Algeria, UK to begin economic co-operation meeting in London

2010-04-11

Algeria and the United Kingdom will open their second economic co-operation sub-committee meeting in London on Monday (April 12th), La Tribune reported. Algerian Minister of Industry and Investments Promotion Minister Hamid Temmar and British Trade Minister Lord Davies of Abersoch will co-chair the session. The bilateral sub-committee on economic, commercial, and financial issues was established in 2007.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/04/11/newsbrief-04.

UN chief seeks year extension to Western Sahara mandate

2010-04-11

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon last week urged the Security Council to extend the UN Mission in the Sahara (MINURSO) mandate by one year to April 30th, 2011, MAP reported on Friday (April 9th). "Given the existing circumstances on the ground…I believe that the presence of MINURSO remains indispensable for the maintenance of the ceasefire," MAP quoted Ban as saying. The UN chief also called upon parties to the Western Sahara conflict "to show the political will required to enter into substantive discussions and ensure the success of the negotiations".

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/04/11/newsbrief-02.

Tunisian's main opposition party plans local election boycott

2010-04-11

Tunisia's Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday (April 9th) announced a boycott of the May 9th municipal elections, AP reported. In a statement, the country's main opposition party said that the "current electoral system establishes the domination of the ruling party on representative bodies". PDP Secretary-General Maya Jribi is the first woman to head a political party in Tunisia.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/04/11/newsbrief-03.

Gaza blackout crisis over, power plant back to work

Gaza - The two-day blackout crisis in the Gaza Strip, ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, was resolved and the main Gaza power station was back to work on Sunday night, officials in Gaza said.

Yasser al-Wadeya, head of the block of independents in Gaza, told reporters that the crisis was resolved after Gaza Electricity Company transferred 3 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority treasury in the West Bank.

On Friday, the Hamas-ruled Energy Authority in the salient turned off all the turbines of the Gaza power station due to a lack of industrial diesel that operates the power station.

"The blackout crisis had badly affected all sectors of agriculture, industry and health in the Gaza Strip that basically suffers from more than three years of a tight Israeli blockade," said al-Wadeya.

The independent Gaza-based leader held urgent talks with Palestinian factions' representatives including rival Hamas and Fatah movements, where he urged them to find a solution to the crisis.

Since Hamas movement seized control of the enclave by force in June 2007, the Gaza Strip has been suffering from frequent blackouts, where electricity goes off at least six hours per day.

Since Friday, large areas of the Gaza Strip were in complete blackout for 12 hours a day after the Gaza power station was turned off. Hamas government in Gaza and the government in Ramallah traded accusations over the crisis.

Spokesman of the Palestinian government in Ramallah Ghassan al-Khatib told reporters that the government of Hamas in Gaza collects the electricity bills and doesn't pass it on to the Palestinian Authority.

The EU has been funding the industrial diesel that operates the power station, which provides the Gaza Strip with about 33 per cent of electricity. Israel provides the enclave with around 55 per cent and the rest comes from Egypt.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318141,gaza-blackout-crisis-over-power-plant-back-to-work.html.

Reformist Iran daily reappears after three-year ban

Tehran - Leading reformist daily Sharq (East) reappeared on the streets of Iran on Sunday after a three-year ban for publishing an interview with a gay rights activist.

The judiciary shut down the newspaper in 2007 over an interview with expatriate writer and poet Saghi Ghahreman, who lives in Canada and is also a champion of the rights of homosexuals.

Homosexuality is forbidden in Islamic Iran, and writing about the topic often leads to legal problems, as in the case of Sharq.

Reformist dailies and magazines are usually closed by a governmental press watchdog under the pretext of having insulted religious and political figures.

Other charges include fomenting public discord and working outside the strict press law.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318076,reformist-iran-daily-reappears-after-three-year-ban.html.

Arrests after coal carrier gets too close to the Barrier Reef

Sydney - Three foreign nationals were charged Sunday after a coal carrier took an unauthorized route through the Great Barrier Reef on Australia's east coast.

The arrest of a South Korean and two Vietnamese over the route taken by the Panama-registered MV Mimosa comes as salvage crews work to free another coal carrier stuck on the reef for over a week.

Salvors could start work to drag the China-registered Shen Neng 1 off the reef on Monday, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Pumps are being used to transfer the 950 tons of fuel oil from the Shen Neng 1 to a barge alongside. When that work is complete the task of refloating the ship can begin.

The MV Mimosa is alleged to have intruded into a protected area April 4, a day after the Chinese ship got stuck on the reef.

The three were charged with entering a prohibited zone without permission. Under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act they could each be fined up to 220,000 Australian dollars (198,000 US dollars).

The men will appear in Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday. Police will also allege that the MV Mimosa was not registered with the Reef Vessel Tracking System and failed to provide a pre-entry report.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318079,arrests-after-coal-carrier-gets-too-close-to-the-barrier-reef.html.

German museum confirms loan of disputed statue to Egypt

Hildesheim, Germany (Earth Times) - A German museum confirmed Sunday plans to lend its greatest treasure, the seated statue of Hemiunu, to Egypt for the 2013 opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza near Cairo.

Doubts over the loan cropped up after Zahi Hawass, the flamboyant chief of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities who visited Germany last month, called for the statue and other Pharaonic treasures to return to Egyptian permanently.

Hemiunu is believed to have been the architect of the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza. The life-size statue, depicting him in nothing but a loin cloth, is the top draw at the Roman and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany.

Hawass has regularly insisted he also wants Germany to return the Berlin bust of Queen Nefertiti. The Germans have shrugged off the appeals, saying they know of no official claim by the Egyptian government that the treasures are Egyptian property.

Kristina Zappen of the Hildesheim Museum said there had never been any official request from Cairo to give the statue back. She confirmed an agreement had been reached on the 2013 loan and she added that it provided for the statue to then return to Germany.

Hildesheim was not even considering giving the statue back, she added. The whole museum collection was of honest provenance.

"Every item in our collection arrived in Germany legally," she said. If the Egyptian government were to officially question the statue's ownership, the museum would have to reconsider the loan.

"The whole thing would have to be thought out again," she said.

Hans-Joachim Gehrke, president of the German Institute of Archaeology, has similarly insisted in the past that Cairo has never officially claimed the bust of Nefertiti, an exquisite plaster and limestone head of a woman.

Hemiunu was a vizier under the 4th Dynasty, about 2,500 years before the Christian Era.