A regularly updated column of news briefs from around the region
Kuwait in royal drugs bust
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti police have arrested a member of the ruling Sabah family with a large drugs haul, including at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine, newspapers reported on April 14. Al Qabas newspaper quoted unnamed security sources as saying that the prince, whose name was not revealed, also had 120 kilograms of hashish.
His arrest came at the orders of interior and defense minister, Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah, who is a leading figure in the ruling family. The Al Rai Al Aam daily gave a different breakdown of the drugs seized, saying that they consisted of 18 kilograms of cocaine, five kilograms of heroin and 30 kilograms of hashish. The drugs were found at the royals' house, the paper added.
Libya remains on US terror sponsors list
WASHINGTON - The United States is not ready to remove Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on April 13. The State Department is due to release its latest yearly report on state sponsors of terrorism next week.
McCormack declined to specify which issues were keeping Libya on the list but said that "you can see a positive trajectory to the relationship between the US government and Libya over the past several years ... That change in relationship has been based on a principle: the principle that good deeds and good faith would be met in turn by good deeds and good faith on the part of the United States government."
Egypt freezes ill-fated ferry owner's assets
CAIRO - Egypt decided on April 13 to freeze the assets of the owner of the Al Salam 98 ferry that sank in the Red Sea in February killing about 1,000 people, the official MENA news agency reported. Socialist prosecutor Gaber Rihan issued the order after initial results of an investigation into the shipwreck blamed Mamdouh Ismail and five others for "serious violations that led to the sinking of the ship", the agency said.
The violations included disregard for safety regulations and tampering with inspections. Ismail, an MP, left Egypt for Britain shortly after the ferry disaster despite an ongoing investigation into the sinking of his 36-year-old ship. Egypt has said that it will ask Britain to extradite Ismail should the investigation implicate him in any way.
East Jerusalem man found dead in Jericho
JERUSALEM - The body of an Arab resident of occupied East Jerusalem who recently sold his house to radical Jews was found handcuffed in a burned out vehicle on April 13 in the West Bank town of Jericho.
Police believe that the victim, Mohammed Abu Al Hawa, was murdered as a result of the recent sale of his home in the Palestinian neighborhood of A-Tor in East Jerusalem to a group of ultra-nationalist Jews.
Sunnis blame Iraqi security for killing 68 men
BAGHDAD - A top Sunni religious organization has accused Iraq's Shia-led government security forces of killing 68 people in Baghdad over the past week, as the debate over alleged "death squads" raged on. The Muslim Scholars Association issued a statement dated April 11 accusing security forces of having tortured and killed 68 Iraqis who were arrested earlier this month in the southern Baghdad Dura neighborhood.
Minas Youssef, a Christian MP from the Sunni-led National Concord Front also announced on April 13 that the government forces on Wednesday had picked up another 400 men from the same Baghdad neighborhood. Iraq's interior minister on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of so-called death squads within certain security forces but denied any link with his own ministry.
Saddam family member killed, family says
AMMAN - A member of Saddam Hussein's extended family has been killed in Iraq after being taken hostage, family sources in Amman said on April 13. The man, 36-year-old Jamal Kamel Hassan, was the brother-in-law of two of Saddam's daughters. He was "taken hostage in Iraq and his captors demanded $1 million ransom", a relative said. "A lesser sum was paid and Jamal's body turned up at the Baghdad morgue," the relative said. No confirmation could be immediately obtained from security sources in Baghdad.
His two brothers were married to two of Saddam's daughters. In 1995 the daughters, their husbands and other family members spectacularly defected to Jordan. The group was lured back to Iraq in 1996 with a promise of an amnesty by Saddam, but the two husbands were promptly killed along with several other family members on Saddam's orders. Jamal Kamel Hassan had helped arrange the daughters' return to Jordan in 2003.
Polish tourist killed, 19 hurt in Egypt bus crash
CAIRO - A Polish woman was killed and 19 other Poles injured when a tourist bus collided with a truck in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, police said. Two Egyptians were also killed. The bus, traveling from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh to Cairo, was speeding when it collided with a truck parked on the side of the road.
Turkish teen faces life for killing priest
ANKARA - A prosecutor has sought a life sentence for a 16-year-old Turkish boy for the February murder of an Italian Catholic priest in the northern city of Trabzon, the NTV news channel reported on April 12. The indictment charged the minor, identified only by his initials, O.A., with willful homicide for shooting Father Andrea Santoro, 61, at the Black Sea city's Santa Maria Catholic Church on February 5. The prosecutor also sought additional prison terms of one year for possession of an unlicensed weapon and six months to three years for deliberately endangering public order, NTV said.
The motive for Santoro's killing is not clear, but the Turkish media have speculated that the murder may have been triggered by the Prophet Mohammed Muslim cartoons uproar, or for his missionary work, or that he may have been killed by the sex trade mafia for helping prostitutes from former Soviet countries.
Prison uprising quelled in Jordan
AMMAN - Jordanian security forces quelled an uprising on April 12 at a prison north of Amman in which two policemen were said to have been taken hostage, the government spokesman said. "The mutiny is over and security forces completely control the prison in Qafqafa," 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital, Nasser Jawdeh said.
Earlier, a security source said that two policemen had been taken hostage, and that their fate was still uncertain. Jawdeh said that the unrest began after prisoners resisted being searched for knives or other sharp instruments after officials received reports that some were being kept. One of the prisoners, an Islamist named Abdel Shehadeh Hamed Al Tahawi, used a mobile telephone to ring Al Jazeera television and say "two members of security" had been taken hostage. Tahawi, 50, said that the act was in retaliation for guards taking "two prisoners" after morning prayers.
Riyadh frees thousands of ex-terror suspects
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia has freed thousands of former terror suspects whose responsibility was deemed to be low or who recanted their previous beliefs, the kingdom's interior minister said on April 13. "We have freed thousands," Prince Nayef Bin Abdel Aziz told the Al Arabiya satellite channel, without giving a specific number or a time for the release. "The releases are continuing ... but those who were found guilty, sent to court and subject to investigations" are being kept in detention.
British rights researcher detained in Turkey
NEW YORK, NY, USA - A British human rights researcher in Turkey was detained by police on April 12 and is expected to be deported, his employer Human Rights Watch said. The group said that at the time of his detention, Jonathan Sugden was investigating abuses allegedly involving the Turkish security forces in the predominately Kurdish southeast of the country.
Sugden, who was detained by police in the town of Bingol, in southeastern Turkey has not been charged with any crime, the New York rights watchdog said. Turkish authorities have claimed that Sugden did not have valid authorization to be carrying out human rights work in Turkey, the group said.
Egypt's Nour 'banned from writing'
CAIRO - Jailed Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour filed a petition on April 12 accusing prison authorities of banning him from writing articles for his party newspaper, his wife said. Gamila Ismail said that Nour, leader of the Ghad (Tomorrow) party and the runner-up in Egypt's presidential election last year, was banned from writing for the party's mouthpiece and the authorities confiscated articles that he was preparing to send to the paper because they were critical of senior officials in the ruling National Democratic Party.
The action was a violation of the law by the prison department, which "overstepped its authority and turned itself into a political institution defending symbols of the regime and its ruling party", Ghad charged.
Danish embassy in Syria reopens after cartoon row
COPENHAGEN - Denmark has reopened its embassy in Syria, almost 10 weeks after it was damaged during violent protests over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, the Danish foreign ministry said on April 12. Denmark closed several of its missions in the Muslim world following similar incidents, and its embassies in Tehran and Islamabad and its consulate in Beirut remain closed.
UN agency for Palestinian refugees vows work goes on
GAZA CITY - The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on April 12 that its work would continue unchanged, seeking to minimize the effect of a new UN policy to restrict contact with the Hamas-led government. "I think that the message that was given out was a little harsher than it was intended," Karen Abu Zayd, the head of UNRWA, told a news conference in Gaza City, one day after the United Nations announced a new restrictive policy.
She said that UNRWA had received no instruction from UN headquarters in New York on not meeting Hamas ministers. "It doesn't make sense to reduce contacts when you've been asked to increase your activities," Abu Zayd said, stressing that UNRWA had "no intention of changing our operations".
Arab foreign ministers meet in Cairo, Iraq absent
CAIRO - Arab foreign ministers began meeting on April 12 at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo to discuss Iraq, without the presence of their Iraqi counterpart, a witness reported. Earlier, Saudi foreign minister Saud Al Faisal said that Iraq would be present at the meeting even though Baghdad announced a boycott in response to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's criticism of its Shia-led government. Mubarak sparked Shia fury last week after telling Al Arabiya television that all Shias were loyal to Iran.
Turkish resort pumps tons of wastewater into Aegean Sea
ANKARA - Nearly 20,000 tons of raw sewage spilled into the waters of Bodrum, one of Europe's most popular seaside resorts, after the town's sewer system broke down, NTV television reported on April 12. "We were forced to pump waste into the sea for a while," the Aegean town's mayor, Mazlum Agan, said. "If we hadn't, the sewage would have gushed out of houses - there was no other alternative."
Turkey sends humanitarian aid to Darfur
ANKARA - Turkey began on April 12 to dispatch medical aid to Sudan's troubled Darfur region, the scene of a worsening humanitarian crisis, the foreign ministry said. Five military cargo planes are scheduled to fly out two field hospitals with 50 beds and two mobile operating theaters, along with medical equipment and baby food.
'Dead' Iranian militant leader appears in video
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - An Iranian Sunni militant leader reported by Iranian authorities to have been killed in an anti-terrorist operation appeared in a video shown by the Al Arabiya television station late on April 11. Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of the Jundullah (Soldiers of God) militant outfit, appeared in the video to "deny the information from the Iranian security forces that they had killed him several days ago", the presenter said.
Egypt 'frees 900' members of Islamist group
CAIRO - More than 900 members of the radical Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya in Egypt, including its founder, were freed on April 11, the interior ministry said. The militants, some of whom had been imprisoned for more than 20 years, were released in groups over the past 10 days, a ministry official said.
Jamaa Islamiya merged in the late 1970s with another Islamist group, Al Jihad. They are held responsible for planning and carrying out the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat in 1981. Jamaa was also responsible for a wave of militant violence across Egypt in the 1990s. The group has, however, claimed to have moved away from violent tactics, and published a book in 2003 explaining its ideological shift.
France refuses visa to Hamas member
STRASBOURG, France - A Hamas representative was unable to attend a parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe on April 10 because France refused a visa. The Israeli government praised the move, the Jerusalem Post reported. "The fact that it appears that Hamas members are not getting visas to visit Europe is a positive sign," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry.
Russia rejects boycott of Hamas government
MOSCOW - Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on April 11 it would be a mistake to boycott the new Palestinian Hamas government, and vowed to provide aid.
"We are convinced that a refusal to help Palestinians only due to the fact that they elected the government, entirely consisting of Hamas members, is a mistake," Lavrov said. "Hamas should fulfill conditions of earlier agreements, recognize Israel and return to the negotiating table, and for this purpose, it is necessary to work with Hamas rather than boycott it."
Rights group calls for release of Saudi journalist
NEW YORK, NY, USA - A leading US-based human rights watchdog on April 11 urged Saudi Arabia to immediately release a local journalist detained for criticizing religious doctrine and its role in fueling Al Qaeda violence. Human Rights Watch said that Rabah Al Quwai, 24, who works for the Okaz and Shams dailies and two Saudi-run Websites, was arrested on April 3 by the Saudi domestic intelligence agency "on charges of doubting the [Islamic] creed and for harboring destructive thoughts".
"His writings questioned prevalent religious doctrine and in particular criticized thinking that in his view contributed to acts of violence in Saudi Arabia by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," the nongovernmental organization said in a statement.
Child mortality jumps in Iraqi city
BASRA, Iraq - A European children's charity said that the number of child deaths in Basra, Iraq, has risen sharply since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Marie Fernandez, a spokeswoman for Saving Children From War, blamed a shortage of medical supplies and equipment for the higher mortality rates. She said that water-born diseases are becoming increasingly common.
Haydar Salah, a pediatrician, told the BBC that he believes that mortality is up 30 percent. A recent US report described the security situation in Basra as serious, saying that the government is not able to ensure safety for residents, unemployment is high and criminal and political violence common.
Beaten, bitten baby dies
JERUSALEM - Investigators in Israel say that a three-month-old boy who died a week after he was hospitalized was beaten and bit by his father. When the baby was brought to Hadassah Hospital a week ago, he was suffering from internal bleeding and edema and had bite marks on his body, Ha'aretz reported.
The 19-year-old father at first said that his son slipped out of his arms while he was holding him. In a second interview with police, he said that he threw the boy against a wall and acknowledged earlier physical violence because the boy would not let him sleep.
US military stoking xenophobia in Iraq
WASHINGTON - The US military has been using Iraqi citizens' hatred for foreigners to vilify Jordanian-born insurgent leader Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, a Washington Post report said. Documents obtained by the newspaper show that military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency for the past two years.
The documents also list the "US Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign. That was disputed by Army Col. James Treadwell, who commanded the US military psyops unit in Iraq in 2003. "You don't psyop Americans. We just don't do it," Treadwell said.
No more suicide bombings, says Hamas
GAZA - Hamas activists told a British newspaper that the organization plans to stop suicide bombings in Israel. Yihiyeh Moussa, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told The Observer that winning a parliamentary majority began "a new era" for Hamas. But he suggested that Hamas might find another means of attacking Israel if the stalemate continues.
"The suicide bombings happened in an exceptional period and they have now stopped," he said. "They came to an end as a change of belief." Hamas declared a ceasefire last year.
Israeli killed in explosives factory blast
JERUSALEM - An Israeli was killed on April 11 in an accidental blast at an explosives factory in the north of the country, police and medical sources said. "One person was killed and four people were wounded in an explosion in an explosives factory near the town of Zichron Yaakov," police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. He said that the blast occurred during an experiment involving chemicals but that the exact cause was being investigated by police.
Six killed in Yemen furniture store fire
SANAA - Six people were asphyxiated on April 11 after being trapped in their central Sanaa home when a fire broke out in a furniture store downstairs, the interior ministry said. The cause of the blaze is not yet known.
Ethiopia, aid groups decry slow famine response
ADDIS ABABA - The Ethiopian government and aid groups on April 10 lamented slow donor response to the Horn of Africa nation, where an acute drought has affected at least 1.7 million people, officials said. Wodayehu Belew, an official with the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency, said there was a huge shortfall on non-food items although an appeal was made four months ago.
"On the non-food items, around 82 percent is still missing. This is worrying, even more so considering we are now in April, four months since we made our appeal to the donors," Wodayehu said. So far, only $19 million of the $111 million dollars needed for water and food distribution have been received, according to the government and the United Nations.
Egypt crash injures 14 peacekeepers
ISMAILIYA, Egypt - Fourteen foreign peacekeepers were injured on April 10 when their bus overturned between bases in Egypt's northeastern Sinai Peninsula, security sources said. The nationalities of the 14 casualties were not immediately known.
The Multinational Force and Observers - a non-UN force set up under the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel - currently has contingents from Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Hungary, Italy, Fiji, New Zealand, Norway, the US and Uruguay. The peacekeepers were traveling from the force's northern base at Gora near the Mediterranean coast to its headquarters at Sharm El Sheikh in the south when the accident took place near Kountilla.
Three killed as Turkish army copter crashes onto factory
ISTANBUL - An army helicopter crashed into a factory in northwest Turkey on April 10, killing the three soldiers on board, an official said. The helicopter fell onto a steel factory in the town of Uzunciftlik, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Istanbul, Yasar Sonmez, the local mayor, told CNN-Turk television. CNN-Turk said that the helicopter broke up in mid-air before crashing onto the ground.
Three Somalis killed in battle over UN food aid
MOGADISHU - At least three people were killed and nine wounded in a gun battle over UN food aid shortly after midnight near the town of Baidoa in drought-stricken central Somalia on April 10, police and relief workers said.
Iran arrests seven Kurdish rebels
TEHRAN - Iranian police have arrested seven members of a banned Kurdish rebel group operating close to the Islamic republic's border with Turkey, a press report said on April 10. "We have arrested seven members of the illegal Pejak group who had pivotal role in urban unrest," West Azerbaijan province police chief, Hasan Karami, told the Khorasan daily. Iran says that Pejak is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 15-year insurgency against Ankara for self rule in the Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
Iranian paper shut, publisher sentenced to jail
TEHRAN - The publisher of a weekly daily in southern Iran was sentenced to jail and the paper permanently shut down for "insulting the Islamic Republic's leadership", the student news agency ISNA reported on April 9. A Tehran criminal court revoked the paper Tamadon-e Hormozgan's publication license and sentenced its publisher and Iranian MP, Ali Dirbaz, to 20 months in prison. Dirbaz was punished for running an article that "insulted Iranian leadership ... and promoted materials harmful" to the Islamic republic, the report said.
Iran shoots down spy drone
TEHRAN - Iran has shot down an unmanned surveillance plane in the south amid reports that the US is planning military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, a press report said on April 9. "This plane had taken off from Iraq and was filming border areas," a report in the hardline Jumhouri Eslami newspaper said.
US publications reported over the weekend that the White House is studying options for military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities to pressure Tehran to abandon its controversial nuclear program. The US media have reported that the US military has been secretly flying surveillance drones over Iran since 2004 using radar, video, still photography and air filters to detect traces of nuclear activity not accessible to satellites.
Sharon to lose premier title
JERUSALEM - Israel's government will on April 11 declare coma-stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "permanently incapacitated" and name Ehud Olmert as his successor, a justice ministry official said on April 9.
Sharon's prime ministerial powers were transferred to Olmert who was named acting prime minister shortly after the 78-year-old suffered a massive brain hemorrhage on January 4. The change in status would, however, only come into effect on April 14, at the end of the 100-day period as laid down by the law, Galanti said. The government decision was moved forward due to the Jewish week-long Passover holiday that starts on April 12.
Veiled Egyptian lover caught red-footed
CAIRO - An Egyptian man who routinely donned the full Islamic veil to visit his mistress incognito was tipped off by his unfeminine shoes in the Cairo metro's women-only carriage, newspapers reported on April 9. Camouflaged under a head-to-toe black niqab to spare his illegitimate partner her neighbors' reprobation, the 30-year-old student eventually met his own doom after accidentally revealing suspiciously clumpy footwear. An alarmed passenger on board the carriage screamed for security at a central Cairo underground station and the impostor was unmasked, the newspapers said.
Deadly explosions at Yemen weapons depot
SANAA - One person was killed and seven others wounded on April 8 east of Sanaa when a fire in a home spread to a weapons depot below causing multiple explosions, a Website affiliated to Yemen's ruling party said. "Five neighboring homes were badly destroyed," said Al Mutamar.net when a fire in the home's kitchen spread to the depot below that belonged to a weapons dealer. The incident occurred in Sawadiya district in Bayda province 270 kilometers (167 miles) southeast of the capital.
Saudi Arabia may join nuclear club
DOHA - Kuwaiti researcher Abdullah Al Nufaisi told a seminar in Doha, Qatar, that Saudi Arabia is preparing a nuclear program, the Middle East Newsline reported. He said that Saudi scientists were urging the government to launch a nuclear project, but had not yet received approval from the ruling family.
Riyadh denies any intention to establish a nuclear energy program, but Gulf sources told the Middle East Newsline that Saudi officials have been discussing a nuclear research and development program - and that the program would be aided by Pakistan and other Riyadh allies. "Saudi Arabia will not watch as its neighbors develop nuclear weapons," a Gulf source said, adding, "It's a matter of time until a Saudi nuclear program begins."
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