A regularly updated column of news briefs from around the region
Iranian gives himself up after immolation threat inside UN Athens office
ATHENS - An unidentified Iranian asylum-seeker who August 4 threatened to immolate himself inside a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) office in Athens gave himself up to police after a three-hour standoff, a local UN staffer said.
"He was persuaded to give himself up," UN employee Keti Kehayoglou said from inside the building, in the northern suburb of Psychiko. The young Iranian of around 30 years of age had arrived at the UNHCR offices at 12:30 local time (0930 GMT), and subsequently drenched himself in gasoline. The UNHCR's local management spent the next two-and-a-half hours trying to dissuade him from immolating himself, the staffer said.
"[He] had requested asylum in Athens in 2005, subsequently traveled to London and was sent back here in January 2006," Kehayoglou said. "Under Greek law, an asylum request is automatically terminated if the petitioner leaves Greece," she added. "So this man is now out of options, since he cannot return to his home country ... We have repeatedly asked the Greek government to modify the legislation, because we have a large number of similar cases," she said. Keyahoglou said that police took the man to a hospital. It was not immediately clear whether he would be arrested or deported.
Angry demonstrators pelt British embassy in Tehran
TEHRAN - The British embassy in Tehran was pelted with petrol bombs and rocks August 4 as more than 50 Iranian militiamen protested against London's support of the Israeli offensive in Lebanon against the Shia movement Hizbullah. The demonstrators, mainly from the official Basij militia, jostled with scores of anti-riot police after lobbing Molotov cocktails, rocks, and pails of paint at the gate of the downtown compound, an AFP correspondent said.
The protestors pulled down the British embassy sign at the gate before police forced them away from the building. They chanted slogans included "Death to Britain" and "Death to America," and "Death to Israel," and they burned a British flag. Some demonstrators also carried pictures of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the Shia militant group's flag.
Turkish army expels 17 personnel for pro-Islamist acts, indiscipline
ANKARA - The Turkish army announced August 4 that it had expelled 17 personnel for pro-Islamist activities and indiscipline. The sackings were decided in the annual three-day meeting of the Higher Military Council, which convenes under the chairmanship of the prime minister and decides on military promotions, retirements, and expulsions, an army statement said. The statement said that those expelled were found to be "involved in reactionary activities" or to "have acted immorally in a manner that weakened the prestige of the army, and ignored warnings to improve their behavior."
The army, which sees itself as the self-appointed guardians of the country's secular system, has in the past fired hundreds of personnel, including officers, for what it saw as reactionary activities.
Jordan prosecutor seeks death penalty in US warship attack
AMMAN - Jordan's military prosecutor August 3 demanded the death penalty for six Syrian nationals and an Iraqi accused of involvement in a rocket attack a year ago on US warships in the Gulf of Aqaba. The prosecutor also urged the state security court to sentence to jail six other suspects, including two Jordanians and three Iraqis, for involvement in the attack that killed a Jordanian soldier, judicial sources said. But as the court heard final arguments before adjourning to consider its verdict, defense lawyers appealed for clemency while the six suspects who appeared in court pleaded their innocence. The six others are on the run. No date has been set for the verdict in the trial that opened in April.
Rights group urges probe into death of jailed Iranian student
NEW YORK, NY, USA - Human Rights Watch (HRW) August 2 called for an independent investigation into the death in prison of student activist Akbar Mohammadi, following a long hunger strike. Mohammadi died July 30 in Tehran's Evin prison, where he had been held for his role in pro-democracy student demonstrations in July 1999. HRW said that "if responsibility for Mohammadi's death in Tehran's Evin prison on July 30 lies with the prison or other state authorities, the relevant individuals should be identified and prosecuted."
Mohammadi, 38, is "the second inmate to die in the notorious Evin prison in the past three years," HRW said. "In June 2003, Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist, died while in custody there. Iranian authorities arrested her as she was photographing Evin prison. A few days later, Kazemi fell into a coma and died. According to lawyers for Kazemi's family, her body showed signs of torture. The Iranian authorities have not charged anyone in connection with her death," the rights group said.
Turkish PM sues magazine, cartoonist for depicting him as tick
ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sued a satirical magazine and one of its cartoonists for depicting him as a tick, his lawyer SAID AUGUST 2. Lawyer Fatih Sahin said that he had filed a complaint with an Ankara court against the weekly Leman magazine and cartoonist Mehmet Cagcag for offending the prime minister with a cartoon published on the front page of the magazine's July 6 issue.
In reference to a tick-borne disease that has claimed some 20 lives in Turkey this year, Cagcag caricatured Erdogan as a tick sitting on the back of a man with its teeth sunk into his head, with a title that said he was "making Turkey suffer."
Jordan aims to reduce crimes carrying death penalty
AMMAN - The Jordanian government has approved draft legislation that would scrap the death penalty for some crimes and replace it with life sentences, spokesman Nasser Jawdeh said August 2. "The cabinet approved draft amendments to certain laws that include articles which stipulate the death penalty and amended them, reduced the sentence," Jawdeh said. "A draft law will be presented to parliament" later this year, he said, adding that capital punishment had been retained for the "most dangerous crimes," but he did not elaborate.
At least three people were executed by hanging in Jordan this year for murder, including a Libyan and a Jordanian convicted of assassinating a US diplomat in 2002. International human rights organizations have repeatedly urged Jordan to abolish the death penalty and insisted that in some cases it is being handed down to suspects after testimony obtained through torture. The death penalty is usually applied for murder, conspiracy, terrorist activity, and espionage.
Blair calls for new anti-terror strategy
LOS ANGELES, CA, USA - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in Los Angeles that a new strategy is needed to defeat militant Islam. Blair warned that an "arc of extremism" now stretches across the Middle East and beyond. Speaking before the World Affairs Council in California, Blair called for a "complete renaissance of our strategy" to achieve the goal, reports The Times of London. He said that an "alliance of moderation" using values as much as military might would combat terrorism, the report said.
The report also said that it had learned that Britain's foreign office had failed to convince Blair to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon during his meeting with US President Bush last week. The report quoted Blair aides as describing his speech as a challenge to the United States and not a change of attitude.
Rainfall brings little relief to Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA - The United Nations says that erratic rainfall means that drought-related food shortages in areas of southern Ethiopia will continue for much of this year. The UN World Food Program said that livestock herds in the Somali region and parts of the Oromiya region were weakened or decimated by the lack of pasture and water, IRIN reported August 1.
"There has been a mixed rainfall pattern in the region, but what also prolongs the need for emergency food assistance is the fact that those predominantly affected are pastoralists, who depend on livestock for their livelihoods," said WFP spokeswoman Paulette Jones. A separate WFP food emergency report for July said that the Borena zone would receive virtually no harvest after the poor main "genna" rainy season, IRIN said.
Israel court allows Jewish hardliners into mosque compound
JERUSALEM - The Israeli high court August 1 upheld a request by far-right Jewish activists to enter Islam's third holiest shrine, the Al Aqsa mosque compound, which is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount. The decision to allow the controversial visit to the East Jerusalem mosque compound on August 3 was taken despite police warnings that it could spark riots in Israel and the occupied territories. "The petitioners ... will be allowed to enter Temple Mount during visiting hours," the court decision read.
The small Temple Mount Faithful group requested to visit the compound, where according to Jewish tradition Herod's Temple stood, to mark the Jewish day of mourning for its destruction in 70 BC. But despite its controversial decision, the court ordered the group's leader, Gershon Salomon, to stay clear from the area of the Temple Mount or the adjacent Western Wall. The court also ruled that the far-right group, which counts only a few dozen members, should "not be allowed to carry placards or act in a provocative manner."
Jordan MPs plead not guilty over Zarqawi condolences
AMMAN - Three Jordanian Islamist MPs pleaded not guilty August 1 to charges of incitement pressed after they offered condolences to the family of slain Al Qaeda frontman Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, judicial sources said. "We did not back the terrorist actions of Zarqawi," lawmaker Mohammed Abu Fares told the court as it wrapped up the case and prepared to consider its verdict. The military prosecutor urged the military tribunal to hand down the "maximum penalty" - three years in prison - for fueling national discord and inciting sectarianism.
Abu Fares and fellow Islamic Action Front MPs Jaafar Horani and Ali Abu Sukkar were arrested June 12, days after visiting Zarqawi's hometown north of Amman to pay condolences to his family. They were charged after complaints by the families of some of the 60 civilians killed in hotel bombings in Amman in November, for which Zarqawi claimed responsibility.
Expelled Jews mark first anniversary
JERUSALEM - Thousands of Jews who had to leave their settlements in the Gaza Strip last year under Israel's disengagement plan marked the event's first anniversary August 1. The Israeli national news service Arutz Sheva reported that the former residents of Gush Katif and Samaria settlements have planned a series of memorial events this week culminating in the capital, Jerusalem.
The first of the events was near Kibbutz Kisufim, along the route leading into the Gush Katif area of Gaza. It featured a Gush Katif Torah Scroll, which will be brought to Jerusalem and deposited at the Western Wall until it is restored at Gush Katif. An exhibit planned in Jerusalem will show 35 years of Gush Katif and the various achievements of the 21 uprooted communities.
Israeli prisoner may be given to Egypt
GAZA - Hamas could hand abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit over to Egypt or Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas until the group's demands are met, an official said.
The Palestinian official said "we are looking into the possibility of handing him over to Egypt until Israel fulfills the Palestinians and the abductors' demand to free Palestinian prisoners," Ynetnews.com reported August 1.
He said that the basic principles of an agreement to transfer the prisoner have been agreed to by Abbas and Shin Beth head Yuval Diskin. The deal would transfer Shalit to Egypt or into Abbas' custody until Israel halts military operations in the Gaza Strip, ceases targeted killings, and releases Palestinian prisoners.
Tourists help migrants in Canary Islands
MADRID - Tourists have come to the rescue of African migrants who landed on the shores of the Canary Islands, El Pais newspaper reported July 31. Nearly 90 of the more than 200 Africans who arrived by boat were in need of some kind of attention due to exhaustion and dehydration. Tourists provided water and other essentials for them until relief officials could attend them, the report said.
Thousands of Africans have arrived in the Canary Islands in recent months, putting a major strain on relief workers, police, and coast guard.
Western Sahara settlement remote
ALGIERS - A settlement for the long-protracted conflict over the Western Sahara appears to be still remote in light of Morocco's refusal to grant it independence. The representative of Polisario, or the armed Front for the Liberation of the Western Sahara, in Algeria lashed out August 1 at Moroccan King Mohammed VI for declaring in a speech to the nation on the seventh anniversary of his coronation that the world approves granting the former Spanish colony self-autonomy but not independence.
"The Moroccan king is still dreaming while we assure him that dreams and reality are different and that there is no room but to independence of the Western Sahara from this occupier," Mohammed Yaslam said. Yaslam stressed that "no international organization, including the Organization of Islamic Conference, or the Arab League, or the Non-Aligned Movement or the United Nations, agreed on self-autonomy for the Western Sahara as the king pretends." Morocco, which moved in and occupied the largest part of the Western Sahara after Spain pulled out in the mid 1970s, claims that the area is part of its national territory and has been fighting Polisario for more than three decades.
China, Syria mark 50 years of ties
BEIJING - Chinese President Hu Jintao exchanged congratulatory messages August 1 with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al Assad on the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, state press reported. "Strengthening traditional friendship and cooperation between the two countries is in conformity with the fundamental interests of the two peoples, and conducive to regional and global peace," Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as saying. China is willing to work with Syria to create a better future for Sino-Syrian cooperation, Hu said. The Syrian president said that he was confident that the friendly cooperation between the two countries would be further developed and consolidated.
UAE population tops 4mn, 80% foreigners
ABU DHABI - The population of the United Arab Emirates has grown in a decade from 2.4 million to 4.1 million, four-fifths of them foreigners, according to official data quoted by newspapers July 31. At the end of last year the population stood at 4,104,695, compared with 2,411,041 10 years previously, economy minister Sheikha Lubna Al Qassimi told the daily Al Bayan. The later figure included 824,921 citizens of the UAE, a federation of seven emirates including the booming city of Dubai.
13 dead, fears for 19 more after flash floods in Afghanistan
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Flash floods caused by heavy unseasonal rains have killed at least 13 people with another 19 feared dead in eastern and southeastern provinces of Afghanistan, officials said July 31. Thirteen bodies were recovered after floods July 30 caused by torrential rains in eastern Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan, the provincial administration director said. Five people had been injured and seven were still missing.
Heavy rains July 30 had also damaged villages in adjoining Paktia and nearby Khost provinces and authorities on July 31 dispatched teams to investigate reports that many people were dead. "We have reports that seven people have died. We've sent our teams to the areas to collect more information," Khost director of rural development Mohammad Omar Said. In Paktia, villagers had reported five people, including children, were dead.
Jordanian students torch Israeli flag in campus demo
AMMAN - Jordanian students July 31 torched the Israeli flag and scuffled with university guards during a protest to denounce the deadly Israeli strike in the south Lebanon town of Qana. Around 1,000 students took part in the demonstration at the University of Jordan, organized by the Islamist students' union. The students clashed with university guards when they tried to unlock campus gates to take their protest to the streets but were pushed back.
"Victory is on its way," the protestors chanted. Many of them held up pictures of the victims of Qana, a town in south Lebanon where more than 50 people, many of them children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike July 30. The demonstrators also carried portraits of Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and chanted words of praise and encouragement in Hibzullah's fight against Israel that they described as the "nation of black hatred."
Iranian student activist dies in prison
TEHRAN - Iranian student activist Akbar Mohammadi has died in a Tehran prison following a five-day hunger strike, the ISNA news agency reported July 31. Mohammadi, 36, died late July 30 but "the coroners should determine the cause of his death," said Sohrab Soleimani, the head of prisons in Tehran province.
Mohammadi was arrested during a student protest in 1999 and had initially been sentenced to death. His sentence was subsequently changed to 15 years behind bars. Held in Tehran's Evin prison, he had reportedly been on a hunger strike since July 25. But Soleimani said "he would drink tea and water and he was monitored by a doctor." He said that Mohammadi had fallen ill while he was taking a shower with the inmates and died while he was being transferred to the infirmary.
Israeli conscientious objector jailed for 28 days
JERUSALEM - An Israeli captain in the army reserves was sentenced to 28 days in prison July 30 for refusing to serve in Lebanon for "reasons of conscience," public radio said. Captian Namir Paster said that serving in Lebanon went against his values. A leftwing group known as Yesh Gvul ("There is a Limit" in Hebrew) said that 10 conscientious objectors had also refused their commission orders in recent days.
Israel's security cabinet July 27 authorized an additional mobilization of three divisions, or around 30,000 reserve troops, "to reinforce the military potential and capacity in the face of Hizbullah in Lebanon."
Kuwait emir in hospital for 'routine medical tests'
KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah was hospitalized July 30 for "routine medical tests," the emiri court said. The 76-year-old ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state "was hospitalized Sunday morning for routine medical tests," which showed that he is "well," the statement said, adding that the emir would undergo more checkups.
Sheikh Sabah became emir last January after parliament deposed his ailing predecessor, Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, on health grounds amid one of the gravest crises in Kuwait's history. Sheikh Sabah, who had been de facto ruler for several years, underwent surgery to remove his appendix in August 2002. He also had a heart pacemaker operation in February 2000.
Landmines kill two in southeast Turkey
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Two people, including a teenager, were killed in the restive southeast of Turkey in two landmine explosions blamed on armed Kurdish rebels, security sources said July 30. One of the explosions hit a group of children collecting firewood near Genc, Bingol, July 30 killing one teenager and injuring three others, the sources said.
In the neighboring province of Diyarbakir, a government-paid militia member was killed in a roadside explosion late July 29 as a group of village guards were traveling to their watch posts. In the eastern province of Agri, a group of rebels attacked police lodgings with guns and hand grenades July 30, injuring six police officers and a civilian, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Protestors call for closure of US embassy in Kuwait
KUWAIT CITY - Hundreds of people rallied outside the US embassy in Kuwait July 30 calling for its closure in protest against Washington's support for Israel, hours after an Israeli strike killed dozens of civilians in Lebanon. The protestors, mostly Kuwaitis who were joined by Lebanese residents of close US ally Kuwait, burned the US flag and demanded the expulsion of the US ambassador.
They raised placards denouncing the Israeli raid on the south Lebanese village of Qana, which killed more than 50 civilians, as a "massacre equating Nazi acts." The protestors raised flags of the Lebanese Shia movement Hizbullah and portraits of its leader Hassan Nasrallah. "Death to Israel, death to America," chanted the demonstrators, who were joined by a number of MPs.
Libya closes consulate in northeastern Mali
TIMBUKTU, Mali - Libya has decided to close its consulate in the Kidal region of northeastern Mali where former Tuareg rebels have launched attacks in recent months, a Libyan diplomat said July 29. "We have received the order from Tripoli to close the consulate permanently," the diplomat said. He did not explain the reasons for the closure.
Libya opened a consulate in Kidal in February, prompting suspicions about Tripoli's motives given the scarcity of Libyan nationals in the desert region. Some observers said that it was a bid by Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to assert influence over the Sahara desert region in Mali as well as Libya's southern neighbors Chad and Niger. The consulate closed provisionally in May after attacks on military camps in the region by rebel former Mali army soldiers from the Tuareg community, one of the main traditional nomad peoples of the vast Sahara Desert.
Regional Roundups
TOOLBAR
To add a comment,
Please log in:
Don't have an account?
Register now to comment on stories and stay up to date on important events and issues in the Middle East with our newsletter.