Armed residents put up resistance to Syrian army

By BASSEM MROUE - Associated Press, ZEINA KARAM - Associated Press
Mon, May 30, 2011

BEIRUT (AP) — Residents used automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades to repel advancing government troops in central Syria on Monday, putting up a fierce fight for the first time in their two-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad's autocratic regime.

The escalation raised fears the popular uprising may be moving toward a Libya-style armed conflict.

Until now, the opposition against Assad has taken the form of peaceful protests by unarmed demonstrators, though authorities have claimed, without offering solid proof, that it was being led by armed gangs and propelled by foreign conspiracies.

Activists said residents of the towns of Talbiseh and Rastan, which have been under attack since Sunday in central Homs province, decided to fight back with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and at least four civilians were killed.

"They felt that they cannot sit back any more and pray for God to help them," said one Homs resident who has wide connections in the province. He, like all residents contacted by The Associated Press, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Another two bodies were found early Monday in the area of Bab Amro cemetery, raising the death toll from the two-day crackdown in the country's turbulent heartland to 15, said the Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which helps organize and document the protests. State media said four soldiers were killed.

"The army is facing armed resistance and is not able to enter the two towns," the Homs resident said. "The army is still outside the towns and I was told that army vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, were set on fire."

A second activist confirmed residents had fought back, but said it involved individual residents protecting themselves, as opposed to an organized armed resistance with an overall command structure.

"The protests began peacefully but the practices of security forces that humiliated the people eventually led to the use of arms," he said. He said it was common for Syrians to have light weapons such as rifles in their homes, adding that in recent years weapons have been smuggled in from neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Iraq.

Homs has seen some of the biggest demonstrations against Assad since protests broke out in southern Syria in March and spread across the country — posing the most serious challenge to the Assad regime's 40-year rule.

What began as a disparate movement demanding reforms has erupted into a resilient uprising seeking Assad's ouster. Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the crackdown, which has drawn condemnation and sanctions from the United States and European Union.

Monday's accounts were the first credible reports of serious resistance by residents taking up arms. It is not clear how widespread such resistance might be elsewhere, though there have been some reports of civilians fighting back in the town of Talkalakh near the border with Lebanon and the government and several rights group say more than 150 soldiers and policemen have been killed since the unrest began.

Details coming out of Syria are sketchy because the government has placed severe restrictions on the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify accounts coming out of the country.

The Local Coordination Committees in Syria said Assad's fighters hit Tabliseh with artillery early Monday and that snipers were deployed on the roofs of mosques. Syrian troops, backed by tanks, have been conducting operations in Tabliseh, Rastan and the nearby town of Teir Maaleh since Sunday.

"The situation is completely hopeless," said a resident of Rastan reached by telephone who said he was barricaded in his home.

"There are dead bodies in the streets and nobody can get to them ... The town is completely surrounded by tanks," he shouted before the line was cut.

Rights activist Mustafa Osso said troops have detained hundreds of people since Sunday in Homs province.

Syria's state-run news agency said four soldiers were killed and 14 wounded in Tabliseh.

Assad's use of the military signals he is determined to crush the revolt, despite U.S. and European sanctions, including an EU assets freeze and a visa ban on Assad and nine members of his regime.

In Geneva, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday the brutality and magnitude of repression in Syria and Libya against anti-government protests is "shocking."

Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the crackdown in the two countries was marked by an "outright disregard for basic human rights."

He urged the Syrian government Monday to allow a U.N. fact-finding mission to visit the country. The team has been awaiting Syria's reply since requesting a visit on May 6.

Rights activist Mustafa Osso said troops have detained hundreds of people since Sunday in Homs province.

Turks mark 558th anniversary of Constantinople's conquest by Mohammad

5/29/2011
By Taha Oudah

ISTANBUL, May 29 (KUNA) -- Turks marked Sunday at an atmosphere of love and amity the 558th anniversary of the fall of the Constantinople, the bygone capital of the Byzantine empire and latter-day Istanbul.

Constantinople fell at the hands of Turkish Sultan Mohammad II, known as Mohammad the Conqueror, in 1453 in what marked the end of the Byzantine empire which lasted for a millennium.

Thus, Istanbul saw today another glorious day with thousands of people who have their hearts throbbing with the city's historic triumphal entry having flocked to Esmat Pasha Stadium in the nearby Kocaali city, while chanting the old songs of conquest which revived the feelings of thousands.

These acts of remembrance revived the nostalgic feelings of thousands who recalled again Sultan Mohammad, the Conqueror, Sheikh Aq Shams Al-Din, Ulubatli Hassan, and Abu Ayoub Al-Ansari, may God be pleased with him, and so the joy turned into a gala with fireworks launched in the middle of the program and at its last.

Then, a group of Istanbul's youth have carried, amid calls of Allahu Akbar, stating Allah is the Greatest, as well as the military music a wooden ship signifying the ships which Mohammad II made his soldiers carry from the western coast of Bosphorus, and pushed them up a wooden ramp to the pinnacle of the eastern hill, the current, then taking the ship down to Qassem Pasha zone overlooking the coast, and launching it into water in order to set sail toward Istanbul.

This dramatic act sums up the military tactic used by Sultan Mohammad, the Conqueror, at that time to transport the Ottomanic Islamic army and reach the Constantinople's walls after Byzantine Romans had closed the entrance of Golden Horn with strong iron chains that prevent ships from crossing the Bosphorus Strait in order to prevent their arrival at the foot of Constantinople's walls.

The celebrations marking this historic event were held under the sponsorship of Istanbul's Metropolitan Municipality with the participation of a big number of Turkish officials, and at their forefront came Istanbul's governor Hussein Ahbeuni Mutlu, and the city's mayor Kadir Topbas who laid a wreath at the unknown memorial in remembrance of those who fell at the battle field.

Source: Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
Link: http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2170157&Language=en.

China drought affects 35 million people

BEIJING, May 30 (UPI) -- The months-long drought along China's Yangtze River has affected 35 million people and the economic loss so far stands at $2.3 billion, officials said Monday.

No immediate relief was in sight as the National Meteorological Center said the dry weather was expected to continue over the next few days in provinces and municipalities in the area, China Daily reported.

Photographs showed fishing boats stranded on grassland, once the bed of Poyang Lake -- China's largest fresh water lake in eastern Jiangxi province.

Since early January, precipitation in Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan provinces has been about 40 percent to 60 percent less than the same period last year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The report said the Dongting Lake in Hunan province is also drying up dramatically.

Of the total number affected by the drought, about 4.23 million people were experiencing difficulties in finding drinking water and 5.06 million were in need of assistance, the report said.

The drought has also affected 1.07 million head of cattle and 9.1 million acres of crops.

The soaring prices of vegetables are adding to the country's already high inflation, which was expected to reach a new high in May.

Authorities have ordered the Three Gorges Dam spanning the Yangtze River to discharge more water to the drought-hit provinces.

The drought has been described as the worst since 1954. Experts said extensive cultivation and poor water conservancy also are contributing to the problem.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/30/China-drought-affects-35-million-people/UPI-97071306753772/.

Germany announces end to nuclear power by 2022

Berlin (AFP) May 30, 2011

Germany on Monday announced plans to become the first major industrialized power to shut down all its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster in Japan, with a phase-out due to be wrapped up by 2022.

Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen announced the decision by the center-right coalition, which was prompted by the crisis at Japan's Fukushima plant, in the early hours of Monday morning, describing it as "irreversible".

"After long consultations, there is now an agreement by the coalition to end nuclear energy," he told reporters after seven hours of negotiations into the small hours at Chancellor Angela Merkel's offices.

"This decision is consistent, decisive and clear."

Germany has 17 nuclear reactors on its territory, eight of which are currently off the electricity grid.

Seven of those offline are the country's oldest nuclear reactors, which the federal government shut down for three months pending a safety probe after the Japanese atomic emergency at Fukushima that began in March.

The eighth is the Kruemmel plant, in northern Germany, which has been mothballed for years because of technical problems.

Monday's decision made Germany the first major industrial power to announce plans to give up atomic energy entirely.

But it also means that the country will have to find the 22 percent of its electricity needs currently covered by nuclear reactors from another source.

Roettgen insisted there was no danger of blackouts.

"We assure that the electricity supply will be ensured at all times and for all users," he pledged, but did not provide details.

Already Friday, the environment ministers from all 16 German regional states had called for the temporary order on the seven plants to be made permanent.

Roettgen said Monday that none of the eight reactors offline would be reactivated. Six further reactors would be shut down by the end of 2021 and the three most modern would cease operation by the end of 2022.

Monday's decision is effectively a return to the timetable set by the previous Social Democrat-Green coalition government a decade ago.

And it is a humbling U-turn for Merkel, who at the end of 2010 decided to extend the lifetime of Germany's 17 reactors by an average of 12 years, which would have kept them open until the mid-2030s.

That decision was unpopular in Germany even before the earthquake and tsunami in March that severely damaged the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan, prompting Merkel's review of nuclear policy.

Her zig-zagging on what has been a highly emotive issue in the country since the 1970s has cost her since at the ballot box.

Merkel herself has blamed the Fukushima nuclear disaster for recent defeats in state elections.

In the latest, on May 23, the anti-nuclear Greens pushed her conservative party into third place in a vote in the northern state of Bremen, the first time they had scored more votes than the conservatives in a regional or federal election.

The late-night wrangling in Merkel's fractious team saw the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) arguing against a fixed end date for nuclear power, and to maintain two reserve reactors in case of energy shortages.

FDP sources said there would be a contingency plan with one reactor but did not provide details.

Meanwhile the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats, fought for an exit within 10 years.

Some coalition members had called for a built-in review clause which could have seen the decision revisited, but this was thrown out in the final round of negotiations.

Roettgen said the government had largely followed the recommendations of an "ethics panel" appointed by Merkel after the Fukushima disaster, which called for an end to nuclear power in Germany within a decade.

Source: Nuclear Power Daily.
Link: http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Germany_announces_end_to_nuclear_power_by_2022_999.html.

Libyan rebels offer amnesty to Kadhafi soldiers

2011-05-29

National Transitional Council (TNC) chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil offered amnesty Saturday (May 28th) to soldiers who leave Moamer Kadhafi's forces, international press reported. "Those still betting on Moamer Kadhafi's regime should wake up to reality and abandon it and join the righteous and just cause," he said at a Benghazi press conference. Defectors guilty of crimes before the start of the February 17th revolution would be guaranteed "a fair trial," he added, while those who committed crimes after that date would be pardoned if they left the regime now.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/05/29/newsbrief-02.

Algeria unveils vision for regional tourism

Turmoil next door might enable Algeria to lure more visitors this summer, but some are unsure if the country can truly become the top tourist draw in the Maghreb.

By Fidet Mansour for Magharebia in Algiers – 29/05/11

After popular uprisings took a toll on the Tunisian and Egyptian economies, Algerian authorities have been looking to promote their country as the top travel destination in the region.

The 12th International Tourism and Travel Fair (SITEV 2011), which ended May 21st, aimed to publicize the country's tourist sites. More than 250 local and foreign exhibitors partook in the four-day event in Algiers.

"Our country has at no point considered taking advantage of the situation caused by disturbances in Tunisia and Egypt," Tourism Minister Smail Mimoune said at the opening.

The goal is to re-launch the tourism sector in the country, with a five-year plan including hundreds of new tourist facilities over the period 2010-2014.

According to the ministry, Algeria received more than 2 million tourists in 2010, "who, given the improvement in the security situation, have seen their confidence in this destination restored".

"Algeria's geographic position is a real asset, and one from which Algerian operators hope to benefit as they attract tourists," Mimoune said, adding that the country "occupies a central position in the Maghreb".

"Its Mediterranean climate is mild in the north and dry in the south," he said. "This aspect is something positive, an asset which our tourist trade can use to its advantage."

Magharebia learnt that the government decided last week to speed up the process of examining tourist projects, which had been held back for 12 years by bureaucratic procedures.

Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia gave instructions to dissolve the committee responsible for approving tourism projects, passing the responsibilities to the National Investment Council (CNI) chaired by the prime minister.

Algerians are divided on whether the country can truly attract throngs of foreign tourists.

Some point to the lack of tourist infrastructure and the security situation as factors that may deter visitors from coming to Algeria. But the tourism minister feels that the priority is to promote "internal tourism", which means to pick up at least a large proportion of Algerian travelers who used to spend their holidays in Tunisia and Egypt.

Tunisia will not give up without a fight, however. Seventy Tunisian operators took part in the fair, with clearly one objective: to reassure Algerian visitors.

Tunisian National Tourism Office (ONTT) Director-General Habib Ammar held a press conference on May 18th on the sidelines of the tourism fair, where he said that the country had witnessed an estimated 48.6% drop in foreign currency receipts generated by tourism.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/05/29/feature-01.

Palestinian government deal by June 6: Shaath

May 29, 2011

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas expect to agree the make-up of a transitional government of independents by June 6, senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said on Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference after meeting Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya, Shaath declined to discuss potential ministers in the new government, which is mandated by a surprise unity deal signed by the two groups last month.

"It's not my role to talk about the candidates," he said, pointing out that a joint committee was studying potential ministers.

"There will be agreement between the parties on all the names by June 6," he said.

Bitter rivals for decades, Hamas and Fatah are working to overcome their differences under the terms of a surprise reconciliation deal signed in Cairo last month.

The accord calls on the two sides to work towards integrating their rival security forces and reforming the Palestine Liberation Organization.

It also mandates legislative and presidential elections within a year, with a transitional government of independents being formed to lay the groundwork for the votes.

Shaath said on Sunday that the two sides were close to resolving another thorny issue -- political prisoners.

Hamas and Fatah have routinely arrested each other's members, with each side accusing the other of mistreatment and arbitrary detention.

The reconciliation deal calls for the release of all political prisoners from the two sides, and Shaath said political arrests had already been halted.

He said he expected that the two groups would close the political arrests "file" soon.

"There is full agreement on that," he said. "The number of prisoners remaining in detention has shrunk and the file will be closed in upcoming days in accordance with the (unity) agreement," Shaath said.

He gave no details about any planned prisoner releases.

The reconciliation deal signed by the two parties aims to end years of bitter rivalry that boiled over in 2007, a year after Hamas won a surprise victory in legislative elections, culminating in street battles between the two groups in Gaza.

Hamas routed Fatah, seizing control of the Gaza Strip and leaving Abbas's party to run a parallel government unable to extend control beyond the West Bank.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

CHP calls on Turkish government to help Libyan refugees

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The deputy leader of the main opposition has called on the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to fulfill its responsibilities to assist refugees leaving Libya by sea.

“The NATO operation in which Turkey is also involved necessitates the control of Libya’s sea borders and the protection of civilians. Just like other NATO member countries’ governments involved in the operation, the AKP government has a responsibility in the planning and management of the operation,” Osman Korutürk, deputy leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, said in a written statement over the weekend.

He invited the government to act responsibly and urge NATO to develop a “research and rescue” mechanism for desperate people fleeing Libya in leaky boats.

Over 12,000 refugees have fled to Italy and Malta since the beginning of the NATO-led military operation in Libya, said Korutürk.

Citing data from the UN refugee body, known as UNHCR, he said 1,200 people had gone missing in trying to make the crossing.

Source: Hürriyet.
Link: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=chp-calls-on-gov8217t-to-help-libya-refugees-2011-05-29.

Bahrain parliamentarians demand treason charges after WikiLeaks

May 29, 2011

Cairo - Sunni Salafist parliamentarians in Bharain Sunday called on the authorities to prosecute their former Shiite lawmaker colleagues for treason, in the wake of WikiLeaks documents suggesting the al-Wefaq opposition group met US embassy officials in Manama.

In a statement the al-Asalah Islamic Society, which represents Salafists, called al-Wefaq - which held almost half of the 40-seat assembly - a 'poisoned dagger' threatening national security on the Gulf island in the wake of the leaked US diplomatic cables.

Al-Wefaq, the country's leading Shiite opposition grouping, resigned its parliamentary posts in February in protest over the lethal security crackdown against pro-reform protesters in the capital Manama on February 14th.

According to al-Asalah, the cables reveal high-level cooperation between al-Wefaq, which is also accused of having links to Iran, and the Americans.

'Such meetings reveal that al-Wefaq is not a typical political opposition grouping but a sectarian one that jumps in the lap of the Americans and has a clandestine agenda to betray the country,' the statement said.

'The meetings also prove that al-Wefaq is not just an agent for the Iranian agenda in the country but also the American one'.

The Salafist grouping claim that such meetings reveal the extent of the foreign 'conspiracy' against Bahrain by powers such as the US, Britain and Iran, among others.

At least 30 people have been killed during government crackdowns on protesters, which included the use of live ammunition, activists say.

Four policemen were also killed, according to the Interior Ministry.

Hundreds of people had been arrested, and more than 1,500 were sacked from their jobs - including medical staff, educators, other professionals and students - for taking part in the anti-government rallies.

In the wake of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, protests demanding political reform and greater freedoms in Sunni-ruled, Shi'ite majority Bahrain began on February 14.

Bahrain, which is the home of the US Navy 5th Fleet, and other Sunni-ruled countries in the region have accused Shi'ite-led Iran of meddling in the country's internal affairs.

Violence escalated in March, when Gulf troops were deployed to the small island kingdom and a state of emergency was declared to help quell the unrest.

The state of emergency, which is set to be lifted on June 1, bans all public gatherings and allows for arbitrary arrests and the trial of civilians in military courts.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1642251.php/Bahrain-parliamentarians-demand-treason-charges-after-WikiLeaks.

Bahraini female doctors recount detention 'horror'

By Ali Khalil (AFP) – May 29, 2011

MANAMA — Out of prison but in fear of being rearrested, Bahraini Shiite women doctors have spoken of abuse and torture by police after being accused of backing pro-democracy protests in the Sunni-ruled monarchy.

Although medics usually enjoy protection in conflicts by virtue of their profession, many Shiite doctors and nurses in Bahrain were rounded up in the March crackdown on a month-long pro-democracy protest.

Authorities accused them of abusing their jobs and siding with their co-religionist protesters.

Doctors at Manama's Salmaniya central hospital, not far from the capital's Pearl roundabout that became the focal point of protests inspired by the Arab uprisings, were also accused of lying and exaggerating on satellite channels to pile pressure on the government.

Some of the women doctors recently freed told AFP how they were made to confess to such allegations under torture and after being subjected to verbal abuse.

They requested anonymity for fear of further persecution.

"I advise you that we will get you to say whatever we want, either by you saying it willingly, or we will beat you like a donkey and torture you until you say it," one female doctor said, citing her interrogator.

The doctor said she was asked about her role in the February 14 Revolution, the name given by cyber activists to the demonstrations after two protesters were killed on that date.

She said she was smacked in the face by a female interrogator when she answered that she was just a doctor treating those wounded during the crackdown on the uprising.

"It seems you don't want to cooperate," the female officer told her, while accusing medics of "stealing blood units to splash on the wounded" to exaggerate their injuries for television.

Blindfolded and handcuffed, the female doctor who claimed to have always been apolitical, said she was stunned with an electric shock to the head. She was then thrown on the floor, legs up, and beaten severely on the feet with what felt like an electric cable or a hose.

"Even policewomen were shocked when they saw my state as I came out of the interrogation room," she said.

The following day, male interrogators took over, subjecting her to verbal sexual harassment and threatening to rape her.

"You must have had Mutah with demonstrators at the (Pearl) roundabout," she cited the interrogator telling her, referring to a form of temporary marriage for Shiites which Sunnis frown upon as adultery.

"I will have Mutah with you," she quoted him as saying.

"I will hang you from your breasts and rape you," she quoted another as saying.

The woman eventually agreed to sign every confession paper she was given for fear of being raped.

Afterwards she spent more than 20 days in prison. She was released only after signing many pledges, including not to take part in any protests and not to talk to media.

Other female doctors, each of whom has had at least 20 years of professional experience, too spoke of humiliations and beatings.

"Nobody expected this" said one doctor who said she too was arrested and tortured. "Doctors are supposed to be a red line."

She also spent over 20 days in detention and was subjected to beating to extract confessions that doctors had tried to "expand wounds in order to make them look bad," for cameras.

The authorities claim that such actions led to the deaths of two protesters who they said had arrived at the hospital suffering only minor injuries.

"I couldn't tell on which side of my head the slaps would land" said the veiled doctor describing how she was made to stand blindfolded in the interrogation room, where she claimed she was repeatedly called a "whore."

At night, the soft-spoken mother was made to sleep on a chair.

Another doctor said she managed to lie down, albeit on a cold floor, blindfolded and handcuffed, only after she faked dizziness.

Apart from wanting her to testify against some male doctors accused of mobilizing medics to join the protests, they also ordered her to say that she served medicines "only to one sect of people who wanted to topple the regime" -- a reference to the Shiite protesters.

She said she was struck several times in the face by a female interrogator.

Though freed, the doctors are barred from traveling and remain suspended from work with salaries overdue since March. They now fear being put on trial.

AFP approached Bahraini authorities for comment on abuse claims, but there was no response.

The authorities have said that 47 medics -- 24 doctors and 23 nurses -- have been referred to a special court set up under the state of national safety declared by King Hamad a day before the March 16 crackdown on demonstrators.

Bahrain state television repeatedly aired footage from Salmaniya hospital showing scenes it said proved the facility had been transformed into a protest bastion.

"What happened at Salmaniya will not be permitted again," Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman said last week.

The freed women doctors say they fear for the fate of the male doctors who remain in custody.

"If the women have been treated in such a (harsh) way, what would the situation be with the men!" exclaimed one doctor.

Some medics also expressed fear over the conditions of the female head of nursing at Salmaniya hospital, Rola al-Safar, who remains in custody.

Safar was forced to confess on camera that she "splashed blood units on the patients" to exaggerate, one medic said.

International rights groups have strongly criticized Bahrain over its heavy-handed crackdown on the Shiite-dominated protests, and abuse of medics, teachers and other employees accused of backing the protest.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

Brotherhood withdraws representatives from youth coalition

Hany ElWaziry
Sat, 28/05/2011

The Muslim Brotherhood announced on Saturday that the group no longer has any official representatives in the 25 January Revolution Youth Coalition.

Mohamed al-Qassas, a young Brotherhood coalition member, said the decision came in response to disagreements leading up to the second Friday of Anger which took place last Friday.

The Brotherhood leadership rejected Friday’s demonstrations in Tahrir Square to demand the swift prosecution of corrupt regime figures, call for a civilian-led national council to lead the country, do away with the country’s current constitution, and other demands. The group said the demonstration attempted to drive a wedge between the people and the armed forces. Nevertheless, some Brotherhood members decided to participate against the will of their leadership.

The secretary general of the Brotherhood in Egypt, Mahmoud Hussein, said in a press statement: "The Muslim Brotherhood announces that the group's representatives in the Coordinating Committee of the 25 January revolution are Adel Afifi and Osama Yassin, and that it has no representatives in the 25 January Revolution Youth Coalition".

The Brotherhood previously had two representatives in the 25 January Revolution Youth Coalition, Qassas and Islam Lotfy.

"I haven't been notified that I'm not the Muslim Brotherhood representative anymore, and I think this came as a response to our participation in the second Friday of Anger," said Qassas.

He pointed out that he and Lotfy had received the approval of the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide and his deputy to represent the group in the coalition.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/454852.

Brotherhood sheikh to run for president

Hany ElWaziry
Sun, 29/05/2011

Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail announced his intention to run in Egypt’s upcoming presidential elections.

He said that if elected he would implement Islamic sharia law and cancel the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Ismail was the Brotherhood’s candidate in 2005 parliamentary elections for Dokki in Giza.

The group announced earlier that it would not take part in the presidential elections and confirmed that it would compete for only half the seats in Parliament. But Ismail is the second Brotherhood member to have announced his intention to run for president in defiance of the group's leadership. The other Brotherhood candidate is Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, a liberal-minded Islamist.

Abu Ismail said Saturday during a speech in a Dokki mosque that he will sweep the elections. Since he is an ordinary man, he said, the masses will support him.

Abu Ismail said that his platform revolves around Islam, while "Mohamed ElBaradei, Amr Moussa, and Hamdeen Sabahi, the liberal candidates, will be unable to present a clear vision” for the country.

“If I could apply sharia in Egypt, all people, including non-Muslims, would applaud me four years later,” said Abu Ismail.

The sheikh said that no current presidential candidate represents the Egyptian people.

“We seek to apply Islamic law, but those who don’t want it prefer cabarets, alcohol, dancers and prostitution, as the implementation of Islamic law will prohibit women to appear naked in movies and on beaches,” Abu Ismail added.

For his opinion on Brotherhood, he said, “They are chaste people and my opinion would not change even if they don’t support me.”

Concerning the peace treaty with Israel, he said, “The Camp David peace treaty is insulting to the Egyptian people, so it must be canceled, and I will do my best to convince people to cancel it.”

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/455693.

GIZ organizes a roundtable discussion on sustainable use of treated wastewater in agriculture in Jordan

2011-05-29

AMMONNEWS – On behalf the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the German-Jordanian Water Program ‘Management of Water Resources’ held, on Sunday 29 May, a roundtable discussion on establishing a risk monitoring and management system for the use of reclaimed water in agriculture in Jordan, in accordance with the latest version of WHO guidelines.

It is worth mentioning that the proposed risk monitoring and management system consists of two major parts: The first looks into assuring sound and effective monitoring system for water, soil, and crops, while the second revolves around implementing all possible measures to eliminate or mitigate risks.

The roundtable aimed at bringing all stakeholders together to discuss the proposed risks of monitoring and management system, which was developed by interdisciplinary working group from the involved stakeholders. In addition, the necessary proceedings for efficient institutionalization of the proposed system were discussed.

The state crop-monitoring program for crops produced with treated wastewater, currently being implemented by the Jordanian Food and Drug Administration (JFDA), is perceived as one of the main achievement of the GIZ Water Program and considered as a corner stone in the monitoring system. The results of this program confirmed the safety of the crops being irrigated with treated wastewater, which gives irrefutable evidence that the reuse of treated wastewater in irrigation is a safe practice.

Jordan comes as one of the pioneer countries in field of modern irrigation techniques and treated wastewater reuse. The support of Jordan Valley Authority, represented by mega infrastructures (like dams, irrigation networks) in the Jordan Valley, paves the way for wider reuse of treated wastewater. One of the many advantages of treated wastewater reuse is save the use of synthetic fertilizers because treated wastewater is rich in plants nutrients. Results of intensive demonstration trials conducted jointly by GIZ and the Jordan Valley Authority, in collaboration with the Jordan Valley farmers, showed that each farm unit (35 dunum) can yearly save around JD1000 – 3000 which is equivalent to no less than JD4 million countrywide.

The Federal Republic of Germany and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan share a longstanding partnership in Development Cooperation. German-Jordanian development cooperation is focused on the water sector. The German Government through its implementing agencies (GIZ. KfW, BGR, CIM) aims at supporting Jordan with the establishment of a comprehensive integrated water resources management. Other German-Jordanian activities include school construction, renewable energies and capacity building.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GMBH is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany. We work worldwide in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education. Our mandate is to support the German government in achieving its objectives in these fields. We provide viable forward-looking solutions for political, economic, ecological and social development in a globalized world. Sometimes working under difficult conditions, we promote complex reforms and change processes. Our corporate objective is to improve people’s lives on a sustainable basis.

Source: Ammon News.
Link: http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleNO=12111.

Iraq, Jordan Sign Deal for Railway Line Linking Port of Aqaba to Baghdad

By Nayla Razzouk
May 29, 2011

Jordan and Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a rail line linking the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba with the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Petra said, citing Jordanian Transport Minister Muhannad Qudah.

The agreement for a line that would provide passenger and cargo services was signed by Qudah and visiting Iraqi Transport Minister Hadi al-Ameri in Amman today, the Jordanian official agency said. There were no further details on the project. Those will be decided later by a joint committee, Petra said.

Jordan has plans for a $3.1 billion rail network running 950 kilometers (590 miles) to connect the kingdom with Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is due to start the first bids for the project by the end of June, Qudah said April 11.

Jordan’s government will provide 370 million dinars ($522 million) for the project and potential lenders include the World Bank, European Investment Bank, France’s state-run Agence Francaise de Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Germany’s state-owned development bank KfW, he said.

Source: Bloomberg.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-29/iraq-jordan-sign-deal-for-rail-line-from-aqaba-to-baghdad.html.

Iraqi Airways to Appeal Assets Freeze Court Order in Jordan

By Nayla Razzouk
May 29, 2011

Iraqi Airways will appeal a court order to freeze its bank accounts in Jordan following a lawsuit by Kuwait Airways Corp., Karim al-Nuri, a spokesman for the Iraqi Minister of Transport, said.

“We are preparing to appeal the Jordanian court order,” he said in a phone interview from Baghdad today. “Our appeal is based on the fact that Iraqi Airways is a state company and thus enjoys immunity and cannot have its offices seized.”

The Iraqi national carrier’s offices in Amman were seized three day ago and assets of $1.5 million were frozen after the May 10 order by a Jordanian court, he said.

State-run Kuwait Airways is seeking $1.2 billion in compensation for 10 aircraft taken when Iraq, under the rule of former President Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Kuwait Airways won a U.K. court order to freeze the Baghdad- based airline’s global assets on April 25 last year, the same day as an Iraqi Airways flight landed in London for the first time in 20 years.

The Iraqi government decided in May 2010 to dissolve Iraqi Airways within three years because of the legal battle with Kuwait. The airline has cancelled flights to Europe since last year and continues to fly to destinations in the Middle East.

Iraqi Airways is planning to pursue negotiations with Kuwaiti officials in order to find a solution to the conflict that would benefit both parties, al-Nuri said.

New Company

The Iraqi airliner is also still considering government plans to operate under a new company to avoid the legal dispute and compensation claims raised by Kuwait, he said. “We are considering some contracts with local and foreign companies, although there is nothing final for now,” he said.

Kuwait Airways “seized multi-million dollar funds in various Iraqi Airways bank accounts in Amman,” following the May 10 Jordanian court order, Kuwait Airways lawyer Christopher Gooding of law firm Fasken Martineau said in an e-mailed statement on May 24.

The claim is in addition to $40 billion in debt amassed by Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein. The country, holder of the world’s fifth-largest crude reserves, is struggling to rebuild its damaged infrastructure and continues to allocate 5 percent of its annual oil revenue to repay the debt, roughly half of which it owes to Kuwait.

Source: Bloomberg.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-29/iraqi-airways-to-appeal-assets-freeze-in-jordan-on-court-order.html.

Algerian PM denies releasing thousands of Islamists accused of terrorism

May 30, 2011

Algeria Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia denied on Sunday reports alleging to release Islamist detainees accused of terrorism.

Ouyahia said during a news conference that "I absolutely deny such a rumor, with respects I owe to brothers who announced it," referring to former senior members in the dissolved Islamist Salvation Front party (FIS), namely El Hachemi Sahnouni and Abdelfateh Zeraoui.

El Hachemi Sahnouni and Abdelfateh Zeraoui said in a statement issued late April that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika would soon amnesty Islamist prisoners charged of terror acts since 1992, including those arrested in the early 1990s.

The statement said President Bouteflika would decided after consulting commanders of the army and the security services to issue an amnesty in favor of the prisoners, except for those involved in genocides, rape acts, and conducting bombing in public spaces, as stipulated in the National Reconciliation Law, which has been endorsed by the majority of Algerians in a referendum held in September 2005.

Sahnouni and Ziraoui sent a letter to President Bouteflika two months ago, calling him to release Islamist prisoners.

Source: People's Daily.
Link: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/7394148.html.

Yemen, Syria Fire on Demonstrators

By Juliann Francis
May 30, 2011

Yemeni security forces set fire to the tents of protesters in Freedom Square in Taiz, south of Sana’a, and opened fire on demonstrators, Al Jazeera television reported.

Akram Saed, who was in the square, told the network by telephone that there were “flames everywhere” and that the security forces aimed “directly at protesters.” Thousands of demonstrators have been camped out at the square to demand the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

More than 3,000 people have been rallying outside a government building near Freedom Square to call for the release of six protesters who were detained on May 26, said Bushra al- Maktari, an activist. Protesters in Taiz arrested one soldier and demanded in return the release of their colleagues, Al Jazeera said.

Some soldiers joined the opposition in Taiz, according to Al Jazeera. Al Arabiya television reported yesterday that five protesters in Taiz were killed; Al Jazeera said 90 were wounded.

Elsewhere in Yemen, Islamist gunmen yesterday occupied government buildings in the coastal city of Zanjibar amid claims that groups such as al-Qaeda are exploiting unrest caused by anti-government protests that began Feb. 11. Al Jazeera reported that five people were killed and nine were wounded.

Twenty-two soldiers were killed in Yemen on Saturday and Sunday, according to Al Arabiya’s correspondent in Sana’a.

Saleh has refused to sign a Western-backed power transition accord, brokered by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, that provides for his departure.

Syrian Army Helicopters

In Syria, army helicopters fired on anti-government demonstrators yesterday as government forces continued a crackdown on protests that began in mid-March and the opposition prepared for a conference in Turkey tomorrow.

The military fired on people in the towns of Talbiseh and Rastan, injuring at least 16, said Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria’s National Organization for Human Rights. Thirteen were wounded in Talbiseh when Syrian forces shot at a school bus, Al Arabiya television reported, citing an activist, and eight demonstrators were killed. The official Syrian news agency SANA, citing a military source, said four soldiers, including an officer, were killed in Talbiseh.

At least seven civilians were killed in the nearby city of Homs, including a woman and a child, Qurabi said. A security officer was also killed in Homs, where government forces aren’t allowing anyone in or out of the city, he said.

Syrian security forces carried out widespread arrests over the weekend as protesters took to the streets after 13 people were killed in nationwide rallies following Friday prayers.

Security forces broke up rallies nationwide by gunfire, pushing the death toll beyond 1,100 since mid-March, when demonstrations against the government of President Bashar Al- Assad began, according to Qurabi.

Conference in Turkey

Syrian opposition groups and activists will hold a conference in Turkey, starting tomorrow, in support of the demonstrators demanding political changes, according to Qurabi. More than 200 people are expected to attend the three-day event in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, he said.

The European Union announced sanctions aimed at Syrian leaders last week and is reviewing aid programs. The U.S. has frozen the assets of Assad and six other officials, and President Barack Obama has urged Assad to “get out of the way” of a democratic transition.

Syrian officials blame the unrest on Islamic militants and “terrorist elements” seeking to destabilize the country. Assad initially promised reforms in response to the protests, which followed the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that led to the successful ousters of those countries’ rulers.

Egyptian Elections

The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram reported that according to Hassan al-Roweini, a member of the country’s ruling military council, parliamentary and presidential elections will occur on time, before the end of the year. The security situation won’t delay the elections, Roweini was reported as saying in a television interview on Alhayat TV 2 channel.

Egypt’s shares rose to the highest level in almost two months after the leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations pledged to provide at least $40 billion in aid to pro- democracy movements in North Africa.

An Iranian diplomat accused of spying in Egypt was declared persona non grata and will be expelled, Al Arabiya reported.

In Libya yesterday, North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets bombed weapons caches and oil trucks in the coastal city of Ajdabiya, Al Jazeera reported. That attack came a day after the U.K. said that NATO planes had leveled guard towers atop the walls of leader Muammar Qaddafi’s compound in central Tripoli.

Source: Bloomberg.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-29/syria-s-helicopters-fire-on-protesters-egypt-still-plans-vote-this-year.html.

French aid group mulls Yemen staff pullback

May 29, 2011

ADEN, Yemen — French aid group Triangle Generation Humanitaire said on Sunday it may evacuate many of its dozen expatriate staff from Yemen after three staffers were feared kidnapped in the troubled country.

"We are looking at repatriating a large number of our team on the ground," the NGO's co-director Christian Lombard told AFP of the group that has worked in the Arabian Peninsula country since 1998 on water and agriculture projects.

A decision would be taken on Monday or Tuesday, he said.

Three Triangle Generation Humanitaire staffers -- two women and a man -- went missing on Saturday, and a Yemeni security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "The most likely thing is that they have been kidnapped."

The three, all in their thirties, have been working together with a group of 17 Yemenis in Seyun in the southeastern Hadramawt province since March, the Lyon-based organization said.

They were reported missing when they failed to return to their residence from their nearby office for lunch.

A Yemeni security official said on Sunday there was still no news of the missing trio.

The Common Forum, an opposition alliance of parties demanding the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in a statement condemned the "kidnapping" of the three and called for their immediate release.

It said the incident followed "the positions of France in support of the demands of the Yemeni people and their peaceful revolution," a reference to Paris on May 12 condemning "the excessive use of force" against protesters.

"It may look like a kidnapping, since they disappeared yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, but we have no information to confirm that," said Lombard, adding that he was "in regular contact" with the group's Yemen representative.

He said none of the missing three had received threats and that the team was "perfectly calm in the region."

Foreigners have frequently been kidnapped in Yemen by tribes who use the tactic to pressure the authorities into making concessions.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Yemen during the past 15 years, with almost all of them later freed unharmed.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

On Kashmir India acts as a police state, not as a democracy

Sunday 29 May 2011
Mirza Waheed

Delhi has been unwilling to solve this tragic and brutal conflict, and has scuttled any attempt at meaningful discourse.

Many years ago, I met two journalists from India in London and we found ourselves talking about Kashmir. Mostly, they listened patiently to my impassioned tale of what goes on, but the moment I touched upon the brutal counter-insurgency methods employed by the Indian security apparatus in the disputed territory – among them notorious "catch-and-kill" operations to execute suspected militants – they looked incredulous, made a quick excuse and left. Later, I learned that at least one of them believed that Kashmiris liked to exaggerate the excesses of the Indian armed forces.

In the reaction of those two men, I had witnessed the frightening success of India's policy of denial and misrepresentation on Kashmir. India's decision to censor the Economist last week, following the publication of a map that shows the disputed borders of Kashmir, represents two unsurprising but ominous things: that the country's age-old intransigence over Kashmir still runs deep; and its willingness to curb freedom of speech over what it sees as sensitive matters of national interest. On Kashmir India continues to behave as a police state, not as the champion of democracy and freedom that it intends to be.

There is nothing astonishing or new in this. For decades, India has not only been unwilling to solve one of the world's most tragic conflicts but has scuttled any attempt at meaningful discourse on the issue, both internationally and within the country. The ultimately pointless attempt at censorship by asking the magazine to paste stickers on a representation of areas controlled by India, Pakistan and China is, sadly, in line with its inflexible and deeply flawed Kashmir policy. To come good on its insistence that "Kashmir is an integral part of India" – and it does lash out at any attempt to suggest otherwise – it maintains the world's largest military presence in a single region, to suppress the revolt that erupted against its rule in 1989. An uprising that continues in the form of a civilian resistance.

Last year, in what we now remember as Kashmir's bloody summer, its paramilitaries and police killed more than a hundred protesters, most of them young men and schoolchildren. Among those killed was Sameer Rah, a nine-year-old boy from Srinagar, who was bludgeoned to death and his body dumped by a kerb. The image of his bruised, purple body is now permanently etched in the collective consciousness of Kashmiris at home and across the world, and may haunt India's political and intellectual elites for a long time. In response to this brutalization of a people – the Kashmir valley remained in virtual siege for weeks – a cogent narrative of what I call "new dissent" began to evolve in Kashmir and India, scripted by Kashmiris themselves and by some of India's bravest public intellectuals, writers and journalists.

However, both the central government and its clients in the state tried everything to suppress this new wave of dissent; they introduced draconian measures to silence the voice of Kashmiris and their supporters in Delhi. TV channels were forced off air, newspapers were not allowed to print for weeks, text messaging was banned, and later on, in India's capital, a lower court even charged Arundhati Roy with sedition. But the urge to report to the world what was unfolding in Kashmir was ultimately unstoppable. Kashmiri youth turned to social media to get the word out.

And it did get out, aided by India's fascinatingly diverse intelligentsia and those sections of the Indian media that have of late started to look at Kashmir with new understanding and empathy, and not through the disingenuous prism of national interest.

The Economist's map on Kashmir – which must have received many more page views than had it not been declared contraband – contains nothing that contests historical facts or misrepresents ground reality. Essentially, the magazine has produced a graphical account of geopolitical status in the region – namely, Kashmir is a disputed territory, with India and Pakistan as the main contestants, but Kashmiris as the central party as it is their future that has been a point of dispute. A dispute that the UN recognizes as such in its charter of 1948 – and in its maps. I have found maps produced by the UN to be the most accurate and impartial.

When, and why, do states censor maps? Mostly when the operating principle seems to be denial and obfuscation. For years, the Indian state has attempted to delegitimize people's aspirations in Kashmir, either by raising the bogey of Islamism or lumping together the challenge to its authority in Kashmir with the US-led war on terror. For most of the 1990s and the early years of the new millennium it succeeded. Ironically, as a consequence of the emergence of "new India" and the burgeoning of the country's affluent middle classes, the Economist – a magazine previously considered the preserve of business elites – is now selling more copies in India. It is seen as influential, and capable of altering opinion – hence the kneejerk reaction to the map. The Indian government is doing a huge disservice to its democratic credentials by trying to confiscate the truth about one of the world's most tragic, intractable and dangerous conflicts.

Source: The Guardian.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/29/kashmir-india-police-state.

Afghan man befriends scorpions, snakes

by Abdul Haleem and Zhang Jianhua

KABUL, May 29 (Xinhua) -- With snakes kept at home and scorpions crawling on his face, "Doctor Shirzad" is somewhat frightful though he is a kind man and popular among the villagers.

This unique man, Al-Hajj Mohammad Shirzad, loves venomous reptiles and arachnids and keeps the poisonous creatures as pets with hundreds of scorpions and snakes always kept in his muddy house outside Parwan's provincial capital Charikar, 55 km north of Afghan capital Kabul.

"I like scorpions and snakes. These are my friends," doctor Shirzad said while playing with a few scorpions and venomous snakes.

A father of six, Shirzad asserted his children have also befriended the poisonous creatures.

His teenage son Suliman is also seen in house yard passing time with several scorpions in his hands, on face and forehead.

Attired in doctor's white dress, the clean shaved Shirzad said he has been using the poison of snakes and scorpions in medical treatment for those suffering from leprosy and epilepsy.

"I have provided medical treatment to some 5,000 people who had suffered from leprosy and epilepsy from 38 countries," Shirzad told Xinhua while extracting the venom of a snake to a bottle.

"I begun this practice in Iran in 1975 when I used to live there as Afghan refugee and since then I am engaged with snakes and scorpions and I regard these two dangerous animals as my friends," Shirzad said.

"I am sure I can live with 10,000 scorpions today and can challenge anyone in the world," he contended.

However, Shirzad admitted he is afraid of poisonous spider. He said he is trying to tame a new one, pointing at a bottle where he keeps a black venomous eight-legged animal.

In the war-torn Afghanistan where the rate of unemployment and poverty is high, Shirzad has chosen a lucrative profession which is in fact a self-employed scheme.

Even though it is a dangerous job, he expressed satisfaction over his business, by saying "on one hand I past time with the poisonous creatures while on the other, I earn money to support my family properly."

Source: Xinhua.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-05/29/c_13900080.htm.