Israeli ambassador calls Al-Sisi a "national hero for all Jews"
19 July 2013
The Israeli ambassador in Cairo has told a minister in the interim government that the people of Israel look upon General Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi as a "national hero". According to Israel Radio, the ambassador rang Agriculture Minister Ayman Abu-Hadid to congratulate him on his new post and said, "Al-Sisi is not a national hero for Egypt, but for all Jews in Israel and around the globe."
- See more at: http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/6617-israeli-ambassador-calls-al-sisi-a-qnational-hero-for-all-jewsq-#sthash.EwfADwqb.rPGNJMEX.dpuf
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
The Grand Scam: Spinning Egypt’s Military Coup » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
The Grand Scam: Spinning Egypt’s Military Coup » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
July 19-21, 2013
by ESAM AL-AMIN
Source:Counterpunch
July 19-21, 2013
by ESAM AL-AMIN
Source:Counterpunch
Every coup d’état in history begins with a military General announcing the overthrow and arrest of the country’s leader, the suspension of the constitution, and the dissolution of the legislature. If people resist, it turns bloody. Egypt is no exception.
As the dust settles and the fog over the events unfolding across Egypt dissipates, the political scene becomes much clearer. Regardless of how one dresses the situation on the ground, the political and ideological battle that has been raging for over a year between the Islamist parties and their liberal and secular counterparts was decided because of a single decisive factor: military intervention by Egypt’s generals on behalf of the latter.
As I argued before in several of my articles (as have others), there is no doubt that President Mohammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) committed political miscalculations and made numerous mistakes, especially by ignoring the demands of many of the revolutionary youth groups and abandoning their former opposition partners. They frequently behaved in a naïve and arrogant manner. But in any civilized and democratic society, the price of incompetence or narcissism is exacted politically at the ballot box.
read more:
Turkey's Erdogan slams world's 'double standards' on Egypt
Jul 19, 2013
By Jonathon Burch
Source:Reuters
By Jonathon Burch
Source:Reuters
(Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Western and Arab nations of "double standards" for failing to condemn the overthrow of former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, whose Muslim Brotherhood like Erdogan has Islamist roots.
Turkey has emerged as one of the fiercest international critics of what it has called an "unacceptable coup" after Egypt's powerful military shunted the country's elected leader from office earlier this month.
Although the United States has expressed concern at Mursi's removal and called for a swift return to democracy, as has the European Union, it has stopped short of calling it a coup, which might have led to sanctions.
Gulf Arab states, which see Egypt as a strategic ally against any threat from non-Arab Iran, celebrated his departure with palpable relief.
"Countries which embrace and care about democracy should not behave with double standards towards these kinds of events and should say something is wrong when it is wrong," Erdogan told Western, Arab and other ambassadors late on Thursday.
"Those who extol democracy when they meet with us, saying 'one must not compromise on democracy', we want to see their backbone," Erdogan told his guests at a dinner to break the Muslim Ramadan fast.
Erdogan asked why the world stayed silent over the at least 99 people who have died since Mursi was ousted, more than half of them when troops fired on Islamist protesters on July 8.
"Why aren't you speaking up? Come on, speak up against this. There's no point in being ambivalent," he told the diplomats seated around the room at party headquarters in Ankara.
"If you are not going to speak up here, where are you going you to speak?"
REGIONAL INFLUENCE
Erdogan was feted by adoring crowds in Arab capitals only two years ago when Turkey seemed set to expand its trade and influence across the region on the back of his support for the protesters of the Arab Spring.
Egyptians hailed the Turkish leader as a hero on Tahrir Square in 2011, when he was among the first world leaders to tell Hosni Mubarak his time was up.
But Erdogan's popularity at home and in the region took a dent after a crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests last month in which five people died and thousands were injured.
Egypt's new interim government has warned Ankara not to meddle in its internal affairs and last week summoned Turkey's ambassador to Cairo. Egypt's ambassador in Ankara was not present at Thursday's dinner.
Turkey's response to Egypt is at least partly shaped by its own history of having experienced three military coups since 1960, and the removal of its first Islamist government in 1997, events which Erdogan referred to in his speech.
It is a history not lost on Mursi's supporters.
"Because it has a history of coups, Turkey understands us better and does not want us to go through the same suffering that it has gone through," Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, a former MP from Mursi's Freedom & Justice Party, told Reuters this week.
"Erdogan is still a hero in Egypt and in the rest of the Arab world ... If Erdogan ran for election in Egypt he would most likely win the presidency."
(Additional reporting by Ayla Yackley; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Sonya Hepinstall)
French police, youths clash after veil incident
1 hour ago
NICOLAS GARRIGA and ANGELA CHARLTON
AP
Source:Yahoo News
NICOLAS GARRIGA and ANGELA CHARLTON
AP
Source:Yahoo News
TRAPPES, France (AP) — About 250 people hurling projectiles clashed with police firing tear gas west of Paris, in apparent protest over enforcement of France's ban on Islamic face veils. Five people were injured and six detained in the violence, authorities said Saturday.
The interior minister urged calm and dialogue, insisting on both the need for public order and respect for France's Muslims. The incident in the town of Trappes on Friday night reflected sporadic tensions between police upholding France's strict policies of secularism and those who accuse authorities of discriminating against France's No. 2 religion.
A few garbage dumpsters in the area were torched and a bus shelter shattered in the Trappes unrest. Spent tear gas capsules lay on the road Saturday near the police station at the center of the violence.
A 14-year-old boy suffered a serious eye injury in the violence, from a projectile of unknown provenance, Prosecutor Vincent Lesclous told reporters. Four police officers were injured and six people were detained in the violence, said an official with the regional police administration.
The violence came after a gathering of about 200-250 people to protest the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed Thursday for wearing a face veil. The husband tried to strangle an officer who was doing the ticketing, the prosecutor said.
France has barred face veils since 2011. Proponents of the ban — which enjoyed wide public support across the political spectrum — argue the veil oppresses women and contradicts France's principles of secularism, which are enshrined in the constitution. In addition to small fines or citizenship classes for women wearing veils, the law includes a hefty 30,000 euro ($39,370) fine for anyone who forces a woman to wear one.
The law affects only a very small proportion of France's millions of Muslims who wear the niqab, with a slit for the eyes, or the burqa, with a mesh screen for the eyes. But some Muslim groups argue the law stigmatizes moderate Muslims, too. France also bans headscarves in schools and public buildings.
The Collective Against Islamophobia in France urged Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who recently joined Muslim leaders in a fast-breaking sundown feast for holy month of Ramadan, to crack down on insults and attacks against Muslims.
Valls urged calm after the Trappes violence, and pledged to stand against "all those who attack Muslim buildings or our compatriots of Muslim faith."
But he also came down firmly against those who attack police.
"There is no valid reason for the violence seen in Trappes," he told reporters in the southern city of Marseille, which has seen a wave of urban unrest. "The law should be applied, and applies to everyone."
The CCIF said in a statement that it was contacted by the veiled woman ticketed in Trappes on Thursday, and that she said the police officer yanked her by the veil and pushed her mother.
Police argue they are doing their jobs and that veiled women are breaking a well-known law.
Trappes is deploying extra riot police Saturday night to try to head off any new violence.
Trappes was among many towns around France that saw rioting in 2005 by disillusioned youth in neglected housing projects, many with origins in former French colonies in North and West Africa.
Valls acknowledged the "difficulty our fellow citizens have living in these working class neighborhoods, especially young people. What they need is jobs, hope, training."
"Only in dialogue can we find the solutions to the problems of our society, of joblessness, the sentiment of discrimination and exclusion," he urged.
"Violence leads to nothing."
___
Syria war widens rift between Shi'ite clergy in Iraq, Iran
30 minutes ago
By Suadad al-Salhy | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
By Suadad al-Salhy | Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - The civil war in Syria is widening a rift between top Shi'ite Muslim clergy in Iraq and Iran who have taken opposing stands on whether or not to send followers into combat on President Bashar al-Assad's side.
Competition for leadership of the Shi'ite community has intensified since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein, empowering majority Shi'ites through the ballot box and restoring the Iraqi holy city of Najaf to prominence.
In Iran's holy city of Qom, senior Shi'ite clerics, or Marjiiya, have issued fatwas (edicts) enjoining their followers to fight in Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are fighting to overthrow Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam.
Shi'ite militant leaders fighting in Syria and those in charge of recruitment in Iraq say the number of volunteers has increased significantly since the fatwas were pronounced.
Tehran, Assad's staunchest defender in the region, has drawn on other Shi'ite allies, including Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
Hezbollah's open intervention earlier this year hardened the sectarian tone of a conflict that grew out of a peaceful street uprising against four decades of Assad family rule, and shifted the battlefield tide in the Syrian government's favor.
The Syrian war has polarized Sunnis and Shi'ites across the Middle East - but has also spotlighted divisions within each of Islam's two main denominations, putting Qom and Najaf at odds and complicating intra-Shi'ite relations in Iraq.
In Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who commands unswerving loyalty from most Iraqi Shi'ites and many more worldwide, has refused to sanction fighting in a war he views as political rather than religious.
Despite Sistani's stance, some of Iraq's most influential Shi'ite political parties and militia, who swear allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have answered his call to arms and sent their disciples into battle in Syria.
"Those who went to fight in Syria are disobedient," said a senior Shi'ite cleric who runs the office of one of the top four Marjiya in Najaf.
"SHI'ITE CRESCENT"
The split is rooted in a fundamental difference of opinion over the nature and scope of clerical authority.
Najaf Marjiiya see the role of the cleric in public affairs as limited, whereas in Iran, the cleric is the Supreme Leader and holds ultimate spiritual and political authority in the "Velayet e-Faqih" system ("guardianship of the jurist").
"The tension between the two Marjiiya already existed a long time ago, but now it has an impact on the Iraqi position towards the Syria crisis," a senior Shi'ite cleric with links to Marjiiya in Najaf said on condition of anonymity.
"If both Marjiiya had a unified position (toward Syria), we would witness a position of (Iraqi) government support for the Syrian regime".
The Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad says it takes no sides in the civil war, but the flow of Iraqi militiamen across the border into Syria has compromised that official position.
Khamenei and his faithful in Iraq and Iran regard Syria as a important link in a "Shi'ite Crescent" stretching from Tehran to Beirut through Baghdad and Damascus, according to senior clerics and politicians.
Answering a question posted on his website by one of his followers regarding the legitimacy of fighting in Syria, senior Iraq Shi'ite cleric Kadhim al-Haeari, who is based in Iran, described fighting in Syria as a "duty" to defend Islam.
Militants say that around 50 Iraqi Shi'ites fly to Damascus every week to fight, often alongside Assad's troops, or to protect the Sayyida Zeinab shrine on the outskirts of the capital, an especially sacred place for Shi'ites.
"I am following my Marjiiya. My spiritual leader has said fighting in Syria is a legitimate duty. I do not pay attention to what others say," said Ali, a former Mehdi army militant who was packing his bag to travel from Iraq to Syria.
"No one has the right to stop me. I am defending my religion, my Imam's daughter Sayyida Zeinab's shrine."
A high-ranking Shi'ite cleric who runs the office of one of the four top Marjiiya in Najaf said the protection of Shi'ite shrines in Syria was used as a pretext by Iran to galvanize Shi'ites into action.
"SHI'ITE PROJECT"
In the 10 years since Saddam's fall, Iran's influence in Iraq has grown and it has sought to gain a foothold in Najaf in particular.
Senior Iranian clerics have opened offices in Najaf, as well as non-governmental organizations, charities and cultural institutions, most of which are funded directly by Marjiiya in Iran, or the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, local officials said.
The Iranian flag flies over a two-storey building in an upscale neighborhood of Najaf, which houses the "Imam Khomeini Institution", named after the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The Imam Khomeini Institution is one of many Iranian entities that have engaged in social activities in Iraq, focusing on young men, helping them get married, and paying regular stipends to widows, orphans and students of religion.
Some institutions also support young clerics and fund free trips for university students to visit Shi'ite shrines in Iran, including a formal visit to Khamenei's office in Tehran, Shi'ite politicians with knowledge of the activities say.
"We have a big project in Iraq aimed at spreading the principles of Velayet e-Faqih and the young are our target," a high-ranking Shi'ite leader who works under Khamenei's auspices said on condition of anonymity.
"We are not looking to establish an Islamic State in Iraq, but at least we want to create revolutionary entities that would be ready to fight to save the Shi'ite project".
(Editing by Isabel Coles and Mark Heinrich)
UK ARMY CHIEF: Invading Syria Would Be The Only Way To Topple Assad
21 hours ago
By Michael Kelley | Business Insider
Source: Yahoo Finance
The outgoing head of the British Army said the West would have to invade Syria if it wanted topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad .
By Michael Kelley | Business Insider
Source: Yahoo Finance
The outgoing head of the British Army said the West would have to invade Syria if it wanted topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad .
“You have to be able, as we did successfully in Libya, to hit ground targets," General David Richards told The Telegraph. "If you want to have the material effect that people seek [i.e. Assad's ouster] ... you would be going to war if that is what you want to do.”
Britain's most senior military officer explained that the West would need to destroy the Syrian government’s air defenses, tanks, and armored personnel carriers.
The general's comments came the same day his U.S. counterpart, U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey, told a Senate committee that the Obama administration is considering the use of military force in Syria.
The four star general, who is America's top military officer, said that he provided President Barack Obama with options for the use of force in Syria, including "kinetic strikes," and that the issue "is under deliberation inside of our agencies of government."
"Senator, I am in favor of building a moderate opposition and supporting it," he said . " The question whether to support it with direct kinetic strikes ... is a decision for our elected officials, not for the senior military leader of the nation. "
Thus the West is at a crossroads when it comes to Syria. Britain has abandoned plans to arm Syrian rebels, noting that it won't make a significant impact on the outcome, and similar plans have stalled in the U.S.
“That is rightly a huge and important decision," UK Army chief Richards said. "There are many arguments for doing so but there are many arguments for not doing so too.”
In March Dempsey implied military force would be a bad idea: "I don't think at this point I can see a military option that would create an understandable outcome. And until I do, it would be my advice to proceed cautiously."
U.S. military options range from one-off missile strikes on infrastructure linked to chemical weapons, to funneling more weapons to rebels, to carving out no-fly zones , and even as far as putting 20,000 U.S. troops in Jordan for a ground invasion.
Islamist backers of Egypt's ousted president march
20 hours ago
By:Aya Batrawy
AP
Source: Yahoo News
By:Aya Batrawy
AP
Source: Yahoo News
CAIRO (AP) — Several thousand protesters demonstrated in cities across Egypt on Friday in the latest show of strength by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi against the military, which deposed him more than two weeks ago.
Waving Egyptian flags and holding up pictures of Morsi, marching protesters chanted slogans against the move by army chief Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood mobilized the marches under the banner, "Breaking the Coup."
Protesters in Cairo converged in front of a mosque in eastern Cairo, where thousands have been holding a sit-in since Morsi was removed.
At least 400 protesters marched through northern Sinai Peninsula's main city of el-Arish. The military dropped flyers urging people to act protect their land and Sinai from "terrorists."
The lawless part of northern Sinai has been the scene of attacks by Islamist militants against Egyptian security forces and police for two years. The pace of the violence has picked up since Morsi's overthrow. To combat the wave, Egypt has beefed up its forces there with the agreement of neighboring Israel, which is also concerned about the growing strength of militants there.
Despite sweltering heat, pro-Morsi supporters also took to the streets in the northern coastal city of Alexandria and several Nile Delta cities.
The Friday rallies coincide with the 10th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which Egyptians celebrate as the day their armed forces crossed the Suez Canal in the 1973 war with Israel. Fighter jets flew overhead in Cairo to mark the day with an air show.
Youth activists who launched the mass protests that led to Morsi's ouster by the military are planning a demonstration in Cairo's Tahrir Square to also mark the 10th day of Ramadan, raising fears of clashes in the capital.
Though the two main protest sites will be several kilometers (miles) apart in the city of 18 million, marches by either side could spark violence.
About 60 people have been killed in clashes with security and local residents that erupted out of demonstrations since Morsi's ouster. Most of them were killed in a single clash outside a Republican Guard base in Cairo between Brotherhood supporters and the military.
The military replaced Morsi with interim President Adly Mansour, who pledged Thursday in a pre-recorded televised message to protect his country against those who seek chaos and violence in the aftermath of Morsi's toppling.
Also Thursday, the military warned it would act swiftly to prevent violence.
Kurdish group battles extremist rebels in Syria
19 hours ago
Bassem Mroue
AP
Source: Yahoo News
Bassem Mroue
AP
Source: Yahoo News
BEIRUT (AP) — Pro-government Kurdish fighters and al-Qaida-linked rebels fought fierce battles Friday in northeastern Syria, the latest in clashes that have killed more than 40 on both sides this week, activists said.
The Kurdish forces, which back Syrian President Bashar Assad, have battled rebels from radical Islamic groups in the northeastern province of Hassakeh and the northern region of Aleppo for months now.
Fighting broke out again on Tuesday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The group, which has a network of activists on the ground, said the dead since Tuesday included 15 Kurdish fighters of the pro-government Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD. It said 28 al-Qaida-linked fighters from the Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have also died.
The Kurdish militiamen captured the oil-rich area of Suweidiyeh and also the town of Ras al-Ayn near the border with Turkey, the Observatory said. It added that Friday's fighting focused mostly on towns and villages near Ras al-Ayn.
Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, make up more than 10 percent of the country's 23 million people and have seen their loyalties split in the civil war between pro- and anti-Assad groups. The minority is centered in the poor northeastern regions of Hassakeh and Qamishli, wedged in between the borders of Turkey and Iraq. The capital, Damascus, and Syria's largest city, Aleppo, also have several predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods.
In other developments, authorities in Damascus complied with a rebel demand and released several women prisoners, Lebanese officials said Friday.
The release was expected to set the stage for the freeing of several Lebanese Shiite pilgrims held by Syrian rebels since they were abducted in May 2012.
Lebanese security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the women were released on Thursday. The Observatory said 23 women were freed, though there was no confirmation from Damascus.
It was unclear when or why the women were detained. There are tens of thousands of prisoners in Syrian jails, including many political prisoners and Assad opponents.
Lebanese officials have been shuttling between Syria and Turkey to try to mediate the pilgrims' release. In January, rebels freed 48 Iranians in exchange for more than 2,000 prisoners held by Syrian authorities.
More than 93,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict started in March 2011 as largely peaceful protests against Assad's rule. The crisis escalated into a civil war after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.
Also Friday, Lebanese military prosecutors filed charges against six members of the Nusra Front, accusing them of having weapons and explosive devices with the aim of "carrying out terrorist attacks" in Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency said. If convicted, they could face the death sentence, the report said.
Syria's civil war has spilled over to Lebanon on several occasions in the past months, killing scores. Many Lebanese Sunnis support the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad, while Shiites generally back Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
Mursi supporters rally in Egypt, army shows muscle
7 hours ago
By Ulf Laessing and Yasmine Saleh
Reuters
Source:Yahoo News
By Ulf Laessing and Yasmine Saleh
Reuters
Source:Yahoo News
CAIRO (Reuters) - Three Egyptians were killed during clashes between supporters and opponents of deposed President Mohamed Mursi late on Friday, after thousands rallied in Egyptian cities demanding the reinstatement of the Islamist leader.
Two women and a 13-year-old boy were killed and eight others were injured, including one in critical condition, in the clashes that erupted in the Nile Delta town of Mansoura, Health Ministry official Saed Zaghloul told Reuters.
At least 99 people have died in violence since Mursi's removal by the army on July 3, more than half of them when troops fired on Islamist protesters outside a Cairo barracks on July 8. Seven people died earlier this week in clashes between opposing camps.
But the Egyptian armed forces, which shunted the country's first freely elected president from office, looked in no mood to make concessions, putting on a show of force in the hazy skies above Cairo.
Eight fighter jets screamed over the city in the morning and afternoon, while two formations of helicopters, some trailing the Egyptian flag, hummed over the rooftops.
Early on Saturday, army helicopters were seen dropping Egyptian flags on thousands of Mursi's opponents gathering in Cairo's central Tahrir Square.
Waving their own Egyptian flags, along with portraits of the bearded Mursi, members of the Muslim Brotherhood marched in Cairo, Alexandria and several other cities along the Nile Delta, denouncing what they termed a military coup.
"We are coming out today to restore legitimacy," said Tarek Yassin, 40, who had traveled to Cairo from the southern city of Sohag, underscoring the Brotherhood's deep roots in the provinces. "We consider what happened secular thuggery. It would never happen in any democratic country," he said.
Soldiers prevented protesters from nearing army installations, and there were reports of minor scuffles, with troops firing teargas to disperse demonstrators close to the presidential palace in Cairo, the state news agency said.
"We are following the progress of the protests and are ready for all events or escalation," said a military official, asking not to be named as he was not authorized to talk to the media.
"They (the Brotherhood) now know the people are not with them and have had it with them after what happened to them and their country this past year," the officer said.
The army has dismissed any talk of a coup, saying it had to intervene after vast protests on June 30 against Mursi, denounced by his many critics as incompetent and partisan after just a year in office.
It has called for a new constitution and a swift new vote, installing an interim Cabinet that includes no members of the Brotherhood or other Islamist parties that triumphed in a string of elections following the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
FEARS OF CHAOS
Mursi is being held in an undisclosed location by the army, and numerous senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders have also been detained in recent days, leading to fears of a broad crackdown.
The top U.N. human rights official, Navi Pillay, has asked the new Egyptian government to explain both the legal basis for the detentions and to say whether trials were planned.
"We've specifically asked about (Mursi) and his presidential team in addition to others who were arrested. We don't even know how many people at this point," Pillay's spokesman, Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
Mursi backers have set up a round-the-clock vigil outside a mosque in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City. Thousands flocked there on Friday to join the protests, but the fierce summer heat, coming at a time when devout Muslims fast to mark the holy month of Ramadan, might have kept some supporters away.
"Tonight, tonight, tonight, Sisi is going down tonight," the crowd chanted, referring to General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the armed forces, who played a central role in driving Mursi from office.
In his first address as interim president, Adli Mansour, previously head of the constitutional court, promised on Thursday to fight those he said wanted to destabilize the state.
"We are going through a critical stage and some want us to move towards chaos, and we want to move towards stability. Some want a bloody path," he said in a televised address. "We will fight a battle for security until the end."
Egypt, the most populous nation in the Arab world, is a strategic hinge between the Middle East and North Africa and has long been a vital U.S. ally in the region.
Washington has tried to tread softly through the crisis, undecided whether to brand the downfall of Mursi a coup, a move that would force the United States to suspend all aid to Cairo, including some $1.3 billion given annually to the military.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Egypt's new foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, expressing hopes that the transitional period of government would be successful, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Muslim Brotherhood leaders say they will not resort to violence in their campaign to reinstate Mursi.
"The goal of our peaceful mass rallies and peaceful sit-ins in squares across Egypt is to force the coup plotters to reverse their action," Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood official, said on his Facebook page.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz, Maggie Fick, Tom Finn, Ali Abdelaty and Ahmed Tolab; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Will Waterman and Peter Cooney)
Kurd militants give Turkey 'final warning' on peace deal
19 hours ago
Darin Butler
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
Darin Butler
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish militants issued what they said was a final warning to Turkey on Friday to take concrete steps to advance a peace process aimed at ending a three-decade insurgency, or be responsible for it grinding to a halt.
Jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Ankara government began peace talks last October to halt a conflict which has killed 40,000 people and blighted Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
Kurdish leaders have called on the AK Party (AKP) government to launch reforms set out under the talks, but Ankara has said the Kurds need to keep their side of the bargain by speeding up the withdrawal of their fighters to northern Iraq.
"As a movement we are warning the AKP government for the last time... If concrete steps are not taken in the shortest time on the subjects set out by our people and the public, the process will not advance and the AKP government will be responsible," the PKK said on one of its websites.
The reforms include steps to boost the rights of the Kurdish minority, including abolishing an anti-terrorism law under which thousands have been imprisoned for links to the PKK, granting full Kurdish-language education and lowering the threshold of votes which parties need to enter parliament.
As the process has faltered, there has been an increase in militant activity in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, which commentators say will complicate the government's task of enacting reforms without inflaming nationalist sentiment.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has invested considerable political capital in the process ahead of elections next year and is facing the biggest test of his decade in power after weeks of often violent anti-government protests.
OCALAN'S HEALTH
The PKK said there had been repeated calls for Ankara to allow an independent team of doctors to visit Ocalan on the prison island of Imrali, south of Istanbul, but the government had failed to respond. Ocalan, known by his followers as Apo, is known to suffer from an eye ailment.
"The sincerity in the settlement process of a government which approaches the Leader Apo's health in this way is now seriously being questioned and doubted by our movement, our people and democratic public opinion," it said.
In response to the calls, the Justice Ministry issued a statement on Friday saying the latest tests by doctors on July 16 had found no problems with Ocalan's general health.
"The speculation on the subject of his health could result in the settlement process being affected negatively," the ministry said.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, also accused the government of supporting Islamist groups involved in clashes with Kurds in northern Syria. Ankara rejects those accusations.
"We call on the AKP to abandon rapidly this hostile approach shown to the national democratic rights of the Rojava (Syrian) Kurds and to cut its links with al Qaeda groups," it said.
A Syrian Kurdish party with links to the PKK seized control this week of a Syrian town on Turkey's border after days of clashes with Islamist fighters, prompting Ankara to repeat its opposition to an autonomous Kurdish region emerging there.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara that Turkey had always opposed the emergence from the conflict of autonomous regions along sectarian or ethnic lines, warning they would "result in greater crises".
Friday's statement from the PKK's umbrella political group came just over a week after a veteran militant viewed as a hawk was appointed as co-head of the group, stoking speculation it will take a harder line.
The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of carving out a Kurdish state, but subsequently moderated its goal to regional autonomy. Kurds represent around a fifth of Turkey's population of 76 million people.
(Writing by Daren Butler; editing by Nick Tattersall and Tom Pfeiffer)
Friday, July 19, 2013
UK revokes export licenses for Egypt's military
1 hour ago
CASSANDRA VINOGRAD
AP
Source: Yahoo News
CASSANDRA VINOGRAD
AP
Source: Yahoo News
LONDON (AP) — The British government said Friday it has revoked five export licenses for equipment destined for Egypt's military and police in light of recent unrest in the country that has led to the deaths of civilians.
Egypt has witnessed street skirmishes and protests since the military deposed Mohammed Morsi as president. About 60 people have been killed in the clashes. On Friday, several thousand protesters demonstrated in cities across Egypt in the latest show of strength by supporters of Morsi, an Islamist with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Business Secretary Vince Cable's department said Friday that the decision was not related to one specific incident, but rather a buildup of events and Egyptian authorities' recent actions with regard to crowd control.
The five licenses covered components for armored personnel carriers, machine guns, and armored fighting infantry vehicles, along with communications equipment for tanks and licenses for vehicle antennas and radio equipment.
Cable said the government had not had reports of British equipment being used in Egypt's unrest, but took the decision to revoke the licenses upon advice from the Foreign Office. It was not immediately clear exactly who the licenses had been issued to — whether they were private British companies or other entities that export such material.
"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Egypt and the events which have led to the deaths of protesters," he said in a statement. "The longstanding U.K. position is clear: We will not grant export licenses where we judge there is a clear risk the goods might be used for internal repression."
The moves comes after a report from British lawmakers earlier this week urged the government to exercise more caution in approving applications for the export of arms to countries with authoritarian regimes.
The House of Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls published the report, showing that Britain has issued more than 3,000 arms export licenses for goods bound for countries where the U.K. has concerns about human rights — such as Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
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Alida's Kitchen: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Pancakes
Alida's Kitchen: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Pancakes: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Pancakes are an easy, healthy, delicious breakfast treat that taste like oatmeal raisin cookies. Yum! They are ma...
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
Myanmar president approves law on central bank autonomy
Jul 11, 2013
Source: Reuters
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Myanmar's president has signed a law giving the central bank more autonomy from the Finance Ministry and opening the way for development of the fledgling banking sector.
State-owned MRTV television reported the enactment by President Thein Sein late on Thursday and said details would be published in newspapers on Friday.
But there was nothing in any of Friday's papers, including the New Light ofMyanmar, a state daily that carries official announcements.
The law is part of a series of economic and political reforms pushed through by the quasi-civilian government of Thein Sein, in office since nearly half a century of military rule ended in March 2011.
Rules governing the central bank have to be adopted within three months of the law coming into force.
"In fact, rules and regulations have already been drawn up. So we can expect them to emerge very soon," Win Hteik, a senior central bank official, told Reuters.
He said the governor and three deputy-governors would in future be nominated by the president and approved by parliament.
He also said the regulations could include details of how joint-venturebanks could be set up with foreign lenders.
Foreign banks are not allowed to operate in Myanmar at present, and when they are allowed in, they will initially only be able to run joint ventures with local banks.
The date for their entry has not been set, although more than 30 foreign banks already have representative offices.
The website of the existing Central Bank of Myanmar, which is part of the Finance Ministry, says its aim is "to preserve the internal and external value of the Myanmar currency".
Helped by the International Monetary Fund, the central bank introduced a managed float of the kyat in April 2012 as part of the unification of the exchange rate system.
It first floated at 818 per dollar, a level in line with the black market at the time but which the IMF and economists said was overvalued. Since then, the kyat has fallen and the central bank's daily reference rate was set at 980 on Thursday. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Nick Macfie)
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood Refuses to Back Down
July 11, 2013
By Sarah A. Topol
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
By Sarah A. Topol
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Tents flap in the hot midday wind next to Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque in eastern Cairo as men sit under the shade discussing religion. The street and tents by the mosque are festooned with posters of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi, as those gathered here continue to protest his July 3 ouster. Camping out during the summer heat—and with the holy month of Ramadan starting—is tedious at best, with many dozing, praying, and reclining under the shade of neatly ordered tents.
Taha Ibrahim has been on the streets since June 28 and says he will remain out there until Mohamed Mursi is reinstated as Egypt’s president. “We elected Mohamed Mursi, and now you tell me my vote doesn’t count,” he says, a claim echoed by Mursi supporters here. “Before I left home, I wrote my will. We all did. Our families know: We came here to get Mohamed Mursi released, even if we will be killed,” he says, referring to possible concern after a massacre in which the army killed more than 50 pro-Mursi protesters 500 meters from Ibrahim’s tent in the early hours of Monday morning.
After two weeks of protests and violence, Ibrahim, a barber by trade, decided to start offering free shaves and haircuts to keep spirits high. “We’ve started to look improper, scruffy, so I volunteered to get my scissors and equipment to cut hair,” he says, as a middle-aged man with freshly shorn cheekbones sits in the plastic chair that serves as Ibrahim’s workspace. Though Ibrahim ordinarily charges from $1.50 to $2.50 for his work, he’s offering a free shave to anyone who wants one. In two hours, he’s had eight takers. “It’s no problem, the weather is perfect,” he says.
After a disastrous year at the helm of Egypt’s government, the Brotherhood is back on the streets. Its fall from power has brought out the Brotherhood’s core strengths of organization and discipline—the same traits the organization has honed since its inception in 1928, and the ones that eventually brought the Islamist movement to the forefront of political power. As Egypt’s military-backed interim government struggles to get the country on track, the Brothers are back to doing what they do best: protesting, organizing, and controlling their own members. Counting them out of the country’s future would be a mistake.
“Clearly there’s a political negotiation going on right now. Unfortunately, the price of the negotiations is people’s lives. The Brotherhood is going to see if they can somehow have a new accommodation with the new system, so they have some role in politics and some legitimate place and their leaders do not face mass imprisonment,” says Samer Shehata, associate professor of Middle Eastern politics at the University of Oklahoma, who studies the group closely.
The protest’s continued presence “calls into question the legitimacy of the [political transition] process, which is already difficult. The Brotherhood’s not going anywhere. You can’t get rid of them,” says Shehata. Despite the violence earlier in the week, the 10 arrest warrants issued for leading Brotherhood members, and the absence of news on Mohamed Mursi’s whereabouts, the protesters claim they will stay put and remain committed to peaceful demonstrations.
The group was known under former President Hosni Mubarak for providing social services that the state did not, while meticulously bringing their supporters to the polls. “Their willingness to give fully of themselves is because they are true believers. It’s not just a political party. It’s a social, political, and religious movement. When they are organizing things themselves and they are in complete control, they function very efficiently and very well,” says Shehata—unlike “their inability to work with others and share powers and make concessions to others when Mursi was president.”
Order and discipline reign from the moment you enter the encampment by the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque. Three lines of men in hardhats do security checks on anyone wishing to take the road leading to the mosque. The first line checks IDs, the next line frisks entrants, and the final line checks bags, reporting to two control centers that monitor all activity on the boulevard, according to the group.
The neat rows of tents are rigged up to electricity and work is being completed on a massive stage from which protesters can be addressed through giant, black speakers. Posters and banners are supplied by the media committee, which also handles foreign journalists’ requests for interviews. Under the high, hot sun, men spray passersby with water for relief from the heat. Muslims cannot eat or drink during daylight hours during Ramadan.
“Logistically, we’re capable of running it for months, and that’s what we’ll do. That’s our thing,” says Gehad El Heddad, Brotherhood spokesperson, citing the group’s organizational prowess during the first 18-day uprising against Mubarak. Dealing with persecution, Heddad adds, is something the group is also accustomed to. Since the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Brotherhood members have been rounded up, jailed and tortured. “Again, it’s what we do, it’s our life, I met my wife at a prison visit, that’s what our life is about,” he says.
But he warns that this might not hold true for all Islamists. “The military coup has pulled the rug under our feet. We were the de facto leader of the Islamic camp because our argument was that democracy works, that peaceful nonviolent change works. But it turns out democracy is for everyone but the Islamic parties,” he says.
The University of Oklahoma’s Shehata agrees, saying the Brotherhood had a similar experience in the 1950s “that led to fragmentation in the group. Some broke off and became more violent, while some stuck it out, so I think that’s also a very serious possibility.”
Back at the tents in Rabaa al-Adawiya, protesters are staying put and taking each day at a time. Hisham Ramadan, a pharmacist, stands with a spray bottle of water, shielding himself with an umbrella from the blazing sun, and dousing whomever passes by. “I stay in the sun as long as I can stand,” he says. “We’ll stay here as long as it takes.”
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