'Close al-Jazeera': Saudi Arabia gives Qatar 13 demands to end blockade.
List includes cutting back ties with Iran and Turkey...
The closure of the Qatar-funded broadcaster al-Jazeera is among 13 wide-ranging demands tabled by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States as the price for lifting a two-week trade and diplomatic embargo of Qatar.
The list, obtained by Associated Press, constitutes the first time Saudi Arabia has been prepared to put in writing the often ill-defined demands it is making of Qatar.
Saudi Arabia and the other nations leading the blockade – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt – have in recent days been put under pressure by the US state department to set out specific demands in an effort to help establish a mediation process.
The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has said the demands had to be reasonable and actionable. Donald Trump, the US president, has appeared more sympathetic towards the Saudis, in what has become the Gulf’s worst diplomatic dispute in decades.
The Saudi-led alliance regards al-Jazeera, the most widely watched broadcaster in the Arab world, as a propaganda tool for Islamists that also undermines support for their governments.
Other key demands include reducing ties with Iran and closing a Turkish military base.
... more in The Guardian - The Independent - BBC - The Telegraph - AlJazeera
A Palestinian poet and leading member of Saudi Arabia’s nascent contemporary art scene has been sentenced to death for renouncing Islam.
A Saudi court on Tuesday ordered the execution of Ashraf Fayadh, who has curated art shows in Jeddah and at the Venice Biennale. The poet, who said he did not have legal representation, was given 30 days to appeal against the ruling.
Fayadh, 35, a key member of the British-Saudi art organisation Edge of Arabia, was originally sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes by the general court in Abha, a city in the south-west of the ultraconservative kingdom, in May 2014.
But after his appeal was dismissed he was retried last month and a new panel of judges ruled that his repentance did not prevent his execution.
“I was really shocked but it was expected, though I didn’t do anything that deserves death,” Fayadh told the Guardian...
... more in The
Guardian - The Independent - Global Voices - Arts Freedom - FREEDOM for Ashraf Fayadh
June
Turkish riot police have moved into Istanbul's Taksim Square, which has been occupied by anti-government protesters for close to two weeks.
Officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets, leading many protesters to flee the square into adjoining Gezi Park. Some activists hurled fireworks, fire bombs and stones at police.
The unrest began after a crackdown on a protest over Gezi Park's redevelopment.
The Turkish prime minister said the move was hijacked to cause vandalism.
The original protests have widened, with demonstrators accusing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government of becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to impose conservative Islamic values on a secular state.
... more in BBC - AlJazeera - The Guardian - El Mundo - France 24
A Qatari poet, who has been sentenced to life for comments said to be critical of the Qatari leadership, will take his case to an appeal court, his lawyer Najeeb al-Naimi has said.
Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, 36, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday for what is said to be attempts to destabilise the country.
Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, criticised the Qatari government for the harsh sentencing.
"The international community must admit that there is international terrorism in Syria supported by states, states that claim to want to protect human rights in Syria, states which do not hesitate to condemn a poet to a life sentence merely because he had the temerity to write a poem condemning the emir of his country," Jaafari said on Friday.
Al-Ajami, who has been largely held in solitary confinement, spoke to the Reuters news agency in the presence of prison guards and others.
"The Emir is a good man," he told the agency. "I think he doesn't know that they have me here for a year, that they have put me in a single room.
"If he knew, I would be freed," he said.
"This is wrong," al-Ajami said. "You can't have Al Jazeera in this country and put me in jail for being a poet."
Al-Naimi said he would appeal next week against the verdict, which was handed down after six hearings. The poet was arrested in November 2011.
...more in AlJazeera - Doha News - BBC - The Guardian - Amnesty Internatinal - Voltaire.net
Qatar: Outrageous life sentence for ‘Jasmine poet’ ... [+]
Jailed Qatari poet to appeal life sentence:
Accused of calling for the overthrow of the Qatari government, Muhammad al-Ajami to appeal his life sentence... [+]
Qatari Poet Sentenced to Life in Prison for a Verse ... [+]
Qatari poet life sentence reduced to 15 years:
A Qatari poet sentenced to life in prison for inciting the overthrow of the government and insulting Qatar's rulers has had his jail term cut... [+]
Free the Quatari Poet Mohammed al-Ajami ... [+]
Israel should view the harassment of Israeli Turkish Airlines passengers humbly as it serves as an embarrassing reflection on us ... and same in Egypt ...etc
The Israeli response that has followed the harassment of Israeli Turkish Airlines passengers who experienced detention and intrusive body searches upon their arrival at Istanbul airport on Monday, borders on hysteria and hypocrisy. The incident was blown out of all proportion and immediately became an additional and unnecessary chapter in the friction between Turkey and Israel.
There is no doubt about the fact that the conduct of Istanbul airport authorities was improper, and it is unforgivable - even if it was the result of retaliation for similar treatment Israeli authorities accorded Turkish air travelers. Nonetheless, Israeli citizens, and even more so the Israeli government and the Israel Airports Authority, should view it more humbly inasmuch as it serves as an embarrassing reflection on us.
The security check that Turkish citizens - and passengers from other countries with a Muslim majority - experience as they travel through Israel is stringent, overbearing and humiliating. Israeli citizens have gotten used to taking off for Turkey without the need for a visa, enjoying the hospitality of Turkish tourism services and vacationing in their multitudes in Turkish cities, villages and beach resorts without any restriction. Turks seeking to come to Israel for a visit, however, have had to go through a real ordeal, beginning at the Israeli consulate, where on occasion they get turned down without explanation, and later - assuming they get a visa - ending with an exhausting and humiliating airport security check.
The State of Israel has never apologized to these visitors and has never thought they deserved compensation for the lost time and the insult. Israel doesn't bother at all to explain its offensive security inspection procedures. To this day, it has not provided a proper response to the High Court of Justice, which demanded an explanation over the blatant discrimination experienced by Israeli Arabs before they board flights here.
...more in Haaretz - Al Jazeera - The Guardian - France 24 - El Mundo - Publico - La Repubblica - Die Spiegel - MSNBC- BBC
Read also:
Netanyahu must go, it's as simple as that: Bibi is getting on the nerves of the entire world. And that's because of four words: They don't believe him ... Israel is marching to the UN General Assembly weak and hated, under very difficult negotiating conditions.
Obama: America's 'first Jewish president'? : After the president's speech to the UN, Al Jazeera's senior analyst wonders why US leaders continue to pander to a foreign power.
El Estado palestino [por Mario Vargas LLosa]: El reconocimiento por la ONU es un acto de justicia con un pueblo cautivo. Se precisa una presión internacional para que los dirigentes israelíes salgan de su encastillamiento prepotente...
• In Iraq, six killed as frustration erupts over corruption
• Yemen holds its biggest pro-democracy rally
• Egyptians demand accelerated reforms
Protests erupted in cities across the Middle East and North Africa. At least six people were reported killed and dozens injured in Iraq; thousands took to the streets in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a; and Egyptians gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand an accelerated reform programme.
...more in The Guardian
Our writer, who was in Cairo as the revolution took hold in Egypt, reports from Bahrain on why Islam has little to do with what is going on.
Mubarak claimed that Islamists were behind the Egyptian revolution. Ben Ali said the same in Tunisia. King Abdullah of Jordan sees a dark and sinister hand – al-Qa'ida's hand, the Muslim Brotherhood's hand, an Islamist hand – behind the civil insurrection across the Arab world. Yesterday the Bahraini authorities discovered Hizbollah's bloody hand behind the Shia uprising there. For Hizbollah, read Iran. How on earth do well-educated if singularly undemocratic men get this thing so wrong? Confronted by a series of secular explosions – Bahrain does not quite fit into this bracket – they blame radical Islam. The Shah made an identical mistake in reverse. Confronted by an obviously Islamic uprising, he blamed it on Communists.
Bobbysocks Obama and Clinton have managed an even weirder somersault. Having originally supported the "stable" dictatorships of the Middle East – when they should have stood by the forces of democracy – they decided to support civilian calls for democracy in the Arab world at a time when the Arabs were so utterly disenchanted with the West's hypocrisy that they didn't want America on their side. "The Americans interfered in our country for 30 years under Mubarak, supporting his regime, arming his soldiers," an Egyptian student told me in Tahrir Square last week. "Now we would be grateful if they stopped interfering on our side." At the end of the week, I heard identical voices in Bahrain. "We are getting shot by American weapons fired by American-trained Bahraini soldiers with American-made tanks," a medical orderly told me on Friday. "And now Obama wants to be on our side?"
...read the excellent article by Robert Fisk in The Independent
by Chris Arsenault
As Hungary's political changes began, Istavan Rev watched cautiously. Like thousands of his countrymen, he feared violence, counter-revolution or extremism - products of revolution the world over.
Two decades after the 1989 political transformation broke the chains of Soviet control, lessons learned in Budapest could now provide insights for jubilant crowds in Egypt and Tunisia.
Likewise, the guillotines of France in 1789, the Bolshevik purges of 1917 and the shrewd ability of Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Party to marginalise other social movements in 1979 provide chilling lessons to would-be revolutionaries.
"What happened in most of the countries of east and central Europe in former Soviet satellites were not typical revolutions, not revolutions in the textbook sense," says Rev, now professor of history at the Central European University in Budapest.
...It is still too early to classify the political developments in Egypt and Tunisia. They could be a reconfiguration of national life, based on mostly peaceful uprisings - leading to broader institutional change.
Or, with Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali out of the picture, the faces of the regimes might change, while the entrenched power of the "deep state" remains untouched, says Kristian Coates, a professor of global governance and scholar of revolution at the London School of Economics.
"Egypt has a fair way to go before it can be described as a revolution," says Coates.
"The removal of a figure-head is not the removal of a regime."
The classic 20th century revolutions - notably Russia, China, Vietnam, Iran and Cuba - involved prolonged, violent struggle, causing a break-up of the ruling elite, says Theda Skocpol, a professor of government at Harvard University and a leading expert on political change.
"Revolutions are usually much more violent than what we saw in Egypt," she says.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall closed the historical curtain on traditional visions of Marxist-Leninist state power seizures, the "colour" revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia provide a good example of what not to do after so-called people power ousts an unpopular leader.
"In post-2004 Ukraine, the oligarchs remained embedded in the political framework, even though there was supposedly a revolution," Coates says of the western-backed "Orange Revolution".
"I suspect Egypt will probably go the way of Ukraine," he says.
"The embedded interests sacrificed Mubarak. He was the visible head of the regime - but these deeply embedded networks will be very hard to dislodge."
...To mitigate classic concerns like poverty, corruption and a lack of freedom, dictators in Egypt and beyond usually rely on patronage networks, guaranteeing jobs and other perks to supporters.
Those networks dominated much of Egypt’s economic life, with government jobs - and even positions on local library boards or sports organisations - doled out to ruling party supporters.
...learn more in Al Jazeera
...more in The Rachel Maddow Show at MBSNC - ProPublica.org
Read also:
Leading article: Freedom is not to be feared.
Overview of Middle East Crackdowns and the (Varying) U.S. Responses to Each.
The protests that overthrew half a century of autocratic rule in Tunisia are spreading. The governments of Egypt, Algeria and Yemen are feeling the wrath of decades of repression as people take to the streets and demand freedom - freedom of expression, freedom from forced choices.
The spread of democratic voices in the region is unprecedented, drawing comparisons with Eastern Europe in the 1980s, but is it a false dawn?
Will the despots and strongmen of the region be able to restore their authority through bribes and belated concessions, or is the genie out of the bottle? And who will be next?
Our guests today are: Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University; Clovis Maksoud, the director of the Center for the Global South; and Samer Shehata, a professor of Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
Our interviewees are: Mehran Kamrava, the interim dean of Georgetown University, Qatar; and Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
...more in Al Jazeera's Empire
Could the pro-democracy protests in Egypt generate an unstoppable momentum for political reform across the Arab world?
The impact of those demonstrations is being felt in other Arab countries where people are also speaking out against the lack of political rights and freedoms.
As the rumblings of discontent grow, leaders in countries such as Yemen, Jordan and Algeria have introduced new policies for political and economic change.
But opposition supporters are calling those measures inadequate and are demanding a complete overhaul.
On Monday, we will be discussing the issues with Saadaldeen Talib, the former head of Yemen's anti-corruption commission and now a critic of President Salah; Syrian human rights and anti-censorship activist Anas Qtiesh and writer and blogger Khalid Lum.
...more in Al Jazeera's Riz Khan
Thugs wielding batons turned on anti-government marchers in Amman yesterday as the country's political protests turned violent.
Protesters claimed they were attacked as they started to disperse after a march calling for an elected government and an end to official corruption.
Police said the clashes broke out when pro- and anti-regime groups converged. Dissenters have been calling for economic and political reform since mid-January, but they have stopped short of directly challenging King Abdullah II.
The king sacked his entire cabinet last month, in an effort to soften the protests, but many were dismayed by his appointment of Marouf Bakhit as the new premier, a man known as a steady hand in a crisis rather than as a reformer
...more in The Independent
Read also :
The dawning of Arab democracy
October marks 20 years since the guns of the Lebanese civil war fell silent. Why is the fate of thousands who disappeared during the Lebanese civil war still unsolved?
Also read: Act for the disappeared
"HELP ME FIND MY CHILD". This call is not that of a single mother but that of thousands of Lebanese mothers whose children have disappeared during the civil war.
There will be concerts, exhibitions, artistic installations and screenings of documentaries to support the families of the disappeared on September 3 and 4, 2010, at Gibran Khalil Gibran garden, in front of UN House/ESCWA, Downtown Beirut.
...The Khiam Center for Rehabilitation organized a rally outside the headquarters of the Red Cross in Hamra to mark the International Day of the Disappeared.
Some 17,000 people vanished during the bloody conflict, most - it is thought - abducted and killed by militias. But some believe a few hundred may still be alive in Syrian and Israeli jails.
Because of the reluctance to stir up memories of the war, little has been done by the government to investigate the whereabouts of the missing.
The people who went missing during Lebanon's civil war in the 1970s and 80s are in danger of being forgotten as their parents and siblings grow older. Its all about a reminder," explained the organizers of the rally, dedicated to "the Lebanese government, that has taken no initiative to deal with the issue of Lebanese missing.
...more in Al Jazeera - iloubnan.info
- BBC / and in the websites of: The khiam Rehabilitation Center for victims of torture - Amnesty International - Human Rights Watch - Act for the Disappeared - Lebanese Forces Official website - UN Human Rights - Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon - Ressemblement Canadien pour le Liban - Centre Libanais des Droits de l'Homme - Foundation for Human and Humanitarian Rights in Lebanon - US Department of State
The Lebanese Civil War
"La tinta del intelectual es más santa que la sangre
del mártir"
"El que se arrepiente es como el que no ha pecado"
"La verdadera riqueza de un hombre consiste en el bien que hace en el
mundo."
"None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself."
Mahoma
"That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow."
Torah
How long can Saudi Arabia remain a land of contradictions? For decades the country has been torn between its strong, traditional values and a push toward modernisation and change. How is today's Saudi Arabia balancing tradition with progress?
watch the interview by Riz Khan in Al Jazeera
Un príncipe saudí, acusado de matar a golpes a su secretario en un crimen pasional:
El cuerpo sin vida de Abdulaziz fue encontrado el pasado 15 de febrero con señales físicas de haber sido golpeado y estrangulado en el hotel londinense Landmark, en el céntrico barrio de Marylebone. El príncipe saudí Al Saud, de 34 años y miembro de la familia real saudí, admitió el cargo de homicidio pero negó el de asesinato.
Cuando se encontró el cadáver de Abdulaziz, el príncipe dijo que su ayudante había sido agredido y robado tres semanas antes de su muerte en el barrio londinense de Edware Road para explicar de esta manera las heridas que presentaba el fallecido. Las imágenes grabadas por las cámaras de seguridad del hotel mostraron, en cambio, al príncipe agrediendo a su ayudante en el ascensor en dos ocasiones durante las semanas previas a la muerte deAbdulaziz, y se vio también cómo el presunto agresor daba patadas a su ayudante en la puerta de una restaurante la noche de su fallecimiento.
En la vista de hoy, la fiscalía sostuvo que Al Saud había perpetrado el asesinato y que las heridas que tenía en la cara la víctima mostraban la "ferocidad" de la agresión. Por otro lado, el príncipe, que mantuvo que su ayudante y él eran"amigos e iguales", negó una supuesta relación homosexual entre ambos.
Sin embargo, el fiscal Jonathan Laidlaw afirmó en la vista de este jueves que las pruebas encontradas "establecen de forma bastante concluyente que (Al Saud) o bien es gay o tiene tendencias homosexuales". Según el fiscal, "está claro que su agresión a Bandar no se redujo simplemente a palizas físicas. Hay evidencias claras, aparte de las marcas de mordiscos (en las mejillas), de que también hubo un elemento sexual en su maltrato a la víctima".
El príncipe y su ayudante se habían alojado juntos en el citado hotel londinense desde el pasado 20 de enero tras haber extendido unas vacaciones. Las manchas de sangre encontradas en la habitación indicaban, según la fiscalía, que la víctima fue objeto de una serie de agresiones separadas antes de ser asesinado.
...más en El Confidencial - Haaretz
Riz Khan and guests discuss the multiple political and strategic challenges facing the kingdom today. More in Al Jazeera - and in the CIA website
Al Jazeera follows Chinese Muslims as they prepare to undertake the hajj pilgrimage.
The Rageh Omaar Report : Turkey's new visionary :
While leaders of the Middle East are caught between solving new and old economic and political problems, and while the peoples of the region are losing hope due to a lack of direction or solutions, one country is quietly forging ahead with plans to become a regional superpower. Ahmet Davutoglu believes that Turkey has the makings of a regional superpower and that its deep historical and geographical connections with Arabs, Kurds, Persians, Central Asians and Caucasians are an advantage.
...more in Al Jazeera - The Guardian - The Independent - France 24 - El País
El Parlamento turco ratifica el uso del velo musulmán en medio de protestas: El Parlamento turco se ha pronunciado en una sesión especial a favor de dos enmiendas constitucionales para levantar la prohibición del uso del 'hiyab' o velo islámico que cubre el cabello en las universidades, una medida a la que han mostrado su oposición los estamentos laicos de la sociedad por considerarlo un símbolo del Islam político. Las dos formaciones proponentes de la reforma, el gobernante Partido de la Justicia y el Desarrollo (AKP, 349 escaños) y el derechista Partido de Acción Nacionalista (MHP, 70 escaños), sumaban una mayoría suficiente para conseguir la aprobación del levantamiento de la prohibición del velo. Además, han contado con el apoyo del pro kurdo Partido de la Sociedad Democrática (DTP). En la sesión parlamentaria para votar sobre este asunto, transmitida en directo por varias televisiones turcas, más de 400 de los 550 diputados del Parlamento de Ankara votaron a favor de las enmiendas propuestas por el gobernante Partido de la Justicia y el Desarrollo (AKP), de orientación islamista moderada. El resultado ha sido el esperado: un sí a permitir el libre uso del velo musulmán en las mujeres en las universidades, siempre y cuando muestren sus rostros. ...más en El Mundo
El Parlamento de Turquía autoriza la ofensiva militar contra los kurdos en el norte de Irak : La medida permite enviar tropas para eliminar las bases del ilegalizado PKK. Bush advierte de que la incursión iría en contra de los intereses de Ankara. El vicepresidente iraquí aboga por la cooperación mutua para 'eliminar la crisis'. ...Aunque el primer ministro, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ha rebajado las expectativas sobre una ofensiva inminente, el visto bueno parlamentario proporciona la base legal al Ejército —el segundo mayor de la OTAN— para cruzar la frontera. De los 526 diputados presentes, 507 votaron a favor y sólo 19 lo hicieron en contra. La medida permite enviar tropas cuantas veces se considere necesario durante un año, con el fin de eliminar los 'santuarios' del ilegalizado PKK en la zona controlada por el Ejecutivo regional kurdo, donde se calcula que hay unos 3.500 guerrilleros. Los portavoces de los opositores Partido Republicano del Pueblo (CHP) y Partido de Acción Nacionalista (MHP) criticaron al Gobierno del islamista moderado Erdogan por no haber solicitado antes este permiso y le pidieron que "no dude" en aprovechar la autorización. ...más en diarios El País - El Mundo
El Gobierno iraquí trata de detener la operación de castigo turca en el Kurdistán: El primer ministro Erdogan asegura que su objetivo militar son los guerrilleros del PKK. Nadie quiere más sangre de la que ya corre en Irak. Pero la cuenta atrás hacia una nueva invasión del país se ha iniciado esta semana y nada parece detenerla. El primer ministro iraquí, Nuri al Maliki, convocó ayer un Gabinete de crisis para evitar lo que cada día parece más inevitable, que Turquía invada el norte iraquí para castigar a los guerrilleros del Partido de los Trabajadores de Kurdistán (PKK), mientras el vicepresidente del país árabe, Tariq al Hashimi, trataba de calmar los ánimos en una visita relámpago a Ankara. ..."El Gobierno iraquí hace un llamamiento urgente al Gobierno turco para mantener negociaciones", anunció un portavoz de Maliki. Pero la respuesta del primer ministro turco, el islamista moderado Recep Tayyip Erdogan, fue: "La paciencia del pueblo turco ya se ha agotado". Erdogan añadió que el objetivo de las incursiones en Irak serían sólo los miembros del Partido de los Trabajadores de Kurdistán. El primer ministro pedirá el aval del Parlamento para que le autorice a emprender acciones militares en el vecino país árabe para combatir a la guerrilla del PKK, organización considerada terrorista por la Unión Europea. ...más en diario El País
Una bomba en un centro comercial de Ankara deja seis muertos y muchos heridos: La policía turca ha detenido a siete personas una hora después de producirse el atentado...Al menos seis personas han fallecido y otras 80 han resultado heridas tras explotar una bomba en un centro comercial de Ankara, según ha confirmado el primer ministro turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Numerosas ambulancias se han desplazado al lugar de los hechos, el centro comercial Anafartalar, en la plaza de Ulus de la capital turca, donde la policía puso en marcha un dispositivo de seguridad para impedir el acceso a la zona. ...más en diario El Mundo - El País
Turquía destituye a ocho policías por tratar como un héroe al asesino de un periodista armenio: La televisión difunde unas imágenes en las que el autor del crimen posa con una bandera nacional junto a dos agentes ...Erdogan se ha defendido y ha afirmado que Turquía no se convertirá en "un hampa". El columnista turco Semih Idiz cree que lo que aparece en el vídeo “no es nuevo para Turquía; la diferencia es que ahora los medios de comunicación han decidido publicarlo" ...más en diario El País
NaZionalistas asesinan a un periodista, Hrant Dink, por denunciar el genocidio de armenios en Turquía: Hrant Dink se convirtió ayer en la víctima 1.500.001 del genocidio armenio. Periodista y académico, educado y generoso –editor del semanario turco-armenio Agos–, trató de establecer un diálogo entre las dos naciones para alcanzar una narrativa común sobre el primer holocausto del siglo XX. Y pagó el precio: dos balas disparadas a su cabeza y dos a su cuerpo por un asesino profesional en las calles de Estambul ayer a la tarde. ...lea el excelente artículo de Robert Fisk traducido en Página 12.
Esta Web se actualiza diariamente.
Informaciones útiles, criticas constructivas, ciudadanos y reporteros que deseen cooperar son bienvenidos: info@Habeas-Corpus.net
This Website is updated daily.
Useful informations, constructive critique, citizens and journalists wishing to cooperate are most welcome: info@Habeas-Corpus.net
Cette web est actualisée chaque jour
Des informations utiles, critiques constructives, citoyens et des journalistes désirant coopérer sont bienvenus: info@Habeas-Corpus.net
English version from Babelfish.