Bahrain targets athletes, students: BCHR

Sat Jul 9, 2011

The Bahraini regime has systematically targeted famous athletes as well as university students for practicing their legitimate right to peaceful protests, a rights group says.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) says that more than 150 athletes have been targeted with arrests, military trials, prison sentences as well as suspensions from sport activities for expressing their dissatisfaction with the Bahraini Al Khalifa regime through peaceful protests.

The crackdown came as Naser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the king's son and the head of the Higher Council for Youth and Sports ordered the formation of an investigation committee into the alleged anti-regime activities of the athletes.

The friends and relatives of the Bahraini footballers say the players were beaten up and subjected to long interrogations and humiliation in custody.

"The men who were beating them were not Bahraini. They didn't care who they were," a friend of the players told Times on the condition of anonymity.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights have also expressed deep concerns for continuing and escalating systematic targeting of university students by the regime as well as the Ministry of Education.

So far, some 400 students have been reportedly expelled in less than two months, the BCHR said.

Local rights groups added that many of the students are Shia Muslims.

Since mid-February, Bahraini protesters have been holding anti-government protests demanding an end to the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty which they say has instituted despotic governance, discrimination and the suppression of any dissent.

The US-backed regime, which has ruled the Persian Gulf country for over 40 years, has met the popular protests with a brutal crackdown that has left scores dead and many more arrested.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188304.html.

South Sudan celebrates birth with raising of flag

July 09, 2011 — JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan celebrated its first day as an independent nation Saturday, raising its flag before tens of thousands of cheering citizens elated to reach the end of a 50-year struggle.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the day a new dawn after the darkness of war, while visiting dignitaries offered both congratulations and prodding for South Sudan and its former ruler, Sudan, to avoid a return to conflict over serious and unresolved disagreements.

"The eyes of the world are now on us," said South Sudan President Salva Kiir, who was inaugurated during a scorching midday ceremony. Kiir stressed that the people of South Sudan must advance their country together, and unite as countrymen first, casting aside allegiances to the dozens of tribes that reside here.

Saturday meant that South Sudan and its black tribesmen would for the first time be linked politically with sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya and Uganda are already laying strong economic ties with their northern neighbor, an oil-rich country that may one day ship its oil to a Kenyan port, instead of through the pipelines controlled by Khartoum.

"From today our identity is southern and African, not Arabic and Muslim," read a hand-painted sign that one man carried as he walked through the crowds. South Sudan first celebrated its new status with a a raucous street party at midnight. At a packed midday ceremony, the speaker of parliament read a proclamation of independence as the flag of Sudan was lowered and the flag of South Sudan was raised, sparking wild cheers from a crowd tens of thousands strong.

"Hallelujah!" one resident yelled, as other onlookers wiped away tears. The U.S. and Britain, among others, announced their recognition of South Sudan as a sovereign nation. "A proud flag flies over Juba and the map of the world has been redrawn," Obama said in a statement. "These symbols speak to the blood that has been spilled, the tears that have been shed, the ballots that have been cast, and the hopes that have been realized by so many millions of people."

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, a deeply unpopular man in Juba, arrived to a mixture of boos and murmurs. He stood beside Kiir and smiled during the ceremony, and said in a speech that he respected the south's choice to secede, even as he prodded Obama "to meet his promsie and lift the sanctions imposed on Sudan."

The U.S. has promised economic and political rewards to Khartoum if it allows the south to secede peacefully, but military standoffs in the contested border region of Abyei and new fighting in South Kordofan — a state in Sudan with many south-supporting residents — risk new north-south conflict. The U.S. has indicated that those issues need to be resolved before normalization of relations occur.

Obama said that South Sudan and Sudan must recognize that they will be more secure and prosperous if they move beyond past differences peacefully. He said the 2005 peace deal must be full implemented and the status of Abyei resolved.

In Khartoum, the former capital of the south, newspaper headlines bid goodbye, with one saying: "Time to Let Go." "Today we have decided it is time to move forward toward the future," wrote Adil Al-Baz, the editor of Al-Ahdath independent daily. "Great people make use of big events to create new opportunities."

The black African tribes of South Sudan and the mainly Arab north battled two civil wars over more than five decades, and some 2 million died in the latest war, from 1983-2005. It culminated in a 2005 peace deal that led to Saturday's independence declaration.

Thousands of South Sudanese poured into the ceremonial arena when gates opened. Traditional dancers drummed in the streets as residents waved tiny flags. Activists from the western Sudan region of Darfur, which has suffered heavy violence the past decades, held up a sign that said "Bashir is wanted dead or alive." Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur.

"Wow, this is a great day for me because it's a day that reflects the suffering that all southerners have had for almost 50 years," said David Aleu, a 24-year-old medical student. Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and the American envoy at Saturday's celebration, urged South Sudan residents and leaders to build a country worthy of the sacrifice of all the lives lost during the five decades of conflict.

"Independence was not a gift you were given. Independence is a prize you have won," she said. "Yet even on this day of jubilee we remain mindful of the challenges that await us. No true friend would offer false comfort. The path ahead will be steep ... but the Republic of South Sudan is being born amid great hopes."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointedly noted that Sudan and South Sudan have not yet resolved the status of Abyei, where northern and southern troops are standing off. He called for consultations in South Kordofan, where northern troops are attacking southern supporters.

"Let their differences be resolved around the negotiating table," Ban said. South Sudan is expected to become the 193rd country recognized by the United Nations next week and the 54th U.N. member state in Africa.

It follows on the heels of East Timor in 2002 and Montenegro in 2006 which quickly became full-fledged members of the United Nations after being recognized by the vast majority of the international community within a few weeks or months of independence. Kosovo, however, declared its independence in 2008 and is recognized by 76 nations, but is still waiting to be recognized by the U.N.

Though Saturday was a day of celebration, residents of South Sudan must soon face many challenges. Their country is oil-rich but is one of the poorest and least-developed on Earth. The 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) north-south border is disputed in five areas, several of which are being illegally occupied by either northern or southern troops.

The young government must also begin delivering basic needs such as education, health services, water and electricity to its more than 8 million citizens. While South Sudan is now expected to control of more than 75 percent of what was Sudan's daily oil production, it has no refineries and southern oil must flow through the north's pipelines to reach market.

But for Saturday, at least, those problems lay on the back burner. Smiles, singing and dancing instead took precedence. "I'm very grateful to see many people from other countries," said 22-year-old Adut Monica Joseph. "I'm appreciating that they have come to celebrate with us. I hope when we have independence we shall have freedom and education for women."

Associated Press writer Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya and Mohamed Osman in Khartoum, Sudan contributed to this report.

Iran says fires missiles to Indian Ocean for first time

By REUTERS
Jul 9, 2011

TEHRAN: Iran said on Saturday it test-fired two long-range missiles into the Indian Ocean earlier this year, the first time it has fired missiles into that sea, according to state television.

“In the month of Bahman (Jan 21-Feb 19) two missiles with a range of 1,900 km (1,180 miles) were fired from Semnan province(in northern Iran) into the mouth of the Indian Ocean,” Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division, told a news conference some of which was shown on television.

Iran usually tests its missiles in extensive deserts in the heart of the country, so the firing into the Indian Ocean is an unusual move, aimed to prove Tehran’s longstanding claims it can hit targets beyond its borders.

Television showed a missile being fired but the announcer did not specify if the pictures were of the Indian Ocean test-firing. No pictures were shown of a target being hit at sea.

The announcement came after a 10-day military exercise by the elite Guards that was designed to deter Iran’s enemies by showing Iran is ready and able to hit back at US bases in the Middle East and at Israel.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military strikes on Iran if necessary to stop it getting nuclear weapons.

Iran says it has home-made missiles with a range of 2,000 km, designed specifically to hit US interests and Israel. But it denies it is seeking nuclear bombs and the means to deliver them.

Analysts have often doubted Iran’s claims of technological progress in its defense industry which is under tight international sanctions due to western concerns it is seeking nuclear weapons capability.

Hajizadeh said US spy planes were operating in the area where the missiles hit. “It is interesting that they did not publicize it,” he said.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article468984.ece.

Egypt, US recognize new state of South Sudan

By REUTERS
Jul 9, 2011

CAIRO/WASHINGTON: Egypt and the United States declared their recognition of the state of South Sudan on Saturday after its split from the north.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed el-Orabi announced Egypt’s support for the new state following that of the Khartoum-based government of Sudan, which was the first to recognize South Sudan on Friday, a few hours before it formally became a new country at midnight.

Egypt has watched the split warily. It depends on the Nile’s water to survive and the creation of South Sudan adds a new state on that river. East African states have argued to review colonial-era quotas for the use of Nile water.

Orabi was speaking after his arrival in Juba, the south’s capital, the official Egyptian news agency MENA reported.

The Cairo-based Arab League said South Sudan had the right to join the league, Egypt’s state television reported.

Obama hails birth of a new nation

In Washington, President Barack Obama hailed the “birth of a new nation” but stopped short of announcing any immediate changes in longstanding US sanctions on Sudan itself that Khartoum has been hoping will be lifted.

Obama’s statement came amid jubilant celebrations in Juba, capital of the new Republic of South Sudan, an under-developed oil producer. It won its independence in a January referendum — the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north.

“I am proud to declare that the United States formally recognizes the Republic of South Sudan as a sovereign and independent state upon this day, July 9, 2011,” Obama said. “Today is a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible.”

But serious tensions remain between north and south and the fractured region now heads into a new period of uncertainty.

Northern and southern leaders have still not agreed on a list of issues, most importantly the line of the border, the ownership of the disputed Abyei region and how they will handle oil revenues, the lifeblood of both economies.

Obama made clear that more work needed to be done.

“Lasting peace will only be realized if all sides fulfill their responsibilities,” he said. “The Comprehensive Peace Agreement must be fully implemented, the status of Abyei must be resolved through negotiations, and violence and intimidation in Southern Kordofan, especially by the government of Sudan, must end.”

The Obama administration’s strategy has been to offer Khartoum financial and diplomatic incentives in return for completing the north-south split in an orderly way.

But Obama made no specific promises as he welcomed South Sudan’s independence and pledged US partnership with the new nation in efforts toward security, development and good governance.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said South Sudan’s independence marked an opportunity for Khartoum to demonstrate its commitment to resolving outstanding problems.

“By continuing on the path of peace, the government of Sudan can redefine its relationship with the international community and secure a more prosperous future for its people,” Clinton said in a statement.

Washington has had a trade embargo on Sudan since 1997 and also lists the country as a state sponsor for terrorism. Khartoum has been hoping Washington would end all sanctions, normalize diplomatic relations and remove Sudan from the terrorism blacklist.

But US officials remain concerned about the Sudanese government’s harsh handling of insurgencies in its Darfur and South Kordofan regions.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article468987.ece.

Jordanians call for ouster of PM Bakhit

By ABDUL JALIL MUSTAFA | ARAB NEWS
Jul 8, 2011

AMMAN: Jordanians demonstrated on Friday for the fifth week in a row in several cities calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit’s government, the dissolution of the lower house of parliament and taking serious moves to punish corrupt officials, witnesses said.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets after Friday prayers in the city of Tafileh, 180 km south of Amman, to press their demand for Bakhit’s ouster.

They issued a statement rejecting last week’s reshuffle of Bakhit’s cabinet as a fresh evidence of the government’s “weak will” to carry out the needed political reforms and a move designed to “kill the public mobility.”

“The decision-makers have to stop their procrastination, piracy and the cover-up they provide for corrupts,” the statement said.

In the reshuffle, Bakhit appointed nine new ministers, including replacements for the ministers of the Interior, Justice and Health who resigned in connection with the fleeing of the convicted tycoon Khalid Shahin.

Shahin, who was serving a three-year jail term when he fled to London on Feb. 25, is now in Frankfurt under the pretext of seeking medical treatment that he says he could not find locally.

Jordanian authorities said they were in contact with the German government seeking to ensure Shahin’s extradition to Jordan.

Scores of activists demonstrated for the first time in the city of Mafraq, 50 km east of Amman, urging King Abdallah to sack the cabinet and dissolve the House of Representatives. They also called for Bakhit’s trial over his role in the so-called 2007 casino deal, when his government then allowed a London-based investor to build a casino on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.

Samir Rifai, who succeeded Bakhit as premier, sought to annul the agreement in 2008, contending that it harmed Jordan’s interests and involved taboos because Islamic teachings prohibit gambling.

The lower house voted recently to clear Bakhit of wrongdoings, but implicated former Tourism Minister Osama Dabbas.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article468761.ece.

Sudan's president congratulates independent South

By REUTERS
Jul 9, 2011

JUBA: Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir congratulated South Sudan on its independence on Saturday and called for good neighborly relations at a ceremony to mark the south’s split from Sudan in the north.

Sudan became the first nation to recognize the south on Friday, hours before the birth of the new state, a gesture of goodwill from the north which fought against secessionist forces for decades.

“We congratulate our brothers in the south for the establishment of their new state,” said Bashir, addressing thousands of southerners who cheered after he spoke.

“We share their joy and celebration,” he said. “The will of the people of the south has to be respected.”

“Despite our belief that Sudan’s unity would have been better ... the gains achieved over the last years from the shared conviction of the feasibility of peace ... must be protected,” Bashir said.

The president of Sudan, who lost almost a third of his country’s territory and about three quarters of its oil reserves with the split, said gains could be secured with “positive” ties and by maintaining joint economic and trade interests.

He called for support from the international community. “We call on US President Barack Obama to deliver on his commitment he announced to lift the unilateral sanctions on Sudan to open to way to normalize his country’s relations with Sudan.”

Obama recognized the south in a statement earlier on Saturday but stopped short of announcing any immediate changes in longstanding US sanctions on Sudan itself that Khartoum has been hoping will be lifted.

Addressing the crowd, Bashir said: “We have a joint and continuing responsibility to build and strengthen confidence to complete the agreement on outstanding issues.”

Northern and southern leaders have still not agreed on a list of issues, most importantly the line of the border, the ownership of the disputed Abyei region and how they will handle oil revenues, the lifeblood of both economies.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article469116.ece.

Leader of S. Sudan offers peace to rebels, hotspots

Jul 9, 2011

JUBA: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir promised to bring peace to troubled border areas and offered an amnesty to armed groups fighting his government, hours after his state declared independence from the north on Saturday.

South Sudan seceded on Saturday — a separation won in a January referendum that was the climax of a 2005 peace deal which ended decades of civil war with the north.

“I want to assure the people of Abyei, Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan that we have not forgotten you. When you cry, we cry. When you bleed, we bleed,” Kiir said at the independence ceremony in the southern capital Juba, watched by world leaders.

“I pledge to you today that we will find a just peace for all,” he said, adding he would work with north Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir to attain that.

All the areas he mentioned are on the ill-defined border the south shares with the north — all of them hotspots that analysts fear could reignite violence after the separation

Abyei is a fertile area, with some oil reserves, claimed by both sides. Darfur is the scene of an eight-year insurgency against Khartoum.

Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile are both in north Sudan but include large populations which sided with the south during the civil war. Kiir’s statement may have been intended to connect with those groups who have since felt left behind by Juba.

Armed groups in Southern Kordofan have been fighting northern government troops since early June.

“I would like to take this opportunity to declare amnesty for all those who have taken up arms against Sudan,” Kiir added.

At least seven rebel militia are fighting government forces in remote parts of South Sudan.

Many of them say they are fighting against what they see as corruption and ethnic discrimination in the south’s government, charges denied by the state. Kiir has offered pardons before with limited success.

Kiir told the crowd he would also fight the “cancer of corruption” in the south.

“This new nation shall strive to live in peace with its neighbors north, south, east and west,” Kiir said.

He later said that having lived with war for so long, South Sudanese would never allow themselves to be categorized as “aggressors or troublemakers.”

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article469120.ece.

S America species endangered: Study

Sat Jul 9, 2011

Some important animal species are in danger of extinction in 92 percent of South America's protected areas, a new study suggests.

According to the study by the Institute of Natural Resources Analysis of Argentina, over 80 percent of the 1511 protected areas in South America are being threatened by the advancement of agriculture and other land use, a Press TV correspondent reports.

One of the species deeply affected is the magnificent jaguar, the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, which lives in the north of Argentina.

Director of the Wild Life Foundation Diego Romero says that there are not enough protected areas to secure the jaguar population in the South American country.

"Protected areas cover a small part of Argentina. Following the advancement of land management practices, they've become sort of islands that only protect a small population," Romero said.

The study concludes that big mammals in South America must be technologically assisted to avoid their extinction, and there should be plans to create centers where the animals receive reproductive and alimentary supplements.

Romero considers the protected areas in South America as the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation.

"Protected areas are important for scientific and research purposes. They also play an important role in tourism. Sixty percent of foreign tourists come to Argentina to visit these areas," he said.

Other experts believe it is also important to protect fragile ecosystems that surround protected areas going through a process of degradation, and facing fauna and flora extinction.

"We must also protect the areas surrounding them, such as the forests in the center and the northern region that are in danger [of deforestation]," Climate and Forests Campaign Coordinator of Greenpeace Hernan Giardini said.

He added that Argentina has lost two million hectares of forests due to the spread of soybean and stockbreeding activities.

"The devastation of millions of hectares of native forests led to the loss of biodiversity and the [destruction of the] habitat of endangered species, like jaguar," he pointed out.

Experts say that pressures and lobbying from domestic and international corporations prevent Argentina and other Latin American countries from carrying out comprehensive state policies on key environmental issues affecting their economic interests.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188234.html.

DRC wants to avoid Ivorian election crisis

STRASBOURG, France, July 7 (UPI) -- European aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo must be spent wisely to avert a crisis such as the one that struck Ivory Coast, an official said.

Rival claims to the Ivorian presidency following November elections pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Medard Mulangala, leader of the opposition Union for a Republican Majority, told the EUobserver that aid from the European Union must be spent correctly.

"We have to make sure that EU taxpayers' money will be used to support a proper process," he was quoted as saying. "We want to have a fair and democratic process but access to public media is restricted to candidates from the ruling party."

The EU in 2006 sent a military mission to DRC to help secure the political process there. Clashes between rival groups have already escalated, however. Police in Kinshasa used tear gas to break up protests and arrested several opposition figures Monday.

Mulangala said now was the time to make sure foreign aid was spent correctly in the DRC.

"We would like to avoid having a situation like the one in the Ivory Coast after the election," he said from Strasbourg, France. "This is something we cannot afford."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/07/07/DRC-wants-to-avoid-Ivorian-election-crisis/UPI-44101310049766/.

Breakaway general tells Saleh to step down

SANAA, Yemen, July 7 (UPI) -- Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh should make the honorable move of stepping aside, a military leader who joined the opposition said.

Yemeni Gen. Ali Mohsen bolstered opposition forces when he joined their ranks after pro-government forces killed more than 50 protesters in March. He was reportedly training members of the youth movement in the country to attack infrastructure in Sanaa.

He told the Yemen Post he didn't join the opposition to back the emerging power center in the country.

"I did not join the revolution to gain power," he was quoted as saying. "I was very powerful even before I joined the revolution."

He said Saleh should make an honorable exit from power after serving as the country's president for more than 30 years.

Saleh, recovering from wounds suffered during a June 3 attack on his presidential compound, hasn't signed on to a deal for his exit that was brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The government wants Saleh to stay in power for six months if he signs the GCC deal. Opponents say that's unreasonable considering the deal would usher the president out of the political arena.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/07/07/Breakaway-general-tells-Saleh-to-step-down/UPI-36511310047900/.

Algerians question FLN future

An increasing number of Algerians are calling for the FLN to be disbanded.

By Fidet Mansour for Magharebia in Algiers – 08/07/11

As revolutions and popular uprisings sweep across the Arab world, Algerians are debating their own political order and the future of the National Liberation Front (FLN).

The FLN should "be wound up as a party, because it belongs to all Algerians", according to Omar Bouacha, president of the Movement for Openness. He believes that the state should keep its distance from political parties such as the FLN "so that they can be impartial".

The socialist party was founded during the war of independence and remained Algeria's only party for three decades. Now led by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Secretary-General Abdelaziz Belkhadem, the FLN is the largest party in the country's elected assemblies and maintains a strong presence in the government.

However, many observers feel that the group is unable to keep up with a changing Algeria. Former Minister Kamel Bouchama was once a national commissioner for the party but he now believes that the FLN is faced with a choice of abandoning its old ways or being consigned to the dustbin. However, he maintains that "the FLN can still be saved" if reforms are implemented.

"All it will take is for a handful of honest activists armed with courage and a great deal of willpower to set about re-establishing the FLN", Bouchama said. He criticized the modern day party for having become "a springboard for all sorts of opportunists".

Bouchama added that restoring the party would "require the involvement of young people".

The question of what should be done with the FLN is higher on the agenda than ever before, according to L'Expression journalist Noreddine Merdaci.

"The crisis within the former national independence movement, which is recurrent and ongoing, even gives one the impression that it is intensifying," he wrote in an article published in the paper. Since independence, he believes, the party has "above all served as a smokescreen for all of the manipulation and exploitation for special purposes."

Despite the introduction of multiparty politics, he argued, "the FLN is continuing to behave like a state within a state."

Three opposition parties – the Socialist Forces Front (FFS), Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and the Republican Patriotic Assembly – are all calling for the FLN to be wound up.

"No legitimacy other than constitutional legitimacy may be invoked or used to justify interference in matters that relate to personal beliefs and affect the personal freedom of citizens," retired general Khaled Nezzar said. His statement referenced the FLN policy of relying on its history during the war of independence for legitimacy.

Algerian citizens, and young people in particular, shared the view of politicians who called for the FLN to be disbanded.

"The role of the FLN ended in 1962 but this party is still hiding behind its historical legitimacy in order to impose itself as a political force," commented 25-year-old Marwa Boufatah.

Aymen, 32, said that the FLN made mistakes since independence, adding that they were "detrimental to what it has achieved and the just cause that was defended during the war of independence."

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/07/08/feature-03.

Morocco struggles with surge in street vendors

After reviewing an alarming new government report, Moroccan officials are working to integrate cart operators into the formal sector.

By Hassan Benmehdi and Siham Ali for Magharebia in Casablanca - 08/07/11

A street vendor may have launched the Arab Spring, but the proliferation of roadside carts in Morocco is straining residents' nerves.

After unemployed Tunisian graduate turned vegetable vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself afire, igniting a democratic revolution that spread from Sidi Bouzid to Tahrir Square and beyond, Maghreb police became wary of cracking down on illegal carts.

Law-enforcement officers once confiscated street vendors' wares and forbade them from occupying public spaces. With the threat of arrest and loss of goods now gone, however, merchants have pushed their barrows into the busiest spots.

In Morocco, the situation is becoming critical.

"These traders have installed themselves along the alleyway beside the mosque, preventing motorists and pedestrians from passing," says Moussa, who lives in Casablanca's Oum Rabia I.

"After the vegetable sellers with their carts, the kitchen utensil sellers appeared on the square, and they were followed by the live chicken sellers, who even dare to slit their throats and pluck them on the spot, causing inconvenience for the neighborhood," he tells Magharebia.

The informal traders are also having an impact on local businesses. Si Arroube, a public-sector worker, says that ever since street vendors in Casablanca's Belvedere and Roches Noires districts began offering items at rock-bottom prices, some small shops have been forced to close.

"These mobile traders don't pay rent or municipal tax," he explains. "The small retailers can't survive the competition."

Ahmed Ktiri, an economist, agrees that the phenomenon of street vending is having negative repercussions on the formal sector, due to illegal competitive practices.

"The youngest people should be offered training, and at the same time, jobs offering acceptable and viable conditions should be found for them," he suggests.

It is more than just price wars. Hassan, who lives in the city center of Casablanca, says that the streets are no longer as clean as they used to be. "The goods are inexpensive, but these carts are a nuisance," he tells Magharebia.

For unemployed young Moroccans, however, they provide an income.

Informal trading is becoming a way of life for many young Moroccans.

"I have a family to take care of and if I don't sell anything, I risk ending up on the streets with my children and wife," says Aziz, a young street vendor of fish.

The government recognizes the urgent need for a solution. "We must accept that we now need a new approach to integrate these people better into the formal sector," Trade Minister Ahmed Reda Chami told legislators in May.

"We need to create and set up new markets and spaces, but we also need to involve other departments, such as the interior ministry, and local authorities," Chami said.

Economic Affairs Minister Nizar Baraka said that the Moroccan government is paying particular attention to the issue and that help is on the horizon: "The main thing is to bring about a transition from the informal to the formal sector, that's what needs to happen."

A recent study commissioned by the Ministry of Trade revealed that Morocco now has 238,000 street vendors, 90% of whom are men. And since some 70% of them never went beyond the primary level in school, their employment options are limited.

The government report's recommendations will be implemented soon, Trade Minister Chami said in June. The aim, he said, is to integrate street vendors into the formal sector in order to improve their standard of living.

Absorption and integration of the informal sector would reduce poverty and exclusion, agrees Abdeljalil Cherkaoui, the president of REMESS (the Moroccan Network for Solidarity and Social Economy).

The informal traders, meanwhile, are in desperate straits.

Charaf Hamdani is a 35-year-old father of three who holds the baccalaureate. For the last five years, he has worked as a street vendor selling fruit. His decision to take up this vocation came after several years of unemployment, during which his wife supported the family. He hopes to have his own shop one day.

"I've suffered a lot," he tells Magharebia. "You can't afford to be sick. No one protects us. On the contrary, our activity is regarded as unofficial. I'd really like to switch, but I don't have the money for that."

His average monthly wage is between 2,000 and 2,500 dirhams.

Mhamed Daouli, who is 47, has been a street vendor for more than 15 years. He has sold fish, clothes, furniture and vegetables. At the moment, he is selling underwear. He does not believe the government's promises and feels that officials are merely trying to get rid of street vendors by sending some of them to markets far away from town centers.

"They need to find solutions within cities," he says.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2011/07/08/reportage-01.

South Sudan eyes alternative pipelines

JUBA, Sudan, July 7 (UPI) -- South Sudan has nothing to lose by considering building an oil pipeline link to Kenya, bypassing the north, a transport minister said.

South Sudan takes control of 75 percent of the united country's oil production of 490,000 barrels per day when it gains independence Saturday.

Both sides agreed in May that South Sudan will pay the Sudanese government in Khartoum pipeline and export related fees. Anthony Lino Makana, the roads and transport minister for South Sudan, told reporters his government was in talks with oil companies to build a link to an existing oil pipeline running through Kenya.

"We will have nothing to lose if the north refuses to allow us to hire the pipes, they will be the ones to lose," he was quoted by the Sudan Tribune as saying.

Garang Diing Akuong, South Sudan's oil minister, said the northern government was putting up road blocks in the energy sector.

"We have no problem hiring the pipes that are in the north but it is the government in the north which is complicating everything," he was quoted as saying.

Khartoum, he added, was demanding too much in discussions on how to deal with oil once the south gains formal independence.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/07/07/South-Sudan-eyes-alternative-pipelines/UPI-51721310037199/.

NASA Launches Space Shuttle on Historic Final Mission

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
08 July 2011

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space shuttle Atlantis soared into the heavens and the history books Friday (July 8), kicking off the last-ever mission of NASA's storied shuttle program.

Despite a bleak forecast of thunderstorms and clouds, the shuttle beat the weather in a stunning midday launch, sailing into the sky on one final voyage. The countdown toward liftoff took a dramatic pause at T minus 31 seconds while ground crews verified that a vent arm at the top of the shuttle was fully retracted. NASA was quickly able to push on toward liftoff.

Atlantis blasted off at 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 GMT) from Launch Pad 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, thrilling huge throngs of spectators who had descended on Florida's Space Coast to see the swan song of an American icon. NASA estimated that between 750,000 and 1 million people turned out to watch history unfold before their eyes.

"On behalf of the greatest team in the world, good luck to you and your crew on the final flight of this true American icon," shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts just before launch. "And so for the final time, Fergie, Doug, Sandy and Rex, good luck, Godspeed and have a little fun up there."

"Thanks to you and your team, Mike. We're not ending the journey today, we're completing a chapter of a journey that will never end," Atlantis' commander Chris Ferguson replied. "Let's light this shuttle one more time Mike and witness this nation at its best. The crew of Atlantis is ready to launch."

After 135 launches over 30 years, the space shuttle will never streak into the sky again.

Atlantis and its four-astronaut crew are headed for a rendezvous with the International Space Station. The main goal of the shuttle's 12-day flight — Atlantis' 33rd mission after nearly 26 years of flying — is to deliver a year's worth of supplies and spare parts to the orbiting lab.

But the world's attention is fixed more on what Atlantis' last mission means than on what it will accomplish in orbit.

"For an entire generation who grew up with the space shuttle, this is a moment that won't be appreciated for some time to come," said space history expert Robert Pearlman, editor of collectSPACE.com and a SPACE.com contributor. "People have taken it for granted; I don't think its absence is going to be immediately felt."

A skeleton crew

Commander Chris Ferguson is leading a skeleton crew of four on Atlantis' STS-135 flight. He's joined by pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus. Other shuttle missions over the years have typically carried six or seven spaceflyers, but NASA wanted to use every bit of available space to pack extra cargo on this last drop-off mission to the station.

The astronauts will deliver about 9,500 pounds (4,318 kilograms) of cargo to the station. Atlantis is also delivering several different science experiments, one of which — the Robotic Refueling Mission — is an attempt to demonstrate a way to refuel satellites robotically on orbit.

In addition, Atlantis is also carrying two iPhone 4 smartphones loaded with apps to help astronauts perform experiments in space. This represents the first time iPhones have ever gone to space.

Atlantis will chase the station down for a while, finally docking with the $100 billion orbiting lab on Sunday (July 10). The shuttle is scheduled to return to Earth for the final time on July 20.

Until Atlantis rolls to a stop on the runway, the astronauts plan to focus on the tasks they have to perform over the next 12 days, putting off meditations on their mission's historic significance as much as possible.

"We're not going to dwell on it too much until after landing," Ferguson said before launch in a recent NASA video. "Then we'll get a chance — hopefully following a great, successful mission — to kind of bask in the achievements of the program overall, and really reflect." [NASA's Space Shuttle Program In Pictures: A Tribute]

The end of an era

NASA's space shuttle program was born in January 1972, when President Richard Nixon announced its existence to the nation. Back in those days, the shuttle was billed as a breakthrough vehicle that could enable safe, frequent and relatively cheap access to space.

"The shuttle era really was an effort to do a whole new kind of spaceflight," Valerie Neal, curator of human spaceflight at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., told SPACE.com. The shuttle program, she added, "held with it the promise of making space just a normal part of human endeavor."

The first flight took place on April 12, 1981. Since then, the shuttle — the world's first and only reusable spacecraft — has become NASA's workhorse vehicle, with the five-shuttle fleet making 135 flights over three decades.

Some of these flights have deployed or repaired important pieces of scientific hardware, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. And many missions since 1998 have helped build the International Space Station, which is now nearly complete.

In addition to these hardware accomplishments, shuttle missions have carried 355 different individuals from 16 different countries into low-Earth orbit, according to NASA officials. So the shuttle delivered on part of its promise, experts say, opening space up to many more people than had been possible previously and helping humanity develop its nascent capabilities in low-Earth orbit.

But the space shuttle didn't turn out to be cheap or completely safe. NASA once estimated launches could cost as little as $20 million; they've turned out to run nearly $1.6 billion each. And two shuttle missions — Challenger's STS-51L flight in 1986 and Columbia's STS-107 mission in 2003 — ended in tragedy, killing a total of 14 astronauts.

Ultimately, historians will likely debate the shuttle program's legacy for years to come.

Retirement awaits

When Atlantis touches down later this month, its flying days will be over. But the orbiter will still have to be prepped for one final mission: educating the public about spaceflight, and perhaps inspiring youngsters to become astronauts themselves someday.

Like the two other remaining shuttles — Endeavor and Discovery — Atlantis will become a museum showpiece. Atlantis won't have to go far; it will assume a place of pride in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex here.

Discovery is headed for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, while Endeavor will make the trip west to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Without the space shuttles, NASA will rely on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, which is slated to operate until at least 2020. The agency wants private American craft to take over this taxi service eventually, but that probably won't happen for at least four or five years.

For its part, NASA has begun shifting its focus beyond low-Earth orbit. Last year, President Barack Obama charged the space agency with sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, and then on to Mars by the mid-2030s.

As exciting as both of these exploration prospects are, they remain far off, both in space and time. Right now, most thoughts are with Atlantis as it streaks toward the space station, its final mission closing out the life of a spacecraft that came to represent a nation in many ways.

Over the years, the space shuttle became a symbol of America, its ambitious goals and its technological know-how, experts say.

"The shuttle became a very powerful icon," Roger Launius, space history curator at the National Air and Space Museum, told SPACE.com, "just as serviceable an icon as the astronauts landing on the moon, in terms of national prestige abroad and pride at home."

Source: SPACE.com.
Link: http://www.space.com/12216-space-shuttle-atlantis-launch.html.

Israel, Turkey lock horns over flotilla

Sat Jul 9, 2011

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has once again rejected Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conditions for the normalization of diplomatic relations.

"Israel did not commit any crime,” he said in an interview with Israel's Channel 1 television on Friday night, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

He made the remarks after Erdogan said earlier on Friday that Israel must apologize for the killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists last year.

On May 31, 2010, Israeli commandos attacked the first Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, killing nine Turkish citizens on board the Turkish-flagged M.V. Mavi Marmara and injuring about 50 other people who were part of the team on the six-ship convoy.

Israeli troops also forced the ships to dock at an Israeli port and detained all those on board.

During a speech to the Turkish parliament, Erdogan also said Tel Aviv should lift its four-year blockade of Gaza and pay compensation to the victims of the flotilla attack.

However, the Israeli defense minister said he expected the UN inquiry to vindicate Israel's actions.

"The Palmer commission will say that Israel acted according to international law. The blockade is legal, stopping the ships is legal, the use of force in these circumstances is justified," Barak said.

On Thursday, an Israeli official said that a UN report on Israel's flotilla attack would be published on July 27.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188219.html.

South Sudan becomes independent

Fri Jul 8, 2011

South Sudan has become independent, making it Africa's newest nation and the world's newest country.

South Sudan became independent several minutes ago, shortly after midnight local time on July 9.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Sudanese President Omar Bashir, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, and other prominent political figures traveled to the South Sudan capital Juba on Friday to attend the independence ceremony of the new Republic of South Sudan.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, and the head of the US military's Africa Command, Gen Carter Ham were also in Juba for the independence day celebrations.

President Bashir, who forged the 2005 peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), expressed readiness to work with the “Southern brothers and help them set up their state so that, God willing, this state will be stable and develop.”

“The cooperation between us will be excellent, particularly when it comes to marking and preserving the border so there is a movement of citizens and goods via this border,” he said.

South Sudan becomes the 193rd country recognized by the United Nations and the 54th UN member state in Africa.

Joyful residents of the new nation banged on jerry cans and chanted the name of the world's newest president, Salva Kiir, the Associated Press reported.

“We are brothers and sisters who suffered for a long time, and that is why we are now celebrating, what we will achieve,” said a resident.

“In independence we are going to have hospitals and schools and a lot of development around here. Our mothers and sisters died in the past. Hospitals were very far from us.”

South Sudan's independence comes after decades of conflict with the north in which over 1.5 million people died. The new oil-rich nation is one of the least developed countries in the world, where one in seven children dies before the age of five.

A historic peace agreement between North and South Sudan signed in 2005 paved the way for an independence referendum in January 2011, in which southerners voted almost unanimously to secede. North Sudan has officially recognized southern independence.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188209.html.

Haniyeh praises Gaza flytilla campaign

Sat Jul 9, 2011

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has praised the activists who started the Gaza 'flytilla' campaign to support Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

"More than 66 flights originated from different European cities to go to Al-Lod (Ben Gurion) airport to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, and to say no to the Zionist occupation," he told a crowd gathered at a mosque in Gaza City on Friday, AP reported.

Israeli police detained 69 activists upon their arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport on Friday. A total of 25 other activists were also denied entry into Israel.

Four of the 69 activists have been deported to their home countries and the rest have been sent to detention facilities, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The activists were part of the pro-Palestinian Welcome to Palestine campaign, which has been organizing the flytilla to Israel.

The effort is meant to be a complement to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II, a convoy of ships organized by activists to deliver humanitarian supplies to the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip.

The 10-ship humanitarian flotilla was scheduled to leave Greek ports for the coastal enclave in early July, with the goal of breaking Israel's blockade of the impoverished territory.

However, the flotilla was prohibited from leaving the ports after the Greek government made a sudden decision to impose a blanket ban on the departure of any vessels destined for Gaza.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188215.html.