Russian ambassador to Riyadh says nuclear cooperation will pave way for Saudi Arabia to implement civil atomic programme. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
RIYADH - Moscow and Riyadh are locked in talks to sign a framework agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation, a local daily reported on Tuesday quoting the Russian ambassador to the kingdom. "Signing a nuclear agreement between the two countries will open room for (further) cooperation between them," Oleg Ozerov told Al-Watan daily. "We believe that if a final agreement was reached with the Saudi part it will be a start for positive and constructive technical and nuclear cooperation between Riyadh and Moscow," he added. Nuclear cooperation will pave the way for the oil-rich Gulf monarchy to implement a civil atomic programme, said Ozerov. The world's largest oil supplier is taking a strong interest in developing nuclear energy for domestic use. The Saudi government has authorised the head of the new King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energies to draft a pact with Moscow on nuclear cooperation, Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja told the official SPA news agency in October. In July, the cabinet gave the nod to a similar pact with France, which diplomats say is close to being ready for signing. That follows a 2008 nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. In April, the government announced the establishment of the centre for research and development into nuclear and renewable energies, and named former commerce minister Hashem bin Abdullah Yamani as its head. Plans are being drawn up to construct the centre in the desert northwest of Riyadh, officials said at a water and electricity conference in early October. |
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Saudi, Russia in talks to sign nuclear pact
Egypt president's son mum on 2011 election
Gamal Mubarak would only announce plans for presidency after ruling party meeting ahead of elections. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
CAIRO - Gamal Mubarak, one of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's sons, said Monday that presidential elections will be held in September 2011 but refused to say if he himself will run. "I gave an answer to this question five years ago and I have already replied to this question possibly three, four times a year since," Mubarak said in English when asked if he will run in the election. Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party would announce its candidate for the election at a special party convention, the 48-year-old banker said as the NDP wrapped up its annual congress. "The only time you will find out who is going to be the eventual candidate is when the party convenes, sometimes obviously before the process starts next July, and makes it's final official decision," he said. "It's a constitutional issue, everybody knows when the presidential elections are, in September of next year. The process starts 60 days before," he said. In November, Gamal Mubarak told an Egyptian television interviewer he has "no personal ambition" to succeed his father, who has ruled the country since 1981. The 82-year-old president addressed the party's congress on Saturday but did not say whether he will run for a sixth term in office, and is believed to be grooming Gamal, the younger of his two sons, for succession. Angry protests erupted in Egypt earlier this year after rumours he was being prepared to replace his father. A secret diplomatic cable published on the WikiLeaks website said the American embassy in Cairo reported that Hosni Mubarak is likely to seek re-election and serve for the rest of his life. |
Web helps revival of old Arabic poetry in Lebanon
Zajal - old form of improvised Arabic poetry - makes tentative comeback with thousands of fans on Facebook, YouTube. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
By Rita Daou - BEIRUT | |||||
Zajal, an old form of improvised Arabic poetry that enjoyed its heyday in Lebanon before the 1975-1990 civil war, is making a tentative comeback with thousands of fans on Facebook and YouTube. Traditionally an emotional oratory duel between two men, zajal once drew crowds of tens of thousands who revered its artists as poets of the highest order. It also enraptured fans who sat glued to their black-and-white television sets for the shows. In the years after the war, however, the art dwindled as more modern forms of entertainment gained popularity and the audience for zajal was relegated to a handful of nostalgic admirers. But the advent of the Internet with its online forums and popular social networking websites has seen a rising fan base among young people. "This is pure poetry... may God bring back those days where people used to express pure feelings and love, with no divisions among Lebanese," Fady Hanna Sharara wrote on one of the dozens of Facebook groups dedicated to zajal. "What a fantastic oral tradition of verbal sparring! What a great atmosphere of joy," wrote another fan who identified himself only as "George Smiley". Ziad Abi Shaker, a zajal enthusiast who is working to gather and preserve a comprehensive television archive of the poetry, said zajal was a "lost art" that has "few admirers among the younger generation." Another fan, 40-year-old engineer Abi Shaker, says he has stepped in to fill the void with an ambition to make zajal recordings available in digital format for younger generations. Video links now abound on Facebook to other sites such as YouTube, where thousands of people have viewed old footage of classical zajal performances such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOcMEfq2PYw&feature=related. Experts estimate that Lebanese zajal, the performance of colloquial poetry partly sung and accompanied by basic percussion, runs back some 500 years and has its roots in Syriac, a now-extinct dialect that preceded Arabic. In Lebanon, the art originated in the religious services of Christian monks, who improvised partly sung hymns in Syriac. Traces of zajal were also found in 10th to 12th-century Moorish Spain. While zajal is also practised in Syria, Egypt, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Lebanese form, with its themes of nation and woman, was the most popular in the region from the 1960s until the civil war began. Artists engage in hours-long challenges punctuated by traditional percussion instruments such as tambourines or derbakes, Arabic hand-held drums, and topics can range from the political to the erotic. Joseph el-Hashem, an 80-year-old known as the "nightingale of Damur," remains one of Lebanon's most famed zajal performers. "As darkness falls, far from prying eyes/My beloved to me calls/Intoxicated, the wine of burning lips I kiss/Frozen no more, my soul finds bliss," is one of his verses. Another household name is Khalil Rukoz, who gained fame for an audacity that often shocked religious leaders. "They say I know no God, my godlessness knows no end/That I rebel against the system, under no shackles will I bend/I say to them: I have no faith in a dull yesterday, in an illusory now/Justice and reason, by these I do avow," reads one of his verses. Advertisements and billboards for zajal nights have sprouted up across Lebanon, known in the region for its richness of culture, as demand for the shows rises steadily. While zajal was once staged in theatres, today's version takes on a more festive air, featuring dinner and drinks. Fans today can enjoy mezza, an assortment of appetisers that include hummus and baba ghannoush, to the rhythm of the zajalists' quatrains, washing them down with traditional arak, the aniseed-based alcoholic beverage. Private television channel OTV has also played a major role in the revival. In the past year, 10 young zajal novices have received honorary awards from OTV under the auspices of Mussa Zgheib, a legendary name in Lebanese zajal who hopes to see the art fully return to its former glory in his lifetime. "The best-known poets have passed on or are aging," Zgheib said. "I wanted to do something for zajal... before I retire." The winners are already booked for events in Lebanon and Syria, and several other candidates, mainly men, are hoping to try their luck in making a name for themselves in zajal. Georges Aoun, the creator of a zajal show on OTV, said he wanted to stand apart from local programmes modelled after "American Idol" and the popular diet of reality television shows. "I remember when I was seven-years-old, I would watch them mesmerised on television," said Aoun, a university professor. "So I thought, 'why not look for young talent to revive zajal?'" he said. "It is time to renew our heritage." |
Israeli Jews split over ban on renting to Arabs
Poll finds 44 percent of Israeli Jews in favour of anti-Arab call by rabbis while 48 percent remain opposed. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
JERUSALEM - Israeli Jews are divided over a call by rabbis for Jews to avoid renting or selling property to non-Jews, with 44 percent in favour, and 48 percent opposed, a new poll showed Tuesday. The question was asked as part of a survey conducted by Israeli and Palestinian pollsters, which also found Jews evenly split on support for a draft law that would allow small Israeli communities to reject new residents, and a proposed allegiance oath for new Israeli citizens. The poll comes after dozens of senior Israeli rabbis, many of them state employees, signed a letter warning Jews against renting or selling property to non-Jews. In recent weeks, human rights groups here have warned about a rising wave of discrimination directed against Israel's Arab population, as well as African migrants living in the Jewish state. Protests have been held throughout Israel calling for the expulsion of African migrants, and offering support for the rabbis' call. The survey released Tuesday found 40 percent of Jews support legislation that would allow small communities to reject admission of new candidates "based on social, national or economic suitability," while 48 percent oppose it. Support for an oath which would require new citizens to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state garnered support from 55 percent of Israeli Jews, but only if it applied to all new citizens. Six percent of Jews supported the allegiance pledge if it would apply exclusively to non-Jews. On the Arab side, three percent supported the pledge if it applied exclusively to non-Jews, while 17 percent said they supported such an oath if it was required of all new citizens. The poll was carried out jointly by Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute and the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research. It surveyed 511 Israeli Jews and 408 Arab Israelis, weighted according to their proportion in the population, and had a margin of error of 4.5 percent. Israel has 1.3 million Arab citizens -- Palestinians who remained in the country after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 and their descendants. There are also about 200,000 Arab residents of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community. |
Youth unemployment sparks Tunisian tinderbox
Days of violent protests in Tunisia by mostly jobless has exposed crippling unemployment problem in Tunisia. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
TUNIS - Days of rioting in Tunisia by mostly jobless and frustrated young people protesting violently against the government has exposed the crippling unemployment problem in the north African country. Unrest has gripped the central Sidi Bouzid region since the attempted suicide on December 17 of a 26-year-old university graduate, who was forced to sell fruit and vegetables on the streets to make ends meet. After police confiscated his produce because he did not have a proper permit, Mohammed Bouazizi doused himself in petrol and set himself alight, which left him in a serious condition with severe burns. Thousands of people took to the streets on December 24, the worst day of rioting, where they burned the local headquarters of the national guard, who responded with gunshots that killed an 18-year-old protestor. The protests spread to the capital Tunis on Monday, where several hundred people gathered in the city centre to demonstrate solidarity with the protestors in Sidi Bouzid. The rally was called by several trade unions, including secondary school teachers, postal, social security, and health workers. Protestors assembled in front of the headquarters of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) but were prevented from marching by police. The demonstration broke up after three hours of chanting slogans. "The root of the problems is the high rate of unemployment for university graduates, the high price of raw materials and agriculture being the sole source of work," said the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights. Tensions heightened five days after Bouazizi's attempted suicide when another young man climbed up an electricity pylon and electrocuted himself on the cables, saying he was fed up with being unemployed. "Unemployment is the immediate problem, with all that can follow," said Touhami Heni, the regional head of Tunisia's major union. Tunisia's unemployment rate is officially 14 percent, but the percentage of graduates without work is about double that, prompting a warning from the International Monetary Fund. While the government forecasts the economy to grow by 5.4 percent next year, from 4.1 percent this year, job creation is laggard and development uneven. "The weakness of the development model has caused inequality between regions, as witnessed by the fact that 90 percent of (investment) projects are in coastal areas, and 10 percent in the interior," said opposition leader Rachid Khechana. Khechana said the situation was aggravated by the migration of thousands of graduates from poorer interior regions to coastal cities in search of work. For those that remain in places such as Sidi Bouzid, livestock and informal commerce are the main ways of scratching out a living. While violent protests are rare in Tunisia, unrest has boiled over in recent years over economic woes. The mining region of Gafsa saw protests in 2008 over lay-offs and the high cost of living, while the southern town of Ben Gardane near the Libyan border was hit by protests last year when Tripoli imposed trade restrictions. The government said the December 24 violence, in which two national guard members suffered serious injuries, was the result of opposition manipulation. But in an acknowledgment of the plight of the region's young people, Development Minister Mohamed Nouri Jouini announced a new 15-million-dinar (7.5 million euros/10 million dollars) employment programme. "Work is a legitimate right for every person, but there is no justification for violence," he said. |
Kuwait opposition grills PM in secret session
Sheikh Nasser al-Sabah, nephew of Kuwait ruler, faces grilling in parliament for second time. | |||||
| Middle East Online | |||||
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti opposition lawmakers on Tuesday began quizzing the oil-rich emirate's prime minister behind closed doors over allegations of breaching the constitution and suppressing freedoms. "I am ready to be questioned and I want the debate now," Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, told parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi as the session opened. But the government promptly demanded the questioning be held in a secret session, a request parliament approved. The request to quiz the premier was filed by MPs Mussallam al-Barrak, Jamaan al-Harbash and Saleh al-Mulla, who represent the three main opposition liberal, Islamist and nationalist groups and are backed by at least 17 other MPs. The move was triggered after elite Kuwaiti forces used batons to beat up MPs and citizens at a public rally on December 8, injuring at least four lawmakers and a dozen citizens. The session was being held amid heightened security measures as hundreds of police and special forces controlled all roads leading to the parliament building in Kuwait City. Opposition MPs strongly protested, saying such measures violated the constitution which forbids any forces from coming close to parliament without the speaker's permission. About 200 Kuwaitis gathered outside parliament in support of the opposition, and were joined by around 500 others who had been allowed inside the building until the session turned secret. Opposition MPs plan to file a motion of non-cooperation with the prime minister which if passed could unseat him. It requires the support of 25 MPs in the 50-seat house. This is the second time that Sheikh Nasser, a nephew of the Gulf state ruler, has faced a grilling in parliament. In December last year, he was questioned over corruption charges and survived a non-cooperation vote. OPEC member Kuwait was the first Arab state in the Gulf to embrace parliamentary democracy, doing so in 1962, but the system has encountered major difficulties in the past five years. During this period, the emirate which sits on 10 percent of world oil reserves has been rocked by a series of political crises that led the ruler to dissolve parliament three times, while the cabinet has resigned five times. |
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