S Korean Raid Saves Crew From Somali Pirates

2:23pm UK, Friday January 21, 2011

Angela Barnes, Sky News Online

South Korean special navy forces have stormed a ship hijacked by Somali pirates and rescued all 21 crew members aboard.

Eight of the pirates were killed and five captured in the military operation, which took place off the coast of Africa, authorities said.

It comes a week after the attackers seized the Samho Jewelry and held hostage crew members from South Korea, Indonesia and Burma.

The captain of the ship was shot and wounded by a pirate. The other 20 crew members were rescued unharmed.

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak said: "We will not tolerate any behaviour that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future."

The chemical tanker was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka when it was hijacked last Saturday.

Naval special forces take up positions during the rescue operation

It was the second vessel from South Korea-based Samho Shipping to be seized in the past several months.

In November, Somali pirates freed supertanker Samho Dream and its 24 crew after months of captivity.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991.

Piracy has flourished off its coast, sometimes yielding multimillion-dollar ransoms.

The ransoms the pirates get are among the few regular sources of income for small businesses that supply the pirates with food and other goods.

In April 2009, a French navy commando team stormed the yacht Tanit. The shoot-out killed two pirates and one French hostage. Four French citizens were freed.

In the same year, US navy snipers shot three pirates who were holding an American captain hostage in a lifeboat after they had abandoned a larger ship, the Maersk Alabama.

2:26pm UK, Friday January 21, 2011

Angela Barnes, Sky News Online

A woman kidnapped as a baby from a New York hospital has been reunited with her family 23 years later - after uncovering her own abduction case.

Kidnapped Baby Finds Family After 23 Years

2:26pm UK, Friday January 21, 2011

Angela Barnes, Sky News Online

A woman kidnapped as a baby from a New York hospital has been reunited with her family 23 years later - after uncovering her own abduction case.

Carlina White was 19 days old when she was stolen from Harlem Hospital in 1987.

Her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, had taken her there because she had a high fever.

They said a woman dressed as a nurse helped them at the hospital and they left Carlina to recover overnight.

However, when the Tysons returned the next day both the 'nurse' and their daughter had vanished.

Despite the offer of a $10,000 (£6,200) reward no suspects were ever identified.

However, as the years went by, it turned out the best investigator on the case was Carlina herself.

She had long suspected she was at least adopted because the woman who raised her could never provide her with a birth certificate when she was old enough to apply for a driving licence.

Carlina was abducted when she was 19 days old

She also realised there was no family resemblence between them.

Periodically, Carlina's suspicions led her to check the website of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, looking through photos of missing infants in Connecticut where she lived.

On January 4, Carlina, now 23, checked the website again, but searched this time through New York's missing children and saw a baby photo that looked nearly identical to hers.

She contacted the site, which helped connect her with her real mother.

A DNA test confirmed her true identity on Wednesday.

The FBI and authorities are now looking at whether the alleged kidnapper could face federal prosecution since there is no statute of limitations for the abduction of a child under the age of 18.

The woman has not been identified.

In an interview with the New York Post, Carlina said reuniting with her family was like a dream.

"I'm so happy. At the same time, it's a funny feeling because everything's brand-new. It's like being born again."

Dialogue through art: France's 'Of Gods and Men'

Valentina Cattane

Sat, 22/01/2011 - 14:05

Photographed by other

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Culture and art are the lifeblood of a democratic society that wants to renovate itself. Cinema is one art form that can inspire dialogue around crucial issues, but all too often it is censored in the countries where it would speak the loudest.

“The Band’s Visit,” a 2007 Israeli movie directed by Eran Kolirin about an Egyptian police orchestra in Israel, shows how Israeli and Arabs can interact not only as enemies but as human beings with common hopes and lives. Other movies also illustrate how different religious beliefs can find meeting points, as in the love of a Pakistani Muslim guy and an Irish Catholic woman in Ken Loach's “A Fond Kiss” (2004).

The News Year's Eve terrorist act in Alexandria against the Coptic community made clear that throughout the entire society it is necessary that the other be known as a human being before anything else. Cinema could be of great importance in supporting dialogue and stimulating public discussion along such lines.

One movie that could help move forward dialogue about sectarian tension is France’s “Of Gods and Men,” which won the Grand Prix at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The film shows how clashes start when the simplicity and coexistence of everyday life is interrupted, and argues that religion is never a justification for terrorism.

Based on a true event in Algeria in 1996, the film tells the story of a group of Trappist monks living in an abbey according to the ancient rule “Ora et Labora” (“Pray and Work”). They peacefully cohabit with the Muslim population and give them medical support. Day after day, a mutual respect and acceptance of their differences develops naturally as human beings loved by the same god.

However, the monks’ choices are severely tested when a group of terrorists starts persecuting the population. “We do not understand who is killing who,” says a Muslim man to the monks.

The indiscriminate killing that defines terrorism is the beginning of the end. On Christmas Eve a group of terrorists enter the monastery asking for medicines, but are refused. The monks, now in great danger, are forced to reflect on their future.

The film attempts to show that inter-religious dialogue is possible. The title is echoed in Psalm 82 of the Bible, which reads: “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” Man and gods can meet, know and respect each other.

The movie is a powerful statement against sectarian violence, and a compelling document of uncertain events. Paolo Branca, professor of Islamic Studies and of Arab Language and Literature at the Catholic University in Milan, said, “‘Of Gods and Man’ shows that the monks did not aim to convert their Muslim fellow citizens. On the contrary, it tackles the interfaith dialogue at a spiritual level without looking for the guilty.”

The film achieved great success in France, a secular country. As a monk writes, quoting Pascal: “men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.”

Egypt's parliament admits 90% of MP memberships may be invalid

Staff

Sat, 22/01/2011 - 14:38

Photographed by Hassan Shalabi

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Amaal Othman, the head of the Egyptian parliament's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee admitted on Saturday that the membership of 486 MPs could be invalid. This step could lead to the dissolution of parliament before the end of its session in 2015.

This number constitutes more than 90 percent of the 518 MPs in parliament, of whom 10 are directly appointed by the president.

Several candidates in the 2010 parliamentary election submitted complaints accusing the governmental bodies supervising the electoral process of fraud and vote manipulation. Several administrative courts across Egypt made rulings that nullified the election in a number of constituencies as a result.

Amaal Othman said the committee has referred 1527 appeals challenging the parliamentary election results to the Court of Cassation so it can prepare a report to submit to parliament, reported the state-run news agency MENA.

Othman did not say why the complaints were referred to the Court of Cassation. However, she did say that the committee will examine the report it prepares in order to decide conclusively on the validity of those MPs' membership.

Othman added that the membership of only 22 elected MPs, as well as the 10 appointed by the president, have not been challenged. Their membership will be declared valid next week.

The ruling National Democratic Party obtained a sweeping victory in the recently-concluded parliamentary poll. It won more than 90 percent of parliamentary seats in an election widely viewed as fraudulent.

Parliament has habitually rejected any complaints challenging MPs' memberships in previous sessions, stating that it has the exclusive right to decide on the validity of membership.

On Wednesday, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group, said that the ruling regime must dissolve parliament in order to prevent a Tunisia-style revolution in Egypt.

Death toll of Alex church attack rises to 24

Staff

Sat, 22/01/2011 - 14:54

Photographed by طارق الفرماوي

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A Copt wounded in the church bombing in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve died in London, an Egyptian church source said on Saturday. This brings the death toll to 24.

Samuel Gerges Mikhail, 32, died this morning in a hospital in London. He received fourth degree burns in the attack and traveled to the UK for treatment last week.

His body is scheduled to arrive in Alexandria on Monday, the source added.

The bombing took place outside the Church of St. Mark and St. Peter in Alexandria after worshippers exited the church towards the end of the New Year’s Eve mass.

Egypt to introduce law on church construction soon, says NDP

Staff

Sat, 22/01/2011 - 15:41

Photographed by Mohamed Ibrahim

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The Egyptian government will issue a law exclusively addressing church construction, as distinct from a law for building houses of worship currently being drafted, a National Democratic Party (NDP) leader said on Saturday.

State-run news agency MENA quoted Moustafa al-Fiqqi, the head of the Shura Council's Committee on Arab, Foreign and National Security Affairs, as saying that the law will be issued. The draft law on building houses of worship, on the other hand, may take some time to prepare.

Egypt’s Christians have long complained of heavy bureaucratic restrictions for building churches due to government policy.

The Unified Houses of Worship draft law was first proposed by the ruling NDP in 2005 in an effort to regulate the construction of mosques and churches in Egypt, but was never officially endorsed.

The current law, dating back to 1856, requires presidential approval for building a church. Although President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree authorizing governors to permit church building in 2005, many Copts claim it failed to change the status quo. They say there are widespread fears that building new churches could provoke Muslim residents, especially in Upper Egypt.

According to the Ministry of Religious Endowments, there are over 93,000 mosques in Egypt, while the number of churches is around 2,000--not enough, apparently, to serve Egypt's Copts, who constitute roughly seven percent of the national population.

Alexandria’s Khaled Saeed police brutality trial postponed

Staff

Sat, 22/01/2011 - 15:56

Photographed by Noha El-Hennawy

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The trial of the two Egyptian secret policemen accused of beating Khalid Saeed to death is postponed until 26 February, judicial sources said on Saturday.

Khalid Saeed's murder in Alexandria in June 2010 attracted widespread media attention and stirred the outrage of human rights groups both in Egypt and worldwide.

Two policemen allegedly beat the 28-year-old man to death.

Defense Lawyer Hafez Abu Seaida on Saturday’s session called for the death penalty for the suspects, a judicial source told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The source added that Abu Seaida raised doubts about the validity of forensic reports stating that Saeed suffocated after swallowing a roll of marijuana.

The defense team accused police investigators of rushing Saeed’s body to the morgue, washing it and changing his shirt with another to remove signs of the crime. All evidence had therefore been erased before Alexandria prosecutors came to inspect the body.

Last year, Alexandria's District Attorney said the autopsy report ruled out the possibility that the deceased had been beaten or assaulted in any way, noting that no traces of violence had been found.

According to witnesses, Saeed was dragged out of an internet cafe before having his head hit repeatedly against a solid surface. Saeed’s family have reportedly claimed that he was killed after posting a video on the Internet that apparently showed police involved in drug deals.

Eventually, policemen Mahmoud Salah Mahmoud and Awad Ismail Suleiman were referred to criminal court on charges that included illegal arrest and the use of excessive force. Their trial began in July under close scrutiny from human rights advocacy groups.