Turkish foreign minister meets Syria's Assad

09 Aug 2011

Ahmet Davutoglu visits Damascus days after Turkey said its patience with Syria's crackdown on protests was running out.

Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, has met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, as Syrian security forces continued their military assault against protesters across the country.

Assad told Turkey's foreign minister on Tuesday that Damascus will "not relent in pursuing terrorist groups", Syrian state news agency said.

Davutoglu was to deliver a "strong message" to the president during his visit to the Syrian capital, Turkey said ahead of the visit.

Turkey, formerly Syria's close ally and trade partner, has grown increasingly alarmed by the security forces' use of force in the country's anti-government protests, which activists say has claimed about 2,000 lives.

As Davutoglu met Assad and the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, the army intensified its assault on several towns in the east of the country and in the northern Idlib province, which borders Turkey.

A rights group said 17 civilians were killed in the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, and two others in Idlib province.

"At least 15 people were killed in different parts of Deir ez-Zor which has been raided by tanks and vehicles mounted with machine guns," the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SCHR) said in a statement. quoting activists at the scene.

"A woman and a young man shot [earlier in the day] died of their wounds."

A resident said armored vehicles had been shelling the al-Hawiqa district heavily.

"Private hospitals are closed and people are afraid to send the wounded to state facilities because they are infested with secret police," the resident told Reuters news agency.

He said at least 65 people had been killed since tanks and armored vehicles entered the provincial capital on Sunday.

The SCHR said around a dozen tanks and other armored vehicles had attacked the Binnish and Sirmeen areas of Idlib.

Asked why Binnish was stormed, a resident who had fled the town told Reuters: "The whole town has been joining in night rallies after Ramadan prayers."

The Local Co-ordination Committees said the town of Sirmeen was attacked from three sides, with troops carrying out house raids and arbitrary arrests.

Tanks were also deployed in and around the city of Idlib, following big demonstrations there, the activists said.

Hama deaths reported

Up to five civilians were later also during raids on villages around the besieged city of Hama on Tuesday, local activists said.

The Syrian Revolution Co-ordinating Union said five bodies had been taken to the Jwash hospital in the town of Tibet al-Imam north of Hama, including two girls from the same family, six-year old Afra Mahmoud al-Kannas and 11-year old Sana Ahmad al-Kannas.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the reports since most foreign journalists have been barred from entering Syria.

The Syrian Observatory says more than 2,050 people, including almost 400 members of the security forces, have been killed since the uprising began.

Diplomatic action

Envoys from India, Brazil and South Africa are going to Damascus to press Assad to end the violent crackdown on a five-month old uprising.

India's UN ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters the three countries would be "calling for restraint, abjuring violence, [and] promoting reform, taking into account the democratic aspirations of the people.''

Officials said country's representatives were to meet "high-level'' Syrians on Wednesday.

Assad's government disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest. But those claims have been dismissed by most of the international community, with world leaders ramping up its condemnation of the security forces' actions in recent days.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain on Monday recalled their ambassadors from Damascus amid mounting pressure from the Arab world.

Qatar withdrew its ambassador from Damascus and closed its embassy in July after Assad loyalists attacked the embassy compound amid protests against Doha-based Al Jazeera's coverage of the uprising.

Meanwhile, Assad replaced his defense minister, Ali Habib, on Monday with illness cited as the official reason.

State television reported that the Christian chief of staff, General Daoud Rajha, was to take up the post.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/08/201189105938279417.html.

Somalia offers al-Shabab amnesty

09 Aug 2011

Move follows withdrawal of opposition fighters from capital, which fighters said was a "strategic step".

Somalia's government has offered an open amnesty to al-Shabab fighters after the rebels made a surprise withdrawal from the capital, Mogadishu, over the weekend.

"We offer an amnesty - put down your weapons and your guns, and come and join the people and your society," Abdirahman Osman, a government spokesman, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency on Tuesday.

"For those who have been misled by the senior commanders, now is the time to end the war," he said.

Al-Shabab, who still govern over much of southern Somalia, have waged a bloody war since 2007 to topple the Western-backed transitional government.

The fighters, who had controlled around half of Mogadishu, abandoned their positions on Saturday but some units remained active within the capital.

Government officials celebrated the pullout by the rebels but the fighters said it was merely "a change of military tactics."

Troops thinly stretched

This vacuum has left the city largely to be taken over by the African Union [AU] troops.

Al Jazeera's Peter Greste, reporting from Mogadishu, said the AU troops appear to be thinly stretched across the region.

"They are now not just controlling a frontline that cuts through the city, they have control of the entire city. So that means the physical area they have to man has doubled," he said.

"This is a very different job from the one they were fighting - a front line offensive is a relatively straight forward military operation particularly compared to the counter-insurgency one that they are trying to run.

"Keeping control and keeping security is a very, very difficult job indeed. They are requesting 3,000 more troops. These are not additional numbers, but rather part of the 12,000 that was initially mandated and promised to them but have simply not arrived."

An AU official told Al Jazeera that "these additional troops were absolutely essential, especially if the international community wanted to maintain stability and get aid out".

Fighting continues

Meanwhile, fighting was reported as rebel remnants clashed with AU-backed government troops following the pullout.

Sporadic gunfire was heard in the city on Tuesday morning, according to AFP.

The 9,000-strong AU force (AMISOM) and government troops have meanwhile reinforced their hold over former al-Shabab positions in an effort to allow more aid into the famine-struck capital.

"The extremists have been preventing the provision of food to hungry Somalis and this has opened up the opportunity to help many more people," Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra, the AU special representative to Somalia, said in a statement released late on Monday.

AMISOM however warned people against returning to former al-Shabab-controlled areas of the "high possibility" of "roadside bombs and pockets of remaining extremist fighters," Diarra said.

Humanitarian crisis

The UN Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was assessing how the group's withdrawal would open aid group access to the war-torn city, which about 100,000 people have fled from in the past two months to escape extreme drought.

"Although it is too early to know what the impact on the overall situation is, humanitarian actors are assessing the ability to operate and/or scale up activities," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The United Nations has officially declared famine in Somalia for the first time this century, including in Mogadishu and four southern Somali regions.

"Famine... is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks," OCHA warned. "Cases of acute watery diarrhea are increasing across Somalia," it added.

The UN's food monitoring unit has described Somalia as facing the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world and Africa's worst food security crisis since the country's 1991-1992 famine.

Parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda have also been hit by the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/08/20118994159408821.html.

Rescuers save baby whale in Australia

Mon Aug 8, 2011

A joint team of rescue workers have finally saved a massive baby humpback whale which took a wrong turn at an Australian beach losing his mother.

The 1.5-ton whale, said to be a week old, was discovered in the early hours of this morning, mailonline reported.

Rescuers from Sea World, National Parks and Wildlife and the Gold Coast City Council lifeguards pulled the whale back into the water, but it got trapped in a shark net just off shore.

The youngster was freed after the team cut the net and the calf swam off unharmed. It will, however, be tracked until he can reunite with his mother.

Saying that the whale had to find his mother, Sea World's director of marine sciences said it would not survive for long alone without his mother's milk.

“It's not over yet,” Trevor Long told the Australian Associated Press. “He's very sore and not moving it much at all.”

According to Long, the baby whale was alert and in good condition, but rescuers were concerned the mother, who had not been spotted despite a search, was no longer nearby.

“You can't keep pushing it out, the animal's going to suffer and suffer, so the only decision then is that we probably have to euthanize it,” Long said.

“These animals need to be with their mother, they're almost velcroed to their mother side-by-side, and it's a wonderful, wonderful bonding relationship.”

Scientists are screening blood samples from the calf for diseases to find out the reason why his mother abandoned him.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192975.html.

Canada holds Qur'an Festival in Ottawa

Sun Aug 7, 2011

The Canadian capital of Ottawa has held its second edition of the Qur'an Festival in an attempt to introduce the Islamic culture and holy book.

The event which kicked off on Saturday, displays a wide range of Qur'anic artworks such as paintings and calligraphies as well as historical editions of the Muslim holy book.

The annual festival aims to make the Canadian public more familiar with the holy Qur'an and its message.

“Unfortunately a lot of people try to change the message or to make a bad thing out of it,” a visitor told Press TV. “But it's just beautiful, just a beautiful message for everyone and if everybody followed the Qur'an we just had peace on earth…that would be so amazing.”

The festival has also organized live recitations of the Qur'an, and a special program for kids including Qur'anic contests.

“Qur'an is a mercy for the mankind and the message of Qur'an is peace,” said Islamic scholar Mumtaz Ali.

“If anyone reads the Qur'an, recites the Qur'an and understands it he will [find] peace for each and every individual.”

Ottawa's 2011 Qur'an Festival will run until August 7, 2011.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192836.html.

Libyan rebels claim strategic cities

2011-08-08

Fighting continued Sunday (August 7th) around Zlitan (east of Tripoli), AFP reported. Libyan rebels have adopted a "defensive position" to contain an attack by pro-Kadhafi forces east of town, according to a rebel spokesman from Misrata. Abdul Wahab Melitan said the Zlitan rebels lack sufficient ammunition to advance. "We do not want to risk losing ground," Melitan said. Rebel fighters who came from Misrata have been trying for over a week to claim the strategic town of 200,000.

Meanwhile, rebels reportedly took control of Bir Ghanam, located about 80km southwest of the capital.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2011/08/08/newsbrief-01.

Media and political changes in Tunisia

Tunisians enjoy an expanded freedom of expression, but question how it will apply to state-run media in the future.

By Monia Yahia for Magharebia in Tunis – 08/08/11

The media landscape in Tunisia is changing along with public attitudes after the fall of the Ben Ali regime. At a recent workshop in Tunis, experts from Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, France and Germany discussed how government media is making a transition to public news organizations in service of citizens.

At the event, hosted July 29th by the Commission for the Reform of Media and Communication in collaboration with the Article 19 organization and the British Broadcasting Corporation, participants discussed how public media had served as the mouthpiece of a single party and authoritarian political system.

"Most media before January 14th was in the flock, and few were engaged in struggle," said Kif Radio FM owner Bassam Khalaf. "This did not change and those who were working are still present – this is an obstacle."

According to the participants, this process will not be easy and will require time and reforms.

Tunisian television journalist Khaled Njah called for purging public institutions of the remnants of the former regime, asking how it was possible to talk about reform in their presence.

"It is not necessary to accept officials who are not from the field of supervising public media institutions," said Amal Chakchouk from Youth Radio. "New and good qualified [personnel] must be provided, since before the revolution the appointments were made from above. Moreover, we in the public media need a code of conduct."

Public media in Tunisia consists of radio, television, a news agency and two newspapers, while there are two private television channels and four private radio stations. The media landscape is expected to grow rapidly with an increase in license granting after January 14th.

Despite the freedom seen in the media sector since January 14th, many voices inside and outside the government began referring to a "media breakdown", which Tunisian journalists consider a return to a policy of censorship.

Moktar Rassa, Director General of Tunisian Television, said: "We decided to become a public utility because it is the only case that takes us from being an instrument of the authority to an instrument in the service of citizens."

This prompted Tunisian journalist Maher Abdel Rahman to respond that the decision to transform national television from a government facility into a public facility would require not just words, but sound procedural, legal and regulatory efforts.

Some question the impact a state salary might have on a public media journalist's independence.

"We receive our salaries from the state and not from the government; if there isn't a new culture in management and its relationship with political affairs, then there cannot be a public media," said Hichem Snoussi, a member of the Higher Commission of Media Reform.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/08/feature-02.

Algerian Islamists launch new party

New Algerian political party FJD is raising questions about a possible schism in the Islamist movement.

By Ademe Amine for Magharebia in Algiers – 08/08/11

Long-time Algerian Islamist Abdellah Djaballah recently created a new political party, shaking up the conservative political landscape.

Djaballah announced the formation of the Justice and Development Front (FJD) before of a crowd of nearly 1,500 people who had come to attend his party's inaugural congress July 30th in Algiers. The founder and one-time leader of the Ennahda and El Islah parties appealed to his former colleagues and those in the Islamist movement as a whole to join his new faction.

The announcement did not go unnoticed those by the Islamist movement, which some claim is losing ground in Algeria.

"We have no issues with Mr Djaballah," said Fatah Rebii, Ennahda secretary-general. "We will contact this new party and engage with him in dialogue as we do with other political parties." Rebii also did not rule out the idea of an alliance for the 2012 legislative and local elections "if Mr Djaballah wants one".

Addressing an enthusiastic crowd at the first FJD congress, Djaballah said his group would "campaign for a democratic and social Algeria", adding that the party was "interested in all national affairs in all sectors".

"In addition, we want to serve our religion, our country and our nation. A holy trinity. A country and a nation without Islam has no value in the eyes of God. Striving for life and the afterlife is a duty. Victory in life, heaven in the afterlife," Djaballah said.

The leaders of the Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP), a moderate Islamist party in the ruling coalition, have said nothing about the new party.

Djamal Ben Abdeslam, a leader of the Islamist El Islah party, described the announcement of a new party as "a non-event".

"El Islah campaigners know this man well," he added. "They were with him from the time when he led our party just as he wished and they won't respond to his appeal today."

El Islah Secretary-General Hamlaoui Akouchi said, "I don't think our campaigners will join Djaballah's party and anyone who wants to leave is free to do so."

The political arena is open and "free for anyone who wants to create his own party", Akouchi added. "It's up to citizens to choose the party they like."

"We accept plurality within the Islamist movement, just as we accept plurality within other movements such as secular ones", Akouchi said. "We are not worried about any parties on the political stage as long as they use democratic practices that are far from violence."

The FJD is the third Islamist political party created by Abdellah Djaballah, who is regarded as one of the most outspoken Islamist leaders and the most critical of government policy. He launched the Ennahda party after democratic reforms in the 1990s before setting up El Islah.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/08/feature-01.