Egypt detains top Brotherhood members

2010-02-08

New clamp down on Egypt's biggest opposition movement includes group's deputy chief.

CAIRO - Egyptian authorities swooped on the country's biggest and most powerful opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, before dawn on Monday, arresting 13 members including the group's deputy chief and two other leaders, the movement said.

Brotherhood deputy chief Mahmud Ezzat was arrest along with senior members Essam Erian and Abdel Rahman el-Berr, the group's lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksud said in a statement posted on the website.

The attorney, citing initial reports, said that 10 other Brotherhood members were also arrested in raids across Egypt, including in the coastal city of Alexandria, the southern province of Asyut and the Nile Delta.

Maksud said he expected the number of arrests to increase.

"This campaign of arrests is unjustified and we expect that more people have been arrested as Brotherhood lawyers are still receiving the names of those detained from the various provinces," the lawyer said.

A security official, who declined to be named, confirmed the arrests in a terse statement saying those rounded up "are accused of membership in an outlawed group."

The arrests were the first since Mohammed Badie was chosen as the group's new head in mid-January.

Brotherhood members said that the latest wave of arrests is aimed at undermining participation by the group ahead of legislative elections later this year.

Egypt is due to elect parliament's upper house, or Shura Council, in April while elections for the lower house are expected to take place sometime in the fall.

"The regime wants to obstruct the Brotherhood's participation in the next elections," Hamdi Hasan, the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc spokesman said.

Analyst Hossam Tammam, an expert on the Brotherhood, echoed his words, saying the authorities were seeking "to abort any serious effort by the Brotherhood to run in the Shura Council elections which are considered a test for the parliamentary polls."

The group is officially banned but is left to operate relatively openly though its members are subject to periodic crackdowns.

The party nonetheless holds a fifth of the seats in parliament after fielding candidates in 2005 elections as independents to get round the ban.

Since then, a fierce government crackdown has left many prominent members behind bars. The group says the crackdown is aimed at distancing them from political life.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37080.

Syria would back Lebanon if Israel attacks

Syrian President, Lebanese parliament speaker discuss impact of 'Israeli extremism' on region.

DAMASCUS - Syria will support Lebanon in the event of any attack from Israel, President Bashar al-Assad told the speaker of Beirut's parliament on Sunday, the official SANA news agency reported.

"Syria will stand alongside the government and people of Lebanon against any possible Israeli aggression launched on Lebanon," the agency quoted Assad as saying to Nabih Berri in Damascus.

Assad and Berri discussed "repeated Israeli threats on countries in the region and Israeli extremism which can kill chances for peace and bring war to the region," SANA said.

Israeli officials have threatened to attack Lebanon's Hezbollah opposition movement.

Syria and Israel have also been locked in a bitter war of words for several days.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned on Wednesday that war against his country would become a wider conflict. "Israelis, do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities," he said.

His Israeli counterpart extremist Avigdor Lieberman retorted on Thursday that any war would cost Assad his grip on power. "When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power," Lieberman said.

Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to ease tensions on Sunday, saying that Israel wants peace with all of its neighbors.

"We made peace with Egypt and Jordan and we seek peace with Syria and the Palestinians," he said.

On Tuesday Netanyahu had accused Beirut of allowing Hezbollah to smuggle weapons into Lebanon in "blatant violation of (United Nations Security Council) Resolution 1701" which led to an end to the 34-day conflict.

Israel waged a bloody 34-day war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid that aimed to free Lebanese soldiers from Israeli prisons. The bodies of the soldiers were returned in a prisoner swap.

The war claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000. Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.

Israeli flights over Lebanon occur on an almost daily basis and are in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended the war.

Israel also currently occupies the Syrian Golan Heights.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37081.

Chad leader extends olive branch to Beshir

2010-02-08

Deby says his visit to Sudan aims to show his country’s commitment to see peace restored between two nations.

By Guillaume Lavallee - KHARTOUM

Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno paid a landmark visit on Monday to Khartoum, in a bid to consolidate a thaw in ties and boost efforts to bring peace to Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir greeted Deby at Khartoum airport at the start of a visit expected to help seal last month's accord normalizing ties between the neighboring states, a move essential to future peace in Darfur.

"We have come here like a dove... we came to show our will, our availability, our commitment to see peace, tranquility and confidence return" between the two countries, Deby said at the start of talks.

"We came and wish to leave with peace," he said on his first trip to Sudan since July 2004 when he visited El-Geneina, the strategic capital of West Darfur which borders Chad.

Chad has long accused Sudan of supporting rebels seeking to oust its government, while Khartoum has in turn charged Ndjamena with backing ethnic minority rebels in western Darfur.

But the two states also agreed in mid-January to deploy a joint force on their border, in a move aimed at ending the presence of rebels on each other's territory and halting their activity, as part of efforts towards normalization.

"We are committed to implementing all the agreements signed between our two countries," Beshir said.

"We want to return to better relations," he added, underlining the importance of the deployment of the joint border force which will have a "strong impact" on security along the frontier and for the people of Darfur.

Last month's deal also provides for the deployment of 3,000 troops along the border, with each country contributing a 1,500-strong contingent.

Chad and Sudan had in the past signed similar agreements, but those accords were never implemented.

In March 2008, the two states signed the Dakar agreement in the Senegalese capital, but it crumbled months later when Darfur rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement launched an unprecedented assault on the Sudanese capital.

This was followed by a surprise rebel attack on Ndjamena which came close to overthrowing Deby before government forces managed to rally and rout the insurgents.

"This time it seems serious. They both need it right now," a diplomat said last month on condition of anonymity on normalization of relations between the two states.

"Chad is heading towards legislative elections in November and presidential elections in April 2011, while elections in Sudan are scheduled for April and a referendum (on southern independence) in January 2011," the diplomat said.

Improved ties between Khartoum and Ndjamena are also seen as a major step towards securing peace in Darfur.

Sudanese foreign minister Deng Alor expressed the hope Deby's visit would contribute to progress in indirect talks under way in the Qatari capital, Doha, between the Khartoum government and Darfur rebels.

"This visit is going definitely to have a positive impact on the Doha talks," he said.

Beshir praised Deby's "positive efforts" in supporting the Doha peace process which aims to end the conflict in Darfur where the United Nations says about 300,000 people have died since ethnic rebels revolted in 2003.

Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37109.

UAE hospital offers medical treatment that's for the birds

Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital provides 'best possible medical care' for 5,000 birds every year.

By W.G. Dunlop - ABU DHABI

Under the watchful eyes of a white-coated doctor, two orderlies in scrubs sedate the patient on a paper-covered stainless steel table, then begin the procedure -- trimming her vital hunting tools.

One of the orderlies carefully snips the brown and white falcon's wicked, two-centimeter (one-inch) talons, then files them back to points. Twenty-one other falcons, their heads covered in small leather hoods, sit across the room on perches that are covered with green artificial turf.

These falcons are just a few of the 5,000 treated each year at the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital (ADFH), which is located just a few kilometers (a couple of miles) outside the United Arab Emirates' capital city.

"This hospital is the largest falcon hospital in the whole world," says its director, German veterinarian Margit Muller. "It was the first public falcon hospital," she adds.

"The original idea behind the hospital was to provide the best possible medical care for the falcons of the Abu Dhabi emirate," she says. But "now we treat falcons of all the UAE, plus the adjacent Gulf countries."

Hunting with falcons is a longstanding tradition in the Arab Gulf states. The late Abu Dhabi emir and UAE founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan was a notable devotee.

Most Emirati falconers hunt in Pakistan or north Africa, as hunting with falcons is banned in the UAE.

When Abu Dhabi maintained ties with the Taliban administration in Kabul prior to its overthrow after the September 11, 2001 attacks, some UAE sheikhs flew to Afghanistan with their falcons for hunting trips.

Traditionally, the Gulf's nomadic bedouin tribes used to use wild falcons, but today, hunting falcons are captive-bred, and most cost between 800 and 4,000 dollars.

Falconry "is part of my life and my family's life in the past," says Mubarak Saeed Obaid al-Mansouri, a falconer and resident of Abu Dhabi who brought all eight of his falcons to the ADFH for check-ups.

Falconry "means too much to me", he says, adding that his falcons are "like one of my sons".

"My father was my first teacher, who taught me how to hunt with falcons and how to treat it like a good friend," he says.

The ADFH's director says such devotion is widespread among the UAE's Arab citizen population.

"Here, falconry is not a sport. It is a part of the culture, a part of the tradition," Muller says. "Falcons are regarded... like part of the family."

A curly-haired, middle-aged woman in gold-rimmed glasses and white lab coat, she shares her customers' passion for her patients.

"Falcons are absolutely fascinating," she says with a broad smile. She describes them as "huge, beautiful, majestic" birds, gesturing with both hands as she speaks.

"Each one has an individual character," she says. "Each one has an individual personality."

But treating them, Muller says, can be difficult.

"Falcons are usually only showing symptoms of diseases when they are extremely sick," she says. "Sometimes you have a falcon that is really sick, but it's almost impossible for the owner to detect."

For this reason, the hospital conducts routine checkups on falcons, which usually include blood work, an X-ray, a faecal sample and checking the falcon's internal organs for problems. Falconers bring in their birds for checkups, which usually take a few hours, two to four times a year.

Sick or injured falcons can also be hospitalized at the ADFH, which, Muller says, is an official Abu Dhabi government institution.

"We can, at the moment, keep more than 150 falcons here for treatment," says Mohammed Nafeez, a research associate at the ADFH, adding that between 60 and 70 are currently in the hospital.

And birds can be boarded at the ADFH when their owners are on holiday.

The hospital also has two large aviaries to hold falcons while they are molting, or changing their feathers.

One aviary currently holds 12 falcons, which periodically wing across the enclosure. When not in the mood for flying, the birds can sit in one of the air-conditioned rooms at each end.

Muller emphasizes that the ADFH is more than just a hospital for falcons.

"We are not only treating falcons, we are doing research work on falcons," she says.

As there is no specific course of study on falcon medicine, "we have set up a special training program for falcon medicine here in the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital," she says.

"We have a lot of veterinarians and students coming to us from all over the world to study here."

In 2006, seven years after the ADFH's foundation, it began treating other species of birds as well.

Now, the hospital treats "everything that has wings," Muller says, "from canaries until ostriches."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37094.

HRW: Bahrain has resumed torturing detainees

US-based rights group says there is credible evidence security forces have subjected detainees to torture.

DUBAI - The Gulf kingdom of Bahrain resumed torturing detainees in 2007 after about a decade of not engaging in the "scourge," US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Monday.

As of late 2007, "torture is back in the repertoire of Bahrain's security services" the international watchdog said in the report.

"The return of torture is especially distressing since Bahrain showed the political will a decade ago to end this scourge," said the report by Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East director.

The Sunni-ruled state ended torture of detainees in the late 1990s, but resumed the practice in December 2007 amid street demonstrations by majority Shiites, the report said.

The report was based on interviews with 20 former detainees, as well as court and medical records, Stork said in the report.

He said there was "credible evidence" that security forces had subjected detainees to electric shocks and beatings, had suspended them in painful positions, forced them to stand for long periods of time, and threatened their family members with death and rape.

Many detainees were subjected to more than one of those practices, the report said.

Bahrain was hit in the 1990s by a wave of Shiite-led unrest, which abated after the Sunni King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa launched steps to convert the Gulf country into a constitutional monarchy in 2002.

Shiites complain they are discriminated at every level, from getting jobs to citizenship, accusing the government of granting nationality to large numbers of Sunni Muslims in order to skew the kingdom's demography.

The government has maintained that it implements a 1963 law granting citizenship to long-time permanent residents without prejudice.

Torture is against Bahraini law and violates three international treaties that Bahrain has signed, HRW said.

It called on the kingdom to end torture and prosecute officials who have violated anti-torture laws.

"The government should promptly investigate all torture allegations and prosecute offenders according to international fair trial standards," the report said.

Bahrain is a small Gulf island kingdom with modest oil production. It is connected to powerful, Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia by a causeway, and is home to the US navy's Fifth Fleet.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37098.

17 soldiers dead, 53 rescued in Kashmir avalanche

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN, Associated Press Writer

SRINAGAR, India – A massive avalanche plowed into an Indian army training center at a ski resort town in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday, killing 17 soldiers and critically injuring 17 others.

The avalanche slammed into the army's High Altitude Warfare School at about 11 a.m. and swept away the soldiers during a training session, said army spokesman Col. Vineet Sood. It was the worst avalanche in the area in many years, he said.

Seventeen bodies were found and 53 troops were rescued about six hours after the speeding mass of snow and ice struck the center high on a Himalayan slope, senior police officer Qayoom Manhas told The Associated Press.

Manhas said of those rescued, 17 needed emergency medical care.

About 70 troops were taking a skiing test when the avalanche came crashing down, he said.

Rescue efforts involving army, police and civilian officials were "very timely, swift and coordinated," Manhas said.

The accident occurred near Gulmarg, a ski resort about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, said Sood.

About 400 people, including 30 civilian workers, were at the training center, but the avalanche hit only one portion of the facility.

Incessant snow and rain complicated rescue operations.

G.M. Dar, a tourist official in the area, told the AP about 400 tourists skiing in Gulmarg were safe.

Frequent rain and heavy snowfall often trigger avalanches and landslides in Kashmir, blocking roads and cutting off tourist resorts like Gulmarg. Gulmarg is also close to the Line of Control, a highly militarized cease-fire line dividing the Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The claim over Kashmir has caused two wars between the archrivals since they became independent from Britain in 1947. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are posted along either side of the Line of Control.

Last year in April, an avalanche hit an Indian army post in a separate region close to the de-facto border with Pakistan, killing seven soldiers and injuring at least eight others.

'Historic' snow strands countless in Mid-Atlantic

By NAFEESA SYEED and BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Planes were grounded, trains stood still and Greyhound buses weren't rolling in the Mid-Atlantic on Sunday, leaving stranded travelers wondering when they'll be able to escape the icy, gray mess created by a major snowstorm.

Hundreds of thousands of homes were without power with temperatures below freezing all day, with utilities warning it could be days before it's all restored. Plows had scraped down to bare pavement on some main thoroughfares while not touching streets in many areas buried by 2 feet or more.

In the nation's capital, meanwhile, Monday will be another day for residents to get back to normal. The federal government made the decision to close agencies Monday, and many school districts across the region were giving students a snow day. For those stranded, however, the thought of another day of weekend wasn't much to smile about.

Joel Jones of Durham, N.C., said he was on a bus from Baltimore on Friday. When he arrived in Washington, the rest of the trip was canceled. He walked to Union Station to get a train, where he has remained, sleeping on chairs.

"I'm starting to worry because I take insulin," said the 41-year-old, who has diabetes. "I got enough for like one more shot, so I have enough until tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get on the bus in the morning."

The National Weather Service called the storm "historic" and reported a foot of snow in parts of Ohio and 2 feet or more in Washington, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Parts of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia got closer to 3 feet.

Many roads reopened but officials continued to warn residents that highways were still icy, a remnant from the storm President Barack Obama called "Snowmageddon."

In Washington, the sun was finally shining Sunday and the sounds of shovels could be heard on streets. In contrast to Saturday, when people were frolicking on the barren streets, thoughts turned Sunday to cleanup.

The snow snapped tree limbs onto power lines, and several roofs collapsed under the weight.

Making matters worse, the weather service issued a storm watch for Tuesday.

Some people without electricity worried whether the power would return in time for Sunday night's Super Bowl kickoff — though it was an afterthought for others just trying to stay warm.

Julia Nickles-Bryan and her husband, Charles Bryan, were more focused on keeping their twin 7-year-old daughters warm inside their Baltimore home — where the thermostat read 47 degrees. All they had for heat was a gas stove, gas water heater and a fire in the fireplace.

"We're basically camping," Nickles-Bryan said.

Bill McKenzie, 42, a government contractor from San Antonio, Texas, was staying at a hotel near BWI Airport in Elkridge, Md., when the snow hit. He had planned to watch the Super Bowl with friends in the area, but the storm made that impossible. He spent Saturday at a sports bar next to his hotel and was back for much of the day Sunday to watch the game.

"It's a godsend," McKenzie said. "If this place wasn't here, we'd all be starving to death."

In Philadelphia, 28.5 inches of snow fell during the storm, just shy of the record 30.7 inches during the January 1996 blizzard. Snow totals were even higher to the west in Pennsylvania, with 31 inches recorded in Upper Strasburg and 30 inches in Somerset.

Almost 18 inches was recorded at Washington's Reagan National Airport, which had canceled all flights. That's the fourth-highest storm total for the city, and airport officials haven't decided when flights would resume. At nearby Dulles International Airport in Virginia, the record was shattered with 32 inches. Some flights there have resumed.

At Reagan National Airport, 59-year-old Gwen Dawkins was trying to get back to Detroit. She was supposed to leave Saturday but still hadn't Sunday afternoon because of delays and cancellations. And she said there was "no way we're getting out of here tonight."

"You've got a whole city held captive here," she said. "They were very ill-prepared."

Authorities say most public transportation in Philadelphia has resumed. In Pittsburgh, bus service restarted but light-rail wasn't running.

In Mount Lebanon, a suburb south of Pittsburgh, Robb and Meredith Hartlage were again trying to clear the sidewalk in front of their house.

"We did a couple hours yesterday. I would say about four hours mixed with sledding," said Robb Hartlage, 40, who said he's not too old to play in the snow. He acknowledged, however, that the shoveling was hard work.

"I made some 'old man' noises when I got out of bed," he said.