Alexandria police makes victim for third time in a year

 
'De martelaar'  Mustafa Attia

Blogster Zeinobia has the facts. After Khaled Said  and  Ahmed Sha'aban
the police in Alexandria has tortured yet another victim to death, the third in less than a year. Police in the district Mina al-Basal arrested the taxi-driver and former owner of a small shop Mustaf Attia. Shortly after that Attia was dead. According to the police he just dropped dead in the street. Two witnesses of what may have happened have been arrested. Mustafa's family was asked to bury Mustafa, a father of three (the oldest 4 years old) quicly, without ceremony. Nobody was allowed to see his body, except a brother, who got only a partial view. 
Zeinoba adds that the police, and some papers, now describe Attia as someone who had committed several crimes. She, however, tells the story that he was indebted after his shop got broke and took a loan from a bank in order to start a life as a taxi driver. He was late in paying back the debt and was sued. Two days before his death he paid the loan off, but unfortunataley the Alexandria police was not informed. It seems that the attorney general in Alexandria, after the story broke, has asked for an autopsy. We'll see.

The real meaning of 'easing' the blockade of Gaza

Strawberries in Gaza. Thye Israeli military agreed to a limited amount of strawberries and flowers, cultivated with the help of Holland, to be exported to Europe. Israels supporters were delighted by this show of Israeli leniency.

Whoever interpreted the news that Israel let through a limited amount of strawberries and flowers for exportation to the European market  as a sign of lifting the pressure and improving the situation in Gaza, should read the recent bitter article that Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International in the UK, contributed to the Middle East Channel of Foreign Policy.


Referring to the fact that the Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, constantly keeps repeating how much the blockade of Gaza has been ''eased'' since the summer, she writes:
 
As a recent report from 26 humanitarian and human rights organizations shows, six months of a less-oppressive blockade regime has made only a minimal difference to the lives of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants. Here are a few headline findings:

• Imports into Gaza are still at 35 percent of pre-blockade levels
• Israel has granted approval in 7 percent of projects submitted by the UN's Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) for constructing clinics and schools (though only a fraction of the number green-lighted has actually had materials sent through)
• There is still no free movement of people in and out of Gaza (movement levels are 1 percent of those in the year 2000, for example)
• In the past six months there have been almost no exports allowed out of Gaza (true, a Europe-bound consignment of strawberries and flowers was allowed out in late November, but this is a mere fraction of what is needed)

Or, to cite another telling figure: the U.N. has estimated that Gaza needs 670,000 truckloads of construction materials to rebuild its shattered roads and buildings; in the past half year Israel's "easing" has allowed in a grand total of 4,290. At this rate it will take another 78 years to get those materials in (fresh destruction from any future Israeli military assaults on Gaza would, of course, set even this hopelessly postponed date back still further).
Not surprisingly the figures tell the story far more accurately than the rhetorical device of referring to an "easing." If we're going to employ these concepts realistically, we'd actually be better talking about a noose that‘s been loosened very slightly, but better still would be to avoid misleading use of politicized metaphors and have recourse to the figures themselves.
That said, even when the data is cited by commentators there seems to be evidence of Israel's things-are-getting-better message subverting the truth.
So on the very day that NGOs were publishing their latest bleak (but factually-based) assessment of the continuing harm and deprivation caused by the blockade, Tony Blair's Quartet office was accentuating the positive with a highly selective run-through of import-export data).(....)
Israel's own response to detailed criticism has had a predictable quality: the selective provision of figures that ignore the pre-blockade situation to focus on the good news supposedly heralded by the "easing" story. Plus, when the blockade has been condemned, there's been the standard-issue criticism of NGO bias.

Allen points out that - at last - the EU's Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton has voiced critiscism of the 'unsatisfactory' nature of what the easing measures have achieved, and that it is high time that the internationale community takes action vis a vis the infringement of international and humanitarian laws that the blockade in fact is. Her article is worth reading in full.  .

Rift in Fatah, did Dahlan plan another coup?

Dahlan (Photo Al-Masry Al-Youm, Hossam Fadl)



 Muhammad Dahlan, former assistant Palestinian minister for the Interior, former Fatah police chief in Gaza and nowadays chief of the Palestinian presidential guard that protects president Mahmoud Abbas, is again in the news. In 2007 he was the main character in the dramatically failed attempt to seize the Gaza Strip from the hands of Hamas (with help from the US, see David Rose's story 'The Gaza Bombshell' in Vanity Fair)
This week he was spotted in Cairo where, on Monday, he had talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, after news had leaked out about a rift between him and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. Dahlan, who currently is also a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, told reporters, according to Al-Masry Al Youm, that his relationship with  president Abbas was one of "friendship'' and ''nothing but respect". He expressed "surprise" over what he called the "leaks referring to a problem between me and President Abbas." Such leaks, he added, "are only intended to sow confusion."

However, last months press reports suggested the existence of a serious disagreement between Dahlan and Abbas due to Dahlan's criticism of Abbas' policies regarding negotiations with Israel. Here is what The Palestinian Information Centre (close to Hamas) on 21 November reported (in Arabic): 

"A Palestinian leader close to Fatah has revealed new details of what has become known in the Fatah milieu as the "Dahlan case," the incessant accusations against him for being the architect of a comprehensive plan to control Fatah and succeed Mahmud Abbas as president.
Two weeks after the Palestinian Information Centre disclosed the content of the plan sent by Fatah Central Committee [CC] member Muhammad Dahlan to the US Administration, which contains security proposals to topple the Palestinian government in Gaza and to control the Gaza Strip, the source related to our correspondent the existence of a connection between the abovementioned security document and the developments within Fatah, after Dahlan and other Fatah leaders, including CC member Nasir al-Qudwah, appeared before a commission of inquiry set up by the PNA presidency and headed by Fatah leader Abu-Mahir Ghunaym. The source explained that the investigation of Dahlan and a number of Fatah leaders followed on the heels of Al-Qudwah's harsh criticism of Mahmud Abbas, which was published in The Wall Street Journal and was later confirmed to be instigated by Dahlan.
 Yet, the most serious thing that the sources disclosed goes beyond disagreements and verbal criticisms to practical action on the ground that Dahlan and a number of leaders supporting him are preparing. The source revealed that the US Administration received a letter from Muhammad Dahlan, Nasir al-Qudwah, Sultan Abu-al-Aynayn, and Tawfiq al-Tirawi stating that "Abbas is now unable to make peace but we are able to, and that he must be substituted by a personality that has the ability to achieve this." Moreover, and as proof of the seriousness of the offer, the letter suggests assigning the Interior Ministry in the Fayyad government to Dahlan and pledges to regain control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas according to the plan sent earlier. The source also noted that the US response has not arrived yet.  According to the source, the recent letter coincided with the rise in the pace of alignments within Fatah between a group supporting Dahlan and another comprising historic leader who oppose him, especially after the return of large numbers of Dahlan's supporters to Palestine after their exit from the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the decisive military action that was carried out by Hamas." 
Source BBC Monitoring Service  (quoted by The Angry Arab News Service)

Egypt gets parliament with at least some opposition, after massive vote rigging and some horse trading

 

Protest by unhappy oppostion members

Official results of the 2010 parliamentary elections in Egypt are somewhat of a surprise after all: the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) clinched almost 86.4 percent of the 508 seat People's Assembly, with 424 MPs . Some 65 went to independents, who for the most part are also NDP candidates albeit in disguise. The opposition won a meagre 16 seats, or around 3 percent, in contrast to their 23 percent representation in the outgoing parliament.
The liberal Wafd party won six seats. The left-wing Tagammu five (as opposed to only one in the outgoing parliament), the Muslim Brotherhood won only one seat (down from the 88 it won in 2005) and the Ghad (Tomorrow), Geel (generation), Adalah (social justice), and Salam (social peace) parties, won one seat each. The total number of  "opposition" in the new parliament is now 15.

Four seats are still up for grabs, following clashes in the constituencies. The Higher Election Committee has said another election round for those four seats - which constitute a little less than one percent of the parliament - will be scheduled at a later date.
Both the Muslim Brotherhood and Wafd had withdrawn from the elections two days after the 28 November vote last Sunday, citing “blatant” and “widespread” rigging in favour of the ruling party, and after both parties had alsmost no seats won in the first round.
It seems, however, that the NDP backtracked on the way it handled this first round and for the second round on Sunday made some last-minute backroom deals with opposition candidates to guarantee a few independent victories after all. According to observers the NDP in this way pushed some independent candidates to join parties that had no run-off candidates.
In the Aga district of Daqahliya Governorate, NDP candidate for the professionals seat Abdel Fattah Diab announced his withdrawal from the election in protest over alleged fraud aimed at facilitating a win for his leftist Tagammu Party competitor. The NDP pushed Mohamed al-Kharweeli, an independent candidate in the Mahalla Governorate, to join the Geel Party, according to a report published today by the Egyptian Association for the Development of Societal Participation.
Also one Muslim Brotherhood contender was forced to run in the second round in order to guarantee Brotherhood parliamentary representation, according to rights reports. In this way MB-affiliated parliamentary candidate in Al-Nozha district of Cairo, Magdy Ashour, won the group’s sole parliamentary seat this year. It is as yet  unclear whether he will choose to relinquish the seat or not. “It’s totally up to [Ashour],” Saad El-Katatni, head of the 2005 MB parliamentary bloc, told Daily News Egypt. “We are not pressuring him to withdraw. He can choose to do whatever he sees fit. But if Magdy Ashour decides to [accept the MP position], he will be considered an independent candidate who does not represent the Brotherhood.”
Also the Wafd announced, in line with the party's decision last Wednesday to pull out of the elections, that it will suspend candidates who participated in the election runoffs on Sunday. “The Wafd is not going to have any parliamentary representation,” party Secretary General, Mounir Fakhry AbdelNour. 
After the first round Safir Nour and Mosaad El-Meligy emerged as the only victorious Wafd candidates. ats. A week later, during the runoff round, the party surprisingly won four additional seats which went to Atef El-Ashmouny, Tareq Sebaq, Mohamed El-Malki in Cairo and Magda Neweshi in Ismailia  

Initially the party expected it would win more than 20 seats, but members were shocked when only two seats were secured in the first round and in a reaction to what they argued was "widespread rigging", the party decided to pull out of the elections.

At the other hand, the leftist Tagammu, which decided to stay in the elections, won one in the first round and four seats in the second one. It is not expected that the party is going to renounce these seats, but te position of party secretary general Rifaat Said has been considerably weakened after the decision not to withdraw, which was critisized by large factions  in the party. 

Who bit tourists at Sharm el-Sheikh? Sharks with Israeli GPS-devices or just sharks?

 A Sharm El Sheikh marine biologist slammed the conspiracy theory circulating around the country that last week's shark attacks off the South Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh were part of an Israeli conspiracy, but the South Sinai governor supports it.

Mahmoud Hanafy, a professor of marine biology at the Suez Canal University, told Ahram Online that it is "sad," that Egyptian national TV helped perpetuate the theory that the shark attacks, which resulted in one death and four serious injuries this week, may have been controlled by Israel.

 

One of the rare sharks that were caught and killed. Apparently the wrong ones.  

Speaking on the public TV program "Egypt Today" yesterday, a specialist introduced as "Captain Mustafa Ismail, a famous diver in Sharm El Sheikh," said that the sharks involved in the attack are ocean sharks and do not live in Egypt's waters. When asked by the anchor how the shark entered Sharm El Sheikh waters, he burst out, "no, it's who let them in?" Urged to elaborate, Ismail said that he recently got a call from an Israeli diver in Eilat telling him that they captured a small shark with a GPS planted in its back, implying that the sharks were monitored to attack in Egypt's waters only.  "Why would these sharks travel 4000 km and not have any accidents until they entered Sinai waters?" asked Ismail.

Earlier today, General Abdel-Fadeel Shosha, the governor of South Sinai, backed Ismail's theory. In a phone call to the TV program, he said that it is possible that Israeli intelligence, Mossad, is behind the incidents and that they are doing it to undermine the Egyptian tourism industry. He added that Egypt needs time to investigate the theory.

Marine biologist Hanafy refuted the allegations, saying that the Oceanic White Tip, blamed for the attacks, does indeed exist in Egypt's waters. He also added that the existence of a GPS inside the shark does not mean there is a conspiracy at play, adding that these "tracking devices" are often used by marine biologists to study sea life. ''It is sad that they made a person whose only knowledge of sharks comes from the movie Jaws go on national TV to propagate this mumbo-jumbo,." he said.

This morning, a team of Egyptian and foreign divers and photographers started surveying the popular diving spots of Sharm El-Sheikh, the Ras Mohamed Protectorate, and Tiran. According to General Shosha, the surveillance will be conducted for 72 hours in diving areas and 24 hours in swimming and snorkeling areas.

A 70-year-old German woman was killed on Sunday, just days after three Russians and a Ukrainian were injured.  Egypt's environment ministry caught and killed two sharks - an Oceanic White Tip and a Mako.But divers and conservationists who compared the pictures with one taken shortly before a previous attack, said it was not the same shark
Shark experts and local observers have offered a number of possible explanations for the attacks. Some say overfishing in the Red Sea may have driven sharks closer to shore. Others said the sharks could have been drawn to the area after a ship carrying Australian sheep and cattle for sacrifice during last month's Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha dumped the carcasses of animals which had died during the voyage.

GOD helps to uproot the Bedouin from the Negev

By Neve Gordon
Despite the fact that it was the seventh demolition since last July, this time the the destruction of the Bedouin village of El-Araqib in the Iraeli Negev  was different. The difference is not because the homeless residents have to deal this time with the harsh desert winter; nor in the fact that the bulldozers began razing the homes just minutes before the forty children left for school, thus engraving another violent scene in their memory. Rather, the demolition was different because this time Christian evangelists from the United States and England were involved.

 

I know this for a fact because right next to the demolished homes, the Jewish National Fund put up a big sign that reads: “GOD-TV FOREST, A Generous donation by God-TV made 1,000,000 tree saplings available to be planted in the land of Israel and also provided for the creation of water projects throughout the Negev.” GOD-TV justifies this contribution by citing the book of Isaiah: “I will turn the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs.”
The JewishNational Fund's objective, however, is not altruistic, but rather to plant a pine or eucalyptus forest on the desert land so that the Bedouins cannot return to their ancestral homes. The practice of planting forests in an attempt to Judaize more territory is by no means new. Right after Israel’s establishment in 1948, the JNF planted millions of trees to cover up the remains of Palestinian villages that had been destroyed during or after the war. The objective was to help ensure that the 750,000 Palestinian residents who either fled or were expelled during the war would never return to their villages and to suppress the fact that they had been the rightful owners of the land before the State of Israel was created. Scores of Palestinian villages disappeared from the landscape in this way, and the grounds were converted into picnic parks, thus helping engender a national amnesia regarding thePalestinian Naqba
For several years, I thought this practice had been discontinued, but thanks to the JNF’s new bedfellows and the generous donation of  Rory and Wendy Alec, who established the international evangelical television channel GOD-TV, within the next few months a million saplings will be planted on land belonging to uprooted Bedouins.
God-TV can afford such lavish gifts, since it boasts a viewership of nearly half a billion people, with 20 million in the United States and 14 million in Britain. The television channel regularly features evangelical leaders such as Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and John Hagee, at least some of whom espouse Christian Dispensationalism and believe that all Jews must convert to Christianity before the Second Coming.
The viewers are asked to open their wallets in order to “sow a seed for God.” In this case, the donations seem to have actually been allocated toward sowing seeds, but these seeds are ones of hate and strife. They are antithetical to Isaiah’s prophecy about the people beating their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Indeed, if Isaiah were alive today, he would probably be among the first to lie in front of the bulldozers in an effort to stop the destruction of the Bedouin homes.

Neve Gordon planted millions of trees to cover up the remains of Palestinian villages that had been destroyed during or after the war. The objective was to help ensure that the 750,000 Palestinian residents who either fled or were expelled during the war would never return to their villages and to suppress the fact that they had been the rightful owners of the land before the State of Israel was created. Scores of Palestinian villages disappeared from the landscape in this way, and the grounds were converted into picnic parks, thus helping engender a national amnesia regarding the  Palestinian Nakba. For several years, I thought this practice had been discontinued, but thanks to the JNF’s new bedfellows and the generous donation of  Rory and Wendy Alec, who established the international evangelical television channel GOD-TV, within the next few months a million saplings will be planted on land belonging to uprooted Bedouins.
God-TV can afford such lavish gifts, since it boasts a viewership of nearly half a billion people, with 20 million in the United States and 14 million in Britain. The television channel regularly features evangelical leaders such as Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and John Hagee, at least some of whom espouse Christian Dispensationalism and believe that all Jews must convert to Christianity before the Second Coming.
The viewers are asked to open their wallets in order to “sow a seed for God.” In this case, the donations seem to have actually been allocated toward sowing seeds, but these seeds are ones of hate and strife. They are antithetical to Isaiah’s prophecy about the people beating their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Indeed, if Isaiah were alive today, he would probably be among the first to lie in front of the bulldozers in an effort to stop the destruction of the Bedouin homes.

After Brazil also Argentina recognizes state of Palestine

Kirchner and Abbas.

After Brazil's decision to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, confirmed on Sunday, that she would also recognize an independent Palestine with the same parameters.
Kirchner made the announcemeent in a phone call to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which she added that her recognition was not just a political gesture, but a moral stand.
Brazil announced its official recognition of a Palestinian state on December 3, responding to a request sent by Abbas on November 24, through a letter from the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to Abbas. Isarel has said it deplored the deciiosns of both countries. More than 100 countries have already recognized an independent Palestine within its '67 borders, including all Arab countries, most African nations and part of the new Asian economic powers, such as China and India. 

Update: Uruguay announced soon afterward that it would recognize a Palestinian state next year. “Uruguay will surely follow the same path as Argentina in 2011,” Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto Conde told AFP.

Hamas government closes large Youth center in Gaza

Sharek partcipated yearly in summer camps for youth in Gaza with UNRWA, like here in the summer of this year. These camps were attacked by unknown thugs and destroyed.

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Palestinian police detained at least 13 young people who were protesting Hamas authorities' closure of the Sharek Youth Forum, a large independent NGO in Gaza Sunday.
Police spokesman Ayman Al-Batniji said 13 young men were taken into custody for holding a demonstration without a permit from the Ministry of Interior. He said the male detainees would be freed by sundown without being charged with a crime, while an unspecified number of female demonstrators had already been released.
The Gaza government shut down Sharek last Tuesday citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the group's activities and members. Sharek officials say the shutdown is a nakedly political attempt to crack down a liberal-minded institution.
One of the protesters, Ebaa Rezeq, told Ma'an that between 30 and 60 youths arrived outside the organization's offices around noon on Sunday holding signs. She said plainclothes government officers were waiting for the demonstrators, and ordered the group to speak with officials in the attorney general's office before holding the demonstration.
As the demonstrators walked from Sharek's office toward the attorney general's office, Rezeq said, police in jeeps arrived, ordering the group to disperse, then arresting several people.
"They were shouting at us 'we will beat you up and arrest you if you don't go home,'" she said. She said police also "hit and attacked" one female demonstrator.
After being dispersed by the police, Rezeq said the remaining protesters gathered outside the French Cultural Center, where again police arrived, arresting several more youths.
Rezeq estimated the total number of people arrested at more than 20, while another observer at the protest put the number at between 15 and 20.
Rezeq added that the demonstration was not backed by any political party and was intended only as an expression of solidarity with the Sharek Youth Forum. "We are the kind of people who believe that these kind of actions are wrong, including closing Sharek," she said.

'Democracy' agenda
The Sharek organization, which focuses on empowerment and capacity building among Palestinian youth in the West Bank and Gaza, has denounced the closure of its Gaza branch as an assault on an independent organization. Sharek co-founder Sufian Mshasha told the Ramallah-based website Palestine Monitor that the closure was "prompted by our agenda of democracy, social development, and our insistence on holding activities for both genders."
The organization said its Gaza manager, Muheib Shaath has been summoned 15 times for interrogation by Hamas-allied police. Mshasha said the vast majority of the questioning focused on mixed-gender activities.
A summer camp run by Sharek in partnership with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was attacked in May.
Mshasha also said: "Our director is an observant Muslim, our IT technician wears a burqa. Almost all the women wear traditional Islamic dress and all our volunteers are from Gaza."
In a statement on its website, Sharek also disputed the legal basis for the closure, citing the Palestinian Charitable Societies and Nongovernmental Organizations Law of 2000, which says the closure of an organization must be based on a court ruling.

Israeli democracy mainly a democracy for Jews, according to findings of academic institute

President Peres receives the report from the hands of IDI-director Carmon. 

 The Israel Democracy Institute yearly takes a poll among the Israeli public in which it measures the democratic character of Israel and its institutions according to international standards. A few days ago, on 5 November  the results of the 2010 survey were published and made public during a conference in Tel Aviv.
A did hot have time to pay attention to it earlier. But some of the findings are nevertheless interesting enough, if not outright alarming. For that reason I devote as yet a few lines to the report. Particularly the attitude towards the Arab minority is what deserves attention. Here it goes:

' - Of the Jewish public, 86% believe that critical decisions for  the state should be taken by a Jewish majority.

 -  Almost two thirds (62%) of the Jewish sample feel that as long  as Israel is in a state of conflict with the Palestinians, the views of Arab citizens of Israel on foreign affairs and security issues should not be taken into account.
 - A total of 53% maintain that the state is entitled to encourage Arabs to emigrate from Israel.
 -  Roughly two thirds (67%) of Jewish Israelis feel that first-degree  relatives of Arabs should not be allowed entry into Israel under the rubric of family unification.
- As for equality in the allocation of resources, a majority of  respondents (55%) think that greater resources should be allocated to Jewish communities than to Arab ones, a minority (42%) disagrees. Nevertheless 51% of the general public say they support full equality of rights between Jews and Arabs.'
  
The rest of the report is probably less alarming, athough some of other the findings are remarkable as well:
 's for the democratic character of the state: there is broad support for the assertion that Israel must remain a democratic state, but the Israeli public tends to characterize the country’s democracy as weak and ineffective. The preferred solution is a more centralized government. The bulk of the survey’s respondents (60%) ascribe advantages to an authoritarian government and a strong leadership, which, as they see it, solve problems efficiently.'

The institute adds the remark that 'since the Democracy Index was first published in 2003, significant  gaps have been observed between the opinions of long-time Israelis and those of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (hereafter: FSU immigrants). It seems, ' it says, 'that the latter are among the less liberal Israeli groups with regard to such issues as majority-minority relations and gender equality.'

As far as the concept of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is concerned:
'Among the Israeli  public as a whole, the highest percentage—43%—consider both parts of this definition (“Jewish” and “democratic”) to be equally important; 31% classify the Jewish component as more important; and only 20% ascribe greater importance to the democratic component. Among Arab citizens of Israel, the democratic element takes precedence (38%).'

Remarkable is also the lack of trust of the general public in the state institutions:
'Only slightly more than half the general  Israeli public—54%—state that they trust the Supreme Court fully or to some extent, as opposed to 44% who state openly that they do not trust it. Only 41% of the respondents express full or partial trust in the police.'

Iran now produces its own raw uranium

Iran says it has delivered its first domestically produced raw uranium, or yellowcake, to a plant that can make it ready for enrichment. That has been announced by Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi (picture) in a  statement on tv, one day before talks between Iran and world powers over its nuclear programme.

"The West had counted on the possibility of us being in trouble over raw material but today we had the first batch of yellowcake from Gachin mine sent to Isfahan (conversion) facility," Mr Salehi said on state television.
Iran was believed to be running out of stock of yellowcake, which it imported from Sout Africa in the 1970 -ties. 
The claim comes ahead of talks in Geneva on Monday between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - and Germany.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Iran to enter the talks in good faith and with "a much more sober assessment of what isolation means", given successive rounds of UN sanctions.
The sanctions have been levelled at Iran's failure to comply with UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to stop uranium enrichment.
The Security Council has said that until Iran's peaceful intentions can be fully established, it should stop enrichment and other nuclear activities. Iran says that as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the right to enrich uranium for fuel for civil nuclear purposes.
Enriched uranium can be used for fuel in reactors. If enriched to a higher degree it can be made into nuclear bombs.

Brazil recognizes Palestinian state

Abbas and Lula


Brazil has recognized a Palestinian state within the borders of 1967, including East-Jeruzalem. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the decision Friday in a letter addressed to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and published on the website of Brazil's foreign ministry. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said the recognition is in response to a request made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last month to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula said in his letter to Abbas that he hopes that the recognition will help lead the states of Israel and Palestine to "coexist peacefully and in security." The international community backs Palestinian demands for a state in most of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, all territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. But the United States and most Western governments have held back from recognizing a Palestinian state, saying it should be brought about through a negotiated peace agreement with Israel.
Brazil's recognition could play a role when the PA would announce the birth of a state unilaterally. But the move was sharply criticized by members of the US Congres. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.called it "regrettable'' and said the decision ''will only serve to undermine peace and security in the Middle East." Ros-Lehtinen, set to chair the panel come January, said "responsible nations" would wait to take such a step until Palestinians return to direct talks with Israel and recognize its "right to exist as a Jewish state."
Brazil's decision also drew fire from Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, who said it "is severely misguided and represents a last gasp by a Lula-led foreign policy which was already substantially off track."
Engel tied the move to Lula's "coddling" of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and warned that Brazil "wants to establish itself as a voice in the world, but is making the wrong choices as it tries to do so."
"One can only hope that the new leadership coming into Brazil will change course and understand that this is not the way to gain favor as an emerging power or to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council."
Lula will be stepping down in four weeks' time and handing power over to Dilma Roussef, his protegee and former cabinet chief.

Opposition quits Egyptian elections after governing NDP takes almost all the seats

Vote counting the Egyptian way.

The Muslim Brotherhood and the secular Wafd-party withdrew on Wednesday from Egypt's election after the ruling National Democratic Party got almost all seats that were decided in a first round, which was marred by fraud and violence. A third party, the leftist Tagammu, is expected to follow suit, which will reduce  the second round of the elections , next Sunday, to an exclusive NDP-circus.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which was the main opposition party in the outgoing parliament with 88 seats (20 % of the total) will boycott the second stage of parliamentary voting, a Brotherhood source said on Wednesday. Mohamed Badie, the movement's leader, is expected to confirm that the party is formally quitting the vote, which as many believe was massively fixed by President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) using thugs, ballot box stuffing and other tricks.
The NDP got  captured nearly all seats in parliament in the first round of the disputed elections, according to official results. The National Democratic Party won 209 of 221 seats in Sunday's polls, but the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, failed to win a single seat.
The Egyptian parliamnet has a total of 508 seats.The Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Egypt under a ban on religious parties and fields candidates as independents Analysts said the government wants to push the Brotherhood to the margins of formal politics before next year's presidential race.
Egypt's electoral commission dismissed the Brotherhood's claim that the vote was "rigged and invalid". "While the commission regrets that certain irregularities took place, it is satisfied with the fact that these irregularities did not impact on the transparency of the first round of the election."


The White House and the US state department have criticised the way the poll was conducted. "We are disappointed by reports in the pre-election period of disruption of campaign activities of opposition candidates and arrests of their supporters, as well as denial of access to the media for some opposition voices," Philip Crowley, the state department spokesman, said on Monday.
"We are also dismayed by reports of election-day interference and intimidation by security forces."
The Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday dismissed the criticism from the US as "unacceptable interference in Egypt's internal affairs".
Amnesty International said there had been eight election-related deaths and scores of injuries, mostly during clashes between rival parties.