Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa...840599359.html

UN: Hundreds could be dead in S Sudan unrest

Clashes between rival tribes in a South Sudan town may have left hundreds dead, a UN official has said.

South Sudan government troops opened fire to stop about 6,000 armed Lou Nuer tribal youth from entering the town of Pibor which is home to the rival Murle people, Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for South Sudan, said on Tuesday.

Tensions between the two groups over cattle rustling have mounted in recent months.

"I would put the number in the number in the tens, perhaps hundreds, but we don't know," Grande told correspondents at the UN, in a video link from Juba, when asked about the death toll.

Unconfirmed reports based on survivor accounts given to AFP in South Sudan suggested up to 150 people, largely women and children, were hunted and killed after fleeing Pibor.

Grande said she saw five corpses on the southern edge of Pibor when she visited the town in Jonglei state earlier on Tuesday.

Government forces and UN peacekeepers launched a major operation as the column of Lou Nuer fighters arrived at Pibor. The armed youths breached a perimeter of government troops in the south of the town, Grande said.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/wo...pagewanted=all

CAIRO — With the Muslim Brotherhood pulling within reach of an outright majority in Egypt’s new Parliament, the Obama administration has begun to reverse decades of mistrust and hostility as it seeks to forge closer ties with an organization once viewed as irreconcilably opposed to United States interests.

The administration’s overtures — including high-level meetings in recent weeks — constitute a historic shift in a foreign policy held by successive American administrations that steadfastly supported the autocratic government of President Hosni Mubarak in part out of concern for the Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology and historic ties to militants.

The shift is, on one level, an acknowledgment of the new political reality here, and indeed around the region, as Islamist groups come to power. Having won nearly half the seats contested in the first two rounds of the country’s legislative elections, the Brotherhood on Tuesday entered the third and final round with a chance to extend its lead to a clear majority as the vote moved into districts long considered strongholds.

The reversal also reflects the administration’s growing acceptance of the Brotherhood’s repeated assurances that its lawmakers want to build a modern democracy that will respect individual freedoms, free markets and international commitments, including Egypt’s treaty with Israel.

And at the same time it underscores Washington’s increasing frustration with Egypt’s military rulers, who have sought to carve out permanent political powers for themselves and used deadly force against protesters seeking an end to their rule.

---------- Post added January-4th-2012 at 12:50 PM ----------

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...80315020120104

Iran has alternatives in place to let it cope with a threatened European Union embargo on its oil and increased U.S. pressure, and plans to keep up exports of some 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, a senior Iranian oil official said.

EU governments have reached a preliminary agreement to ban imports of Iranian crude to the European Union but have yet to decide when such an embargo would be put in place, EU diplomats said on Wednesday.

Tehran had already considered different routes if that were to happen, S. M. Qamsari, International Director of the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC), told Reuters by telephone from Tehran shortly before the report on the EU stance emerged.

"We could very easily replace those customers," said Qamsari. Some, but not all, of any displaced volume could move into China as well as other Asian countries and Africa, he said. Iran was unlikely just to store crude on tankers as that was only a short-term solution.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...465176859.html

Wave of bombings leaves scores dead in Iraq

At least 70 killed and more than 100 wounded in the latest attacks in mainly Shia areas across the country.

A suicide bomber targeting Shia pilgrims has killed at least 46 people and wounded at least 80 others in southern Iraq, Qusay al-Abadi, head of the provincial council in Nassiriya, told Reuters news agency.

Local security sources said on Thursday the attack occurred at a police checkpoint in al-Badha area west of Nassiriya, 300km southeast of Baghdad, as pilgrims were walking to the shrine city of Karbala for Arbaeen commemorations.

This came hours after explosions in several mainly Shia Muslim neighbourhoods of eastern Baghdad killed at least 24 people and wounded a further 66, according to Iraqi officials.

Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, Baghdad military spokesman, said the aim of the attacks is "to create sedition among the Iraqi people". He said it was too early to say who was behind the bombings.

Thursday's attacks were the worst since a series of explosions across the Iraqi capital on December 22 killed 60 people.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/s...,3564224.story

Turkish ex-army chief ordered held in jail for trial

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court ordered a former armed forces chief to be remanded in custody overnight pending trial charged with bidding to overthrow the government, an unprecedented move likely to exacerbate long-running tensions with the military.

General Ilker Basbug, who retired in 2010, is the highest-ranking officer to be caught up in the so-called Ergenekon case, a long-running crackdown on EU candidate Turkey's once all-powerful military and secularist establishment.

Basbug told the court on Thursday he rejected the allegations, according to broadcaster NTV, describing the Turkish Armed Forces as one of the most powerful in the world.

The decision to send Basbug to jail came hours after prominent Turkish journalists on trial over alleged ties to the ultra-nationalist Ergenekon network said the charges against them were politically motivated and "a massacre of justice" in a case that has raised concerns over media freedom in Turkey.

Nicknamed pashas, a title dating back to Ottoman times, Turkey's once untouchable generals have seen their influence decline as Ankara pushes reforms aimed at strengthening civilian rule and winning Turkey's accession to the European Union.

The current investigation centers on allegations that the military set up websites to spread anti-government propaganda to destabilize Turkey.

Turkey's military, NATO's second-largest army, has long seen itself as the guarantor of the country's secular constitution, and had staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured another government from power in 1997.

The Ergenekon case is seen as part of a power struggle between Erdogan's ruling AK party, which has roots in a banned Islamist party and swept to power in 2002, and an old secularist establishment including military officers, lawyers, journalists and politicians.

I sure hope they have more on them than setting up websites.
Is this a battle against old corruption, or the beggining of a sketchy crackdown on powerful opponents?
(I thought the current main opposition were the socialists...which I don't think the military is part of.
So maybe ths is limited to dealing with corruption and some sort of actual coup planning or maybe they're just overreacting....)
Don't really know enough about the situation to say one way or the other, but it seems like something to keep an eye on.

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http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPol...aspx?id=252445

Haredim throw stones at buses in Beit Shemesh

Police arrest 2 ultra-orthodox protesters, 1 policeman lightly injured; haredi arrested in J'lem for cursing woman.

What's up with Israel lately?
There seems to be a lot of stories about segregation and extremist hardline stuff going on over there.
Kind of disturbing, although at least the authorities seem to be going after some of the crazies.

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https://twitter.com/#!/Reuters

Iran sentences U.S.-Iranian citizen to death for "spying for CIA" - Iranian Fars news agency 18 minutes ago

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...80924720120110

French probe exonerates Rwanda leader in genocide

A French probe into what sparked the 1994 Rwandan genocide appears to exonerate current President Paul Kagame and his Tutsi allies after Paris had previously accused him of triggering the killing of 800,000 people in 100 days.

Diplomatic relations between Rwanda and France were broken off in 2006 when a French judge said Kagame, the rebel leader at the time of the killings, had orchestrated the assassination of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana to trigger the bloodshed.

After Habyarimana's plane was shot down, Hutu extremists slaughtered Tutsis and moderate Hutus in some of the fastest mass killings ever perpetrated. Kagame's Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front seized power in the aftermath of the genocide.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...soP_story.html

The Obama administration sees economic sanctions against Iran as building public discontent that will help compel the government to abandon an alleged nuclear weapons program, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official.

In addition to influencing Iranian leaders directly, the official said, “another option here is that [sanctions] will create hate and discontent at the street level so that the Iranian leaders realize that they need to change their ways.”

The intelligence official’s remarks pointed to what has long been an unstated reality of sanctions: Although designed to pressure a government to change its policies, they often impose broad hardships on a population. The official spoke this week on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration assessments.

The comments came as the administration readies punitive new sanctions that affect Iran’s central bank and the European Union moves toward strict curbs on Iranian oil imports.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...d8e86b2b2d.631

10 injured, several arrested in Algeria protests

(AFP) – 9 hours ago

ALGIERS — Police fired tear gas Tuesday on protesters angry over unemployment and housing shortages in a southern Algerian gas industry town, leaving at least 10 injured, officials said.

The clashes in Laghouat began in the morning "when the population responded to provocations by members of the security forces who insulted elderly people who were waiting for a bus," said a representative of the National Coordination for the Defence of the Rights of the Unemployed (CNDDC), Abbes Hadj Aissa.

At least 10 people were injured in the ensuing clashes, he said, adding that people in this town of some 500,000 kept their curtains drawn as a mark of protest.

Security forces arrested an unspecified number of demonstrators, the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (ALDHR) said.

---------- Post added January-11th-2012 at 01:15 AM ----------




WOW....

https://twitter.com/#!/SkyNewsBreak

Reuters: Car explodes near university in Northern Tehran, one person killed and two injured 2 minutes ago

https://twitter.com/#!/BreakingNews

Update: State-run TV says university professor killed in Tehran bombing - @Reuters 2 minutes ago

https://twitter.com/#!/pdanahar

Iranian nuclear scientist killed by car bomb http://tinyurl.com/6p52ngn
2 minutes ago

https://twitter.com/#!/alihashem_AJA

Dr mustafa ahmadi an Iranian nuclear scientist and director of Natanz nuclear site was killed in tehran 's explosion today 2 minutes ago

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More info on the bombing:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...848691713.html

The semi-official Fars news agency cited witnesses as saying a motorcyclist stuck a magnetic bomb on the side of the car which then exploded, killing one and injuring two people inside.

Fars identified the victim as Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, whom state-run Press TV said was both a university lecturer and a scientist.

"What we know about him is that he was a chemistry graduate from Sharif University," Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari said.

"The deputy governor of Tehran is blaming [the attack] on Israel, saying it wants to destabilise the country ahead of presidential elections in March," our correspondent said.

The Fars news agency said Ahmadi Roshan had been working on a project to make polymeric membranes used to separate gas, according to a colleague of his.

Three other Iranian scientists were killed in 2010 and 2011 when their cars blew up in similar circumstances. At least two of the scientists had been working on nuclear activities.

The current head of Iran's atomic organisation, Fereydoun Abbasi, escaped another such attempt in November 2010, getting out of his car with his wife just before the attached bomb exploded.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middle...959528822.html

ElBaradei will not seek Egypt presidency

Declaring there is still no real political change in the country, ElBaradei said on Saturday in a statement: "My conscience does not allow me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless there is real democracy."

He praised the revolutionary youths who led massive popular uprisings that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last year but said "the former regime did not fall".

ElBaradei compared the revolution to a boat and charged that "the captains of the vessel ... are still treading old waters, as if the revolution did not take place".

He said corruption was still rife in post-Mubarak Egypt, which has been ruled by a military council since the veteran president was removed from power in February following an 18-day popular revolt.

"We all feel that the former regime did not fall," ElBaradei said in the statement.

He denounced the "repressive" policies of Egypt's new rulers, whom he said were putting "revolutionaries on trial in military court instead of protecting them and punishing those who killed their friends".

"The bottom line is that he feels this is not a transition to democracy ... so he wants no part in the process," Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros said, reporting from Cairo.

"This is a blow to the liberal movement as a whole, just after Islamists swept the vote [for the lower house of parliament]. What they've lost is someone who has a vision and a plan for Egypt's future."

---------- Post added January-14th-2012 at 12:13 PM ----------

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/14/world/...html?hpt=hp_t3

A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman targeted Shiite pilgrims Saturday outside the southern Iraqi city of Basra, killing at least 53 people and wounding 137, the Interior Ministry said.

The blast was the single deadliest attack on the Shiite community since the U.S. military completed its troops withdrawal from Iraq. A January 5 suicide attack on Shiite pilgrims west of the southern city of Nasiriya killed 44.

Saturday's bomber struck a police checkpoint near a Shiite mosque where many of the pilgrims were headed to mark a revered holy day, the end of a 40-day mourning period known as Arbaeen, Interior Ministry officials said.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/16/wo...iref=allsearch

Bedouin leaders threaten armed rebellion against Egyptian government

Egypt's military-led government, struggling to manage the transition to democracy, has a rising adversary: rebellious Bedouin tribes.

At a meeting last Friday in the south Sinai desert, Bedouin leaders accused the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of treason against Egypt and warned that -- if necessary -- they might take up arms to achieve greater representation in the nation's new parliament.

At a venue not far from the ancient St. Catherine's monastery, amid Sinai's imposing granite mountains, top Bedouins gathered to protest what they decried as "forged parliamentary elections" and a political system they claim historically has left them marginalized and oppressed for decades.

"We will not allow a parliament without Bedouin representation (as determined by) elections ... forged through the alliance between the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and a certain Islamic party," yelled Ahmed Hussein, a member of the Kararesha tribe.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2...958596644.html

France suspends Afghan troop training

Move comes shortly after shooting by Afghan army soldier leaves four French troops dead and another 16 wounded.

France has suspended its training programmes for Afghan troops after an Afghan army soldier opened fire in eastern part of the country, killing four French soldiers, according to both NATO and Afghan accounts.

Sixteen more members of the French armed forces were injured in Friday's shooting, in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, north of the capital Kabul, a security official told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

The attack took place inside the base during a training session conducted by French forces.

French troops had surrounded their base in Kapisa and were not allowing any Afghan soldiers to approach, a security source told AFP.

The shooter has been arrested by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the source said.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said he was mulling an early withdrawal of French troops out of Afghanistan.

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EGYPT


http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Egypt

4 hours 20 min ago

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which represents Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, has won 47 per cent of all seats in the country's election for the lower house of parliament, the election commission has said.

The FJP won 235 seats in the new People's Assembly, Abdel Moez Ibrahim, the head of the country's election commission, announced on Saturday.

It also secured 127 seats on party lists, while its candidates won another 108 in first-past-the-post constituency votes, where votes were cast for individual candidates.

The hardline Islamist Salafi al-Nour party has won 24 per cent of all seats on offer.

The liberal al-Wafd party has won about seven per cent of the seats, according to the latest results. The election commission says that voter turnout was 54 per cent in the polls.

Two-thirds of the 498 seats up for election were reserved for those belonging to registered political parties (refered to as 'closed party lists'), while the remaining one-third of seats were contested by individuals. Ten seats were reserved for appointees.

"This parliament, that has its opening session on Monday, has very limited powers. The most important thing that it will be doing in the coming weeks and months, is setting up a 100-member body that will then write the constitution," reported Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros from Cairo, the Egyptian capital.

3 hours 38 min ago

According to the latest election results, the Egyptian bloc has won 34 seats overall (6.8 per cent), al-Wasat has won 10 seats and the Revolution Continues party has won seven seats.

1 hour 43 min ago

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has appointed the last 10 members of the lower house of parliament.

Four members of Egypt's Coptic community are among those appointed.

4 min 12 sec ago

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of SCAF, has signed an order for the release of 1,959 detainees who were tried and convicted in military courts for crimes related to anti-government protests.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16671533

Yemen's President Saleh 'leaves country' for treatment

His departure came a day after MPs approved a law giving him immunity from prosecution.

The law was part of a deal under which President Saleh would relinquish power and leave Yemen.

A spokesman for Mr Saleh, Ahmed al-Soufi, said the president had flown out of the country late on Sunday bound for neighbouring Oman, from where he is expected to continue his journey.

Afterwards, a senior official in Washington said the Yemeni president had been cleared to go to the US for medical treatment, AP news agency reported.

God willing, I will leave for treatment in the United States and I will return to Sanaa as head of the General People's Congress party," Mr Saleh earlier told party officials in his speech.

"I ask for forgiveness from all my people, men and women, for any shortcomings during my 33-year-long rule," he said.

One official who was at the early-morning event which brought together senior political, military and security officials, quoted Mr Saleh as saying: "Today, I leave the country in your hands.''

https://twitter.com/#!/AP

BREAKING: AP source: US clears Yemen's president to seek medical treatment in US. -EF 8 minutes ago

https://twitter.com/#!/LeShaque

I think the media is wrong. Saleh actually flew to Syria and took the GCC plan with him. 10 minutes ago