Brotherhood alleges early fraud in Egypt election

Mon, 22/11/2010

The widespread crackdown on the opposition Muslim Brotherhood as it attempts to campaign for upcoming parliamentary polls means there will be "no election" in Egypt, said one of the group's lawmakers on Monday.

The country's largest and best organized opposition group said that in the weeks preceding the 28 November parliamentary election more than 1200 of its members and sympathizers have been arrested.

"What is happening right now is the actual rigging of the vote," said Saad el-Katatni in a press conference at the group's parliamentary headquarters. "The regime is sending a message that there will be no election."

Over the last few days, processions and campaign rallies for the group's candidates across the country have been disrupted by police.

Despite calls from within the group to boycott the elections, el-Katatni said it would persevere with its campaigns and shame the regime.

"This is a political and constitutional struggle and the street is with the Brotherhood and we will not let them down," he added.

The Brotherhood came out of the 2005 elections with a fifth of the seats in parliament, the largest bloc for the opposition, but it is expected to fare much worse in next week's contests amid heavy government pressure.

Egypt's parliamentary elections come amid widespread popular discontent over rising food prices.

Source: Al Masry Al Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/brotherhood-alleges-early-fraud-egypt-election.

Iraqi Christians seek safe haven in Jordan

Mon, 22/11/2010

Amman--A spate of attacks targeting Christians in Iraq has forced many to flee to neighboring Jordan which many see as a stepping stone to a new life as far away as possible from the violence-ridden country.

On Sundays families gather at the Syriac Orthodox church in Jordan's capital Amman to pray, socialize and mull over the best ways of securing a visa to enable them emigrate to the United States, Canada, Australia or Europe.

There are always new faces in the crowd, like Suzanne Jilliani, her husband Hani Daniel and their year-old baby who fled after the 31 October attack on Baghdad's Syriac Catholic cathedral that left 46 worshipers dead.

The couple, who now live in a furnished flat provided by the Syriac church in Jordan, dream of joining Jilliani's family in the United States.

"Do you think they will give us visas to go to the United States?" Jilliani asked a fellow Iraqi after a recent Sunday mass.

"Never," said Moayed, who declined to give his first name. "Try Canada. This is what I did."

Moayed said his request to travel to the United States was rejected because he had served in the army of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Like some Christians, Moayed said he fled Iraq after being threatened by the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Moayed managed a supermarket in Iraq but one day it blew up. He said it happened after the Mahdi Army had ordered him to pack up and leave the country because "there is no room here for Christians."

George Hazou, who heads a Syriac charity organization in Jordan and is an official with the Middle East Council of Churches, estimates that 120,000 Iraqi Christians have fled to Jordan since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

"There are 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqis left in Jordan," he told AFP, adding that the rest have left to start new lives in North America, Australia and Europe.

Uday Hikmat worries about the future.

Three days after the church massacre he and his parents packed and left Iraq. "We did not want to wait our turn to die," said the 33-year-old.

Now he hopes that his birth certificate will serve as a central element in the documentation he needs to submit to secure an emigration visa.

Fellow worshiper Mohannad Najem said Hikmat was "lucky" to have his birth certificate.

"Churches in Iraq no longer issue birth certificates in order to contain the exile of Christians," said Najem, a 33-year-old car mechanic who fled Iraq in October with his wife and four small children.

"The Mahdi Army told me I had to pay them US$1000 dollars each month or they would kill my children one by one.

"Two days after that threat we were gone," he said.

They got out ten days before the massacre at the Baghdad Syriac cathedral where they worshiped on Sundays.

"We would probably be dead now," said Najem. His cousin Nadia and nephew Fadi were among the victims.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the church massacre and warned that it would step up attacks on Christians.

Earlier this month a senior Iraqi clergyman said Iraq's Christians should leave the country or face being killed at the hands of Al-Qaeda.

"If they stay they will be finished, one by one," the London-based Archbishop Athanasios Dawood told the BBC.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on 9 November that Christians should not be encouraged to leave their homeland.

An estimated 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq before the 2003 US-led invasion, but their number has since shrunk to around 500,000 in the face of repeated attacks against their community and churches.

Altogether an estimated two million refugees from Iraq, mostly Muslim, have fled to Jordan and Syria since the invasion.

Source: Al Masry Al Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/iraqi-christians-seek-safe-haven-jordan.

Gaza-bound European aid to arrive in Arish on Tuesday

Mon, 22/11/2010

The "Road to Hope" Humanitarian Aid Convoy is scheduled to arrive in the Egyptian coastal city of Arish on Tuesday.

According to project coordinator Mohamed al-Haddad, the convoy will provide the besieged coastal enclave with 30 ambulances and 95 tons of food.

Egyptian authorities had earlier declined a request by convoy organizers to bring the aid in through Egypt's Al-Saloum border crossing with Libya.

At the time, Egypt's ambassador to Libya said that all aid deliveries to the strip must be made via the Arish seaport in order that the Egyptian Red Crescent might transport it from there across the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza and the Auja border crossing between Egypt and Israel.

Source: Al Masry Al Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/gaza-bound-european-aid-arrive-arish-tuesday.

Turkmenistan has plenty of gas for Europe

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- There is no need for European consumers to worry about the supply of natural gas, the deputy prime minister of Turkmenistan said.

Europe is trying to break Russia's grip on the energy sector by finding new sources of natural gas for its planned Nabucco pipeline. Despite political support for the project, suppliers are slow to commit to the pipeline.

Baimurad Khodzhamukhamedov, the deputy prime minister of Turkmenistan, was quoted by Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying Europe had nothing to worry about.

"There is no need for European countries to worry," he said. "We are building an infrastructure designed for 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas."

That volume is more than enough to fill Nabucco, an alternative to Russia's plans to build its South Stream gas pipeline through southern Europe.

Turkmenistan has the fourth-richest gas reserves in the world. It was a major gas partner with Russia, though the relationship was damaged after gas monopoly Gazprom was blamed for a major pipeline explosion last year.

The country is also looking at Western-backed rival to an Iranian pipeline that would cross Afghan and Pakistani territory on its way to India.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/11/22/Turkmenistan-has-plenty-of-gas-for-Europe/UPI-73871290429676/.

Gaza's Ministry of Tourism struggles to preserve St Hilarion Monastery

Monday, 22 November 2010

St Hilarion Monastery is located 15 km from Gaza city, and three km from the Nusseirat refugee camp. It is 500m inland and rises about 22m above sea level. It dates back to 329 AD at the time of St Hilarion, when he returned from Egypt to his village Tabatha (in southern Gaza), after studying under Saint Anthony, in Egypt.

The monastery consists of several structures surrounded by an outer wall, including two churches, a burial site, a baptism hall, a public cemetery, an audience hall and dining rooms. Coffins of monks have also been found on the site but are in dire need of preservation.

The Ministry of Tourism in Gaza is unable to take the necessary steps needed to preserve the archaeological site due to the ongoing blockade.
Archaeological experts and scientists have been unable to enter freely and carry out the much needed research and exploration. Moreover, the materials and equipment needed for excavating and preserving artifacts are in severe shortage. The Ministry of Tourism, which oversees the site, has begun work, but progress to maintain this historically important site in Palestine is greatly hindered by Israel's illegal blockade.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/1767-gazas-ministry-of-tourism-struggles-to-preserve-st-hilarion-monastery.

China rescues 29 from flooded coal mine - Summary

Mon, 22 Nov 2010

Beijing - Rescue workers pulled 29 people from a flooded coal mine in south-western China's Sichuan province Monday after they were trapped for about 24 hours.

Twenty-two miners were trapped at the Batian Coal Mine in Sichuan's Neijiang city early Sunday when water poured into a shaft, and a seven-member rescue team also became trapped in the mine later Sunday.

Workers continued pumping water out of the flooded shaft and had confirmed that all 29 missing people were alive by early Monday, the government's Xinhua news agency quoted officials as saying.

The first group of 13 was pulled out of the mine mid-morning and the rescue of the remaining 16 was completed by early Monday afternoon, the agency said.

A total of 35 miners were underground when the shaft flooded Sunday, but 13 of them managed to escape, earlier reports said.

The mine had recently been renovated to increase annual output from 50,000 to 60,000 tons, but according to Lin it was operating legally, state media said.

China's coal mines have a poor safety record, with more than 2,600 deaths recorded last year.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/354590,flooded-coal-summary.html.

South Korean president likely to visit Japan in December

Mon, 22 Nov 2010

Tokyo - South Korean President Lee Myung Bak hopes to meet Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Kyoto next month to receive some cultural artifacts taken from the peninsula during Japan's colonial rule, a news report said Monday.

Tokyo and Seoul are arranging a meeting between the two leaders in the ancient Japanese city, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed government sources.

On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Yokohama last week, the two nations signed an agreement to return more than 1,200 volumes of Korean archives taken by Japan during its 1910-45 colonial rule.

On August 10, Kan apologized for the colonial rule and pledged to repatriate the cultural items ahead of the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of the peninsula on August 29.

These include royal records of the Joseon Dynasty, currently kept by the Japan's Imperial Household Agency.

But it is not certain whether the transfer of such items can take place yet, as the accord will come into effect after both countries' parliaments ratify it, Kyodo cited the sources as saying.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/354594,likely-visit-japan-december.html.

Japan considers raising troop level over China naval activities

Mon, 22 Nov 2010

Tokyo - Japan is considering doubling the number of ground troops deployed on south-western islands near China and Taiwan to 4,000 due to mounting Chinese naval activities, a news report said Monday.

The new troops would be deployed near a chain of islands stretching from Kagoshima on the southern tip of Japan to Okinawa island near Taiwan, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed defense sources. China has been boosting its naval activities in the area.

The move could be carried out under the Defense Department's troop allocation program which will be re-evaluated at the end of this year, Kyodo said.

Tension had risen between Japan and China following a Chinese fishing boat's collision in early September with Japanese coastguard vessels off a set of disputed islets near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, which China also claims as its territory.

The collision and the subsequent arrest of the trawler captain led to the worst diplomatic row in several years between the two countries.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/354607,level-china-naval-activities.html.

Ruling party has strong showing in local Polish elections

Mon, 22 Nov 2010

Warsaw - Poland's ruling Civic Platform party proved its strength Monday as it beat the opposition Law and Justice Party in several key races in the municipal elections, according to initial poll results.

The centre-right Civic Platform won some 33 per cent of the vote in regional councils, according to the national election commission. The opposition Law and Justice party, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had 23 per cent of the vote, according to a count of half of the ballots cast.

The municipal elections are regarded as a barometer of the political mood ahead of next year's parliamentary elections. They appeared to show dwindling support for Kaczynski's conservative party, which has criticized the government's plans to quickly adopt the euro currency and build warm relations with Russia.

Exit polls Sunday night said that Civic Platform candidate Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz was re-elected with 51.6 per cent as the mayor of of Warsaw, one of the most prestigious positions up for grabs in the elections.

Kaczynski said Law and Justice would have won the elections if it wasn't for two parliamentarians who were expelled from his party and formed their own association. Then-parliamentarian Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska had repeatedly criticized the party's confrontational approach to domestic and foreign policy.

Some 48,000 regional positions around the country were filled in the Sunday municipal elections.

Kaczynski waged a fairly buttoned-down campaign in the country's presidential elections earlier this year, held after his twin brother Lech, the former president, was killed in April in a plane crash in Russia. He was defeated in that race by Civic Platform's Bronislaw Komorowski.

Since then, Kaczynski has returned to his trademark combative style of politics, seeking to stop the decline in support for his party, which has dwindled to some 22 per cent in opinion polls.

Final results are expected Tuesday.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/354628,showing-local-polish-elections.html.

Gaza student finds new way to protect people from generator explosion

by Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Abu Ouda, a student who studies accounting in a Gaza university, has invented a new way to operate electric generator via a cell phone.

Like other Gaza residents, Abu Ouda has a electric generator on the roof of his house. "The thing that propels me to invent this is that the generator might explode anytime and might hurt my family members," he said.

The new invention is about a cell phone that has an electronic panel, a chip and is linked to the electric generator, "once I dial via the cell phone, the generator would operate immediately," Abu Ouda said.

"If there is a power blackout, the generator could be operated only through the phone. But the generator could never be operated if there is electricity, so it's very safe."

"What make me think of such an invention are the fatal accidents caused by explosions of generators in Gaza," Abu Ouda said, adding "innocent people were killed due to the misuse of generators and the ongoing electricity crisis."

Power blackouts are usual in Gaza, where almost all houses have their own electric generators. Most of the small electric generators in the narrow, poor and densely populated coastal enclave were smuggled through tunnels under Egypt-Gaza borders. Misuse of these generators has caused several fatal incidents.

The electricity crisis has been going on since the Israeli army war jets destroyed the sole power plant in Gaza in June 2006, right after Hamas militants and two other minor armed groups kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid.

Six months after the Palestinians managed to fix the power plant with the help of the Egyptians, the crisis remained due to a lack of fuels to operate the power station. Israel minimized the amounts of fuels after it considered the Gaza Strip a hostile entity following Hamas controlled the enclave in 2007.

Following international pressure, Israel had then agreed to allow in Gaza only the needed amounts of industrial diesel for operating the station. However, the crisis remained and the population suffering mounted after financial disputes erupted between Hamas rulers and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

To overcome the crisis, Gaza company of electricity organized a time schedule of providing the residents with limited current due to the amounts of fuels it receives and the number of electric turbines it operates. People in the Gaza Strip get an average of 16-hour electricity for every full day.

Eight hours blackout is sometimes during the daylight and sometimes at night, where mostly every single house in the Gaza Strip has a small electric generator. According to Gaza rights groups figures, around 26 Palestinians were killed of electric generators explosions of suffocated by the smoke.

"I believe that it is the first ever experience in the Gaza Strip to operate an electric generator safely using a cell phone," Abu Ouda said, adding "it is good that this invention would minimize the number of victims."

Abu Ouda hoped that people would use his new invention "to avoid incidents." He also expressed his hope that the electricity crisis could be resolved soon.

"I know that my invention is temporary, it might not be useful when the electricity crisis is solved," Abu Ouda said.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-11/22/c_13617546.htm.

Jordan Islamists call for national salvation government

Sun, 21 Nov 2010

Amman - Jordan's main opposition group, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), on Sunday urged the formation of a "national salvation government" to help come to grips with the political and social problems facing the country.

"The formation of a national salvation government that enjoys the confidence of the people has become an urgent necessity," the IAF Executive Bureau, the party's highest decision-making body, said in a statement.

"Such a government should open serious dialogue with all political and social forces in the country with a view to surmounting the impasse currently facing the country, otherwise the consequences will be more dangerous," it added.

The IAF and its mother group, the Muslim Brotherhood movement, boycotted November 9 parliamentary elections, demanding political reforms, including a new election law that provides for proportional representation.

Media reports on Sunday suggested that King Abdullah II was likely to ask Prime Minister Samir Rifai to form a new cabinet after the elections that returned a majority of government loyalists in the lower house of parliament.

The IAF held the government responsible for a series of violent incidents that swept the country over the past few months, including post-polls rioting.

The new chamber is expected to hold its inaugural meeting next week.

The IAF also condemned the government for continuing normal ties with Israel at a time when that country was "Judaizing" East Jerusalem, which Jordan lost to the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/354537,call-national-salvation-government.html.

Eid vacation a chance to forge House alliances

By Khetam Malkawi

AMMAN - Some members of the 16th Lower House spent the Eid Al Adha holiday contacting and lobbying their colleagues to form parliamentary blocs, deputies-elect said on Saturday.

According to parliamentary sources, two blocs were formed over the past few days, while another two to four are still in the process of establishing themselves.

One of the recently founded blocs is the National Current, affiliated with the National Current Party, which started as a bloc in the dissolved 15th Parliament.

The 17-strong bloc elected Saturday Mohammad Thweib (Amman, 2nd District) as president and decided to support Jerash MP Mefleh Ruheimi’s pursuit to become House speaker, sources from the alliance said.

The 18-member National Accord bloc, headed by Zarqa First District Deputy Mirza Bollad, was also established on Friday.

The establishment of a third bloc is expected to be announced today as well, according to MP Jamil Nimri (Irbid, Second District), who told The Jordan Times that a number of leftist deputies will meet to discuss the bylaw of their bloc.

He noted that the bloc has eight members but its final membership is expected to reach 12 as other left-wing deputies will join it.

A fourth bloc is also in the making and will be announced soon, according to Amman Third District representative Ahmad Safadi.

He told The Jordan Times that a meeting will be held today to officially announce the group, which is expected to consist of 20 members.

According to Safadi, Karak Third District MP Atef Tarawneh, who also previously announced that he would run for speaker, is a member of this bloc.

Also yesterday, Amman Second District MP Mohammad Halaiqa told The Jordan Times that he had begun contacting his colleagues to form a bloc at the House, which he said will be “patriotic” in character and work to reclaim the Lower House’s role in governance.

The new House, which was elected on November 9, is expected to be summoned on November 28.

According to Article 78 of the Constitution, Parliament is to be summoned by a Royal Decree to begin its ordinary session on October 1 of each year, but the starting date can be postponed by up to two months. In their first session, lawmakers are scheduled to elect a speaker and members of the permanent office (two deputies and two assistants).

Meanwhile, changes are expected to take place soon in the make-up and possibly the size of the Senate, MPs and commentators said, after five senators resigned their positions to run for seats in the Lower House, and a sixth left to take up the presidency of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

These members of the 55-seat Upper House are expected to be replaced by Royal appointment in accordance with the Constitution.

Political analyst Mohammad Abu Rumman added that the Senate, which is constitutionally required to have no more than one half as many seats as the Lower House, may increase in size to 60 seats, now that the Lower House has 120 seats instead of 110.

21 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31943.

State budget allocations to finance half of JD6 billion EDP - Hassan

By Omar Obeidat

AMMAN - Around 50 per cent of the JD6 billion Executive Development Program (EDP) for 2011-2013 will be funded from the state budget allocations (capital expenditures) for different ministries, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Jafar Hassan said Saturday.

He elaborated that the rest of the funds needed to implement the program, whose details were revealed earlier this month, will come from the budgets of independent government agencies, including self-financing, in addition to around JD1.3 billion expected from international assistance.

The EDP, to be launched soon, will ensure the achievement of realistic development goals for 24 sectors through key projects that will be implemented in line with fiscal policies and the government's financial constraints, Hassan remarked in a statement to The Jordan Times.

"The Executive Development Program, which is based on the National Agenda and [His Majesty King Abdullah’s] directives to the government, translates the Kingdom’s development priorities into an action plan,” he added.

The minister said the EDP, which was prepared during the first half of this year through the collaborative efforts of more than 100 government agencies, was reviewed by the ministerial sectoral committees for weeks and approved by the Council of Ministers to guide the work of the government and to determine medium-term programs for ministries and public agencies.

“During the sectoral committee sessions, ministries made significant cuts to the program while prioritizing key projects that reduced the overall cost of the EDP by more than 30 per cent,” the minister said, explaining that most of the projects included in the EDP are ongoing projects, while less than 30 per cent of the total costs of the program are directed to new projects in light of budgetary limitations.

Stating that the program is also aligned with the medium-term financial outlook and reflects levels of capital expenditures for the 2011 budget, he noted that the EDP has indicative numbers for 2012 and 2013, which will be confirmed when the budgets for these years are prepared in order to ensure that the EDP remains linked to the overall fiscal and economic parameters set by the government.

The planning minister indicated that a portion of the EDP projects, particularly mega-projects, will rely on public-private partnerships for implementation, which he said will enable the government to overcome chronic development constraints in the areas of water and energy as well as to establish the National Railway Network.

“The program is also expected to provide donors with a concrete medium-term action plan from the government with specific projects, priorities and development goals, in addition to the targets outlined at the macro-economic level and those related to fiscal policies,” the official said.

The EDP sets realistic goals and priorities for capital projects in more than 24 sectors through a concrete roadmap with key performance indicators (KPIs) and a price tag that takes into consideration the fiscal space and expected assistance levels for 2011 and 2013, developed in close coordination with the Ministry of Finance and all relevant ministries through a new approach applied for the first time this year, according to Hassan.

The EDP, which includes more than 1,100 projects and 600 KPIs, will be shared with donors in the coming weeks to support their efforts to focus assistance on key development priorities and to provide a platform through which the planning ministry and donors can direct current and new assistance to priority areas and projects, he stated.

This is particularly important as many donors, such as the EU and World Bank, have medium-term cooperation programs with Jordan that are being renewed this year for the next 3-4 years, the minister added, noting that Jordan is working to develop medium-term programs with all other donors to ensure consistency and predictability in assistance levels as well as effective planning for financing projects in line with the new EDP.

21 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=31942.

'Jordan will conduct general population census in 2014'

By Rand Dalgamouni

AMMAN - Jordan will conduct a general population census in 2014, Department of Statistics (DoS) Director General Haidar Freihat said on Sunday.

The last general population and housing census, which was conducted in October 2004, put the population at 5.3 million, while according to the latest DoS estimates, the figure currently stands at 6.09 million.

In the opening session of a workshop for Arab countries on census evaluation and post-enumeration surveys, Freihat added that the DoS plans to release the results within a year after the census is conducted as opposed to two years on previous occasions.

The General Population and Housing Units Census is the largest statistical operation carried out in the country, according to the DoS website. It includes collecting and preparing various demographic and socio-economic data on all components of the population and housing units in the Kingdom without deletion or repetition to fulfill various administrative, statistical and executive purposes.

During yesterday’s session, United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) representative Margaret Mbogoni said the notion that population censuses are not perfect underscores the need to evaluate the overall quality of their results.

She noted that evaluating such results measures the quality of the data for proper interpretation and identifies the sources of error to avoid in future censuses.

Evaluation also “serve[s] as a basis for constructing a best estimate of census aggregates such as the total population”, or adjusts the results by taking the identified errors into account, Mbogoni explained.

Fathi Nsour, director general of the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS), said the UNSD recommends census evaluation as an independent stage of surveys.

The workshop is part of UNSD activities for the 2010 World Program for Population and Housing Censuses, which was launched in 2005, according to Mbogoni.

She added that under the program, each UN member state is urged to conduct a census at least once between 2005 and 2014.

“By the end of 2010, 14 out of 22 Arabic-speaking countries will have conducted their 2010 censusة [and] five plan to undertake a census in 2014,” she noted.

Representatives of statistics departments from 12 Arab countries are attending the four-day workshop, organized by UNSD in cooperation with the DoS and AITRS.

22 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31968.