Syrian tanks 'shell district of Homs'

Neighbourhood in restive city "shaking" with explosions from shelling and gunfire, according to rights campaigner. Last Modified: 11 May 2011 08:33

Witnesses said Syrian tanks and snipers were seen in the city of Deraa earlier in the uprising [AFP] Army tanks have shelled a residential district in Homs, according to a rights campaigner in the Syrian city which has emerged as the most populous centre of defiance against Bashar al-Assad's rule. "Homs is shaking with the sound of explosions from tank shelling and heavy machine guns in the Bab Amro neighbourhood," Najati Tayara, said. Assad initially responded to the unrest, the most serious challenge to his 11-year grip on power, with promises of reform. He granted citizenship to stateless Kurds and last month lifted a 48-year state of emergency. But he also deployed the army to crush dissent, in Deraa, where demonstrations first erupted on March 18, and then in other cities, making clear he would not risk losing the tight control his family has held over Syria for the past 41 years. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretatry general, urged Syria on Wednesday to halt mass arrests of anti-government protesters and to heed calls for reform. Ban also said that UN humanitarian workers and human rights monitors must be allowed into Deraa, as well as other cities so as to assess the situation and needs of the civilian population. "I urge president Assad to heed the call of the people for reform and freedom and desist from the mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators, and to cooperate with the human rights monitors," Ban told a news conference in Geneva. "I am disappointed that the United Nations has not been granted access yet to Deraa and other places," he added. The EU is to look at fresh sanctions this week against Syrian Assad's regime after already honing in on his inner circle, Catherine Ashton, the EU diplomacy chief, said on Wednesday. Fresh sanctions Asked by members of the European Parliament to explain why Assad's name was not on a list of 13 Syrian officials hit by European Union sanctions, Ashton said "we started with 13 people who were directly involved" in cracking down on protests. "We'll look at it again this week," she added. "I assure you that my intention is to put the maximum political pressure that we can on Syria." Speaking to the New York Times, a powerful cousin of the president said the Assad family was not going to capitulate. "We will sit here. We call it a fight until the end...They should know when we suffer, we will not suffer alone," Rami Makhlouf, one of the 13 people targeted by additional sanctions, told the newspaper. Makhlouf, a tycoon in his early 40s who owns several monopolies, and his brother, a secret police chief, have been under specific US sanctions since 2007 for corruption. Suhair al-Atassi, a rights campaigner, said a demonstration broke out on Tuesday in Homs, despite a heavy security presence, after tanks stormed several neighbourhoods on Sunday and three civilians were killed. "This regime is playing a losing card by sending tanks into cities and besieging them. Syrians have seen the blood of their compatriots spilt. They will never return to being non-persons," she told Reuters. Demonstrators have shouted the name of Makhlouf as a symbol of graft in a country that has been facing severe water shortages and unemployment ranging from government estimates of 10 per cent to independent estimates of 25 per cent. Makhlouf maintains he is a businessman whose companies provide jobs for thousands of Syrians. Most foreign journalists have been banned from Syria. Presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told a New York Times correspondent allowed into the country for a few hours that the government was close to re-establishing order after unrest it blames on "armed terrorist groups". "Now we've passed the most dangerous moment... I hope we are witnessing the end of the story." Shaaban said. Erdogan posters in Baniyas Security forces have released 300 people detained in Baniyas and restored basic services in the coastal city stormed by tanks and troops last week, according to a human rights group. Water, telecommunications and electricity had been restored, but tanks remained in major streets, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. Two hundred people, including pro-democracy protest leaders were still in jail, it said. "Scores of those released were severely beaten and subjected to insults. A tank deployed in the square where demonstrations were being held," Rami Abdelrahman, the Observatory director, said. Human rights campaigners said at least six civilians, including four women, where killed in raids on Sunni neighbourhoods and in an attack on an all-women demonstration just outside Baniyas on Saturday. Until the uprising began, Assad - from the minority Shia Alawite sect - had been emerging from Western isolation after defying the United States over Iraq and reinforcing an anti- Israel bloc with Iran, increasing Syrian Sunni concerns. Demonstrators in Baniyas had raised posters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, who has had close ties to Assad, but has disputed the official Syrian account of the violence. Erdogan said more than 1,000 civilians had died, and he did not want to see a repeat of the 1982 Hama violence or the 1988 gassing of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja, when 5,000 people died. In southern Syria, four civilians in Tafas were killed as security forces widened a campaign of arrests, a human rights campaigner in the region said, adding that 300 people had been detained since tanks entered the town on Saturday.

Source: Agencies

Schoolgirls targeted in Bahrain raids

In a secretly filmed interview, schoolgirl tells how she was severely beaten as Gulf kingdom cracked down on protests. Last Modified: 11 May 2011 10:06

Secret filming conducted by Al Jazeera has revealed shocking evidence of the brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in the Gulf state of Bahrain. An undercover investigation conducted by Al Jazeera's correspondent, Charles Stratford, has unearthed evidence that Bahraini police carried out periodic raids on girls' schools since the unrest began. The government of Bahrain deployed security forces onto the streets on March 14 in an attempt to quell more than four weeks of protests. Click here for more of our special coverage A three-month "state of emergency" that was declared by King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa on March 15, is due to be lifted on June 1. At the height of the protests, up to 200,000 people rallied against the government. The crackdown was an attempt to end the protests that demanded the end of the despotic rule of the Khalifah royal family. In an interview "Heba", a 16-year-old schoolgirl, alleges she, along with three of her school friends, were taken away by the police from their school and subjected to severe beatings while in custody for three consecutive days. "He hit me on the head, I started bleeding. I fell down, he told them [guards] to keep me in the rest-room," she said during the secretly filmed interview. "He [the officer] hit and banged me against the wall to scream. Since we did not cry out or scream, we were beaten more and more, stronger and stronger. "Beating was severe, but being afraid of what comes next, we were senseless to the pain." According to the mainly Shia opposition Al Wefaq party, police have raided up to 15 mainly girls schools, detaining, beating and threatening to rape girls as young as 12. A Bahrain human rights group says at least 70 teachers have also been detained. Meanwhile the media clampdown continues.

Source: Al Jazeera

Bin Laden son questions killing

Fourth eldest son says family wants "conclusive evidence" to prove events surrounding al-Qaeda leader's death. Last Modified: 11 May 2011 06:15

The US said bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan [GALLO/GETTY] A statement purporting to come from a son of Osama bin Laden has questioned the legitimacy of the al-Qaeda leader's killing. The statement, published by the New York Times and attributed to Omar bin Laden, bin Laden's fourth eldest son, said the al-Qaeda chief's children reserved the right to take legal action in the United States and internationally to determine the true fate of their vanished father. "We are not convinced on the available evidence in the absence of dead body, photographs, and video evidence that our natural father is dead," the statement read, adding that the family was seeking "conclusive evidence" confirming bin Laden's death. Obama announced bin Laden was killed in a raid by US forces on a compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad. His body was quickly buried at sea, according to the US. Obama has vetoed the release of photos of bin Laden's body. The statement from the family continued, saying that if bin Laden was indeed dead, "then we are just in questioning as per media reports... why an unarmed man was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world". "If he has been summarily executed then, we question the propriety of such assassination where not only international law has been blatantly violated but USA has set a very different example whereby right to have a fair trial, and presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court of law, has been sacrificed." The statement said bin Laden's "sudden and unwitnessed burial at sea has deprived the family of performing religious rights of a Muslim man". Photo evidence Questions have multiplied since the White House said the al-Qaeda leader was unarmed when US helicopter-borne commandos raided the villa where he was hiding. Some in the US senate have said that they too need to see photographic proof to confirm that bin Laden was truly dead. US senators serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee will be able to see post-mortem photos of bin Laden by making a special appointment with the CIA, according to reports. Three Republican senators, including Saxby Chambliss, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, initially claimed to have seen the photos last week, before acknowledging they were likely duped by photoshopped fakes. The statement from bin Laden's family made sure to distance his son from the al-Qaeda leader's ideology, saying: "In making this statement, we want to remind the world that Omar Ossam Binladin [sic], the fourth-born son of our father, always disagreed with our father regarding any violence and always sent messages to our father, that he must change his ways and that no civilians should be attacked under any circumstances". The statement added that it was "unworthy" of US special forces to shoot unarmed female members of the Bin Laden family. It also urged the government of Pakistan "to release and hand over all minors of the family and [ensure] all the family members are reunited at one place and are repatriated to their country of origin". It ended by calling for a response from the US within 30 days. Failure to answer the family's questions would result in their seeking redress with bodies such as the UN or the International Criminal Court, it said.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

UN chief calls for ceasefire in Libya

Ban Ki-moon calls for Libyan regime to halt attacks on civilians as NATO continues Tripoli bombardment. Last Modified: 11 May 2011 09:58

Libyan rebels said they had made gains by driving back Gaddafi's troops [AFP] Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has called for an "immediate, verifiable ceasefire'' in Libya and urged government forces to stop attacking civilians. Ban said on Wednesday there must also be unimpeded access for humanitarian workers trying to deliver aid to those affected by the fighting. "First and foremost there should be an end to the fighting in Misrata and elsewhere. Then we will be able to provide humanitarian assistance and in parallel we can continue our political dialogue," Ban said. Ban's comments followed a call from Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, ofor a pause in hostilities to allow food, water, medical supplies and other aid to be delivered to needy populations. Meanwhile, NATO said a renewed bombing campaign against Tripoli was not targeting Muammar Gaddafi personally, as explosions rocked the Libyan capital once again overnight. Explosions could be heard in eastern Tripoli for almost an hour early on Wednesday morning as jets flew overhead, a witness told the AFP news agency. The explosions began about 7:30 am (0530 GMT) and continued sporadically until 8:15 am (0615 GMT), the witness said. On Tuesday, NATO launched strikes in Tripoli on targets that appeared to include Gaddafi's compound, witnesses said. "All NATO targets are military targets, which means that the targets we've been hitting, and it happened also last night in Tripoli, are command and control bunkers," Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini, chief operations officer of NATO's Libya mission told reporters. Making gains Libyan rebels said they had made gains by driving back Gaddafi's troops on the eastern and western edges of the port city of Misurata and encircling them at the airport. The rebels said they had taken the town of Zareek on Tuesday, about 25km west of Misurata, but no independent verification of the rebel statements was available, Reuters reported. Misurata - besieged by Gaddafi's forces for eight weeks - is strategically important to rebel hopes of overthrowing the Libyan leader because it is the only city they hold in the west of the North African country. After two months of revolt linked to this year's uprisings in other Arab countries, the war has reached a stalemate. Rebels hold Benghazi and other towns in the oil-producing east, while the government controls the capital and almost all of the west. On Wednesday Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, announced plans to open an office in Benghazi to facilitate assistance to the rebel council based there. "I intend to open an office in Benghazi so that we can move forward on the support we've discussed to the people... to support civil society, to support the Interim Transitional National Council," Ashton told the European Parliament. She said EU support would include help for security sector reform and institution-building. "We want to help with education, with health care, with security on the borders," she said.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Egypt's clash of religions

Post-revolution Egypt faces sectarian violence after deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians. Inside Story Last Modified: 10 May 2011 15:32

They spent 18 days united in Tahrir Square in what has become known as the Egyptian revolution. But barely three months later, there appear to be divisions. Violence rocked Cairo this weeked as Coptic Christians and Muslims clashed, leaving at least 12 people killed and hundreds more injured. But who is behind the conflict? Who stands to gain the most? And how far will it go? Inside Story, with presenter Dareen Abughaida, discusses with Michael Mounir, a Coptic activist and lobbyist, who has been working to get Egyptian Copts proper representation in government; Sharif Abdel Kouddous, a correspondent at Democracy Now!; and Rabab El-Mahdi, a political activist and professor of political science at the American University in Cairo. This episode of Inside Story aired from Tuesday, May 9, 2011.

Source: Al Jazeera

Google doodle celebrates Roger Hargreaves's Mr Men books

Google unveils 16 doodles of characters from much-loved books by English author and illustrator

Ben Quinn
The Guardian, Monday 9 May 2011
Article history

The Mr Men Google doodles celebrate the 76th birthday of creator Roger Hargreaves.
The 76th birthday of Roger Hargreaves, the English author and illustrator who delighted generations of children with his Mr Men books, has been celebrated by the unveiling of no less than 16 Google doodles.
Ranging from Mr Forgetful to Little Miss Tiny, the doodle image changes each time the page is reloaded.
More than 100m books based on Hargreaves's characters have been sold worldwide in 28 countries, while five more were completed by his son Adam, but even greater world domination may yet be on the way in the form of a big screen adaptation.
Twentieth Century Fox's animation department is working on the project although it is unclear whether the Little Miss characters will feature.
Hargreaves's stories have been adapted into four animated television series, most recently airing in the UK on Channel 5 in 2008 and 2009. A total of 46 Mr Men and 33 Little Miss characters were created.
The first of the Mr Men characters is said have been created when Adam Hargreaves asked his father what a tickle looked like.
Hargreaves drew a figure with a round orange body and long, rubbery arms. Mr Tickle had been born.
Adam, who has said that the simplicity of the characters was the key to their success, took over the running of the Mr Men empire after his father died of a stroke in 1988 at the age of 53.

Egypt gets tough on security in wake of sectarian violence

Egypt’s military government vowed on Sunday to use an “iron hand” against those who "threaten national security", after clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo left at least 12 people dead and scores injured.

By Claire PRYDE (video)
News Wires (text)

AFP - Egypt's military rulers warned Sunday they will use an "iron hand" to protect national security after clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo killed 12 people and injured scores.

Authorities would "strike with an iron hand all those who seek to tamper with the nation's security," Justice Minister Abdel Aziz al-Gindi told reporters after cabinet crisis talks.

Gindi said the government would "immediately and firmly implement the laws that criminalise attacks against places of worship and freedom of belief" using anti-terror laws to combat those "threatening national security."

The statement came at the end of nearly four hours of cabinet talks and after Egypt's military rulers had said 190 people detained in connection with the clashes would face military trial.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in power since a popular uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February, said the move was a "deterrent" to all those who sought to sow strife in the country.

Saturday's clashes in the working class neighbourhood of Imbaba in northwestern Cairo left 12 people dead and 232 injured, state television said.

Among those killed were four Christians and six Muslims, while two other bodies were still unidentified.

The two groups had clashed after Muslims attacked the Coptic Saint Mena church in Imbaba to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam.

Since Mubarak was ousted, Egypt has been gripped by insecurity and sectarian unrest, amid -- by the government's admission -- a "counter-revolution" by remnants of the old regime aimed at sowing chaos.

"Egypt's people, the noble police and the great army are standing together to foil the counter-revolution," Gindi said.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the army blamed "forces of evil and darkness" for trying to "tear the national fabric."

In Imbaba -- an overcrowded maze of residential buildings and shops -- Muslim and Christian residents pleaded with the visiting interior minister, Mansur Essawy, to boost security on the streets, the official MENA news agency said.

The government has come under criticism for the shortage of police forces and lack of security but during his walkabout Essawy vowed to "improve security in the coming phase and bring back stability," MENA said.

Victims' families would be paid 5,000 Egyptian pounds (about $840) in compensation, and the injured would receive 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($336), said Ali Abdelrahman, the governor of Giza where Imbaba lies.

A curfew has been imposed in a the area around the Imbaba church until 11:00 am (0900 GMT) on Monday, state TV reported.

Egypt's mufti -- the government's chief interpreter of Islamic law -- Ali Gomaa condemned the clashes and said they "were toying with Egypt's national security."

Military police parked outside the church in Imbaba on Saturday fired their guns into the air as Christians in front of the church and Muslim protesters down the street hurled stones at each other.

The Muslims threw firebombs, one of them setting alight an apartment near the church.

Coptic protesters scuffled with soldiers, blaming them for not doing enough to protect them.

The soldiers advanced at Muslim protesters who edged closer to the church, firing over their heads to repel them. Special forces were later deployed outside the church.

Elsewhere in Imbaba, Muslim protesters threw firebombs at another church, setting it on fire, police officials said. They said the fire was put out.

At one of the cordons outside the St Mena church, Muslim protesters said they were first fired upon by the Copts, after they tried to find a Christian woman they say converted to Islam and was being held inside.

Copts, who account for up to 10 percent of the country's 80 million people, complain of discrimination and have been the targets of fairly regular sectarian attacks.

Claims that Christian women who converted to Islam were kidnapped and held in churches or monasteries have soured relations between the two communities for months.

Egypt's military rulers had warned on May 1 of strong measures against anyone inciting sectarian strife, in a bid to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said it was "exerting all efforts to end sectarian disagreements on the Egyptian street to protect this nation."

The statement came after a series of Muslim-Christian clashes and amid the growing public presence of Salafis -- a puritanical Islamist sect -- since the fall of Mubarak after a wave of mass protests.