A regularly updated column of news briefs from around the region
Israel daily demands inquiry into Lebanon Jihad bombing
JERUSALEM - Israel's top-selling newspaper demanded an investigation on June 16 into whether Israeli agents plotted and carried out a bomb attack in Lebanon last month that killed a Palestinian militant leader. "If it turns out this operation was effectively carried out by Mossad or another Israeli secret service, an outsider from the intelligence world should be appointed to know whether it was worth it and whether it lays groups open to risk," wrote the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in its June 16 edition. A leader of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, Mahmoud Al Majzub, was killed in the car bombing in the southern Lebanese town of Sidon. Israel officially denied any involvement in the attack.
Egypt journalists protest against colleagues' trial
CAIRO - Several dozen journalists protested in Cairo on June 15 in solidarity with three colleagues charged for denouncing alleged fraud in the country's legislative elections in November. Wael Al Ibrashi and Hoda Abu Bakr from the weekly independent Sawt-al-Umma and Abdel Hakim Hamid, editorial director of the weekly Afaaq Arabiya, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood, are due to appear in court on June 18.
"Three journalists are in the courts for wanting to tell people the truth," journalists' union president Galal Aret said outside the union's offices. "We must all show solidarity to secure their acquittal." "We refuse to accept that our colleagues are considered criminals, in the same league as drug traffickers," said Mohammed Abdel Khaleq from the independent daily Al Masri Al Yom. The main charge against the three journalists is that they published a list of judges implicated in cases of presumed fraud during the elections.
Egypt denies detained activist medical care: lawyer
CAIRO - Egyptian authorities have refused to allow detained activist Mohammed Al Sharqawy to receive treatment for injuries that he incurred during a beating by the police, his lawyer said on June 15. "His life is in real danger," said Gamal Eid of his client, who has alleged that Egyptian police sodomized him with a foreign object following his arrest last month. "Al Sharqawy has been subject to violent torture and abuse at the hands of police officers at the Qasr Al Nil police station that caused him several injuries in different parts of the body," the statement said.
"Today we have submitted a communiqué to the public prosecutor demanding it to oblige the interior [ministry] to provide Al Sharqawy with the required medical care," it said. Eid also accused the authorities of denying his client access to due process and refusing to investigate allegations of torture against him by the police. The interior ministry has denied the torture allegations.
Iraq parliament to start every session with Koran
BAGHDAD - Iraq's conservative Shia-dominated parliament on June 14 pushed through a measure authorizing the reading of the Koran at the beginning of every session, overcoming opposition from Kurdish and Sunni lawmakers. The proposal forwarded by a group of 50 Shias was approved by 111 lawmakers from the 146 present in the session.
Missing Lebanese men held by Iraq police
BEIRUT - Two Lebanese businessmen, initially feared kidnapped after they were snatched by armed men in Baghdad last week, are in fact being held in Iraqi police custody, an official source said on June 14. Jamal Ahmed Falla and his business partner Ahmed Suweidi were seized on June 9 from their home in the Iraqi capital by armed men, prompting relatives and officials to declare them as kidnapped, according to the source. But authorities in Beirut were informed on June 14 that the two men had been in police custody, although there was no word on the charges against them.
Sheikh wants to adopt surviving beach tragedy Palestinian girl
ABU DHABI - A member of the ruling family in Abu Dhabi said on June 14 that he wants to adopt a 10-year-old Palestinian girl who lost her entire family in a Gaza beach bombardment. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is deputy premier of the United Arab Emirates federation, has proposed in a telephone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to adopt Huda Ghalya, the official WAM news agency said.
Her parents and three siblings were killed while picnicking on the beachfront by what was believed to be Israeli shelling. The Israeli army said on June 14 that old Israeli ordnance left on the beach may have been the cause, a day after it had absolved itself of blame.
Jordan suspects plead not guilty to infiltrate Israel plot
AMMAN - Five Jordanians of Palestinian origin pleaded not guilty in court on June 14 to charges of plotting to infiltrate Israel to carry out attacks, judicial sources said. The military prosecutor accused the five of "illegal possession of automatic weapons to carry out illicit acts" for which they could face the death penalty, according to the charge sheet. They are also accused of action aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with a foreign country - namely Israel - and the bid to infiltrate the Jewish state from Jordan.
Turkey denies role in secret US rendition
ANKARA - Turkey on June 14 denied charges in a Council of Europe report listing it among 14 European countries that colluded in or tolerated the secret transfer of terrorism suspects by the United States. "The Turkish government and state never played a part ... and never will," foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan said.
The report, drawn up by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty and issued last week, named a "spider's web" of bases around the world used by the US authorities for "extraordinary rendition" - the covert transfer of suspects to third countries or US-run detention centers.
Lebanon's army foils Mossad cell
BEIRUT -The Lebanese army said on June 13 that it had dismantled a network used by the Israeli spy agency Mossad to carry out attacks in Lebanon, mainly against Hizbullah and pro-Syrian Palestinian groups. "The army arrested a terrorist cell working for Israel's Mossad, and its members admitted responsibility for the May 26 attack that killed Mahmoud Al Majzub and his brother," said the army. The members of the cell also "admitted taking part in the assassination of Hizbullah officials Ali Saleh in 2003 and Ali Hassan Dib in 1999, as well as the killing of Jihad Jibril in 2002 ... the cell would appear to have had ties with Israel for several years, and its members were trained there," the army added.
Majzub, one of the leaders in Lebanon of the radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, was killed by a car bomb in the southern city of Sidon. Jibril's father, Ahmed, is the Damascus-based chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command.
Police search for gunman after shooting near Jerusalem
JERUSALEM - An Israeli was shot and wounded by a suspected Palestinian gunman on June 13 in a suburb of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said. The victim was shot in the Atarot industrial zone that lies next to the road connecting Jerusalem with Ramallah, the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Police said that it launched a manhunt to find the gunman. The victim's injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.
Begin involved 'in Adenauer death plot'
JERUSALEM - Former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin played a leading role in a failed bid to assassinate West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, a report in Israel's Ha'aretz daily said on June 13. The newspaper, quoting from the journals of one of the men hired to carry out the assassination, said that Begin initiated meetings to plan the operation - and even offered to sell his gold watch to help fund it. The newspaper said that an attempt was made to kill Adenauer in March 1952, but an explosive device in a parcel addressed to the West German leader detonated prematurely
Begin, premier from 1977-83, was said to have been furious with the progress of a reparations agreement between the government in Bonn and Israel, in the build-up to the assassination attempt in 1952.
Egypt holding 200 Muslim Brotherhood protestors
CAIRO - Egyptian police are holding some 200 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who were arrested during a protest near a courthouse in the Nile Delta town of Zagazig, the group said on June 13. "They arrested about 200 people," said Mohammed Habib, the deputy Supreme Guide of the group. "Ninety-two of them have been referred to the prosecution, but we do not have any information about the charges, he said. Habib estimated that the number of those detained over the past three months alone was some 650, excluding the latest arrests.
Egypt police injures protestors
CAIRO - Egyptian police beat and tear gassed hundreds of members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on June 12 in northern Egypt, the Islamist movement said. Scores of demonstrators were briefly detained and 10 were injured during the protest, organized to support a prominent member of the officially outlawed organization during his trial in the Nile Delta town of Zagazig. "The police arrested 110 members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They were staging a protest outside the courthouse where Hassan Al Hayawan was on trial," Ali Abdel Fattah, a leading brotherhood official said.
Hayawan, charged with illegal possession of weapons and belonging to an illegal organization, was acquitted by the Zagazig state security emergency court.
Saudi man beheaded for murdering two
RIYADH - A Saudi national was beheaded by the sword on June 12 after being convicted of murdering two men, the interior ministry said. Misfir Bin Saad Al Qahtani was convicted of shooting dead Abdel Rahman Bin Fahd Al Khateeb and Khalid Bin Saeed Al Jaeid following a work dispute, said the ministry. The execution in Riyadh was the second reported this year in the kingdom.
Palestinian mistaken for Israeli killed
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian from East Jerusalem who was shot dead in the occupied West Bank on June 11 was apparently targeted because his attackers thought he was Israeli, military sources said on June 12. Two other Palestinians also in the car were wounded. Military sources said that the attackers came from Ramallah, the Palestinian administrative capital of the West Bank, where they fled after the shooting.
Execution claimed by Algerian Islamist group in online video
PARIS - An Algerian radical Islamic group said that it had executed a man it displayed at gunpoint in a video published on a Website on June 11, claiming that he was a guard at a prison where Islamic fighters are held. The fundamentalist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat said that the man, shown in the video on his knees, blindfolded, and surrounded by four masked and armed figures, was a guard at a prison in Tizi Ouzou, northern Algeria. The man was heard talking about the deaths of detainees and poor prison conditions in Algeria. After the man's statements, a message was displayed on the video that read: "This criminal's throat was cut."
The June 11 pictures were the group's first known video on the Internet, resembling videos released by armed groups in Iraq of apparent executions of hostages.
Kurdish rebels kill Turkish soldiers
ANKARA - Kurdish rebels killed two Turkish soldiers and injured five others in an ambush in eastern Turkey on June 11, the semi-official news agency Anatolia said. Separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels carried out the attack in the mountainous region of Geyiksu in Tunceli province. On June 10 the Turkish army killed two PKK rebels, including a regional chief, officials said.
Adulterer to be stoned to death in UAE
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - An Islamic court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) condemned a man to death by stoning and his female lover to one year in jail and 100 lashes, the Khaleej Times reported on June 11. The couple, both foreigners with the woman working as a live-in maid for an Emirati family in the northern emirate of Fujairah, were caught naked in bed in April when the woman's employer called the police after suspecting that she had sneaked her lover into her bedroom. Unlike her married lover, the woman was spared the stoning by death sentence because she was single, the paper said.
Syria names new UN ambassador
DAMASCUS - Bashar Al Jaafari has been named as Syria's new ambassador to the United Nations, the official SANA news agency reported on June 10. Jaafari, previously Syrian envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, replaces Faisal Mekdad, who was named as deputy foreign minister in February.
Man finds four-legged cock
CAIRO - An Egyptian poultry trader found a four-legged cock among chickens that he bought from a farm, the official MENA news agency reported on June 10. The cock, which also had two excretory tracts, weighed 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds), said the man from Kafr Saqr in Sharqiya province, 86 kilometers (56 miles) northeast of Cairo.
Egypt lawyers denied access to transcripts in bombing trial
ISMAILIYA, Egypt - An Egyptian court on June 9 refused to grant defense lawyers access to key documents in the trial of suspects in the deadly bombings of resorts in Taba and Nuweiba, reports said. The defense had demanded access to transcripts of testimonies given by state security officers, saying that they were crucial for its case. The request was declined on the grounds that release of the testimonies could jeopardize an ongoing investigation into a separate case.
The request came as the trial continued for 15 defendants charged with carrying out the bombings that killed at least 34 people at the Hilton hotel in Taba and two other Sinai resorts on October 7, 2004.
20 killed, tourists injured in Egypt road accidents
CAIRO - Twenty people were killed and at least 30 injured, including German tourists, in a string of road accidents in Egypt on June 10. Sixteen Egyptians were killed and four others seriously hurt when a speeding minibus heading south from Cairo ploughed into a bus driving in the opposition direction near Fayyoum, 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital. An Egyptian policeman was killed while 26 people, including 21 Germans, were wounded when a tourist bus overturned on a road between the Red Sea resort of Zaafarana and the city of Suez, around 100 kilometers east of Cairo. Two Libyans and a Syrian were also killed in another collision near Ras Shitan on the Sinai Peninsula, police said.
New Zealand deports Saudi linked to September 11 attacks
WELLINGTON - A Saudi Arabian pilot linked to one of the September 11 hijackers has been expelled from New Zealand as a security risk, officials said on June 10. Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali, a United States-qualified pilot, was deported late last month after immigration officials raided his home in the central North Island town of Palmerston North where he had joined the local aero club. Immigration minister David Cunliffe said that Ali was considered a threat to national security because he was "directly associated with" those responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks, and the nature of his activities in New Zealand. He was sent back to Saudi Arabia under escort.
Turkey, Turkish Cypriots plan joint military exercises
ANKARA - Turkey's army said on June 9 that it will hold joint search-and-rescue exercises with Turkish Cypriot soldiers in the Mediterranean off the coast of the breakaway Turkish statelet in northern Cyprus. The June 14 exercises will involve various ships, planes, and helicopters from Turkey and military forces from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The maneuvers will take place in international waters as well as the "territorial waters of the TRNC."
For Turkey and Turkish Cypriots, the exercises are a bid to assert the sovereignty of the TRNC, which is recognized only by Ankara. The Greek Cypriot government in the south of the island is the internationally recognized administration of the whole island, but in fact has no power over the north.
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