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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Abbas militias kidnap Hamas leader

07-02-2011

Al Qassam website- Al-Khalil -Security militias loyal to de facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday kidnapped Dr. Adnan Abu Tabane, a Hamas leader, in Al-Khalil, local sources reported.

They said that those militias detained Abu Tabane only few days after his release from their prison. Abu Tabane is one of the prominent notables in the city of Al-Khalil and had been imprisoned in Israeli jails for 10 years.

In Nablus district, Abbas's militias continued to periodically summon liberated prison Jihad Nashata over the past month. He was one of the deportees to south Lebanon in the nineties of the past century and had served 15 years in Israeli jails.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://www.qassam.ps/news-4143-Abbas_militias_kidnap_Hamas_leader.html.

Arab League chief nominated for presidency online

Young Egyptians demand anthem, flag change
Arab League chief nominated for presidency online

Monday, 07 February 2011

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

A group of Egyptian youths established an online group that supports the nomination of Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa for presidency after the departure of the incumbent Hosni Mubarak.

In a show of support to the January 25 uprising, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa visited Tahrir Square in Downtown Cairo, where the protests take place, and talked to several of the youths who have started a sit-in until the government responds to their demands, the Egyptian official newspaper al-Ahram reported Monday.

Moussa’s visit encouraged a considerable portion of young Egyptians to support his nomination for presidency in September 2011 after Mubarak’s term expires and drove them to establish a group on the social networking website Facebook to call upon Moussa to run in the upcoming elections. The group is called “Supporters of Amr Moussa as president of Egypt.”

Members of the Facebook group, who currently exceed 10,500, demand that in case Moussa becomes the Egyptian president, he should change the Egyptian flag and go back to the old one before the 1952 Revolution and has a crescent and three stars.

They also call for changing the national anthem and going back to the one used before the reign of Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Sadat.

The group includes a biography of Amr Moussa to familiarize Egyptian youth with his history and achievements as well as a carefully chosen album that highlights his popularity in the Arab world.

Creators of the group call upon members to tell all the people on their friends’ list about it so that as many supporters as possible can be gathered and demand the unification of all groups that support Moussa.

One of the biggest Facebook groups formed in the wake of the protests to support Amr Moussa is called “Amr Moussa- The President of Egypt” and has more than 6,000 members.

Other smaller groups include “The campaign to nominate the honorable Egyptian Amr Moussa for presidency,” “Amr Moussa for restoring stability to Egypt,” and “Amr Moussa, save Egypt.”


(Translated from the Arabic by Sonia Farid)

Source: al-Arabiya.
Link: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/07/136657.html.

Saudis give Malaysia a week to finish mission

Tuesday February 8, 2011

SEPANG: Malaysia has been given a week to complete its rescue mission in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said those remaining after that week would have to get their visas extended until they can be flown home.

A total of 778 Malaysians, of whom 459 were flown by MAS and 319 by AirAsia, arrived at the Bunga Raya Complex of the KL International Airport (KLIA) here at about 10am yesterday.

They were the first group of Malaysians to arrive home in the massive evacuation operation.

Jamil Khir said while thousands were on their way home, about 200 students chose to remain in Egypt for various reasons, including family ties and study related matters.

“This is a historic moment because we have successfully moved our children back to Malaysia,” he said. “The Saudi Arabian government has also, for the first time, issued visas-on-arrival, specially for the Malaysian evacuees,” he added.

Deputy Foreign Minister A. Kohilan Pillay, who was among the first to leave for Egypt to coordinate the rescue mission, said the effort was a true reflection of the 1Malaysia spirit.

He said, although most of the affected were Muslims, many people of other races came forward to volunteer their help.

“This episode truly reflects how Malaysians, irrespective of race, come together to help those facing trying times,” he added.

Source: The Star.
Link: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/8/nation/8021155&sec=nation.

Jihad: Quartet biased in favor of Israel

08-02-2011

Al Qassam website - Political bureau member of the Islamic Jihad movement Sheikh Nafedh Azzam has described the international quartet committee's statement at conclusion of its Munich meeting as "unethical".

Azzam in a press statement on Monday said that the statement was biased in favor in Israel and was thus "unacceptable".

He explained that the call on Palestinians to return to negotiations was "meaningless" in light of the Israeli continued settlement construction policy in the occupied lands, confiscation of land, tightening siege, and judaizing Jerusalem.

"The negotiations process is a sin and returning to it would legitimize the (Israeli) occupation and its expansionist and aggressive policies", Azzam elaborated.

He warned the Fatah-controlled authority in Ramallah against responding favorably to the quartet's demand.

Source: Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades - Information Office.
Link: http://www.qassam.ps/news-4146-Jihad_Quartet_biased_in_favor_of_Israel.html.

Smugglers Axing Kashmir Forests

By Athar Parvaiz

SRINAGAR, Jan 26, 2011 (IPS) - During the summer of 2010 Kashmir saw one of the worst face-offs between pro-freedom Kashmiri youth and law enforcement agencies. Smugglers used the unrest surrounding these outbreaks to conceal their steady ramping up of the black market timber trade, at times with complicity of authorities.

"We are helpless, we lack both infrastructure and manpower," says Kashmir’s Chief Conservator of Forests Manzoor Ahmad. "Each forest guard has to guard 10 square kilometers of forest without the help of any vehicle."

Manzoor says that his department has started measures to curb smuggling. "We have liberalized the import of timber from outside Kashmir to ease pressure on local sources of timber. We don’t charge any tax for the imported timber upon its entry in Kashmir and allow its transportation within Kashmir without any transit documents," he told IPS.

But private timber depot owners say that forest officials ask for bribes even for the transportation of imported timber. "They charge 25 rupees per cubic feet of timber," said Ghulam Ahmad, a private depot owner in Srinagar.

One of the many hotbeds for timber-smugglers is the rugged terrain of Rafiabad in north Kashmir where smuggling of timber is made possible through the use of ponies. Felling of trees is so widespread here that the practice has started triggering landslides.

"Local smugglers, active in the upper belt, are exploited by the timber contractors who make them cut trees for a pittance while they themselves make huge money out of it," says social activist Ashraf Khan, a local teacher.

"We don’t have any other means of income. We simply feed on the forest," a timber smuggler who ferries the timber on his pony, told IPS on condition of anonymity. "I know it is not a respectable job, but when I look around I don’t find anything which can fetch me an income."

Smugglers ignore the risks involved in operating in the forests of a conflict zone where they could be mistaken as militants by the Indian army. In 2005, Farooq Khan was killed, and last year Gull Kalis was killed in army ambushes in the region.

But in many cases timber smugglers enjoy the blessing of security forces and make 90 to 100 dollars a night thanks to agreements between politicians and head timber smugglers.

The construction boom and the lack of any initiative by the government to save forests have fueled the illegal sale of forest wood in this territory which is in dispute between India and Pakistan.

The large-scale construction is not only feeding on forest wealth, but has also consumed thousands of hectares of agricultural land. According to official estimates, more than 9,000 hectares of agricultural land in Kashmir have been converted into residential and commercial areas over the past few years.

"The concept of horizontal expansion is proving quite disastrous as it, unlike the vertical expansion, consumes additional space and additional construction material including timber," Nissar Ahmad, central forest conservator in Kashmir, told IPS. Nissar denied that corruption among forest officials was one of the reasons for timber smuggling.

Carin Fisher, a German citizen who has now applied for Indian citizenship, came to Kashmir a few years ago to start a project called "Rural Tourism" sponsored by the Indian tourism ministry, but she has decided to morph the project into a campaign for saving forests.

"To start with I chose Rafiabad area in north Kashmir for implementing my project. But when I went there, I was shocked to see the incredible destruction of forests," Fisher told IPS.

"Then I thought I should do something to motivate the timber smugglers to give up this habit of axing the trees. So I named my project "Trekking for Trees" and managed to convince 50 smugglers to work as tourist guides and identified 20 houses for the tourists to stay," said Fisher.

"In the meanwhile, we also built a trekking center for giving tourist-guide training to the timber smugglers," she said. "But we had to suspend the whole operation because I was not allowed to implement my project by a nexus of the vested interests."

Fisher says that she is organizing a similar project in Khag-Budgam and hopes to start it in April or May of 2011. "You can’t stop timber-smuggling by booking the smugglers under harsh laws. You have to go after the kingpins and at the same time you have to give community-based livelihoods to the poor people who actually do the axe-work," Fisher told IPS.

Source: IPS.
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54238.

Egyptian couple married in Tahrir Square

CAIRO, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A young Egyptian couple who camped out in Cairo's Tahrir Square decided to marry there, with more than 300,000 protesters attending the ceremony.

Dr. Ahmad Zaafan, a pharmacologist, and Oula Abdul Hamid were married Sunday in the square where they have been camping out since Jan. 28, Gulf News.com reported.

"I am worried because my parents could not come to attend the party, but happy that all Egyptians and Arabs have witnessed my marriage and we both received blessings and congratulations from all over the world," Zaafan told the Web site.

Hamid said she could not have chosen a better venue for the wedding ceremony.

"I am very happy about the idea of tying the wedding knot in this holy square, which is witnessing the rebirth of our nation," she said.

Zaafan and Hamid are members of the Creator of Future, a non-profit organization founded by the Dr. Amr Khaled Group, which organizes various agricultural, education and social projects.

Khaled is a Muslim television preacher who rejects extremism and says he wants Arab Muslims to live in peaceful co-existence with the West.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/02/07/Egyptian-couple-married-in-Tahrir-Square/UPI-78211297084472/.

Moody's lowers Jordan rating over regional unrest

08/02/2011

AMMAN, Jordan (AFP) -- Moody's on Tuesday lowered the outlook on Jordan's "Ba2" foreign currency government bond rating from stable to negative because of political turmoil in the Arab world.

"This announcement was triggered by Moody's concern that fiscal and economic downside risks related to ongoing turmoil in the region have risen following events in Tunisia and Egypt," it said.

The credit rating agency said it has also "downgraded the government's local currency bond rating to Ba2 with a negative outlook from Baa3," and Jordan's local currency ceilings were downgraded to Baa1 from A3.

"Jordan does not display limited capital mobility. Nor is there evidence of a significant bias in the government's ability or willingness to service its debt in favor of local currency," it added.

"This rating action also reflects higher fiscal and economic downside risks," Moody's said.

It warned that it may downgrade Jordan's Ba2 government ratings "if there were disruptive political turmoil that threatened a structural weakening of Jordan's credit fundamentals relative to rating peers."

This could include a deterioration in the balance of payments leading to a significant decline in official foreign exchange reserves or a sustained fiscal slippage that caused a jump in public debt, it said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II last week sacked the government and appointed a new prime minister to push through reforms to counter popular discontent inspired by Tunisia's revolt and anti-regime protests in Egypt.

The tiny desert kingdom faces several chronic socio-economic challenges, including a high rate of unemployment, which is officially reported to be 12.5 percent.

"Moody's notes that this is one of the higher rates in the region and similar to that of Tunisia. Poverty is also reported to be widespread and corruption is perceived to be an issue," said the agency.

"Moreover, over the past year, consumer price inflation increased to around six percent in December."

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358129.

Abbas, Abdullah meet as region remains in turmoil

07/02/2011

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbss sat with Jordan's King Abdullah on Sunday, the PA government press agency WAFA reported, saying the two discussed the latest political developments in the region.

The two met as Jordan's Islamists refused to join a new government, days after Abdullah sacked the old cabinet and appointed a new prime minister, and the International Quartet warned that instability in Egypt could derail the peace process.

"In these difficult circumstances, contacts and consultations should be resumed with his majesty the King," saying that was the primary purpose of the visit, adding that the maintenance of regular ties was particularly important given the events in Egypt and the information leaked by the London-based The Guardian and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera in the Palestine Papers.

The series of leaked documents revealed back-room negotiations between PLO and Israeli officials where Palestinian negotiators appeared prepared to concede large swaths of Jerusalem, let go of the right of return for the majority of Palestinian refugees and cooperate closely with Israel in the ousting of Hamas.

According to WAFA, the leaders supported the Quartet statement saying a peace deal could be reached by September, and remained insistent that a two-state solution was the way forward.

Also at the meeting was chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat, PA ambassador to Amman Atallah Kaheiri and head of the Jordanian royal court Naser Al-Louzy.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357555.

Islamists 'reject portfolios in new gov't'

By Hani Hanzaimeh

AMMAN - The Muslim Brotherhood has thanked Prime Minister-designate Marouf Bakhit for offering the group portfolios in his government, but opted for rejecting the offer.

A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Jordan Times that Bakhit offered the largest opposition group “one or two portfolios through a third party”.

But Hamzah Mansour, the secretary general of the group’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, said that the offer was made directly and indirectly, “without going into any details regarding what portfolios were included in the offer”.

On Sunday, Mansour headed a delegation from the movement to a meeting with Bakhit, where the issue of their participation in the new government was brought up, according to the Islamist leader and the source.

“We thanked him for the gesture, which we consider a positive step, but we would rather be part of the political process in an elected government,” Mansour said.

The Islamists seek a new elections law that adopts the proportional representation list in place of the one-person, one-vote system. Bakhit reportedly told lawmakers that such a system is an option.

According to a statement by the Muslim Brotherhood published on their website Sunday, the delegation presented Bakhit with a memorandum listing 14 demands from the new government.

Mansour told The Jordan Times that the Muslim Brotherhood’s representatives expressed during their meeting with Bakhit their willingness to cooperate with the new government towards achieving political reform according to Royal directives in the Letter of Designation.

According to Mansour, the demands included a new elections law that adopts the proportional representation list, amending the Public Gatherings Law, the establishment of a teachers association, more public freedoms and dissolving the current Parliament and electing a new Lower House under the new law.

His Majesty King Abdullah met leaders of the Brotherhood on Thursday. During the meeting, the King said he was expecting the new government to work hand in hand with Parliament, political parties and civil society institutions to achieve progress towards political reform.

The group later in the day described the meeting as “candid and clear” and dealt with different issues of national concern, with focus on political reform.

7 February 2011

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=34255.

UK gives aid to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

08/02/2011

BEIRUT (Ma'an) -- The UK on Monday announced a contribution of £1.5 million to UNRWA to assist Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

The UK development agency DFID said the funding would help the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to provide medical supplies to over a thousand families and ensure shelter for 3,500 families.

Over 425,000 Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, and many were displaced again in 2007 during internal fighting in the country in 2007.

DFID Minister Alan Duncan said the support would help these families, especially during winter months, but added that it was not a sustainable solution.

"[T]he only long term solution for Palestinian refugees across the Middle East is a negotiated peace agreement with Israel. The UK is continuing to work with both parties and the international community to achieve a just and fair two state solution."

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357774.

Haniyeh visits escaped prisoner

08/02/2011

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday visited a Hamas militant who returned to the Gaza Strip after escaping an Egyptian jail.

Haniyeh congratulated Noufel on his release, and said he prayed to God to protect all resistance fighters.

Ayman Noufel, a leader in Hamas' armed wing the Al-Qassam Brigades, returned to the Al-Buriej refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday.

He was one of several Palestinian prisoners who joined thousands of detainees in a mass jail break, as an anti-government uprising created security chaos across Egypt.

"I broke the door of my cell down with the bed frame and the Egyptian prisoners helped us break open the cell's door. As we ran toward the main gate of the prison some guards shot at us, while neighbors living near the prison broke the gate and set fire to it," he recalled of the escape.

Noufel thanked all those who arrived to his home in Gaza to congratulate him on his return. He also expressed gratitude to the media for their solidarity and to all the Palestinians who took part in rallies demanding his release.

He was detained three years ago in El-Arish, when thousands of Palestinians broke out of Gaza by tearing down a section of the wall on Egypt's border.

He said he was never told the reason for his detention, but that Egyptian police interrogated him about Hamas and its military capabilities.

The Qassam commander said he suspected he was being used as a hostage to blackmail the Islamist movement.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=357829.