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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Report: Egypt releases 2 Palestinian detainees

Sunday 01/05/2011

CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities have released two Palestinian members of a Hezbollah-affiliated cell, Arabic media reported Sunday.

The men were detained during the rule of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel reported.

Muhammad Ramadan, 17, was detained in Egypt three years ago and sentenced to six months, but he was not released after completing the sentence, the report said.

Nidal Fathi Juda, 23, had been sentenced to three years imprisonment.

They were released following a week-long hunger strike, after which they met with the chief of the Egyptian prison service, Ramadan told Al-Arabiya.

The men sent a request to Egypt's Higher Military Council through the prison chief, and the request was referred to the Attorney General who agreed to release them, Ramadan said on arrival in the Gaza Strip.

"After a decision was made to release us, we were held temporarily at Al-Qanatir prison for two months waiting for the situation in northern Sinai to settle down.

"Three days ago, we were moved to the Rafah crossing and were asked to choose whether we prefer to go to Gaza or to Malaysia to avoid Israeli threats. We decided to go to Gaza so we can die in our homeland," Ramadan told Al-Arabiya.

The teenager said he had been blindfolded and tortured for six months by Egyptian state security in the city of Nasr prior to his trial.

He added that four other Palestinians remained in Egyptian custody serving sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years.

Ramadan identified them as Nassar Jibreel, Adel Abu Amra, Nassar Abu Amra and Nimir Taweel, and said Egyptian lawyers were trying to secure their release.

Other members of the Hezbollah cell managed to escape during the unrest in Egypt which led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, including a well-known leader Sami Shihab and other Egyptians within the group.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=383609.

Egypt frees Hezbollah cell members to Gaza

GAZA, May 1 (UPI) -- Two Palestinian members of a Hezbollah cell arrived in Gaza this weekend following their release by Egyptian authorities.

Mohammed Ramadan, 17, and Nidal Fathi Juda, 23, were arrested three years ago along with other cell members for terror activities. The two completed their jail sentences and applied to the Egyptian Higher Military Council for their freedom, Ramadan told al-Arabiya.

Ramadan said Egypt's attorney general agreed to the release after the two waged a one-week hunger strike. They were then moved to a prison in Sinai for two months before their release.

"After a decision was made to release us, we were held temporarily at al-Qanatir prison for two months waiting for the situation in northern Sinai to settle down. Three days ago, we were moved to the Rafah crossing and were asked to choose whether we prefer to go to Gaza or to Malaysia to avoid Israeli threats. We decided to go to Gaza so we can die in our homeland," Ramadan told al-Arabiya.

He said four other cell members -- Nasser Jibreel, Adel Abu Amra, Nasser Abu Amra and Nimir Taweel -- are serving sentences of 10 to 15 years and Egyptian lawyers were trying to secure their release.

During the anti-government demonstrations in Egypt earlier this year and the toppling of former President Hosni Mubarak and his government, several cell members were among hundreds of inmates who escaped from Egyptian prisons, including Sami Shihab, the leader of the Hezbollah cell, the network said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/01/Egypt-frees-Hezbollah-cell-members-to-Gaza/UPI-28051304248200/.

Supporters launch informal presidential campaign for Aboul Fotouh

Fri, 29/04/2011

Supporters of Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, member of the Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council, have started a campaign to support his candidacy for presidency despite the fact that he has yet to announce whether he will run.

According to the campaign and a leaflet prepared by his supporters, Aboul Fotouh will run for president “for the sake of our country, our people, and the young men and women who have sacrificed their children and their mothers’ happiness."

The campaign called on the public to support Aboul Fotouh because, it said, Egyptians should not have to elect the best of bad presidential candidates or to elect a president who has lived abroad while Egyptians were suffering domestically. The campaign also outlined Aboul Fotouh's accomplishments and his volunteer and relief work.

Members of the campaign employed black and white pictures of Sadat and Mubarak to reference an 'age of darkness' juxtaposed with a colored photo of Aboul Fotouh. Details of a famous debate between former President Sadat and Aboul Fotouh, when he was a medical student, were written under his photo along with his resistance against Mubarak’s regime. Aboul Fotouh was arrested three times under Mubarak's rule.

“Abdul Monem Aboul Fotouh: a president for Egypt because Egypt deserves to be a leader,” read one campaign slogan. Others said "We want a national president, who is not from the old regime;” “We want a charismatic president who has a conscience;” “We want a president for the youth who is not over 70 years old;" and ” We want a moderate president who can unite all Egyptians.”

The campaign materials included information on Aboul Fotouh’s views on political, educational, economic, and judicial reforms as well as his views on women and his concept of freedom.

"We have collected donations to print and distribute this campaign leaflet. When we presented the leaflet to Aboul Fotouh, he told us 'God bless you'," campaign coordinator Mohamed Haykal told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Aboul Fotouh’s media adviser Mohammad Abbas said the Muslim Brotherhood leader has yet to decide if will run for president.

Abbas told Al-Masry Al-Youm that information published on various websites regarding Aboul Fotouh’s presidential nomination was disseminated by a group of his supporters who have formed a coalition to support his candidacy. In an effort to push him to make a presidential bid, the informal coalition is highlighting his achievements to the public and media.

Abbas added that no one can intervene in the timing of Aboul Fotouh's announcement regarding his potential candidacy.

Aboul Fotouh, a liberal-minded Islamist, has been at the center of a recent controversy regarding splits within the movement. Aboul Fotouh has reaffirmed his membership within the Muslim Brotherhood, denying earlier reports that he had broken away from the group to form his own movement. Aboul Fotouh was sidelined by conservative members of the Muslim Brotherhood a year ago.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/417227.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood selects hawkish leaders

Noha El-Hennawy
Sat, 30/04/2011

In its first meeting since 1995, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Shura Council on Saturday announced the leaders of its would-be political party and pledged not to run for more than half the parliamentary seats in Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s legislative body appointed Mohamed Morsy as president of the Freedom and Justice Party, Essam al-Erian as vice president and Saad al-Katatny as secretary general.

Speaking to reporters in the backyard of the group’s new six-story headquarters on the hill of Moqattam, the appointees affirmed the independence of their political party from the mother organization - a plea constantly reiterated by observers and the group’s reformist voices.

To prove the party’s autonomy, the Shura Council required the three leaders to relinquish their positions in the Guidance Bureau, the Muslim Brotherhood’s executive structure, according to a statement given out to journalists.

The same document uses a vague language to envisage possible “coordination” between the party and the Muslim Brotherhood in a way that achieves “national interests.”

“Any party that ignores the coordination with the Muslim Brotherhood, given its historical role and geographical expansion, threatens its own chances,” Erian told reporters at a news conference after the Shura Council had adjourned its two-day meeting.

“All parties coordinate with the Muslim Brotherhood, so how could the Freedom and Justice Party not do so?” he asked.

Yet such arguments fall short of convincing some of the group’s young people who have recently become vocal in demanding a complete divorce between the group’s proselytizing entities and its new political party. Claiming that the party is autonomous is “a paradox," said Mohamed al-Qassas, a 35-year-old Muslim Brotherhood youth leader.

“How could the party be independent if the Shura Council had already selected its leaders and decided on its platform and bylaws?” Qassas asked rhetorically.

Entrusting Morsy, a former parliamentarian known for his rigid outlook, is another disappointment to some of the group’s youths.

“Dr. Morsy is known for his administrative and organizational abilities, but he has no political skills,” Mohamed Affan, a 30-year-old brother, told Al-Masry Al-Youm in a phone interview.

Last month, Qassas and Affan were among hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood youths who convened in public - against Morsy's will - to discuss prospects for democratizing the group, ensuring better representation of women and youths within the highest power structures and developing a sophisticated political outlook.

The Shura Council’s decisions were enough to discourage both young brothers from joining the party.

“I am still in the group but I am opposed to its political activities. I want to join a professional political party that offers a distinguished political platform,” said Affan, an assistant professor at Ain Shams University’s Medical School.

He contended that the Freedom and Justice Party platform remains steeped in political ideology and fails to offer practical solutions to the nation’s most urgent problems. Yet remaining a brother and joining a different political party would be unacceptable.

“As said before, the group decided that none of its members can join a party other than the group’s party,” Mahmoud Hussein, the Muslim Brotherhood’s secretary-general said.

Shortly after Hosni Mubarak stepped down on 11 February, the Muslim Brotherhood announced it would form a political party. Since then, political salons have swarmed with questions over the political outlook of the party and its relationship with the 83-year-old organization, which holds under its fold missionary, social and educational as well as political entities.

The brothers’ assurances that the party will be open to non-Muslims and non-Islamists failed to diffuse the fears of secularists and Copts who remain weary that the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to establish a religious state that would contradict liberal democracy and jeopardize individual freedom.

Earlier this month, such concerns intensified after a hawkish Muslim Brotherhood leader implied the possibility of enforcing Islamic capital punishment in the future.

But Morsy affirmed that his party does not envision a theocracy and conforms to a recently-passed legislation that bans religious parties.

“The party will be civil in all senses with an Islamic frame of reference. The Islamic frame of reference does not contradict the law nor the constitution,” said Morsy.

Earlier Muslim Brotherhood leaders had argued that using Islam as a vantage point for politics does not contradict Egypt’s constitution, which stipulates that the Islamic sharia is the primary source of legislation.

The group had also decided to compete for a maximum of 50 percent of the parliamentary contested seats in September poll. This decision contradicts earlier statements made by several group leaders affirming that the organization would not contest more than 30 percent of the People’s Assembly seats.

To explain the discrepancy, Katatny said: “All statements made earlier were just personal speculations. Only the Shura Council has the right to decide on the matter.”

Nevertheless, such arguments might not necessarily protect the group’s credibility.

“This will threaten the group’s credibility,” said Qassas. “The Shura council should explain why it has raised the number. The matter should be clearly justified to the media, the brothers and group’s youths.”

Yet the group maintained its word on refraining from fielding a presidential candidate.

“We believe the atmosphere is not convenient for that and the mission of the new president is going to be difficult,” Hussein told reporters.

In the meantime, the group affirmed that it would not support any brother who decides to compete for the state’s highest executive office, in reference to prominent reformist Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, who had previously announced he might run for president. This announcement had exacerbated tension between the 60-year-old doctor and the group’s leadership.

Since last year, Abouel Fotouh had been sidelined by hardliners for his relatively liberal views on democracy, women and minorities. In recent weeks, Abouel Fotouh has voiced ruthless criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, contending that the organization should remain aloof from partisan politics.

Although he is officially a Shura Council member, Abouel Fotouh did not attend this historic meeting - an absence that indicates further tensions.

This is the first time the 109-member Shura Council has convened since 1995, when former President Hosni Mubarak’s police had raided its meeting, arresting scores of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and referring them to military tribunals.

The 83-year-old organization has been officially banned since the late 1940s. Under Mubarak, the organization remained outlawed but its engagement in parliamentary, student union and syndicate elections was tolerated.

In the meantime, the brothers had to live with systematic waves of arrests and resilient smear campaigns in state-owned media. The group claims that tens of thousands of its members were jailed under Mubarak, usually on grounds of plotting to topple the regime.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/418600.

Mubarak metro stop renamed 'Martyrs' station

Khair Ragheb
Sat, 30/04/2011

A transportation ministry committee has announced that the Mubarak metro station will be renamed "Martyrs" station.

Engineer Mostafa al-Sheimy, chairman for the Egyptian Company for Metro Management and Operation, announced the change, saying the new name commemorates the people killed during the 25 January revolution.

More than 35,000 Egyptians participated in a poll on Facebook to choose an alternative name for the metro station. More than 56 percent agreed to call it "Martyrs," while "Ramses" and "Egypt Station" came as the second and third choice.

The committee sided with the majority and chose the new name after an Egyptian court ordered that the names of former President Hosni Mubarak and his wife Suzanne be removed from all facilities and public institutions.

Sheimy said the committee took into account many factors, such as the location of the station, important locations surrounding it, the history of the station and the poll conducted by the company on its Facebook page.

It proposed five names in total, including "January 25" and "Revolution."

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/418519.

Egypt to open Rafah border crossing with Gaza

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Egyptian FM: Rafah border blockage was shameful

DUBAI (AFP) – Egypt will permanently open the Rafah border crossing as part of its plans to ease the blockade on Gaza, Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Friday.

Arabi said his country would take “important steps to help ease the blockade on Gaza in the few days to come,” according to the Arabic-language satellite channel.

He said Egypt would no longer accept that the Rafah border -- Gaza's only crossing that bypasses Israel -- remain blocked, describing his country's decision to seal it off as “shameful.”

Egypt has largely kept Rafah closed, opening it exceptionally for humanitarian cases from the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2006, further tightening it the following year when the Islamic resistance movement Hamas took power after winning Palestinian elections.

Since 2007, Gaza's 1.5 million people have relied on a web of tunnels beneath the Rafah border for most of their needs.

Most of the tunnels are used to bring in basic goods such as food, household appliances, building materials and livestock.

A 2005 agreement brokered by the United States put the Acting Palestinian Authority and Israel in charge of Rafah, with observation from the European Union.

Source: Tehran Times.
Link: http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=239671.

Egyptians use train to spread the word

CAIRO, April 28 (UPI) -- A "construction train" carrying political activists is traveling across Egypt in an effort to raise political awareness before elections, its organizers said.

Organizers said the train was to leave Cairo Thursday and make stops in several Egyptian governates to educate and encourage people to increase their political awareness and activities, Bikya Masr reported.

Organizers said they expect a large turnout wherever the train stops. The idea was conceived by a group of January 25 revolution youth interested in communicating with people across a wide range social structures, especially in poor villages and in slum-like areas.

A television program about the construction train will be released soon and organizers of the initiative have developed training programs for volunteers to educate them on how to communicate with the masses.

The construction train initiative is open to all Egyptian youth, organizers said. A number of political activists and popular artists will participate in the first leg of the initiative.

They include Amr Shubaki, political analyst at al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Moez Masoud, a religious scholar, and Ahmed Helmy, an actor.

The train's first stop will be in the province of Beni Suef Thursday.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/04/28/Egyptians-use-train-to-spread-the-word/UPI-87511303991857/.

Unemployment, poverty top agendas of Amr Moussa's presidential campaign

QENA, Egypt, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's presidential candidate Amr Moussa has vowed to fight unemployment and poverty in his campaign in southern Egypt.

Moussa, who is to end his post in May as chief of Cairo-based Arab League, said on Thursday his program will include an immediate and logical solution to the unemployment problem in the country.

Moussa said at a press conference held in Qena governorate that the government should provide an allowance for the unemployed for one year with an average of 1,500 Egyptian pounds (about 252 U.S. dollars).

The government should be responsible for creating jobs with 60 training centers, he added. Egypt's unemployment rate is estimated at around 20 percent, although official figures showed it was about nine percent.

Moussa said poverty was another main problem and should be reduced by economic reforms and social justice. Efforts should be made to establish small businesses, projects and provide credit and direct loans like India and Brazil, he added.

He stressed Egypt needed to gain its pivotal role in the region.

Moussa was Egypt's foreign minister from 1991 to 2001. He has been the Arab League's secretary general since 2001.

He is one of presidential candidates for the upcoming election later this year, after President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign on Feb. 11 due to anti-government protests against his 30- year rule.

"I am proud of the ten years I spent as an Egyptian foreign minister during Mubarak's regime, I was loyal and honest in my political job and my decision was driven from the Egyptian people and the Arabs," he said.

"I have never been a member in the corrupted regime," he said.

He said he had no affiliation with the National Democratic Party, the former ruling party which has been dissolved by the court.

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-04/29/c_13850753.htm.

Brotherhood to decide party leadership on Friday

Hany ElWaziry
Ibtisam taalab
Thu, 28/04/2011

The Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council plans to choose the president of its Freedom and Justice Party and approve the final bylaws of the party on Friday.

Sources said the party has 10,000 founding members but will apply for registration with 7000 only.

They also said that group members Saad al-Katatny, Mohamed Morsi, Rashad al-Bayoumi and Essam al-Eryan are front-runners for the post.

Mohktar Nouh, a member of the group’s internal opposition, said the group’s General Assembly, not the Shura Council, should appoint the party president.

In related news, presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei’s statement that the military council should include an article in the new constitution protecting the secular state raised reservations within the group.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/416697.

Egypt backs Syrian regime, receives sharp criticism

Ahmed Zaki Osman
Thu, 28/04/2011

Egypt is backing Syrian diplomatic efforts to block a Western-supported UN resolution condemning Damascus’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, a human rights advocate said on Thursday.

“Egypt has introduced amendments to a proposed UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution, according to which the council should not condemn the bloody governmental crackdown on peaceful protesters in Syria,” said Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian human rights activist, via telephone from Geneva.

The Syrian unrest began in the middle of March after a group of schoolchildren in the town of Deraa, bordering Jordan, were arrested for writing anti-government slogans. The people rushed to the streets demanding their release.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has launched a deadly campaign to quash the protests. The death toll is now more than 450, according to Ziadeh, who attended the special session of the Geneva-based UNHCR.

“I can’t believe that revolutionary Egypt is completely ignoring the massacres in Syria, [and even] supporting the regime. Egypt shouldn’t support Assad,” said the Washington-based advocate. Rather, it “should look to the Syrian lives that are being lost because of the bloody crackdown.”

The United States – along with Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Senegal, Zambia and ten European states – have managed to force a special session of the UNHRC on Friday to examine the crackdowns. It marks the first time that a special session has been held on the human rights situation in Syria, which has submitted a bid to become a UNHRC member.

A draft proposed by France, Britain, Germany and Portugal was opposed by members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), along with some African countries who opposed the idea of holding such a session.

On Thursday, two Egyptian rights watchdogs, along with two Syrian ones, issued a statement condemning the “shameful position” of the OIC toward the crackdown in Syria. According to the statement, the OIC's proposed amendments “don’t only ignore the basic and recognized human rights,” but would also give “immunity to the crimes and massacres perpetrated by the Syrian authorities.”

The rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

“The Syrian government is clearly trying to shatter the will of those peacefully expressing dissent by shelling them, firing on them and locking them up,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

The US is considering targeted sanctions against Syria and has underscored the point that it has evidence that Iran is supporting the crackdown on peaceful protesters.

President Obama condemned Syria for its "outrageous use of violence" and said the government's moves to lift the state of emergency and allow peaceful demonstrations "were not serious given the continued violent repression against protesters."

France announced that it has called in the Syrian ambassador to explain his government’s attacks on its citizens. Four other European governments – Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain – also called in their Syrian ambassadors.

“I do think that the regime of [former president] Mubarak is still in place. Egypt’s foreign policy hasn’t changed at all,” claimed Ziadeh.

“I expect tomorrow to be a fierce session, and we are working closely with the Latin American group in the UNHRC in order to ensure the required votes [of 24] for condemning the bloody crackdown on protesters,” concluded Ziadeh.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/416758.

Egypt releases 9 Palestinian detainees

Agencies
Thu, 28/04/2011

Palestinian sources said Egyptian authorities on Wednesday released nine Palestinians who were being held in Egyptian prisons. Detainees entered the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing late on Wednesday.

A committee of the families of Palestinian detainees in Egyptian prisons said all nine prisoners returned to Gaza after being released on Wednesday morning.

In a statement, the Hamas Foreign Affairs and Planning Ministry described the move as a "positive step that strengthens connections between Egypt and Palestine."

Egypt released another 14 Palestinian prisoners earlier this month, 12 of whom arrived in Gaza while one stayed in Egypt and another went to the Emirates.

Other Palestinian detainees were able to escape Egyptian prisons and return to Gaza due to security breaches during the 25 January revolution.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/416403.

Egypt wants Kuwait support for Arab League position

By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
April 28, 2011

Amr Mousa would be quitting to run in the presidential elections in Egypt.

Manama: Egypt has asked Kuwait to vote for its candidate for the position of the secretary general of the Arab League, Kuwaiti media reported on Wednesday.

Amr Mousa, the incumbent secretary general, said that he would be quitting next month to run in the presidential elections in Egypt staked for later this year.

Qatar has presented the candidacy of the former Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General Abdul Rahman Al Atiyyah.

However, Egypt, which has held the position since the formation of the Arab League, except for a short period of time when the headquarters were transferred to Tunisia in 1979, has nominated Mustfa Al Faqi to replace Amr Mousa.

None of the Arab League members has yet divulged its choice for the next head and both Doha and Cairo are seeking support.

The summit to choose the new secretary general was scheduled to be held in Baghdad in May, but following the refusal of the GCC leaders to attend it, the Arab League has decided to postpone it.

Source: Gulf News.
Link: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/kuwait/egypt-wants-kuwait-support-for-arab-league-position-1.800281.

Algeria Moves Quickly to Nip Protest in the Bud

May 3, 2011

Amid the most violent protests in nearly four months on Monday, the Algerian government responded quickly with promises of political reforms, price subsidies and jobs. But experts and human rights activists say President Abd Al-Aziz Bouteflika isn’t offering enough.

Demonstrations demanding better education and more political freedom turned violent, as student protesters confronted riot police in the capital Algiers. Some 20 protesters and three policemen were injured as policemen armed with anti-riot gear blocked a march from the central post office to the presidential palace.

But officials didn’t employ a stick-only policy. The same day, cabinet authorized digging into the country's $150 billion cash reserves, increasing public spending by 25% to create new jobs, raise public sector salaries and subsidize staples such as flour, milk, cooking oil and sugar. Bouteflika said he would invite "national figures," including opposition leaders, to discuss political reforms and constitutional amendments.

Algeria has remained relatively unscathed by the upheavals of the Arab Spring. While it suffers economic malaise and repressive government, energy-rich Algeria has the cash reserves to finance people-pleasing programs and undercut the opposition. In January, officials were similarly fast in restoring quiet by announcing a sharp increase in public spending and price cuts.

But opposition leaders said that in the new Middle East, where the street has been emboldened by the toppling of long-time leaders, the palliatives may not succeed so easily.

"The problem was never with the constitution, with the text," Moustafa Bouchachi, President of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, told The Media Line. "The problem is that the men and women who run this country don’t respect the law. You can have the best constitution, but the interior minister will still violate the law."

Turmoil in Algeria would add to the world’s energy woes. Oil exports from neighboring Libya have been sharply curtained in the wake of civil war, helping to raise prices to their highest since 2008. Algeria is one of the biggest exporters of gas and oil to the European Union, with estimated oil reserves of nearly 12 billion barrels and 159 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Bouchachi said he believed there was no political will in Bouteflika's government to conduct serious political reforms, adding that institutions and people must be replaced, not simply laws.

"The people and institutions have lost all credibility and cannot continue," he said. "The only solution is a unity transitional government which will call elections in which everyone can participate."

Mathieu Routier, a program coordinator at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, who has been following Algeria's protest movement, said the government must immediately initiate dialogue with the country's opposition.

"If the government doesn’t engage in sincere dialogue with the protest movement, there’s no telling how far things may deteriorate," Routier told The Media Line. He said the demonstrations Monday were by no means limited to students, but included groups such as pensioners, doctors and firefighters.

"The limited reforms offered by the government can’t solve the deep-seeded social problems in the country," he added. "With no mediation between civil society and the government, the only way for the public to express itself is through demonstrations."

Demonstrations have been banned in Algeria since the start of the Arab uprisings in December, but students from the University of Algiers and others have nevertheless been staging periodical anti-government protests in the capital, demanding the release of political prisoners and more political freedoms. Their demands are also pedagogical, calling for the dismissal of the Minister of Higher Education Rachid Haraoubia.

Independent workers' syndicates exist in the country, but Routier said that the government had marginalized them by creating parallel, state-controlled syndicates bearing the same names.

In an effort to appease demonstrators, the Algerian government in February lifted the state of emergency imposed in 1992. But Routier said the step was merely cosmetic, followed by no real political reforms on the ground. As long as the Algerian political system is not liberalized, demonstrators were unlikely to yield, he said.

"The proposed constitutional reform isn’t serious," Bouchachi said. "Nothing has changed since the lifting of the emergency law and the country is on the verge of a social explosion. Algeria is one of the only countries in the world where assembly is outlawed."

Last week, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression Frank La Rue condemned the killing of an Algerian Human Rights Activist and called on the government to conduct an independent investigation into the death. Ahmed Kerroumi, a professor at the University of Oran and member of the opposition party Democratic and Social Movement went missing April 19, his battered corpse found in his office four days later.

Routier said the fragmentation of the protest movement is what sets Algeria apart from its neighbor Tunisia. Attempts to unite the movement in January failed amid popular fears of a violent crackdown by government, similar to that of 1992. That year, the government annulled elections in which the Islamic Party won, prompting a bloody civil war that cost the lives of over 150,000.

Source: All Headline News (AHN).
Link: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90047170?Algeria%20Moves%20Quickly%20to%20Nip%20Protest%20in%20the%20Bud.

Algerian journalists press for change

ALGIERS — Algerian journalists gathered in the capital Algiers on World Press Freedom Day Tuesday, pressing for better salaries and training.

Lamenting what they deemed the "catastrophic situation" of journalists in the north African country, the group staged a sit-down protest outside Press House, which houses several newspapers.

"The profession is in total disorder," said the Algerian National Initiative for the Dignity of Journalists, which organized the protest and put the number of demonstrators at 200.

It cited the absence of press cards, poor salaries and inadequate training.

On Monday, the cabinet approved a series of measures to help journalists and to scrap a 2001 law that allows for their jailing.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced steps after the cabinet meeting to modernize the media and boost professionalism and ethics.

The protesters said these measures "are but a first step on the long road to rehabilitating the profession."

Students and riot police clashed in Algiers on Monday, leaving more than 20 injured as protesters took to the streets demanding political change.

Demonstrations are currently banned in the north African country.

Algeria has been largely unaffected by the wave of popular uprisings in north Africa that has already toppled the leaderships of Tunisia and Egypt.

However, students demanding political change and better study and living conditions have demonstrated several times in Algiers and been forcefully stopped.

Bomb kills two Algerian gendarmes - security source

Wed Apr 27, 2011

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Two Algerian paramilitary police were killed Wednesday in a bomb attack in a traditional stronghold of al Qaeda's north African wing, a security official said.

Islamist insurgents in Algeria appear to have resumed their activities after a lull. A total of 19 soldiers were killed in the same region over a 48-hour period earlier this month, in the deadliest attacks in months.

The security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two gendarmes were killed by a roadside bomb at about 3 p.m. British time near Bordj Menaiel, approximately 80 km (50 miles) east of the Algerian capital.

The attack happened in the mountainous Kabylie region, where al Qaeda's north African branch, known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, has traditionally been based.

Algerian security forces have been fighting Islamist militants for nearly two decades in a conflict which, at its peak in the 1990s, killed an estimated 200,000 people.

A combination of tough security measures and an amnesty for insurgents who lay down their arms has led in the past few years to a significant reduction in the level of violence.

(Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Writing by Christian Lowe)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE73Q6G820110427.

Algerian students rally for greater freedom

Mon May 2, 2011
Lahab Elmoussarih, Press TV, Algiers

Hundreds of Algerian students staged a peaceful demonstration in the capital Algiers.

They have demanded political change and greater freedom. The demonstration turned violent when security forces clashed with the students and at least nine people, including three policemen, were injured.

Some students believe the problems they are suffering are only pedagogical.

However, others say the country's political system is the root cause of the problems.

Demonstrations are banned in Algeria following the uprisings in the North African countries, but student have turned out many times in recent months to confront security forces.

Algeria has been largely unaffected by the popular revolutions which ousted longtime Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. However, students have called for political reforms and decent study and living conditions that all have gone unheard so far by the Algerian government.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177931.html.

Bouteflika cancels six exploration contracts with foreign companies

02 May, 2011

Algiers- President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has canceled contracts in millions of dollars by Sonatrach, signed by former Minister of Energy and Mines, Chakib Khelil with Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish and Gulf companies in the field of oil exploration in southern Algeria.

After the freezing of several contracts at the time of the former Minister Chakib Khelil, who left government immediately after what was known by “Sonatrach scandal”, involving the former CEO Mohamed Meziane and executives of the company, it was recently decided the cancellation of six exploration contracts with foreign companies, including three Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and U.S. Gulf.

According to information held by Ennahar six contracts relate to contracts concluded at the time of the former Minister Chakib Khelil between 2003 and 2006 to 2009. Among these contracts, an agreement with the Chinese company "Sinipac" on the exploration project which was signed in 2006.

Among the largest contracts that have been officially canceled, include one with the Spanish company "Ripsol" for exploration and exploitation of oil in the south of the wilaya of Illizi.

Ennahar / Mohamed B.

Source: Ennahar.
Link: http://www.ennaharonline.com/en/economy/6413.html.

Algeria: dozens of unemployed demonstrate at "1st May Square"

01 May, 2011

ALGIERS - A few dozen unemployed people gathered on Sunday at “1st May Square” in Algiers to demand "dignity" and "decent jobs" as the world celebrates Labor Day, according to the press.

These men came from different parts of the country to call the authorities to find a solution to the problem of employment, demonstrated peacefully for about an hour in favor of "healthy living".

A spokesman for the National Committee for the Defense of the unemployed, Samir Larabi, claimed on their behalf an unemployment benefit of 50% of the minimum wage (15,000 dinars, about 150 euros) for all unemployed, double the basic wage of workers and a ban on redundancies.

Unemployed appear regularly across the country for months. Recently, on March 16, fifteen of them had been wounded in the oil town of Hassi Messaoud, over 800 km southeast of Algiers, while protesting against a government recruitment office accused with corruption. Three days earlier, it was four officers of Annaba, 600 miles west of Algiers, who were injured in riots triggered by unemployed youths.

The unemployment rate is slightly more than 10% of the estimated 36 million Algerians, but higher than 21% among those under 30 years.

Source: Ennahar.
Link: http://www.ennaharonline.com/en/news/6407.html.