Egypt in flux: 100 day after Mubarak's Fall, sober realities and optimism (Guardian, 19 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 19 May 2011
Egypt in flux: sober realities and optimism 100 days after Mubarak's fall

Energised by the Tahrir Square revolt, Egyptians are now struggling to cast a new political mould for the country

By Ian Black, Middle East editor Overlooking the Nile in the heart of Cairo, a few hundred metres from Tahrir Square, stands the charred headquarters of the now defunct National Democratic party.
Its smashed windows and blackened facade symbolise the fall of Hosni Mubarak's regime on 11 February. It is eerily deserted, apart from a lone sentry slumped by the gate at night.
The square itself, centre of the political earthquake, has become a tourist attraction where revolutionary T-shirts, stickers and other memorabilia vie with the model sphinxes, pyramids and papyrus on sale in the souvenir shops. It's as if the extraordinary events of the recent past already belong to ancient history.
But Egypt's revolution is unfinished business, its immediate prospects clouded by insecurity, economic worries and sectarian violence. The generals who so dramatically ditched their commander-in-chief remain in charge of the interim civilian government.

Obama to pledge Billions of Dollars in aid to back 'Arab Spring' in Middle East (Guardian, 19 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 19 May 2011
Barack Obama to back Middle East democracy with billions in aid

President pledges cash to support Egypt and Tunisia after criticism US has been too slow to support uprisings

By Ewen MacAskill in Washington

Barack Obama is to announce that the United States and the west will pour billions of dollars into the Middle East in support of Egypt, Tunisia and other countries embracing democracy, a move the White House portrayed as being on the scale of aid to former communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Speaking in Washington, the president will attempt to reposition the US as a champion of the newly-emerging Arab democracies. His speech comes amid criticism that the US has been too slow to support the uprisings, and has adopted contradictory approaches in its dealings with different countries.
It is his most important speech on the Middle East since Cairo in 2009, when he called for a new beginning in relations between the US and the Muslim world. The support for Obama in the Arab world in 2009 has since dropped sharply.

Yemen: Rivals fail to sign GCC-brokered deal as President Saleh backs out again (Aljazeera English, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 18 May 2011

Yemen rivals fail to sign GCC-brokered deal

Gulf mediator leaves Sanaa after President Saleh refuses to ink plan that would have seen him stepping down in a month.

Yemen's president has for a second time backed out of a Gulf-sponsored deal to transfer power.
The long awaited agreement brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) would have seen Ali Abdullah Saleh stepping down within a month.
Yemen's opposition had earlier said the deal would be signed on Wednesday.
But the head of the GCC left Sanaa without securing a signed agreement.
The departure of Abdullatif al-Zayani suggested that differences remained despite the government and opposition earlier agreeing on the deal in principle.
Zayani had been in Sanaa since Saturday to try to persuade the sides to sign the deal, with help from US and European diplomats.

US imposes sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad for Human Rights abuses (Associated Press, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 18 May 2011

US slaps sanctions on Syria's Assad for abuses

By MATTHEW LEE and BEN FELLER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States slapped sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad and six senior Syrian officials for human rights abuses over their brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, for the first time personally penalizing the Syrian leader for actions of his security forces.

The White House announced the sanctions Wednesday, a day before President Barack Obama delivers a major speech on the uprisings throughout the Arab world with prominent mentions of Syria.

The Obama administration had pinned hopes on Assad, seen until recent months as a pragmatist and potential reformer who could buck Iranian influence and help broker an eventual Arab peace deal with Israel.

Assad's increasingly brutal crackdown left U.S. officials little choice but to abandon the effort to woo Assad, and to stop exempting him from the same sort of sanctions already applied to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.

Has the Arab Spring Stalled? Autocrats Gain Ground in Middle East (Spiegel International, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Spiegel International, Germany", 18 May 2011
Has the Arab Spring Stalled?
Autocrats Gain Ground in Middle East

By Alexander Smoltczyk and Volkhard Windfuhr

Burning churches in Cairo, dead and wounded in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and a deathly silence in Bahrain. The Arab protest movement has come to a standstill, and the kings, emirs and sultans are rallying to launch a counterrevolution.

According to the "Fundamental Law of Revolution," regimes fall when those at the bottom are fed up with the status quo and those at the top are no longer capable of remaining in power.

That was the experience of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. But difficulties arise when there is one thing those at the top are still quite capable of doing, namely deploying tanks to deal with their opponents -- as is the case in Syria and Libya.

Role of Women in the Arab Spring "Not Something NEW" (Inter Press Service, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IOS)", 18 May 2011
Spring Not New to Arab Women
By Simba Russeau
CAIRO, May 18, 2011 (IPS) - Women have been taking leading roles in the Arab uprisings of Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, Morocco and Bahrain - shattering many decades old Western myths that Arab women are powerless and enslaved.
"It’s really unfair to ignore history and to try to misinterpret the reality," founding member of the Union for Women’s Action in Morocco, Fatima Outaleb told IPS. "Who can deny that woman who is shouting slogans and dragging men behind her, repeating her slogans? She’s a veiled woman. She’s also a leader."
According to Outaleb, women - whether as mothers, housewives, veiled or not, from Islamist parties or with no political upbringing - have always played a pivotal role in the Arab world.
"The Western media is shaped according to certain agendas, to certain priorities they have in mind, and policies regarding Arab women. They have ignored the reality that Arab women have always been at the heart of revolutions in the region - whether leading, strategising, raising awareness or mobilising as bloggers, or on Facebook," Outaleb said.

Syrian president Assad says Security forces made mistakes (Associated Press, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 18 May 2011

Syrian president: Security forces made mistakes

By ZEINA KARAM

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's president said the country's security forces have made mistakes during the uprising against his regime, blaming poorly trained police officers at least in part for a crackdown that has killed more than 850 people over the past two months.

President Bashar Assad's comments, carried Wednesday in the private Al-Watan newspaper, came even as a human rights activist said Wednesday that Syrian troops have used heavy machine guns to attack a neighborhood in the central city of Homs.

Still, his remarks were a rare acknowledgment of shortcomings within Syria's powerful security agencies. Assad said thousands of police officers were receiving new training.

The brutal crackdown across Syria has sparked international condemnation, and the United States and European Union are planning new sanctions against the Syrian leadership. More than 850 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests that erupted in mid-March, according to Syria's top rights organization.

Arab Spring and North Africa's battle for economic revolution (Aljazeera English, 17 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 17 May 2011

North Africa's battle for economic revolution

The uprisings are not solely about ideology, but social and economic change, and acheiving that will require creativity. By Donald Kaberuka

Like a long dormant volcano that suddenly erupts, the revolutions that have swept across North Africa - against a backdrop of strong economic performance - took all by surprise.
Prior to the explosion, average annual GDP growth in the region had been humming along at 4.6 per cent for a decade, with strong improvement in human development indicators.
But this growth was in some ways deceptive, for it masked problems that had long simmered beneath the surface: burgeoning unemployment, especially among the region's youth, and political repression - the issues that eventually brought things to a boil.
In Tunisia, whose revolution ignited the wildfire of change that quickly spread across the region, young people account for 70 per cent of total unemployment. The statistics are similar in Egypt and Libya.
The common denominator across the region is that, while its economies were growing, they were unable to generate enough jobs. This has created a generation of disaffected, under- and unemployed young people, including large numbers of recent university graduates.

Syria: Mass grave found near Protest hub Deraa, residents say (Guardian, 17 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 17 May 2011
Syrian mass grave found near Deraa, residents say

Human rights groups report 13 bodies unearthed from field in southern city at centre of protest movement

Nidaa Hassan

Thirteen bodies have been retrieved from a mass grave in Deraa, the hub of Syria's protest movement, according to residents cited by rights organisations.
People from the southern city say hundreds are unaccounted for since a crackdown on protests began on 18 March and intensified when the army moved in on 25 April to try to quash unrest against Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule.
Radwan Ziadeh, the US-based head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights, said so far seven bodies had been identified by residents.

ICC War crimes prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo seeks Libya's Gadhafi warrant (Aljazeera English, 16 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 16 May 2011

War crimes prosecutor seeks Gaddafi warrant

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi targeted by ICC chief prosecutor, along with son, Saif al-Islam, and intelligence chief.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has sought arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son, Saif al-Islam, and another Libyan official on war crimes charges.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo will hand a 74-page dossier of evidence to a three-judge panel at the court in the Hague, the Netherlands, on Monday.
They will decide whether the case is strong enough for them to confirm crimes against humanity charges, and issue international arrest warrants.
"We are almost ready for trial," Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement earlier. "The office collected good and solid evidence to identify [those] who bear the greatest responsibility."

Libya War: Fears of Gadhafi's Anti-Aircraft missiles falling into "Wrong Hands" (Associated Press, 15 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 15 May 2011

Libyan combat stymies moves on antiaircraft threat

By STEPHEN BRAUN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The fierce combat in Libya has unleashed a once-hidden arsenal of portable anti-aircraft missiles that the government fears could easily be siphoned off to terror groups, giving rise to a potential threat to commercial aviation that the U.S. is only beginning to confront, government officials and arms experts said.

The fears are compounded by suspicions that Libyan government and opposition forces are both deploying fighters with ties to terrorists and mercenaries. With more than 20,000 missile launchers estimated in Libya, there have been unconfirmed reports that some anti-aircraft weapons have already been funneled to North African militants, but amid the vast caches wielded by both sides, there is no solid evidence yet that terrorists have them.

Libya Rebels say they control port city of Misrata (Associated Press, 15 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 15 May 2011

Rebels say they control port city of Misrata

By DIAA HADID

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libyan rebels have taken full control of the western port city of Misrata, rebel fighter said Sunday, but suggested it was too early for them to consider advancing to try to confront Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces around the capital.

Meanwhile, the head of Britain's armed forces, Gen. David Richards, urged NATO to widen the range of targets the alliance's planes are allowed to hit in the effort to stymie the Gadhafi's regime's attacks on protesters. Richards' remarks, published in The Sunday Telegraph in London, warned that "more intense military action" was needed or the conflict could end in stalemate.

In Misrata, rebel fighter Abdel Salam described the situation in Misrata as static.

Mohamed Bouazizi and the Arab Spring: The slap that sparked a revolution (The Observer, 15 May 2011)

Courtesy: "The Observer, UK", 15 May 2011
The slap that sparked a revolution

The Arab spring was triggered in Tunisia when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after claiming he was slapped by policewoman Fedia Hamdi. But as Elizabeth Day discovers, revolutions create their own myths

By Elizabeth Day

Manoubia Bouazizi has grown used to the idea that her son Mohamed no longer belongs to her but to the Arab world. In the streets near where she lives on the outskirts of Tunis, she is stopped by people who recognise her, who have heard she is the mother of the market trader who set himself on fire in protest against an authoritarian regime, who kick-started the Jasmine revolution, and so the Arab spring.
His likeness is everywhere. Around the corner from her home, a pizza restaurant proprietor has mounted a full-colour reproduction of Mohamed's face in his window to advertise a special discounted "Revolutionary Menu".

Nine Libyan Imams (Religious leaders) killed in NATO airstrike buried (Reuters, 14 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Reuters", 14 May 2011
Libya buries imams it says NATO killed in air strike
By Joseph Logan
(Reuters) - Tears, chants and volleys of gunfire fired into the air punctuated the funeral for nine imams Libya said NATO killed in an air strike, but the alliance said the building it struck was a command-and-control center.
NATO is bombing Libya as part of a U.N. mandate to protect civilians. Some NATO members say they will continue until Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who taunted the alliance as a coward whose bombs could not kill him, was forced out.
The nine imams were among 11 people killed in a strike on a guest house in the eastern city of Brega on Friday, the government said. The other two were buried elsewhere.

Egypt's decision to open Gaza Crossing; Opening a Border, Ending an Era (Inter Press Service, 14 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IOS)", 14 May 2011
Opening a Border, Ending an Era
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO, May 14, 2011 (IPS) - In a dramatic policy shift late last month, Egypt's post-revolutionary government announced plans to reopen the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. And on Friday, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians amassed in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand the decision be carried out without delay.
"Egypt's sovereign decision to reopen the border represents a new chapter in Egyptian policy vis-à-vis Palestine, which is finally coming into line with the popular will," Tarek Fahmi, political science professor at Cairo University, told IPS.
On Apr. 29, Egypt's recently-appointed foreign minister Nabil al-Arabi announced that the Rafah terminal - the only crossing along Egypt's 14-kilometre border with the Gaza Strip - would soon be reopened on a permanent basis. He went on to describe Egypt's longstanding closed-border policy, maintained by the ousted Hosni Mubarak regime, as "shameful".

Hundreds of migrants reach Italian island (Aljazeera English, 13 May 2011)

Courtesy: “Aljazeera English”, 13 May 2011

Hundreds of migrants reach Italian island

Boatloads of people believed to be fleeing conflict in northern African arrive on Lampedusa, officials say.

Hundreds of migrants believed to be fleeing conflict in northern Africa have arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, coast guard officials have said.
The first boat, carrying 166 refugees, landed at around 0500GMT on Friday, and two others, carrying loads of 265 and 150 people, arrived later in the day.
A fourth vessel carrying around 200 people ran into trouble at sea but was rescued by a coastguard, while a fifth boat with an estimated 500 people on board was intercepted.
"By the end of the day around 2,000 migrants are expected to arrive on the island," Ignazio Accomando, from the National Institute for the Health of Migrants, was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying.

Black Market in Arms Flourishing as Arab Spring Continues (Inter Press Service, 13 May 2011)

Courtesy: “Inter Press Service (IPS)”, 13 May 2011

Black Market in Arms Flourishing as Arab Spring Continues
By Mona Alami
BEIRUT, May 13, 2011 (IPS) - As the Syrian uprisings escalate in violence, Lebanon’s black market in arms is flourishing, with prices of light and medium weapons driven higher by Lebanese and Syrian demand.
"Prices have tripled in less than two months," says Wael, a local arms dealer, whose name has been changed to protect his identity.
According to local dealers, Syrians have been crossing the borders into neighbouring Lebanon to purchase weapons since late January, when the country erupted with pro-democracy protests which were subject to bloody government crackdown.
Lebanese residents, fearing Syria’s wave of violence may spread, have also started to buy light weapons.
Since the start of the uprisings, dozens of soldiers and hundreds of civilians have been killed - with activists putting the total deaths at about 800.

Within the Arab Left, Contradictions Emerge Over Syria (Inter Press Service, 12 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IPS)", 12 May 2011
Within the Arab Left, Contradictions Emerge Over Syria
Analysis by Samer Araabi
WASHINGTON, May 12, 2011 (IPS) - Though the Arab Spring has heralded newfound hope and optimism across the Middle East, the mood has darkened considerably as entrenched governments have fought back viciously against democratic opposition.
The relatively quick collapse of the governments in Tunisia and Egypt has given way to protracted struggle - along with its many complications - in Syria, Bahrain and Libya. Nowhere has this been demonstrated more clearly than in Syria, where the demand for democratisation has become deeply tangled with geopolitical dynamics, overlapping alliances, and clashing political ideologies.
The situation in Syria has developed differently than the revolutions that swept its neighbours. As one of the members of the so-called Axis of Resistance, Syria has evaded the accusations of subservience to foreign powers that plagued the old guard of Egypt, Bahrain, and elsewhere.

Military sweep across Six Syrian cities today: Detentions of professionals including lawyers, doctors (Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Wall Street Journal", 12 May 2011
Syrian Forces Detain Professionals

By NOUR MALAS Syrian security forces conducted detentions across at least six cities Thursday that activists said appeared to focus on not only opposition activists but lawyers, doctors, intellectuals and educated professionals.
The detentions came as residents reported continued gunfire in restive southern areas, and activist groups placed the death toll of the regime's attacks on two protest centers the previous day at 30 or more people.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sharply criticized president Bashar al-Assad on Thursday for "brutal" reprisals against protesters in the face of widespread international condemnation of his government's crackdown. Speaking during a visit to Greenland, she said Mr. Assad's government was responsible for hundreds of deaths and has unlawfully detained, tortured and denied medical care to wounded people, the Associated Press reported.

Yemen: Youth Want New Faces and a New Modern Country (Inter Press Service)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service", 11 May 2011
Youth Want New Faces and a New Modern Country
By Yazeed Kamaldien
SANA'A, May 11, 2011 (IPS) - Yemen’s young anti-government protesters have learnt a vital lesson about the world of politics during their seemingly endless revolution - betrayal is inevitable.
At Change Square, the main protest site in the capital city Sana’a, resentment has grown towards the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) since it announced that it was willing to sign a deal with the country’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
This controversial initiative was proposed in April by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprises six Gulf nations led in the Yemeni talks by Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. - a strong supporter of Saleh - backs the deal and has urged all parties to sign it.
But many young protesters who launched a civil society movement for regime change in mid-January claim allegiance to no political party and strongly reject the GCC exit strategy. Their main contention is that it guarantees immunity to Saleh, some of his allies and relatives who have served during the time that he has been the country’s leader.