Tunisian Parliament meets after ruling party banned

Tunisia's parliament met Monday to vote emergency powers for the country's interim president after the government banned the ruling party of ousted leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

AFP, Monday 7 Feb 2011

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi told the 125 deputies present in the 214-seat parliament that they had to approve the measure in order to bring peace to a country still mired in turmoil three weeks after Ben Ali was ousted in a popular revolt.

"Time is precious. Tunisia has real need of rule by decree to remove dangers," he said at the first parliamentary session since Ben Ali's overthrow.

"There are people who want Tunisia to go backwards but we must honor our martyrs who fought for liberty."

A vote on the new legislation will take place later Monday before the measure goes before the upper house of parliament, the Senate.

If approved it will give interim president Foued Mebazaa power to rule by decree and sidestep a parliament dominated by the Constitutional Democratic Assembly (RCD), the party of Ben Ali which was suspended on Sunday.

Eighty percent of deputies belong to the long-feared RCD, which had a monopoly on power under Ben Ali and could still stand in the way of reform.

Prior to Monday's vote hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside parliament demanding the dissolution of the assembly, known as the unpopular RDC's one-time power base.

The suspension on Sunday is a first step towards dissolving the party which opponents fear could return to power following elections scheduled for six months from now.

The party claims two million members out of a total population of 10 million and remains a well-organized political group which could mount a strong political campaign.

Under the suspension, the RDC is banned from organizing meetings and public gatherings while its offices have been shut down.

The government moved to suspend the party in part to soothe renewed bouts of violence that have broken out after it relaxed a curfew imposed on January 12.

The interim government, which replaced top police chiefs and the governors of all of Tunisia's 24 provinces just days before, had hoped the move would help calm the unrest.

But protesters and opposition politicians are calling for a more thorough shakeup, judging some of the newly named governors too close to the old regime and the RDC.

In unrest northwest of the capital on Sunday 40 people were injured, one badly burned in the torching of a police station, in the town of Kef, hospital sources said.

In the southern town of Kebili, one youth died after he was hit by a tear gas canister during clashes with security forces, the state news agency TAP reported.

An interior ministry source said that two people were killed and 13 injured, including four policemen, in street protests in Kef on Saturday.

Several hundred demonstrators had been calling for Kef police chief Khaled Ghazouani to be sacked for abuse of power, according to TAP.

By Monday calm was restored in the town with soldiers patrolling the streets, local union official Raouf Hadaoui told AFP by telephone from Tunis.

TAP meanwhile reported the arrests of two members of the security forces suspected over the deaths of two detainees in Sidi Bouzid, in the center of the country.

It was in Sidi Bouzid that a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, died after setting himself on fire on December 17, triggering the uprising.

Source: Ahram.
Link: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/5170.aspx.

Israel refuses Egyptian request to station more troops in the Sinai

Monday, 07 February 2011

The Hebrew daily, Ma'ariv, today confirmed that Israel has rejected an Egyptian request to send additional Egyptian troops into the Sinai to deal with growing threats in the area as described by Egyptian sources.

Egypt justified its request citing an increase in activity from organizations based in the area and referred to the recent bombing of a gas pipeline.

Israel stated that it had looked into the Egyptian request in detail; however it had decided to refuse the request. It also said that in the event of a return to security and stability in Egypt, the Egyptian troops recently deployed in the Sinai should be withdrawn.

According to a mutual agreement, Israel has prohibited the presence of the Egyptian army in the Sinai desert since the signing of the Camp David Accord in 1979.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2029-israel-refuses-egyptian-request-to-station-more-troops-in-the-sinai.

Iran to launch several satellites

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to launch several home-built satellites by March 2012

AFP, Monday 7 Feb 2011

Iran plans to launch several home-built satellites by March 2012, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday after the unveiling of four new prototypes.

"I think from the end of this (Iranian) year (to March 20) and through the next year, we will see many launches" of domestically-built satellites, Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony in Tehran.

The president's remarks coincide with celebrations of the 32nd anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that falls on February 11.

Every year Iran uses the run-up to the anniversary to trumpet its scientific, technological and military achievements.

Iran unveiled on Monday what it said were prototypes of four new home-built satellites -- Rasad (Observation), Fajr (Dawn), Zafar (Victory) and Amir Kabir-1 and also engines of a Safir-B1 (Ambassador-B1) rocket, reports said.

The country does not have an operational satellite of its own but Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced in December that two satellites, Fajr and Rasad-1, would be launched by the end of the current Iranian year to March 20.

But on Sunday, Vahidi said a launch date for Fajr and Rasad-1 was "not fixed" yet, indicating their launch would likely be delayed.

Iran in February 2009 sent into space its first home-built test satellite Omid (Hope) carried by a Safir-2 rocket.

Twelve months later, it launched a capsule carrying live turtles, rats and worms aboard a Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) rocket in what was Iran's first experiment to send living creatures into space.

Fajr, which was unveiled on Monday, is a reconnaissance satellite constructed by the defense ministry, while Amir Kabir-1, the details of which were unavailable, is built by Tehran's Amir Kabir university.

Rasad is constructed by Malek Ashtar University of Tehran which is linked to Iran's elite military force, the Revolutionary Guards, while details of Zafar were unavailable.

Iranian media reports said last week that the Safir-B1 rocket can carry a satellite weighing 50 kilograms (110 pounds) into an elliptical orbit of 300 to 450 kilometers (185 to 280 miles).

Iran on Sunday opened its first center to receive satellite images, a new stage in its space program and the equipment for which it says have been manufactured locally.

Iran's missile and space programs have sparked concern abroad that such advanced technologies, combined with the nuclear know-how which the nation is acquiring, may enable Tehran to produce an atomic weapon.

Tehran denies its nuclear program has military aims.

Source: Ahram.
Link: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/5147.aspx.

Sudan braced for historic announcement

Sudan secession referendum results will be announced in a ceremony by President Omar al-Bashir and southern leader Salva Kiir

AFP, Monday 7 Feb 2011

Final results of Sudan's landmark independence referendum for the south due out on Monday were expected to confirm a landslide vote for secession, paving the way in July for the creation of Africa's newest state.

The results, to be announced at a ceremony in Khartoum attended by President Omar al-Bashir and southern leader Salva Kiir, are effectively known already, after preliminary results released on January 30 showed almost 99 percent of south Sudanese voted to break from the north.

Bashir, who has already recognized the prospect of partition, on Sunday repeated his commitment to developing good relations with the south after independence, and said southerners staying in the north had nothing to fear.

"Southerners in the north will be protected, they will not be expelled and their property will not be confiscated nor their lives threatened," he was quoted as saying by Ajras Al-Hurriya, a newspaper considered close to the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

The January 9-15 referendum defied expectations by taking place on time and largely without incident, despite the major logistical challenges facing the organizers and fears that the Khartoum government might try to block a process that will almost certainly split Africa's largest nation in two.

Instead, senior northern officials said shortly after the preliminary results were confirmed that the government would accept the final outcome of the vote.

The cabinet was expected to endorse the final results on Monday, prior to the formal announcement ceremony.

"The spokesman for the government will make a statement about the results after an extraordinary cabinet meeting at 1200 GMT," a cabinet source told AFP.

The referendum commission said the final results would be announced at 1630 GMT.

Reflecting the relatively smooth conduct of the referendum, which drew praise from world leaders, the commission said on Sunday that no appeals were filed, which might have delayed the final announcement by a week.

The vote was the centerpiece of a 2005 peace deal that ended a devastating 22-year conflict between the largely African Christian south and the mainly Arab Muslim north.

In addition to the sensitive question of citizenship, Khartoum and Juba now have less than six months to agree on a number of thorny issues that have yet to be resolved, among them the status of the flashpoint Abyei region, oil-revenue sharing, and border demarcation.

More than 37 people died in clashes in Abyei in January, amid a deadlock over a planned simultaneous plebiscite on whether the region stays with the north or joins the south.

At the African Union summit in Addis Ababa last week, Kiir reiterated the SPLM's stand that the contested region should hold the referendum or be handed to the south by a presidential decree.

Northern opposition leaders have also warned that southern independence will encourage separatist movements in other parts of Sudan like Darfur, where renewed fighting between rebels and the Sudanese army has forced more than 43,000 people to flee their homes since December, according to UN estimates.

And at least 50 people were killed in fighting in south Sudan’s Upper Nile state last week, in a revolt by militiamen refusing to turn in heavy weapons, according to local officials.

The referendum itself has prompted jubilation in the south.

By contrast, its outcome has caused sadness and at times anger in the north, where student activists organized street protests last week calling for regime change, civil liberties and an end to debilitating price rises, that were swiftly suppressed by the security forces.

"Today is a sad day for all the citizens of north Sudan. It's a tragedy somehow," said a 23-year-old student activist, who gave only his first name of Mohammed.

Source: Ahram.
Link: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/5142.aspx.

Assange lawyer: Risk of 'denial of justice'

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

LONDON – The lawyer for Julian Assange argued Monday the embattled WikiLeaks founder would face a secret trial that violates international standards of fairness if sent to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

The leader of the secret-spilling website is fighting extradition in part because Swedish rape trials are customarily held in secret, Geoffrey Robertson said at the start of a two-day extradition hearing. Closed-door hearings would be "a flagrant denial of justice ... blatantly unfair, not only by British standards but by European standards and indeed by international standards," he said.

The British lawyer representing Sweden, Clare Montgomery, countered that Swedish trials were based on the principle that everyone deserves "a fair and public hearing." She said that in cases where evidence is heard in private it will often be published after the trial and recited in the judgment.

Assange is accused of sexual misconduct by two women he met during a visit to Stockholm last year. Rape trials are often held behind closed doors in Sweden to protect the alleged victims.

He denies wrongdoing. Defense lawyers also argue he should not be extradited because he has not been charged with a crime, because of flaws in Swedish prosecutors' case — and because a ticket to Sweden could eventually land him in Guantanamo Bay or on U.S. death row.

Montgomery, opened by dismissing several key planks of the defense. She said Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor who is seeking Assange's extradition, did have the power to request the European Arrest Warrant, dismissing defense claims that she is not authorized to do so.

She said the rape allegation was an extraditable offense even under Sweden's broad definition of the crime. Assange's lawyers say he cannot be extradited because he has not been charged with a crime in Sweden and is only wanted for questioning — and that the allegation is not rape as understood under European and English law.

Robertson said Assange faces an allegation known in Swedish as "minor rape."

"That is a contradiction in terms," he said. "Rape is not a minor offense." He said Assange had had consensual sex with his two accusers.

Montgomery contested this, saying "the Swedish offense of rape contains the core element of rape ... the deliberate violation of a woman's sexual integrity through penetration."

American officials are trying to build a criminal case against WikiLeaks, which has angered Washington by publishing a trove of leaked diplomatic cables and secret U.S. military files. Assange's lawyers claim the Swedish prosecution is linked to the leaks and politically motivated.

Preliminary defense arguments released by Assange's legal team claim "there is a real risk that, if extradited to Sweden, the U.S. will seek his extradition and/or illegal rendition to the USA, where there will be a real risk of him being detained at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere."

Many legal experts say the Guantanamo claims are fanciful, and Sweden strongly denies coming under American pressure.

Nils Rekke, head of the legal department at the Swedish prosecutor's office in Stockholm, has said Assange would be protected from transfer to the U.S. by strict European rules.

"If Assange was handed over to Sweden in accordance with the European Arrest Warrant, Sweden cannot do as Sweden likes after that," he said. "If there were any questions of an extradition approach from the U.S., then Sweden would have to get an approval from the United Kingdom."

Assange, wearing a blue suit, was flanked by prison guards as the hearing opened at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court. Celebrity supporters including Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger also attended.

WikiLeaks sparked an international uproar last year when it published a secret helicopter video showing a U.S. attack that killed two Reuters journalists in Baghdad. It went on to release hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it later began publishing classified U.S. diplomatic cables whose revelations angered and embarrassed the U.S. and its allies.

The furor made Assange, 39, a global celebrity. The nomadic Australian was arrested in London in December after Sweden issued a warrant on rape and molestation accusations.

Released on bail on condition he live — under curfew and electronically tagged — at a supporter's country mansion in eastern England, Assange has managed to conduct multiple media interviews, sign a reported $1.5 million deal for a memoir, and pose for a magazine Christmas photo shoot dressed as Santa Claus.

The extradition case revolves around the contested events of Assange's trip to Sweden in August. Two Swedish women say they met Assange when he visited the country and separately had sex with him, initially by consent.

In police documents leaked on the Internet, one of the women told officers she woke up as Assange was having sex with her, but let him continue even though she knew he wasn't wearing a condom. Having sex with a sleeping person can be considered rape in Sweden.

Assange is also accused of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion against the second woman. The leaked documents show she accuses him of deliberately damaging a condom during consensual sex, which he denies.

Robertson denied Assange had committed any sexual offenses under English law. He said all relationships, long or short, contain "moments of frustration, irritation and argument. This doesn't mean, in this country, that the police are entitled to sniff under the bedclothes."

Assange's lawyers also complain they have not been given access to text messages and tweets by the two women which allegedly undermine their claims. They say text messages exchanged by the claimants "speak of revenge and of the opportunity to make lots of money."

The extradition hearing is due to end Tuesday, but Judge Howard Riddle could take several weeks to consider his ruling — which can be appealed by either side.

CNN Student News Transcript: February 7, 2011

February 6, 2011

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Carl Azuz and this is CNN Student News! We're back from the weekend with 10 minutes of commercial-free headlines, including why you shouldn't believe everything you read.

First Up: Egypt in Crisis

AZUZ: We're beginning in Egypt where there are some signs that things are slowly getting back to normal. In the capital city of Cairo, some shops and banks are re-opening, and traffic is starting to look like it did before the political protests of the past couple weeks. But there are some changes going on in the country. On Saturday, some key members of the ruling party resigned. And yesterday, Vice President Omar Suleiman met with representatives from groups that have protested against the Egyptian government. They talked about some ideas for how Egypt might move forward, although some of the protesters still out in the streets said the people meeting with Suleiman don't necessarily represent them.

We've been watching this political unrest in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East. Barbara Starr joins us now to talk about the potential impact that it could have on the American military.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: With unrest now sweeping across Egypt and neighboring countries, new questions about whether it's a security crisis here at the Pentagon. A quick look at the map tells you how deeply tied the U.S. military is to regimes across the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

In Egypt, the U.S. provides around $1.3 billion a year in military aid. In return, the U.S. gets vital military air, land and sea access. U.S. warships transit the Suez Canal on their way to and from the Persian Gulf. Loss of the canal could lead to catastrophic delays and a crisis.

In Yemen, where President Saleh is facing demonstrations and has already said he won't run for re-election, the U.S. has been quietly training Yemeni forces to go after a rising threat from al Qaeda. The U.S. has conducted drone and missile strikes inside Yemen. The question: will a new government cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism efforts?

In Jordan, King Abdullah is facing increasing discontent due to rising prices and unemployment. Jordan remains one of the U.S.'s closest allies in the War on Terror. Jordan's intelligence services secretly operate against key al Qaeda targets. Jordan has also helped train Iraqi forces, and Jordanian troops serve in Afghanistan.

Three key Gulf allies provide other assistance. Qatar is home of the regional headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region and keeps a close eye on Iran. Kuwait is a staging area for U.S. troops moving in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq. And Bahrain is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which patrols the Persian Gulf and pirate-infested waters off Somalia.

The U.S. spends billions of dollars in military aid and assistance across the region in return for all of this access. But the question may now be if the social unrest that is emerging leads to regime change, will the new regimes want to do the old business with the U.S. military? Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO)

Source: CNN.
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/studentnews/02/06/transcript.mon/.

Egypt approves 15 percent raise for govt employees

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI AND SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press

CAIRO – Egypt's embattled regime announced Monday a 15 percent increase in salaries and pensions in the latest attempt to defuse popular anger amid protests demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

The cabinet decision follows earlier promises to investigate election fraud and official corruption, which have done little to persuade the tens of thousands occupying downtown's Tahrir Square to end their two-week long protest.

State TV also announced that the family of a detained Google Inc. marketing manager who helped organize the anti-Mubarak demonstrations, "has been notified that he will be released this evening."

Wael Ghonim was one of the most prominent youth organizers of the protests and was seized by security agents on Jan. 28.

Newly appointed Finance Minister Samir Radwan says some 6.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($960 million) will be allocated to cover the increases, which will take effect in April for the 6 million people on public pay rolls.

In the past, public sector employees have been a pillar of support for the regime, but in recent years as prices have soared, their salaries have stagnated in value forcing the government to periodically announce raises to quell dissatisfaction.

Following widespread labor unrest in public sector factories in 2008, Mubarak announced a 30 percent increase in prices that appeared to temporarily blunt public anger.

After the two weeks of instability that has pushed the Arab world's most populous nation to the edge of anarchy, the crisis now appears to be settling into kind of stalemate, with the government offering minor concessions that dodge the protesters' central demand: Mubarak's departure.

The regime appears confident in its ability for the moment to ride out the unprecedented storm of unrest, and maintain its grip on power, at least until September elections.

Egypt's state-run news agency reported that Mubarak ordered the country's parliament and its highest appellate court to reexamine lower-court rulings disqualifying hundreds of ruling party lawmakers for campaign and ballot irregularities, that were ignored by electoral officials — possibly paving the way for new elections.

The ruling National Democratic Party won more than 83 percent of the 518 seats in the 2010 parliamentary elections, which were widely condemned as being rigged.

Judicial officials also promised to start the questioning on Tuesday of three former ministers and a senior ruling party official accused of corruption charges after they were dismissed by Mubarak last week. The cabinet reshuffle was intended to placate protesters by removing some of the most hated officials in the government.

The official Middle East News Agency said former Tourism Minister Zuhair Geranah would be questioned Tuesday along with the former ministers of housing and trade.

MENA also reported that the country's top prosecutor had imposed a travel ban on former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli and froze his bank account.

Protesters on the square Monday said they remained unsatisfied.

"Our main objective is for Mubarak to step down," said student Mohammed Eid. "We don't accept any other concessions."

Cairo, however, seemed Monday morning to be closer to its normal weekday routine than on any day since the Jan. 25 start of the unrest.

Banks were open for limited hours along with many shops. The stock market announced it would reopen next Sunday, though schools were still shut for the mid-year holiday. Traffic was returning to ordinary levels in many places and the start of the nighttime curfew has been pushed an hour later to 8 p.m.

Rami Ghoneim, an unemployed internet activist, said the protesters were in no rush to leave so long as their central demand was not met. The more they stay, he said, the more concessions the regime would offer.

"It is like a wound, the more you press on it the more blood gushes out. We will press until we empty it," he said.