, this mobilization caught the regime flat-footed. It highlighted the possible role of interactive non-traditional media in bringing about political change in Egypt, just as the government's heavy-handed response to the strikes revealed its failure to find new forms of political control aside from the usual repression by the security apparatus.The growing role of non-traditional media has pushed the state to try to curb them through various mechanisms.
Several bloggers have been arrested, including Moneim Mahmoud (editor of the Ana Ikhwan or "I am Brotherhood" blog).
Isra Abdel Fattah, who started a Facebook group calling for Egyptians to join the April 6 strike (over 74,000 joined), was also arrested and held for 16 days. The blogger Wael Abbas (editor of the Al-Wai al-Misri, or "Egyptian Awareness" blog) has been vilified in the government media due to his success in documenting Egyptian police brutality inside detention centers in video clips he posted on YouTube. And in February 2007, blogger Karim Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for criticizing President Hosni Mubarak and religious institutions.

In the past few years, bloggers and other internet users have played several different roles in Egyptian politics.
First, internet users have voiced direct criticism of Mubarak's regime. For example, bloggers went beyond criticizing the amended Article 76 of the Constitution, which regulates the process for presidential elections, and mobilized to record the flagrant abuses that tarnished the popular referendum on the amendment in May 2005, notably the sexual harassment of female journalists.
The bloggers also stood in solidarity with the reformist judges who were subject to systematic attacks by circles close to the regime.
Bloggers have played a crucial role in uncovering abuses by institutions loyal to the regime.
The spread of mobile-phone video technology enabled bloggers to reveal incidents of torture in a number of detention centers, incidents that later became legal cases before the courts.
Such efforts built bridges between bloggers and domestic human rights groups; some blogs now systematically map detention facilities in which officers commonly physically abuse detainees. The political opposition has used bloggers' documentation to attack the regime for its use of torture not only as a means of suppressing political opposition but also in controlling political and social mobility.
Another area of blogger activism is the state of religious minorities, an extremely sensitive issue in Egypt. During the last three years, some blogs have specialized in transmitting the views of religious minorities in Egypt, as well as forms of discrimination practiced against them. Perhaps the most prominent examples are the blogs founded by members of the Bahai religion.
Blogs such as Bahai Misri (Egyptian Bahai) and Min Wijhat Nazar Ukhra (From Another Perspective) have become not only sources of information on the Bahai sect and their situation in Egypt, but also a way to mobilize support for their demands.
There are also blogs that document religious discrimination against Christians, expressing criticism that differs radically from the conciliatory political discourse of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church. Here, the blog Aqbat Bila Hudud (Copts without Borders), edited by Hala Butrus, has given voice to those who see discrimination against Christians as being rooted not only in society but in the state and question the regime's official discourse about "national unity." Yet another area that bloggers are probing is the battle over strategies for various political players.
Some recent examples include blogs by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and their debates over the draft party platform put forward by the Guidance Bureau in 2007.
In the past, Brotherhood blogs served mainly to express the movement's political ideas and recruit new members, for example students. In discussing the platform, however, the blogs expressed and crystallized the struggle between the reformists (such as Ana Ikhwan) and the conservatives.
Most Brotherhood blogs joined the reformist side of the debate, rejecting ideas such as supervision of the executive and legislative branches by a board of religious scholars or exclusion of women and Copts from the presidency.
Brotherhood bloggers are also credited with bringing disagreements over the platform out from behind closed doors - as they are now doing with many political topics that were once taboo in Egypt.

Iraq's Sunni bloc suspends government talks

Iraq's main Sunni political bloc said on Wednesday it had suspended talks to rejoin the Shiite-led government after a disagreement with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over a cabinet post.

Persuading the bloc to rejoin has been a main aim of U.S. policy in Iraq and is widely seen as a vital step in reconciling the country's factions after years of conflict.
Sunni Arabs have little voice in a cabinet dominated by Shiites and Kurds.
"We have suspended negotiations with the government and pulled out our candidates," said Salim al-Jibouri, spokesman for the Accordance Front.
He said the decision was taken after Maliki objected to a candidate for a cabinet position.
The Accordance Front pulled out of Maliki's national unity government in August, demanding the release of mainly Sunni Arab detainees in Iraq's jails and calling for a greater say in security matters.
Since becoming prime minister in May 2006, Maliki has faced constant criticism from Iraq's minority Sunni Arab community that he has promoted the interests of the majority Shiites ahead of the country's other sectarian and ethnic groups.
But he won praise from Sunni Arab politicians after launching a crackdown on Shiite militias in Baghdad and the southern oil city of Basra.
The government has also begun releasing Sunni Arab prisoners under a new amnesty law.

Jibouri said the Accordance Front drew up a list of candidates for six cabinet posts to hand to the government for approval but Maliki rejected the nomination for the Planning Ministry.
Maliki refused to give the Sunni bloc an extra government post as a compromise, said Jibouri. Officials from Maliki's office were not immediately available for comment.
A statement on Tuesday from the office of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab and a senior member of the Accordance Front, said he had told reporters in Jordan the talks would succeed despite disagreements.
"We achieved significant progress on returning to the government although there are some differences in points of view over some ministries and candidates," said Hashemi.
"And we hope that in the coming days that this will be resolved and the Accordance Front will return to the national unity government.
" Sunni Arabs were dominant under Saddam Hussein and insurgents have drawn support from the community.

Israeli website offers porn-for-peace

With the failure of peace plans and political processes, two Israeli entrepreneurs have come up with a novel way to unite Arabs and Jews
– an amateur Internet porn site – according to a recent press report.
The website, called Parpar 1, features only Israeli-born Arabs and Jews engaging in amateur porn, Jewish daily Forward reported earlier this month. The site
-- set up in 2000 by two Israeli IT engineers -- features such movies as Sex in the Army, The Rabbi’s Daughter, Kosher Lesbians, and Israeli Breakfast.
Despite an introductory video that proclaims “Make Love, Not War,” co-owner Avi Levy says his porn site is purely a commercial endeavor.
“I’m not a politician. I’m here to make money,” Levy, 42, said.Membership to the site costs roughly 10 dollars for three days, 15 dollars for one week and 25 dollars for 30 days.
Charges appear on billing statements as “fuel supplies”.
Levy's partner, a Web developer named Shay Malol, says the site has around 20,000 surfers per day, reaching up to 50,000 on weekends.Parpar is Hebrew for “butterfly,” but when used as a verb, it means “to sleep around,” according to Forward.An expert on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, Dr. Samir Qadih, told AlArabiya.net that such porn sites are usually based in areas inside Israel with large Arab populations, such as Haifa, Jaffa, and Nazareth.
"Arabs inside Israel have adapted to the Israeli way of life and no longer adhere to Arab traditions," he said.Qadih refuted the idea that these movies foster understanding between Arabs and Israelis.
He said most porn sites are supervised by the Mossad, adding that was the reason why Hamas has blocked this and other similar sites.

Egypt extends state of emergency by two years

Egypt on Monday extended a controversial decades-old state of emergency by two years despite pledges to replace it by new legislation, in a move slammed by rights groups as anti-constitutional.

Parliament passed the law after a brief debate following a decision by President Hosni Mubarak to extend the state of emergency from June 1, a parliamentary official said.

The state of emergency was imposed in 1981 after the assassination by Islamists of President Anwar Sadat and has been repeatedly renewed since then despite protests from rights groups and regime opponents.
Last year Judicial and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mufid Shehab said the state of emergency would end in 2008, even if the new anti-terror law meant to replace it was not ready.

"The state of emergency has for decades been one of the main causes of human rights violations in Egypt," Hafez Abu Sada of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) told AFP.

Egypt's authorities have used the state of emergency to clamp down on political opponents, including the country's largest opposition movement, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, whose members sit in parliament as independents.

"We reject the extension of the state of emergency because there is no constitutional justification," Brotherhood political bureau member Essam al-Aryan told AFP.He said the Brotherhood would now start a public awareness campaign about the law.

On Tuesday the state-backed National Council of Human Rights said there was no longer any basis for renewing the state of emergency. Earlier this month two dozen independent human rights groups also called for the emergency to end, saying it "flies in the face of the comprehensive social, economic and political reforms under way in Egypt."

Press reactions
Political analyst Diaa Rashwan wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry al-Youm on Monday that "10 anti-terrorist laws could have been drafted in the time since Mubarak said he would lift the state of emergency.

" He called the extension a "crime," while the state-owned Al-Goumhuriya daily stressed the need for stringent security measures after thousands of Gazans forced their way across the frontier into Egypt in January to buy goods.

"Remember what happened when the Palestinians violated our borders... arriving with explosive belts around their waists and with grenades and bullets in their pockets," said an editorial."Was the state supposed to wait for a magistrate's warrant before arresting them?"

Kuwaiti soldier charged over maid's rape, murder

A Kuwaiti soldier has been charged with murdering and then raping a Filipina domestic helper whose naked body was found in the desert 10 days ago, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The soldier confessed to beating the victim to death and then raping her before dumping her corpse in the desert, claiming he was under the influence of alcohol, Al-Qabas daily quoted a security source as saying.

Al-Qabas said the soldier killed Mualana after she refused to sleep with him, and added that the married man with four children was an alcoholic.
The victim, named as Fatima Sagadan Maulana in earlier press reports, went missing on May 9 and her decomposing body was found a week later in the Kabad desert southwest of Kuwait City.

About 73,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait. Some 60,000 are women employed mainly as maids and earning less than 200 dollars a month on average, labor groups say

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Violence against women surges in Kurdistan

Medics in Iraqi Kurdistan said on Saturday that they had seen a surge in violence against women in May, with both so-called "honor" killings and female suicide on the increase.

"At least 14 women died in the first 10 days of May alone," a doctor told AFP in the region's second largest city of Sulaimaniyah.

"Seven of them took their own lives, the other seven were murdered in still unexplained circumstances," apparently the victims of "honor" killings.

"Over the same period, we recorded 11 attempted self-immolations -- these women were so desperate they set fire to themselves," the doctor added, asking not to be identified.

According to Kurdish regional government figures, in Sulaimaniyah province alone more than 50 women attempted to burn themselves to death in the first four months of the year and another eight attempted to hang themselves.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq has regularly highlighted "honor" killings of Kurdish women as among Iraq's most severe human rights abuses.

Most of such crimes are reported as deaths due to accidental fires in the home. Aso Kamal, a 42-year-old British Kurdish Iraqi campaigner, says that from 1991 to 2007, 12,500 women were murdered for reasons of "honor" or committed suicide in the three Kurdish provinces of Iraq.

Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region runs its own affairs and has enjoyed relative peace and growing prosperity since the US-led invasion of 2003, while Arab areas of Iraq have been plunged into sectarian warfare.

Crimes against women are continuing despite campaigns by human rights activists and repeated condemnation of the oppression by women members of the regional government and regional parliament.

Lebanon set to elect Suleiman as president

The Lebanese parliament convenes on Sunday to elect army chief Michel Suleiman as president in a first step towards defusing an often deadly 18-month standoff between feuding political factions.

Lawmakers will gather at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) to cast their votes at a long-awaited parliamentary session due to be attended by 200 invited guests including Arab and Western dignitaries.

The main challenge for Suleiman, 59, will be to impose himself as a neutral figure and reconcile the Western-backed parliamentary majority and the opposition, which is backed by Iran and Syria.

Bickering between the two camps had left the presidency vacant since Emile Lahoud's term ended in November, and 19 previous attempts to get lawmakers together to elect a successor failed.

Last Wednesday, the rivals finally agreed to elect Suleiman and form a national unity government, in which the opposition has veto power, after five days of intense talks brokered by the Arab League in the Qatari capital.The Doha talks came after 65 people were killed in fierce sectarian battles earlier this month between supporters of the Hezbollah-led opposition and pro-government forces.

It was the deadliest internal political violence since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war and threatened to ignite an all-out conflict, as Hezbollah staged a spectacular takeover of mainly Sunni Muslim west Beirut.

Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and a US congressional delegation are due to attend the election.

The foreign ministers of Syria, Iran and France are also among the 200 dignitaries invited to witness the event, Ali Hamdan, spokesman for parliament speaker Nabih Berri, told AFP.

The US delegation will be headed by Representative Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat of Lebanese origin, Hamdan said.

In nearly 10 years at the helm of the army, Suleiman managed to stay out of the political storm. But as president he will have to tread a fine line to keep the peace with the same neutrality.

"I cannot save the country on my own," he told local media this week.

"This mission requires the efforts of all. Security is not achieved by force but joint political will."Suleiman has been accused by some of being a supporter of Syria, Lebanon's neighbor and former powerbroker.

His predecessor Lahoud was pro-Syrian.After the new head of state is sworn in, the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora will resign in line with the constitution.

On the eve of the vote Siniora, 64, told AFP he was satisfied with the Doha accord and ready to step down.

"I am satisfied that this is a deal for which we all gave in for the sake of the country," he said.

"I served for three years, and I believe it is somehow time for a change."Lebanon has been mired in political paralysis since November 2006 when six opposition ministers quit the Siniora cabinet in a bid to gain more representation.A career soldier, Suleiman joined the army in 1967.

He was appointed military chief in December 1998. He is married and has three children.

Denmark starts to expel convicted Iraqi refugees

Amnesty International's Danish section has denounced the government for starting to expel Iraqis convicted of serious crimes, forcing them to return to Iraq.

"These expulsions are unacceptable and against international and even Danish conventions that forbid sending anyone back to a country where their safety is threatened," Lars Normann Joergensen, the head of Amnesty Denmark, told AFP.

The government recently decided to expel 11 Iraqi refugees convicted of serious offences including drug dealing, assault, arson and even murder. It is the first time Denmark has sent Iraqis back to Baghdad.
But Joergenson said: "Iraq is still prey to violent unrest, with hundreds of deaths a month, and its government is incapable of ensuring the safety of its citizens.

" Some of those facing expulsion risked being killed or tortured on their return, he added.

Two people were sent back on Thursday and the other nine were due to follow over the next four weeks, said Hans-Viggo Jensen, deputy director of the national police force.

The Iraqi authorities had agreed to take the 11 back, he added.

One of those expelled had immediately been imprisoned in Iraq on his return, the Ritzau agency reported, quoting the man's wife.

Of the 11 selected for expulsion, 10 had legal papers for Denmark while the other was a failed asylum seeker.

Meanwhile, another 400 refugees whose asylum requests have been rejected are currently staying at centers in Denmark.

They are refusing to leave Denmark voluntarily despite being offered incentives by the Danish authorities.

Freedom Is More Important

I have contributed to the advance of the telecommunications technology though I "lag behind" in terms of personal information and practice.
In the late 90s, and under my guidance as editor-in-chief, Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper became the first daily in the world to publish its pages on trans-continental satellites - at a time when The Wall Street Journal was still publishing its pages inside the United States.
In the late 80s too, Al-Hayat became at my helm the first pan-Arab daily in large size paper to be printed electronically, along with two dailies in the Gulf. In fact, the font used by Al-Hayat was common to the majority of the Arab newspapers that turned to electronic printing.
In both dailies, the credit in technological pioneering goes mostly to my colleagues, and not to me.
Technology is very important.
But freedom is more important, or in other words, constitutes the most important media element. It is exercised in the West in such an enviable manner. Yet, the Western press with deep-rooted traditions have not been fair to the Arabs and Muslims. In my opinion, the least of their "sins" is neglecting Arab and Muslim causes, as has been the case during the preparations for the war on Iraq. The failure of leading American dailies was so remarkable that I sometimes felt it was deliberate.
But I hope I am wrong.

These days, the Western media exploit the freedom they enjoy to serve other goals. An example is Khaled Bin Mahfouz, a co-founder of the Saudi National Commercial Bank. In British courts, he won the lawsuit against American writer Rachel Ehrenfeld who accused him of financing terror in her book Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It.
Printed in America, the book is sold in England on the internet.
On August 25, 2007, I raised this issue and had to argue for months with many dissenters, including Samuel Ibadi, a Jewish competent constitutional lawyer of Arab origin. In brief, Ehrenfeld's supporters described the British laws as old and outdated, ascertaining that the First Amendment to the US Constitution protects the freedom of speech.
A New York court rejected Ehrenfeld's lawsuit to overturn the British verdict for lack of jurisdiction, or in other words on the grounds that the US court is not allowed to rule on the matter.
Freedom of speech is unarguable and may be the most important, even the basic freedom used to defend other freedoms.
But the freedom of humiliation, like in the caricatures on the Prophet Mohammad, can not be covered with the first, second, or any other amendment. Accused of financing terrorism, Khaled Bin Mahfouz would have been imprisoned and his assets confiscated.
The British law resembles many other positive and divine laws. According to Islamic jurisprudence, the accused has to take the oath and the plaintiff has to provide evidence.
Which is easier? That the author brings evidence on Bin Mahfouz's donation of money to terrorists, or that Bin Mahfouz brings all terrorists to testify that they did not receive money from him?This takes us back to the issue of news and ideas, or the piece of information and opinion.
The piece of information has to be truthful, but opinion is sacred and a right enjoyed by the speaker.
Lawyers' fees and fines are sufficient punishment, and imprisonment is unjustified. I condemn every Arab country that imprisons journalists.
When I joined the world of journalism, I intended to buy a Volkswagen unlike other colleagues of mine who wanted to promote their ideas as members of political parties, organizations, or factions.
On the one hand, I believe I am a better journalist because I am neutral and can be objective. On the other hand, they are familiar with party details more than I am, and they have inside information that I lack.
At the end, I will go back to the first idea I raised when I started the discussion, i.e. the growing influence of the media despite the decline in the printed press in democratic countries.
To wrap up this discussion, I will mention another example. On June 12, 2007, Tony Blair delivered a speech to the Reuters news agency.
This speech was widely referred to as "feral beasts," as he likened journalists to feral beasts that hunt in a pack, just tearing people and reputations to bits. Consequently, when formulating a policy or following up a matter, his government thinks of journalists and their reactions more than of the task it needs to carry out.The Arab press is tamed just like docile sheep.

*Published in the London-based AL HAYAT on May 22, 2008. Jihad can be reached at http://www.j-khazen.blogspot.com

the 60's Memory of the Palestinian Catastrophe

Iraq's Aziz back in court without lawyers

The prosecutor in the trial of former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz called for a stiff penalty on Tuesday to ease the "hearts of the widows" of dozens of merchants he is charged with helping execute.

Aziz, the public face of Saddam Hussein's regime, entered the court wearing a grey suit and supported by a walking stick, a far cry from the once confident, cigar-smoking diplomat who exhibited faultless English, strong nerves and negotiating skills in Iraq's crises.

He was joined by his seven co-defendants in the case. The 72-year-old Aziz is reported to be in poor health.

His defense lawyers were not present, but it was not clear why.

The team of foreign lawyers who had agreed to defend Aziz, including French lawyer Jacques Verges, four Italian lawyers and a Lebanese-French attorney, were not granted visas for Baghdad, his Amman-based son Ziad Aziz said.

Verges has defended some of the world's most notorious figures, including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal.

"The charges relate to merchants who were killed after being accused of breaking price controls imposed in the wake of U.N.

sanctions on Iraq in 1990s.

"We ask that the court decides on a suitable punishment that will ease the hearts of the widows," prosecutor Adnan Ali said.

He said some family members of the merchants were killed.

"There was a systematic campaign planned under the cover of darkness.

Its villains were members of the Revolutionary Command Council and security agencies," Ali said.It is the first time Aziz, who also served as foreign minister under Saddam, has faced any charges since he gave himself up to U.S. troops in April 2003.

Easily recognized by his large glasses and white hair, Aziz played Iraq's top diplomatic role in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War when he was foreign minister.
Plea of innocence
In his own defense, Aziz told the court on Tuesday that just because he was a member of council did not by itself implicate him in the killings.

"This is a selective process wrought by the personal motivations of those intent on destroying Aziz," Aziz said.

"It is a plot of personal revenge.

" The only Christian in Saddam's inner circle, Aziz rose to prominence in the world media around the time of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War.Aziz is being tried by the same judge who sentenced Saddam to death for his role in the killing of 148 Shiite civilians after an assassination attempt against him in 1982. Other defendants include Saddam's half brothers Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan, then interior minister, and Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a former security official.Another was Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed or Chemical Ali, who entered the court wearing traditional Sunni chequered head dress.

Al-Majeed has already been sentenced to death in June for his role in Saddam's "Anfal" military campaign in the 1980s, in which tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.

Their executions have been delayed by legal wranglings. Aziz's lawyers had wanted his trial to be moved to Iraqi Kurdistan in the relatively quiet north of the country or to be transferred abroad to ensure it is not influenced by the Baghdad government.Aziz has appeared as a witness in earlier trials of Saddam-era officials. He featured prominently in Iraq's conflict with Iran from 1980-1988, helping to win U.S. support and to forge strong economic ties with the Soviet Union.A former finance minister, central bank governor and two senior Baath party members also faced the Iraqi High Tribunal.

Lebanon rivals sign deal, elect president Sunday

Rival Lebanese leaders signed a deal on Wednesday to end 18 months of political conflict, pulling their country away from the brink of civil war and paving the way for the election of a new president.

Parliament will convene on Sunday to elect army chief General Michel Suleiman as head of state, aides to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Reuters in Qatar, where the feuding sides signed the accord after six days of Arab-mediated talks. The agreement between the U.S.-

backed ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition resolved a dispute over a law for holding 2009 parliamentary elections and met the opposition's long-standing demand for veto power in cabinet. It followed a Hezbollah military campaign this month against ruling coalition leaders which bolstered the opposition's political strength. Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, routed its rivals in the conflict that killed 81 and prompted the Qatari-led mediation bid.

It was Lebanon's worst civil conflict since the 1975-1990 war and exacerbated tensions between Shiites loyal to Hezbollah and Druze and Sunni supporters of the government.

Today, we are opening a new page in Lebanon's history," said Saad al-Hariri, a Sunni politician who leads the governing coalition.

His supporters were among those defeated by Hezbollah. Hezbollah delegation leader Mohammed Raad said the deal would help "towards strengthening coexistence and building the state". Iran and Syria welcomed the agreement, as did France.Paris, which supports the ruling alliance, last year tried but failed to resolve a power struggle complicated by the factions' ties to competing foreign states.

Power struggle
The anti-Damascus ruling coalition had long refused to meet the opposition's demand for cabinet veto power, saying the opposition was trying to restore Syrian control of Lebanon.

Syria was forced to withdraw troops from Lebanon in 2005 after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, Saad al-Hariri's father.

The United States held up the withdrawal as a foreign policy success but the Hezbollah-led opposition has steadily piled pressure on Washington's allies in Lebanon.Opposition ministers quit Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's cabinet in November 2006 in protest at the governing alliance's refusal to meet the demand for veto power.

The resignations stripped the cabinet of all its Shiite members and upset Lebanon's delicate sectarian power-sharing system.

Hezbollah's military campaign this month forced the government to rescind two measures which the Shiite group viewed as hostile enough to justify an armed response.The opposition began to remove a protest encampment controlled by Hezbollah in central Beirut. The tent city, erected next to the government's headquarters, has paralyzed the central commercial district since December 2006.

Under the deal both sides pledged not to use violence in political disputes.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, who announced the deal in Doha, will attend Suleiman's confirmation by parliament on Sunday. The Lebanese leaders had thought of holding the vote as early as Thursday, but postponed it until Sunday to allow Sheikh Hamad and other dignitaries to attend. Once elected president, Suleiman will chair talks among the leaders on strengthening the Lebanese state.

Internet to show true Mideast: Wiki founder

An explosion in Internet usage in the Middle East by "ordinary" people will show the world that the region is just like anywhere else, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said on Sunday.
"Too often when people around the world reflect on the situation in the Middle East they focus on extremism and the different problems," Wales told journalists at the World Economic Forum for the Middle East.But with current total Internet usage by one billion people set to double in the next five to 10 years, Wales said that "we're going to start hearing from ordinary people."

"And I think that ordinary people are far more moderate and far more ordinary than the unfortunately polarised views of extremes you see coming out," the founder of the popular user-generated encyclopedia said.
New Internet users are "not going to be coming online from US, Europe, Japan," but from developing countries, he said.
"Over time people will start to see the Middle East in a very different light and not see it as a basket of problems.
"They will "see it as a place like any other that has strengths and weaknesses, with hundreds of millions of people just trying to make a better life.
"Wikipedia is an "open-source" web site on which entries can be started or edited by anyone in the world with an Internet connection.

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Four days that changed the Middle East

Rami G. Khouri
Events in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon continue to move erratically, with simultaneous gestures of political compromise and armed clashes that have left 46 dead in the past week. The consequences of what has happened in the past week may portend an extraordinary but constructive new development: the possible emergence of the first American-Iranian joint political governance system in the Arab world. Maybe. If Lebanon shifts from street clashes to the hoped-for political compromise through a renewed national dialogue process, it will have a national unity government whose two factions receive arms, training, funds and political support from both the United States and Iran. Should this happen, an unspoken American-Iranian political condominium in Lebanon could prove to be key to power-sharing and stability in other parts of the region, such as Palestine, Iraq and other hot spots. This would also mark a huge defeat for the United States and its failed diplomatic approach that seeks to confront, battle and crush the Islamist-nationalists throughout the region.

The brief, isolated, but intense clashes that occurred in the four days between Wednesday and Sunday threatened a total, Iraq-like collapse of Lebanon, with the Hizbullah-led alliance controlling power in the capital Beirut and other critical areas. The frantic pace of political and street action comprised and clarified four noteworthy developments, whose implications for the rest of the Middle East could be momentous: 1. When the government decided to challenge Hizbullah on Tuesday by announcing it was sacking the Shiite army general in charge of airport security and dismantling Hizbullah's underground security telecommunications network, Hizbullah saw this as the first serious attempt by the government to try and disarm it. Hizbullah immediately challenged the government, warned it against these decisions, and made a show of force to protect its security and telecommunications system. When street clashes started in several parts of Beirut, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah-led opposition alliance quickly and roundly asserted its dominance over the US- and Saudi-backed government alliance. Put to the test, the new balance of power in Lebanon affirmed itself on the street for the first time in less than 24 hours.2. All the Lebanese parties repeatedly indicated a preference for political compromise over communal war, but also showed they were prepared to fight if forced to. The persistent negotiations via the mass media included critical agreements on naming the armed forces commander, General Michel Suleiman, as the new president, resuming the national dialogue, forming a government of national unity, and revising the electoral law before holding parliamentary elections next year. Negotiating offers came in sequence from Hizbullah secretary general and Shiite leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Future Movement head and Sunni leader Saad Hariri, Sunni Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and the Shiite Amal movement of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hizbullah ally.3. The newly vulnerable government effectively backed down Saturday and reversed its two decisions, as Hizbullah had demanded. The street balance of power was translated into a new political equation inside Lebanon. Hizbullah and its allies had achieved on the street that which they had been asking for politically: the capacity to veto government decisions that were seen as threatening Hizbullah's security and resistance activities. 4. By immediately handing over to the armed forces those few buildings and strategic locations that they had taken over in Beirut, Hizbullah and its allies sent the signal that they did not want to rule the entire country, and that they trusted the army as a neutral arbiter between the warring Lebanese factions. Prime Minister Siniora sent the same message when he asked the armed forces and their commander, Suleiman, to decide on the fate of the two contested government security decisions that had sparked Hizbullah's move into West Beirut. The armed forces emerged as the powerful political arbiter and peace-keeper, effectively forming a fourth branch of government, and the only one that is credible and effective in the eyes of the entire population. All factions have agreed to get their gunmen off the streets and leave only the army and police as public security guardians. Now they are expected to follow up quickly by formally naming Suleiman as president (to which they have all agreed already), agreeing on a transitional national unity government of technocrats, and drawing up a new election law. The precise sequence of those events is one of the disputed points that must be agreed, but agreement may be easier now that the army has emerged as a pivotal arbiter and political actor.The new domestic political balance of power in Lebanon will reflect millennia-old indigenous Middle Eastern traditions of different and often quarreling parties that live together peacefully after negotiating power relationships, rather than one party totally defeating and humiliating the other. Lebanon can only exist as a single country if its multi-ethnic and multi-religious population shares power. As the political leaders now seek to do this, they operate in a new context where the strongest group comprises Iranian- and Syrian-backed Islamist Shiites and their junior partners, Christian and Sunni Lebanese allies. They will share power in a national unity government with fellow Lebanese who are friends, allies, dependents and proxies of the United States and Saudi Arabia. If a new Middle East truly is being born, this may well prove to be its nursery.
* Published on May 12, 2008 in Lebanon's DAILY STAR, where Rami G. Khouri is published twice-weekly.

Coincide Hosting the Largest Communication Conference in Africa, an opposition's Web Site is being Blocked

Egyptian Government should Unblock Kefaya Homepage

Cairo on 12th May, 2008 The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said today, that the website of the Egyptian Movement for Change:Kefaya “http://harakamasria.org/” was blocked in Egypt and the Internet users who have access to Internet through the T-Data Company,
the largest Internet Service Providers in Egypt, which is controlled by the Egyptian Government since 4th May. Many of Kefaya website visitors were surprised of their disability to browse the site during the call on for the past 4th of May Strike,
whether through T-Data or “Link” company, while Link has pulled back blocking the site later, but T-Data that belongs to the Egyptian Government continued blocking the site until today, leaving the internet users unable to get access to it, to be a cheek irony, that the time when the website of the most important political movement in Egypt is blocked coincides with the hosting the largest telecommunication conference in Africa- Africa Telecoms Conference.
Some of the ANHRI's technicians made an attempts to browse blocked website using different computers machines, and from different locations but all their attempts went in vain, while using the free internet dial up connections of T-Data and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL).

What indicates clearly the Egyptian government return to its practice in blocking the internet site, which it has abandoned earlier.Said Samir Gad the editor-in-chief of Kefaya Website “ the website is performing normally with other ISP companies, but the technical supervisor of the website informed us that the T-Data Co. blocked Kefaya website through the IP Address.

Mohamed Ragab- Director to the Technical Unit- Arab Network for Human Rights Information stated: “ Blocking Kefaya Website decision from the T-Data ISP clients is a ridiculous decision, which is not any more practiced but by the most dictator governments in the world, the internet users will use the proxy so as to overcome this block, or simply transfer their accounts to other companies, the only loser of this decision is the T-Data and the Egyptian government that non of its officials will dare to declare that Egypt is supporting the Freedom to use the Internet.

”The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information condemns very much the decision to block Kefaya web site, calling on the government to work on correcting this wrongdoing, through unblocking Kefaya website and stop harassing the Internet activists in Egypt. http://www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/2008/pr0512.shtml

Authorities Use Intimidation, Violence to Suppress Online Advocacy

Egyptian authorities should immediately investigate and prosecute those security officials responsible for beating Ahmed Maher Ibrahim, Human Rights Watch said today.
Maher, a 27-year-old civil engineer, used the social-networking site Facebook to support calls for a general strike on May 4, 2008, President Hosni Mubarak's 80th birthday. Maher told Human Rights Watch that officers from the Interior Ministry's State Security Investigations (SSI) department apprehended him on a street in the suburb of New Cairo on May 7, blindfolded him and took him to a police station where they stripped him naked, and beat him intermittently for 12 hours before releasing him without charge.
"This is the work of thugs, pure and simple," said Joe Stork, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch. "The government must show that those responsible for upholding the law are also subject to the law." Before the incident, Maher said, an SSI officer phoned him on April 25 to invite him "for a coffee" on the following day at SSI headquarters in Lazoghli, in downtown Cairo. Maher did not show up.
Over the course of the following week, Maher spoke with international news media about the strike. He told the BBC that several SSI officers had contacted him, but that he was undeterred.

"If we allow ourselves to fear them, we won't do anything," he told the BBC. "Then I would consider myself a partner in the crimes taking place in Egypt." On May 4, it appeared that few Egyptians had heeded the call for a strike. On May 7, however, as Maher was driving in New Cairo at around 1 p.m., an unmarked van with non-official license plates pulled in front of him.

Three other unmarked cars, also with non-official plates, surrounded the car and some 12 men in civilian clothes pulled him into the van, where they handcuffed and blindfolded him.
Maher told Human Rights Watch that the men took him first to the New Cairo police station.
There, he was beaten and insulted by men he could not identify because he was blindfolded.
Maher said that around the time of the afternoon prayers (4:30 p.m.), his captors took him to SSI headquarters at Lazoghli. There, they stripped him down to his underwear, threatened to rape him with a stick, and continued kicking, beating, and insulting him, and dragging him across the floor.
The blows fell mostly on his back and his neck, he said, and he lost some hearing after a sharp blow to one ear. Maher said his assailants wore gloves and applied lotion to his back between beatings in an apparent attempt to reduce bruising.
According to Maher, the officers did not accuse him of anything, but asked for the password of the May 4 Facebook group that news reports said he had started.
They also asked him about members of the group he had never met.
The SSI officers released him before dawn on May 8 with the warning that he would be beaten more severely the next time State Security detained him. The evening after his release, May 8, Maher went to a private hospital for a medical examination, including a CAT scan, the results of which were not available as of this writing. "Sadly, Maher's treatment is part of a pattern of abuse and extralegal intimidation by state officials," Stork said. "Egypt needs to put an end to the lawlessness of its law-enforcement officers." In another incident a month earlier, Isra'a `Abd al-Fattah, 29, was among roughly 500 people arrested by police nationwide in connection with a call for a strike on April 6.
(Most of those arrested were from the industrial Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra, where demonstrations against rising prices turned violent.) `Abd al-Fattah had also used a social network group on Facebook to publicize the April 6 strike, leading to her detention for more than two weeks.
Prosecutors had ordered her release a few days after she was arrested when charges against her of "inciting unrest" were dismissed, but interior ministry officials kept her in detention until April 23.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Egypt ratified in 1982, holds that "no one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law," and that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

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Lebanon govt slams Hezbollah's "coup" in Beirut

Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group took control of the Muslim half of Beirut on Friday in what the U.S.

-backed governing coalition described as "an armed and bloody coup". The United States accused Syria of "fanning the flames" and said "we're seeing now some evidence of those groups that are linked to Syria that are in Lebanon right now..," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

At least 15 people have been killed and 34 wounded in three days of battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah, a Shiite political movement which has a powerful guerrilla army and is an ally of Syria. The fighting, the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war, began this week after the government decided to dismantle Hezbollah's military communications network. The group said the government had declared war.

Army personnel take over pro-govt positions in the southern city of SaidaIn scenes reminiscent of the darkest days of the civil war, young men with assault rifles roamed the streets amid smashed cars and smoldering buildings. Fighting died down as outgunned government supporters handed over their weapons and offices to the army, which has tried to remain neutral during 17 months of political conflict between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the government. The anti-Syria governing coalition condemned the "armed and bloody coup", saying it was aimed at increasing Iran's influence and restoring that of Syria, forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005.

Beirut will remain shut

A senior opposition source said that Hezbollah and its allies would maintain the road blocks, including barricades on routes to the airport, until a full resolution of the crisis. "All issues are linked.

Beirut will remain shut until there is a political solution," the source said.

The political crisis has paralyzed the country and left it without a president since November 2007.

An airport official said all flights had been cancelled on Friday with the main road from Beirut barricaded by Hezbollah fighters. "As soon as they open the road, the flights will resume."An influential pro-government leader called for dialogue. Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze minority, said Hezbollah "regardless of its military strength, cannot annul the other". "Dialogue alone brings results. Running away from dialogue is not useful," he told the pro-government LBC television.

Killed trying to escape

The dead included a woman and her 30-year-old son killed while trying to flee Ras al-Nabae -- a mixed Sunni-Shiite Beirut district and scene of some of the heaviest clashes. "They were trying to flee to the mountains.

Instead ... they reached the hospital, dead," said a relative, who declined to give her name because of security fears. "It was terrifying during the night. We couldn't even move about in the house," said another woman, a Ras al-Nabae resident who fled the area at first light with her children. "We spent the night in the corridor." Witnesses recounted the chaos and fear that reigned in Beirut overnight as people rushed to stores that remained open to stock up, while others were trapped in their homes."It was a hellish night.

The armed militants were everywhere shooting all over the place," said west Beirut resident Rima.

"Occupier of Beirut"

Opposition gunmen guard pro-govt detainees in west BeirutHezbollah had steadily seized the offices of pro-government factions, including the Future group of Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri, in the predominantly Muslim western half of the city.Backed by gunmen from the Shiite Amal group, Hezbollah handed over the offices to the army. Hariri supporters gave up their offices to the army elsewhere in the country. Hezbollah also moved into Hariri-owned media outlets, and Hariri's television and radio stations went off the air. Opposition gunmen of the Syrian Socialist National Party set ablaze a building housing studios of Hariri's TV station. "It certainly leaves the government weaker and the Future movement weaker," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. But Hezbollah does not want to be seen as an "occupier of Beirut", he said, and handing control to the army appeared the most likely exit. The European Union, Germany and France urged a peaceful resolution. Syria said the issue was an internal Lebanese affair.

Normal life in Christian areas

A crowd of Lebanese citizens jostle at a bakery to buy bread in the southIn Beirut, most shops and businesses remained shuttered while tanks rolled through the streets and hundreds of riot police and troops patrolled the city but with orders not to intervene in the conflict.

Lebanon was largely cut off from the outside world, with the international airport and Beirut port shut and several key highways blockaded.

But hundreds of people were able to flood to border crossings with Syria to escape the violence and foreign governments began putting in place plans to pull out their nationals.Although west Beirut was virtually under siege, in the predominantly Christian eastern sector of the city, life was going on as usual, with shops and other businesses open.

Proxy war with Iran

Lebanon's feud is widely seen as an extension of the confrontation pitting the United States and its Arab allies and Israel against Syria and Iran, which back Hezbollah -- regarded as a terrorist group by the West.

Israeli President Shimon Peres claimed the violence was fomented by archfoe Iran to further what he said was Tehran's goal to control all of the Middle East.

While Iran accused the United States and Israel of fueling the deadly fighting.

"Adventurous efforts and interventions by the United States and the Zionist regime are the main cause of the continuous chaotic situation in Lebanon," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

The long-running political standoff, which first erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet, has left the country without a head of state since November, when Damascus protégé Emile Lahoud stepped down.

Egypt raises prices amid public anger

Egypt's parliament on Monday voted in favor of a set of tax and duty increases including on fuel, diesel and cigarettes amid public anger at price hikes and the state of the economy.

Tax breaks will be removed from private schools and educational institutions, while vehicle license fees will also see a sharp rise especially for large capacity engines.Around 120 opposition and independent MPs, including those representing the Muslim Brotherhood, voted against the proposal.
Parliament spent Monday discussing the proposal which is aimed at covering the 12.5-billion pound (2.3-billion dollar) cost of a rise in public sector salaries promised by President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak vowed last Wednesday to raise public sector salaries by 30 percent to combat rises in food prices.Speaking to parliament, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said the new measures were aimed at "taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor."In recent months, Egypt has seen a number of strikes and demonstrations against low salaries and price rises.

Egypt is also in the grip of a serious bread crisis brought on by a combination of the rising cost of wheat on world markets and sky-rocketing inflation.

A day of nationwide action called for April 6 saw riots erupt in the Nile Delta industrial city of Mahalla in which three people were killed after demonstrators pulled down posters of Mubarak.

Meanwhile an Egyptian television agency boss was charged by a Cairo court over helping to broadcast images of protesters tearing down portraits of President Hosni Mubarak during deadly food riots in April.Nader Gohar, who owns the Cairo News Company, was charged with not having a license to provide satellite feed facilities to foreign channels following a complaint by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, a judicial official told AFP. Gohar, who is currently in Paris, said Monday he has been falsely accused of the broadcasting breach, which carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.

Three civilians were killed by police during two days of rioting in the Nile Delta industrial city of Mahalla on April 6-7. Demonstrations called to protest rising food prices turned violent when police used rubber-coated bullets and tear-gas on protesters who tore down billboard images of Mubarak.

Footage of the posters being torn down

-- a crime against the president under Egyptian law

-- and the subsequent violence could be seen on many television stations and on the Internet. The court, which ordered Gohar's arrest ahead of the next hearing on May 26, has already ordered the agency's offices searched and impounded five satellite dishes used for broadcasting and a vehicle.

Saudi mulls workplace rules as more women join

Economic necessity is pushing Saudi Arabia to accept the idea of women in the workplace, leading to a debate about how to set up socially acceptable office environments, a government official said in an interview this weekend.
Faisal bin Muammar, head of a body promoting national dialogue, said high unemployment and the reliance upon 7 million foreign workers was forcing the hand of opponents to women working in the country of 24 million people.
The debate
-- as demonstrated at a major forum last month of Islamic scholars, ministers and businesswomen
-- has now moved to whether women can work in the same office space as men, or if firms must provide segregated areas to allow women to work.
"Most agreed to open a wide arena for women to get jobs, since girls now graduate more than boys from universities.
We cannot go on having 7 million foreigners and our graduate women in their houses," bin Muammar told Reuters. "But how to establish it (is the issue), whether it is in separate or mixed places
... We need to make rules for it, which religious scholars, families and social leaders need.
"Women at the national dialogue meeting last month
-- speaking from a separate room so they could be heard but not seen
-- said firms would have to provide extras such as special transport for them to get to work.Thousands of expatriates are employed as drivers for women because of the ban on driving cars.
But the government has been trying to gradually introduce reform in the county."Saudi Arabia is unique in that since unification, most development and changes have been initiated by government and society is sometimes resisting changes," bin Muammar said."There is a big program to moderate the country," he added.

Joint Declaration on World Democracy

A call for visionary leadership to abolish war and create enforceable global law

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, are leaders with a long-term vision for the planet.

We believe in global democracy as a goal;

we envision a world beyond the absolute sovereignty theory of the nation-state, in which the sovereignty of the world's people is primary.

We expect that the people of the world will someday, perhaps in our lifetimes, demand and achieve a well-governed world democracy.

We further declare that it is time to envision such a goal for humankind; in fact, we see no other long-term means for the survival of our species and of the planet itself.

We therefore call for the careful evolution of our institutions of global governance toward genuine planetary democracy and enforceable global law.

Enduring world peace, economic justice, and environmental protection are not utopian ideals; we declare these to be real and achievable goals.

Humankind can best realize these goals, we believe, by setting an intention for creating a world legislature along with individual accountability before world law.

Above all, we hold the vision of an epochal change in human affairs that will put an end to the war system. Just as slavery has been declared illegal, we call for the complete abolition of war.

TOWARD THESE ENDS, we call on leaders in all walks of life to educate all people everywhere about their innate sovereignty and their right to self-government.

Let us seize the opportunity to reinvent our world by working for the great goal of one world democracy and the rule of global law, by supporting immediate efforts to:

Educate everyone, and especially today's young activists, about the need for global law.We believe that generations to come will realize the imperative of enforceable global law through world democracy.

Support efforts to build awareness of world citizenship and to protect human rights.We envision the day when there will be a universal bill of rights that will protect the rights of all people.
Foster grassroots movements for world democracy, including global political parties.

We encourage the world's people to express their innate sovereignty at the individual and global levels.

Start now to create an advisory world legislature or United Nations Peoples' Assembly.Let's begin to take steps on the way to the long-term goal of a truly representative government for all humanity.

Expand the work of ICC and the International Court of Justice at the Hague.Let's move more deliberately toward a genuine world judiciary that can apply global law to individuals and states.
Learn from regional federations of states such as the United States, Europe, and Africa.We encourage the study of these precedents so that we can build toward the coming federation of all nations.

We know that achieving a world democracy under enforceable law could take much time--and to get there, we must take intermediate evolutionary steps. But we believe that leadership in these times means affirming that our goal represents the best hope of humankind.

THE SIGNATORIES BELOW hereby represent that they wholeheartedly support this declaration, and will work in their spheres of influence to achieve the goals stated herein:

Global Government Organizations

SIGN THE PLEDGE FOR WORLD DEMOCRACY!

Israel lifts blockade of fuel deliveries to Gaza

Israel on Wednesday resumed fuel shipments to the sole power plant in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said a day after officials said supplies would last for only 30 hours before it shut down.

"A million liters of fuel for the central power plant are being transferred today through Nahal Oz, which opened this morning," said an army spokeswoman, referring to the fuel terminal on the Israeli border with northern Gaza.Israel cut fuel supplies for Gaza's power plant by half and halted the supply of petrol and diesel after Palestinian militants attacked the terminal two weeks ago, killing two Israeli civilian employees.

It resumed shipments of fuel for the plant several days later, but stopped deliveries again last week after another attack killed three Israeli soldiers near Nahal Oz.On Tuesday Kanaan Obeid, vice president of Gaza's power authority, warned that the plant's fuel supply would last only another 30 hours, which would mean it would have to shut down on Wednesday night.

The Gisha Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement sent a request to Israel's attorney general warning that the cuts "violate the state's commitment to the Israeli supreme court to permit a minimum amount of fuel to enter Gaza."The plant provides around 30 percent of the territory's electricity, with most of the rest supplied from Israel and a small amount from Egypt.Israel slapped a punishing blockade on Gaza after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory in June

Iraq lawmakers move to ban toy guns

Children imitating sectarian divides in war games

Iraqi lawmakers, alarmed at the exceptional levels of violence children are exposed to daily, are about to pass a bill to ban the import of toy guns, an MP said on Wednesday.

"Our children see too much violence on TV, they have it on their video games, they hear their parents talk about violence every day. It is rampant in the streets," parliamentary committee on women and children chairwoman Samira al-Mussawi told AFP.Saying the bill has already been approved by the cabinet, Mussawi expects it to come before parliament before the end of the week.

According to Mussawi, children do not distinguish between toy guns and the real thing.

"They use them without knowing the reality of violence or killing," she said.

"We have to stop importing these kinds of toys and give our children others that will help them develop their brains.

"The lawmaker called on the education ministry to introduce subjects in schools dealing with matters such as non-violent conflict resolution and reconciliation.

Members of her committee, she added, backed efforts by the Iraqi army to curb the number of toy guns on the streets by going to schools and asking children to hand in plastic weaponry in return for other, creative toys.

Plastic toy guns, many imported from China, flood the shelves of toy stores, with shopkeepers saying the weaponry is the top seller, both for boys and for girls. Prices range from 5,000 to 40,000 dinars (four to 32 dollars), with the MP7AI rifle the favorite, as it resembles the type of weapons children see in American movies, shopkeepers told AFP.

Teachers say Iraqi kids play cops and robbers as do children in most countries, but that they also play war games, based on what is happening in the streets of their towns and cities. In some neighborhoods, it's police versus "terrorists", or army versus al-Qaeda. In other areas war games reflect the bitter sectarian divides

-- one side gets to be Shiite militiamen, the other Sunni insurgents.The only psychological study carried out in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 was on children by the Association of Psychologists of Iraq (API) in 2006.

It found that the violence was profoundly affecting them."The only things they have on their minds are guns, bullets, death and a fear of the U.S. occupation," said API spokesman Marwan Abdullah when he released the report.

Egypt jails 25 Islamists for up to 10 years

An Egyptian military court on Tuesday jailed 25 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood for up to 10 years for financing a banned organization and acquitted 15 others, a court official said.

The Brotherhoood's number three Khayrat al-Shater and fellow leader Hassan Malek were jailed for seven years while seven other Islamists were jailed in absentia for 10 years.Sixteen others were jailed for between 18 months and five years, the source said.

The Islamists were sentenced following a repeatedly delayed verdict that has no right of appeal because it is issued by a military tribunal.

Jordan prison unrest continues after 3 dead

Inmates at a prison north of the Jordanian capital of Amman set fire to their cells on Tuesday a day after three rioting prisoners died in clashes with security forces at another jail, police said. "A number of prisoners convicted of murder and robbery inflicted injuries on themselves and set fire to their cells this morning at Swaka prison" north of Amman, police spokesman Mohammed Khatib said in a statement.

"They were showing solidarity with inmates who rioted on Monday at Muaqqar prison (in southeast Amman), but police tackled the situation and evacuated the inmates from the cells for their own safety."
Khatib did not elaborate, but a security source told AFP that the prisoners were protesting at being segregated from other convicts.

On Monday, three Muaqqar inmates were killed and dozens were injured in clashes with police after prison authorities decided to segregate them from others.They also cut themselves with sharp tools and set fire to their cells.

In March 2006, inmates at Juweideh prison south of the capital rioting for the same reason briefly held prison officials hostage

Iraqi blogger: Baghdad after Saddam

Iraq's first blogger, Salam Pax, was in Baghdad on April 9, 2003. He watched cautiously as the US military entered the capital and took down Saddam Hussein's government.

But hopes for a better future were soon replaced with fears of looters taking the city apart brick by brick.

Five years later, he recounts the trials and tribulations experienced by Iraqis who woke up for the first time in 24 years without a government led by Saddam Hussein.

The collected weblog has been published by Guardian Books under the title The Baghdad Blog. He also made 19 short documentaries about life in Iraq after the war and was awarded Royal Television Society's award for innovation in 2003.

The events in Baghdad in early April five years ago were so overwhelming that it took three days and a succession of four-hour TV news snippets for the predicament to sink in.

Electricity had been cut off for a couple of days and we had been using a small power generator for four hours during the day and night mainly to check the news.

My uncles and aunts were all staying at our house … we thought that if we were going to be shocked and awed into democracy, we really ought to go through the experience together.

On April 7, my father woke up everyone because he had heard on the radio that the US army had entered Baghdad.

The 15 members of my extended family sat silently in front of the television set and watched a live feed from a US network showing American tanks rolling towards a presidential palace in central Baghdad.

It almost felt like watching an implausible scene in a science fiction film. This was followed two days later by footage of the Saddam statue in Firdous square being pulled down.

No more Saddam

We watched with disbelief.

Could Saddam really be gone now? We stayed home with our doors locked and waited for the retaliation of the Iraqi army, but there was nothing.

Days later we would see Iraqi military uniforms tossed in ditches as if the army just disappeared into thin air.

Then the images of the looting started appearing on all the news channels. This time we watched with anger and my uncles returned to their own homes to make sure their belongings did not get 'liberated' as well.

In rapid succession, we moved within three days from fear of being bombed to hope for a better future and back to fear of the chaos on the street.

We could tell from the events unfolding in the street three days after the coalition forces moved into Baghdad how this invasion would likely conclude.

Iraqis have never really recovered from the chaos of those early days.

But the truth is I chose not to dwell on what was happening in the streets and held on instead to a hope for a better future.

And with every little step forward we would look at each other and say 'it's happening'. But these forward steps were usually just blips of good news in what felt like an endless stream of bad news.

Corpses

But it has become increasingly difficult today to remember what good I had once been hoping would come out of the war and regime change.

I am left with a lot of bad memories.

There were days when the Red Crescent was begging for volunteers to assist in retrieving the corpses from the streets and giving them proper burial.

The local hospital's garden had to be converted into a makeshift cemetery after the electricity went out; there was no way the bodies could be stored in refrigerated morgues until they were identified by next of kin.

My mother, after going out only once after Baghdad was taken by coalition forces, decided she we would never venture outside her front yard again.

Not until I promised her that stability had returned to the streets.

That never really happened.

Painful memories

Going out in the city became an exercise in blocking out painful images and scenes; in some cases there were areas of the city you plainly avoided.

Have you seen what has happened to Baghdad's book market? I would rather have the image of that street as I remember it in my mind than the reality of what is left of it today.

Eventually, we had to leave our home when my neighbourhood was taken over by Sunni militias - all my Shia uncles and aunts also left their homes with all their belongings. Then came the walls which transformed an ethnically mixed and vibrant city into a series of sectarian ghettos.

And can one ever forget the neverending Iraqi civilian casualties.
To be honest, I still have no idea how to refer to April 9, 2003. For a while, one of our shortlived early governments called it "Baghdad Liberation Day" but that feels like a contradiction in terms as foreign forces stormed the city and that usually is described as an invasion.

On the other hand, I never really could bring myself to describing it as the "Fall of Baghdad".

I thought we were never going to let that happen although after five years of mostly death and bloodshed my beloved city is certainly not what it used to be.

I don't want to say fallen. But Baghdad is unquestionably and deeply hurt.

Salam Pax is and Iraqi documentary film-maker and the author of The Baghdad Blog. He graduated as an architect from Baghdad university but turned to blogging in 2002.

Saudi blogger makes Bible version of 'Fitna'

and ghrorg human rights movies re-presenting the film

A Saudi blogger has made the Christian equivalent of the anti-Quran film "Fitna" in an attempt to discredit the recently released video by Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

The six-minute video called "Schism" by 33-year-old Saudi blogger Raid Al-Saeed takes violent Biblical texts out of context and intersperses them with fiery rants by a Christian fundamentalist youth leader in Texas.

"I made it in less than 24 hours," Saeed told Saudi daily Arab News, adding that he was not promoting hatred against Christianity, but trying to prove that it is wrong to judge Islam by watching Fitna

It is easy to take part of any holy book out of context and make it sound like an inhumane book," he writes at the end of the short video.

"This is what Geert Wilders did to gather supporters for his hateful ideology

."Saeed said YouTube initially removed his video with a message that the clip violated its terms. But he wrote back, asking why his movie was removed while "Fitna" remained online and re-posted the film on March 2.

Jordan was CIA's top rendition location: HRW

The CIA secretly transported at least 14 war on terror detainees to Jordan between 2001 and 2004, making it the top "rendition" destination at that time, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

"While a handful of countries received persons rendered by the United States during this period, no other country is believed to have held as many as Jordan," the rights group said in a statement.

The prisoners were interrogated and tortured by Jordan's General Intelligence Department, according to a new Human Rights Watch report that documents eight previously unknown cases of rendition.

GID officials who met with Human Rights Watch in Amman in 2007 denied receiving CIA prisoners and denied using torture.

But the rights group said the denials were unconvincing "given the weight of credible evidence showing otherwise.

"The report is "based largely on firsthand information from Jordanian former prisoners who were detained with the non-Jordanian terrorism suspects," it said."We've documented more than a dozen cases in which prisoners were sent to Jordan for torture," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch.Prisoners rendered to Jordan included at least five Yemenis, three Algerians, two Saudis, a Mauritanian, a Syrian, a Tunisian, and one or more Chechens from Russia, the group said.

They may also have included a Libyan, an Iraqi Kurd, a Kuwaiti, one or more Egyptians, and a national of the United Arab Emirates.

The report includes an excerpt of a note handwritten by a rendered prisoner while in Jordanian custody in late 2002.

The prisoner is now at the U.S. war on terror prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ali al-Hajj al-Sharqawi wrote that GID interrogators beat him "in a way that does not know any limits.""They threatened me with electricity, with snakes and dogs .... [They said] we'll make you see death .... They threatened to rape me," the note said.A common torture method was falaqa, by which prisoners are given extended beatings on the bottoms of their feet.

"Just about everyone at GID was beaten with sticks," a Jordanian former prisoner told Human Rights Watch.

"People were beaten on their feet. They did it in the basement.""Outsourcing torture is not only wrong, it's illegal," Mariner said. "And the U.S. can't say it doesn't torture if it sends people to countries that do."

Palestinian tale of kindness plays in West Bank

For the first time, a documentary about a Palestinian boy whose tragic death saved the lives of five Israeli children

– thanks to his father – has been screened in the West Bank.

The documentary -- "The Heart of Jenin"

– tells the story of 12-year-old Palestinian boy, Ahmad al-Khatib, who was shot dead by Israeli troops when they mistook his toy gun for a real weapon.The shooting happened in the West Bank town of Jenin on Nov. 2, 2005.

At the time, Israeli soldiers had orders to "shoot anything that moved," one soldier said in the documentary.

The shot to Ahmad's head proved fatal, killing the boy from Jenin refugee camp. Ahmad's father Ismael al-Khatib later decided to donate his boy's organs to patients at the Haifa hospital where his son was pronounced dead."If I can't help my son to recover, then may be I can help other kids," he says in the documentary.

Five Israeli children received Ahmad's life-saving organs. The feature length documentary – directed by Marcus Vetter and Lior Geller –was screened at the German-French Cultural Center in Ramallah on March 27, the first time the film was shown in the Palestinian territories for a general audience.Palestinian cinemas refused the film because Geller is Israeli, said Farid Maajari, director of the cultural center.

Storyline

The Heart of Jenin follows Ahmad's father Ismael on his journey through Israel, visiting the children who found life through his son's death.Ahmad's kidneys went to the daughter of a Jewish settler in Occupied Jerusalem and a Bedouin boy from the Negev Desert region. His heart went to a Druze family in northern Israel. Two other beneficiaries chose not to participate in the documentary.

The extraordinary donation was approved not only by the boy's grief-stricken mother and father, but religious and political scholars too.

In the movie, Jenin's mufti approves organ donations. The opinion is backed by the Jenin commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

"We have no problem with Jews as Jews.

There's no problem as long as this will save lives," says Zakaria Zubeidi.In the movie, the father of the Jewish girl said he did not want to meet the donor family and would have preferred if they were Jewish.

He said Arabs only want to kill Israelis, apparently oblivious to the actions of Ahmad's father who donated his son's kidney to save the settler girl.After the screening in Ramallah, German director Vetter told the audience the film was banned from the Tel Aviv film festival allegedly for technical reasons.

"Some people said the film is biased towards the Palestinians because it tackles the death of the child and focuses on checkpoints, collective punishment, and the destruction of Jenin refugee camp," Vetter said.

Ismail al-Khatib now runs a music school for children in Jenin.

"Without peace, only killing will remain. Children from Palestine and Israel and all the world will die," Khatib said.

Jordan slams HRW report on 'rendition' prisoners

Jordan has blasted as "erroneous" a Human Rights Watch report that the U.S.
spy agency secretly transported at least 14 prisoners to the kingdom between 2001 and 2004.
"The report is erroneous and inaccurate.
It is based on individual allegations, unobjective foundation and wrong conclusions," State Minister for Information Nasser Judeh said on Tuesday.

The U.S.-based rights watchdog said the Central Intelligence Agency secretly transported at least 14 "war on terror" detainees to Jordan between 2001 and 2004, making it the top "rendition" destination at that time.
The prisoners, it said, were sent for interrogation and torture by Jordan's General Intelligence Department.
"While a handful of countries received persons rendered by the United States during this period, no other country is believed to have held as many as Jordan," HRW said.
Judeh said Jordan hopes that "such reports in the future would be based on accurate and objective information, instead of relaying on individual information and take them for granted as facts.
"Judeh said Jordan is a party to the U.N.
Convention against Torture, and that the country's laws criminalize torture."Members of terrorist organization target the kingdom by giving false information to human rights groups, hindering efforts to fight terror," he said.

killing the civilian people by the israeli's forces

this documentarian movies shows the largest masscare and most dirty by the israeli's forces against the civilian people in palestine ( in jinin and nablus) in the year 2001

Egypt police and protesters clash, strike foiled

Egyptian police clashed with protesters in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla on Sunday, firing tear gas and arresting at least 150 after plans for a strike at the city's textile factory were scrapped under pressure from security forces. Angry residents demanding an end to price hikes and soaring inflation set two schools ablaze and burnt tires along the city's railway.

Workers at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla had planned a strike on Sunday to demand higher pay, but security pressure and internal divisions prevented it from taking place.Around the country, plans for a general strike -- inspired by the Mahalla action -- fizzled out after the government made good on its warning to take firm action against protesters by arresting dozens of people.

Among those detained were opposition leaders including Islamist journalist Mohammed Abdel Qudoos and Magdi Hussein who heads the suspended Labour party.

Bloggers and members of other opposition parties, including the Nasserist and the liberal Ghad parties as well as from the protest movement Kefaya, were also arrested.

Analysts said that even though a massive strike did not take place nationally, the call to strike was significant in itself.

"We must not underestimate the call. Even if it did not have a large effect, it's the first time such a call has been made," Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, a politics professor at the American University in Cairo, told AFP.

He said the move "reflects a general feeling of discontent in the country." It is unclear who initiated the call which snowballed after some 25,000 employees at the textile plant in Mahalla announced plans to strike from Sunday over low salaries and price hikes.

In Mahalla, the strike was called off after pressure from security forces and internal divisions, employees said.

A strike would have been considered illegal without the backing of unions which are linked mainly to the ruling National Democratic Party.

Sky-rocketing food prices in Egypt this year have been met in recent weeks by a rumbling wave of popular discontent and unprecedented strikes and demonstrations.

On Saturday the interior ministry threatened "immediate and firm measures against any attempt to demonstrate, disrupt road traffic or the running of public establishments and against all attempts to incite such acts.

" The interior ministry insisted that all public institutions, including schools and state-run factories, should open for business as usual.

And it accused "provocateurs and illegal movements" of having "spread false rumours and called for protests, demonstrations and a strike on Sunday.

" The state-owned daily Al-Ahram warned that those inciting or participating in the strike could go to jail. The UN's World Food Program said this month that the average household expenditure in Egypt had risen by 50 percent since January 1

Aid groups deem Somalia too risky

A number of leading international aid agencies have announced that they consider it too dangerous for their staff to work in Somalia.

The statement was made on Wednesday by 39 organisations, including Oxfam, World Vision and Save the Children.

It came as seven people were killed in a battle on in Jowhar between fighters associated with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and Ethiopian troops supporting the interim Somali government.

Mukhtar Robbow, a spokesman for the fighters, said his group had briefly seized the town.
Over the past year, Mogadishu, the capital, and other key cities have been hit by almost daily violence. Hundreds of civilians have died and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes.

The aid agency statement said: "The crisis engulfing Somalia has deteriorated dramatically while access to people in need continues to decrease; 360,000 people have been newly displaced and an additional half a million people are reliant on humanitarian assistance."

The statement is based on a report released last October.

"There are now more than one million internally displaced people in Somalia. Intense conflict in Mogadishu continues to force an average of 20,000 people from their homes each month."

Last week, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, presented the Security Council with a report proposing the deployment of 27,000 peacekeepers to replace the stretched African Union force.

The Security Council has reviewed options for increased UN involvement in Somalia, but certain members have ruled out an early deployment of a full peacekeeping force.

The aid agencies said families left in the capital are among "the poorest of the poor who did not have the means to flee".

"Record high food prices, hyper-inflation and drought in large parts of the country is leaving communities struggling to survive," they said.

Dutch Islam film posted on website

Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, has posted a film on the internet that accuses the Quran of inciting violence, despite government fears that it will offend Muslims and cause protests.

It was posted on his Freedom Party's website but could be watched only briefly before the site said it was not available for technical reasons.
The 15-minute film called Fitna, a Quranic term sometimes translated as "strife", started with a warning that it contains "very shocking images".

It is interspersed with images of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre and other bombings with quotes from the Quran.

The Dutch government has distanced itself from Wilders' views and fears the film will cause protests by Muslims similar to those sparked by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers in 2006.
Before seeing the film, demonstrators have already taken to the streets from Afghanistan to Indonesia to express their anger at the Netherlands, while the governments of Pakistan and Iran have sharply criticised the project.
The film shows a young girl in a headscarf being asked about Jews and Dutch broadcasters have refused to screen the film and a US-based web service on which Wilders had planned to show his film, deactivated the site at the weekend after receiving complaints.

Dutch exporters have expressed fears of a possible boycott in the Muslim world, though trade with such countries makes up only a small percentage of total exports.
There is also concern for 25,000 Dutch citizens living in Muslim countries.
Wilders has been under heavy guard because of death threats since the 2004 murder of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch director who made a film critical of Islam's treatment of women.
His killing by a Muslim extremist triggered a wave of unrest in the Netherlands, home to almost one million Muslims out of a total population of 16 million.

Earlier this month, Dutch officials raised the national risk level to "substantial" partly because of the Wilders film and perceptions of an increased al-Qaeda threat.

Iraq's corporate genocide

Five years ago, I understood very little about the Iraq war. When asked to write an anti-war speech, I didn't even know where to begin. Today, I know why it happened, and I cannot say this is a war like any other, or even that it is a just war.
This war has been too long, too painful, too costly, too evil, too inhumane and too unjust to simply be deemed an invasion, or even worse, a liberation. Today, right here, right now, I want this war to be recognised for what it truly is - a genocide against the Iraqi people.
It is a corporate hate crime. It is not a "just" war.

It does not have a "just" cause. It lacks legitimate authority, it was executed with all the wrong intentions, it was certainly not a last resort, the probability of success was slim and most of all the weaponry has gone beyond "smart bombs".
If the international community recognises the conflicts in Bosnia, Armenia and Rwanda as genocides where human rights are replaced with the extermination of ethnic groups, then Iraq deserves the same recognition - and more.

Rape, indiscriminate killings and torture are all elements of genocide, but the situation in Iraq goes beyond that, fitting the description of something that is more 21st-century - a corporate genocide.
In stating that Iraq's genocide is distinct, the point is not to reduce the relevance of previous genocides or leave similar slaughters in other regions unacknowledged.
Rather, it is to recognise that while the perception of genocide in Iraq is not new, the extent to which it is now a valid belief is.
Corporate genocide is the mass cooperation of a business-led military invasion, where a population is sacrificed for the economic profit of the invader. A corporate genocide goes beyond blind hate and killing innocent civilians to gain power and territory.
In pursuing its economic strategies, the US has caused the death and injury, deliberate or not, of millions of Iraqis.

Foreign businesses that profit and thrive on war have gained new power in Iraq, but lack accountability. Private security firms have little motivation to promote peace - though it is their job - and to end this genocide.
Terrorising my people puts bread in their mouths and takes it away from the mouths of starving Iraqi children. Our war is their income.
To keep the money flowing, private security firms dehumanise Iraqi resistance and rebel groups by labelling them as terrorists. The international propagation of this portrayal is one element in the structuring of a corporate genocide.
Another is the inability of neither international law nor the international community to hold these firms accountable for their actions, including their killings of innocent people.
Individuals perceived to be a threat to the firm are treated as such and can be disposed of under the false guise of an attack, leaving the firms unaccountable. And because these firms have power, they can easily deny misusing it and be believed, if they admit to using it at all.
Not taking responsibility for destroying the lives of men, women and children marks a new chapter in the book of corporate genocide.

It is clear that five years later, the US has achieved little in terms of its humanitarian agenda but much of the goals listed in its hidden corporate agenda.
Iraqi natural resources are being distributed and scattered among the most powerful corporations, with very little profit earmarked towards the rebuilding of Iraq.
This is what the corporate genocide is about.
There is much debate about whether Iraq can stand on its own after the departure of the US Army. But it is crucial to keep in mind that the US never held Iraq up as a country and it never helped Iraqis come together as a nation.
I said it five years ago and repeat it now: a Western-style democracy cannot be forced on a nation that does not welcome it.
To not believe that we, the Iraqi people, will establish a form of government that we see fit for our needs, by ourselves, is an insult to the Iraqi solidarity and historical heritage that has always, continues to, and will never cease to exist.
Nofa Khadduri is a student at the University of Toronto in Canada and has been campaigning against the Iraq war since the age of 15.

Egypt university lecturers stage one-day strike

Thousands of Egyptian university lecturers held a nationwide strike on Sunday demanding salary increases and better pensions, the latest in a barrage of social unrest against the government.

"We didn't give any classes today and now we're staging a two-hour demonstration," said Hani al-Husseini, who heads the strike's coordination committee.

Fellow academic Mohamed Fouad Ali told AFP outside Cairo University, that lecturers currently get around 2,000 Egyptian pounds (365 dollars) a month, a figure they want to see doubled.
"If our demands are not met we will be forced to continue strike days, even if that's not what we want, especially during the exam period," said geology lecturer Ezzedine Abdel Hakim, alongside around 60 colleagues.

Hakim said that more than 100,000 lecturers were taking part in the strike at 25 universities around the country. Cairo University alone employs 12,000 lecturers, he said.Despite the strike, official media reported university life as unaffected by the industrial action.

The MENA news agency said that classes at Ain Shams and Helwan universities were continuing as usual, quoting staff as saying that they were happy with an unspecified salary increase promised by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.

Students did not express much solidarity for the lecturers."Some of us have traveled very far to be here and they're making us lose a day of classes, it's too much," said Cairo University student Basma Amin.

The country has been hit by a wave of strikes and demonstrations in recent months in the face of rampant inflation and sky-rocketing prices.

US death toll in Iraq hits 4,000

The death toll of US military in Iraq has passed 4,000 after the US Central Command announced that four more troops had died in an attack.

The soldiers were killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb during a patrol in southern Baghdad, the military said on Monday.
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At least 50 Iraqis, most of them civilians, also died on Sunday in violence including bomb blasts and shootings.

In the most deadly attack, 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into a security checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul.
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On Monday Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman, said that George Bush, the US president, was "grieved" by the losses.

"He mourns the loss of every single life from the very first that was lost in this conflict to the ones that are lost today," she said.

"He bears the responsibility for the decisions that he made and he also bears the responsibility to continue to focus on succeeding."

More than 29,000 American soldiers have been wounded after years of conflict in Iraq, according to the icasualties.org website, which also carried the 4,000-strong US death toll.

The death toll is still considerably smaller than the number of Iraqis who have died in the conflict.

"It has been left to journalists and academics to try and estimate the number that have died. Estimates vary from 89,000 on the lowest side to the highest figure that I have heard - which is one million," James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, said.

"When you speak to an Iraqi who has stayed here in this country throughout the last five years, everyone knows someone who has died, and most families have lost a family member."

At least 97 per cent of the US military deaths came after George Bush, the US president, announced the end of "major combat" in Iraq on May 1, 2003

Since the US military toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq's president, it has faced a violent anti-occupation campaign and witnessed violence between the country's sectarian communities

No casualty is more or less significant than another; each soldier, marine, airman and sailor is equally precious and their loss equally tragic," Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, US military spokesman in Baghdad, said of the losses.
"Being in the military means we are willingly in harm's way to protect others in order to bring hope and a sustainable security to the Iraqi people."
The milestone death toll comes day after Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq, saying the US would remain in Iraq and promising American soldiers that they would emerge victorious

Hoda Abdel Hamid, Al Jazeera's Iraq correspondent, said the high death toll showed that the conflict had not been fully contained by the US.
"The Bush administration keeps saying that things are getting better and better. Reaching such a milestone is a reminder that the war is far from over in Iraq," she said.
"We are at a transition period. Despite the fact that the surge is working, despite the fact that the violence has dropped ... things could get much worse underground."
Abdel Hamid said that the "surge" could not work effectively unless it was accompanied by national reconciliation of Iraq's sectarian communities.

More than 80 per cent of soldiers killed have died in attacks by al-Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni and Shia fighters, icasualties.org said.
The remainder died in non-combat related incidents

Around 40 per cent of those killed were struck by roadside bombs, according to the website, making these weapons the main cause of fatalities.Small-arms fire was the second biggest killer, the website said, with helicopter crashes, ambushes, rocket attacks and suicide bombings also the cause of many deaths.
The deadliest year for the military in Iraq was 2007 when it lost 901 troops, the icasualties.org website figures said.

This figure compares with 486 deaths in 2003, the first year of the conflict, 849 in 2004, 846 in 2005 and 822 in 2006. Since the start of 2008, 96 soldiers have died.
Vietnam has been the deadliest war for the US military, apart from the two world wars, with 58,000 soldiers killed between 1964 and 1973, an average of 26 a day.
On average, just over two US soldiers die each day in Iraq.

American soldiers in Iraq interviewed by news agencies said that while they were sad about the losses, the conflict was justified.

"It's sad that the number is that high. It makes you wonder if there is a different way of approaching things. Nobody likes to hear that number," said senior Airman Preston Reeves, 26, from Birmingham, Alabama

"Every one of those people signed up voluntarily and it's a shame that that happens, but tragedies do happen in war.

"It's a shame you don't get support from your own country, when all they want you to do is leave Iraq and all these people will have died in vain."Against the backdrop of the rising US military death toll, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Democratic candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination, are calling for the withdrawal of troops.

Clinton has said that she may consider pulling troops out of the country after 60 days, she should win the nomination and the presidency.

But John McCain, who is set to become the Republican candidate in the presidential race, has advocated US soldiers remaining in Iraq.

McCain remains a strong supporter of Bush's controversial "surge", which saw 30,000 extra soldiers deployed in an attempt to improve security in Iraq.

After demonstrations of bread in Egypt

If the Egyptian president knows the meaning of hungry ... he will certainlly knows how much the egyptian people suffer .

No clear road , no agreement, no goodwill. No goals , no common interest ..etc
They are lost as sheep ...
I do not know why they want to hold their new summit in Damascus this month ? if you know please tell me ?!

Two Algerian churches shut for missionary work

Algerian authorities ordered the closure of two churches in the Algerian city of Tizi Ouzou last week for alleged missionary work, according to recent press reports.
The latest closures are a part of an intensive campaign to uncover conversion efforts in many Algerian provinces, especially tribal areas, resulting in 10 churches receiving orders to close since November.
Ministers of the two Protestant churches in Tizi Ouzou, 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Algiers, were summoned by the authorities and charged with engaging in illegal practices.
They will hold an emergency meeting to discuss ways of resolving the issue with the authorities, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Monday.
Algerian Minister of Religious Affairs, Bouabdallah Ghulamallah, said the latest closure was ordered under the new 2006 law which limits non-Muslim worship to specific buildings approved by the state.
The law, which also forbids non-Muslims from seeking to convert Muslims, was prompted by what officials have described as an increase in the activities of Christian evangelical sects.
According to authorities, churches establish places of worship in remote areas, luring Muslims to convert to Christianity by offering them money and jobs in Europe.Ghulamallah said the churches would reopen as soon as they obtained the required permits.In an earlier statement, Ghulamallah called the Anglicans in Algeria "outlaws" and accused them of trying to establish a non-Muslim minority in the country to pave the way for foreign intervention under the pretext of religious persecution.
There have been conflicting reports about the number of Christians in Algeria, which is almost totally Muslim. According to officials, around 11,000 Christians, including expatriates, live in the country of 33 million.
But other sources say the number is much higher, attributing the increase to missionary activities.
The tension reached its peak a month ago when Algerian authorities asked the American bishop Hugh Johnson, 74, to leave the country after his residency expired.
Johnson, who has been living in Algeria for more 45 years, filed a lawsuit and demanded the revocation of his deportation decree.

Saddam watches remind Iraqis of happier time

Five years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, his memory lives on through wrist watches as people in his home town and birth village seek reminders of a time of safety, jobs and cheap living.In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, watches featuring an image of the former Iraqi leader on the dial sell like hot cakes to a mostly older crowd, while younger shoppers like to try them on and pose, watch seller Hamad Younes said.

"People love these Saddam watches," said Younes of the timepieces, which have a starting price of 100 dollars. "They never stay in stock more than two or three days. The people of Tikrit love Saddam," he said.
Saddam drew many of his most trusted officials from the Sunni strongholds of Tikrit and the neighboring village of Awja, where he was born in 1937, relying on tribal loyalty to ensure his absolute grip on power.

Loyalty was rewarded with the finest imported goods and lavish state support.Nostalgia for Saddam's rule has driven the trade in the watches and other reminders of the Iraqi leader.

"People have started to ask for pictures of Saddam. Saddam mosque asked for a picture to hang above their door, that was the last one I did," said Shayban al-Aloosi, a painter and printer in Tikrit.

Another picture of the fallen leader hangs in the reception of a children's welfare centre. "Saddam died a martyr, and will remain a hero of Tikrit," the center's administrator Fatin Mohammed said.

Saddam was hanged in December 2006 for crimes against humanity.

"What did the Americans bring? Hunger, arrests and killing.

I wish Saddam was back. We cry for the time of Saddam," said Khodaeiyar Salah, an old man dressed in traditional Arab robes in Tikrit's central marketplace.

In Awja, the village where Saddam was born and laid to rest, a neglected appearance mirrors the mood of its people. Crude graffiti covers its walls, the roads are empty and dead trees are all that remain of its once-proud gardens."The worst day of my life was when Iraq fell.

Today Awja is empty, there are not many people left.

All my aunts and uncles have gone, or were arrested," said Suleiman al-Nasseri, 25.Many in Awja fled the violence that engulfed Iraq since Saddam's fall. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Bombings and shootings remain a part of daily life in Iraq despite an overall drop in violence since Sunni Arab tribes turned on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and 30,000 extra U.S. troops were fully deployed last June.

"Americans say Saddam was a killer and oppressor.

Now there's more killing and oppression than in Saddam's time. Every day there is killing, gunfire ...

only when the Americans came did we hear about racism and sectarianism," said Awja grocer Yassen al-Omar, who said he was related to Saddam's cousins.Shiites, Iraq's majority Muslim sect, and Kurds suffered terribly under Saddam, whose Sunni Arab-dominated government crushed dissent through brutal military campaigns, torture and executions.

At Saddam's marble tomb, covered in a riot of flowers and surrounded by pictures of the former leader, a group of men said prayers. The graves of Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, who died fighting U.S. troops, are nearby.

"Saddam was a candle of the tribe and its light today and forever.

We miss him when we see him in pictures or on the news, and I swear we cry when we visit his grave and those of his sons, God rest them," Saddam relative Yaseen al-Majid said.

1,500 laborers stage violent wage protest in UAE

Around 1,500 workers in the United Arab Emirates staged a violent protest for higher wages on Tuesday, setting dozens of vehicles on fire and damaging property, police said.

Their nationalities were not disclosed, but similar actions in the past year have usually involved mostly low-paid Asian workers, who form the bulk of hundreds of thousands of foreign construction and unskilled workers in the booming oil-rich Gulf country.

One news report indicated at least some of the protesters were Indians.
The workers went on strike and rioted in their living quarters in the industrial area of Sagaa in Sharjah, which is adjacent to Dubai, Sharjah police chief Brigadier Humaid al-Hudaidi said, quoted by the state WAM news agency.

They set fire to a floor reserved for the management of the accommodation in a bid to "expose more than 20 employees to ... choking," he said.They also stoned and torched dozens of cars and buses in the parking lot, and tried to attack police and labor ministry officials who went to the site, the police chief said.

Hudaidi said the workers had recently put their demand for a wage hike to the labor ministry which negotiated with their employer, but a group of them incited others to strike before receiving a response.

The workers had also received pay rises two months ago, he said.Hudaidi said an investigation was under way to identify those responsible for the riot.

He did not say if any arrests had been made, nor identify the employers, saying only that they are based in a neighboring emirate, an apparent reference to Dubai.The online news service ArabianBusiness.com said the workers are employed by engineering contractor Drake and Scull.

It said workers attributed the action to unpaid wages.A company spokesperson denied this, saying some workers were unhappy about a minimum 10 percent pay rise announced for employees on Monday as they felt it did not make up for the falling value of the UAE dirham, which is pegged to the dollar, against the Indian rupee.Asian workers have demonstrated several times in the past year to demand higher wages and better living conditions despite a ban on public protests in the UAE.Many construction workers earn less than 200 dollars a month and have been further hit by mounting inflation, which reached 9.3 percent in 2006.

The press reported last month that a Dubai court had sentenced 45 Indian construction workers to six months in jail followed by deportation over a violent protest to demand wage increases

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Jordan: New restrictions on Internet cafés and violating privacy of users

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information denounced today decisions released by the Jordanian ministry of interior increasing restrictions on internet cafés in Jordan, on pretext of maintaining security, through installing cameras to monitor users of these cafés. The Network also emphasized that these procedures are considered as a real retreat from freedom of internet and the right to exchange information.

The Jordanian ministry of interior has recently issued new instructions for monitoring internet cafés widespread all over the Jordanian cities, as it enforced internet cafés owners to install cameras to the front of their cafés in order to identify the users of these cafés.

In addition to the cameras, we find that security decisions are also enforcing internet cafés owners to register the users' personal data such as their names, phone numbers and time of use, as well as the IP number of the café and data of websites explored by the users.

The newly-issued decisions of "organizing the work of internet cafés" also included enforcing internet cafés owners to install censorship programs to prevent access to websites containing pornographic material, or an affront to religious beliefs, or promoting the use of drugs, tobacco.

It is worthy to mention that Jordan is one of the most Arab countries that internet cafés are widespread on a large scale.

Even Shafiq Rashidat Street (Unversity Street) in Irbid City, has been registered in Guinness Book of Records in terms of the highest number of Internet cafés in one street.

This street contains more than 130 cafés although the street length is not exceeding 2000 meters.

An earlier report of the Arab network had expressed cautious optimism on Jordan, as the decisions of "organizing the work of internet cafés and centers" were more flexible in the past, regarding terms & conditions that have to be available in these centers and the effort exerted to expand the number of internet users.

The Arabic Network while denounces such decisions which violate right of exchanging information and privacy of internet users, is calling the Jordanian government to retreat from such arbitrary decisions which would precipitate involving Jordan among the countries which are hostile to freedom of internet.

For more information:the internet in Jordan (2004 report),visit http://www.hrinfo.org/en/reports/net2004/jordan.shtml

the internet in Jordan (2006 report),visit

http://www.openarab.net/en/reports/net2006/jordan.shtml

Court strips two weekly newspapers of their licences

Reporters Without Borders deplores a Kuwait City criminal court’s decision to withdraw the licences of two weekly newspapers, Al-Abraj and Al-Shaab, in separate cases on 8 March. The court fined Al-Abraj editor Mansur Ahmad Muhareb Al-Hayni and Al-Shaab editor Hamed Turki Abu Yabes 9,000 dinars (21,000 euros) each.
Hayni was convicted of besmirching the prime minister’s reputation while Yabes was convicted of publishing political articles in a newspaper whose licence limited it to covering arts and culture.
“The relative freedom enjoyed by the Kuwaiti press must not be undermined,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Since the start of the year, a website has been rendered inaccessible, a woman journalist has been threatened and two employees of the daily Al-Watan have been the targets of lawsuits. The withdrawal of these two weeklies’ licences can only aggravate the situation. We urge the authorities to reaffirm their commitment to freedom of expression and to find a way to allow these two newspapers to continue publishing.”
The case against Al-Abraj was brought by the information ministry over an article on 5 May 2007 headlined “More and more corruption” which blamed the prime minister for Kuwait’s poor ranking in Transparency International’s corruption index. Reached by Reporters Without Borders, Hayni condemned a deterioration in press freedom and accused the government of “politically eliminating journalists through the courts.”
Three separate cases were brought against Yabes over allegedly political articles published in Al-Shaab on 17 May 2007, for which he was fined 3,000 dinars in each case. He told Reporters Without Borders he disputed the charges, saying the articles were about economic and social issues such as corruption. He said he planned to appeal.
Click here to read the chapter on Kuwait in this year’s annual report on press freedom worldwide, which Reporters Without Borders issued on 13 February.

US adds Syria to list of top rights abusers

The U.S. dropped China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators, but added Syria, Uzbekistan and Sudan to the alleged offenders in an annual report released Tuesday.

The State Department's 2007 Human Rights Report showed China, which has raised hopes it will improve human rights by hosting the 2008 Olympics, had parted company with countries like North Korea, Myanmar and Iran.In its report, the State Department listed 10 "countries in which power was concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers remained the world's most systematic human rights violators."No reason was given for removing China -- which has been a key partner in talks with Washington to denuclearize North Korea -- from the list but the new report said China's "overall human rights record remained poor" in 2007.

The report still said that China tightened media and Internet curbs and increased controls on religious freedom in Buddhist Tibet and Muslim Xinjiang in 2007, the U.S. State Department report said.

The 2007 top 10 offenders included North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan.Beijing had figured in the top 10 in the 2006 and 2005 reports.Human rights had improved however in four countries since 2006: Mauritania, Ghana, Morocco and Haiti.Little or no progress had been made in Nepal, Georgia, Kyrghyzstan, Iraq, Afghanistan or Russia, while the situation had deteriorated in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the report added.Sudan's human rights record remained "horrific" last year, with humanitarian workers among targets of increased violence in the 5-year-old war in the country's Darfur region,

the report said."Sudan's human rights record remained horrific, with continued reports of extrajudicial killings, torture, beatings, and rape by government security forces and their proxy militia in Darfur," the document read

soon :New Affiliated Site . Arabic Human Tragedy Stories

New affiliated e-site to serve the Arabic human rights, it's work to make the arabic persons awareness of their rights .

we aim to presentation and publication the works of art such distinctive configuration and films and novels and tragic stories and satirical .

The new e- site aims to detect violations of the rights of persons and negative phenomena afflicting Arab societies

Saudi kids become world's youngest couple

A 12-year old boy married his 11-year old cousin in the southwestern Saudi province of Jizan, becoming the youngest married couple in the world.

The elementary school couple tied the knot in a big wedding, with hundreds of family members and friends blessing the union. Folklore dances were performed to highlight the joy, Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh reported.

In a related incident, an 82-year old Saudi man passed premarital medical tests, paving the way to marry a 25-year old girl to be his third wife.

The wedding party will be held next summer.

In other marriage news, two marriage registrars (mazioun) were suspended for not seeking the bride's approval before proceeding with the marriage contract, violating a major condition for marriage in Islam.

Over 40 other registrars were penalized - by suspension, warning, or license revocation - for the same reason as well as for advertising for themselves on billboards.

Intl Women's Day marked across the world

Calls to end forced marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International Women's Day on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets worldwide.
The issues highlighted crossed a wide spectrum, including abortion rights in Italy, violence against women in Iraq and women hostages in Colombia. Nearly 100 years old, the day marks the worldwide struggle for equal rights for half the globe's population.Scores of women rallied outside a Baghdad hotel demanding an end to violence and equal social status with men.

"Stop neglecting women. Stop killing women. Stop creating widows," read a large banner that the women, from various ethnic and religious backgrounds, held at the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad's central Karrada neighbourhood. In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai spoke out against forced marriages and said threats from a Taliban-led insurgency were keeping girls out of school.
"I call on religious leaders, tribal elders and particularly men: stop forcing your under-aged girls to marry, stop marrying them to old men," he said.
Up to 80 percent of Afghan women face forced marriage, and nearly two-thirds are married before the legal age of 16, according to the United Nations. Events were also planned in neighboring Pakistan, where "honor killings" of women and punishment gang-rapes have been widely reported.
Gatherings took place in India, Indonesia and China as activists pressed for an end to discrimination ranging from abortion of female foetuses to workplace bias.

soon : lost rights dialogues

a readable discussion about the lost and the violated human rights in the arabic world . These dialogues located in a variety of workshops, each addressing a specific topic suffered by the Arab community, and each contains a most important principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which addresses and refers to the violation

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Tragedy of Israel and Palestine

Americans have grown so accustomed to the disastrous dynamics operating between Israelis and Palestinians today that the failure to reach a peace deal amid the soaring death tolls assumes an aura of normalcy in their minds.

This reflects a situation we imagine ourselves to be powerless to help change and only adds to the tragedy unfolding in the Occupied Territories and Israel as well.

Today the world's attention has turned to the aftermath of the murder of eight students of an ultra-Zionist Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, established by the founder of religious zionism, Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook in 1924.

Last week the focus was the ongoing war in Gaza, which will likely be the centre of attention next week as well.

The attacks on religious students in the midst of study and prayer - coupled with the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza on the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon - are already being offered as the latest examples of continued Palestinian unwillingness to make peace with Israel more than two years after its unprecedented withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
World's largest prison

Shanbo Heinemann, a pro-Palestinian activist, is injured in a protest against the wall [GETTY] But there are many problems with this argument; firstly, most of the acts of Palestinian resistance to the occupation have always been non-violent.

Equally important is the fact that while Israeli civilians no longer live in Gaza, Israel's military presence has never ended.
Tel Aviv withdrew civilian settlers and then threw away the key to what has now become the world's largest prison.

Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister and the architect of the settlement movement, was willing to sacrifice Gaza in order to ensure Israel held onto the major settlement blocs of the West Bank, which today house more than 250,000 settlers (almost double that number if one includes the Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem).

The settler population of the West Bank also doubled during the years of the Oslo "peace" process - which began when Abu Dahim was about 12 and ended when he was 19 - without a whimper of complaint from the United States.

By the time Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister, was assassinated in 1995, Palestinian leaders were warning that the continued settlement expansion was "killing" the peace process and would sooner or later lead to a "revolution" from the street.

The presence of well over 100 settlements has necessitated a matrix of control in which 80 per cent of the West Bank be declared off limits to Palestinians.

It also meant the destruction of thousands of homes and olive and fruit trees (the backbone of an otherwise closed Palestinian economy), the confiscation of 35,000 acres of Palestinian land, and the creation of a network of bypass roads, military bases.

The 400-kilometre, 8-metre-high "separation wall" also pierces deep into Palestinian territory, cutting into at least three isolated cantons.

Together, the settlement system has made the idea of creating a territorially and economically viable Palestinian state impossible to implement.

With the eruption of the al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000 whatever infrastructure of peace had been created during Oslo was quickly dismantled by both sides.

By mid-2002 Israel began deploying a strategy of managed chaos, in which a near total closure of the Territories, coupled with a destruction of much of their economic and political infrastructure, turned the intifada into what Palestinians term an "intifawda," a neologism that brings the violence of the intifada together with the chaos, or "fawda" of a society living in a barely functioning state and economy.

Dividing Palestine

Israel's separation wall cuts a broad path through Palestinian olive groves [GALLO/GETTY]Israeli planners gambled that by splitting the West Bank from Gaza, deepening the occupation of the former while freeing itself of the settlements in the latter, and routinely deploying disproportionate violence (including tanks, helicopter gunships, F-16s, and heavily armed troops) against all signs of resistance, Palestinian society would begin turning on itself.

Indeed, Israel hoped for this when it clandestinely supported the emergence of Hamas two decades ago, with the goal of building up a rival to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) that would have them fighting each other rather than figuring out more successful strategies of fighting the occupation.

But, even as Palestinians fight each other, resistance to the occupation has continued. Most of it is comprised of various forms of non-violence (marches, sit-ins, and attempts to stop home demolitions or replant uprooted fields or groves).

These are rarely covered by the international media, and are usually met with violence by the Israeli military or settlers.

Fairly or not, however, it has been Palestinian violence, and especially suicide bombings and now rocket attacks on civilians, that have defined their resistance to the ongoing occupation.

Suicidal suicide attacks

And in this regard the actions have been nothing short of suicidal - Palestinian "resistance" to the occupation seems to have been scripted by Israel as it has suited the interests of the Israeli governments in power since 2000. As Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston recently put it:

"The Palestinians have kept their ultimate doomsday weapon under tight wraps for 40 years ... Israeli senior commanders could only pray that the Palestinians would never take it out and put it to actual use ... non-violence. This is one reason why, for decades, Israel did its best to head off, harass, and crack down on expressions of Palestinian non-violence."

If Palestinians ever decided to just "get up and walk" en masse to the Erez Crossing separating Gaza from Israel and the major West Bank check points like Qalandiya and used hammers and picks to tear them down, there would be almost nothing Israel could do, short of a massacre in full view of the world's cameras.

But Palestinians have become so stuck in the ideology of summud, (which naturally become a national imperative after a million Palestinians were uprooted in the 1948 and 1967 wars), or defiantly staying put, that they have rarely taken the strategic or moral offensive.

When they applied the moral approach during the first intifada, Israel's harsh crackdown coupled with PLO dominance of Palestianian politics, ensured the de-politicisation and disempowerment of the first "intifada generation".

Two weeks ago, when a few brave Palestinians tried to organise a peaceful march to the Erez border crossing to build on the momentum gained by breaching the border fence between Gaza and Egypt, they were stopped far from the border by a line of heavily armed Hamas policemen.

Soon after, the day's ration of rockets was fired into the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, wounding two Israeli children.

Israel responded with a new rounds of attacks by Israel, killing and wounding more Palestinians.

How to stop?

A few years ago, in a particularly violent moment of the intifada, I interviewed a senior Hamas leader at his office in Gaza. After the usual boiler plate questions and answers, I finally grew exasperated and said to him, "Look, let's put aside the question of whether you have the right to use violence, particularly against civilians, to pursue your ends. The simple fact is that the strategy has not worked."

His response stunned me with its honesty: "We know the violence doesn't work, but we don't know how to stop."

In a mirror image of Israeli strategic thinking, Hamas has remained unable to break free of the dangerously outdated paradigm that says violence, particularly against civilians, can only be met by even more violence until the other side yields.

Aside from the moral turpitude of such thinking by both sides - not to mention blatant illegality according to international law - the reality, at least in the near term, is that the human and political cost of such a policy for Israel is far lower than for Palestinians, who have very little time left before their dreams of independence are crushed for good.

Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, has himself admitted, the day Palestinians give up on the dream of an independent state will be the day Israel will "face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."

Dysfunctional dynamics

In 1987, Meron Benvenisti, the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, concluded his well-known "West Bank Data Base Project" report by arguing that the West Bank settlements were too integrated into Israel to separate them as part of any future peace dealBut so dysfunctional are the current dynamics that neither side seems willing to take the first step away from the abyss.

In such a situation, only a strong outside party can force the warring sides to make the hard compromises necessary to achieve a just and lasting peace.

This was the job the US signed up for in 1993, when Bill Clinton, then president, witnessed the signing of the first Oslo agreement on the White House lawn. But we have failed miserably in our self-appointed role as "honest broker."

It's not just that US has unapologetically taken Israel's side on almost every major issue since then.

During the Oslo years the US worked hand in glove with the Israeli and Palestinian security services to stifle dissent within Palestinian civil society, or the Legislative Council, to a process that was moving away from rather than towards a just and lasting peace.

And with the militarisation of US foreign policy after September 11 and the sullied occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel has had even greater carte blanche to inflict precisely the kind of damage upon Palestinian society we are witnessing now in Gaza.

Blood of children

By refusing to press Israel - as many Israeli commentators, and an increasing number of US policy-makers as well, urge - to negotiate with Hamas we have not just enabled the current violence, but are directly responsible for it.

Hamas has declared its willingness to negotiate a two-state solution, albeit under conditions to which Israel has little incentive to accept.

The blood of Israeli and Palestinian children that appears on TV is on our hands too.

It would be nice if we could imagine that the next US president will have the courage to "change" this dynamic. But there is little chance of that.

The only hope is that Israeli and Palestinian societies come together to stop the violence their leaders keep inflicting on them before the delusions of victory on both sides cross the line into psychosis.

Mark LeVine is professor of history at UCI Irvine and author or editor of half a dozen books dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and globalisation in the Middle East, including Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine, Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel and Palestine, Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil, and the forthcoming An Impossible Peace: Oslo and the Burdens of History.

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There are in Egypt more than 3 million children Street? What is the solution

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the torture in egypt

Police officer prevent the detainee from going to the bathroom and says to him.... urinate on yourself??

Can you believe that? The Government of Egyptian described as one of the most active countries that innovate methods of torture!!

Welcome to a very civilized Egypt

Negotiating peace

Dr. James J Zogby

This month the US Institute for Peace released Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, the report of a study group which examined US peacemaking efforts over the past four decades.

Headed by Daniel Kurtzer (former US Ambassador to Egypt and Israel), the group met during 2006-2007 and interviewed over 100 officials and experts from seven countries and three international organisations.

The main body of the report is a look at successes and failures, and strengths and weaknesses of the past three administrations' efforts at Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

It concludes by detailing 10 lessons learned, and then outlining recommendations based on those lessons to guide the next administration.

The examination of Washington's peace making efforts during the past three administrations begins with a largely positive assessment of "Bush 41", crediting President George H.W. Bush for "having the clearest sense of strategy", which he pursued "in a highly disciplined, effective and committed manner.

" On the other hand, the major weakness of "Bush 41," pointed to in the report, was his "failure to build a strong coalition at home to support [his] strategy.

" It was the combination of this failure, and the distraction of his reelection effort in 1992, that caused the Bush Administration to lose focus in its peacemaking efforts.In spite of this, the report notes that the Clinton administration "inherited an ideal strategic environment for peacemaking.

" Noting that Clinton more effectively built a domestic support base for his peacemaking efforts, he was, however, "less disciplined and less strategic than his predecessor".

Specifically, the report noted that the Clinton team "failed to understand and deal with key asymmetries in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

While the US paid attention to Israeli security requirements, less attention was devoted to Palestinian political requirements. The US did not find a way to compensate for Palestinian political weakness.

This was the first time in history a people under occupation was expected to negotiate its own way out of occupation while at the same time creating a viable, democratic and independent state".

The report notes that Clinton did not personally become directly involved in negotiations until late in his second term, and did not put forward his own peace plan until his last month in office. This was, of course, too late to make a difference.

It is George W. Bush's approach that receives the greatest criticism, the authors noting that "his approach to the conflict lacked both commitment and a sense of strategic purpose".

This, they suggest, was due to the fact that too many of the president's advisers dismissed the importance of Middle East peace, placing greater emphasis on their "regime change" and democratisation agendas.

No follow through
When Bush did become involved, however, it was mostly on the rhetorical level, with little or no follow through.

Plans were announced, and mediators were dispatched in succession, ignored and undercut, and then dropped.

To some degree, this contributed to a widespread belief that the Administration's efforts lacked seriousness.

The result of this mismanagement and/or neglect has negatively affected not only Israelis and Palestinians, but US diplomacy in the broader region, and public attitudes towards the US itself. The report goes on to list a number of important lessons that must be heeded by any future administration.

Here are three:"Arab-Israeli peacemaking is in our national interest: September 11, Iraq and increasing instability in the Middle East have made US leadership in the peace process more, not less, important.

The president needs to indicate that the peace process is a priority and ensure that the administration acts accordingly.

"US policy must never be defined anywhere but in Washington. Consultations with the parties must take place and policy revisions based on these consultations are inevitable, but our policy must be seen as our own.""The peace process has moved beyond incrementalism and must aim for endgame solutions. This not only requires US leadership to help the parties make the necessary trade-offs on core issues, but also a commitment to an expanded diplomatic approach that involves key international and regional actors."The report provides both a useful history and thoughtful analysis, with which one can find little disagreement.

My concern, however, is that it comes too late.

If Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East is to be followed, it must be followed by a very determined president willing to use pressure and politics not only to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, but also to work to transform US, Israeli and Palestinian attitudes.

Can the Mideast avoid war?

The assassination of Hezbollah's top commander Emad Mughnieh in a car bombing in Damascus on February 12, and its substantial repercussions, raise a big question: Are we on the verge of a new war?
With Mughnieh's murder, its timing, location and method, as well as with the subsequent threats by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah against Israel, it seems that our region is on the threshold of a possible war.

Nasrallah threatened Israel with an "open war" and vowed to avenge the death of Mughnieh, which he believes will bring about major changes in the Middle East and "mark the beginning of demise" of the Israeli state.
Addressing his supporters, Nasrallah said: "I swear to God that Mughnieh's blood will not go in vain," and predicted the disappearance of Israel. This is a clear sign that a war will break out in the region. The rising tensions and security concerns in the region will probably lead to more divisions between Arab countries.
Mughnieh's assassination drew different reactions from Arab governments, which are deeply divided between two camps - the American camp and the Iranian camp. Meanwhile, the Arab street appears to be even more deeply entrenched in its divisions.
For instance, Kuwait saw a sectarian divide over the assassination of Mughnieh after two Shiite parliament members held a ceremony to eulogise Hezbollah's slain commander.

Two dead
The ceremony drew condemnations from Kuwaiti's majority Sunnis, who accused Mughnieh of the 1988 hijacking of a Kuwait Airways flight that left two Kuwaiti passengers dead, and the assassination attempt on the Kuwaiti Emir in 1985.The Kuwaiti government criticised those who took part in the rally amid popular calls for stripping the membership - even citizenship - of the two Shiite MPs, especially given that the government had earlier stripped Sulaiman Bu Gaith, a top Al Qaida leader, of his citizenship.
The repercussions of Mughnieh's killing spread across Kuwait, Lebanon, Tel Aviv, Baghdad, Damascus, Washington and Tehran, which reacted differently to the fiery statements of Nasrallah who declared open war against Israel under new game rules.
Nasrallah made it clear when he spoke about a borderless war after Israel crossed the borders and killed Mughnieh in the Syrian capital, outside the natural battlefield.Speaking of a war that goes beyond geographic borders brings us closer to a war scenario being drawn up in the region.
In Lebanon, the political rift is deepening between the pro-government group and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
This is reflected by the exchange of accusations between the leaders of both sides.The pro-government group refers to the opposition as evil gangs and dark forces affiliated to the Syrian regime, while the opposition in turn brands their rivals as Washington's allies.
The conflict between the two sides was manifested clearly on February 14 when the Lebanese were divided into two rallies, one gathered in the Martyrs Square to commemorate the third anniversary of the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, while the Hezbollah supporters took part in Mughnieh's funeral.Even more, the failure of the Arab plan to resolve the presidential crisis is another source of concern.
Also, the calls by the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments on their citizens not to travel to Lebanon, as well as the threat to bomb the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut and the closure of two French cultural centres, will contribute to the deteriorating situation in the already paralysed country.

Change in rules
Mughnieh's assassination would only accelerate the confrontation with Israel and the US, which changed the rules of the game. Backed by General Michael Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah believes that victims of aggression have the right to defend themselves, while Nasrallah insists that Mughnieh's assassination will mark the beginning of Israel's elimination.
This was reiterated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, who sent to Nasrallah a cable of condolences describing Israel as a cancerous cell that will be removed by Hezbollah.
Moreover, US President George W. Bush has fanned the confrontation by imposing new punishments on Syrian officials, including Rami Makhlouf, cousin of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Bush also doubled the US financial support to $14 million for the international tribunal into the Hariri killing, while Syria said it had many options to retaliate against the US penalties. Iran expressed its anger at Mughnieh's assassination by sending an official delegation, led by Iranian Foreign Minister Manocher Mottaki, to attend the funeral, and by sending cables of condolences to Nasrallah.
Meanwhile, Tehran announced that the Iranian president would visit Baghdad, which is under "the US protection", and cancelled a meeting of Iranian experts with their American counterparts.The situation escalated between the two countries after the US accused Iran of supporting armed groups in Iraq, which may lead to increasing violence that coincides with the withdrawal of some US troops from Iraq in the summer.

If the cycle of violence in Iraq captures the headlines in the US media again, the chances of Republican candidate John McCain winning the presidential race will weaken. So, the question arises: Will Mughnieh's assassination be a ticking time bomb that threatens the region with a devastating war to determine the results of the struggle between the US and Iranian projects?No matter what the outcome of this struggle will be, Arab territory will be the battlefield and the Arabs will be the victims.

* Published in the UAE's GULF NEWS on February 25, 2008. Dr Abdullah Al Shayji is a Professor of International Relations and Head of the American Studies Unit

Five years on, Darfur battles the way of the gun

An elderly Darfuri woman stood in front of the charred remains of her house.

She tapped me on my shoulder and held out a wizened hand full of seeds. "How am I supposed to eat this?" she pleaded.

Totally humbled, I was speechless, unsure how to help. Now her face haunts my nightmares.

It will be five years on Tuesday since war broke out in Darfur, since rebels seized a town and prompted a Sudanese counter-insurgency reckoned by foreign experts to have killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes. I have been writing on Darfur for 4 1/2 years. More than ever, I am wondering how much difference my reporting can make.

Despite the world's largest aid operation and global media attention, people are still dying, foreign peacekeepers have not been fully deployed and the woman in my nightmares cannot eat. Camps housing villagers driven from their homes have become semi-permanent -- massive, chaotic suburbs of major towns where tensions can explode at any moment.

Darfuris seek to return to their farms, but fear the militiamen riding in on horses or camels.

Far from getting nearer to a solution as time goes on, the Darfur conflict seems to get ever more complicated.

The war is entwined with another in neighboring Chad.

Rebel factions have fragmented beyond recognition and Arab tribes have turned on the government that mobilized them.

Armed groups tear through towns in unmarked camouflaged vehicles carrying heavy weapons. Ragged fighters hang off the sides. No one knows who is who anymore.

The only law comes from the gun.

Hollywood
It is not that the outside world is not interested. Envoy after envoy comes to visit and so do the Hollywood stars.

It can seem almost comical when I try to explain to fighters or displaced villagers who was the latest superstar to put in a brief appearance.

Although the fighting is not as heavy as before, the conflict has destroyed a way of life. Everyone has a story of crime and lawlessness in a land where visitors could once feel secure despite the poverty.

A taxi driver broke down in tears as he lifted his cap to show me the scars of an attack.

One of my government contacts was shot dead by a car thief inside the ministry compound of el-Fasher, Darfur's main town.

I came face to face with militias known as Janjaweed -- a name now synonymous with "bogeyman" -- when filming the destruction after a government bombing raid.

As a horseman pulled out his rifle, I followed the lead of the Darfuris, zigzagging terrified to an abandoned hut.

We could hear shooting as we crouched petrified inside. Frantically, I whispered down the satellite telephone line to call for help from peacekeepers from a United Nations-African Union force.

Luckily for me they came, and I suffered only half an hour of the terror that the people of Darfur endure daily.

Darfuris hope the biggest U.N.-funded peacekeeping force will soon be able to deploy across their region, to bring a measure of peace they have dreamed of for years.

The force's African commanders say they are ready to start moving out if only the international community can send the equipment and reinforcements they need. But the signs are not all promising and deployment has also been delayed by wrangling over the force's composition. Meanwhile, fighting has intensified in West Darfur as the government tries to drive rebels from their strongholds.

And the hopes for the force are starting to give way again to doubts over whether the nightmares will ever end

Sudan bans Danish goods over Prophet cartoon

Sudan has banned the import of Danish goods, blaming Denmark's government for allowing papers to reprint a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad that caused outrage in Islamic countries two years ago, state media said. The newspapers reprinted one of the drawings this month, in solidarity with the paper that first printed the cartoons, after police arrested three men on suspicion of plotting to kill a cartoonist who drew one of the images.

Sudan's State news agency SUNA quoted the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the customs police authority as saying they had implemented a presidential decree banning imports of Danish goods. The presidency declined to give detail on the decree, saying the matter was with the ministry.

"(State Minister of Foreign Trade) Al-Simeh Al-Sidig said ... that the presidential decree came after Danish authorities allowed the Danish press to reprint drawings insulting to the Prophet Mohammad," SUNA said late on Monday. Publication of the cartoons two years ago led to protests and rioting in Muslim countries around the world.At least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies were attacked.

There were boycotts of Danish products, notably dairy produce. This time there have again been street protests in many Muslim countries, albeit much smaller. Egypt has called in Denmark's ambassador to protest. Pro-government media in Sudan say a demonstration against the cartoons is planned there for Wednesday.It was not immediately clear what volume of trade could be affected by the import ban.

Egypt appoints first female marriage officer !! is that true ?

An Egyptian court on Monday appointed a woman to perform and register marriages, the first such appointment in Egypt's history, state news agency MENA said. The court in the Nile Delta town of Zagazig granted Amal Selim, 32, the right to perform the duties of a ma'dhun in a town in Sharkia province, according to MENA.It said Selim had applied to the position four months ago, the only woman out of 11 applicants for the job.

According to MENA, Selim said she was sure she would get the job because of her faith in the Egyptian judiciary and because she was the only candidate with a master's degree.In April, Egypt appointed 30 women as judges, the largest such group to be appointed since 2003 when President Hosni Mubarak first named a woman judge.Several Arab countries already have women sitting as judges

[Facts] Who are the Kurds?

-- The Kurds are a non-Arab, mainly Sunni Muslim people, speaking a language related to Persian and living in a mountainous area straddling the borders of Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
-- For most of their history they have been subjugated. In modern times Iran, Iraq and Turkey have resisted an independent Kurdish state and the Western powers have seen no reason to help establish one. -- Perhaps the most famous of all Kurds is Saladin (1138–1193), who gained fame during the Crusades as one of the greatest rulers in Islamic history.
-- Contemporary Kurdish nationalism stirred in the 1890s when the Ottoman Empire was on its last legs. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which imposed a settlement and colonial carve-up of Turkey after World War One, promised them independence.

-- Three years after the 1920 Treaty of Sevres promised independence to Turkey's Kurds, Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk tore up the document. Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and 1930s were put down by Turkish forces. The Kurds were not recognized as a separate people or allowed to speak their language in public until 1991.
-- The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), named in 1978, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. Since then more than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
-- PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999, tried and sentenced to death. That was reduced to life imprisonment in October 2002 after Turkey abolished the death penalty. -- Fighting eased after Ocalan's capture, leading to a ceasefire and the withdrawal of rebel fighters from Turkey. Ocalan put new emphasis on seeking Kurdish rights through political, rather than armed struggle.
-- Today, some 3,000 Turkish PKK fighters are based in northern Iraq and launch attacks on security and civilian targets in Turkish territory. A few thousand PKK rebels are also believed to be inside Turkey
-- Around 40 Turkish soldiers have been killed in fighting in the past month alone. Erdogan's government is under heavy domestic pressure to pursue the PKK into northern Iraq.
-- Turkey has mobilized some 200,000 soldiers to the southeast, half of them along Turkey's border with Iraq, to stop PKK fighters crossing into Turkey from mountain bases in northern Iraq.
-- The Kurds fared little better in northern Iraq where, under a British mandate, revolts were quashed in 1919, 1923 and 1932.
-- Under leader Mustafa Barzani, the Iraqi Kurds waged an intermittent struggle against Baghdad after World War Two.
-- Kurdish northern Iraq won autonomy from Saddam Hussein with U.S. help in 1991, and has benefited from more than a decade of economic development. There has been some violence but it has not approached the levels seen in Baghdad.
-- Saddam's fall deepened the desire for autonomy and in September 2006 the president of Iraq's Kurdistan ordered the Kurdish flag to be flown on government buildings instead of the Iraqi national flag.
*Twice as many Kurds live in Iran as Iraq, but the national movement has had much less success, with a series of Kurdish leaders put to death by the Iranian government.
*Ismail Agha Simko led a major revolt in the 1920s but was killed by the Iranian government in 1930.
*In 1946, the Iranian Kurds established a short-lived Kurdish Republic, the only one in the 20th century. After destroying the state, Iran hanged its president, Qasi Muhammad, in March 1947.
*In 1981, Ayatollah Khomeini’s forces quashed an attempted revolt by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). In 1989, Iranian agents assassinated KDPI leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou in Austria. His successor,Sadegh Sharafkiandi was assassinated at a restaurant in Germany in 1992.
*There are around one million Kurds in Syria who live in separate parts of the country and are poorly organized.
*Syria's Baathist regime has denied citizenship to many Kurds and bans Kurdish cultural centers, bookshops and similar activities. A 1992 decree prohibits the registration of children with Kurdish first names.
*It has been suspected that in return for giving Turkish rebels sanctuary in Syria for many years, the PKK has kept a lid on any Kurdish unrest in the country

57 Saudi youths arrested for flirting

Saudi Arabia's religious police ordered the arrest of 57 youths this week for flirting with girls in malls in the holy city of Mecca, daily news paper, the Saudi Gazette, reported on Saturday.
The young men were detained on Thursday evening by regular police officers following a request from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the English-language daily reported.
According to the paper, the Commission had received reports of the young men’s "bad" behavior at different malls in Mecca.
They were accused of wearing "indecent clothing and playing loud music and dancing" to attract the attention of the opposite sex, it added.
A source at the Commission told the paper that 20 of its staffers and policemen were dispatched to the troubled areas and police arrested the young men and transferred them to the Al-Mansour Police Station.
None of them resisted arrest, the source said. The source added that those found innocent upon investigation would be released while the others would be referred to a court of law.
Guardians of some of the young men came to their defense, saying that the youths would usually get together on the weekend to have fun without violating the social code of conduct by imposing themselves on the girls at the malls

Hating Islam Is the Same Thing as Hating Muslims

“I don’t hate Muslims. I hate Islam.” Of course, these are not my words and certainly not my sentiments. They are the words of a Dutch politician.
I will not reveal his name, nor talk about the film he is allegedly making, because I do not wish to pander to his need for media attention, and I certainly do not wish to give his film free publicity.
Besides, how can I have a meaningful view about a film that no one has seen? But his words exist; they are in the public sphere. In a newspaper interview this week, he calls Islam “the ideology of a retarded culture” and goes on to say that “Islam is something we can’t afford any more in the Netherlands.
That means no more mosques, no more Islamic schools, no more imams...Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims

I suspect this is hitting many readers like a red rag to a bull, but I am keeping my calm for the moment, aware that the man’s intention is to provoke me. Are his words offensive?
Yes. Are they insulting? Yes. Are they lies? Yes. His words anger me, but what strikes me most about them is how familiar they seem. They are words we don’t normally hear from politicians or people in the public sphere, but they are words you hear if you listen carefully on European streets, and elsewhere too, I imagine.
So the first question I ask myself is this: If these views — as offensive as they are — exist, should they be aired in public so that Muslims can at least have a chance to counter them, or should they be outlawed? A second question is could a politician have uttered the same words about another religion, say Christianity or Judaism? And finally, could anyone seriously make a distinction between hating a religion and hating the people who profess its faith? There is a fine line between expressing a view in order to open up a debate, and giving credibility to a view by making it part of public discourse.
The sentence “I hate Islam” is one that will shock regardless of whether or not you are a Muslim. I suspect most Dutch people, even those who feel threatened by immigration or who hold negative views about Islam, will respond negatively to the strong emotive nature of the words used.
it is not acceptable to hate a religion. If anything, the politician has scored something of an own goal by using these words. Far more worrying in terms of impact is the rest of his discourse, in particular the sentence: “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims”.
it is of concern because it is fast becoming a mainstream view.
So is it true? I say no without hesitating because in my mind those who commit murder in the name of Islam are not Muslims, but I concede that this is a facile argument

The academic answer I am assured is also no
If you do a head count of terrorists on the planet past and present, you will find that Muslims do not make up the majority

I have not done a head count and nor do I wish to. It is sadly a reality that we regularly see terrorist acts committed by people born Muslims and it is also sadly a reality that in the eyes of many, violence is becoming a significant part of what defines Islam
I may see Islam as a religion of peace but that is no longer a majority view in the West. So, to return to the question in hand, I prefer to see a sentence like this one out in the public domain, as it refers to an issue that needs to be debated and refuted. Do I think an intelligent debate is forthcoming? Possibly not, certainly not if we focus on being offended instead of focusing on explaining why such comments are offensive.
Could a European politician have made these comments about another religion? As a rule of thumb, laws are tough against racism and relatively more lenient toward attacking religious beliefs.
Hence the politician would not only have committed political suicide if he had said he hated Jews, but would also have opened himself up to being prosecuted
Since Islam, and Christianity too for that matter, are religions but not races, offending Muslims or Christians does not carry the same weight as offending Sikhs or Jews. Add the current political equation to the mix and it seems evident that it would be unthinkable to see this kind of language used about any religion other than Islam in today’s political climate. Criticizing Islam is not the same as attacking Muslims
The first may be offensive to most Muslims but is acceptable to most Westerners.
It may be unacceptable to many Muslims reading this piece but in countries where freedom of speech is a fundamental value, criticizing a religion is considered healthy. Frankly, I sometimes find it hard to understand the knee-jerk reaction I often see at any hint of disagreement.
Islam is far too great a religion to be damaged by a little debate. Reading points of view I disagree with does not cause even a hairline fracture in my religious beliefs. Quite the contrary
The more I challenge my beliefs, the more convincing they become and surely that is how faith should be
But the Dutch politician was careful with his words.
He did not say he hated Muslims, he said he hated Islam. In his view, he is merely criticizing an ideology, not attacking a people
But when I read his words I felt personally attacked.
He is not criticizing my religion; he is expressing hate in the set of beliefs that makes me a Muslim.
He is very clearly expressing hatred for Muslims and his affirming the contrary only makes it all the more offensive to Muslims. His words not only offend me but more importantly threaten me. I accept being offended. I do not accept being hated for what I believe in.

* Published in Saudi Arabia's ARAB TIMES on Feb. 18. 2008.
Iman Kurdi

NEWS : some are good, and the most are bad news and there is what make you laught and repulsively....This is the Middle East

Gaza women hide drugs in 'private parts': source

A Palestinian drug enforcement official said drugs are often hidden in women's bodies – including their private parts – to smuggle illicit substances from Egypt to Gaza.
The latest of such cases was a Palestinian woman who stuffed her bra with large amounts of heroin after her breasts were removed due to cancer, Colonel Abdul-Halim al-Aloul, Head of the Palestinian Drug Combating Department.
women hide drugs in their hair or armpits, he said, and some even resort to more private areas such as their vaginas, considered a relatively easy way to smuggle the illegal substances.

Aloul said pills – usually ecstasy or LSD – are simply wrapped in small plastic bags and inserted in women's vaginas.
said there is little chance of being discovered as women's bodies are rarely searched in the conservative society.
"Only X-rays or well-trained dogs can detect the drugs, and we have neither
Aloul accused Israel of laxity in combating drug trafficking into Palestinian areas, both from Egypt and Israel itself, especially Occupied Jerusalem.
"We do not control the crossings, and Israel doesn't care if these drugs are all over Palestine," he said, adding that drugs constitute a real danger to Palestinians.
Aloul said Israeli settlers in Occupied Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem often cultivate drugs on Palestinian land.
security forces enjoy little -- if any -- authority over these areas, which are controlled by the Israeli army, he added. Afaf Rabei of the Jerusalem-based al-Sadiq al-Taieb (Good Friend) rehabilitation center told that she treats many cases of drug overdoses and substance abuse, especially LSD cases among children as young as 12 years old.
most common drugs, Rabei added, are morphine, opium, heroin and marijuana.
But the most dangerous is hash, which sometimes comes mixed with toxic substances, she warned
This makes the addict totally lose contact with reality and become extremely aggressive. In many cases, it leads to death," Rabei said.


Lebanon sectarian riots leave 14 wounded

Lebanese soldiers deployed in several mixed Sunni-Shiite streets of Beirut and ended sectarian riots that left at least 14 people injured and several cars and shops smashed.


A new bout of street clashes erupted between armed supporters of rival political factions in the Lebanese capital late on Saturday, a security official said.


"They are armed and throwing stones at each other and the army and security forces have been deployed in force to contain the violence," the official told AFP.


"The army intervened and fired into the air to separate the two sides," he said, adding that the injured were taken to hospital.
Lebanese television reported that several shops were set ablaze, while the security official said one house was burned down and a car was set on fire by Molotov cocktails thrown by the militants.


Security sources said followers of Sunni Muslim Saad al-Hariri's Future Trend movement battled supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal groups with sticks, knives and stones in Ras al-Nabei, Mazraa and Barboor areas of Beirut.


It was not clear what sparked the night-time clashes but tension has been simmering for weeks.


Smaller incidents have been reported almost on daily basis.


Hariri's anti-Syrian ruling coalition is locked in a 15-month-old power struggle against an opposition led by Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran.


The political crisis has left Lebanon without a president since November.


It has spilled into deadly street clashes on several occasions over the past year.


Last month seven Shiite protesters were shot dead, mainly by Lebanese troops.


On Saturday, scores of Lebanese soldiers fired into the air to disperse rioters from both sides. At least 14 people, many with broken bones or cuts, were injured in the fights.


Some media reported both sides exchanged fire in some places but security sources said most of the shooting was by troops and into the air.






Jordan still struggles with "honor" killings


Strangled by her brother, the 17-year-old girl died in a squalid Palestinian refugee camp that clings to a hillside near the Jordanian town of Jerash. The woman, who had been married for eight months, was the second killed in Jordan this month in a so-called "honor" crime -- the murder of a woman accused of shaming her family

Every year thousands of women are killed for notions of family honor worldwide, mainly in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, but also in Muslim communities in the West. Jordan's penal code still offers leniency to a man who commits such a crime in a "fit of rage"

High-profile campaigns to change the law, which have sometimes had royal family support, have failed to sway tribal-dominated parliaments.
But the debate has dragged the issue into the open and, unusually in the Arab world, Jordan has begun tackling other once-taboo areas such as domestic violence and child abuse.

"Talking about it is a first step to finding a solution," said Eva Abu Halaweh, a 34-year-old human rights lawyer and director of Mizan, a private group working with women at risk.
But in the impoverished backstreets of the Jerash refugee camp, relatives of the murdered girl -- no names in the case have been made public -- greet strangers with a wall of silence."What's already happened is enough," a woman snapped before shooing children inside and closing the door of the family's cinderblock home in an alley with an open drain running down it.

The victim's husband, a young man in a baseball cap, stood chatting with friends on a corner, but bolted into his house rather than talk about his wife's death.



A Jordanian prosecutor has charged a 20-year-old man with premeditated murder. Local newspapers said he had stuffed a scarf in his sister's mouth, choked her with an electric cable and smoked a pack of cigarettes before turning himself in.

Some versions of events say he had been angered by his sister's absences from home. "If she was guilty, then she deserved it," said a college student in the refugee camp, who gave his name as Mohammed.


Women can easily fall under male suspicion in Jordan's conservative society, where tribal and Islamic traditions coexist uneasily with the inroads of modernity and consumerism

Honor" crimes are nothing new -- authorities in Jordan prosecuted 18 cases in 2006 and a similar number in 2007, although some rights activists say the real figures are higher.


The practice is most common in tribal Muslim societies, even though many Islamic scholars say the Quran does not sanction it and warn Muslims against taking the law into their own hands.

"There are very few real honor killings," Abu Halaweh said at Mizan's bustling Amman office. "Many murders are for other reasons like disputes over inheritance.

Of course the killers and their lawyers will always look for ways to avoid penalties.

"Perpetrators of "honor" crimes may escape with six months to two years in jail.

Few suffer social stigma. Attitudes are slowly changing, rights campaigners say. Judges are less ready to accept the "fit of fury" defence, and efforts to deal with broader domestic violence are under way.A year ago, the Ministry of Social Development set up Dar al-Wifaq (house of reconciliation), which has helped 290 women and girls referred by police because they had run away from home or had been battered, sexually abused or neglected.


Halaweh's group helps run shelters for vulnerable women who would otherwise be put in police protective custody -- some have spent years in enforced refuge from their families. "They need protection, then reintegration," Abu Halaweh said, stressing the need to work with the families of victims.
cited two women, who both survived after being shot by relatives, who had returned home after mediation and psychological support for both parties. "One was pregnant after being raped, but now the family has accepted her," she said.
Jordan has recognized that children as well as women can suffer physical, sexual or emotional abuse within the family."We were the first Arab country to admit there is abuse and to say we should deal with it," said Nancy Naghour, manager of Dar al-Aman, a government-funded center that has provided temporary shelter and therapy for abused children since 2000.

Dar al-Aman (House of Safety) also counsels the families, aiming to ensure the children can eventually return home safely.In one room at the center, a comfortable apartment block on the edge of Amman that can house 32 children, youngsters drawing at a table respond cheerily when greeted.


another, a newly arrived boy of 11 with tormented eyes still seems ill at ease.A bill to protect children and women from violence at home has passed parliament's lower house and awaits senate approval.


sets up conciliation committees to give women a chance to halt abuse without pressing charges or seeking a divorce."Women hesitate to complain about their husbands, fathers or brothers. They don't want them to be sent to prison or fined," Abu Halaweh said.
"At the same time, there is a new generation of women and many say they won't accept violence.
" Jordan has made a start on tackling issues that many Arab countries barely acknowledge, but women's rights advocates say the persistence of "honour" crimes shows it still has far to go.


We've had it in the public domain quite some time, but there are no changes," said Amal Sabbagh, a lecturer at Jordan University's Center for Women's Studies.
"People are happy with the status quo.


go through the motions of change."





Vanity plate '1' sells for $14 million in UAE


batting an eyelid, a UAE businessman dished out a record 14 million dollars for a car license plate at a charity auction in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday.



"It is not huge compared to my family's fortune," Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri said after bidding 52.2 million dirhams (14.2 million dollars) for an Abu Dhabi license plate bearing the single number "1".



"The price is fair. After all, who among us does not want to be number one," Khouri told AFP.
Emirates Auction, which organized the sale, said on its website that it had been expected to set a new world record for the most expensive car license plate in the world.In May, another citizen of the oil-rich UAE spent 6.8 million dollars to buy a licence plate bearing the number "5".Funds from the auction will go to charities, including one to build a hospital for casualties from road accidents.

According to official figures 312 people died in traffic accidents in 2006 in Dubai alone, up 32 percent on the previous year and giving the emirate one of the world's highest road mortality rates of 21.9 per 100,000 inhabitants.



Buyers battled it out on Saturday for 90 low digit licence plates, spending a total of 89 million dirhams (about 24 million dollars), said Abdullah al-Mannaei of Emirates Auction."Emiratis love cars and everything related to cars. They also love giving to charity," he said, adding that Abu Dhabi now had the seven most expensive licence plates in the world.



The auction was held in the plush surroundings of the Emirates Palace Hotel on the Abu Dhabi waterfront.

The licence plates were displayed to eager bidders on a line of gleaming luxury cars. A Mercedes carried the number "1111" while a Ferrari sported "100"



The plates fetched 632,000 and 768,000 dollars respectively.But the number "1" plate that made the record price was unveiled to prospective buyers attached to a Pagani Zonda -- one of the world's fastest and most expensive cars.Khouri conceded to AFP that he would have been willing to pay up to 100 million dirhams (27.4 million dollars) to get his hands on the number "1".




Book on Prophet's sex life draws anger, threats

Muslim leaders have issued fatwas calling for the death of the female author of a controversial new book, Love and Sex in the Prophet's Life, which was circulated at the Cairo International Book Fair last month

I wanted to explain sex from the real Islamic perspective and to make it the reference for having a healthy sexual life," Egyptian writer Passant Rashad said

"When I mentioned the prophet I meant to demonstrate how his relationship with his wives was the perfect example of a healthy sexual life that is devoid of the complications Arabs try to impose on it these days."

But the book has drawn sharp criticism. Independent Egyptian MP Mustafa al-Gindi complained to the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny, earlier this month saying the book insults the Prophet and his wives, especially his third wife Aisha. "The book contains parts about positions and orgasms, which is totally inappropriate for a book that had the prophet's name in its title," said Gindi.A religious TV channel in Egypt denounced the publication and hosted a series of sheikhs – Islamic leaders – who accused her of apostasy and called for her killing, even if she were to repent."I kept silent, hoping this campaign will end or those sheiks will contact me to discuss the book, but none of that happened.

Now I fear for my life," Rashad told us.In the aftermath of the fatwa, Rashad said that a bearded man came to her house on Thursday and threatened her.

"He banged on the door at two in the morning and asked my husband if I was the author whose bloodshed is sanctioned

He told him that many problems are coming my way, then left

Rashad said she is not an apostate and would never insult the prophet.

On the contrary, she said she aimed to refute the myths propagated by the enemies of Islam, who portray the prophet as obsessed with women.

Meanwhile, Islamic thinker Gamal al-Banna called for an end to the fatwas on writers.

"This is a backward way to understand Islam. We have to eliminate this torrent of fatwas through reasoning and refutation of these lies. It is only then that those bloodshed Sheiks will find no audience.

"He called upon Arab information ministers to ban televised fatwas that wreak havoc in society and make intellectuals live in constant fear

Jordan churches warn against missionary sects

The Council of Churches in Jordan, representing the country's Christian community, on Saturday warned against what it called 40 "sects" carrying out troublesome missionary work in the Kingdom under the guise of doing charity work.

"The presence of sects in Jordan is multiplying and today there are 40 sects who have groups of Christian preachers who operate under the cover of performing social and cultural charitable activities," a spokesman for the council claimed in a statement.

The statement further accused the sects, which it did not identify, of misusing the great facilities presented by the Jordanian government to them as charity and human organizations to instead carry out missionary works.
“These sects are now seeking the status of churches, overstepping their social or educational roles.

”It said the actions of the sects "threaten the security of the country" and "create religious discord at the heart of the Christian community and between Muslims and Christians."Jordan's Christian community is estimated at around four percent of the 5.8 million-strong population and comprises Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenian Catholics and Latins

UAE court upholds 15-yr sentences in rape case

An appeals court in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday upheld 15-year jail terms handed down against two Emiratis convicted of raping a French-Swiss teenager, an AFP journalist said.

The judge in Dubai took just a few seconds to announce his ruling after proceedings opened.

The defense wanted the sentences pronounced on December 12 to be quashed, and a lawyer for the two men told AFP after Sunday's ruling that a further appeal would be lodged with the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors had demanded the maximum punishment, which could have meant the death penalty.

A third defendant is being tried in a juvenile court. One of the men who raped the European teenager was HIV-positive, but he has since been found to be clear of the sexually transmittable disease.

The boy's mother, Veronique Robert, launched a media campaign to publicize the case and gather support for her demand that the UAE recognize homosexual rape in its legal system and set up institutions to treat people with AIDS.She protested against the original verdict, saying that "15 years is nothing for someone who knew he had AIDS.

"Three men offered the victim a lift from a Dubai mall last July 14 but then drove into the desert where the teenager was raped while being threatened with a knife and a billiard cue, according to the charges.Defense lawyers claimed the victim had consented to sex and had lied to the Emirati authorities

Arabs slam 'crimes against humanity' in Gaza

The Arab League on Sunday accused Israel of carrying out "crimes against humanity" in the Gaza Strip after eight Palestinians were killed in a blast blamed on the Jewish state."The latest carnage is a yet another sign of Israel's immorality in the occupied Palestinian territories," League Secretary General Amr Moussa's spokesman said in a statement.

Israel "is committing crimes against humanity in Gaza," the 22-member pan-Arab body said.
Eight people, including senior Palestinian militant Ayman al-Fayed, his 37-year-old wife and three of their children aged 21, 19 and six, were killed in an explosion in Gaza on Friday for which Israel denied responsibility.

Three other people were also killed while 42 others, including 17 children, were wounded.

Palestinian groups have rejected Israel's denial of involvement in the blast, saying it was caused by an air strike.

troops on Sunday killed four Palestinians, including a civilian, in its latest assault on the Gaza Strip aimed at stopping rockets being launched at Israel.More than184 people have been killed since peace talks were formally relaunched at a U.S. conference in November, the vast majority of them Gaza militants, according to an AFP tally

UAE reshuffles cabinet, doubles women to 4

The United Arab Emirates reshuffled the cabinet on Sunday, naming new economy and labor ministers and doubling to four the number of women ministers.Sheikha Lubna al-Qassimi, the former economy minister, was named to head the new foreign trade ministry, while Sheikh Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri became economy minister, the official WAM news agency reported.Social Affairs Minister Mariam al-Rumi retained her post while Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, brought in two more women as ministers of state, the official WAM news agency reported.

They are Maitha al-Shamsi, assistant to the deputy head of UAE University for scientific research, and Reem al-Hashemi, who served as deputy ambassador to Washington and assistant to the foreign minister for economic affairs.The UAE ambassador to Washington, Saqr Ghubash, was named minister of labor, succeeding Ali al-Kaabi, who was dropped from government.Labor is a key portfolio in a country where expatriate workers and their dependents make up nearly 80 percent of the population of more than four million.The board chairman of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Obaid al-Tayer, entered the cabinet as minister of state for financial affairs.

Theywas no change in the key ministries of energy, foreign affairs and interior.

The defense portfolio has long been held by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed, who also serves as vice president of the seven-member Gulf federation. The changes come amid high levels of inflation and spiraling cost of living, with inflation officially put at 9.3 percent in 2006.

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Egypt allows re-conversion to Christianity on ID

In a landmark ruling, an Egyptian court on Saturday authorized 12 converts to Islam who then reverted to Christianity to have their original faith marked on their ID cards, judicial sources said.

They said the court allowed the Coptic plaintiffs to mark "Christian" on their compulsory identity cards, in place of the "Muslim" mention which was used after their conversion.But their IDs will have to specify that they had "adopted Islam for a brief period", the sources said.

The court of administrative justice ruled that the mention would "prevent any manipulation or concealment with judicial or social consequences" following the conversion to Islam.

"This is an historic decision, a victory for freedom of religion in Egypt and in keeping with Article 46 of the constitution which calls for freedom of religion," the plaintiff's lawyer Ramses al-Naggar told AFP.

The verdict was greeted with applause among the plaintiffs and their lawyers and other Coptic onlookers in the courtroom, many of whom cried out, "Long live justice.""This opens the door of hope to hundreds of Copts who converted ... and were then unable to return," said Mamdouh Nakhla, a human rights lawyer.

Nakhla said there were around 450 similar cases currently in litigation, and that estimates of the number of people who wished to revert to Christianity from Islam ranged to up to several thousand.

The court ruling, which cannot be appealed, overturned a lower court decision in April which said the state had no obligation to recognize a convert to Islam's decision to revert back to his original faith because it violated Islam's ban on apostasy.

The higher court's decision now obliges Egypt's ministry of interior to issue the plaintiffs with birth certificates and identity papers identifying them as Christians."I have won my identity back.

I am alive again," said Yasser Helmi, a 27-year-old man among the plaintiffs."I couldn't get an identity card and my life had ground to a halt."Helmi said his father had converted to Islam, without the knowledge of his wife and son who was a child at the time.

In Egypt, Copts who represent six to 10 percent of the 76-million population are known to convert to escape the strict rules of their church which bans divorce or marriage to a Muslim woman.

A lower court had previously refused to take up the case, which was opposed by the Egyptian government.

Saturday's ruling comes less than two weeks after a court for the first time granted members of Egypt's tiny Baha'i community the right to obtain government identity papers -- largely denied them for several years -- as long as they omit their faith, since it is not officially recognized in Egypt.

Without the official ID cards, Egyptians can not apply for jobs, buy property, open bank accounts or register their children in schools.

They are also subject to arrest for not carrying valid identity papers

Egypt charges policemen over balcony murder

Egyptian prosecutors on Saturday charged two policemen with murdering a man by throwing him off a balcony in Cairo, security sources said.A security source gave the policemen's names as Maher Hassan and Hassan Sobhi, and said prosecutors had accused them of killing Nasr Gadallah, 37 in August last year.Forensic examination of Gadallah confirmed he had died of the impact, but offered no opinion as to whether he was pushed or jumped, as the two policemen say.

Gadallah's case is one of a number of high profile cases of suspected police abuse that gained wide-spread attention after a video circulated on the Internet last year showing a man being sodomized with a stick in a Cairo police station.

Two policemen were later sentenced to three years in prison for torture in that case.

International and local rights groups say torture is systematic in Egyptian jails and police stations.

Past victims have reported receiving electric shocks and beatings.

The government says it opposes torture and prosecutes policemen when there is evidence.

When we will say no to war ? QANA 2006

Some people use these photos to be evidence of the brutality of war

Some used these images so as not to forget

Some used these images proof against Israel

We use these images to tell the world that the victims of war are always children and women

The Yemeni president says: we will produce the electrical energy from nuclear power !!!!!

Poverty rate: 45%

Illiteracy rate: 60%

Did you know??

Yemeni people possess the most number of individual weapons in the world (32) million

Video Advocacy Institute Call for Applications

Dear Friends

WITNESS is pleased to announce a call for applications to participate in the 2008 Video Advocacy Institute (VAI).

The Video Advocacy Institute, the first of its kind, is an innovative program that trains human rights defenders to successfully integrate video advocacy into their social change campaigns.

The VAI will be held in association with Concordia University’s Communication Studies Program and Documentary Centre.

When: July 19 – August 2, 2008Where: Concordia University - Montreal, CanadaApplication Deadline: March 2, 2008

“The training was/is proving to be immensely useful… bringing these skills to grassroots organizations on the ground and in such an effective way.”- VAI 2007 Participant
If you or others that you know would be interested in participating in this training program please visit: http://cts.vresp.com/c/?WITNESS/e5984e5c8c/cf27cbdeb2/3715271fbb for detailed information and the application form.

This VAI will be held in English. Future VAI's may be held in different languages. Previous production skills not required.

Should you have further questions about the VAI not answered in these materials, please write to us at: vai@witness.org.

Sincerely,
Sam GregoryProgram Directorand

Tina L. SingletonVAI Coordinator

WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.

For more information please visit http://cts.vresp.com/c/?WITNESS/e5984e5c8c/cf27cbdeb2/a5440b7130

Child labor rampant in Lebanon

It is early morning and eight-year-old Ibrahim Khodar Arja is already hard at work, his face and hands covered with dirt as he repairs a car at the mechanics shop where he works six days a week, 10 hours a day.Ibrahim should be at primary school but his job leaves him no time for that.Like thousands of children across Lebanon he has joined a growing force of child laborers whose fate is as much dictated by their family's dire economic situation as by the country's turbulent politics.

Officials estimate that at least 100,000 children -- one in 10 -- up to 18 years of age work in Lebanon, mainly in the agriculture sector or as mechanics as well as in jewelry workshops and sweatshops.

"The 10 to 15 age group is the most affected," Nabil Watfa of the International Labor Organization office in Beirut told AFP.

"But children as young as eight have also been noted to work."These kids, the majority of them boys, work handling chemicals, in garages, in metal-welding shops, carpentry, marble cutting and in farms where they are exposed to pesticides."Most of the child laborers hail from the northern regions of Akkar and Tripoli, where many families live below the poverty line.

Others work in the eastern Bekaa Valley and in the south of the country, where poverty is also endemic and the main industry is agriculture, including tobacco plantations.In Bab al-Tebbene, a rough neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli, a majority of the mechanics or scrap metal shops that line the streets employ children, including Ibrahim.

The kids can be seen welding, using dangerous machinery, or handling toxic chemicals, all with no protective gear.

More than a dozen children interviewed between the ages of eight and 16 seem resigned to the fact that theirs is a future of hard work rather than play.

Their tough gaze betrays a lost childhood.Mustafa Yassin, 13, entered the work force last year as an apprentice mechanic. He earns 10 dollars a week, working 10 hours a day, six days a week.

"School was not for me and I prefer to learn a trade so that I can help my family and maybe one day open my own garage," he said shyly.

Social workers say many of the children drop out of school and seek work as they come from needy families, often of 10 children or more.They also point to appalling conditions in state schools where standards are poor and where children are often left to fend for themselves.

"We are placed in these schools which are like prisons and many of the kids are dismissed or drop out because no one looks at them," said Rabih Saifeddin Danash, 25, who began working at age 15 at his father's garage.Watfa said that although Lebanon in 2001 signed on to the ILO convention on child labor, it has been unable to efficiently implement it for lack of resources.

Nationwide there are a mere 91 inspectors tasked with enforcing labor laws in general, said Naha Shallita, head of the child labor unit at the labor ministry.

She added that no money has been allocated in the state budget to specifically combat child labor.Social workers warn that if the state fails to seriously take on the issue, many children could fall prey to extremist groups known to recruit in poor areas of Lebanon.

They also cautioned that prostitution and drug use was prevalent among working children.

"These kids are being denied their most basic rights," said Fatma Odaymat, of the Rene Moawad Foundation, a non-governmental organization.

"We are finding that sexual and physical abuse have become a major issue.

"She said although there are success stories and efforts to provide children with vocational training, the country was far off from overcoming the scourge of child labor.

"The success stories are a drop in the bucket," Odaymat said.

"When you go down to these communities and see the situation, you realize we have a long way to go

Moroccan Berber-Jewish alliance sparks alarm

Preparations are underway in Morocco for the declaration of the Jewish-Berber Friendship Association on Valentine's Day, fueling speculation about the ulterior motives behind the unusual step in an Arab country.Secretary General of the Moroccan Berber Democratic Party (Parti Démocratique Amazigh Marocain) Ahmed Adgherni defended the move by the Rural Berber Friendship Association in the Mediterranean port city of al-Hasima, saying it gives Berbers the chance to play a role in the Arab-Israeli conflict.Adgherni denied that the step aims at retaliating against the government for refusing to recognize the Berber party.

Despite being legally registered in court, Moroccan security forces banned the party's first congress, and the Ministry of Interior filed a lawsuit to ban the party altogether.

"Our problem is with the Minister of Interior who belongs to a mafia lobby that governs politics in Morocco. They were the reason behind canceling two speeches by King Mohamed VI in which he was supposed to tackle the Berber issue.

We are awaiting the court's decision."Adgherni dismissed the fact that any relations with Israel will provoke the Moroccan government and stated that Moroccan-Israeli relations are no secret."

The Israeli president was at the funeral of King Hassan II here in Rabat. It's just that some people think they can monopolize relations with Israel, and we proved them wrong."

Berber activist Mounir Kejji also denied