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WFP donates food for Sudanese in Egypt

CAIRO - The World Food Program (WFP) will donate food rations over at least three months for 4,000 Sudanese refugees in Egypt - including some of those who staged a three-month sit-in in central Cairo that was violently dispersed by the Egyptian police last month - the UN agency said on January 23. "It's a symbolic gesture by the WFP to alleviate the pressure on the most vulnerable people," WFP spokesman Khaled Mansour said. The $125,000 donation amounts to 200 tons of food consisting mainly of wheat, flour, oil, sugar and lentils.

Court hears Sharon son arguments

TEL AVIV, Israel - An Israeli court on January 23 heard arguments over the sentencing of Omri Sharon, the son of stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who faces possible imprisonment after pleading guilty to corruption charges. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz intends to ask the Tel Aviv court to jail Omri to make an example out of the former MP, judicial sources said. Omri, who pleaded guilty to providing false testimony and falsifying documents, has tried in vain to reach a bargain in which he would be sentenced for a symbolic six-month stint of community work.

Snow in Istanbul, Bosphorus boats canceled

ANKARA - Snow reached Istanbul and temperatures in the east of Turkey dropped to minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) as the nation suffered a freezing blast of Arctic weather, Turkish media reported on January 23. Snow fell in Ankara overnight but main roads remained open. In Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, which also saw snow falls early on Monday, several universities were closed and authorities canceled boat services over the Bosphorus separating the city's European and Asian sides.

Philippines seeks to save Filipina from Kuwait gallows

MANILA - President Gloria Arroyo on January 23 ordered Philippines diplomats to do everything that they could to save a Filipina teacher who is set to hang in Kuwait for killing her boss there. Ranario, 33, was sentenced by a Kuwaiti court last year to die by hanging for stabbing her employer to death. Circumstances leading to the stabbing were not made public.

Netanyahu 'ready to offer concessions' to Palestinians

JERUSALEM - Likud party chief Binyamin Netanyahu said on January 22 that he was prepared to make territorial concessions within the framework of peace arrangements with the Palestinians. "We want an arrangement with the Palestinians based on reciprocity and if they renounce terrorism. We are ready to make real concessions, but we will give up nothing regarding our security," the rightwing leader said during round table talks in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, a meeting that was televised. "If there is no partnership [from the Palestinian side] we are ready for unilateral withdrawals" from sectors or settlements in the West Bank, Netanyahu said.

At least 22 dead after smuggler boat sinks

GENEVA - A people-smugglers' boat carrying about 120 Ethiopians and Somalis capsized near the Yemen coast leaving at least 22 people dead and 28 missing, the United Nations refugee agency said on January 22. According to the survivors, the boat sank in the Gulf of Aden after setting out from a village near the town of Bossaso, a major departure port for refugees trying to reach Yemen. Authorities recovered 22 bodies, 13 of them those of women, on January 21, with survivors reporting that 28 more were missing. Police arrested two crewmembers but three others fled.

Algeria prepares for bird flu

ALGER - Algeria has set aside funds to import some 7 million doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, in the event of a bird flu outbreak, Algerian health minister Amar Tou said on January 22. That number of doses would provide protection for about 25 percent of the Algerian population, Tou said, according to the Algerian press agency APS. Algeria so far has not reported any cases of bird flu.

One killed in airstrike in Gaza

GAZA CITY - A Palestinian man was killed in an Israeli airstrike to the east of Gaza City on January 22, the Israeli army and Palestinian medics said. An army spokesman said that troops had launched an airstrike against gunmen near the Karni crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, while a militant faction said that a passerby had been killed in a failed assassination bid against their group.

Saddam lawyers seek to try Bush, Blair

AMMAN - Toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's lawyers said on January 22 that they are seeking to file a case against US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. President of the Jordan Bar Association, Saleh Armouti, who recently joined Saddam's defense team, told journalists that the attorneys would seek Saddam's approval this week to file a lawsuit in a European international court. The lawyers want to try them on charges of illegally invading and occupying a sovereign country.

Kurdish demonstrators clash with police in Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Protestors calling for the release of jailed Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan clashed with police on January 22 in a working-class district of Istanbul. The police fired tear gas grenades and plastic bullets against some 100 protestors, but no one was hurt in the melee in Dolapdere, located in Istanbul's western side.

Indian worker facing Saudi eye-gouging 'pardoned'

NEW DELHI - An Indian migrant worker who was sentenced by a Saudi court to have an eye gouged out has been spared, Indian news channel NDTV reported on January 22, quoting unidentified sources in Riyadh. Puthen Veetil Abdel Latheef Noushad, 32, had a fight with a Saudi customer over payment at a petrol station in Dammam in 2003. The Saudi later lost his eyesight. The report said that he had been pardoned by his victim.

Zawahiri tape appears on Internet

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Ayman Al Zawahiri, second-ranking leader in Al Qaeda, made an Internet appearance, reciting poetry in a tape dedicated to the "mujahideen brothers". On the tape, Zawahiri recites a poem called "Tears in the Eyes of Time". A US official suggested that the tape is an old one, since Zawahiri does not talk about any recent events.

Bahraini Shia cleric detained in Kuwait

MANAMA - A Bahraini Shia cleric was detained in Kuwait after arriving in the Gulf emirate on January 21, a Shia opposition source said. Sheikh Mounir Al Maatuk was arrested after arriving in Kuwait, said the source from the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), the main political formation of Bahrain's Shia Muslim majority.

Franklin sentenced for Israeli leak

ALEXANDRIA, VA, USA - Former US Defense Department analyst Lawrence Franklin has been sentenced to 12 years and seven months for passing information to Israel. Franklin, 59, was sentenced on January 20 in Alexandria, Va., after admitting to passing classified military information about Iran and Iraq to two pro-Israel lobbyists and an Israeli diplomat. He pleaded guilty in October to three felony counts under the Espionage Act in exchange for his cooperation and the government dropping three other charges.

Libyan HIV fund set up in jailed Bulgarian nurses' saga

TRIPOLI - An international fund to help HIV-infected Libyan children, whose plight originally led to death sentences on five Bulgarian nurses, was set up in Tripoli on January 21 but without a cash figure being settled. Charitable organizations from the European Union, United States, Libya and Bulgaria are all taking part in the fund.

Muslims threaten boycott over Prophet cartoons

CAIRO - An international group of Muslim scholars threatened on January 21 to call for a boycott of Danish and Norwegian products following the publication of cartoons that they deemed offensive to Islam. "The International Union of Muslim Scholars calls on the leaders of Denmark and Norway to take a firm stance against these repeated attacks on the Muslim nation and the Prophet," said a statement released in the Egyptian capital. "Otherwise the union will be forced to urge millions of Muslims across the world to boycott Danish and Norwegian products and activities," said the Dublin-based body.

Iranian couple hanged for murder-burglary

TEHRAN - A young Iranian young couple convicted of killing a mother and daughter during a burglary has been hanged in Tehran's Evin prison, the Iran newspaper reported on January 21. The husband, identified only as Babak, and his wife, Raheleh, had broken into the house of the victims and killed the 60-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter in July 2003. The killers, who stole gold and jewelry, were apprehended by police after they made a getaway in the victims' luxury car.

Father of murdered MP takes his seat

BEIRUT - The father of a leading anti-Syrian journalist and MP murdered last month has taken his son's seat in the Lebanese parliament, the interior ministry announced on January 21. Ghassan Tueni, 79, was the only person to register as a candidate for a by-election to replace his son, Gibran, and so automatically succeeded him. Gibran Tueni, 48, and three other people were killed on December 12 when a car bomb exploded in a Beirut suburb.

Iran rejects Israel's accusation on bombing

TEHRAN - Iran on January 21 dismissed as "baseless" remarks by Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz accusing Iran and Syria of being behind a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that wounded 19 people. "Shaul Mofaz's comments are baseless," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a statement. "Iran's support to the Palestinians is merely a moral support," he said.

Egyptian Christian dies after clashes

CAIRO - A Coptic Christian injured when clashes broke out between Muslims and Christians in southern Egypt died on January 20, police said. The clashes flared on January 18 when Muslims tried to torch a house that Copts were using as a church without approval from the authorities. The death of Kamal Shaker Meglaa in Odayssat village, near Luxor, has raised fears of further violence.

Red Cross helicopter missing in Pakistan

KABUL - Rescue crews were searching for a Red Cross helicopter that disappeared while returning from an earthquake relief mission in Pakistan. A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which chartered the helicopter, said that radio contact was lost on January 20 after it left the northwestern city of Peshawar, the BBC reported.

Israel breaks up barrier protest

BILIN, West Bank - Several demonstrators were lightly injured on January 20 as Israeli troops broke up a weekly protest against Israel's West Bank separation barrier and made arrests, witnesses said. Troops used tear-gas and truncheons to disperse hundreds of demonstrators in the village of Bilin, near Ramallah, as they protested against the enormous barrier that Israel is building along the occupied Palestinian territory.

British suspend Ethiopian aid

LONDON - Britain has suspended all aid to the Ethiopian government over concerns about human rights. The funding instead will be given to aid agencies or local authorities, British development minister Hilary Benn announced on a visit to Ethiopia. Benn said that there had been a "breach of trust" since more than 80 people were killed in opposition protests following disputed elections.


Source: Middle East Times