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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

[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

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.

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

Bahrain king issues human trafficking law

Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has issued a law to combat human trafficking, the kingdom's state news agency said on Wednesday."The law stipulates that the penalty for a human trafficking crime would be prison and a fine ranging from 2,000 Bahrain dinars ($5,319) to 10,000 dinars," the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) said on its website.The law also calls for the formation of a committee to combat human trafficking. The BNA did not say whether the law was now in effect.
Like other Gulf Arab states, Bahrain relies heavily on expatriate labor -- about a third of the island's population of 743,000 people are foreign workers -- and has been criticized by rights groups for not doing enough to protect them. The majority of Bahrain's immigrant workers are from South Asia, and are often lured to the island kingdom with promises of wages or working conditions that are not honored on arrival -- something that would qualify as human trafficking under the new law.In November, the United Arab Emirates enacted a law to make human trafficking punishable by life imprisonment, and has set up a state body to combat the transfer of people for work by force or under false pretences.Human trafficking affects virtually every region in the world and U.N. estimates say the trade could be worth some $32 billion in both "sales" of individuals and the value of their exploited labor

Egypt soldiers found in mass grave near Israel

The bodies of 30 Egyptian soldiers believed killed in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War were found in a mass grave in the Sinai desert close to the Israeli border on Wednesday, a security source said.The uniformed bodies were exhumed near Sheikh Zuwayed between the Mediterranean coastal city of El-Arish and the Egypt-Gaza border town of Rafah after a Bedouin informed police of the discovery.Forensic experts must examine the remains to establish whether they were buried after being killed in combat or executed, the source said, adding that the bodies "probably" dated from the 1967 Six Day War.The Sinai Peninsula was the scene of fighting between Egypt and Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. Egypt became the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Meanwhile, Egypt's parliamentary defense and national security committee is to meet next week to ask the government to investigate the recent discovery of bodies believed to be of Egyptian soldiers in the Israeli resort of Eilat.Egyptian media reported that the bodies found during construction work in Eilat, on the Red Sea next to Egypt, were also wearing uniforms and were found with pages of the Quran.Egypt asked the International Committee of the Red Cross in April to launch an inquiry into claims made in a documentary that Israeli troops executed Egyptian prisoners during the 1967 war.The documentary, screened on Israeli public television, said that 250 Egyptian PoWs were killed by Israel's Shaked commando near El-Arish during the conflict.The director of the film subsequently said he had mistakenly identified Palestinian fighters who were killed in combat as Egyptian prisoners