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قضايا الدولة" تطالب رشيد وعز وعسل برد 660 مليون جنيه للدولة

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خالد سعيد رحمة الله عليه

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الرئيس الأمريكى باراك أوباما

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الدكتور محمد البرادعى

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الرئيس السابق حسنى مبارك

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الجمعة، أبريل 19، 2013

Musharraf vows to fight back after arrest on terrorism charges

Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf vowed on Friday to fight what he called politically motivated allegations against him. (Reuters)

Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf vowed on Friday to fight what he called politically motivated allegations against him, after he was arrested following a judge's ruling he should be tried on terrorism charges.

Judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui said on Thursday that Musharraf's attempt to sack senior judges while he was in power was an "act of terrorism," thus he should be arrested.

Ahmed Raza Qasoori, Musharraf's lawyer, told Al Arabiya, "The judge does not have the right to include a terrorism article in this case. What sort of terrorism they are talking about? Now after Musharraf's arrest, we will appeal for Musharraf's release on bail."

Lawyers have also petitioned Pakistan's top court to try him for treason for imposing emergency law, punishable by death or life in prison, although it will have to be the state that initiates any trial, according to AFP.

He also faces charges of conspiracy to murder opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and over the death of a rebel leader during a 2006 military operation.

Musharraf's arrest is a significant act in a country where senior army officers have long seemed untouchable. The army is still considered the most powerful institution in Pakistan, but it's aura of impunity has declined in recent years, especially in the face of an activist judiciary, reported AP.

Retired army Major General Jamshed Ayaz Khan told Al Arabiya that the army is being neutral and seeks "to contain the situation."

"But based on my expertise dealing with army generals and soldiers, the continued to arrest of Musharraf and his trial will increase frustration among army ranks. Officers then will press the Army chief to interfere and save Musharraf not for his personal character, but because he used to be army chief," General Khan said.

There were conflicting reports on Friday about how Musharraf was arrested. Police said he was taken into custody overnight at his home and brought before a magistrate in Islamabad in the morning. But the secretary general of Musharraf's party, Mohammed Amjad, claimed the former military ruler surrendered himself before the magistrate, AP said.

Musharraf seized control of Pakistan in a coup in 1999 when he was army chief and spent nearly a decade in power before being forced to step down in 2008.

He returned to Pakistan last month after four years in self-imposed exile to make a political comeback despite Taliban death threats and a raft of legal challenges. But he was disqualified from running in the May 11 parliamentary election earlier this week, and his fortunes have gone from bad to worse since then.

20 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/asia/2013/04/20/Musharraf-vows-to-fight-back-after-arrest-on-terrorism-charges.html
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Shock at two brothers suspected in deadly Boston attacks

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev . (FBI, via Getty)

Tamerlan Tsarnaev practiced martial arts and boxing, even aspiring to fight on the U.S. Olympic team. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been on the wrestling team at a prestigious school and won a scholarship from his city to pursue higher education. Neighbors recalled the ethnic Chechen brothers, living on a quiet street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, riding bikes and skateboards.

Two brothers, one now dead, one alive and at large. Hours after the first grainy images of the two men were released to the public by the FBI, a portrait quickly emerged Friday of the men suspected in Monday's deadly Boston Marathon bombing.

Stunned friends pleaded for the surviving brother, described as bright and outgoing, to turn himself in and not hurt anyone. Classmates of Dzhokhar reported seeing him on his university campus after the attacks. Relatives of the brothers expressed shock, disbelief and anger.

The brothers, who had lived in the violence-wracked region of Dagestan in southern Russia, lived together and had been in the country for about a decade, according to an uncle, Ruslan Tsarni.

Tsami, speaking outside his Maryland home, urged his 19-year-old nephew Dzhokhar to turn himself in and ask for forgiveness. He said he hadn't seen his nephews for several years, and he said the family is ashamed. "If somebody radicalized them ... it's not my brother, who just moved back to Russia," he said.

The older brother, Tamerlan, was believed to be 26 when he was killed overnight in a shootout with police.

An aunt, Maret Tsarnaeva, told reporters in Toronto that Tamerlan recently became a devout Muslim who prayed five times a day, and she doesn't believe the brothers could have been involved in the bombing.

She said her brother Anzor Tsarnaev was desperate when he found out Tamerlan dropped out of his university.

Tamerlan married and had a 3-year-old daughter in the U.S., she said.

"He has a wife in Boston and from a Christian family, so you can't tie it to religion," she said.

Tamerlan once said he hoped to fight for the U.S. Olympic team and become a naturalized American.

"I don't have a single American friend. I don't understand them." he was quoted as saying in a photo package that appeared in a Boston University student magazine in 2010.

Government officials said Tamerlan traveled to Russia last year and returned to the U.S. six months later. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they couldn't publicly talk about an investigation in progress. One said Tsarnaev traveled out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Dzhokhar had attended the prestigious Cambridge Rindge and Latin school, participating on the wrestling team. In May 2011, his senior year, he was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the city to pursue higher education, according to a news release at the time. That scholarship was celebrated with a reception at city hall.

He attended the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, university officials said Friday, as the campus was evacuated. The school would not say what he was studying.

Harry Danso, who lives on the same floor of the dormitory, told The Associated Press he saw him in the hallway this week, and Tsarnaev was calm.

The father of the suspects, Anzor Tsaraev, told The Associated Press his younger son was a second-year student studying medicine.

"My son is a true angel ...," he said by telephone from the Russian city of Makhachkala. "He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here."

He added, "They were set up, they were set up! I saw it on television; they killed my older son Tamerlan." He ended the call angrily, saying, "Leave me alone, my son's been killed."

Dzhokhar's page on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte says that before moving to the United States he attended School No. 1 in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia's North Caucasus that has become an epicenter of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from the region of Chechnya.

On the site, he describes himself as speaking Chechen as well as English and Russian. His world view is described as "Islam" and he says his personal goal is "career and money."

On Friday, those who knew him were stunned. A host of a Boston-based public radio program, Robin Young, posted on Twitter a photo of her nephew with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, their arms around each other, at their graduation.

"Heartbreaking pic," Young wrote.

Deana Beaulieu, a 20-year-old student at Bunker Hill Community College who lives two blocks away from the suspects' home, said she went to school with Dzhokhar and was friendly with his sister. She hadn't seen him since they graduated.

"He was just a quiet kid," Beaulieu said of Dzhokhar. She couldn't recall his ever expressing any political views. "I thought he was going to branch off to college, and now this is what he's done. ... I don't understand what the hell happened, what set him off like this."

Before moving to Dagestan, the Tsarnaev family lived in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia. Leila Alieva, who went to school with Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, remembers an educated family.

"Tamerlan was in the same year, but in a different class," Alieva said. "He was a very positive boy, a good student, a jock, a boxer."

She remembered Dzhokhar as a little boy and said the family also had two sisters. She described the family as "very educated, of middle income." They had relatives in the U.S. and left, she said.

"I can't believe they were involved in the explosions, because Tamerlan was a very positive guy, and they were not very Islamist," Alieva said. "They were Muslim but had a secular lifestyle."

According to the website spotcrime.com, Tamerlan was arrested for domestic violence in July 2009, after assaulting his girlfriend. That report could not be immediately confirmed.

He was an amateur boxer, listed as a competitor in a National Golden Gloves competition in 2009.

"I like the USA," Tamerlan was quoted as saying in The Sun of Lowell, Massachusetts in 2004. "America has a lot of jobs. That's something Russia doesn't have. You have a chance to make money here if you are willing to work."
 

20 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/world/2013/04/19/Shot-at-two-brothers-suspected-in-deadly-Boston-attacks.html
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Eight children among nine dead in Syria shelling

A shell fired by the Syrian army hit a pickup truck in the northwestern province of Idlib on Friday killing a woman and eight children. (AFP)

A shell fired by the Syrian army hit a pickup truck in the northwestern province of Idlib on Friday killing a woman and eight children, a watchdog said.

"A mother, her four children and four nephews were killed and their bodies torched" in the bombardment of the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

They were among at least 25 civilians who were killed in violence on Friday. Twenty-five rebels also died, according to the Britain-based watchdog and reported by AFP.
Meanwhile, gunmen killed a government official in a Damascus restaurant, Syrian state media and activists reported as regime troops and rebels fought fierce battles near the Lebanese border, killing 18 people in Syria's third largest city of Homs, AP reported.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government official, Ali Ballan, was gunned down late Thursday in Mazzeh, a western neighborhood of the Syrian capital. Ballan was head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria's relief agency, the Observatory said.

The state-run SANA news agency said "terrorists" opened fire on Ballan while he was dining at the restaurant, killing him instantly. The government refers to opposition fighters as terrorists, denying there is an insurgency against President Bashar Assad's regime.

Since Syria's crisis began two years ago, a number of government and security officials, as well as regime supporters, have been assassinated in the capital, Damascus, AP said.

Last month, a suicide bomber struck a mosque, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and outspoken Assad supporter, Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti.

20 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/20/-Eight-children-among-nine-dead-in-Syria-shelling.html
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Lawyer says U.S. soldier accused in Iraq killings reaches deal

Lawyer says U.S. soldier accused in Iraq killings reaches deal

Army Sergeant John Russell is accused of going on a shooting frenzy at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport in Iraq. (Photo courtesy: AP)

A U.S. soldier accused of shooting dead five fellow servicemen at a military counseling center in Iraq has struck a plea deal with Army prosecutors that would spare him from facing the death penalty, his lawyer said on Friday.

Army Sergeant John Russell is accused of going on a shooting frenzy at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 attack the military said at the time could have been triggered by combat stress.

"We have reached an agreement and both parties have entered into the agreement," his civilian attorney, James Culp, said.

He said Russell would plead guilty to five counts of intentional murder, one count of attempted murder, and one of assault at a hearing on Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State.

An Army spokesman declined to discuss the status of the case.

The prosecution, which has accused Russell of acting with premeditation, is likely to seek a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, Culp has previously said. He declined to say what punishment he would recommend or give details of the proceedings.

Even if the plea bargain is accepted by the presiding judge in the case, Army Colonel David Conn, under the military justice system Russell would still face a court-martial - with opening and closing statements, testimony from witnesses and the presentation of evidence - to decide the degree of his guilt.

The choice would then be between a verdict of premeditated murder and the lesser offense of intentional murder that Russell has agreed to plead guilty. His prison term would hinge on that finding. The death penalty would be off the table, as would a not-guilty verdict or insanity plea.

Mental state

Conn is set to question Russell on Monday in a proceeding known as a "providence inquiry" to determine whether the circumstances of the shooting support a guilty plea and that Russell believes he is guilty.

Conn will then decide whether Russell will be tried before a judge alone or a jury. Either way, a trial is still slated for May 6.

If the judge rejects the deal, then Russell would face a lengthier, full-fledged trial in which the determination of his guilt or innocence would be at stake, as well as the question of a death penalty if he were convicted of premeditated murder.

The state of Russell's mind has been the focus of legal proceedings over the past year and would remain a key factor in deciding whether he acted on impulse or with malice of forethought, as alleged by military prosecutors.

Defense attorneys have said Russell, who was attached to the54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, suffered a host of mental ailments after several combat tours and was suicidal prior to the attack.

An independent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff, has concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings. Sadoff suggested Russell was provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of mental health personnel he sought for treatment at Camp Liberty.

The case comes at a sensitive time at Lewis-McChord, one of the nation's largest military installations, which is also the home base of Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in March 2012. Bales is due to face a court martial in September.

20 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/-U-S-soldier-accused-in-Iraq-killings-reaches-deal-lawyer.html
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Boston investigators to carry out ‘controlled’ blast

Tactical vehicles full of law enforcement officers drive through the search area for Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the one remaining suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, in Watertown, Massachusetts April 19, 2013. (Reuters)

U.S. authorities said Friday they would carry out a "controlled explosion" before a search of a house that may have been used by the two Boston Marathon bomb suspects.

They also maintained a "stay indoors" order for hundreds of thousands of people in the region so the hunt by thousands of police can be extended and new leads pursued, officials said.

One suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police early Friday and his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is now on-the-run.

The ethnic Chechens who had been living in the United States for several years have been closely linked to the bombing Monday in which three people were killed and 180 injured.

State police colonel Timothy Alben told reporters the precautionary explosion would be carried out for the safety of law enforcement officials "before they proceed with a search" of a house.

Authorities ordered a lockdown across much of the Boston region and halted all public transport, including the main Boston-to-New York railway, to intensify the hunt.

The pursuit is now focused on Watertown and Cambridge, in the Boston suburbs, where the brothers lived.

"We are progressing through this neighborhood, going door-to-door, street-to-street. We are well over 60 or 70 percent of what we want to cover," the state police chief said.

"We've got several other new leads that just developed within the last few minutes and we're working on that," Alben added.

Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick said "the stay indoor request" would continue.

"There are continuing developments in the investigation," Patrick said, adding that it remained important for people to "keep the doors locked" because of the danger posed by the remaining suspect.

The Amtrak train company said its Acela Express and Northeast Regional service remains suspended indefinitely in the Boston area, following requests from authorities. Trains from the south are halting in New York.

20 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/04/19/-Boston-investigators-to-carry-out-controlled-blast.html
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Syria envoy Brahimi says “not resigning”, quashing rumors

Lakhdar Brahimi on Friday quashed rumors which claimed he was resigning from his post. (Al Arabiya)

The joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, on Friday quashed rumors which claimed he was resigning from his post, according to AP.

He told reporters after briefing the Security Council on Syria that he has not resigned, capping a week of widespread rumors and reports in the Arab world that he was quitting in frustration, or dumping his affiliation with the Arab League, which has officially recognized the Syrian opposition forces as the legitimate government.

Brahimi assumed the envoy role last year after former U.N. chief Kofi Annan quit in frustration.

On Wednesday diplomatic sources told Al Arabiya that Brahimi was thinking of stepping down and had informed the U.N. Secretary General and the head of the Arab League.

"The joint special representative feels that the Arab League approach makes it difficult for him to carry out his mandate," a diplomat said.

"He feels that it would be best to be associated only with the United Nations at this point to ensure his neutrality."

Another U.N. diplomat confirmed the remarks. There have been rumors circulating for weeks that Brahimi might resign, though diplomats said his preference was to remain involved in Syrian peace efforts through the United Nations, an organization he has worked with for decades.

20 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/Syria-envoy-Brahimi-says-not-resigning-quashing-rumors.html
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Fierce fighting in Syria, ministry official killed

Gunmen killed a government official in a Damascus restaurant, Syrian state media and activists reported Friday as regime troops and rebels fought fierce battles. (AFP)

Gunmen killed a government official in a Damascus restaurant, Syrian state media and activists reported Friday as regime troops and rebels fought fierce battles near the Lebanese border, killing 18 people in Syria's third largest city of Homs.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government official, Ali Ballan, was gunned down late Thursday in Mazzeh, a western neighborhood of the Syrian capital. Ballan was head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria's relief agency, the Observatory said.

The state-run SANA news agency said "terrorists" opened fire on Ballan while he was dining at the restaurant, killing him instantly. The government refers to opposition fighters as terrorists, denying there is an insurgency against President Bashar Assad's regime.

Since Syria's crisis began two years ago, a number of government and security officials, as well as regime supporters, have been assassinated in the capital, Damascus.

Last month, a suicide bomber struck a mosque, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and outspoken Assad supporter, Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti.

On July 18, a bomb inside a high-level crisis meeting killed top security officials, including the defense minister and his deputy, who was also Assad's brother-in-law, and wounded the interior minister. Rebels claimed responsibility for that blast.

Heavy fighting was reported near the contested town of Qusayr in the central Syrian province of Homs, along the Lebanese border. On Thursday, government forces captured a town in the province and rebels seized a military base in the area. Eighteen people were killed on Friday in the shelling of Deir Baalba district on the eastern edge of the city of Homs, the Observatory said.

The border region in Homs is strategic because it also links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect, a Shiite offshoot. The coast also is home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus. Assad's regime is dominated by his Alawites while the rebels are mostly from the country's Sunni majority.

On Thursday, government forces captured the town of Abel, cutting off the road between Homs and Qusayr, said Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman.

Abdul-Rahman said the regime appeared to be trying to conduct a siege on Qusayr. The town has seen clashes and anti-government protests since the early days of the crisis in Syria.

"The fighting is heavy and there are many deaths on both sides," Abdul-Rahman said.

For their part, the rebels on Thursday captured the Dabaa military complex in Homs after weeks of fighting with government forces. Dabaa is a former air force base that has an airfield, which hasn't been used since the fighting broke out more than two years ago.

The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said Syrian army warplanes bombarded the area around Qusayr on Friday.

Both activist groups also reported heavy clashes in Damascus's southern suburb of Daraya, which the regime has been trying to recapture for months. They also reported clashes in Aleppo, Idlib and Raqqa in the north and in the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad began.

In the country's east, there were reports of heavy fighting in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province, with clashes between government troops and rebels concentrated on the airport in the outskirts of the provincial capital. There were no immediate reports on the casualties in the fighting.

Abdul-Rahman said rebels were attacking an army base near the town of Busra al-Harir in Daraa. A video aired on Al Arabiya TV showed rebels using a multiple rocket launcher, reportedly during the attack on Daraa base.

SANA also reported late Thursday that government troops shot down an air balloon that carried what the agency described as "American cameras" over the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province. It did not elaborate.

Syria's crisis began with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far, according to the United Nations.

More than 5 million Syrians have fled their homes because of the relentless fighting, seeking shelter in neighboring countries or in other parts of Syria where the violence has temporarily subsided.

In the past few weeks, U.N.'s humanitarian agencies have warned that they were running low on resources and that without additional funds they would be forced to scale back relief efforts.

On Thursday, U.N.'s Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said children were starving to death in Syria and asked the Security Council to approve cross-border relief operations into Syria to deliver aid them and other civilians.

About half of the $1.5 billion needed to fund Syria's humanitarian needs through June has been collected, Amos said, noting a recent $300 million pledge from Kuwait.

Amos said 6.8 million Syrians were in need, with 4.25 million displaced within Syria and 1.3 million as refugees in neighboring countries.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, thanked Turkey for accepting Syrian refugees, and called on the international community to provide funds to help Jordan and Lebanon operate their refugee camps and cope with the stream of refugees.

The Security Council has been deadlocked for months on the Syrian war, and even the most modest attempts to end the bloodshed have failed.

Western and Arab nations blame the conflict on Assad's government. Russia insists on assigning equal blame for the suffering to the Syrian opposition and rebels fighting on the ground, and has cast vetoes, along with China, to block draft council resolutions.

Later Friday, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, was scheduled to brief the Security Council behind closed doors.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/-Fierce-fighting-in-Syria-ministry-official-killed.html
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France says to negotiate U.N. text on Western Sahara

France says to negotiate U.N. text on Western Sahara

French President Francois Hollande listens to Latvia's Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (unseen) after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, April 19, 2013. (Reuters)

France signaled on Friday it would push to modify a U.S. proposal to the United Nations to allow U.N. peacekeepers to monitor human rights in the disputed Western Sahara before deciding which way it would vote.

The dispute, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which says the Western Sahara is its territory, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which says it is an independent state.

Morocco and France, its former colonial master, have resisted the idea that the peacekeepers should report on rights abuses in Western Sahara, a sparsely populated tract of desert that has phosphates, fisheries and, potentially, oil and gas.

The U.S. draft resolution to the Security Council, designed to extend the mandate of the U.N. mission in Western Sahara for another year, was circulated this week to the so-called Group of Friends on Western Sahara, which includes the United States, France, Spain, Britain and Russia.

"It (modifying the text) is one of the possible options and the object of discussions taking place," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot told reporters. "We are not at the stage today to say whether we will vote for or against it."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that the conflict in Mali, where France deployed troops and air power to oust Islamist rebels, threatens to spill into Western Sahara, with the possibility of infiltration by foreign militants.

Paris may have decided to soften its position given the crisis in Mali. Indeed, President Francois Hollande, in a trip to Morocco at the start of the month, said the situation in the Sahel region meant that there was "greater urgency" to resolve the Western Sahara problem.

"Credible solution"


Paris, Morocco's traditional protector on the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, has previously vetoed resolutions on the issue, supporting Rabat unconditionally.

But diplomats said on Thursday that it was unlikely this time to use its veto to block the U.S. draft.

Lalliot said Paris' general position was unchanged.

"We believe that the status quo is in the interest of nobody and we have supported for a long-time a fair, lasting and mutually agreeable solution. We have always said we support the Moroccan autonomy plan, which is as a serious and credible solution," Lalliot said.

He said that given the reaction of Morocco, a temporary Security Council member, those who had put forward the text would need to evaluate how it could be modified to see how Rabat could approve it.

The U.S. resolution prompted Rabat to cancel planned joint U.S.-Moroccan military exercises in response. It has dispatched diplomats to all the countries negotiating the text in the hope of derailing or softening the resolution, officials said.

"This is endangering the whole region and the negotiation process," Moroccan government spokesman Mustapha Khalfi said.

The idea of making U.N. human rights monitoring one of the tasks of the U.N. peacekeeping mission for Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, is something Morocco opposes but rights groups and the Polisario have long advocated.

A vote on the resolution is due by the end of April.

The United Nations brokered a settlement in 1991 with the understanding that a referendum would be held on the fate of the region. The referendum never took place and attempts to reach a lasting deal since then have foundered.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/04/19/-France-says-to-negotiate-U-N-text-on-Western-Sahara.html
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Hamas in talks as Palestinian unity momentum builds

Leaders of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas met in Qatar on Friday amid renewed impetus for a unity government. (Reuters)

Leaders of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas met in Qatar on Friday amid renewed impetus for a unity government after the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a Palestinian official told AFP.

Newly re-elected Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal chaired the meeting in his base in exile in Qatar, which was also attended by Hamas leaders from Gaza including its Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.

Momentum has built for reconciliation between Hamas and the Fatah movement of president Mahmud Abbas since the resignation of Fayyad, a U.S.-trained economist whose appointment as premier was never recognized by the Islamists.

"The meeting began on Thursday and will continue until Saturday," the official said, requesting anonymity.

Hamas leaders will discuss "Palestinian reconciliation, developments in the Palestinian arena following Fayyad's resignation, as well as ways of pressing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners," the official said.

The Islamists never recognized Fayyad's appointment to replace Haniya after their seizure of Gaza in bloody street battles in 2007 that effectively divided the Palestinian territories in two, with Abbas's writ confined to the West Bank.

Friday's talks in Doha came after Abbas pledged at a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization late on Thursday to step up efforts for a unity government.

Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement in Cairo in 2011, pledging to set up a caretaker government of independents to pave the way for parliamentary and presidential elections within 12 months, but its implementation stalled over the government's make-up.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/-Hamas-in-talks-as-Palestinian-unity-momentum-builds.html
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Mortars, blast hit Iraqi mosques before vote

A policeman speaks on his walkie talkie at a polling centre in Baghdad April 19, 2013. (Reuters)

Mortar rounds targeted a Sunni Muslim mosque in Iraq and a bomb exploded inside a Shi'ite mosque on Friday in attacks that killed at least eight people a day before local elections.

Saturday's ballot will be a test of Iraq's political stability with the government mired in crisis over power-sharing among Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurds more than a year after the last U.S. troops left.

Police said mortar rounds landed outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in a village near Khalis town during Friday prayers, killing seven people and wounding a dozen more.

A bomb placed inside a Shi'ite mosque in Kirkuk, 170 km(100 miles) north of the capital, also killed one and wounded 12more just as worshippers were leaving, officials said.

Violence, suicide bombings and attacks have surged since the start of the year with a local al-Qaeda wing stepping up a campaign to trigger large-scale sectarian confrontation among Iraq's mix of Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims and Kurds.

A suicide bomber blew himself up on Thursday evening inside a Baghdad cafe in a mainly Sunni neighborhood, killing a least32 and wounding dozens more in one of the worst single attacks in the Iraqi capital this year.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/-Mortars-blast-hit-Iraqi-mosques-before-vote.html
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Abbas pledges unity government talks ‘in near future’

Mahmud Abbas promises to form a national unity cabinet. (Reuters)

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas pledged to launch talks "in the near future" on forming a national unity cabinet, following the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Abbas made the remarks late Thursday at a meeting of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was attended by Fayyad.

"We will hold consultations in the near future to form a government," said Abbas, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

The president has been pressed by members of his Fatah party to form a national unity government that would guarantee Palestinian national reconciliation with the rival Hamas movement.

Fayyad, who resigned on Saturday, was a bone of contention between Fatah, which dominates the West Bank, and the Islamist Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.

Hamas never recognized Fayyad's authority, continuing instead to recognize its own premier, Ismail Haniya.

"The president must hold consultations with Palestinian movements to form a national unity government and set a date for elections," Azzam al-Ahmed, a Fatah leader, told official Voice of Palestine radio on Monday.

The statement also called for the formation "as soon as possible of a national unity government comprising independent figures" in line with a 2011 reconciliation pact.

Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement in Cairo in 2011, pledging to set up an interim consensus government of independents that would pave the way for legislative and presidential elections within 12 months.

But implementation of the accord has stalled over the make-up of the interim government.

The executive committee said it "rejects any pretext used to undermine the launching of a serious process of national reconciliation" and urged Hamas to seize the moment.

Abbas is the chairman of the PLO, the Palestinian umbrella organization, which, in the eyes of the international community, is the sole body that purports to speak for all the Palestinian people.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/Abbas-pledges-unity-government-talks-in-near-future-.html
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Peacekeeper shot dead in attack on Darfur base

Sudanese refugees at the Djabal refugee camp in southern Chad near Gozbeida. (AFP)

A peacekeeper was shot dead Friday in an attack on an African Union-U.N. base in Darfur, the mission said, two days after the government announced it regained control of the area from rebels.

"In the early morning hours of 19 April, one peacekeeper of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was shot dead and two others injured in an attack by unidentified assailants on the mission's team site near Muhagiriya," the mission's spokeswoman Aicha Elbasri said in a statement.

A rare 10-day rebel occupation of Muhagiriya and Labado in southern Darfur ended on Wednesday when the Sudanese army announced it "liberated" the area but the insurgents said they withdrew in the face of massive force.

The Sudan Liberation Army's Minni Minnawi faction on April 6 began their occupation of the two communities strategically located about 100 kilometers east of the South Darfur state capital Nyala, one of Sudan's largest cities.

Darfur's insurgents normally stage hit-and-run attacks.

"Yes, we withdrew from Muhagiriya and Labado," said rebel spokesman Abdullah Moursal.

He said the government had sent two "huge" convoys of troops, one from the west and one from the east, and these were backed by air strikes.

The government had already regained control of Labado on Tuesday after fierce fighting which resulted in the deaths of four civilians and the wounding of six others, UNAMID said.

Thousands of civilians had sought shelter around peacekeepers' camps in the district since the initial fighting, and the UN had been calling for access to assist them.

Minnawi and other ethnic rebels in Sudan's far-western Darfur region rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003.

Rebel splinter factions signed a 2011 peace deal with the government but Minnawi and other major insurgent groups rejected the agreement.

While the worst of the violence has long passed, instability has been complicated by inter-Arab fighting, kidnappings, carjacking and other crimes, many suspected to be the work of government-linked militia and paramilitary groups.

Sudanese Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed said in statements published Thursday that Darfur is largely calm "except some looting operations carried out by the rebel movements" and attacks on commercial convoys.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/Peacekeeper-shot-dead-in-attack-on-Darfur-base.html
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Taliban attack kills 13 Afghan police

Taliban insurgents killed 13 local policemen while they were sleeping Friday, in an attack on their checkpoint in southeast Afghanistan, officials said.

The policemen were shot dead in the Andar district of Ghazni province, said district governor Mohammad Qasim Desiwal.

"They were asleep when their checkpoint came under attack by the Taliban and were killed by AK-47 fire," Desiwal told AFP.

Provincial governor Mosa Khan Akbarzada confirmed the death toll and said a delegation had been sent to the district to investigate.

The victims were members of the 18,000-strong Afghan Local Police, a village-level force formed in 2010 to provide security in areas where the better-trained national police and army are scarce.

Afghan troops and police are increasingly on the front line against the insurgents, and suffering heavier casualties, as NATO combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of next year.

The bodies of four Afghan regular soldiers were found Wednesday with their throats slit in Jawzjan, a day after they were kidnapped by the Taliban along the road to the Northern Province.

The Taliban have been waging an insurgency against the Afghan government since they were toppled from power by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Attacks traditionally intensify in spring after the harsh winter recedes.

A total of 23 people were killed Tuesday and Wednesday, including the four soldiers and two local employees of the Red Crescent medical charity.

Gherardo Pontrandolfi, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Kabul, said those killings would make it even harder to reach people in need.

"In many areas people cannot reach hospitals or clinics safely. And the end of winter is likely to bring renewed fighting, making the problem worse," Pontrandolfi said in a statement Thursday.

Separately, the interior ministry in Kabul said Friday that police have arrested five Taliban insurgents who were planning suicide attacks on civilians in the capital and in another city later this month.

The four men and one woman were detained in the eastern city of Jalalabad Thursday and police seized four suicide bomb vests and C-4 explosives along with other weapons, the ministry said.

"They were trained outside Afghanistan's borders and have confessed their crime," ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told a news conference.

He said the five Afghans were linked to the Taliban and the Haqqani network and were arrested "as they were preparing to launch a coordinated attack on civilian facilities on April 27-28" in Kabul and Jalalabad.

April 28, Victory Day, is a public holiday marking the mujahideen's overthrow in 1992 of the Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah.

The Haqqani network, a faction of the Taliban, was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a mujahideen leader against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s who is now based with his family in Pakistan.

Haqqani is close to Al-Qaeda and his fighters are active across east and southeastern Afghanistan and in Kabul.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/asia/2013/04/19/Taliban-attack-kills-13-Afghan-police-.html
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Jordanian Islamists reject U.S. troop deployment

Jordanian Islamists reject U.S. troop deployment

US soldiers prepare their gear during the Eager Lion joint military exercise near the Jordan–Saudi border, 260 km south of Amman. (AFP)

Jordan's Islamist opposition on Friday denounced the presence of US troops in the kingdom due to deteriorating security in neighboring Syria, urging a rethink of the deployment.

"The government must review its decision to authorize the deployment of foreign troops on Jordanian soil," the Islamic Action Front, political arm of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, said in a statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel revealed on Wednesday that some 150 U.S. military specialists have been deployed in Jordan since last year and that he had ordered a U.S. Army headquarters team to bolster the mission, bringing the total American presence to more than 200 troops.

"These personnel will continue to work alongside Jordanian Armed Forces to improve readiness and prepare for a number of scenarios," said Hagel.

The U.S. troops were deployed to Jordan to help secure chemical weapons amid fears they could fall into the hands of Islamist militants fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and prepare for a possible spillover from Syria.

Assad, whose regime has been battling rebels trying to oust him since March 2011, warned in an interview Wednesday with Syrian television that the war in his country could spread to Jordan which he said was allowing rebels free movement.

"The Islamic Action Front... categorically refuses the presence of foreign troops in Jordan," the statement said, stressing that Jordan's armed forces were capable of defending the nation.

Jordanian Information Minister Mohammad Momani told AFP on Wednesday that the U.S. deployment was "to boost the Jordanian armed forces in light of the deteriorating situation in Syria."

But the army denied this and said in a statement on Thursday: "The 200 U.S. troops have nothing to do with Syria's situation. They are the first of the groups that will take part of the annual Eager Lion military exercise, in which 15 countries are participating."

"The Jordan Armed Forces have the required capabilities to defend Jordan's borders, stability and security against any threat," it added, saying the drill will take place "in the coming weeks."

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/Jordanian-Islamists-reject-U-S-troop-deployment-.html
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U.S. man charged in Obama's letter case said to be troubled

U.S. man charged in Obama's letter case said to be troubled

Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, is charged with threatening President Barack Obama and others, according to a Thursday news release from the US department of justice. (AFP)

A man charged with sending ricin-laced letters to the president and other officials was described Thursday as a good father, a quiet neighbor and an entertainer who impersonated Elvis at parties. Other accounts show a man who spiraled into emotional turmoil trying to get attention for his claims of uncovering a conspiracy to sell body parts on the black market.

Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, wrote numerous Web posts over the past several years describing the event that he said "changed my life forever": the chance discovery of body parts and organs wrapped in plastic in small refrigerator at a hospital where he worked as a janitor more than a decade ago.

He tried to talk to officials and get the word out online, but he thought he was being railroaded by the government. Authorities say the efforts culminated in letters sent to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a judge in Mississippi. "Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die," the letters read, according to an FBI affidavit.

"He is bipolar, and the only thing I can say is he wasn't on his medicine," his ex-wife, Laura Curtis, told The Associated Press.

Jim Waide, an attorney for the Curtis family, said Paul Kevin Curtis was prescribed medication three years ago. "When he is on his medication, he is terrific, he's nice, he's functional," Waide said. "When he's off his medication, that's when there's a problem."

Waide represented Curtis in a lawsuit he filed in August 2000 against North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, where he had worked from 1998 until he was fired in 2000. Waide said he withdrew from the case because Curtis didn't trust him. The suit, claiming employment discrimination, was dismissed.

"He thought I was conspiring against him," Waide said. "He thinks everybody is out to get him."

Curtis made a brief court appearance Thursday, wearing shackles and a Johnny Cash T-shirt. Attorney Christi R. McCoy said he "maintains 100 percent" that he is innocent. He did not enter pleas to the two federal charges against him. He is due back in court Friday afternoon.

In several letters to U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, and other officials, Curtis said he was writing a novel about black-market body parts called "Missing Pieces."

Curtis also posted similar language on his Facebook page. The documents indicate Curtis had been distrustful of the government for years. In 2007, Curtis' ex-wife called police in Booneville to report that her husband was extremely delusional, anti-government and felt the government was spying on him with drones.

Laura Curtis said that she doesn't believe the allegations about her ex-husband. "He just likes to speak out," she said.

"What they say he did is so unlike him, it's unreal," she added. "Until I hear him say he did it, I would not, I could not believe it."

During their 10-year marriage, the couple lived in Booneville in north Mississippi. Curtis said she moved to a house next door after the split. Her ex-husband moved to Birmingham but eventually back to Mississippi, most recently the small town of Corinth, where he was arrested Wednesday. Laura Curtis said he would visit their four children - ages, 8, 16, 18 and 20 - almost every day. He recently bought his youngest child a bicycle

But others say Curtis' behavior was often erratic.

Tupelo attorney David Daniels said Curtis was in a show he helped organize about 10 years ago.

Daniels said was sitting in his vehicle one night after rehearsal when Curtis walked up. "He started beating on the windows and screaming and hollering," Daniels said. "I thought he was kidding, but he was serious. He was throwing a fit like I've never seen a grown man throw before."

Daniels said Curtis was holding a beer bottle and threatening him with it. Daniels said he pointed the pistol he kept in his car: "I told him, 'If you try to hit me with that bottle, Kevin, I'm going to shoot you.'"

But he said Curtis stayed by the vehicle for as long as 15 minutes. "He was screaming and ranting and raving about body parts being sold," Daniels said.

Daniels eventually filed simple assault charges and he said the judge who handled the case was Sadie Holland - one of the three people who received a letter suspected of containing ricin, according to authorities. Records show she sentenced Curtis to six months in the county jail.

Daniels was an assistant district attorney at the time. "He launched a smear campaign against me, saying I attacked him and tried to shoot him," Daniels said Thursday.

"It made my life miserable for almost two years, having to deal with this guy," he said.

On Thursday, North Mississippi Medical Center confirmed Curtis' employment and said in a statement he was not terminated in response to allegations about the facility.

Under the name Kevin Curtis, multiple online posts describe the conspiracy Curtis claimed to uncover when working there. The posts say the conspiracy began when he "discovered a refrigerator full of dismembered body parts & organs wrapped in plastic in the morgue of the largest non-metropolitan health care organization in the United States of America."

The hospital's statement says it works with an agency that specializes in harvesting organs and tissue from donors, and then immediately transports those organs for donation. The hospital says it does not receive payment for the donated organs.

In one post, Curtis said he sent letters to Wicker and other politicians.

"I never heard a word from anyone. I even ran into Roger Wicker several different times while performing at special banquets and fundraisers in northeast, Mississippi but he seemed very nervous while speaking with me and would make a fast exit to the door when I engaged in conversation ..."

Wicker said Thursday in Washington that he had met Curtis when he was working as Elvis at a party Wicker and his wife helped throw for an engaged couple about 10 years ago.

Wicker called him "quite entertaining" but said: "My impression is that since that time he's had mental issues and perhaps is not as stable as he was back then."

Early Thursday evening, the FBI said lab tests confirmed the presence of ricin in the letters mailed to Obama and Wicker.

At least a dozen armed officers wearing gas masks and hazardous-material suits went into Curtis' home Thursday evening in Corinth. There was no immediate word on what they found inside.

Police had blocked off the home with crime-scene tape since Wednesday's arrest. No neighbors have been evacuated.

Raymond Zilinskas, a chemical and biological weapons expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, called the process to make ricin elaborate. He said it would not be difficult to create a low-concentration version using instructions from the Internet, but a finer and more concentrated version would require laboratory equipment and expertise.

Laura Curtis said she doesn't think her ex-husband has the knowledge required to make ricin. She said he collects a monthly disability check, and she did not know where he would get ricin.

She said she cried when she heard about the arrest.

"It's more sinking in today, because you see the longer picture," Curtis said. "It's just me and the kids."

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/04/19/U-S-man-charged-in-letters-case-said-to-be-troubled-.html
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Gaza rockets hit southern Israel: police

The Gaza-Israel border has been largely quiet since November when an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended a deadly eight-day confrontation between the Jewish state and Hamas. (AFP)

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel overnight without causing casualties or damage, a police spokeswoman told AFP on Friday.

"Two rockets fell into uninhabited areas of the Eshkol region," said Louba Samri.

No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

The Gaza-Israel border has been largely quiet since November when an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended a deadly eight-day confrontation between the Jewish state and the Islamist movement Hamas ruling the territory.

But since late February, there have been more than four other cases of rocket fire on Israel, including ones claimed by hardline Salafist fighters to which Israel has responded with air strikes on Gaza.

On April 8 the Israeli army closed the Kerem Shalom goods crossing into the Gaza Strip, a day after a rocket was fired from the besieged enclave and hit an uninhabited area of Israel's southern Negev desert.

That attack came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry started a visit for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Two rockets fired on Wednesday at Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat were claimed by a Salafist group.

Israel said Wednesday's rockets, which caused no casualties, were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula but there was no confirmation from Cairo.

Rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel during a visit to the region by U.S. President Barack Obama in March.
 

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/04/19/Gaza-rockets-hit-southern-Israel-police-.html
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Egypt’s Islamist parties plan anti-judiciary rallies

Supporters of Egypt's president protest outside the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo. (AFP)

Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood announced plans to take part in mass rallies on Friday calling for a "purge" of the Egyptian judiciary, local media reported.

The High Court in downtown Cairo is expected to be the main venue of Friday rallies, reported Ahram Online. The Brotherhood, along with a number of Islamist parties, are demonstrating to demand "purging state institutions of corrupt figures, recovery of Egypt's stolen funds, and holding to account those responsible for the killing of protesters," the website said.

"The Egyptian people made their great Revolution to achieve justice and to at last hold the corrupt accountable. If the judiciary cannot achieve justice, if the honorable judges fail to exact retribution on the criminals who killed our sons, assaulted our daughters and plundered our money and resources, evidently justice suffers a great imbalance," said Murad Ali, media adviser to the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) on Wednesday.

The detention of activists and the recent court ruling to release former president Hosni Mubarak without bail in the killing of protesters during the revolution case -- (Mubarak remains in detention under a separate case) -- is thought to have influenced a number of political parties to protest on Friday.

Islamist groups planning to take part in the demonstration according to Ahram Online include Hazem Salah Abu Ismail's Al-Raya Party, the Salafist Front Al-Asala Party, Al-Watan Party, Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's Building and Development Party, the Reform Party and the People's Party.

The Salafist Al-Nour Party, considered to be the second largest Islamist group in the country after the Brotherhood, said it will not participate in Friday's rallies.

"We will not take part in the Friday demo for fear of ploys by the revolution's foes that aim to incite chaos, violence and vandalism," said Galal El-Morra, secretary-general of El-Nour Party, as quoted by Ahram Online.

El-Morra, however, stated that his party supports the demands the Brotherhood is calling for.

The April 6 Youth Movement, meanwhile, has shown no interest in participating in Friday's anti-judiciary protests.

The bloc, considered to be among the first youth movements who stood against Mubarak, said the protests are called for by a group that "jeopardizes the independence of judiciary and is using it to intimidate opponents," Ahram Online reported.

The National Salvation Front (NSF), Egypt's main opposition group, has also condemned the Brotherhood calls for anti-judiciary protests, saying the Islamist movement wants to "spread its influence throughout all branches of the state and undermine Egypt's 'respectable' judiciary," the website said.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/Egypt-s-Islamist-parties-plan-anti-Judiciary-rallies-.html
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MIT U.S. officer dead after suffering gunfire injuries

MIT U.S. officer dead after suffering gunfire injuries

Police secure an area near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, after a shooting incident involving a campus officer. (Photo courtesy: The Associated Press)

A police officer was killed after suffering 'life threatening' injuries dew to gunfire from an identified suspect early Friday at the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), officials reported.

The officer was responding to report of a disturbance Thursday night when he was shot multiple times, according to a statement from the Middlesex District Attorney's office and Cambridge police.

According to the Associated Press, the shooting took place about 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time outside an MIT building.

The officer, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead from his wounds.

AFP reported that the campus situation was 'extremely dangerous' and police warned students in an emergency alert on its website to stay indoors. It said one building on campus had been surrounded by police.

The U.S. media reported heavy police presence in the neighborhood, including officers with rifles and a search helicopter overhead.

According to its website, about 11,000 people attend the university.

The shooting came little more than three days after the twin bombings on the Boston Marathon that killed three people, wounded more than 180 others and led to an increase in security across the city.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/04/19/MIT-officer-dead-after-suffering-gunfire-wounds.html
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Pakistan court puts Musharraf under two-day house arrest

Pakistani police stand guard outside the residence of former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf after a court ordered for his arrest in Islamabad on April 18, 2013. (AFP)

A Pakistani court on Friday put ex-military leader Pervez Musharraf under house arrest for two days after he surrendered to a magistrate over charges related to his nine-year rule, officials said.

The Islamabad High Court had on Thursday ordered his arrest over his controversial decision to dismiss judges when he imposed emergency rule in 2007.

It was the latest humiliating blow for the retired general, in power from 1999 to 2008, who promised to "save" the troubled nation and contest the May 11 vote after returning from four years of self-imposed exile.

"General Musharraf has been sent on a two-day judicial remand and he will stay at his farmhouse," a spokesman for his All Pakistan Muslim League party told AFP.

An official at the magistrates court in Islamabad confirmed the order.

APML spokesman Muhammad Amjad said the magistrate had ordered Musharraf to appear before an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi after two days.

"Musharraf himself surrendered before the court Friday morning," Amjad said, denying media reports that he had been arrested prior to going to court.

Live TV footage showed Musharraf walking into the court wearing a traditional shalwar kamiz and waistcoat -- a departure from his normal preference for Western clothes -- surrounded by police and paramilitary.

His team said they would seek bail in the Supreme Court later Friday.

Musharraf is also accused of conspiracy to murder opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and over the death of a rebel leader during a 2006 military operation. He had been granted bail repeatedly since his homecoming on March 24.
 

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/asia/2013/04/19/Pakistan-court-puts-Musharraf-under-two-day-house-arrest-.html
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Egyptian court confirms controversial preacher’s jail term

An Egyptian court confirmed a previous one-year jail term ruling for preacher Abdullah Badr. (Al Arabiya)

An Egyptian court confirmed a previous one-year jail term ruling for preacher Abdullah Badr, the latest update in a controversial case which raised public interest.

Badr was previously sentenced for defaming actress Elham Shahin during his talk show on an Islamic television channel. He criticized the actress by saying: "Elham Shahin is cursed and she will never enter heaven."

The popular Egyptian Islamist preacher is known for unleashing fiery statements on the media. Earlier this month in an online video, he said he would kill the country's judges if he were president because they refused to shut down the television program of satirist Bassem Youssef.

Sheikh Abdullah Badr said the country's judges who are often accused by Islamists of being part of former President Hosni Mubarak's regime "lack conscience" and deserve to be killed.

Sheikh Badr attacked Egypt's liberal media, saying they are trying to spread Western culture and dismantle the country's social values.

Even Islamist President Mohammed Mursi wasn't immune from Sheikh Badr's criticism. The fiery Sheikh said President Mursi "wasted life and religion for us."

Mursi pledged to implement the Islamic Shariah law during his election campaign, but when in power the president found himself facing a daring liberal opposition and widespread social unrest that is threatening his rule.

Mursi's unrealized Shariah pledge has frustrated hardline Islamists who had hoped that an Islamist president would realize their dream Khalifat state.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/04/19/Egyptian-court-confirms-controversial-preacher-s-jail-term.html
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FBI releases images of 2 suspects involved in Boston bombings

The FBI appealed for help in finding two suspects involved in the U.S. city of Boston bombings. (Reuters)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States on Thursday released pictures of two suspects involved in the bombings in  Boston, Massachusetts.

The FBI has asked for public help in identifying the suspects and said the men were both armed and dangerous.

"Someone out there knows these individuals," FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers said at a news conference.
Earlier today, Barack Obama, the US president said those behind the blasts will be held "accountable", adding the U.S. will not "cower in fear".

Obama also called the bombers "small, stunted individuals" who were out to cause terror.

"Yes, we'll find you and, yes, you will find justice and we'll hold you accountable," he said on Thursday.

Two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 140.

The incident raised alarms that terrorists might have struck again in the United States.

19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/04/19/FBI-identifies-2-suspects-involved-in-Boston-bombings-.html
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