Minister takes hard line on upcoming football match violations

MENA

Thu, 30/12/2010 - 10:21

Prev Next Pause Play

• 1

Security will confront violations by football fans attending Thursday's game between Ahly and Zamalek at Cairo Stadium, Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly reportedly warned.

In his statements relayed by Farouq Lashin, head of Cairo's police investigations department, on Wednesday al-Adly urged supporters of both teams to respect security instructions and to avoid abuses against each other. He also asked players on both teams not to behave in any way that might provoke fans.

He advised supporters who had failed to obtain tickets for the game not to attend, noting that no ticket outlets are available at the stadium.

Lashin mentioned a list of objects banned from entering the grandstands. Those include fireworks, cola cans, and water bottles. Only paperboard and plastic bottles will be permitted, he said.

Security forces are fully prepared to secure the game, and they will be present at the stadium at 10AM, according to Lashin, who added that surveillance cameras have been installed at grandstands and gates. The stadium will remain open from 11AM till 4PM.

Lashin revealed that investigation officers apprehended around 30 rioters over the past two days. They also confiscated more than 1.5 million fireworks as well as a large amount of tickets intended for black market sale.

Ahly and Zamalek are the most popular soccer teams in Egypt and among the most famous in Africa. Zamalek currently leads the chart with 30 points in the division, while its rival lags behind by six points.

The encounters bringing both teams together are usually preceded by enthusiastic exchanges among supporters through internet and media outlets.

On 25 December, a Cairo court sentenced 19 Zamalek football club fans to a year in prison, and referred 12 others to a juvenile court for rioting at the Ahly club and firing flares following a handball match between the two rivals.

Gaza factions meet over rising Israel tensions

AFP

Thu, 30/12/2010 - 10:33

Photographed by AFP

• 1

Gaza City--Hamas called a meeting of Palestinian factions overnight as tension rises along the border with Israel, a source told AFP Wednesday.

Tensions have been rising on Gaza’s border over retaliatory and often deadly Israeli air raids and continued Palestinian rocket fire into Israel.

At the Tuesday night meeting, which included all the main Palestinian factions barring Fatah, “the factions discussed the question of rocket fire and not providing the Israeli occupation with a pretext for increasing its aggression,” a source with knowledge of the meeting told AFP. “There was a consensus on the need to coordinate a response to the aggression,” the source said, without providing additional detail.

Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told AFP the meeting “discussed the growing Zionist threats to launch a new war against the Gaza Strip and we agreed the Palestinian people have the right to resistance to defend themselves.”

The Israeli military killed a Palestinian fighter and wounded five other people east of Khan Yunis in Gaza Tuesday.

The renewed tensions come just two years after Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead” in response to rocket fire from Gaza. The war, ended by a January 2009 ceasefire, killed 1400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis.

Israeli Army chief of staff Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi said Monday his troops were ready for a new confrontation if it became necessary

Bug infestation threatens important 19th century Arab manuscripts

Elsayed Abu Ali

Thu, 30/12/2010 - 11:43

Photographed by Ahmed Almasry

• 1

Manuscripts written by Refaa al-Tahtawi, a renowned 19th century Arab scholar, face decay due to infestation, warned Bahaa Hassanein, professor of antiquities and museum maintenance at Souhag University.

The professor said that al-Tahtawi's libraries at the cities of Souhag and Tahta, where the rare documents are kept, are under attack by bugs which already managed to damage a large number of manuscripts of high literary and cultural value.

Souhag's governor, Mohsen al-Numani, said he previously requested the Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni to restore al-Tahtawi's libraries and preserve its contents. He added that Hosni, in turn, requested that the manuscripts be transfered to Dar al-Kotob library or the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, but that Souhag's local authorities rebuffed the request.

Al-Tahtawi is a pioneer of Egypt’s scientific renaissance during the reign of Egypt’s Ottoman ruler Mohamed Ali. He was born in the city of Tahta, Souhag, in 1801. Upon turning 21, al-Tahtawi began working as a teacher at al-Azhar. He travelled to France to study human sciences and returned to Egypt in 1831 before establishing the School of Al-Alsun in 1835. He was famous for the “Paris Profile,” the first book of its kind introducing Egyptians to French societal norms.

Sudan leader gives rebels ultimatum

Al-Bashir tells Darfur rebels there will be no more peace talks if no deal is reached at in Doha Last Modified: 30 Dec 2010 10:03 GMT

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leaders called al-Bashir's ultimatum a 'declaration of war'. [AFP] Sudan's president has said his government will withdraw from peace talks in Doha and organise its own negotiations if no agreement with the rebels in the western Darfur region is reached this week. Omar al-Bashir's comments on Wednesday prompted angry response from one rebel group in the country's war-torn western region - the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - which called the remarks "a declaration of war". "If we reach an agreement tomorrow, praise be to God," al-Bashir told thousands of his suppoorters in Nyala in a speech broadcast live on state television. "But if there is no agreement, we will withdraw our negotiating team and the talks will then be held in Darfur. We will fight those who choose to take up arms, but we will sit next to those who want development." Mohammed Adow, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Khartoum, said: "The president's comments just show frustration with the long period the Doha peace process has taken." He said the government views the slow progress as "lack of readiness on the part of the rebel movement to come to the negotiating table". The decision by al-Bashir to give much attention to development in Darfur rather than negotiations with the rebels has been criticised by opponents who feel they are being sidelined and yet "they are key to any peace process for Darfur," said our correspondent. JEM's reaction Al-Bashir's ultimatum came as his special adviser on Darfur, Ghazi Salaheddine, was expected in the Qatari capital on Wednesday to push the talks, according to Sudan's official SUNA news agency. Ahmed Hussein Adam, a spokesperson for JEM, told the AFP news agency the ultimatum "undermines the efforts of the international community and of the mediation to resolve this conflict through political means". "JEM is committed to reach a fair settlement of the conflict, which is why we are here in Doha," he said. "If the Sudan government leaves Doha, we cannot have an agreement with ourselves." The Doha peace talks suffered a major blow earlier this week when Darfur rebels clashed with Sudanese government troops three days after announcing they had resumed ceasefire negotiations. The Sudanese government said its forces killed 40 rebels in the fighting in northern Darfur and that two of its soldiers were also killed and 13 others injured. Deadly violence in Darfur since December 10 has displaced around 32,000 people, according to UN estimates. "These clashes are deplorable and demonstrate the importance of a ceasefire... If the violence escalates, the general atmosphere in the negotiations will deteriorate," Djibril Bassole, the UN-African Union chief peace negotiator for Darfur, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday. Bassole said he would try to persuade the different parties not to abandon the peace process, even if an agreement was not reached in the coming days. "I am among those who want a swift and satisfactory solution. But mediation by someone with a stopwatch in his hand is not good mediation," he added. Darfur has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Flooded Australian towns evacuated

Towns across Queensland may be underwater for more than a week, in some of worst flooding the state has seen. Last Modified: 30 Dec 2010 06:53 GMT

Bundaberg was split into two as rising flood waters forced authorities to evacuate about 400 people [AFP] Flooded communities across eastern Australia could be underwater for more than a week, with the clean-up bill expected to hit billions of dollars. Days of torrential downpours have left parts of central and southern Queensland state inundated, flooding thousands of homes and businesses, cutting off roads and forcing one town's entire population to evacuate. The flooding is some of the worst in the state's history. Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland, called the situation a tragedy. "Some families at this very special time of year at Christmas have lost everything, this is a tragedy across towns and cities right throughout the state," she said on Thursday. The rain was easing on Thursday, but river levels continued to rise in many locations as high waters made their way toward the sea. Communities already swamped could remain underwater for up to 10 days, Bligh warned. "The recovery ... is going to require literally billions of dollars from federal, state and local governments [and] insurance companies," she told Australian radio. "It's an enormous disaster." Bundaberg, famous for its rum, was split into two as rising flood waters inundated 120 homes on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of about 400 people overnight, Tony Ricciardi, the town's deputy mayor, said. Residents had to spend the night in makeshift shelters. "This is a one-in-100-year event," Ricciardi said. "We won't see this again in our lifetime. Well, I hope." "Quite literally most of us, the clothes we are in, that's it. That's all we have got," one man told local television. Two people had to be rescued from their roof after water flooded their Bundaberg home, police said. In the town of Theodore, the military evacuated the town's entire population of 300 by helicopter on Wednesday. It is the first time in the state's history that a town has been fully evacuated. Only a few police officers remained in Theodore on Thursday. The head of the state's emergency agency, Bruce Grady, said the crisis would not pass quickly. "These floodwaters are likely to remain high for a long period of time, in some cases that might be measured by weeks, rather than days," he said on Thursday. "These waters will go down when nature tells us they will go down." Queensland launched a disaster relief fund for flood victims with $1m in state money. Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, pledged to match that amount with federal funds. "We won't know until floodwaters recede the total amount of damage done," Gillard said. "But what this does mean is the Queensland and federal governments will work together in those areas in partnership with the rebuilding of critical infrastructure." Flooding has shut down about 300 roads across Queensland, including two major highways to the state capital Brisbane.

Source: Agencies

Spanish women force delivery

Ahead of a looming deadline on financial aid, mothers-to-be are trying to bring their deliveries forward. Last Modified: 30 Dec 2010 09:33 GMT

Mothers-to-be are trying to beat the deadline for last 'baby cheques,' as the policy is sacrified to austerity cuts [EPA] Expectant mothers in Spain have until midnight on New Year's Eve to give birth, if they are to receive a cheque of $3,300 from the government. Spain's 'baby cheques,' a government scheme that was introduced in July 2007 to help encourage more families to have children, are being cut from January 1 as part of the national austerity drive. Pregnant women are trying to bring their deliveries forward ahead of the cut-off date, according to El Pais, a Spanish daily newspaper. "What we're seeing in the public sector is that women who are due to give birth in the first fortnight of January are coming in and saying they are spotting blood or that their waters have broken," a midwife working in a Seville hospital told El Pais. "They don't dare say so openly but we know they want to bring the due date forward." Doctors also told the paper they were seeing a spike in the number of women requesting that their babies be delivered by caesarean. Prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist government introduced the reform in a surprise move last year. "In order to continue progressing Spain needs more families with more children. And families need more aid to have more babies and more resources for their upbringing," Zapatero told parliament at the time. After seeing a dramatic population boom in the 1960s and 1970s, the Spanish birth rate stalled in the 1980s. By 2000 it had fallen to an average of 1.07 births per woman, the lowest figure in the world. Population growth in the past 10 years is mostly due to immigration, rather than a rising birth rate. In 2009, the number of births fell by five per cent, the first decline in the past decade. For some commentators, the most recent drop is a consequence of the economic crisis, and notably rising unemployment. Demographers have long argued that a lack of family planning has made caring for children harder in Spain than in other, more generous, European countries. The 'baby cheque' policy was intended to provide of the kind of family support that is common in many of Spain's northern neighbours. Others blame 'conservative' cultural values that continue to place the burden of child care overwhelmingly on women.

Source: Al Jazeera

Iraq war deaths 'drop in 2010'

Group monitoring civilian deaths says total is less than 2009 but warns of lingering, low-level conflict in years ahead. Last Modified: 30 Dec 2010 02:23 GMT

Iraq Body Count said December is on track to be the least deadly month of the year [EPA] A group monitoring Iraqi civilian deaths has said in its annual report that the number has dropped slightly since 2009 but warned of a lingering, low-level conflict in the years ahead. The UK-based Iraq Body Count said in its year-end study released on Thursday that 3,976 civilians have been killed this year as of December 25, compared with 4,680 in 2009. While there was a drop from 2009 to 2010, the organisation said the rate of decline was smaller than in previous years, indicating that future security improvements would be much harder to come by. "The 2010 data suggest a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come,'' the report said. Figures disputed The organisation is believed to be the only non-governmental group to have consistently recorded Iraqi civilian casualties since the war began in March 2003. Casualty figures in the US-led war in Iraq have been a hotly disputed topic with critics on each side accusing the other of manipulating the death toll to sway public opinion. US military officials said in the early years of the war that they did not count Iraqi civilian deaths. But last summer, the US army posted a tally on one of its websites putting the death toll between January 2004 and August 2008 of Iraqi civilians and security forces at almost 77,000. The tally fell short of the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry's estimated 85,694 civilian and security deaths between January 2004 and October 31, 2008. Iraq Body Count puts the number of dead between 99,285 and 108,398. The organisation uses media reports and other sources to compile its information, which is updated daily on its website. 'Sheer relentlessness' In a hopeful sign, the group said the second half of the year - specifically after the majority of US combat forces left the country in August - showed many fewer deaths than the first half. December is on track to be the least deadly month of the year, the group said. Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, 360km northwest of the capital, remained the most dangerous cities in the country, according to the organisation's information. Underscoring that point, a top police commander was killed in Mosul on Wednesday morning when three suicide bombers stormed the compound where he was sleeping. Iraq Body Count also said that the security crisis in Iraq was "notable for its sheer relentlessness". According to the group, an average of two explosions occurred each day that resulted in civilian deaths. After the release of hundreds of thousands of US military documents related to the Iraq war by WikiLeaks, Iraq Body Count said it had analysed some of the documents and estimated that an additional 15,000 people had been killed that the group did not previously know about. However, the group has not yet included those figures in its overall number of war dead because it is still going through each report to verify the figures.

Source: Agencies