Syria: Bashar al-Assad 'grants general amnesty'

BBC News, 31 May 2011

Syria Crisis

• Refugees' tales of brutality
• 'I am always scared'
• Q&A: Syria protests
• President's inner circle

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has issued a decree granting a general amnesty, state media say.

The announcement comes amid
continuing protests against Bashar
al-Assad

The amnesty would cover political opposition movements, including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the reports said.

President Assad has faced months of protests against his rule.

Authorities have cracked down on demonstrators, killing more than 1,000 people and arresting thousands more, according to human rights groups.

The government has also offered some political concessions, but protesters have dismissed these as largely cosmetic.

Late on Tuesday, state TV repeatedly flashed an "urgent" caption announcing the amnesty.

"President Assad grants a general pardon for the crimes committed before 31 May," it said.

"The pardon includes all those who belong to political movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood."

The announcement came as army forces were reported to be attacking two towns in central Syria where protests have continued.

The BBC's Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon that the amnesty had been anticipated.

It is also expected that Syrian authorities will launch an attempt at national dialogue in the next few days, he says.

In March, shortly before protests escalated, President Assad issued an amnesty for those convicted of minor crimes and prisoners over the age of 70.

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Detained Saudi woman driver to be freed on bail

Google/AFP, May 30, 2011

A Saudi woman gets out of a car after being given a ride by her driver in
Riyadh on May 26 (AFP/File, Fayez Nureldine)

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi authorities decided Monday to free on bail Manal al-Sharif, who was detained for 10 days for breaking the ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on women driving, her lawyer said.

"We were informed today of the decision to free Manal on bail. The procedural steps towards her release are under way," Adnan al-Saleh told AFP, adding that he hoped the case would now be closed.

Sharif had called upon King Abdullah to release her, Saleh told AFP on Sunday after meeting his client in prison.

Sharif, a 32-year-old computer-security consultant, was arrested on May 22 after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving her car around the eastern Saudi city of Khobar.

The divorced mother of one explained in the video that getting around was often a headache. Women in Saudi Arabia without the means to hire a chauffeur must depend upon the goodwill of male family members to drive them.

The authorities decided on Thursday to extend Sharif's detention to 10 days after her arrest sparked debate about women's rights within the kingdom.

A petition calling for Sharif's release had by Monday garnered 3,345 signatures.

Addressed to King Abdullah, it demanded her release "pending a clear decision on the question of the right of women to drive" in the kingdom.

A Facebook page titled "We are all Manal al-Sharif: a call for solidarity with Saudi women's rights," on Sunday had over 24,000 supporters.

However, another Facebook page called on men to use "iqals" -- the cords used with traditional headdresses by many Gulf men -- to beat Saudi women who drive their cars in a planned June 17 protest against the kingdom's ban on women taking the wheel.

The organisers of the June 17 demonstration emphasise that no law in Saudi Arabia forbids women from driving and that the ban is based on a religious edict (fatwa) issued in the kingdom whose laws are based on a puritanical version of Islam that prohibits men and un-chaperoned women to mix in public.

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Saudi moves to limit foreign workers' permits

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Mon, 05/30/2011

Saudi Arabia's labor minister says the kingdom will not renew work permits of expatriate workers who have been in the country for six years or more, a step aimed at boosting job opportunities for Saudis.

The pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat on Monday quoted Labor Minister Adel Fekyeh as saying unemployment in the kingdom is 10.5 percent.

Unemployment is a main cause behind uprisings in the Arab world, which have largely bypassed Saudi Arabia.

Fekyeh said 90 percent of the private sector labor force is foreign, and the country's 8 million foreign workers send home roughly $26.7 billion a year. It was not clear how many would be affected.

Saudi Arabia's king has pledged over $80 billion to boost the quality of life for his citizens, including job creation and new housing.

Syrian businessmen back opposition conference

Inclusion of business community at conference in Turkey shows cracks in its support for President Bashar al-Assad

guardian.co.uk, Lauren Williams in Beirut, Monday 30 May 2011

Opposition figures are gathering in Turkey to debate how they can break the
rule of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Key business figures in Syria are aligning themselves with opposition groups before a conference in Turkey on Tuesday in a sign that Syria's traditionally pro-regime business elite may be beginning to break ranks with the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

About 300 opposition figures are expected to arrive in Antalya, southern Turkey, for the three-day Syrian Conference for Change, designed to establish dialogue between opposition groups with a view to establishing a transitional council.

However, as a bloody crackdown against anti-regime protests continued, with Syrian activists reporting troops had bombarded a town in the central province of Homs with artillery on Sunday, it is clear sharp divisions exist among the fledgling opposition.

Until now, the Syrian uprising has largely manifested itself at street level with support from activists abroad as disaffected and marginalised classes call for personal freedoms and an end to corruption and poverty at the hands of the elite.

Organised by the Egypt-based National Organisation for Human Rights, the Turkey conference is being privately funded by three Syrian businessmen – Ali and Wassim Sanqar, brothers who are luxury car distributors based in Damascus, and Ammar Qurabi, chairman of the national organisation and UAE-based satellite channel Orient TV.

Orient TV's Damascus bureau was closed after a bid to forcefully buy out the channel by the president's cousin Rami Makhlouf, who is on the US sanctions list and controls an estimated 60% of the Syrian economy through stakes in various companies.

The Sanqar brothers also ran up against Makhlouf when a law was changed allowing him to acquire sole distribution rights for their company's lucrative Mercedes dealership.

The Sanqar brothers declined to comment on their role at the conference, but Ammar Abdulhamid, the exiled Syrian dissident and head of the Washington-based Tharwa Foundation, said the inclusion of business personalities was "a significant development".

"We have a number of other businessmen and entrepreneurs here. The business community is slowly coming around to realising the need to support the future of Syria," he said.

On the eve of the conference, divisions were apparent. Organisers admitted they were rushed. Others, while calling for unity, privately complained of inadequate planning and consultation. Kurdish groups are boycotting the conference.

In London, an exiled nephew of the president claimed the conference was a front for Islamist extremism. Ribal al-Assad, head of the London-based Organisation for Democracy and Change, announced he would hold an alternative conference based on "freedom, democracy and religious pluralism".

The son of Rifat al-Assad, who led the 1982 Hama massacre of up to 20,000 people following an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood, has attracted the ire of dissidents after failing to acknowledge his father's role in the siege.

"I can assure you that none of these people represents the Syrian opposition," he said. "They are individuals that only represent themselves."

He said some former brotherhood members were posing as moderates.

Long suspected of holding political ambitions, Assad said his only personal role was to "play a small part in bringing freedom, democracy and human rights to my country".

A pro-democracy activist and organiser, Radwan Ziadeh from the National Initiative for Change, denied the claims, saying the conference represented both secular and moderate Islamic groups.

But he acknowledged the need for religious Syrian society to be present. "We know Syrian society is very conservative. Moderate Muslims must be present."

He said leadership alternatives in Syria had been repressed. "Everyone knows that the Syrian uprising is leaderless. We need to establish some sort of balance to move ahead.

"The intended outcome is for a united opposition established on the principles of greater co-ordination inside and outside Syria."

He stressed that although Turkey sanctioned the conference, no state representatives would be present but said that any party formed should seek assistance from the Arab League and other international organisations.

"We can divide the cake later on, for now the focus is on the humanitarian issue in putting pressure on regime that has killed over 1,100 people and detained more than 11,000."

Arab League backs Palestinian membership bid at UN

BBC News, 28 May 2011

Israel and the Palestinians

• In pictures: Gaza crossing opens
• Netanyahu's US speech sticks to past
• Press: Palestinians joining protests
• Salafist ideological challenge

The Arab League says it will seek full UN membership for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Mahmoud Abbas is pressuring
Israel to return to the negotiating
table

The decision was made at a meeting in Doha attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr Abbas had reiterated his determination to seek UN recognition in September unless Israel began negotiations on a "substantial basis".

US-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled for months.

A statement issued by the Arab League monitoring committee on Saturday said it "supports the appeal to the UN asking that Palestine, within the 1967 borders, becomes a full-fledged state" of the international organisation.

Mr Abbas had told the meeting: "Our option is still negotiation, but it seems that because of conditions imposed by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu... we have no choice but to use the UN to get recognition of our state.

"We are serious in our decision to use the UN, it is not manoeuvring. We will do it unless Netanyahu accepts to begin negotiations today on a substantial basis."

Basis for talks

In a keynote policy speech on 19 May, US President Barack Obama issued a clear call for Israel and the Palestinians to use the borders existing before the 1967 Six Day War, with land swaps, as the basis for talks.

However, he made it clear that an appeal to the UN for full membership for Palestine would be a mistake.

Mr Netanyahu rejected President Obama's proposal outright, saying the Jewish state would be "indefensible" if it returned to the 1967 borders, which would exclude dozens of Jewish settlements.

He also rejected the idea of dividing the city of Jerusalem. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their capital.

On Friday, UN General Assembly president Joseph Deiss said that a Palestinian state would need the support of all five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council to be recognised.

Correspondents say this seems unlikely, although even as a symbolic gesture the move could make Israel look politically isolated.

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"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

(Live Kryon Channelings was given 7 times within the United Nations building.)

Egypt: Hosni Mubarak fined for cutting internet

BBC News, 28 May 2011

Egypt's Revolution

• Egypt suffers post-revolution blues
• Middle East protests: Country by country
• Communal conflict
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Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been fined $34m (£20m) for cutting off communications services during the uprising that ousted him.

Hosni Mubarak has been charged
over the deaths of anti-government
protesters

The fine of 200m Egyptian pounds is the first clear ruling against Mr Mubarak since he left office in February. Two other senior officials were also fined.

The 83-year-old is currently under arrest in hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh after being taken ill in detention.

He has been charged over the deaths of anti-government protesters.

Officials probed

Mr Mubarak is also being questioned over charges that he and his family made huge profits during the three decades he spent as Egyptian president.

More than 20 Mubarak-era ministers and businessmen linked to the regime have been detained since his departure.

Last week, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly was sentenced to 12 years in jail on charges of money-laundering and profiteering.

On Saturday, he was also fined over the disruption to telephone and internet services during the Egyptian revolution, along with Mr Mubarak and his former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.

Adly also faces separate charges of ordering troops to fire on demonstrators. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Mr Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal have been charged with "premeditated murder" of some participants in the protests, the country's state news agency reported.

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India taps IT power to woo African youth

The Economic Times, 28 MAY, 2011

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DAR ES SALAAM: India is reaching out to African youth here by offering to make Tanzania a "communication and IT hub of East Africa" and has unfurled new possibilities of cooperation in key high-tech areas like space cooperation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
with Tanzania President  Jakaya Mrisho
 Kikwete visiting project (Co EICT) at
 Dar-es-Salaam Institute of Technology
at Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania on
Friday. (PTI)

Drummers and dancers swayed jauntily, waving flags of India and Tanzania at the entrance to the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology where hundreds of budding engineers and young IT trainees eagerly waited for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to speak to them Friday evening.

It was a hot and humid evening in this coastal metropolis, but the torrid weather could not deter students who sat patiently and clapped spontaneously as Manmohan Singh described them as "the future of Tanzania" and offered to "create a pool of world class professionals" in East Africa's largest country.

"You represent the future of Tanzania, and from what I have seen I can say with confidence that the future of Tanzania is bright," he said to loud applause before formally launching the Indo-Tanzanian Centre for Excellence in IT which has been set up by Indian software engineers at a cost of a little over $2 million in August last year.

"India is ready to provide all the help we can within our resources to enable Tanzania to create a pool of world class IT professionals," he said.

"If we can produce a steady stream of highly trained scientists, technologists and engineers, our cooperation would be worthwhile and we would be putting our money to good use," he said.

This is the first time an Indian Prime Minister was addressing the youth in an African university, signalling New Delhi's new vision to forge a contemporary and modern partnership with the African continent where over 50 per cent of nearly 1 billion people are in the age group of 18-35.

"The scientific and technological empowerment of the youth has a direct correlation to a nation's social and economic progress," he said.

The institute also houses the Param High Speed Super Computer gifted by India to Tanzania in 2009 that is being used for weather-forecasting and high-speed computation.

This has made Tanzania only one of four African countries that also include Ghana, Egypt and South Africa which has facilities for high-tech computing facilities. India has also set up a similar IT centre for excellence in Ghana.

Raising the bar for India's diplomatic thrust in Africa, Manmohan Singh announced India's readiness to cooperate with Tanzania in the area of space technology and applications and placed it in the larger context of South-South bonding.

Palestinians have no wish to isolate Israel—Abbas

Antara News, Sat, May 28 2011

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Doha (ANTARA News/Reuters) - Palestinians are not seeking to isolate Israel on the international stage, but will pursue their unilateral drive for U.N. recognition of statehood unless peace talks resume, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday.

He was in Doha for a meeting of Arab states on Saturday called to discuss U.S. President Barack Obama`s latest ideas for reviving the moribund peace process and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s negative response to them.

The Arab League will almost certainly endorse any suggestions put forward by the Palestinians, and in an interview with Reuters, Abbas said negotiations remained the best option for bringing about the creation of an independent state.

"We will review ... the steps we will take -- persisting with negotiations as the fundamental way to achieving a resolution," Abbas said. "If we fail in reaching this solution, then we confirm that we will go to the United Nation ."

The Palestinians currently have the status of U.N. observers without voting rights, but are hoping that at September`s General Assembly they can persuade other nations to accept them as a sovereign member.

Both Netanyahu and Obama have criticised the move, and although U.S. opposition means the Palestinians have very little chance of success, the Israelis fear the manoeuvring will leave them looking increasingly vulnerable on the diplomatic front.

"Israel believes that if we go to the United Nations we will work to isolate it and delegitimise it," Abbas said.

"This is not at all possible because we do not want to isolate Israel or to delegitimise it. On the contrary, we want to co-exist with it," he added.

U.S.-brokered talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down last September in a dispute over continued Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

In a bid to break the deadlock, Obama said in a major policy speech last week that a future Palestinian state should be based on the borders as they existed on the eve of the 1967 Middle East, with land swaps mutually agreed with Israel.

Netanyahu immediately rejected the proposal saying it would leave Israel with "indefensible" borders. But Abbas described the idea as "a foundation with which we can deal positively".

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told Reuters in an interview that Israel will not gain security by clinging to territory beyond the 1967 West Bank frontier. "It is peace that will bring Israel security, not increasing the width of Israel or finding a military solution to defending (its) borders."

Editor: B Kunto Wibisono

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G8 summit to pledge £12bn for Arab spring states

Aid being compiled in Deauville aims to foster democracy and economic growth in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia

guardian.co.uk, Patrick Wintour, Friday 27 May 2011

The G8 aid package is likely to be conditional on further steps to democracy
 in Tunisia and Egypt, where some protesters are calling for another day of
rage in Cairo. Photograph: Mohamed Omar/EPA

Arab countries in transition to democracy are to be offered as much as £12bn in aid, loans and debt relief as a result of pledges being compiled at the G8 group of nations summit on Friday. The money will come from international financial institutions and members of the G8.

Leaders of both Egypt and Tunisia, the two chief recipients of the aid, will speak to leaders of the G8, currently chaired by the French on the second day of its summit in Deauville, and stress that they need money urgently to ensure their shift to democracy is smooth and not hampered by economic crisis.

Both countries have been severely hit by falling economic growth, high inflation, high youth unemployment and loss of tourism, on which both depend. Tunisia has been especially hit by the continuing war in neighbouring Libya.

The aid is likely to be conditional on further steps to democracy; both countries are struggling with disputes over the pace of change.

In Tunisia, the electoral commission is insisting elections are deferred from the summer to October to allow more time to prepare a workable electoral roll, a move that is disputed by the interim government.

In Egypt, some of the groups responsible for the initial protests that led to the overthrow of Mubarak in February are calling for a second day of rage in Cairo on Friday to protest at the way in which the army appears to be dominating the transition process. Many groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, have warned against further demonstrations.

The £12bn ($20bn) figure, although impressive-sounding, will have to be examined carefully to see how much represents grants as opposed to loans. The money will predominantly come from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the US and the EU. Both the UK and France have offered bilateral sums: France offered Egypt up to $250m a year in development aid on Thursday and David Cameron set aside £110m over four years for political and economic development.

Cameron, who is under pressure from rightwing press over Britain's aid budget, said: "We're demonstrating that there is a chance for people in north Africa to choose their own future and their own freedom rather than having to put up with appalling dictators like Gaddafi."

The summit brings together the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, with the leaders of the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia, Canada and Italy in a windswept coastal resort.

The presence of Russia has ensured there are tensions over the way in which Nato is escalating the bombing campaign in Libya – the Russians have repeatedly warned they regard the attacks on the regime go well beyond the parameters set out in the UN resolution allowing all necessary means to protect Libyan civilians.

Britain and France have agreed to send ground attack helicopters to the region in a move that will intensify the attacks on the Libyan regime's command and control sites. Britain will send as many as eight Apache helicopters. Sarkozy has tried to persuade the US to deploy A-10 attack aircraft and AC-130 gunships in Libya.

The draft declaration by the G8 will urge Muammar Gaddafi to declare a ceasefire and agree to a political solution, officials said. The Arab Union meeting this week also called for a ceasefire, but did not call for Gaddafi to stand aside.

Russia's ambassador to France, Alexander Orlov, said the Nato coalition has gone "too far".

Comoros new president sworn in

English.news.cn   2011-05-27

MORONI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Comoros newly elected president Ikililou Dhoinine was sworn in here on Thursday in the presence of more than 3,000 people including local and foreign dignitaries.

Hao Ping, the Chinese special envoy and vice minister of education, attended the presidential inauguration.

At the inaugural ceremony, Dhoinine vowed to consolidate national unity and safeguard the territorial integrity of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros.

He called on the new governing team to work hard to improve livelihood, saying the people of the Comoros have right to enjoy more social well-beings and more development.

He promised to build more schools, hospitals, ports, airports, bridges and roads to upgrade the country's infrastructure.

Dhoinine, 49, won the presidential elections in December with 61 percent of the votes cast, according to the National Independent Electoral Commission.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Jordan's health, justice ministers resign

English.news.cn 2011-05-27

AMMAN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's Minister of Justice Hussein Mjali and Minister of Health Yaseen Husban resigned on Thursday on the backdrop of convicted tycoon Khalid Shahin's departure for treatment abroad.

Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit, who noted that the two ministers are not involved in the case, said he accepted the resignation of the ministers, who he said decided to take moral responsibility for Shahin's departure. He made the remarks during a press conference Thursday.

In July last year, Shahin was sentenced to three years in prison for bribery in a corruption case involving the country's oil refinery.

Shahin, who was serving a three-year prison term after being convicted of bribery, received permission recently to go to the U. S. for treatment based on a medical report signed by several doctors.

Local media reports reported recently that he was seen in London "in good shape."

The issue of revealing the circumstances behind the convicted businessman's permission to travel abroad for treatment was among top demands by demonstrators who took to the streets lately, demanding uprooting corruption.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Rwandan genocide mastermind captured in DRC

Former Hutu militia leader Bernard Munyagishari, wanted on charges of crimes against humanity, arrested after 17 years

guardian.co.uk, David Smith in Johannesburg, Thursday 26 May 2011

Refugees from Rwanda in Goma, DRC, after the genocide in 1994.
Photograph: Jon Jones/Sygma/Corbis

A mastermind of the Rwandan genocide has been captured 17 years later in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, a United Nations court has announced.

Bernard Munyagishari, a former Hutu militia leader, is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, including rape, the Tanzania-based international criminal tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said.

The fugitive, who had previously been a school teacher and football referee, was arrested by the Congolese army and an ICTR tracking unit "in difficult terrain".

Munyagishari, 52, featured in the US state department's Rewards for Justice programme, with a reward of up to $5m (£3m) offered for his capture.

The ICTR said Munyagishari was arrested in Kachanga, North Kivu in an operation involving the Congolese army and the ICTR's tracking unit. He was being held in Goma awaiting transfer to the court in Arusha, Tanzania.

"The prosecutor [Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow] hailed the DRC authorities for their co-operation in executing the warrant of arrest despite the hurdles encountered in tracking down the fugitive in difficult terrain," the court said.

Ethnic Hutu militia and soldiers butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus over 100 days between April and June 1994. The victims were frequently described as "cockroaches".

The ICTR indictment says Munyagishari helped prepare and plan the genocide (pdf). From 1992-94 he was secretary general of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development for Gisenyi city and president of the Interahamwe militia for the Gisenyi prefecture.

Munyagishari is accused of co-founding and training the Interahamwe group in the Gisenyi region, distributing weapons to them, and exercising authority over them as they operated roadblocks in the city of Gisenyi and slaughtered Tutsis. He also allegedly created an arm of the Interahamwe with a mission of raping and killing women as a weapon of war.

The court said: "The accused is alleged to have recruited, trained and led Interahamwe militiamen in mass killings and rapes of Tutsi women in Gisenyi and beyond, between April and July 1994."

During that time, according to the indictment, Munyagishari was seen armed with a pistol, Kalashnikov and club and sometimes wearing a military uniform, although he never became an official member of the Rwandan armed forces.

The ICTR said that after Munyagishari's arrest, nine of those most responsible for the slaughter were still at large.

Since its establishment in late 1994, the court has delivered 46 judgments, of which eight were acquittals. Another nine cases are on appeal.

Earlier this month the court sentenced the former army general Augustin Bizimungu, who prepared lists of Tutsis to be "exterminated", to 30 years in prison. Augustin Ndindiliyimana, a former military police leader, was also found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Clinton: US working to remove Yemeni president

Google/AP, May 26, 2011

PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the United States is troubled by political intransigence in Yemen amid ongoing violence there.

Clinton says Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has repeatedly "reneged" on promises to step down, and she says the U.S. and other countries are trying hard to get him out. The U.S. had backed Saleh in exchange for cooperation against a branch of al-Qaida headquartered in Yemen, but Washington withdrew its support as Saleh pressed a violent crackdown on protesters this spring.

Intense battles spread across Yemen's capital Thursday. At least 28 people were killed as the four-day death toll neared 110.

The State Department on Wednesday ordered nonessential U.S. diplomats to depart Yemen and urged all Americans there to leave as security conditions deteriorated.