Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...#axzz23DXwx6zE
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Saleh loyalists beseige Yemen Defense Ministry
SANAA: Hundreds of Republican Guard forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh encircled the Defense Ministry in Sanaa for several hours early Friday, protesting a move to strip the ex-president’s son of part of his military command, officials said.
The officers and soldiers of the country’s best trained force, which has been led by Saleh’s son, Ahmad, rallied at the ministry starting late Thursday. Officials said that military officers had informed them that the force would try to storm the ministry, prompting authorities to deploy tanks and armored vehicles to the area. Government forces threatened to open fire if the protesters didn’t leave. The demonstration ended several hours later.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT
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Iran state TV: At least 87 dead in earthquake
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian state television says at least 87 people have been killed in a 6.2-magnitude earthquake in northwestern Iran.
At least 400 others were injured in Saturday's quake, the channel said, which damaged hundreds of homes when it hit near the town of Ahar in East Azerbaijan province.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
https://twitter.com/ThomasErdbrink
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Iran Deputy minister saying there are now 153 dead and 700 wounded in tabrizquake
2:58 PM
Fars news now saying 180 dead in Tabrizquake, expecting more.
3:41 PM
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...330792426.html
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Aid efforts under way after Iran quakes
Rescue teams have stopped looking for survivors from two powerful earthquakes near northwestern city of Tabriz, state television said, adding all those trapped under the rubble had been located and saved.
At least 227 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded in the massive earthquakes that hit the towns of Ahar and Varzaghan on Saturday.
"There are no people left to recover from under the rubble in any village, and all necessary aid is currently being distributed," an interior ministry official in charge of disaster management, Hossein Ghadami, told state television on Sunday.
He said he hoped the death toll would not rise further. Some of those critically injured had already succumbed to their wounds.
Efforts are on to provide water and shelter to the affected people, as thousands of people huddled in makeshift camps or slept in streets after Saturday's quakes in fear of more aftershocks.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
https://twitter.com/DavidKenner
http://www.gallup.com/poll/156539/Op...BDtWjA.twitter
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Opinion Briefing: Libyans Eye New Relations With the West
---------- Post added August-13th-2012 at 03:48 PM ----------
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/13/world/...kes/index.html
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More than 300 killed, 3,000 injured in Iran earthquakes
The death toll from a pair of earthquakes that jolted Iran on Saturday has escalated once again, state-run media reported Monday.
At least 306 people have been killed and 3,037 injured in the two quakes in northwest Iran, Press TV reported, citing the country's Health Ministry.
The head of emergency services, Gholamreza Masoumi, told the semi-official Fars News Agency that 4,500 people were injured. About 1,200 were taken to hospitals, and the remaining 3,300 were treated as outpatients and released, he said.
Rescue operations were reported to have ended Sunday.
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The Red Crescent's Faqih said 230 villages in the Varzaqan, Haris and Ahar regions suffered 70% to 100% damage.
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In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States is prepared to offer earthquake assistance but had received no request.
"Americans wishing to provide humanitarian assistance to Iranians during this time may donate food and medicine without obtaining an Iranian transactions regulations license," she told reporters. "Additionally, certain noncommercial personal financial transactions for Iran are authorized under existing general licenses."
I could have sworn the Iranian media said no one else would die, after it was about 227 or so dead.
Of course they also said it was not a big incident when the news first broke.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87C16020120813
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Thousands rally in Tunisia for women's rights
Thousands of Tunisians rallied on Monday to protest against what they see as a push by the Islamist-led government for constitutional changes that would degrade women's status in one of the Arab world's most liberal nations.
The protest, by some 6,000 mostly Tunisian women, is the latest twist in a row over the role of Islam in a constitution being drawn up by a new assembly.
Tunisia's ruling Ennahda Movement is under pressure from both hardline Salafi Muslims, calling for the introduction of Islamic law, and secular opposition parties.
Activists are not happy with a stipulation in a draft of the constitution that considers women to be "complementary to men" and want a pioneering 1956 law that grant women full equality with men to remain in place.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
Quote:
Originally Posted by
visionary
I'm okay with this.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87D0C120120814
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Iran finds more bodies after quake, public criticism
Rescue workers in Iran on Tuesday recovered more bodies three days after two powerful earthquakes struck the northwest of the country, killing more than 300 people, but officials played down reports that casualty numbers may still sharply rise.
The quakes, with magnitudes of 6.4 and 6.3, struck East Azerbaijan province on Saturday afternoon, flattening villages and injuring thousands of people around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan, and Harees, near the provincial capital Tabriz.
A rescue team using sniffer dogs had pulled out the body of a young woman in the village of Sorkhgav, Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, and was close to finding others.
Another report, by Iran's Labour news agency, said hundreds of villages had suffered severe damage, raising fears that the number of dead could mount sharply as rescuers reach previously inaccessible areas.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...rthquakes.html
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Iran earthquakes
Twin earthquakes hit northwest Iran near the Azerbaijan border, injuring thousands and killing over 300
Simple mud brick homes in the sparsely populated region collapsed quickly in the quakes, the larger of which measured 6.4 on the Richter Scale. Iran sits on several active fault lines and experiences earthquakes regularly.
With western media hindered by restrictions in Iran, many of the images presented here are by Iranian news services, including the Iranian Students' News Agency.
Photos of earthquake damage, casualties, and refugees in Iran
http://inapcache.boston.com/universa..._2012/bp17.jpg
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa...=MasterAccount
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Police open fire on South African miners
At least seven people have been killed when police opened fire on miners staging a protest at a platinum mine in South Africa, according to Reuters.
South African police opened fire and dispersed a crowd of striking miners at the Lonmin mine in the North West province on Thursday after issuing an order to the protesters to lay down their machetes and sticks.
News TV images showed people lying on the ground, one with blood flowing from a wound.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...285_story.html
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Bahrain sentences prominent activist to 3 years prison for instigating, partaking in protest
MANAMA, Bahrain — A prominent Bahraini human rights activist was found guilty Thursday of instigating and participating in several illegal gatherings and sentenced to three years in jail.
The unexpectedly stiff sentence against Nabeel Rajab will raise questions about the Western-backed Sunni monarchy’s commitment to reform, and embolden anti-government protesters who have been demonstrating the past 18 months for greater rights in the Gulf island kingdom, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet.
Rajab, who is already serving a three-month sentence for posting anti-government comments on Twitter, was in court for the verdict. He is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
Rajab’s attorney Mohammed al-Jishi said each of three cases yielded a year imprisonment, for a total of three years. Al-Jishi said he plans to appeal the ruling.
In a separate case involving comments made on social media site Twitter, a judge delayed issuing a verdict against Rajab’s appeal until Aug. 23.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/201...orld&seid=auto
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Video Shows South African Police Shooting Miners
As our colleague Lydia Polgreen reports, at least 18 striking miners were shot dead on Thursday by South African police officers who opened fire as a crowd approached carrying machetes and sticks at a Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana.
News camera crews were at the mine covering the labor unrest when the shooting began. A crew from eNewsChannel in South Africa captured this video, which shows graphic images of police firing into the crowd.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak
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Police tell Sky News they believe 30 people have died at mine shooting
1:35 AM
https://twitter.com/AJELive
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Update: South African police minister Nathi Mthethwa says 30 people were killed in Lonmin platinum mine shooting on Thursday.
1:48 AM
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87H03I20120818
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At least 18 killed in Yemen attack on intelligence HQ
Suspected al Qaeda-linked militants killed at least 18 Yemeni soldiers and security guards on Saturday in a car bombing and grenade attack on the intelligence service headquarters in Aden, the Defence Ministry and witnesses said.
The ministry said more bodies were believed buried under the rubble of the building, part of which was leveled in the attack in the southern port city. At least seven others were wounded before the militants fled.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa...=MasterAccount
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Somalia moves forward to electing president
Somalia has taken a step toward electing a new president after a committee overseeing the war-torn country's transition to a replacement government named more than 200 parliamentarians, a committee member said.
"We have 202 members readied now and we are working on the reviewing of 40 others that were passed today and we hope the first parliament session will be held around (Monday)," Halimo Yarey, who co-chairs the committee, said on Saturday.
"The rest of the list is still pending because of inter-clan argument and other reasons related to a lack of fulfillment of the conditions," she told reporters.
The legislature is due to elect the next president on Monday under a UN-backed agreement, putting an end to eight years of Somalia's graft-riddled, Western-backed Transitional Federal Government, or TFG.
The Horn of Africa nation has lacked a stable central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, which unleashed a bloody civil war and two decades of chaos.
But while the government until recently controlled only a few blocks of Mogadishu, African Union and other troops have since made key territorial gains in their fight against al-Shabab fighters.
With better security, members of the Somali diaspora have returned to invest in their battered homeland, and many now hope that a new government will help the war-torn country stabilise and recover.
So this comittee chooses the parliament members, and they vote for the president?
Not much of an election.
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
Re: Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87M0LU20120823
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Trial of Gaddafi son due to start next month
Saif al-Islam, son of Libya's late ruler Muammar Gaddafi, will go on trial next month in the western town of Zintan, a government source said on Thursday.
"The trial of Saif al-Islam is to start next month, probably the second week of the month," the source said.
In April, Justice Minister Ali Ashour told Reuters Saif would be put on trial for financial corruption, murder and rape.
