PLO to seek membership of international bodies

28/04/2014

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- The Palestine Liberation Organization's central council on Sunday adopted a plan to pursue attempts to join 60 United Nations bodies and international agreements.

The council, under the auspices of president Mahmoud Abbas, "affirms the need for the Palestinian leadership to continue membership of UN agencies and international conventions", the Palestine People's Party secretary general Bassam al-Salhi said in a statement.

The council also said Israel was to blame for failed international and US efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the Middle East conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended faltering peace talks last week after the PLO and Hamas agreed to work together to form a unity government, in an historic move to end years of bitter political rivalry.

The struggling peace talks took a nose dive at the end of March when Israel reneged on a pledge to release two dozen Palestinian prisoners.

Last November the Palestinians cast a UN General Assembly vote for the first time and claimed the moment as a new step in their quest for full recognition by the global body.

Most of the 193 members of the General Assembly applauded Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour as he voted for a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The Palestinians became observer state members of the United Nations a year earlier with an overwhelming vote in favor.

The Palestinian mission cannot vote on UN resolutions but, under UN rules, it and other observers such as the Vatican can vote in elections for judges on international courts.

Israel maintains its position that the Palestinian Authority is not a state and the Palestinian Authority fails to meet the criteria for statehood.

Israel and the United States have lobbied strongly against UN recognition of the Palestinians, arguing that a separate state can only be achieved through direct bilateral negotiations to end the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But the Palestinians have also joined UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, and voted there.

Israel and the United States withdrew funding from UNESCO because it allowed Palestinian membership and subsequently lost their voting rights on the body.

Early this month Abbas signed membership applications for 15 UN agencies and international treaties, beginning with the Fourth Geneva Convention, which defines humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone.

"This is not a move against America, or any other party -- it is our right, and we agreed to suspend it for nine months," he said at the time.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=693413.

Palestinian rivals to try again for unity deal

April 23, 2014

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed Wednesday to form a unity government and hold new elections — a potentially historic step toward mending the rift that has split their people between two sets of rulers for seven years.

Following the announcement of the deal, hundreds of people took to the streets in Gaza to celebrate. Crowds hoisted Palestinian flags and posters. "I hope it will be real this time," said Asma Radwan, a 33-year-old schoolteacher who came with her two young sons. "I came to say 'thank you' to the leaders. But don't disappoint us like the past. Seven years of division is enough."

It remained unclear how the plan would succeed where past attempts have repeatedly failed. It also added new complications to U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Both the U.S. and Israel condemned the agreement.

In an initial response, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned meeting for Wednesday evening between Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators. Israel and the West consider Hamas a terrorist group. Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings over the past two decades.

Abbas "needs to choose between peace with Israel and an agreement with Hamas, a murderous terror organization that calls for the destruction of Israel," Netanyahu said. In a statement, Abbas said "there is no contradiction" between reconciliation and his efforts to reach a "just peace" with Israel. He said Wednesday's deal would help Palestinian negotiators achieve a two-state solution.

Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas' forces in 2007, leaving him with only parts of the West Bank. Both sides have become entrenched in their territories, setting up separate governments and their own security forces.

The division has been a major obstacle to Abbas' goal of establishing an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with east Jerusalem as the capital. Israel captured all three areas in 1967. The split is also seen by many everyday Palestinians as a tragic mistake.

The two sides planned to form an interim government within five weeks. Presidential and parliamentary elections should be held no sooner than six months after the government is formed, said Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government.

Similar agreements have been reached in principle in the past. But they were never implemented due to deep differences and an unwillingness to cede power. Hamas, for instance, employs tens of thousands of civil servants and security forces in Gaza, and it is in no rush to relinquish control to a centralized government led by Abbas. The group has also seen its popularity plummet, making elections risky.

Abbas, meanwhile, could face international isolation and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid if he joins forces with Hamas. International donors withheld aid during a short-lived Palestinian unity government elected in 2006 and 2007, before the Hamas takeover, due to concerns that the money would be diverted to Hamas.

A key test will be whether the sides can agree soon on a caretaker government of apolitical technocrats. Squabbling over the government's composition has derailed past reconciliation attempts. Still, changes in the region have given each side an incentive to try again, even if a full agreement seems unlikely.

Hamas has been weakened since a military coup in neighboring Egypt last July. The coup toppled the Islamist government of President Mohammed Morsi, Hamas' most important ally. Egypt's new military government has cracked down hard on Hamas, closing a system of smuggling tunnels that provided Hamas with a key conduit for weapons and tax revenue. The Egyptian pressure and a longstanding Israeli blockade have plunged Hamas into the worst financial crisis of its rule, making it difficult to pay the salaries of its employees and sinking its public standing.

Abbas, on the other hand, has achieved little during nine months of U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel. Those talks are set to expire next Tuesday, though the sides have been searching for a formula to extend the negotiations.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. was "disappointed and troubled" by the Palestinians' announcement. "It is hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist," Psaki said, referring to Hamas.

Palestinian analyst Nasim Zubaidi described Wednesday's agreement as a "marriage of convenience." He said both sides were "forced" into each other's arms, with Abbas hurt by the failure of peace efforts and Hamas' financial struggles.

Even so, he said, it was far from clear whether they would go through with the deal. "Both have signed, but they are using the tactic of 'let's wait and see.' Abbas will wait and see how things will go in the peace talks, and Hamas will see how it goes with their problems in Gaza."

Ultimately, it will be difficult to merge two rival ideologies and two rival security forces into one, Zubaidi said. Wednesday's reconciliation deal is the latest attempt by Abbas to send a message to Israel that he has other alternatives. Abbas has also hinted in recent days that he might dismantle his self-rule government and saddle Israel with the huge financial burden of taking care of more than 4 million Palestinians in occupied lands.

These latest moves may be aimed at building leverage to pressure Israel to agree to favorable terms for continued negotiations. But they could also signal a new approach if the talks really do collapse.

Yet Abbas' decision also risks triggering a tough Israeli response. Hardline Israeli leaders quickly condemned the unity deal, and several called for Netanyahu to halt the peace efforts. Israel's Channel 10 TV said Netanyahu would meet with his Security Cabinet on Thursday to discuss a response. It also said that future meetings between peace negotiators were in doubt.

"The Palestinian Authority has become the biggest terror body in the world," said Naftali Bennett, head of the hardline Jewish Home Party. "Israel needs to be clear," he added. "No talks with murderers."

Adding to the tensions, an Israeli airstrike hit the northern Gaza Strip, missing its target but wounding at least three bystanders, Palestinian officials said. Medical official Ashraf al-Kidreh says the airstrike targeted two men riding a motorcycle, but that the missile missed its target and wounded a 50-year-old man and two daughters.

The Israeli military confirmed the failed airstrike, saying "a hit was not identified." Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel soon afterward, the Israeli military said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Denmark's first mosque opens amid controversy

20 Jun 2014
Simon Hooper

Copenhagen, Denmark - Perched on top of a tall column at a road junction in the Norrebro neighborhood of Copenhagen, an enormous American-style ringed doughnut demands to be noticed.

"De Angelis. Delightfully different DONUTS," reads the sign. Further down the street, a mock lighthouse advertises a self-storage warehouse, vying for attention on the busy skyline with the branded flags of car showrooms and industrial chimneys.

Next to the lighthouse is the latest vertical addition to this mundane urban landscape that is currently stoking controversy in the Danish capital. A slender minaret topped with a small crescent marks the site of Denmark's first purpose-built mosque.

Denmark is home to approximately 226,000 Muslims, many of them the children of migrants who have been arriving since the 1960s. Many of them hope the mosque and the adjoined Islamic cultural centre finally means acceptance after decades of marginalization.

But senior politicians and members of the Danish royal family invited to Thursday's opening ceremony stayed away amid concerns that the organization behind the mosque, the Danish Islamic Council (DIR), promotes a conservative interpretation of Islam.

Foreign funding

Funded by a donation of $27.4m from Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, the former emir of Qatar, critics cite alleged ideological links between the DIR and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile, media coverage on the eve of the opening focused on comments reported by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which provoked Muslim anger worldwide in 2005 by publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, in which Mohamed al-Maimouni, the DIR's main spokesman, described homosexuality as a sickness.  Al-Maimouni told Al Jazeera it was disappointing that politicians had chosen to stay away.

"This is a historic day for Muslims in Denmark and it sends a very negative signal," he said. "We are a part of society and we are proud to be Danish. We have our religious background, but that has nothing to do with being a good citizen and participating positively in this society."

Al-Maimouni said the mosque complex, officially known as the Hamad Bin Khalifa Civilization Center, stood as a symbol of an emerging Danish-Muslim identity.

The buildings marry common elements of traditional Scandinavian and Islamic architecture such as clean lines and simplicity of form, while the mosque's Moorish-inspired interior stonework references Islam's European heritage.

"We always said that we had to have a Danish mosque, and not an Egyptian mosque, or a Qatari mosque, or a Moroccan mosque," said al-Maimouni. "All of the furniture is Danish design."

Conservative anger

Yet for many on the Danish right, the idea of a Danish-Muslim identity remains both a contradiction and a provocation. A protest planned on Thursday outside the mosque by members of Stop Islamisation of Denmark (SIAD), a far-right fringe group, was banned by police on the grounds that it risked inciting unrest.

Reacting to the ban, Anders Gravers Pedersen, the leader of SIAD, compared the group to the Danish resistance fighting against Denmark's Nazi German occupiers during World War II.

But inflammatory anti-Islamic rhetoric also fuels more mainstream debate. Writing in a party newsletter, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, the leader of the far-right Danish People's Party which won more than a quarter of votes to finish first in last month's European elections, described the mosque as a "bridgehead for an extreme version of Islam".

"I do not like the risk of rabid imams preaching on Danish soil," he wrote.

Yildaz Akdogan, a local representative of the Social Democratic Party, said politicians should stand in solidarity with Danish Muslims as well as engaging in dialogue with Muslim groups on issues where they disagreed.

"It is important for politicians to send a signal to all Muslims in Denmark that we do accept Islam and we have freedom of religion in our country," Akdogan told Al Jazeera.

"I would rather have an open mosque on the street where I can see it and visit it, instead of having all sorts of different mosques in basements or back yards where we don't know what is being preached."

But others supportive of Danish Muslims' right to build mosques said there were serious concerns about the project's links to Qatar and the ideology it would promote.

"I voted for the mosque, but I am concerned about the money and the point of view they have on homosexuality and other things," Lars Aslan Rasmussen, another local Social Democrat, told Al Jazeera. "My concern is that they have connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar is known for supporting the most conservative groups in Europe and the Middle East."

Rasmussen also questioned the DIR's claim to speak for a Danish-Muslim identity and said future mosque projects should not be funded by donations from overseas.

"But what is more important is that there should be new ideas in Islam [and] you will have imams who accept homosexuals. It will come, but this mosque is not representing something new and that is a shame."

'Building a bridge'

Speaking at Thursday's ceremony, Ghaith bin Mubarak al Kuwari, Qatar's Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, said the Gulf state was proud of its support for a project it hoped would act as "a bridge to build trust and a beacon to achieve mutual understanding between Denmark and the Muslim world".

DIR spokesman Al-Maimouni said al Thani's donation was a one-off payment and that the center would be used to promote dialogue between different interpretations of Islam and across society in general.

"There were no conditions from the Qatari side and there is no political agenda. There is huge diversity in the Muslim communities here. In the history of Islam the mosque was always an attractive place to solve any kinds of problems in society. It is a platform for everything."

Clarifying his comments on homosexuality, al-Maimouni said the DIR's views were in line with the Koran. "But that does not mean that if people want to come to us we would reject them, absolutely not. We are not judging people because of their sexual background. We have respect for all people whoever they are."

Across the road from the mosque, groups of youths gathered to watch on Thursday morning as arriving dignitaries stepped from their cars onto a red carpet flanked by the Danish and Qatari flags.

Marwan Buahya, a local youth worker, said that as a tough inner city neighborhood, Norrebro faces typical problems associated with immigration and integration.

"It's more difficult being a Muslim in Denmark than it used to be because of all the things happening around the world," Buahya told Al Jazeera. "I hope the people living here will be happy [with the mosque] and I hope that young Muslims will participate and stay away from trouble."

Changing views

Support came from other local community members. "It would be strange to live in a country and be born in a country and not have your own house for your religion, so it's very nice," Hanne Ravn Hermansen, a local artist, told Al Jazeera.

"This was just the most boring street in Copenhagen with all the car showrooms - and that stupid doughnut - and now you'll get people coming here so I think it will do good things for this neighborhood."

Brian Arly Jacobsen, a researcher specializing in Islam in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen, said polls showed public mood was gradually shifting in favor of greater acceptance of the country's Muslim minority.

While surveys in the 1990s had shown strong opposition to the construction of mosques, he said a clear majority of Copenhageners now supported the mosque, and compared the current controversy to the debate over the creation of the country's first Muslim burial ground in 2006.

"Since they actually established the burial ground there has been no debate at all," Jacobsen told Al Jazeera. "If people see that the mosque is not a security threat, or threatening society in general, then it will not be so controversial anymore."

Back across the road from the mosque, Buahya shrugs and laughs when asked what it means to be a Danish Muslim. "Islam is my religion and I am born and raised here, so of course I am Danish. There is no question. I am 35 years old and I don't think it is an issue."

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/06/denmark-first-mosque-opens-amid-controversy-2014620122224383831.html.

Palestinians rally for solidarity with Israel-held prisoners

2014-04-17

RAMALLAH - Palestinians gathered across the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday for rallies of solidarity with Israeli-held prisoners, as peace talks near collapse after Israel refused to free long-serving inmates.

To mark Prisoners Day, thousands were expected to demonstrate in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has his headquarters, and hundreds took part in early rallies in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip late Wednesday.

"We won't forget our prisoners -- prisoners first!" read banners in Gaza City as demonstrators set off from mosques across the besieged territory.

The prisoners row caused a new deadlock in US-brokered peace talks at the end of March, just a month ahead of their deadline, when Israel reneged on its commitment to release a fourth and final batch of Palestinian inmates.

The Palestinians retaliated by seeking membership of several international treaties, breaking their own commitment under the talks which US Secretary of State John Kerry launched in July.

"Prisoners Day has extra importance this year," said the Palestinian Prisoners Club head, Abdel Al al-Anani.

"The prisoners issue has become one of global significance, since it is the reason that peace talks have almost collapsed," he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement: "The plight of the prisoners reflects the plight of the Palestinian people as a whole."

A one-day hunger strike was being observed by inmates to mark the annual show of solidarity with the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, Palestinian prisoners affairs minister Issa Qaraqe said.

Around 30 of them have been held being bars since before the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords with Israel, said a Palestinian legal rights NGO, Adalah.

Israel has so far released 78 of the 104 prisoners it pledged to free during nine months of peace talks, most of them imprisoned since before the Oslo accords.

But it refused to free the final batch, using it as a bargaining chip to convince the Palestinians to extend negotiations until the end of the year.

The Palestinians demand their release before any discussion of an extension.

But Islamist group Hamas, which governs Gaza, opposes all negotiations with Israel and regards the Palestinian Authority's meetings with its sworn enemy as "illegitimate."

"We are sending a message to the Palestinian negotiators: forget this farce, the futile negotiations, and come back to the resistance which freed prisoners," a Hamas member said in a speech at Wednesday's rally.

In June 2006, a group of Hamas and other militants snuck into Israel through a cross-border tunnel, seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and took their prisoner back to Gaza the same way.

He was released on October 18, 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

According to Israeli rights group B'Tselem, Israel is holding 4,881 Palestinian prisoners, including 175 in administrative detention where they can be detained without charge for renewable six-month periods.

Of that number, 183 are minors, B'Tselem says.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=65456.

Jordan releases anti-ISIL Salafi leader

17 Jun 2014
Areej Abuqudairi

Amman, Jordan - Jordanian authorities have released Salafi leader Assem Barqawi, better known as Abu Mohammad al-Maqdesi, after having served a five-year prison sentence on allegations of jeopardizing state security and recruiting jihadists to fight in Afghanistan.

His release came as a surprise to some after the escalating war in Syria has presented big security challenges to neighboring Jordan, especially amid an increasing number of Jordanians joining jihadist groups inside the war-torn country.

"We did not expect his release. We thought he would be interrogated and held further," Mohammad Shalabi, better known as Abu Sayyaf, head of the Jordanian Jihadi Salafist Movement told Al Jazeera in a phone interview.

Experts and Salafists, however, say that releasing Maqdesi, who has been very critical of violence committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), serves Jordan's interest as the movement has achieved gains in neighboring Iraq recently and added to Jordan's security woes.

"Maqdesi is a supporter of al-Nusra front, one of the fighting groups in Syria, which unlike ISIL, does not have any ambitions to take over the region," said Hasan Abu Hanya, an expert on jihadist movements.

"He is the mentor and father of our curriculum," Abu Sayyaf told Al Jazeera.

"There is a pressing need for a mentor like him at this time of bloodshed. He is very concerned about the blood of Muslims being shed and their souls and honor," Abu Sayyaf added.

In a recent statement published to his website, Tawheed, the leader condemned ISIL and called it "deviant" and called on jihadists to follow "the right [path] and stop the bloodshed".

According to Abu Hanyah, there are more than 2,000 supporters of ISIL in Jordan - an alarming number for the Jordanian authorities.

"If some 4,000 ISIL members turned Mosul upside down, it is very dangerous for Jordan to have such numbers of supporters, given how violent and experienced the movement is," he said.

Jordanian officials' concern has been exacerbated after Iraq reportedly pulled out its forces from the Jordanian border on Sunday.

During a meeting with parliamentarians dedicated to discussing the challenges following the situation in Iraq, Jordanian Interior Minister Hussein Majali said that Jordan had built-up its military presence near the Iraq border by sending gendarme forces and additional security forces.

Maqdesi arrived at his house in Rusaifa town in northern Jordan, which is home to the Salafist movement, yesterday. He refused to give media interviews, but will soon issue a statement, according to Abu Sayyaf.

His lawyer, Majid Liftawi, believes his client is not guilty of any terror charges.

"It was all because of his political beliefs and writings," he said.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/jordan-releases-anti-isil-salafi-leader-2014617121457552506.html.

Qatar accuses Maliki of triggering Iraq unrest

2014-06-16

DOHA - Qatar's foreign minister has accused Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of triggering the unrest that has swept his country through his policies of "marginalization" of the Sunni Arab minority.

Militants spearheaded by powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and joined by supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, have in the past week overrun a large chunk of northern and north-central Iraq, although their advance has since been slowed by a government counter-offensive.

"This (unrest) is partly a result of negative factors... mainly implementing factional policies, marginalization and exclusion," said Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiyah in comments carried late Sunday by QNA state news agency.

Attiyah was referring to Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, which has mostly been disgruntled since the US-led invasion in 2003, which changed the regime after ousting dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Qatari minister also cited the "forceful dispersement of peaceful rallies," in reference to crackdowns in April 2013 and January this year on Sunni Arab protests that demanded Maliki's ouster.

"This has deepened the divide between the components of the brotherly Iraqi people," QNA cited Attiyah as saying in an address to the G77 summit in Bolivia.

He urged the Iraqi government to take into consideration the "demands of a large part of the population who are only asking for equality and participation, away from sectarian discrimination."

Relations between Doha and Baghdad are strained. Maliki in March accused Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, of supporting terrorism.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=66562.

Kuwait urged to end labor sponsorship system

2014-06-16

KUWAIT CITY - A Kuwaiti human rights organization on Sunday urged the Gulf state to fulfil pledges to abolish the sponsorship system for foreign labor and to end the arbitrary deportation of expatriates.

In a report on human rights in the oil-rich emirate, the Kuwait Society for Human Rights also called for measures to end abuse of thousands of domestic workers and for a final resolution to the plight of more than 100,000 stateless people.

The group said that Kuwait pledged several years ago to end the sponsor system which is likened to slavery and common in Gulf States, but so far nothing has been done.

The current system ties a migrant worker's residency status to an individual employer, or sponsor, without whose consent the worker cannot change jobs.

This gives employers unchecked leverage and control over workers, who remain completely dependent on their sponsor.

A few weeks ago, neighboring Qatar said it was introducing measures to abolish the system.

The Kuwaiti group also called for an end to so-called administrative deportation which allows police to deport foreigners without a court ruling.

However, it noted that the interior ministry has recently regulated the procedure by restricting the right to deport to the ministry's undersecretary.

Some 2.8 million expatriates work in Kuwait compared with 1.25 million nationals. More than 600,000 expatriates are domestic workers.

The society urged the government to pass a special law on domestic workers to stop abuses that it said are tantamount to slavery.

"Domestic helpers are subjected to many abuses, some of which could be called slavery, in addition to torture, humiliation and rape. The society has monitored a large number of such violations," the report said.

On stateless people, known locally as bidoons, the society urged speedy measures to improve their humanitarian and legal as a prelude to "granting them their full rights".

Bidoons claim the right to Kuwaiti citizenship because they or their forefathers lived in the country before the 1959 nationality law.

But the government says a majority of them came from neighboring countries after the discovery of oil, and destroyed their identification papers.

The society said the government should adopt a clear roadmap aimed at resolving the problem in steps.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=66560.

Naples, green and clean, now bike-friendly

June 20, 2014

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Luca Simeone rides his bike along the sunny beachfront of Naples while his little daughter sleeps on the baby seat.

It may sound ordinary, but this simple act is revolutionary. Three years ago Naples' seafront was an urban highway, noisy and smoggy, jammed with car traffic, while smelly trash erupted from garbage bins along streets and alleys. Urban cyclers were regarded as eco-fundamentalists.

Three years later, Naples has a new mayor, clean streets, a wide pedestrian beachfront and a 20-kilometer (12-mile) cycling lane overlooking a beautiful bay. This is the liberated beachfront ("Il lungomare liberato"), as the new mayor, Luigi De Magistris, a former prosecutor and party outsider, calls it.

The liberated beachfront quickly became a paradise for runners, cyclists and also those who love pizza or fish, with the sound of waves as background music and the island of Capri and sleepy Vesuvius volcano framing the view of the bay.

The transformation also allowed Simeone to launch a bike tour business. "A new era has opened for those who love to ride a bicycle in our city," said Simeone. "Today we can say that speaking about sustainable and environment friendly tourism, like our project, is reality and not fantasy anymore."

Bike Tour Napoli offers both an urban route along the city's UNESCO-protected ancient center and a countryside tour, with organic food tasting included. The tours wind through tiny medieval alleys and past baroque churches, around volcanic lakes of the Pozzuoli area, the Vesuvius volcano and the breathtaking Amalfi coast. The most popular route is a ride past art nouveau villas, parks and up Posillipo hill for a view of Naples and its bay.

Anja Hayek from Germany and Antonio Sorace of Italy recently rode up the hill to enjoy the sunset. "This is the only good way to visit and know Naples," Hayek said. "I found it very nice this year, the bicycle lanes and the pedestrian area by the sea. I found it very beautiful."

Sorace added that "visiting Naples by car is impossible due to the traffic. By car you can't enjoy the alleys and it is difficult to breathe." Naples is planning to extend the cycling lanes into the suburbs.

For Simeone, the success of his tours represents more than just business. It's also a way to stop the brain drain. Youth unemployment in Naples is 50 percent. Migration abroad or to the industrialized north is the norm as talented young people leave to find work. The local mafia syndicate Camorra has long taken advantage of the lack of jobs to gain recruits for illegal businesses.

But the green revolution gives hope to those like Simeone who want to erase the image of Naples as a city of garbage and pollution. "We bet on a revolution of transportation," explained De Magistris from his office overlooking the port and a new metro construction site. He recalled his parents trying to squash a childhood love of cycling, saying, "Stop this passion, because in Naples you can't ride a bicycle in the streets."

Now, more locals are using bike lanes, pedestrian areas have been improved, and some 2.4 million visitors are staying in Naples hotels each year, with the numbers growing. The expansion of the metro system will add to the environmental improvements for this city of 1 million (4 million in the metro area). The metro also connects riders to art. At the Toledo station, a ride down the escalators reveals works of bright blue representing the sea. "Oh, it is very beautiful. It is like plunging into the sea," said Pierre Bonini, a tourist from Paris, at the bottom of the escalator.

But pure blue water is not just an art motif. Thanks to improved wastewater management, pollution has been reduced and vast stretches of the coast have been reclaimed. Neapolitans and tourists now swim again in the bay. And young kayak enthusiasts have launched Kayak Napoli. A few motorboat tours had previously been offered, but they were not allowed —a s the kayaks are — to enter the marine park of la Gaiola and the Trentaremi bay, which contains submerged ruins of ancient Roman villas.

Giovanni Brun, founder of Kayak Napoli, brings guests to see the submerged archaeological sites and other beautiful coastal spots. His full moon tour offers a sunset paddle with a return as the moon reflects on the waters of the bay. The trip includes one other special moment: An aperitif of white wine on a secluded beach.

Religious Greeks protest planned gay pride parade

June 20, 2014

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Some 300 members of Greek Orthodox religious groups have gathered outside a church in central Thessaloniki to protest the planned staging of a gay pride parade in the northern port city.

Protesters displayed banners reading "No to the promotion of perversion" and "We should be proud of high values and not of ephemeral depravity," as riot police screened off a few dozen gay and lesbian onlookers.

Thessaloniki's conservative church officials strongly oppose plans for the city's third annual gay pride parade on Saturday. On Wednesday, religious protesters held all-night prayers against the planned parade, which the city's Christian Orthodox bishop, Anthimos, described as a "perversion."

Friday's protest ended peacefully.