Egyptian court acquits 3 ex-ministers, convicts 1

July 05, 2011 — CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court acquitted three Hosni Mubarak-era ministers of corruption charges on Tuesday while finding a fourth guilty in absentia — a decision likely to stoke anger among protesters calling for more accountability for ousted regime officials.

The verdicts came a day after 10 policemen charged with killing protesters were ordered released on bail, prompting hundreds of Egyptians to attack a courtroom in Cairo. Tensions are running high in Egypt over the ruling military council's failure to punish those blamed for killing protesters during the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak to step down on Feb. 11 as well as ex-officials accused of participating in corruption and cronyism that was widespread during the former president's nearly three-decade rule.

Many Egyptians feel the courts have not done enough to punish former regime officials, complaining that anti-graft cases have gone too fast to court without proper investigation, leaving them vulnerable to acquittals, while cases pertaining to human rights and the killings of protesters dragged.

Nearly five months later, only one policeman has been convicted in the deaths of at least 846 people killed in the government crackdown on protesters. He was tried in absentia. Protesters seeking to step up pressure on authorities to speed up accountability efforts plan a major protest on Friday to call for fair trials and measures to purge former regime officials from political and economic life. Mubarak and his two sons also face charges of killing protesters and amassing illegal wealth. Their trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 3.

In an apparent attempt to defuse the anger, Egypt's Prosecutor-General Mahmoud Abdel-Meguid appealed the acquittals shortly after they were issued, Egypt's state TV said. He had taken a similar decision following Monday's decision to release the police.

Relatives of slain protesters cut traffic for at least six hours Monday on the highway from Cairo to the city of Suez, leaving hundreds of cars lined up. The court case involved 17 protesters killed in Suez.

On Tuesday, family members and associates of the acquitted Mubarak-era officials cheered after Judge Mohammed Fathi Sadek of the Cairo Criminal Court read the verdicts. The accused faced prison sentences of up to 15 years.

Sadek found not guilty Ahmed Maghrabi, Yousef Boutros-Ghali and Anas el-Fiqqi, former ministers of housing, finance and information, respectively. Maghrabi was tried for corruption over the sale of state-owned land to a real estate company, Palm Hills, in which he is still a partner. Three others involved in the deal, the head of a state-sponsored publishing house and two businessmen, were also found not guilty.

Boutros-Ghali and el-Fiqqi were tried for corruption for channeling $6 million to media campaigns to help Mubarak's party in elections and boost Mubarak's image. The judge acquitted the two. Maghrabi and el-Fiqqi will remain in jail because they are facing other charges. The whereabouts of Boutros-Ghali, a nephew of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, are unknown. He was sentenced in absentia in June to 30 years in prison on separate charges of abusing his authority and squandering public funds.

Maghrabi also was convicted in June of intentionally damaging public finances by allowing a businessman to illegally acquire state land and sentenced to five years and a fine. On Tuesday, the court found former Trade Minister Rachid Mohammed Rachid and two businessmen guilty of squandering public funds and profiteering. Rachid and one of the businessmen were sentenced in absentia to five years in prison, ordered to each return $335,000 to the state and pay fines of the same amount.

The third got a one-year suspended sentence and must return $2 million to the state, and pay a fine of the same amount. His lawyer, Maged Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, said his client would appeal the sentence, but called the verdicts proof that Egypt can hold fair trials.

"This is encouraging to those awaiting trial and reassures everybody," he said. In a fourth verdict, the judge ordered an expert committee to review a number of TV programs and shows produced by the former head of the state TV and Radio Union Osama el-Sheik.

El-Sheik is charged with squandering $1.7 million of public funds producing these programs without authorization. The review is expected to be heard in the next session scheduled for Sept.8. Nasser Amin, a transitional justice lawyer and activist, said the verdicts were expected given the large volume of reports and complaints against former regime officials that the prosecution is looking into, side by side with their regular schedule. This would inevitably lead to weak cases that can easily be dismissed.

"The danger is there may be similar decisions in the cases of killing of protesters," he said. He called for exceptional measures, such as having specialized criminal courts deal with post-revolution trials alone.

"The lack of clarity in matters of accountability after the revolution and insisting on regular measures during the transitional period may be a proof that the Egyptian state is still strong and is carrying out its duties, but it is also going to create problems," he said.

Greek court releases American Gaza boat captain

July 05, 2011 — PIRAEUS, Greece (AP) — A Greek court on Tuesday released the American captain of a boat aiming to breach Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip, four days after arresting him for trying to set sail from Greece without permission.

John Klusmire, the captain of the Audacity of Hope, had attempted to leave a port near Piraeus Friday in defiance of a Greek ban on the flotilla of boats leaving port. He had been in custody since he was arrested, and appeared in court Tuesday handcuffed and under police escort. He still faces trial at a later date.

Greece has banned all boats participating in the Gaza flotilla from leaving port, citing security concerns after a similar flotilla last year was raided by Israeli forces, leaving nine activists on a Turkish boat dead. The Greek foreign ministry has offered to deliver the humanitarian aid the activists want to take to Gaza itself.

Israel says it imposed the blockade in 2007 to stop weapons reaching Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. Israel eased its land blockade after an international uproar over last year's raid on the Turkish boat.

Klusmire appeared in court in Piraeus for a two-hour deposition on a felony charge of endangering sea traffic and the lives of passengers, and misdemeanor counts of sailing without a permit and violating port authority orders.

"He has been released and is free to go home," said one of his lawyers, Manolis Stephanakis, after the hearing. "No trial date has been set and we expect the charges to be dropped. We presented a very strong case and we don't need to call any more witnesses to testify."

Flotilla activists who had gathered at the court to show support burst into cheers of celebration. They initially believed Klusmire had been acquitted, but his lawyer later said he had been released while still facing charges.

The captain himself appeared relieved after his deposition, and was cheered on by 30 fellow activists chanting "We love John." "This is a much better outcome than I anticipated," he said. Earlier in the day, Greek officials and flotilla activists said three activists connected to another boat carrying mainly Canadians had been arrested over an attempt by that vessel, the Tahrir, to also set sail in defiance of the Greek ban.

David Heap, a spokesman for the Tahrir, identified those detained as Canadians Sandra Ruch and Soha Kneen, and Australian Michael Coleman. The boat tried to leave the southern Greek island of Crete on Monday, but was forced to turn back by Coast Guard vessels.

The Greek Merchant Marine Ministry said one of the Canadians, who was responsible for the boat, was arrested on charges of illegally sailing without permission. The other Canadian national and the Australian were arrested for using kayaks to block a coast guard vessel from setting sail to stop the flotilla boat.

Protesters also took action in the Greek capital, with a small group of activists from a Spanish-run boat entering the Spanish embassy in Athens and starting a sit-in, hanging a Palestinian flag from a balcony and demanding that Spain pressure Greece to let their boat sail.

Manuel Tapial, a spokesman for the Spanish vessel Gernika, said the protesters were peaceful. A statement from the organization in charge of the vessel, Rumbo a Gaza, said protesters were not interfering with the work of embassy staff.

One boat from the flotilla appeared to have evaded attempts to stop all vessels connected to the effort to breach the Israeli blockade. French pro-Palestinian activists said from Paris the Dignite-Al Karama was in international waters and on its way.

Jean-Claude Lefort, a spokesman for the group, told The Associated Press Tuesday that the boat left a port near Athens early Monday with eight activists and two crew members on board. If true, it would be the first flotilla boat to leave Greece.

However, the claim could not be confirmed. Greek authorities said they were looking into the report. Greek activist Dimitris Plionis said during a news conference in Athens that the boat had been in a "safe" area "in this part of the Mediterranean." He said it was not sailing to Gaza at the moment, but was waiting for other boats from the flotilla to join it.

Christopher Torchia and Elena Becatoros in Athens, and Greg Keller in Paris contributed.

Medical residents protest in Algiers

2011-07-04

Algerian medical residents vowed to stage a sit-in on Monday outside the Presidential Palace in Algiers, Tout sur l'Algerie reported Sunday (July 3rd). Last month, several doctors were injured during a large protest rally organized by CAMRA, the medical residents' independent union. The residents have been on strike for three months over civil service requirements and other demands.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/07/04/newsbrief-04.

Moroccans approve new constitution

From public enthusiasm to renewed protests, a landslide vote in favor of Morocco's new constitution drew varied reactions.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 04/07/11

After days of heated debates, Morocco now has a new constitution. More than 98% of voters said "yes" to the reforms proposed by King Mohammed VI. The turnout rate for the July 1st poll reached 73.46%, Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui said on Saturday (July 2nd).

The final results will be published by the constitutional council, Cherkaoui added. The announcement is set for July 8th.

"The Moroccan people have taught us a brilliant lesson; they have realized the importance of the historic moment through which we are living and have turned a deaf ear to the voices rising up from the depths of nihilism," Communication Minister Khalid Naciri told the press.

But the constitution must be backed up by organic laws and a serious determination to translate the proposed advances into real actions, Popular Movement General-Secretary Mohand Laenser told Magharebia

"Every organization must be conscious of the huge challenges of the new pact," Forum for Citizenship chief Abdelali Mastour said.

Abdelhamid Amine, Vice President of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) and co-ordinator of the national support council for the February 20 Movement, is unmoved by the referendum results. "We were expecting figures like these to be put about," he said.

"We’ll continue our action," he added. "We boycotted the referendum because we didn’t want to take part in this charade. This new constitution puts all the power in the king’s hands."

In Casablanca, Tangier and Rabat, fresh protests broke out on Sunday. Demonstrators chanted, "Empty, empty, the ballot boxes were empty!"

"No-one I know voted. I’d find it hard to believe the turnout could have been more than 70%," said Hmida Lakssiri, employed. "In addition, you can’t base the figures only on those people who show up on the electoral lists, who are just 13 million, when there are millions more who don’t appear on the lists."

Political analyst Mohamed Darif, however, described the results as "perfectly reasonable" and indicative of the strength of political forces in Morocco. Only three political parties and one trade union called for a boycott, he said.

Furthermore, given that Moroccan society is not politically savvy, those voicing their opposition have not managed to have any impact on the public, Darif said.

For student Saidi Rehouni, the most important thing is not the figures that have been released, but rather the implementation of the constitution.

"It won’t harm us to wait," he said. "Let’s hope people will change their attitudes, and we’ll really end up with a Morocco of fairness, rights and liberties."

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/07/04/feature-01.

Bill Gates in global push to vaccinate every child on the planet

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
by: Jonathan Benson

(NaturalNews) Microsoft guru Bill Gates is busy rallying the troops to bring about what he calls "vaccine equity," which is his plan to vaccinate every single child in the world. Manipulating the heart strings of his listening audience, Gates stated at a recent Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) conference that "rich" kids take for granted the vaccines they receive, and that now is the time to provide the same vaccines for the world's poorest children.

"It's now that we're gonna start to get the last two vaccines that rich kids take for granted, the pneumococcal and rotavirus, and over these next five years, get them out to every child everywhere," said Gates. "That means for the first time ever that we have equity in vaccines."

By structuring his statements this way, Gates first implies that vaccines are some type of precious commodity that "rich kids" take for granted, and that need to get into the hands of "poor kids" to create health care equality. He then beckons the nations of the world to use taxpayer dollars to fund this massive, multi-billion-dollar dream to "save the children" by injecting them with various mixtures of toxic chemicals.

We have heard it all before, especially from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been pushing for the whole world to be vaccinated for many years now. It is clear that Gates and his supporters will stop at nothing until every nation in the world is funding his vaccine campaigns, despite the fact that many of the vaccines being pushed come with a whole slew of devastating side effects, and do not necessarily provide any proven benefit.

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/032900_Bill_Gates_vaccinations.html.

Cold fusion devices produce far more energy than they use; quickly approaching commercial viability

Tuesday, July 05, 2011
by: Daniel Erickson

(NaturalNews) Cold fusion is real, but mass American news sources are not covering it. Experiments are currently being duplicated across the world, to add further verification to the body of scientific proof. It is now possible to create energy with commonplace resources at no cost to the environment. Power plants using cold fusion will be constructed before 2012.

Natural News has been covering the developments of cold fusion for quite some time, as controlled experiments in Russia, California, Italy, and Japan have consistently proven that cold fusion is real.

One of these successful experiments was conducted by Professor emeritus of Osaka University, Japan - Yoshiaki Arata. Dr. Arata performed a demonstration of cold fusion at Osaka. A colleague of his wrote, afterward: "Arata's demonstration was successfully done it demonstrated live data looked just similar to the data they reported in [the] papers.

In addition, Andrea Rossi's Fusion Energy Catalyzer was tested in a number of different scenarios this year, resulting in a stronger belief that cold fusion may be ready for public use by the end of 2011. On January 14, Focardi and Rossi held a press conference, discussing their 10-kW generator. Another experiment, which took place roughly a month later at the University of Bologna, reported the model generated 15 kW for 18 hours. There are currently plans to hook up roughly 200 of these smaller units, in order to construct two 1 megawatt-producing power plants before the end of the year. If these plants perform up to their potential, then we can hope for the construction of industrial-sized power plants within another year or two.

But how does it work?

Cold fusion is not really magical, even though it could very well have a miraculous effect on our future. It is a relatively simple chemical reaction that produces excess heat, meaning that if the reaction occurs in water, it will increase the temperature of the water. Powdered nickel fuels the reaction. You put in nickel (one of the most plentiful metals on the planet), and you get heated water.

After that point, almost every mechanic in the world would be able to take it from there. Steam engines heat water with coal, then using the expansive properties of the steam to power turbines. A cold fusion device would use the same basic mechanical devices, but it would heat the water through the consumption of nickel rather than combustion.

But why has news of cold fusion not yet reached mass media in the United States? Why is there no story in the New York Times that showcases all of this excitement and buzz?

The media has been burnt by the dream of cold fusion before. In 1989, Fleishman and Pons first conducted a series of experiments on cold fusion and produced some truly exciting results. In their excitement, they let their findings slip a little too early, before they had been able to thoroughly study the discovery, or realize consistently positive results. They released their miraculous findings, with claims of having discovered the dream machine of the millennium, and they caused a lot of excitement in the scientific community, at least at first.

But they had fallen prey to their own unbridled enthusiasm. Confronted with the potential of what they had discovered - a future resplendent with clean, free energy - they jumped the gun a little prematurely. Their method was reproduced across the globe, but many experiments fell flat. In fact, their method was shown to be effective only 30% of the time. And in the world of empirical fact, 30% is an error, not a discovery. It was supposed that the 30% of experiments that did corroborate Fleishman and Pons' findings were more likely the result of bribes or 'friendships,' not cold fusion.

Consequently, it was presumed that Fleishman and Pons were frauds, just a couple of jingoists desperately attempting to gain fame and attention. Cold fusion was thought to have been revealed as a hoax, and the scientists became notorious. All but excommunicated, Fleishman and Pons went underground, where they continued to hone their method and make the process easily replicable and consistent. They checked and double-checked their findings, and they spread their idea to other scientists willing to conduct more thorough investigations, such as Andrea Rossi, whose device has, so far, produced the consistency that Fleishman and Pons' lacked.

This discovery could not come at a better time for the world, when oil resources are quickly becoming scarce, and greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to spike, despite the damage they are causing.

So, given the reason for optimism in this period in which energy is particularly expensive, why is the mass media refraining from mentioning cold fusion. Why is it not on the front pages of every newspaper?

There are a number of possible explanations. First, the scientific community's pause could very well be a consequence of the unbridled enthusiasm given by the initial experiments conducted in 1989. After such a humiliation, it is easy to see why scientists would remain skeptical, at least on the surface. Meanwhile, Rossi's Energy Catalyzer is being slated for reproduction in large-scale, cold fusion reactors later this year. If you compare the pace of Rossi's tests to the scientific norm, then it is clear that scientists are, indeed, excited.

As for the press, there are more insidious explanations to be considered. For one, it is a distinct possibility that a number of enormous businesses, such as oil and coal companies are leaning on mass media sources to keep quiet. Cold fusion power plants would drop the price of energy, thereby putting energy companies out of commission. It is in their best interest to slow down the process of integrating cold fusion.

But whatever the reason for mass media silence, you can expect to start hearing about cold fusion by the end of the year. By then, it will be impossible to keep quiet a discovery of this magnitude.

Source: NaturalNews.
Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/032898_cold_fusion_renewable_energy.html.

Turkey freezes Libyan holdings in Turkish bank

Jul 05 2011

(MENAFN) Turkey's banking regulatory fund said that following the country's recognition of Libya rebel leaders as the country's legitimate representative, the fund started a temporary control over a Libyan bank's 62 percent stake in a Turkish bank, reported Associated Press.

The fund added that the move came as a result of the UN Security Council's decisions to freeze Libya's foreign assets.

On the other hand, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said that the country removed its ambassador from Libya, moreover, in May and out of security reasons, Turkey withdrew its staff from the Turkish embassy in Libya.

It is worth noting that since the political unrest started in Libya, the EU has frozen the accounts of the country's state-owned companies and investment funds, in addition to the accounts of key members in the Libyan regime.

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial News (MENAFN).
Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093426328.