The return of a general who was a confidant of Mubarak

The blog Novelles d'Orient, which is the blog of the French paper Le monde diplomatique, put a few recent developments in Egypt together under the headline 'Chronique d'une contra-révolution'. They vary from the recent arrest of Essam Arian, one of the last leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who was still at large, through the way the the satirist Bassem Youssef was stopped by his tv-company just one week after he was back for a new season, to the adoption of a law that severely restrains the right to demonstrate, and the  re-installment of a general who is known as one of the biggest foes of the Muslim Brotherhood and a man that kept the corruption practices of Mubarak and his cronies out of the wind. The New York Times wrote the follwing about this man:

Tohamy

A year after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, the man responsible for rooting out government corruption, Gen. Mohamed Farid el-Tohamy, faced a very public barrage of allegations that he had deliberately covered up years of cronyism and self-dealing.
 President Mohamed Morsi promptly fired the general, prosecutors opened an investigation, the news filled the papers and his career appeared to end in disgrace. But now the general is back, and more powerful than ever. His protégé and friend, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, ousted Mr. Morsi about four months ago, and virtually the first move by the new government was to rehabilitate General Tohamy and place him in charge of the general intelligence service, one of the most powerful positions in Egypt.

Human Rights Watch: Egypt does not investigate killings of protesters

Egypt´s authorities have yet to announce any move to investigate security force killings of protesters on October 6, 2013. Almost four weeks after police used lethal force to break up protests by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, the authorities have not said they have questioned, or intend to question, security forces about their use of firearms that day, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued on 2 November. The clashes left 57 people dead throughout Egypt, according to the Health Ministry, with no police deaths reported.
Throughout the past three months, in spite of over 1,300 people killed during demonstrations, the authorities have not established a fact-finding committee or attempted to rein in security services. However, when it comes to violence by protesters prosecutors have arrested, investigated, and prosecuted protesters for assault and use of violence. The government should prosecute its agents who injure or kill people while using unjustifiable levels of force, Human Rights Watch said.

Morsi trial adjourned

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Mada Masr
The trial of ousted President Mohamed Morsi was temporarily adjourned shortly after it began on Monday after the defendants caused a ruckus in the courtroom by chanting from inside the dock, state media reported.
Morsi had arrived in a helicopter early Monday morning to the Police Academy where the first hearing in the case of the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace clashes last December is being held, a police source told the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm. 
Morsi alongside another 14 defendants who also reached the court early Monday, according to Ossama al-Sagheer, the head of the Cairo Security Directorate, are accused of inciting murder during the December 5 violence near the presidential palace, which left 11 people dead and scores injured. The other defendants include Muslim Brotherhood leaders Mohamed al-Beltagy and Essam al-Erian as well as Abdel Rahman Ezz and Ahmad al-Mogheer, of the movement's youth. Among the defendants are also Assaad al-Sheikha, Ayman Hodhod and Ahmad Abdel Aty, who worked as part of Morsi's presidential team. The defendants also include radical preacher Wagdi Ghoneim as well as  Gamal Saber, a leader in the Hazemoun movement that was born around Salafi preacher Hazem Salah Abou Ismail.

Truce in north of Yemen after at least 100 were killed in three days of fighting

A Yemeni military official confirmed on Saturday that a truce had been brokered in Dammaj (northern province of Sa’ada) in between the Houthis (Shiite group) and Salafi militants (Sunni radicals) following over three days of heavy fighting.
Yehia Mansour, member of the presidential committee tasked with negotiating a truce told reporters on Saturday that Sana’a had dispatched two army battalions to keep the peace and ensure that the terms of the negotiated truce will be upheld by both parties.
Serour al-Wadie, a spokesman for the Sunni Salafi movement, confirmed that over 100 of its fighters had died since Wednesday. According to several local reports also many civilians have died since Wednesday.
The fighting started on Wedensdfay. Ansar Allah, the Houthis’ political arm issued a statement that day that the Salafis had transformed their religious centre in Dammaj into a Jihadist stronghold. Ansar Allah warned it would not tolerate this at the heart of its dominion.
Thousands of Sunni Salafist Islamists demonstrated in Sana’a on Saturday in support of their fellow militants, calling on the government to restore peace and protect their people’ religious freedom.
Also last month a reported 42 people died in similar clashed in the northern province of Amran and the central province of Ibb where the Houthis have established strong networks.

Israeli airforce strikes in Latakia (Syria)

 Syrian handout showing the damage of an Israeli strike in May (AFP/Getty)

Israeli aircraft have carried out a strike near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, a US official says.
The official said the strike targeted Russian-made missiles intended for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Latakia is a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, where his Alawite community is concentrated.
This is believed to be sixth Israeli attack in Syria this year. Israel does not comment on specific operations.
Israeli officials have repeatedly said it would act if it felt Syrian weapons, conventional or chemical, were being transferred to militant groups in the region, especially Hezbollah.
A US official said the Israeli strike took place overnight from Wednesday into Thursday.
Reports circulated on Thursday of explosions near Latakia, but the cause was not clear.
"Several explosions were heard in an air defence base in the Snubar Jableh area," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist network.
Neither Israel nor Syria have commented on the reports. Earlier this year, Mr Assad had promised to respond to any future strikes by Israel.
One unnamed US official told the Associated Press that the missiles targeted by Israel were Russian-made SA-125s.
It's the fifth time this year that Isarel carries out airstrikes at targets (presumbaly weapons) in Syria. Th eralier one took successively place in Jnauari, May (2x) and July.  

Fighting flares again in the north of Yemen

Dammaj.

Houthi rebels in the north of Yemen, with the help of tanks, launched a fresh attack on Friday on a town held by their Sunni Muslim Salafi rivals.The fighting erupted on Wednesday despite government mediation efforts to shore up a ceasefire in the Saada province, which has long been outside the control of the central Yemeni authorities. Salafi spokesman Abu Ismail al-Hajouri told Reuters there were 40 dead and at least 200 wounded. All the casualties were Salafis, he said.
The offensive was against the town of Dammaj, which lies near Saada, a Houthi-controlled city near the Saudi border 130 km (80 miles) north of the capital Sanaa.
Saada province is the base for a long-running Houthi rebellion against the Yemeni government. Saudi Arabia's military intervened in 2009 before a ceasefire took hold the year after. The province has since fallen openly into Houthi hands with a Houthi-imposed governor.
Hajouri said Dammaj had been besieged by Houthi rebels for weeks and accused them of shelling the city with rockets that set on fire dormitories for students at a religious school. Houthi officials could not be reached for comment. There was no independent account of the clashes and no immediate report of any Houthi casualties.

Apart from the Salafi-Houthi conflict, Yemen is struggling with southern secessionists and militants of al Qaeda.

Satirist Bassem Youssef: 'Egypt's liberals are as intolerant as the Islamists'

Bassem Youssef

Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian hart surgeon turned television presenter and satirist, said on Tuesday, in the weekly column he writes for the paper Al-Shorouk, that Egypt’s liberals are as intolerant as their Islamist opponents, and as unwilling to accept criticism of themselves or the country's interim-authorities. “Those who defend liberalism and secularism say they are opposed to religious fanaticism and endorse freedom of opinion. However, when it suits them, they use Quranic verses and Hadiths to justify attacks against their enemies, using the same accusations as religious movements,” Youssef wrote.

Few Saudi women brave enough to defy the ban on driving, at least 16 fines

 
At least 16 Saudi women have received fines for taking the wheel on a day set by activists to defy the kingdom's traditional ban on female driving, police and reports said Sunday. Only few women braved official threats of punishment and drove on Saturday in response to an online campaign headlined "Women's driving is a choice."
"Police stopped six women driving in Riyadh, and fined them 300 riyals ($80) each," said the capital's police deputy spokesman, Colonel Fawaz al-Miman. Each of the women, along with her male guardian – who could be a father, husband, brother, uncle, or grandson – had to "sign a pledge to respect the kingdom's laws," Miman told AFP.
In Jeddah, police also fined two women for driving, according to the Red Sea city's police spokesman, Nawaf al-Bouq. Saudi newspapers, meanwhile, reported that six women were stopped by police in Eastern Province, and at least two others were stopped in other parts of the kingdom. A dozen Saudi women posted videos on the Twitter account of the campaign, @oct26driving, showing themselves driving.

Toll of seven days of fighting in Lebanese city of Tripoli rises to 16

The toll of seven days of fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli rose on Sunday to at least 16 dead and over 80 wounded. Sniper fire over the weekend claimed the lives of five people. The dead hailed from Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, the two rival neighborhoods that have fought one another with increasing frequency since the uprising in neighboring Syria began.
The clashes in the city subsided overnight but sniper activity picked up in the morning on Syria Street, Al-Barranieyh and al-Baqqar neighborhoods and Jabal Mohsen.Gunfire also accompanied funeral processions for the victims of the recent violence.
The Army deployed heavily in the city in the morning hours as Refaat Eid, the head of the Jabal Mohsen-based Arab Democratic Party, urged his fighters to withdraw completely.
Army checkpoints were established along Syria Street, the line that divides the warring Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods, where the bulk of the fighting takes place.
The streets of Tripoli remained empty Sunday and shops in the city were closed for business.
The latest round of clashes between the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, which supports the uprising in Syria, and the mostly Alawite Jabal Mohsen, which backs the Damascus regime, broke out Monday after the appearance of Assad in a television interview in which he said the time is not ripe for a peace conference to try to resolve the 31-month conflict and also said he was ready to run for re-election in 2014. .

Iran hangs 17 rebels accused of 'enmity against God'

The Iranian authorities on Saturday hanged 16 "rebels" following overnight clashes in which 14 border guards were killed on the frontier with Pakistan. "Sixteen rebels linked to groups hostile to the regime were hanged this morning in the prison of Zahedan in response to the death of border guards in Saravan," Mohammad Marzieh, the attorney general of Sistan-Baluchestan province, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.
"We warned the rebel groups that any attack targeting civilians or members of the security forces would not go unanswered," he added.
The official IRNA news agency, quoting what it called an informed source, said the clashes in which the border guards were killed occurred in a mountainous region used by both drug traffickers and armed rebels.
Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi said that the guards had been killed during the ambush set by Iranians who were "members of hostile groups". He added that "three soldiers have been taken hostage and taken to the other side of the border in Pakistan".According to several news websites run by the Iranian authorities 16 prisoners convicted of Moharebeh (enmity against God) and "terrorism". According to "Afkarnews" another state run news website, the prisoners were members of "Jeish Al-Adl". They are beleived to belong to be Sunni Muslims of Baluchi ethnicity. None of the prisoners were identified by name.
There are also unofficial reports regarding execution of the Kurdish political prisoner "Habibollah Golparipour".

Tunisian ruling party and opposition start talks to solve political crisis

Demonstration in Tunis on 24 October after the murder of seven Tunisian policemen by islamists. (AP)

Negotiations between the Tunisian governing coalition, the opposition, and civil society mediators aiming to solve the political crisis that has crippled Tunisia the past three months began Friday. The negotiations aim at organziing new elections, the formation of a new government consistying of technocrats, and a finished constitution.
Durting their first meeting the representatives agreed on the formation of three committees, each of which will address a key aspect of the roadmap plan,according to Moncef Cheikhrouhou, an NCA member in the Democratic Alliance party. One will handle preparations for elections, another finishing the draft constitution, and a third the formation of a new government.
The talks sarted after Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh of the ruling Ennahda party pledged to resign within the three-week deadline defined in a political roadmap advanced by major civil society groups.
The talks are intended to resolve Tunisia’s political deadlock, which began when opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi was assassinated on July 25. After his death, roughly 60 opposition National Constituent Assembly (NCA) members withdrew from the assembly-halting it’s work. The NCA is set to resume its work, according to press attache Mofdi Mssadi, with withdrawn members returning on Saturday.

Amnesty and HRW: US drone attacks are unlawful and kill many innocent civilians

The remnants of a US drone strike on August 29, 2012 in Khashamir, Yemen. The strike killed three alleged members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a policeman, and a cleric who preached against the armed group.(Reuters)

The two human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both have issued reports about America's war with drones at tha same day. The reports were on Tuesday at a joint press conference. Amnesty International reviewed all 45 known drone strikes that took place in North Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan between January 2012 and August 2013. The region that has seen more strikes than any other part of the country. Human Right Watch's  report is about the American strikes in Yemen. Both reports concluded, not unexpectedly, that the strikes, apart from alleged activists or terrorists,  killed many innocent civilians.
Amnesty did detailed field research into nine strikes and documented killings, which raise serious questions about violations of international law. In October 2012, 68-year-old grandmother Mamana Bibi was killed in a double strike, apparently by a Hellfire missile, as she picked vegetables in the family’s fields while surrounded by a handful of her grandchildren. In July 2012, 18 laborers, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in multiple strikes on a impoverished village close to the border with Afghanistan as they were about to enjoy an evening meal at the end of a long day of work. Amnesty International also documented cases of so-called “rescuer attacks” in which those who ran to the aid of the victims of an initial drone strike were themselves targeted in a rapid follow-on attack. While there may have been a presumption that the rescuers were members of the group being targeted, it is difficult to see how such distinctions could be made in the immediate and chaotic aftermath of a missile strike.

Human Rights Watch investigated six strikes which killed 82 people, at least 57 of them civilians. HRW interviewed during six weeks in Yemen in 2012-2013, more than 90 people about the strikes including witnesses, relatives of those killed, lawyers, human rights defenders, and government officials. Human Rights Watch reviewed evidence including ordnance and videos from attack sites. Security concerns prevented visits to four of the attack areas.