Ping your blog, website, or RSS feed for Free

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

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

خالد سعيد رحمة الله عليه

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

الرئيس الأمريكى باراك أوباما

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

الدكتور محمد البرادعى

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

الرئيس السابق حسنى مبارك

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

الخميس، مايو 02، 2013

Mali flies French Islamist’s family to Paris

Gilles Le Guen, 58, who goes by the name Abdel Jelil, was arrested by French forces near Timbuktu overnight Sunday and is being questioned in Mali's northeastern city of Gao. (Reuters)

The wife and children of a French Islamist arrested in northern Mali have been "evacuated" to Paris, Malian airport and security sources told AFP on Thursday.

Gilles Le Guen, 58, who goes by the name Abdel Jelil, was arrested by French forces near Timbuktu overnight Sunday and is being questioned in Mali's northeastern city of Gao.

"Shortly after the arrest of Gilles Le Guen, who was with his family, his wife and five children -- two girls and three boys -- were evacuated to Paris," the security source said.

Le Guen's wife, who is from the Maghreb region of northwest Africa, and the children boarded a plane to Paris from the Malian capital Bamako "in recent days", the source at the city's airport said.

"The trip was given the green light by French consular authorities," she told AFP.

Le Guen is to be transferred to Bamako on Thursday or Friday, the security source said.

The Frenchman is believed to have joined the North African militant organization Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) after moving to Mali with his family following previous stints living in Morocco and Mauritania.

In October, Le Guen appeared in Islamic dress with a gun at his side in a video on a Mauritanian website in which he warned France, the United States and the United Nations against military intervention in Mali to drive Islamists from the country's vast desert north.

France went on to launch and lead an operation in January to halt an advance by extremists on Bamako and drive them from Mali's northern cities.

Le Guen was held prisoner by AQIM for several days in November 2012 and some sources say the group believed he was a spy while others say AQIM picked him up after he intervened to stop Islamists from mistreating women.

His mother, who did not wish to be named, told AFP she did not think he had done "anything reprehensible."

"He was in contact with people who did reprehensible things, but he is good," added the mother.

She was "greatly surprised" to see her son in the video and told of his love for Africa and animals.

"He wanted to raise animals, goats and camels," she said.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/05/03/Mali-flies-French-Islamist-s-family-to-Paris-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Al Arabiya: No U.N. consensus on Jordan’s Syria proposal amid refugee influx

Al Arabiya: No U.N. consensus on Jordan's Syria proposal amid refugee influx

DAM10 - Damascus, -, SYRIA : TOPSHOTS A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on April 30, 2013, shows a Syrian man carrying an injured person following a blast in the Marjeh district of Damascus. (AFP)

Thirteen countries in the U.N. Security Council were in favor of Jordan's proposal that the council visit the refugee camps in the Hashemite kingdom, a top-level western diplomat told Al Arabiya's correspondent.

However, the source, who attended Thursday's close-door meeting, said that China and Russia – a strong ally of Damascus – were against it.

Instead, Russia's permanent representative to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, suggested a delegation from the Human Rights Council visit Jordan, Al Arabiya's correspondent reported.

Arabiya's reporter also said council members who agreed to Jordan's proposal suggested that Lebanon and Turkey be included in the mission, adding they were trying to convince Russia and China to agree to it.

All members of the Security Council have to be on board with Jordan's proposal or else it will not take place.

Jordan on Tuesday told the U.N. Security Council that the influx of Syrian refugees was a threat to its stability and suggested the council visit the camps.

Jordan faces a "crushing weight" if the refugee numbers, already over 500,000, keep growing at the current rate, said the ambassador, Prince Zeid al-Hussein, after a private meeting with Security Council envoys.

"From the perspective of the Jordanian government unless the support is forthcoming, then we consider this to be a threat to our future stability," Zeid said, adding that international help had been "insufficient."

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said there were more than 1.4 million Syrians in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan and that the figure increases by 200,000 every month.

The Jordanian ambassador also said on Tuesday that around 2,000 refugees cross the border into his country each night.

At least 70,000 people have died in the two-year conflict uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the U.N.
 

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Al-Arabiya-No-U-N-consensus-on-Jordan-s-Syria-proposal-amid-refugee-influx.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

British jailed for 10 years for selling fake bomb detectors

British businessman James McCormick arrives at the Old Bailey in central London May 2, 2013. (Reuters)

A British businessman was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years in jail for selling fake bomb detectors to the Iraqi government and other countries, by a judge who told him he had blood on his hands.

James McCormick made an estimated £50 million ($76 million, 59 million euros) from selling the devices, which prosecutors said were based on a novelty golf ball finder and did not work.

Last week, a jury at the Old Bailey court in London found the 57-year-old guilty of three counts of fraud.

Passing sentence at England's central criminal court on Thursday, judge Richard Hone said McCormick had perpetrated a "callous confidence trick" that likely cost lives -- an estimation shared by former British military officials in Iraq.

"I am wholly satisfied that your fraudulent conduct in selling so many useless devices for simply enormous profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent individuals," Hone said.

He said McCormick had shown a "cavalier disregard of the potentially fatal consequences" of his actions.

"What you perpetrated was a callous confidence trick," the judge told the businessman.

"The device was useless, the profit outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the highest category.

"Your profits were obscene. You have neither insight, shame or any sense of remorse."

The Advanced Selection Equipment devices were marketed to governments and security organizations in glossy brochures which claimed they could find explosives, drugs, ivory and even people.

McCormick, from Somerset in southwest England, is believed to have made around £37 million from sales to Iraq alone, where he sold 6,000 detectors.

The businessman told the court he had also sold detectors to the Egyptian army, Kenyan police, Hong Kong's prison service and Thai border control.

Other customers included Georgia, Niger, Belgium and United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon.

McCormick said one of his devices had been used to check a hotel in Romania before the visit of a U.S. president in the 1990s, and insisted: "I never had any negative results from customers."

However, the prosecutor told the jury that McCormick had based his designs on 300 "Golfinder" novelty machines that he bought from the United States between 2005 and 2006.

Colour-coded "sensor cards" -- orange for explosives, blue for drugs and red for humans -- were slotted into the machines to make them "work".

Prosecutors said that former senior British officers in Iraq believed the fake devices had cost lives.

"The inescapable conclusion is that devices have been detonated after passing through checkpoints. Iraqi civilians have died as a result," said Brigadier Simon Marriner in a statement.

However, McCormick's lawyers said other devices had also been used at checkpoints and there was no proof that his client's detectors had resulted in deaths.

Police said they were now focused on tracking down the businessman's assets so they could seize them.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/05/03/British-jailed-for-10-years-for-selling-fake-bomb-detectors-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Watchdog reports ‘massacre’ in Bayda, at least 50 dead

Residents inspect damage and rubble from a damaged building after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Raqqa province, east Syria May 2, 2013. (Reuters)

State forces and militias loyal to President Bashar al-Assad committed a "massacre" when they stormed Syria's coastal village of Bayda on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, killing at least 50 people including women and children, reuters reported.

The Observatory said the final toll was expected to exceed100 dead. Many of those killed appeared to be executed by gunfire or knives, it said, and other bodies were found burned.

Al Arabiya had learned after speaking to activists on the ground that there may have been up to 200 people who had been killed.

Earlier on Syria's state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed official who said regime forces "killed terrorists in Bayda and the village of Mirqab, as well as in the (Sunni) district of Ras al-Nabah," in the port of Banias, according to AFP.

The Syrian watchdog had earlier claimed that government troops and the shabiha (pro-government militiamen) had actually carried out "summary executions."

"The army has cut off all communications with the village and it is very difficult to get a precise toll," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Meanwhile, fierce clashes between troops and rebels were reported by AFP in a Sunni Muslim village in the Alawite-majority coastal region of Banias in northwestern Syria.

The Banias region is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and the sect of President Bashar al-Assad, but has several Sunni villages to the south.


 

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Watchdog-reports-massacre-in-Bayda-at-least-50-dead.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

U.S. calls for North Korea amnesty for sentenced American

U.S. calls for North Korea amnesty for sentenced American

An undated still image of a video footage released in Seoul by Yonhap News Agency on May 2, 2013, shows a portrait of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae. (Reuters)

The U.S. called Thursday for North Korea to grant amnesty and immediately release a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state.Kenneth Bae, 44, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009.

The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.Analysts say Bae's sentencing could be an effort by Pyongyang to win diplomatic concessions in the ongoing standoff over its nuclear program. But there was no immediate sign a high-profile envoy was about to make a clemency mission to the isolated nation which has taken an increasingly confrontational stance under its young leader Kim Jong Un.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. was still seeking to learn the facts of Bae's case. He said the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular matters there for the U.S., did not attend Tuesday's Supreme Court trial and that there hasn't been transparency in the legal proceedings.

"There's no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad, and we urge the DPRK authorities to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release," Ventrell told a news conference, referencing the socialist country's formal title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has faced increasing international criticism over its weapons development. Six-nation disarmament talks involving the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia fell apart in 2009. Several rounds of U.N. sanctions have not encouraged the North to give up its small cache of nuclear devices, which Pyongyang says it must not only keep but expand to protect itself from a hostile Washington. Tensions have escalated since it conducted its third nuclear test since 2006 in February.

Pyongyang's tone has softened somewhat recently, following weeks of violent rhetoric, including threats of nuclear war and missile strikes. There have been tentative signs of interest in diplomacy, and a major source of North Korean outrage - annual U.S.-South Korean military drills - ended Tuesday.

Patrick Cronin, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, called Bae's conviction "a hasty gambit to force a direct dialogue with the United States."

"While Washington will do everything possible to spare an innocent American from years of hard labor, U.S. officials are aware that in all likelihood the North Korean regime wants a meeting to demonstrate that the United States in effect confers legitimacy on the North's nuclear-weapon-state status," Cronin said in an email.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One en route to Mexico that if North Korea is interested in discussion, they should live up to their obligations under the six-party talks.

"Thus far, as you know, they have flouted their obligations, engaged in provocative actions and rhetoric that brings them no closer to a situation where they can improve the lot of the North Korean people or re-enter the community of nations," Carney said.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency announcement of Bae's sentencing came just days after it reported Saturday that authorities would soon indict and try him. It referred to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling for his Korean name. The State Department had appealed Monday for his release on humanitarian grounds.

Bae, from Lynnwood, Wash., was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, state media said. The exact nature of Bae's alleged crimes has not been revealed.

"Kenneth Bae had no access to a lawyer. It is not even known what he was charged with," the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. "Kenneth Bae should be released, unless he is charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offense and retried by a competent, independent and impartial court."

Ventrell said the Swedish embassy's most recent access to Bae was last Friday. It has only had a handful of brief opportunities to see him since he was arrested in early November, according to U.S. officials.

Friends and colleagues say Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans. Bae's mother in the United States did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday.

There are parallels to a case in 2009. After Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket and its second underground nuclear test that year, two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after sneaking across the border from China.

They later were pardoned on humanitarian grounds and released to Clinton, who met with then-leader Kim Jong Il. U.S.-North Korea talks came later that year.

In 2011, Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor for crossing illegally into the North from China.

On Thursday, Carter's press secretary, Deanna Congileo, said by email that the former president has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit.

Korean-American Eddie Jun was released in 2011 after Robert King, the U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights, traveled to Pyongyang. Jun had been detained for half a year over an unspecified crime.

Jun and Gomes are also devout Christians. While the North Korean Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.

U.N. and U.S. officials accuse North Korea of treating opponents brutally. Foreign nationals have told varying stories about their detentions in North Korea.

The two journalists sentenced to hard labor in 2009 stayed in a guest house instead of a labor camp due to medical concerns.

Ali Lameda, a member of Venezuela's Communist Party and a poet invited to the North in 1966 to work as a Spanish translator, said that he was detained in a damp, filthy cell without trial the following year after facing espionage allegations that he denied. He later spent six years in prison after a one-day trial, he said.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/05/02/U-S-calls-for-North-Korea-amnesty-for-sentenced-American.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Kenya convicts two Iranians of plotting attacks

Sayed Mousavi, left, and Ahmad Mohammed made several trips to Kenya's coast the week before being arrested. (AFP)

A Kenyan court on Thursday found two Iranian men guilty of possessing 15 kg of explosives and planning to carry out bombings in Kenyan cities last year.

Ahmad Mohammed and Sayed Mousavi were arrested in Nairobi last June. Kenyan Investigators said at the time it was unclear whether the pair had ties to al-Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia or were part of another network.

Israel's domestic intelligence service Shin Bet said at the end of last year Kenya had arrested "two senior [Iranian] Revolutionary Guard Corps operatives who were in the midst of preparing a terrorist attack on an Israeli target in Kenya".

The agency did not say whether the two Iranians it referred to were Mohammed or Mousavi. But on Thursday one Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters in Jerusalem they were thought to be the same.

"I must appreciate our Kenyan security personnel for detecting and taking swift action to stop the catastrophe and ensure our country was safe," Waweru Kiarie, Nairobi's chief magistrate, said after convicting the two men.

Kenya was hit by a spate of bombings and attacks last year, which the Nairobi government mostly blamed on the Somali al-Shabaab rebels its forces were hunting down inside Somalia.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/05/02/Kenya-convicts-two-Iranians-of-plotting-attacks.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Israel frees Palestinian former hunger-strikers

Palestinian protesters hold placards during a demonstration in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Issawi, outside Kaplan hospital in Rehovot near Tel Aviv April 22, 2013. (Reuters)

An Israeli military appeals court on Thursday ordered the release of two Palestinian prisoners held without trial since November, who had staged a three-month hunger strike, a prisoners' rights group said.

Sarahna Amani, a spokesman for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners' Club told AFP that Jaafar Ezzeddine and Tariq Qaadan would be freed on May 8.

The men ended a 90-day fast in February after being promised a hearing on their case.

Under what Israel calls "administrative detention" suspects can be imprisoned without trial by order of a military court. Such orders can be renewed indefinitely for six months at a time.

Israeli news Website NRG quoted Ezzeddine and Qaadan's lawyer as saying that their initial six-month term was due to expire on May 22 but they feared that it would be extended and therefore launched their protest fast and legal campaign.
 

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Israel-frees-Palestinian-former-hunger-strikers-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Sudan media says gold mine collapses, 60 trapped

A tub full of gold nuggets is shown at a gold mine in Sudan, 800 kilometres northeast of Khartoum. (AFP)

Sudan media is quoting an official in North Darfur as saying that a gold mine has collapsed in the province and 60 miners are thought to be trapped.

Attempts to reach officials on Thursday to confirm the collapse in the remote Saraf Umra locality were unsuccessful.

The area, south of the provincial capital of North Darfur, witnessed tribal violence earlier this year over mining rights.

Akhir Lahza daily and Al-Shorouq TV, which both have ties to the Sudanese government, quoted local commissioner Haroon al-Hussein as saying that rescue operations were underway following a mine shaft collapse the day before.

He said 60 people are believed trapped. That would be an unusually high number because less than a half dozen miners typically work in the traditional mining areas.
 

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/05/02/Sudan-media-says-gold-mine-collapses-60-trapped.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Hagel: U.S. rethinking arming Syrian rebels

Hagel: U.S. rethinking arming Syrian rebels

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming rebels fighting the Syrian government, AP repoted.

Hagel told a Pentagon news conference that the administration is considering a range of options. He said he personally has not decided whether it would be wise to provide weapons to the rebels, according to AP.

At the same news conference, British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said his government has not yet provided arms to the Syrian rebels - but would not rule it out.

On wednesday U.S. President Barack Obama was reportedly gearing up to send lethal weapons to the Syrian opposition, according to senior administration officials speaking to The Washington Post.

The officials said Obama was also tightening ties with allies seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the U.S. would be taking a "more aggressive" leadership role among the allies.

Obama is likely to make a final decision on the supply of arms to the opposition "within weeks," The Post reported, citing the unnamed officials.

On Monday, Obama spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, discussing chemical weapons use.

The report on Wednesday stated the U.S. administration "has launched an effort to convince Putin that the probable use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government … should lead him to reconsider his support of Assad."

In a conference on Tuesday, Obama warned against a rush to judgment on Syria's use of chemical arms, but said proof of their use would trigger a "rethink" of his reluctance to use military force.

As critics complain that he let Syria cross a U.S. "red line," Obama said Washington believed chemical weapons had been used in the country's vicious civil war but did not know exactly who had fired them.

"I've got to make sure I've got the facts. That's what the American people would expect."

"If I can establish in a way that not only the United States but also the international community feel confident in the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, then that is a game changer," he warned.

"By game changer, I mean we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us."

"There are options that are available to me that are on the shelf right now that we have not deployed, and that's a spectrum of options," Obama said, saying he had asked the Pentagon for plans, but did not divulge them.

"We're clearly on an upward trajectory," an unnamed U.S. senior official told the Washington Post. "We've moved over to assistance that has a direct military purpose."

The officials did not specify what U.S. equipment is under consideration, although the opposition fighters have specifically requested ¬antitank weapons and surface-to-air missiles, the Post reported.
 

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Hagel-U-S-rethinking-arming-Syrian-rebels.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Activist to be tried for insulting Egyptian president

This April 1, 2011 photo shows activist Ahmed Douma chanting slogans during a march to Tahrir Square demanding prosecution of members of former President Hosni Mubarak's regime in Cairo, Egypt. (Photo Courtesy: AP)

Prominent Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma was arrested and immediately referred to trial for allegedly insulting the country's president in a TV interview, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Douma is to stand trial on Sunday - less than a week after being arrested. He is the first prominent opposition activist to be tried on charges of insulting Islamist President Mohammed Mursi.

There have been a myriad of complaints levied against journalists and TV personalities, including well-known satirist Bassem Youssef, for insulting Mursi.

Rights groups say such charges restrict freedom of expression.

"The crime of insulting the president is vague and undefined," the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, one of Egypt's oldest such groups, said in a statement on Thursday. "Most criminal codes in the world have abolished such crime."

In Egypt, such a crime is punishable by up to three years in prison. A teacher in southern Egypt was sentenced to six years in prison in September for insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad and Mursi in comments posted on Facebook. A prominent TV presenter was acquitted on charges of insulting the president and spreading false information following an appeal.

Government prosecutor Mohammed el-Taneekhi said Douma was arrested Tuesday after a member of Mursi's party, the Muslim Brotherhood, in Tanta complained that Douma had called Mursi a "killer" and a "criminal."

In his comments, Douma, a prominent activist who was among those at the forefront of the 2011 uprising against longtime autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak, blamed Mursi for a violent security crackdown on protesters in the coastal city of Port Said that left 40 people dead. Douma, in his interview on Sada el-Balad private TV in February, also held Mursi responsible for an attack by Brotherhood members in December on a sit-in by anti-government protesters outside Mursi's office.

"He is a president that is lacking legitimacy after the first blood was shed in the streets during his reign," Douma said in the interview.

"He is ruling Egypt forcefully. ... I don't see a president ruling Egypt. I see someone called Mohammed Mursi, a criminal evading justice, who is hiding in the presidential palace," Douma said, prompting a co-guest, a pro-Mursi lawmaker, to leave the studio in protest.

"There must be respect for state symbols," lawmaker Leila Sami, said before leaving.

Douma, who is also a poet, has been a vocal critic of Mursi and his government since the president was elected last summer.

He was beaten up in March during a rally outside the Muslim Brotherhood's office by the group's guards for painting graffiti they deemed offensive. The incident prompted a major rally a few days later leading to the worst clashes between Mursi supporters and critics in months. Following these clashes, Douma was summoned for questioning on accusations of inciting violence, but he refused to turn himself in, questioning the legitimacy of the order by the prosecutor general. A court order recently annulled the presidential appointment of the chief prosecutor, a decision that he plans to appeal.

Douma also was imprisoned under the ousted regime of President Hosni Mubarak for criticizing the ex-president's policies and for illegally traveling to the Gaza Strip and blogging from there during an Israeli offensive.

Rawda Ahmed, a lawyer for the Arab Network for Human Rights Information which is part of Douma's defense team, said the activist was swiftly referred to trial before his lawyers had a chance to see the charges or find out where he was held. She said that instead of a customary bail, the prosecutors decided to keep Douma locked up until his trial "because he is causing them a big headache."

Ahmed said such court cases have been increasing, and were in part encouraged when the presidency itself filed such complaints against at least four journalists. The human rights network said in a recent report that the number of court cases and complaints involving charges of insulting the president during Mursi's 10 months in power is four times the number filed during Mubarak's entire rule of nearly 30 years.

Deputy prosecutor general Hassan Yassin told The Associated Press the complaint against Douma had been filed and investigated for a while, and that only after he was custody on Tuesday, did the prosecutors send it to trial. He noted that the presidency has dropped all its complaints against journalists accused of insulting the president.

At least one journalist, however, face trial in a case filed by citizens accusing them of insulting the president and spreading false information.

Mursi supporters say they find scathing criticism of Mursi offensive.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Activist-to-be-tried-for-insulting-Egyptian-president.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Fresh round of Iran nuclear talks in Istanbul may 15

Iran's Chief negotiator Saeed Jalili (R) and European Union Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton stand for a photograph before talks in Almaty April 5, 2013. (Reuters)

The EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton will meet chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Istanbul on May 15 in a fresh effort to defuse international concern over Tehran's disputed nuclear drive.

Ashton's office said "the talks are a follow-up to the last round of negotiations held in Almaty" on April 5 and 6 that failed to produce an accord.

The EU foreign policy chief represents the five permanent U.N. security council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany in the so-called P5+1 talks aimed at reaching a deal on Iran's nuclear program.

Ashton said after two days of talks in the Kazakh city that the positions were still "far apart".

World powers had offered some easing of the sanctions that have hurt Iran's economy in the past two years, in return for Tehran accepting limits on its nuclear program.

But Ashton said after that the world powers were still waiting to see "real engagement" from Iran over the proposal.

Iran insists on international recognition of what it says is its "right" to enrich uranium, a key component of the nuclear fuel cycle which can also be used to make the explosive core of an atomic bomb.

But the world powers insist on Tehran ending enrichment to high levels and verifiably suspending operations at the Fordo mountain bunker where such activity takes place before recognizing Iran's rights to less threatening nuclear activities.

Iran has reportedly been offered the right to deal in some precious metals and perform small financial transactions now prohibited by the international sanctions. Tehran says it is being asked too much for too little in return.

The P5+1 grouping is especially worried about Iran's enrichment to levels of up to 20 percent and wants the Islamic republic to ship out the part of its 20-percent enriched uranium not converted into powder for reactor fuel.

Iran denies it is developing the atomic bomb and argues that it requires a nuclear program solely for peaceful medical and energy needs.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Fresh-round-of-Iran-nuclear-talks-in-Istanbul-may-15-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Hamas arrests Salafists in Gaza

Palestinians sit around the grave of Haitham Al-Mes-hal, who relatives said belonged to a militant Jihadist Salafi organisation, after his burial at a cemetery in Gaza City April 30, 2013. (Reuters)

The Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers have arrested several radical Salafists, the Palestinian movement's interior ministry said on Thursday, two days after Israel carried out an air strike on a militant in the territory.

"The internal security apparatus has arrested fanatics calling themselves Salafists, for security and criminal reasons. There were no arrests made for ideological or political reasons," a ministry statement said.

"Four of those arrested were taken in on suspicion of stealing rockets belonging to Hamas, and two others for causing an unspecified explosion that resulted in "human and material damage," it added, without giving a total number.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council (MSC) Salafist group, one of whose members was killed in the air strike on Gaza City on Tuesday, said the jihadists were being detained for ideological reasons.

Salafists in Gaza -- who are considered more hardline than the Islamist Hamas -- have challenged the movement both over confrontations with Israel and the practice of Islamic rule, prompting it to crack down on their militant activities.

The MSC implicitly denied stealing any rockets.

Israel's air force targeted Haitham al-Mishal as he rode his motorcycle in western Gaza City on Tuesday, it said in a statement.

Israel said Mishal was involved in an April 17 rocket attack launched from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, adjoining Gaza, which struck the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat causing no casualties.

The MSC has claimed a number of rocket attacks in the past few months, all except that of April 17 being launched from the Gaza Strip.


 

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Hamas-arrests-Salafists-in-Gaza-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Watchdog: Fierce clashes in Syria’s Banias

A rocket launcher is pictured at al-Sahwa military base of the Syrian Army after it was captured by Free Syrian Army fighters, in Deraa in this March 9, 2013 file photo. (Reuters)

Fierce clashes between troops and rebels erupted on Thursday for the first time in a Sunni Muslim village in the Alawite-majority coastal region of Banias in northwestern Syria, a watchdog said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting broke out in the morning and killed at least seven soldiers, while the official SANA news agency reported that troops killed "terrorists" -- the regime's term for insurgents.

"Since this morning, the army and pro-regime forces have been besieging the village of Bayda at the southern entrance to the town of Banias," said the Britain-based Observatory.

"The village is the scene of fierce fighting between the army and rebel battalions -- the first of its kind in the Banias area," it said.

The watchdog, which relies on activists and medics on the ground for its information, gave a preliminary toll of "at least seven soldiers killed and 20 others wounded."

SANA, quoting an unnamed top official, said regime forces "killed terrorists in Bayda and the village of Mirqab, as well as in the (Sunni) district of Ras al-Nabah," in the port of Banias

According to the Observatory, the troops and the shabiha (pro-regime militiamen) carried out "summary executions" in Bayda, and warned of a new "massacre" in Syria.

"The army has cut off all communications with the village and it is very difficult to get a precise toll," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The Banias region is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and the sect of President Bashar al-Assad, but has several Sunni villages to the south.

In the south of the port city, where there is also a large Sunni population, "sustained gunfire coming from the army was heard, and the security services are out in the streets to terrify residents," the watchdog said.

Witnesses have seen "ambulances taking soldiers wounded in the fighting to Bayda," it added.

The Observatory said most young Sunnis left the Banias area after an army offensive in May 2011, two months after the start of the uprising against the Assad regime.

"They left because they were afraid of being arrested or forced to join the army," Abdel Rahman said.

Banias, along with Daraa in the south, the cradle of the uprising, saw some of the first demonstrations against the regime in March 2011.

The region's three main coastal cities of Banias, Latakia and Tartus and their surrounding areas form the "Alawite heartland" where analysts say Assad could seek refuge if his regime falls.


 

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Watchdog-Fierce-clashes-in-Syria-s-Banias.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

At least 18 dead in Saudi floods

The inability of Jeddah's infrastructure to drain off flood waters, as well as uncontrolled construction in and around the city, were blamed at the time for the high number of victims. (Al Arabiya)

At least 18 people have died and four are missing in Saudi Arabia after nearly a week of heavy rain that has triggered flash floods in the desert kingdom, the civil defense authorities said on Thursday.

People have drowned in several areas of the country, according to a statement quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The body of a man was recovered on Thursday in the Kowaiyia district.

Another body was found in the city of al-Baha, and transferred to King Fahd Hospital despite rising water levels.

Rescue teams evacuated six villages in the south-western Bisha province, after a sand dam at the valley of Tabala partially collapsed.

Authorities have been urging people to avoid valleys and plains flooded by heavy rainfall, which has continued since last Friday.

At least 250 rescue officers have been deployed, along with 15 divers, at the al-Aqiq dam.

The heavy rains have almost filled the dam, with around 20 centimeters left before it overflows.

Saudi Arabia has not experienced such a high volume of rainfall for 25 years.

Ten people were killed in 2011 when flooding swept through the western city of Jeddah, where 123 people also perished in floods in 2009.

The inability of Jeddah's infrastructure to drain off flood waters, as well as uncontrolled construction in and around the city, were blamed at the time for the high number of victims.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/At-least-18-dead-in-Saudi-floods-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Tunisia dean acquitted of veiled woman assault

Manouba University arts faculty dean Habib Kazdaghli, pictured in his office on May 2, 2013, outside Tunis. Kazdaghli, has been acquitted of slapping a veiled female student, in a case that has come to symbolize bristling tensions between Islamists and secularists. (AFP)

A Tunisian university dean accused of slapping a veiled female student was acquitted on Thursday, in a case that has come to symbolize bristling tensions between Islamists and secularists.

"Tunisian justice acquitted me," Habib Kazdaghli said, adding that his accuser and another female student on trial for having sacked his office at Manouba University, outside Tunis, had each been given suspended two-month jail sentences.

AFP obtained a copy of the verdicts, confirming that.

The women were convicted of attacking the property of another and of interfering with a public servant carrying out his duties.

Kazdaghli, dean of the humanities faculty, faced a possible five-year jail term if convicted of "violence committed by a public employee while performing his duties," in a trial that has gripped Tunisia for months.

"I am relieved that this story has ended; it's a relief for Tunisia, because the attempts to attack the modernity of the university have failed," he said.

The case dates back to March 2012, when Kazdaghli says two female students wearing the full face veil, or niqab, ransacked his office.

Manouba University, which has around 30,000 students, does not allow the niqab to be worn in class or during exams.

One of the women, who had been barred from the faculty for wearing the niqab in class, accused the dean of slapping her, charges he denied.

The case, whose verdict was repeatedly delayed, has been widely criticized by the teaching establishment, civil society groups and secular opposition parties, who accuse the Islamist-led government of seeking to Islamize society.

Dozens of Kazdaghli's supporters gathered at the faculty's meeting hall on Thursday afternoon to celebrate the dean's acquittal and debate the issue.

"We have won a battle but the war continues!" shouted one of the teachers to the assembly, which opened the meeting by singing the national anthem.

The humanities faculty witnessed regular confrontations in 2012 between secular supporters of the university ban, and Salafists, or ultra-orthodox Muslims, who backed the veiled young women.

The latter have argued that the right to practice their faith was at stake, and demand that religious freedom be respected.

The Islamist party Ennahda, which heads Tunisia's coalition government, wants to allow the niqab to be worn in universities, but no law has yet been passed permitting it and the universities retain the power to decide.

The niqab, a black full-face veil commonly worn in certain Gulf countries, has become increasingly prevalent in north Africa with the spread of Salafism.

Since the mass uprising that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, radical Islamists suppressed by the former dictator have become increasingly assertive in Tunisia.

03 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/05/02/Tunisia-dean-acquitted-of-veiled-woman-assault-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Turkish residents fear chemical weapons use in Syria

Wounded Syrian refugees who activists said were injured during shelling by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, lie in a hospital at Bab El-Hawa on the outskirts of Idlib, near the Syrian-Turkish border April 30, 2013. (Reuters)

Turks living near the Syrian border expressed concern on Thursday, as Turkey tested blood samples from injured Syrians to determine whether they had been victims of a chemical weapons attack.

The samples were sent to Turkey's forensic medicine institute after several Syrians presenting with breathing difficulties were brought to a Turkish hospital on Monday in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province along the Syrian border.

Turkish government officials told Reuters the necessary precautions were being taken, despite unconfirmed information on the use of chemical weapons.

But the head of a village district, Mehmet Ziya Kirk, said local people were becoming increasingly worried by the developments in neighboring Syria.

"There are rumors that chemical weapons have been used in this region because of the ongoing war in Syria. Nowadays, people are extremely concerned. They call me very often and ask questions about these rumors, they ask me if the Turkish state will be taking any precautionary measures and they ask me whether Turkish officials have been in touch with me. So far, I haven't received any information about these rumors but tensions have been high. Each time an ambulance drives by, people become concerned and distressed and begin asking how the patient inside was wounded or killed. They call me to ask whether it was a chemical weapons incident. Nowadays, I receive a lot of similar phone calls from residents," he said.

Fifty-four wounded Syrians were brought to Turkey for treatment after a Syrian air strike on the headquarters of a rebel brigade along the Turkish border killed at least five people, including children, and wounded dozens more on Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday said there was evidence that chemical weapons had been used during Syria's two year conflict, but that it was not yet known how the chemical weapons were used, when they were used and who used them.

A resident in Reyhanli, in Hatay province along the Syrian border, urged the Turkish government to take precautionary measures.

"We have heard that chemicals have been used. We are very concerned about this news, as residents of Hatay, Reyhanli, as we are close to the border. We call on the Turkish State and Government to step in," said Hakki Kurtkulak.

Washington has long said it views the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a "red line", but wary of the false intelligence that was used to justify the 2003 war in Iraq, it has said it wants proof before taking action.

Fighting in Syria, now entering its third year, has intensified in the last month with government forces attempting to roll back rebel advances. Some 70,000 people have now been killed in the civil war.

Each side has blamed the other for what they both said was a chemical attack in the city of Saraqeb in Idlib on Monday.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Turkish-residents-fear-chemical-weapons-use-in-Syria.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Jordanian workers protest in Amman

Jordanian workers protest in the capital, Amman, calling on the government to improve working conditions in the kingdom. (Reuters)

To commemorate the International Worker's day, independent trade unions organized a march in Amman on Thursday demanding more rights for Jordanian workers.

Almost one hundred protesters from 11 independent unions participated in the march, which was held the day after the international holiday due to the government's decision to postpone the holiday by one day, creating a three day weekend.

Sameer Bustami, Head of the Drivers Independent union, said the protest was to urge the government to safeguard the rights of Jordanian workers,
"Our march today is to convey our frustration at the lack of rights for workers, rights which are in the law and the constitution and are in accordance with international agreements. These rights are not implemented at all, and our march is to demand these legitimate rights," he said.

Bustami added that their two main requests are to provide all workers with social security and healthcare.

The issue of women in the workforce was also addressed by the protesters.

Samah Massanat, head of the country's Unemployment Association, said Jordanian women are taking a backseat in the workforce due to competition from foreign workers,
"The percentage of female employment in the private sector used to be at 13%, but now I believe this has dropped to two or three percent. This is a result of the competition imposed by refugee labor which entered easily into the country's workforce." said Massanat.

Jordan maintains an open border policy for Syrian refugees and currently hosts more than 400,000 Syrians, the majority of whom are living and working within local communities.

Additionally, according to the Jordanian Ministry of Labor, the number of Egyptian workers in Jordan is currently in the region of 400,000, only 177,000 of these hold work permits, the rest live and work in the country illegally.

For Jordanians like Ali Jazajzeh he says the government should do more to provide jobs for locals.

"I only demand one thing, if a person would like to become an official and represent me, don't allow migrant workers to come here and compete with my source of income, that is all I ask. I don't care who it is, my only concern is this, that no one from outside the country come in and compete with my livelihood. Here you will find Egyptians, Syrians, Iraqis, and more," said Jazajzeh.

The international workers' day is marked on May 1st in many countries around the world. It is a national holiday in more than 80 countries, including Jordan, and celebrated unofficially in many others.
 

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Jordanian-workers-protest-in-Amman.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Bill Gates: Charitable donations large and small

In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya, U.S. businessman Bill Gates discusses the importance of being "more creative" in helping the poor in developing countries.

The former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft, the world's largest personal-computer software company, shares his personal experience following his success and opportunities.

The philanthropist says he uses "innovation, new science [and] new vaccines" to help "the poorest in the world" through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He recently teamed up with several billionaires, donating $100 million to fight polio.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/technology/2013/05/02/Do-not-publish-Bill-Gates-Interview.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Al Arabiya Exclusive: Syria's peace envoy Brahimi to resign end of May

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to resign end of May, Al Arabiya correspondent reports. (AFP)

The U.N.-Arab league envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has informed U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi of his intention to resign with an immediate effect, reported Al Arabiya's correspondent.

However, two P5 countries – the U.S. and UK – have persuaded him to stay until end of the May, Talal Al-Haj, Al Arabiya's New York bureau chief, said.

"JSR (Joint Special Representative) Lakhdar Brahimi has resigned from his position effective the end of this month of May," Haj said. "Brahimi's resignation has not been officially conveyed to the U.N. Security Council, but the U.N. and LAS (League of Arab States) P5 are aware."

According to a well-informed U.N. source, Al Arabiya's correspondent said that one of the main reasons behind Brahimi's decision to resign were "conflicting strategies between the U.N. and LAS after the Doha summit."

"Brahimi's resignation is, contrary to the Yemen crisis, the continuous clear divisions at the U.N. Security Council on Syria," he added.

However, Haj said that there was a possibility Brahimi would be hired again at the end of May as a Special U.N. Advisor to Ban Ki-moon on Middle East affairs, which includes Syria.

"Brahimi could also be appointed as one envoy in a two man team of envoys for Syria. Brahimi represents the U.N. only and the other for LAS," Alhaj said.

Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, was appointed in place of former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on August 17 last year.

Like Annan before him, Brahimi has been increasingly frustrated at the failure of the major powers to agree to a plan on ways to end the two-year-old conflict, which has left more than 70,000 dead, according to the U.N..

Russia has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on Assad, while the United States, Britain and France have stepped up aid to opposition groups in recent months.

But the Arab League decision to recognize the opposition Syrian National Coalition as the legitimate government of Syria was the final straw for Brahimi, diplomats said, according to AFP.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Al-Arabiya-Exclusive-Syrian-envoy-Brahimi-to-resign-end-of-May.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Lebanese police arrest 2011 kidnapper of Estonians

Seven Estonians were freed in Lebanon in July 2011, almost four months after being abducted by armed men as they entered the country from Syria. (Reuters)

Lebanese security officials say they've arrested the man behind the 2011 kidnapping of seven Estonian tourists.

The officials said Thursday that Hussein Hojeiri was detained two days ago in the eastern Bekaa Valley. They say he confessed to carrying out the kidnapping, purportedly on the orders of an Iraqi al-Qaeda figure. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.

Hojeiri was the main kidnapper. Another suspect was arrested earlier in the case.

The Estonians were cycling in the Bekaa Valley when armed men wearing masks kidnapped them in March 2011. They were released nearly four months later.

The officials say Hojeiri was also involved in the recent kidnapping of Lebanese citizen Hussein Jaafar, whose abduction led to a wave of kidnappings between tribesmen in the valley.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Lebanese-police-arrest-2011-kidnapper-of-Estonians.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Tunisia hunting ‘armed groups’ near Algeria border

A security source said on Wednesday that troops clashed with around 50 armed jihadists in the Chaambi region. (AFP)

Tunisian security forces were on Thursday hunting two armed jihadist groups near the Algerian border, the interior ministry said, as the authorities battle an Islamist threat that has grown increasingly dangerous.

"There are two groups, one of about 15 to 20 people in Mount Chaambi... Another group is in the Kef region near the Algerian border," ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP.

"There are no [direct] clashes taking place. We are combing the region with guns," he added.

A security source said on Wednesday that troops clashed with around 50 armed jihadists in the Chaambi region, which is completely surrounded by the army, with the group comprising both Tunisians and Algerians.

A defense ministry source was unable to give more details about those targeted in the operation, or about the second group in the Kef region, around 100 kilometers to the north.

"I have no idea about their number. The Chaambi region is huge. We are in the process of trying to track them down. For the moment no one has been arrested," Colonel Mokhtar Ben Naceur told AFP.

Tunisian forces have been hunting for the group holed up in the mountainous western region since Monday. The authorities have described them only as "terrorists."

In the operation to flush them out, around 15 soldiers and members of the national guard have already been wounded, some seriously, by homemade landmines laid by the gunmen in parts of the border region.

Asked about cooperation with Algeria, the colonel said that Tunisia's neighbor was assisting but only at the level of intelligence-sharing.

"When there is concrete information, it is shared. There is no joint action on the ground," he said.

The defense ministry said on Wednesday that no direct fighting had taken place and that troops were demining the mountain with the help of "small arms and mortars." But the area covers around 100 square kilometers, 60 of which are forested.

Since the mass uprising that toppled Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, radical Islamists suppressed by the former dictator have become increasingly assertive and been blamed for a wave of deadly attacks across the country.

Members of the armed forces involved in the search have told media that the Mount Chaambi group is well-armed and organized, with some saying veteran Islamist militants who fought in northern Mali are among them.

The current government, led by the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, has fully recognized the jihadist threat facing Tunisia, warning that groups linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were infiltrating its borders.

But it has been strongly criticized by the opposition, who accuse Ennahda of failing to rein in Islamist militants, or facing up to the threat they pose too late, despite the security problems they have caused since the revolution.

The security forces are also growing increasingly frustrated, criticizing their lack of equipment, with up to 400 demonstrating outside the national assembly on Thursday to demand better resources.

"Citizens, wake up! Terrorism has invaded our country," they chanted.

The group being hunted in the Chaambi region was blamed for an attack on a border post in December that killed a member of the national guard, and interior ministry forces have been searching for the jihadists ever since.

The current stand-off is the worst of its kind since clashes in 2007 between the army and Islamists in Soliman, near Tunis, during Ben Ali's reign, in which a soldier, two policeman and 11 Islamists died.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/05/02/Tunisia-hunting-armed-groups-near-Algeria-border.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Seven wounded by Syrian fire at Turkish border, say officials

Five Turkish security officers and two civilians were wounded on Thursday after Syrians trying to cross over into Turkey randomly opened fired in a border buffer-zone, officials said. (AFP)

Five Turkish security officers and two civilians were wounded on Thursday after Syrians trying to cross over into Turkey randomly opened fired in a border buffer-zone, officials said.

"It started as a minor stone-and-stick clash when our security forces warned Syrians," who were trying to cross the common border in large numbers, said Abdulhakim Ayhan, mayor of the border town of Akcakale.

"One police officer is severely injured and the other six were mildly hurt," the mayor added.

The group believed to be smugglers clashed with the Turkish police at the buffer-zone, and the bullets fired by the Syrians ricocheted into the Turkish side, another Turkish official said on condition of anonymity.

Celalettin Guvenc, the governor of Sanliurfa province in the region, confirmed the injuries but said "we are still trying to identify the perpetrators," in remarks carried by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Turkey's tense ties with former ally Syria hit their lowest on October 3 when Syrian shells landed in the same town of Akcakale, killing five people.

That incident had triggered weeks of artillery attacks from both sides of the border, prompting Turkey to request in December that NATO deploy Patriot missile batteries along the volatile border as a deterrent measure.

Turkey, now vehemently opposed to Bashar al-Assad's regime, has backed the two-year-old revolt in Syria, and hosts almost 400,000 refugees as well as the exiled Syrian opposition and military leadership.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Seven-wounded-by-Syrian-fire-at-Turkish-border-say-officials.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Palestinian female halts Israeli arrest of a child

A video shows Israeli soldiers arresting two Palestinian children. (Al Arabiya)

Youths Against Settlements, a Palestinian non-partisan activist group based in Hebron, published a video clips depicting Israeli soldiers arresting Palestinian children.

In the video, a school principal is seen approaching the car holding the children, she opens the front passenger door and asks them to jump into the front seat in order to escape the vehicle. One of the children is shown exiting the car, he is taken up by a woman who carries him away.

Two army members spot the women and rush to stop her, however, they were unable to do so as they were blocked by nearby civilians.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Palestinian-female-halts-Israeli-arrest-of-a-child-.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Qaddafi’s son appears in court, case postponed

Saif al-Islam is also facing charges of attempting to escape prison and insulting Libya's new flag. (AFP)

The imprisoned son of Libya's slain dictator Moammar Qaddafi appeared in court on Thursday on charges of harming state security, but the judge adjourned his hearing until Sept. 19 to allow defense lawyers time to study the case.

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the ousted leader's longtime heir apparent, wore a sky blue safari suit and a pair of sandals. He remained standing throughout the 15-minute hearing in the western Libyan town of Zintan. He smiled at times.

It was his second court appearance since the case opened in January.

Saif al-Islam is also facing charges of attempting to escape prison and insulting Libya's new flag. The charges are linked to his June meeting with an International Criminal Court delegation accused of smuggling documents and a camera to him in his cell. The four-member team was detained by Zintan rebels but released after the ICC made an apology and pledged to investigate the incident.

The charges are separate from those by the International Criminal Court, which indicted Saif al-Islam for the murder and persecution of protesters in the uprising that ultimately toppled his father's regime in 2011.

According to filings by defense lawyers at the ICC, Saif al-Islam said he wants to be tried for alleged war crimes in the Netherlands, claiming that a trial in Libya would be tantamount to murder. "There will certainly be no justice in the case if the prosecution is based on evidence from torture," he said. "I am not afraid to die but if you execute me after such a trial you should just call it murder," he added.

Seif al-Islam, the most senior member of the Qaddafi regime to be captured by the rebels, is on trial in Zintan, the hometown of the rebels who captured him. The group was part of a larger force that seized the capital, Tripoli, in August 2011, ending more than 40 years of Qaddafi's rule. The Libyan leader was killed two months later while trying to escape rebel forces storming his hometown of Sirte.

On Thursday, Saif al-Islam told the court that he accepted Mohammed Abu-Bakr and Mabroukah Jomaah Ghenewah as his defense lawyers. The two requested that the proceedings be adjourned so they have time to study the case.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2013/05/02/Qaddafi-s-son-appears-in-court-case-postponed.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Israeli PM: Any Palestinian peace deal will go to referendum

Israel's prime minister says that if he reaches a peace deal with the Palestinians, he would hold a national referendum on any agreement. (Reuters)

Israel's prime minister says that if he reaches a peace deal with the Palestinians, he would hold a national referendum on any agreement.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen for more than four years, but the referendum issue has been debated in Israel recently.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he "would be interested" in a national vote if a deal is reached.

The issue is contentious. Opponents say a deal should be decided by elected legislators while supporters say a referendum would provide popular legitimacy.

Israel passed a law in 2010 that would require a two-thirds parliamentary majority or, failing that, a referendum on ceding the Golan Heights or east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their hoped-for state. Both areas were captured in 1967.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/02/Israeli-PM-any-Palestinian-peace-deal-will-go-to-referendum.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Kazakhstan says working with U.S. on Boston bomb probe

Kazakhstan says working with U.S. on Boston bomb probe

Kazakhstan says it is working with U.S. to reveal more information regarding the Boston bomb. (Al Arabiya)

Kazakhstan said on Thursday it condemned any form of terrorism and was cooperating with the United States after two of its citizens were charged with interfering with the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Students Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, both 19,were charged by U.S. authorities with conspiring to obstruct justice by hiding a backpack and fireworks they found in the dorm room of one of the suspected bombers.

They face up to five years in prison if found guilty.

A third man, a U.S. citizen, also 19, was charged with making false statements to investigators.

"Kazakhstan strongly condemns any form of terrorism," the Foreign Ministry said on its website. It said Astana was cooperating with U.S. law enforcement agencies on the case.

The ministry emphasized that Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were charged with destroying evidence and not with involvement in organizing the attack on the Boston Marathon on April 15 which killed three people and injured 264.

"Their guilt has not been proven and the investigation is ongoing," the ministry said.

U.S. court papers say three days after the blasts, the trio moved swiftly to cover up for their friend when the FBI released pictures of the suspected bombers, made a public plea for help locating them and conducted a day-long manhunt that left much of Boston on lockdown.

The students were described as college friends of surviving bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. At their initial court appearances on Wednesday, none of the three entered a plea.

After the proceeding, an attorney for Kadyrbayev, Robert Stahl, said: "Dias Kadyrbayev absolutely denies the charges. Hedid not know that this individual was involved in the bombing. His first inkling came much later."

Tsarnaev faces the possibility of execution if he is convicted of setting off the homemade pressure-cooker bombs in a crowd of tens of thousands of spectators at one of Boston's best-attended sporting events.

02 May, 2013


-
Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/05/02/Kazakhstan-says-working-with-U-S-on-Boston-bomb-probe.html
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

عداد الزوار


المتواجدين بالموقع الان

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More