Two people killed in protest after Egyptian court dropped all cases against Mubarak

 
Two people died and nine were injured on Saturday night when security forces dispersed hundreds of demonstrators near Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the health minstry said.
Around three thousand protesters had gathered after a court dropped all charges against ousted president Hosni Mubarak in connection with the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising.
At 8:30pm, security forces fired water cannons at protesters then teargas and birdshot, according to an Ahram Online reporter at the scene.
Tanks also rushed the protesters who were gathered in Abdel-Moneim Riad square near Tahrir.
The Director of Security for Cairo governorate told Aswat Masriya that police arrested 85 protesters.

Egyptian court drops case against Mubarak and his minister of the Interior for killing protesters in 2011

Fareed al-Deeb, Mubarak's lawyer, is happy. (through Twitter)

I don't know if there were still people who needed proof of the wicked character of the new Egyptian regime of ex-field marshall El-Sisi, or of the corrupt state of the Egyptian judiciary. But here is today's news about the trial of ex-president Mubarak and his minister of the Interior al-Adly and some aides, in the case about who was responsible for the death of protesters during the revolt of 2011:

An Egyptian court on Saturday dropped its case against ousted President Hosni Mubarak, his interior minister and six aides on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 revolt that removed him from power. The court also acquitted on Saturday Mubarak's Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and four of his aides on charges of inciting and aiding the killing of 238 protesters during the 18-day January 2011 uprising which toppled his regime. The acquitted aides are; Ahmed Ramzy, Adly Fayed, Hassan Abdel Rahman and Ismail al-Shaer.
The five defendants, alongside other aides Osama al-Marasi and Omar Afifi, were also acquitted of the charge of harming their work-place.
The court has also acquitted Mubarak and Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem of the graft charges related to the exportation of gas to Israel. Salem is being tried in absentia.
Mubarak and his two sons Alaa and Gamal were accused of exploiting their influence in Salem's favour after the latter granted them five villas in the Sinai resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. The judge heading the trial, Mahmoud al-Rashidi said that the statute of limitations in this case has expired, and therefore the court lacks jurisdiction to rule on it.
The court also cleared Mubarak and a former oil minister of graft charges related to gas exports to Israel. In a separate corruption case, charges were dropped against Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal, with Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi saying too much time had elapsed since the alleged crime took place for the court to rule on the matter.

Amnesty condems demolitions in Rafah by Egypt

 More than 800 houses were demolished in Rafah (Photos MEE).

Amnesty International condemned Thursday Egypt's demolition of hundreds of homes and called for a halt to its "unlawful evictions" of residents to create a buffer zone with the Gaza Strip.
Egypt started work on the zone at the end of October with the aim of stemming jihadists reportedly infiltrating Egypt's Sinai peninsula from across the border.
Jihadists have stepped up deadly attacks against Egyptian troops inside the Sinai since the ouster of Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

Essebsi wins first round in Tunisian elections

Tunisian secularist leader Beji Caid Essebsi has narrowly beaten incumbent President Moncef Marzouki in the first round of a landmark presidential election, but the two frontrunners must meet again in a December run-off. Essebsi, from the secular Nidaa Tounes party, got 39.46 percent in Sunday's vote, short of the needed overall majority but ahead of Marzouki, who got 33.4 percent, according to early results released on Thursday by election authorities.

Marzouki, a rights activist, says the revival of officials from Ben Ali's one-party rule would erode the revolution that ended his regime. But Marzouki's critics tie him to the crisis over Ennahda's Islamist-led government he joined after 2011.
Both candidates will now seek support from the range of Islamist, liberal and left-wing parties who fielded candidates. Key will be who wins votes from supporters of Ennahda and the left-leaning Popular Front, both well-organized movements.The hunt for votes for the second round - expected on Dec. 14, 21 or 28 depending on challenges to first-round results - will be determined by parties positioning themselves for the new government.

Tunisia votes in presidential election

Beji Caid Essebsi

Polls opened Sunday in Tunisia's first presidential election since the 2011 revolution that ousted former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, a ballot set to round off the transition to democracy. Twenty seven candidates are vying for the post and the favorite is former premier Beji Caid Essebsi, an 87-year-old veteran whose anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party won the parliamentary elections last month.
Other candidates include outgoing President Moncef Marzouki, left-winger Hamma Hammami, several ministers who served Ben Ali, business magnate Slim Riahi and a lone woman, magistrate Kalthoum Kannou.
Some 5.3 million people are eligible to vote, with tens of thousands of police and troops deployed to guarantee security amid fears Islamist militants might seek to disrupt polling day.

Bahrain to the urns in election boycotted by the opposition

Protesters against the elections in the Shi'ite village of Diraz, west of Manama (Photo AFP)

Bahrainis voted on Saturday in the first parliamentary elections since 2011 when large crowds, most Shi'ites,  took to the streets demanding more democracy. Some 419 candidates are running, 266 for parliament and 153 for municipal councils in the kingdom. But the elections were boycotted by the Shi'ite Muslim opposition over accusations that constituency changes would still favor the Sunni Muslim minority which is represented by the royal family of Al-Khalifa.
The opposition maintains that the new parliament will not have enough power and that voting districts still favor Sunnis despite some recent electoral changes. The opposition wants a "real" constitutional monarchy with an elected prime minister independent from the Al-Khalifa family. But the Saudi-backed Sunni dynasty that rules over the majority Shiite kingdom has rejected the demand.

70th beheading of this year in S-Arabia

Saudi Arabia beheaded on Thursday a Turkish man convicted of drug trafficking in Riyadh, the interior ministry said, in the latest execution in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom.
Ali Agridas was convicted of receiving a "large amount of drugs," the ministry said in a statement.
His execution brings to 70 the number of Saudis and foreigners beheaded in the kingdom this year, according to an AFP count, compared with 78 people in all of 2013.
Rape, murder, apostasy, drug trafficking and armed robbery are all punishable by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.
Moreover, Saudi judges have this year passed death sentences down to five pro-democracy advocates, including prominent activist and cleric Nimr al-Nimr, for their part in protests.

Eight Egyptians missing, five wounded after attack on navy vessel

Eight Egyptian navy personnel are missing following an attack by militants on an armed forces boat in the Mediterranean, the army has said. Five injured navy personnel have been transferred to hospital, while searches are ongoing to locate another eight, a military spokesman said late on Wednesday.
Military forces destroyed four boats used by the assailants and arrested 32 suspects, he added.
A military naval boat was performing a combat exercise in the Mediterranean, 40 nautical miles north of Damietta port, when a number of boats fired at it on Wednesday.
This is the first attack on naval forces.
No information has been released on the identity of the assailants.
The army has been combating a decade-long jihadist insurgency in Sinai, with attacks increasing over the past year and expanding into Cairo and the Nile Delta. Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed, while the army says it has killed and arrested hundreds of jihadists. Civilians have also been caught in the violence.

Yemen gets new cabinet, president ousted from his party

The new prime minister Khaled Bahah

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was ousted as leader of his own political party, the group said on Saturday, according tot Reuters. The General People's Congress (GPC) accused Hadi of backing U.N. sanctions against its influential former chief, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years before resigning in 2012 following mass street protests.

Hadi's dismissal as party chief came the day after he moved to end Yemen's latest political crisis by naming a new power-sharing government in the country. It is a 36-member government, which was formed  under a peace deal agreed when Shiite Huthi rebels, who seized the capital on September 21.

The new government includes four women, one of whom takes the information and culture portfolio. Four members of the outgoing cabinet were reappointed and three more changed portfolios.

On November 1, the main political parties signed a new agreement, sponsored by UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar, for the formation of a government of technocrats. Under the accord, representatives of the rebels and their rivals, the Sunni Al-Islah (Reform) Islamic party, mandated President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to form a government and committed to support it.

On October 31, the Houthis -- also known as Ansarullah -- increased pressure on Hadi by giving him 10 days to form a new government or face the creation of a "national salvation council". With the exception of the October 13 appointment of Khalid Bahah as premier, the September 21 deal with the rebels had remained a dead letter. Under the accord, the Houthis were to withdraw from Sanaa and disarm once a neutral prime minister is named.

The ousting of president Hadi from his own party was preceded on Friday by a protest march of thousands of supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Shiite rebels against the threat of UN sanctions against Saleh and insurgent chiefs. Saleh, who stepped down in early 2012 after a year of Arab Spring-inspired protests, is seen as the main backer of the rebels. His General People's Congress (GPC) party called for the protests, warning that any sanctions would exacerbate the crisis in Yemen.

The UN Security Council was set to endorse a US-drafted proposal to slap a visa ban and assets freeze on Saleh and two of his allies, Shiite Houthi rebel commanders Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim.The ousting of Hadi robs him of an important power base and makes the situation in Yemen even more volatile.

Gunmen kill well-known Yemeni politician

Unknown gunmen assassinated a senior Yemeni politician, rights activist and author, Dr. Mohammed Abdulmalik Al-Mutawakil, on Sunday in downtown Sanaa. The authorities said two gunmen carried out the shooting, using a motorbike in Al-Adl Street.
The incident happened as the Houthi Militant Group are continuing its control of the capital and other provinces. Al-Mutawakil was a supporter of the Houthis but against violence and attempts to incite chaos by force. Al-Mutawakil held several posts within Yemeni governments, including minister of supplies in 1976. He furthermore worked as a college professor, was a founder of the Nasserite Party and established and participated in several human rights, democratic and freedom organizations.
Yemen has been facing a series of targeted killings mostly against military and security commanders, politicians and activists since 2011. Most incident have been carried out by motorbike attackers most of whom are still at large.

Israel adopts new law that prohibits exchange of prisoners convicted of murder

Israel's parliament has passed a law that could block the release in any future peace negotiations of Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, a spokesman said Tuesday. The 120-member Knesset voted late Monday 35 to 15 in favour of the bill, which was initiated by a far-right politician and approved by the cabinet in June, a parliament spokesman told AFP.
The law gives judges the power to convict murderers under a new category of "extraordinarily severe circumstances" which would prevent the government from releasing them in any future deals.
Israel freed 78 Palestinian prisoners during failed US-backed peace talks between July 2013 and April, including many who had been convicted for murdering Israeli civilians. In 2011 it released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who had been held for five years by the Palestinian  group Hamas.
The releases angered hardliners such as Ayelet Shaked of the far-right Jewish Home party who initiated the new law earlier this year. But left-leaning politicians have said the law would tie Israel's hands in future talks, with Zehava Gal-On of the Meretz party accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "capitulating to the extreme right and supporting a demagogic law."

Cairo court: three years for eight men who took part in ''gay-wedding''

Qasr Al-Nil Misdemeanour Court on Saturday sentenced eight men to three years in prison on charges of "debauchery", and to three years probation after their release.The men convicted were shown appearing to take part in a Nile boat wedding celebration featuring two men as the celebrants. The video went viral on social media sites.
A man who said he was one of those who appeared in the video denied the allegations in an interview with privately-owned Rotana Masriya television channel in early September. He said he was holding a birthday party for his friend and got him a silver ring as a birthday gift. Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat watched the video and confirmed that the footage was of two men getting married, a statement from the prosecution said. The defendants have been detained since early September as per an order from Egypt's prosecutor-general to investigate charges of debauchery and spreading acts that violate public decency.