Ten years for activist in UAE

An United Arab Emirates (UAE) appeals court has upheld a 10-year prison sentence against prominent pro-democracy activist Ahmed Mansoor for criticising the government on social media, Amnesty International reported. The father of four was also handed a fine of one million dirham (270.000 dollar). 

Mansoor, an electrical engineer and poet, was arrested in March 2017 and sentenced in May by Abu Dhabi's Federal Appeals Court for "defaming the UAE through social media channels".

Mansoor was among five activists convicted and later pardoned for insulting the UAE's rulers in 2011.He was arrested again in March 2017 at his home in Ajman. The charges were publishing false information and rumours, and promoting a sectarian and hate-incited agenda.

Egyptian forces kill 40 'militants' after bombing of tourist bus

 The damaged bus with Vietnamese tourists. (Photo VNExpress/Vietnam)

Egyptian security forces have killed 40 suspected militants in three separate incidents in North Sinai and Giza, the ministry of interior said on Saturday, a day after a deadly bombing on a Vietnamese tourist bus in Giza killed four people.
The ministry did not say whether the suspected militants were connected to Friday’s attack, but said its forces killed 30 people during raids on their hideouts in Giza where it said “terrorist elements” were planning a series of attacks targeting state institutions and the tourism industry.
Security forces also killed 10 suspected militants in North Sinai, where the country is fighting an insurgency led by Islamic State.
State news agency MENA said that the suspects were killed in a gun battle.
The ministry did not give any details about the suspects’ identity or whether there had been any casualties or injuries among the security forces. The statement said the three raids took place simultaneously.

Protest in Tunisia after self immolation of journalist

Protests erupted in Tunisia after the death of a journalist who set himself on fire to protest against economic hardship in the North African nation, prompting clashes with police.Abderrazak Zorgui, a 32-year-old journalist, posted a video online before his self-immolation in the city of Kasserine, describing his desperation for a revolution over poor living condition and corruption.

He expressed his frustration at unemployment and the unfulfilled promises of Tunisia's 2011 Arab Spring revolution.

Authorities said Zorgui died of his injuries on Monday soon after being taken to hospital.
His action triggered a protest on Monday night in Kasserine that degenerated into violence, with police firing tear gas to disperse crowds blocking the main street, setting tyres ablaze and throwing stones at police.
Interior ministry spokesperson Sofiane Zaag said on Tuesday that six police officers were injured and several people arrested in the protest.

Israeli aiplanes attack Syria, first time after Trump announced withdrawal

Missiles above Daamscuis (Photo AP/Al Jazeera)

Syrian state media says government air defences have intercepted missiles fired by Israeli fighter jets near the capital, Damascus.

The reported raid on Tuesday hit an arms depot and wounded three soldiers, Syria's state-run news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying.

"Our air defences confronted hostile missiles launched by Israeli warplanes from above the Lebanese territories and downed most of them before reaching their targets," the military source said.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel "directly endangered" two civilian flights. The ministry also said Syrian air defenses destroyed 14 out of 16 Israeli missiles. 
 Israel has in the past carried out dozens of air raids in neighbouring Syria against what it says are Iranian targets, many of them south of Damascus.

Egypt: 32 executions and nearly 600 death sentences in 2018

Over 30 people were executed and nearly 600 death sentences were issued in Egypt in the first 11 months of 2018, according to a report issued on Sunday by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
In the absence of an official toll, the figures help document the stark rise in the use of the death penalty in Egypt over the last several years. The report represents the number of cases EIPR researchers were able to verify through media reports or through relatives of defendants.
The report shows that, between January and November 2018, at least 32 defendants were executed in 8 civilian cases and 11 military cases. At least 581 defendants were issued death sentences in 174 civilian cases and 9 military cases over the same period.
The figures, which are broken down by month in a series of infographics, indicate that September saw the highest number of death sentences issued, with 151 defendants sentenced to death in 31 civilian cases. March saw the highest number of executions, with 12 defendants executed in three civilian cases and one military case.

Protetsts in Sudan continue

 Protests in Atbara (Photo Reuters)

Protests in parts of Sudan continued for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday, as doctors prepared to strike over the rising cost of bread and fuel.  

At least 10 people have been killed since the demonstrations began on Wednesday after the government hiked the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (about $0.02 to $0.06). 

Protesters are calling for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to step down. 

On Sunday, residents in Um Rawaba, 200km southwest of the capital Khartoum, told AFP news agency that some 600 people gathered in the market chanting, "the people want the fall of the regime".
Protesters burnt tyres and branches in the streets and attempted to storm a government building before being rebuffed by security officials, witnesses said.
In Atabara, 300km northeast of the capital, riot police and plain-clothed operatives deployed tear gas against hundreds of protesters, a witness said.

US Senate votes to stop American support for war in Yemen and declares MbS guilty of Khashoggi murder

The US Senate voted on Thursday to approve a resolution calling for an end to United States involvement in the Saudi-UAE-led military campaign in Yemen, setting the stage for a potential showdown next year between Congress and President Donald Trump over US military support for Saudi Arabia.

The Senate also approved a resolution saying that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, is responsible for the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 

US politicians have grown increasingly outraged as the number of civilians killed in Yemen by Saudi and UAE air attacks using US-made weapons has risen dramatically in the past two years. The Saudi-UAE coalition launched an intervention in 2015 through a massive air campaign targeting Houthi rebels. 

The final vote of the Yemen resolution was 56-41, with seven Republicans breaking with their party to vote in support of the measure. The Yemen resolution had been tabled by the Senate in a 55-44 vote on March 20, but after the October 2 killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, widespread anger in Washington prompted politicians to bring the Yemen measure forward.
Trump administration officials had urged Congress not to undermine the Pentagon's ability to support Saudi Arabia.

''Almost all of UNRWA's buildings in camps Yarmouk and Dera'a in Syria have to be rebuilt

Yarmouk camp

After conducting a damage assessment of its installations in the unofficial camp of Yarmouk, near Damascus, as well as the Dera’a Palestinian camp in the South of Syria, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has concluded that almost all of its installation in the two camps were severely damaged or destroyed in the five-year long Syria civil war.

“The Agency has 23 premises including 16 schools in Yarmouk. Almost all UNRWA premises need major repairs, 75% need to be completely rebuilt and all three of the Agency’s health centers in Yarmouk are completely destroyed. In Dera’a camp, only one distribution center has been left untouched. The other 6 installations, including three school buildings and a clinic will need substantial repairs,” said UNRWA on Saturday.

People have already slowly started to return to Dera’a camp, despite the huge damage and lack of basic infrastructure, it said.

Dera’a camp was home to 10,000 Palestine refugees before 2011. So far, 400 families have returned since the government retook control in July 2018.

Egypt creates new human rights watchdog - to protect itself

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press.
 Egypt has created a new high-powered human rights watchdog agency, but its primary mission isn’t to protect Egyptians from violations. Instead, the body is foremost aimed at protecting the government from allegations of rights abuses and defending it on the international stage.
The new body reflects an attitude of the state under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi that sees criticism over human rights as intended to undermine the government and cause instability at a time when it is facing militant threats and trying to rebuild a battered economy.
Officials have already started a campaign against “false rumors” and “fake news” and have in some cases detained those who speak out. At the same time, the government has sought to redefine or broaden human rights, declaring new “rights” to fight terrorism and protect the state. Critics see that as an attempt to legitimize and draw international attention away from alleged abuses by security forces.
“Human rights cannot be divided, nor can some be given priorities over others,” said Nasser Amin, a prominent rights lawyer.
The High Permanent Commission for Human rights does not include any rights activists. Its main members are representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the military, the intelligence agencies and the Interior Ministry, which oversees a police force accused of torture and forced disappearances, claims that are categorically denied by the government.

Trump chooses to ignore CIA conclusion about Saudi crown prince's involvement in Khashoggi murder

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the "United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region."

""Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information," Trump said of the Khashoggi killing, but added that "it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran," Trump said in a statement.

"After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money," Trump said. "It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States," he continued, adding that "of the $450 billion, $110 billion will be spent on the purchase of military equipment from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and many other great U.S. defense contractors."

Tariq Ramadan after 10 months free on bail

Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Islamic scholar, has been released on bail after being held in detention for nearly 10 months over charges of sexual assault, his lawyer said. A Paris Court of Appeal granted the 56-year-old Swiss academic bail on Thursday even as the investigation into the case continues.

"Where would I flee to," he asked during his hearing, his first public appearance since the arrest in February.

His bail was set at 300,000 euros ($340,000) and it requires him to hand over his passport and report to police once a week.

Turks found traces of acid at home Saudi consul

Saudi authorities used acid and other chemicals to dispose of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi's body, a source at the Turkish attorney general's office  told Thursday. The source said traces of hydrofluoric acid and other chemicals were found in a well at Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi's home in Istanbul.

Turkish investigators were able to take samples from the well when they were first granted access last month. the night of October 16 to 17. When the Turkish investigators were working inside the residence and wanted to gain full access to the garden and the well shaft, they were not given permission. However they were able to briefly take some samples from it with rods from the top of it. Those samples have been processed and they include proof that there had been hydrofluoric and other chemicals.  Other samples taken from the sewerage and drainage system around the diplomatic district also showed the use of acid.

America's ''war on terror'' killed about half a million people

Hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan have been killed due to the so-called "war on terror" launched by the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attack, according to a new study.

The report, which was published on Saturday by the Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, put the death toll between 480,000 and 507,000.

The toll includes civilians, armed fighters, local police and security forces, as well as US and allied troops.

The report states that between 182,272 and 204,575 civilians have been killed in Iraq; 38,480 in Afghanistan; and 23,372 in Pakistan. Nearly 7,000 US troops were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the same period.

The paper, however, acknowledged that the number of people killed is an "undercount" due to limitations in reporting and "great uncertainty in any count of killing in war".

Rouhani vows to ''proudly bypass'' US sanctions

Iran responded to the United States’s imposition of tough new sanctions on Monday with air defence drills and confident and confrontational rhetoric. "We are in the war situation," President Hassan Rouhani said in a television address as the sanctions snapped into place."We are in the economic war situation. We are confronting a bullying enemy. We have to stand to win."
"I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it's against international regulations," he said. “I don't think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions."
Reneging on the 2015 deal was a cornerstone of US President Donald Trump’s election campaign.Nuclear inspectors have regularly said Tehran has abided by the nuclear deal, which other signatories Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia have promised to uphold. But the US says that the pact failed to address issues such as Iran’s support of armed groups in countries such as Yemen and Lebanon, or its development of long-range ballistic missiles.

Turkish paper: Khashoggy's body dismembered and taken ouside consulate in five suitcases

Jamal Khashoggi's body was dismembered and put into five suitcases after he was strangled upon entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul last month, according to a report by a Turkish pro-government newspaper.
Citing unnamed officials, Sabah reported on Sunday that the suitcases were then taken to the Saudi consul-general's residence near the consulate the day the journalist - a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS - was killed on October 2.

The officials said that Maher Mutreb, Salah Tubeigy and Thaar al-Harbi were the three key figures from a 15-member hit squad reportedly involved in dismembering Khashoggi's body and removing it from the premises.

Mutreb was a direct aide to MBS, while Tubeigy was the head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics and a colonel in the kingdom's army.

Bahrain sentences three opposition leaders to life

Sheikh Ali Salman

Bahrain's appeals court has sentenced three senior members of the country's opposition movement to life in prison over charges of spying for neighbouring Qatar, according to a statement from the public prosecutor.The verdict against Sheikh Ali Salman, who headed the now-outlawed al-Wefaq movement, as well as Sheikh Hassan Sultan and Ali al-Aswad came on Sunday, months after their acquittal by the high criminal court in June. 

Salman is currently serving a four-year sentence in a separate case - "inciting hatred" in the kingdom, which has seen mainly Shia protests against the Sunni monarchy since 2011. Sultan and al-Aswad were tried in absentia.The trio was sentenced for "acts of hostility" against Bahrain and "communicating with Qatari officials... to overthrow constitutional order", the public prosecutor's statement said. The latest ruling can be appealed.

Netanyahu meets with sultan Qaboos in Oman

Netanyahu talking to sultan Qaboos. (Foto:no credt)

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an official visit to Oman, where he met with Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, his office said Friday. Oman has no official diplomatic ties with Israel, although a slight warming in relations followed the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.

Netanyahu and his wife were invited to visit by the sultan after lengthy contacts between the two countries, the Prime Minister Office's said in a statement. The prime minister flew to Oman on Thursday and spent the night there before returning to Israel. Yje visist came after a visit by the Palestinian presidnet Abbas, who visited Oman eatlier this week

 Netanyabhu;'svisit wasn't the first visit by an Israeli leader. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made the first visit by an Israeli premier to Oman in 1994. In 1996, Rabin's successor, Shimon Peres, met with the sultan. Oman's foreign minister visited Israel in 1995. In 2008, then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with Oman's foreign minister. 

Joining Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were Mossad Director Yossi Cohen; National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat; Foreign Ministry Director General Yuval Rotem; Netanyahu Chief of Staff Yoav Horowitz; and Col. Avi Blot, Netanyahu's military secretary.

Flash floods in Jordan sweep away bus: at least 19 people killed

At least 20 people, mostly young children,  died and 34 were injured and rescued by Thursday evening from flashfloods in the hot springs area near the Dead Sea as the country witnessed heavy quick rain, according to authorities. The number of dead on Friday rose to 20 after the body of a 12-year old girtl was found.

The Civil Defence Department (CDD) said it was no longer sure on the number of those missing, indicating that 44 students and teachers from a private school in Amman were swept away with the water, in addition to an unidentified number of families at the site.

A total of 2,000 personnel from military and civil state agencies participated in the large scale rescue operation, in addition to 100 rescue machineries, four helicopters and several boats, which were roaming the lake of the Dead Sea in search for survivors or victims, according to the CDD.

Police chief Brigadier General Farid al Sharaa told state television the torrential rains swept away a bus carrying 44 children and teachers who were on a school trip picnicking in the popular destination.

Saudi Arabia admits killing Khashoggi, Turks will reveal the ''real'' truth

Saudi Arabia has admitted to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside its consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.Khashoggi, a Saudi writer and dissident, entered the building on October 2 to obtain documentation certifying he had divorced his ex-wife. He never came out.

After two weeks of repeated denials that it had anything to do with his disappearance, the kingdom admitted on Saturday that the dissident journalist died in a "fist-fight" inside the consulate but made no mention of where his body is.

 Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said Khashoggi died after "discussions" at the consulate devolved into an altercation.

"Discussions that took place between him and the persons who met him … at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace," the attorney general said in a statement.The investigations are still under way and 18 Saudi nationals have been arrested."Royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Asiri were fired from their positions, the statement said.
Turkey will uncover the full details of Khashoggi's killing using all possible means, a spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said.Turkey will reveal whatever happened. Nobody should ever doubt it," spokesperson Omer Celik was quoted as saying by Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency.
"We are not accusing anyone in advance but we don't accept anything remaining covered [up]," Celik added.

After 70 Years of Abuse, a Definition of Anti-Palestinian Racism

Is this where the fight-back begins?

by Stuart Littlewood / October 10th, 2018

 (earlier published in Dissent Voice )

What is the matter with the Palestine solidarity movement? Since 1948 (and before that, even) the Palestinians have been viciously abused and dispossessed while the perpetrators and their supporters have continually played the anti-Semitism card.
Bemused spectators have been bored witless by the long and ludicrous propaganda campaign to vilify Jeremy Corbyn, bully the Labour Party into accepting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism as a cornerstone in their code of conduct and stifle discussion of Israel’s crimes against  the Palestinian people. The expected riposte never came.

Anti-Palestinian Racism
Now Jewish Voice For Labour, of all people, have struck back with a useful looking definition of Anti-Palestinian Racism which they decribe as “hatred towards or prejudice against Palestinians as Palestinians”. In a document faintly mocking the pronouncements on anti-Semitism they suggest that manifestations of anti-Palestinian racism might include the denial of Palestinian rights to a state of Palestine as recognised by over 130 member countries of the United Nations and blaming Palestinians for their own plight under brutal military occupation and lock-down. Here’s how they put it:
Contemporary examples of anti-Palestinian racism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

Nikki Haley quits post at UN

(Photo AP)

US President Donald Trump has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as US ambassador to the United Nations, saying she would be leaving his administration at the end of the year.

In the White House's Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump called the ambassador a "very special" person "who gets it", adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off.

Trump said that together they "solved a lot of problems".

Haley, 46, said she had no immediate plans, and denied she would be running for president in 2020.
Trump said on Tuesday that she could have her "pick" of posts if she ever decided to come back to the administration.
Before she was named by Trump to her UN post, Haley was governor of South Carolina, the first woman to hold the post. She was re-elected in 2014.The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley clashed with then-candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign. Trump picked her nevertheless.
During her time as the UN ambassador, Haley was outspoken on several issues.

Israel will deliver first gas to Egypt in March

Egypt will begin importing natural gas from Israel under a $15 billion deal as early as March if an undersea pipeline connecting the Mediterranean neighbors is found to be in good condition, moving the country closer to its goal of becoming an energy-exporting hub.
Mohammed Shoeib, chief executive officer of East Gas Co., a major Egyptian partner in the pipeline, said supplies would begin at 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day in the first quarter of 2019 and gradually rise to a maximum of 700 million scf a day.

“We expect the pipeline is in good condition,” he told Bloomberg in an interview. “We aim to reach the pipeline’s full capacity or maximum flow rate within three years.”
East Gas and the companies developing Israel’s largest natural gas fields agreed last month to buy 39 percent of the East Mediterranean Gas Co., which owns the pipeline connecting southern Israel to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, clearing the main legal obstacle to the 10-year export contract signed in February. East Gas separately made a deal to buy a further 9 percent from MGPC.The EMG pipeline was originally built to export Egyptian gas to Israel, but has been idle for about six years.

Kavanaugh sworn in at the US Supreme Court

Brett Kavanaugh has been sworn in as the 114th US Supreme Court justice after the Senate narrowly voted to confirm him. 

The confirmation on Saturday ended a bitter battle between Republicans and Democrats during a confirmation process that transfixed the nation following allegations of sexual misconduct against the nominee, which he has denied. 

Senators voted 50-48 in favour of Kavanaugh, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Montana opposed the nomination, but voted "present" out of courtesy for fellow Montana Senator Steven Daines who was out of town for his daughter's wedding. He was in favour of Kavanaugh.

The confirmation is seen as a clear win for President Donald Trump in his efforts to further push the court to the right.

Turkey thinks Khashoggi has been murdered

Turkish authorities believe that prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared four days ago after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, has been killed.

"The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate," a Turkish official told Reuters news agency on Saturday.

The suspected assassination of the leading critic of the Saudi regime came four days after he entered the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Istanbul, said there has not been any disclosure of the whereabouts his body.
"However, we have heard a funeral will take place in the coming two or three days," he said before adding that it was unknown if Khashoggi's body will be present at the funeral.
 Earlier on Saturday, sources told Al Jazeera that a delegation of 15 Saudi officials arrived in Turkey the day Khashoggi, 59, disappeared.

Erdogan: ''Turkey will not leave Syria until elections are held''

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will not leave Syria until a general election is held in the war-torn Middle-Eastern nation.

"Whenever the Syrian people hold an election, we will leave Syria to its owners," Erdogan said at the TRT World forum in Istanbul on Thursday.

Turkey sent troops to Syria in August 2016 to clear a border area of fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also referred to as ISIS).

It launched another operation earlier this year in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin to remove Kurdish fighters affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Erdogan agreed with President Vladimir Putin of Russia last month to establish a "demilitarised zone" between rebel and government fighters in northern Syria.
The zone, which will have a depth of 15 to 20km will see groups deemed radical by Moscow withdraw from the area by October 15.

Two years for Egyptian woman who published video of her sexual harassment

Amal Fathy and her husband who was banned from the trial. (Photo Guardian)

An Egyptian woman who made a video alleging sexual harassment has been given two years in prison and a fine on charges of “spreading false news”.
Amal Fathy, an actor and a former activist, uploaded a video to her Facebook account in May detailing how she was sexually harassed during a visit to her bank and criticising the government’s failure to protect women.
Two days after the post, Egyptian security forces entered her home in a pre-dawn raid and arrested her along with her husband and young son, both of whom were later released.
Fathy was subsequently put on trial accused of spreading false news with intent to harm the Egyptian state and possessing “indecent material”. She was sentenced to one year in prison for each charge, and given a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (£430) for making “public insults”.
In a second trial that is under way, she faces allegations that include being a member of a terrorist organisation.

Russia has started delivering S-300 missiles to Syria

Russia has started delivering S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Syrian forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.Lavrov told a news conference at the United Nations (UN) on Friday that "the delivery started already" after a decision was reached following downing of a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft which was hit by a Syrian missile.

Moscow said Israel was culpable as the Il-20 was caught in the crossfire as four Israeli fighter jets attacked targets in northwestern Syria.The Israeli military said that Syria's indiscriminate air defence fire was the cause of the incident.

"As President [Vladimir] Putin said, after that incident ... the measures that we will take will be devoted to ensuring 100 percent safety and security of our men," said Lavrov.

Electoral farce in Egypt

By Alain Gresh 
On March 26 and 28 Egyptians will be called to the polls to choose the President of the Republic. If we had to describe in one word a process which can hardly be termed “electoral,” the word that comes immediately to mind is “farce,” a theatrical performance mingling ridicule and hypocrisy. The stage has been carefully cleared of all the actors who might overshadow the star, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, candidate for his own succession.
Thus countless politicians have been disqualified on the most far-fetched pretexts. And, first of all, there was former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik who scored 48% in the 2012 presidential run-off—the only democratic election the country has ever known—against Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood. Having declared his candidacy in Abu Dhabi where he had taken refuge, he was bundled into a plane for Cairo, where it took several weeks of “friendly persuasion” to make him withdraw.
At the beginning of January, the former chief of staff (2005-2012) Sami Anan declared his intention to run. It wasn’t a good idea: he was arrested and jailed, in spite of an unwritten law that former generals never go to prison. Colonel Ahmed Konsawa was also sentenced to five years in prison by a military court for having dared to put forward his candidacy. Under these conditions the last remaining hopefuls, Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat —the former president’s nephew, who was not even allowed to hold a press conference—and Khaled Ali, a left-wing lawyer, withdrew from what is obviously a rigged election.
The second act of this farce took place a few days before the close of nominations. (Read on on the original site of this post)

Presidential candidate in Egypt in prison, deputy attacked

Hisham Geneina 

Egypt's former top auditor and a leading member of an opposition campaign against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was seriously injured during a suspected kidnapping attempt, lawyers said. 

Ali Taha and Tareq el-Awady, lawyers of Hisham Geneina, told the Associated Press that three men with knives jumped out of two cars that blocked the path of Genena's car outside his suburban Cairo home on Saturday. 

The men attempted to force Geneina into their car, but were stopped by passers-by and a fight ensued, in which Geneina suffered injuries to his face and leg. 

Photos circulating on social media showed an injured Geneina. A security official told al-Shorouk newspaper, however, that Geneina was injured after a fight followed a vehicle accident. 
Geneina had been tapped earlier this month to be a deputy to Sami Anan, the former head of Egypt's armed forces, who initially said he would run in March's presidential election.

Sentence Bahraini human rights activits Nabeel Rajab widely condemned

Nabeel Rajab

Human rights groups have roundly condemned a ruling by a Bahraini court to affirm a two-year jail sentence for activist Nabeel Rajab, saying the verdict "illustrates the corruption" of the kingdom's justice system.

Rajab had been found guilty in July of "spreading rumours and untruthful information" against the government in TV interviews. The verdict was upheld in November, following a legal challenge by Rajab. On Monday, an appeals court affirmed the lower court verdict, in a decision that was final. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on Tuesday urged the Bahraini government to immediately release Rajab, saying he is a political prisoner who had "done nothing"."Nabeel is not only a human rights defender but also a man of intellectual value. He should not be in jail," Dimitris Christopoulos, president of the Paris-based group, told Al Jazeera.

Twenty one people killed after five days of unrest in Iran

 (Anadolu)

Nine more people have died in overnight clashes between protesters and security forces in Iran, state television has reported, as unrest in the country entered a sixth day.
State TV said six protesters were killed as they tried to storm a police station in the town of Qahderijan in the central Isfahan region. It also said an 11-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were killed in the town of Khomeinishahr, while a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was killed in the town of Najafabad. All three were shot by hunting rifles, which are common in the Iranian countryside, the report said. None of the reports could be confirmed independently.
It is estimated that 21 people have now died nationwide in unrest linked to the demonstrations, the largest in Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election.
Protests over the weak economy and a jump in food prices that began on Thursday in Mashhad have spread to cities across the country and taken on a political dimension. Some protesters have chanted slogans against the government of Iran’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.