Algerian municipal workers launch general strike

2010-03-30

More than 500,000 Algerian municipal workers will begin a 2-day general strike on Tuesday (March 30th), Tout sur l'Algerie reported. The Interior Ministry reportedly failed to dissuade union members from striking over wage demands. A massive turnout is anticipated for Algeria's first such municipal strike since the country's independence. Vital services such as garbage collection could be paralyzed.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/03/30/newsbrief-04.

Reports differ on status of Emirati prince missing in Morocco

2010-03-30

Morocco denied reports that local and international search teams recovered the body of missing Emirati prince Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al Nahayan, MAP reported on Tuesday (March 30th). Foreign media reports quoted Spanish Civil Guard sources as saying in Madrid on Saturday that "the lifeless body of Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan has been located". The 41-year-old Abu Dhabi Investment Authority chief and younger brother of Emirates President Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan was in a glider that crashed last Friday into an artificial lake in Skhirat, south of Rabat. The plane's pilot was found over the week-end in good condition.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/newsbriefs/general/2010/03/30/newsbrief-01.

Vigorous resettlement program finds homes for Algerians

The government has responded to October's housing protests with an ambitious resettlement program for Algerians.

By Walid Ramzi for Magharebia in Algiers – 30/03/10

Algerian authorities have launched the country's largest resettlement program in history.

"After 40 years of suffering, destitution, despair and oppression, life has been restored to us," Deyar al-Shams resident Ahmed Bournan said. "We are born anew after we were almost dead."

Bournan is one of several families in Deyar al-Shams to benefit from the government's ramped-up construction efforts. One resident, Zakia, lived with her children in a shantytown for ten years before receiving their new home. Another, Sabri Ammar, suffered under high winter humidity and a leaky roof with his family of eight until they moved.

Aqeela Zeytouni and her family of 10 lived in extreme destitution for 35 years, she said. Her family had never known stability or hope until the Algeria's resettlement program found her a new home, Zeytouni said.

The government launched a ramped up resettlement program March 13th in the wake of last October's protests in neighborhoods like Deyar al-Shams. Authorities plan to build 70,000 new houses per year as part of the program, Minister of Housing and Urbanization Nordine Moussa said. The ministry has already marked 550,000 homes for demolition over the next four years, he said.

Four main cities – Algiers, Annaba, Oran and Constantine – host 15% of the country's run-down housing units, Moussa said. The program targets 45,000 families for resettlement in the capital alone and plans the construction of 10,000 housing units in the city by the end of the year.

About 600 slums populate the capital, Algiers Housing Directorate director Mohamed Ismail said. Each hosts between 10 and 2,000 residents.

Occupants of dense slums, dilapidated buildings and homes damaged in Algeria's 2003 earthquake will benefit from the government's housing program, he said. About 8% of Algerian's homes are unsafe or inadequate.

Eliminating substandard buildings, constructing new houses and resettling residents will cost an estimated 88 billion dinars per 35,000 housing units, Ismail said. The government has earmarked more than 140 billion dinars for the program.

The new resettlement program outlines seven stages in the capital: first, the evacuation of densely-populated slums; the evacuation of residents who occupy buildings marked as condemned in technical reports; the evacuation of densely populated neighborhood residents in the heart of the capital; the resettlement of residents living in pre-fabricated housing units; the resettlement of residents of dilapidated buildings in Casbah and the surrounding areas; the evacuation of residents living in graveyards; and the relocation of residents in the municipalities.

The government has commissioned about 270,000 homes since the second half of 2007. About 125,000 homes are scheduled for construction, and building efforts have begun on about 143,000.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/03/30/feature-02.

Palestinian boy killed near Israel-Gaza border

Gaza - A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was killed Tuesday near the border area between the south-east Gaza Strip and Israel, witnesses and security sources said.

Witnesses said that Mohamed al-Farmawi, 15, of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah was shot dead by Israeli troops after he approached the fence along the border with Israel, which lies east of the town.

Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told reporters in Gaza that medical teams and International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) coordinated with the Israeli army to collect the boy's body.

Many Palestinian teens approach the borderline areas between Israel and the Gaza Strip either to cross and look for a job into Israel, or search for junk to sell in Gaza.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians demonstrated near the borderline area east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, protesting the buffer zone that Israel is building along its border with the Gaza Strip.

Witnesses said that at least six Palestinians were injured by gunfire from Israeli troops stationed at the borderline area. The protests were organized all over the Gaza Strip to mark Land Day, a commemoration by Palestinians for land they say was appropriated by Israel.

Hassanein said six wounded people were taken to the European Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip for treatment.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316462,palestinian-boy-killed-near-israel-gaza-border.html.

UAE president's brother dead in plane crash in Morocco

Abu Dhabi (Earth Times) - The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday confirmed the death of Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, a businessman and brother of the country's president, who had been missing since a plane crash last week, state news agency WAM reported.

The head of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority was in a private plane when it crashed into the ocean near the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

The pilot was rescued Friday evening, and authorities conducted a several day search for the sheikh's body.

The Gulf state announced a three-day mourning period starting Wednesday, when the body is expected to arrive in the country.

Sheikh Ahmed, brother of President Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, was also chairman of the board of trustees of the Zayed Foundation for Charity and Humanitarian Works.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is considered the world's largest sovereign wealth fund with assets of 500 billion to 700 billion dollars.

Obama signs final elements of health care overhaul

Washington - US President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed into law the final elements of the ambitious health care reforms that engulfed his first year in the White House.

The legislation also included a major expansion of the government's loan programs for universities and subsidies for poorer students.

Obama early last week signed the overriding health bill into law, marking the biggest legislative victory of his young presidency and the culmination of a bitter and divisive political debate.

The second signing ceremony Tuesday came after Congress late last week approved a round of changes to the underlying legislation, which for the first time aims to provide all Americans with at least basic health insurance.

Signing the bill at a university in Alexandria, Virginia, Obama said the health overhaul represented "meaningful progress" that "enshrines the principle" of universal health coverage in US law.

The two-step approval process was part of a complicated set of procedural maneuvers used by left-leaning Democrats to get Obama's top domestic priority through the legislature over stiff Republican opposition.

The second package stepped up government insurance subsidies to the poor, increased tax credits to small businesses and delays the introduction of a tax on the most expensive health insurance plans.

The controversial health reforms have sharply divided the country, and last week sparked cases of vandalism of political offices and death threats to some legislators, mostly Democrats who supported the reforms.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316480,obama-signs-final-elements-of-health-care-overhaul.html.

Only formal compromise on Iran's nuclear program from G8 - Summary

Ottawa - The foreign ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) countries could only agree on a formal compromise regarding future moves on Iran's controversial nuclear program.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday after the meeting of the leading industrialized economies in Gatineau, Ontario, the ministers said that an Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable.

Russia reportedly refused to accept a harder stance against Tehran.

The United States has long led calls for tougher sanctions against Iran for enriching uranium, allegedly for the construction of nuclear weapons. Tehran claims that its nuclear program seeks peaceful ends only.

Iran was the main topic of discussion, but the meeting also saw debates Monday on developments in Afghanistan and on the bombings in the Moscow underground.

For hours, it was not even clear whether G8 ministers would issue a joint declaration on Iran at all, amid calls for "a signal from the international community."

"Nobody in the world has an interest in seeing one state after another violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty, acquire nuclear weapons and thus bring into the world unforeseeable security risks," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

"On the issue of nuclear non-proliferation, we must speak with one voice in the world, and not only in the direction of Iran," Westerwelle noted.

The ministers also discussed disarmament more broadly, and said they will make every effort to ensure the success of the review conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty to be held in New York in May.

Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, told the German Press Agency dpa that the IAEA was in a position to monitor nuclear disarmament.

The Vienna-based organization has the means and the expertise to do that, Amano said.

Specifically on Iran, Amano said new sanctions would make the job harder in the short term for those monitoring nuclear facilities there. He would not estimate longer-term consequences.

Canada is this year's president of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations - the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316499,only-formal-compromise-on-irans-nuclear-programme-from-g8--summary.html.