Five die of swine flu in West Bank

Ramallah - Five Palestinians have died of the swine flu virus in different town in the West Bank in recent days, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced Monday. They are the first Palestinians fatalities of the virus.

A further 100 Palestinians are infected with the virus and are receiving treatment in West Bank hospitals, As'ad el-Ramlawi, the ministry's director of first aid, said in a statement.

He said one two of the fatalities came from Nablus, one from Ramallah, one form Hebron and one from Bethlehem.

"The number of casualties is expected to increase especially in this season of the year, where it is fall and winter," el-Ramlawi said. He added that his ministry is exerting efforts to treat all the cases and prevent more infections with the disease.

No swine flu cases have been announced in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Hamas movement and which has been under Israeli blockade since June 2006.

EU and Russia agree energy early-warning system

Brussels/Moscow - The European Union and Russia set up a new energy supply early-warning system on Monday in a bid to prevent the sort of crisis which has shaken their relationship in recent years. The system puts in place precise rules governing how each side should warn the other of impending supply interruptions and how the two parties should then react, to reduce the chances of an unexpected cut-off for technical or political reasons.

The issue has leapt up the EU's agenda since January, when a row between Russia and Ukraine led to natural-gas shortages in a number of EU member states.

"An energy crisis like the one the EU suffered in January is harmful for supply, transit and consuming countries alike. We need to do everything necessary to make sure that such a situation never happens again," said EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, who signed the deal in Moscow alongside Russia's Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko.

The EU and Russia first set up an energy crisis warning system in 2007, nominating a top official from each side as the point of contact in any energy conflict. That decision followed a supply crisis sparked by a row between Russia and Ukraine in 2006.

Monday's agreement strengthened and formalized the system by defining exactly what counts as a supply crisis and setting out the precise steps each side should take in the event of problems.

It also extended the cooperation system to cover electricity and oil, as well as gas supplies.

The EU and Russia have been working on the text of the agreement since it was proposed by the European Commission, the EU's executive, in May.

On Wednesday, EU and Russian leaders are set to meet in Stockholm to discuss key aspects of their relationship, including energy supplies.

Russia is the EU's largest single fuel supplier, while the EU is Russia's largest customer, making each side keen to restore confidence after the January row.

Saudi pilgrims drop by 40 per cent over swine flu fears

Riyadh - The number of pilgrims registering with Hajj pilgrimage companies in Saudi Arabia has dropped by 40 per cent compared to last year due to a fear of H1N1 virus and higher prices, media reports said Monday. Many citizens and expatriates have canceled their Hajj this year due to health warnings against the spread of swine flu, as well as the higher prices offered by Hajj companies, the Saudi daily Arab News reported.

Prices sometimes reach 10,000 Saudi Riyals (about 2,673 US dollars) per pilgrim, the paper added.

Saleh al-Zufairi, an owner of a Dammam-based company, said that only 20 people registered with his company this year, down from 200 last year.

Last Saturday, Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah launched the first stage of a vaccination campaign in Riyadh targeting local pilgrims, health officials and employees working in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina during the pilgrimage.

Several Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, have begun vaccinating pilgrims ahead of their voyage to Mecca.

Official figures show that nine pilgrims have so far this year been diagnosed with the H1N1 influenza.

The peak 2009 hajj season will conclude towards the end of the month, with some 2.5 million Muslims expected to travel to Mecca during what is considered the first hajj season affected by a flu pandemic since air travel became the main means of reaching the holy city.

In October, the Tunisian government said it will not allow its citizens to perform the Hajj because of fears of the virus.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/294876,saudi-pilgrims-drop-by-40-per-cent-over-swine-flu-fears.html.

The Houthis: Iran-affiliated or just propaganda?

Abdul Rahman al-Rashed

Following the G8 Summit, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh met with the U.S. President. During this meeting, President Saleh was briefed on information gathered by the CIA, specifically with regards to what is termed the Youthful Believers movement [Shabab al-Moumineen] which is led by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. Al-Houthi is said to have incited the Yemeni population against U.S. forces with claims that the U.S. is preparing to invade Yemen. The [CIA] report also discussed the Houthi leader's ties with Iran, saying that these go back a long time, and that al-Houthi spend three years in Iran. This has resulted in the group appearing to follow Iranian doctrine, and this can further be seen in the group's political literature, as well as through its military activities on the ground.

The above news sounds as if it only occurred recently, but the majority of the above paragraph comes from a media report published in July 2004. Is it reasonable that fives years later, we are still unable to understand the Houthis, and their identity continues to be a mysterious puzzle?

All of the information that we have about the Houthis is contradictory; there are stories that they are an Iranian-affiliated movement that was let loose [by Iran] against Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Another story claims that the Houthis have no connection whatsoever to Iran, that they are nothing more than a local nationalist movement that is at odds with the Yemeni regime, and that it is the Yemeni regime that is promoting the story of Houthi ties with Iran in order to obtain international support, particularly from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. They are in need of this support to crush the rebel movement, because the Yemeni regime has failed to defeat the Huthis following five years of incessant fighting.

What the media report revealed [with regards to Houthi ties to Iran] may be untrue, however the date of this report indicates that the Houthis were a problem even before the conflict in Saadah, this conflict was later transferred across the border into Saudi Arabia where it has now become an international news story.

Are the Houthis allied or affiliated to Iran in the same way as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Muqtada al-Sadr or are they truly nothing more than a rebel movement, like the rebel movements in western and southern Sudan?

Is labeling the Houthis as Iranian allies nothing more than part of a propaganda war?

On one hand, the official Yemeni argument seems weak. When a Yemeni official was told that the Americans are not certain that the Houthi insurgents are genuinely affiliated to Iran, he answered by saying that the evidence of this is that the Huthis have publicly declared their hostility to the U.S. and chant the slogans "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". However anybody who lives in our Arab world must be aware that these are populist slogans that are chanted by a broad cross-section of society, and even occasionally in countries that are allied to the U.S., therefore this does not represent evidence against the Houthi insurgents or anybody else. Nevertheless Iran's fingerprints can be seen in the Houthi religious doctrine and political ideology, as well as in the Houthi movement's activities. This does not prove that they are affiliated to Iran, but it does cast doubts over the movement's political position.

In my opinion, even if the Huthis have no links to Iran and the Yemeni government is deliberately "distorting" their reputation, taking up arms for political expression is completely unacceptable, and will only serve to sow discord in Yemen. Despite the many political and administrative weaknesses in Yemen, the country enjoys a reasonable freedom of expression, objection, and protest, not to mention electoral freedoms as well. The Houthis were capable of besieging their opponents in the Yemeni regime without shedding all of this innocent blood.

The fact of the matter is that we have no idea what [Yemeni] President Saleh will do once he tightens his grip on power. He needs a national project far more than he needs political speeches. He needs to win the support of his political opponents who did not take up arms against him far more than he needs to win the military battle with the Huthis. Those Yemenis are far more worthy of his attention, and if he continues to lose their support he will never be able to win the conflict with the Houthis.

Source: Al-Arabiya.
Link: http://www.alarabiya.net//views/2009/11/17/91532.html.

Libyan leader seeks "attractive" women to lecture on Islam

Gaddafi spends two hours with 200 Italian ladies

DUBAI (Al Arabiya)

Muammar Gaddafi disappointed some 200 Italian women after he invited them using an agency advertising a "party" where the Libyan leader proceeded to lecture them on Islam, Italian media reported on Monday.

The ad, by the Hostessweb agency, was very specific in the kind of woman that should attend and read: "Seeking 500 attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old, at least 1.70 meters (5 foot, 7 inches) tall, well-dressed but not in mini-skirts or low cut dresses."

Some 200 women showed up at a Rome villa, having been told they would receive €60 ($90) and "some Libyan gifts." Among them was an undercover reporter for Italian news agency ANSA, who took photos and described the evening's proceedings.

The reporter described how the ladies answered the ad expecting to attend a lavish party but were instead told to wait in a large hall until the arrival of Gaddafi, who gave them a lesson on Libya and the role of women in Islam.

Italian press reported that the Libyan leader explained it was "untrue that Islam is against women" and said in the West women "have often been used as pieces of furniture, changed whenever it pleases men. And this is an injustice."

To the dismay of those present the lecture lasted for around two hours, including a Q & session, and concluded at midnight with an exhortation by Gaddafi to "convert to Islam" and with each woman given a copy of the Quran and a book of sayings by Gaddafi, called the Green Book.

"It was anything but the VIP party we were expecting, they didn't even give us a glass of water," one attendee told ANSA.

Others said they were offended by what they considered anti-Christian aspects of his lesson, such as when Gaddafi recounted how Muslims do not believe Jesus was crucified but God replaced him with a lookalike and took Jesus up to heaven to save him from the torture.

The Libyan ambassador told ANSA that Gaddafi was planning other similar evenings during his three-day stay in Italy where he is attending the Rome-hosted United Nations food summit.

Egypt must act to avoid repeat rockslide disaster: report

Amnesty says Egypt's poor still live in peril

Little has changed in Egypt to move the poor from unsafe places and prevent a repetition of a rockslide in a Cairo shantytown that killed more than 100 people last year, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.

The London-based rights group also criticized the government for resettling families far from places of work and without consultation, often in the presence of security services.

"Thousands of Egypt's poor are trapped by poverty and neglect that could ultimately end in their deaths," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director.

"The government must urgently address the risks faced by those living in areas designated as 'unsafe' and find solutions by consulting with those directly affected," he said.

"Egypt's poor should not have to live any longer with the threat of being buried alive," he added. The rockslide in September 2008 killed more than 100 people when huge boulders crushed their ramshackle dwellings in al-Duwaiqa on Cairo's eastern outskirts. Residents at the time estimated up to 600 bodies were not recovered.

"The tragedy in al-Duwaiqa was a disaster waiting to happen. And that was well known," Smart said, citing government studies after a nearby rock-fall in 1993.

Dangerous areas

At the time, residents blamed the disaster on work that had been going on for several weeks on the Moqattam plateau overlooking the shantytown, and said the authorities had been warned of the dangers of just such a disaster.

While the government launched an investigation immediately after last year's rockslide, no findings have yet been announced, Amnesty said.

Amnesty said authorities later identified other dangerous areas and demolished more than 1,000 threatened homes, re-housing more than 1,750 families within a month.

But the rights group said residents are liable to eviction, and the allocation of new housing discriminated against women who were divorced or living apart from their husbands.

"Slum dwellers describe a life characterized by deprivation, neglect, insecurity and the constant threat of forcible eviction," Smart said.

"The state must guarantee their right to adequate housing and put an end to forced evictions."

Some of the poorest districts of Egypt's capital have a population density of 100,000 people per square mile (41,000 per square km), and people live in informal neighborhoods on state-owned land with minimal services.

Amnesty estimates that more than 1 billion people throughout the world live in slums, and the number is growing.

Court sentences man linked to Qaeda to 15 years in jail

Jordanian escapes death over US envoy murder

A death sentence against a Jordanian linked to al-Qaeda over the 2002 murder of an American diplomat has been commuted to 15 years of hard labor in jail, his lawyer said Sunday.

"The cassation (appeals) court last week rejected the state security court's decision to sentence Moamar al-Jaghbir to death and replaced it with 15 years of hard labor in prison for his role in the assassination of Laurence Foley," Fathi Daradkeh told AFP.

"The court's decision was based on the fact that Jaghbir was not in Jordan at the time of murder, did not take part in the assassination and did not know about its timing."

Daradkeh said his client heard about the attack from the media.

"The court saw in all these facts a reason to commute the sentence," he said.

The military tribunal condemned Jaghbir to death by hanging in July after a third re-trial for his role in the crime over charges of "carrying out terrorist activity aimed at killing an individual."

In 2007, the same court sentenced Jaghbir, who is already on death row for another conviction, to 10 years in prison with hard labor in connection with the murder.

But the appeals court demanded a new trial, arguing the military tribunal had not heard all the evidence against him.

Jaghbir was first sentenced to death in absentia in 2004 for Foley's murder, along with seven others including slain al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

But in line with Jordanian law, Jaghbir underwent a second trial after he was arrested in Iraq by U.S. forces and handed over to Jordan in 2004.

A Jordanian and a Libyan convicted with him in 2004 were executed in March 2006.

Jaghbir has also been tried separately for the deadly bombing of Jordan's embassy in Iraq in August 2003 that killed 14 people.