Texans ratify a state constitution and approve annexation

On this day in 1845, a majority of the citizens of the independent Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution, that when accepted by the Congress, will make Texas the 28th American state.

Despite having fought a war to win their independence from their old colonial master, Mexico, the people of Texas had long been eager to become part of the United States. Under the leadership of the Republic's first president, Sam Houston, Texas had proclaimed its independence from Mexico in 1836, while simultaneously indicating a desire to be annexed to the United States. But while many Americans were willing to see the massive Texan Republic join their nation, Congress refused at the urging of influential northern abolitionists who claimed that Texas was controlled by a "slaveocracy conspiracy" of southerners.

The political climate shifted in the favor of Texas with the presidential election of 1844, when the victory of James K. Polk was widely seen as a mandate from the people to bring Texas into the American fold. But before Polk could take office, President John Tyler beat him to the punch by securing a congressional resolution calling for annexation. With the strong approval of most Texans, Polk signed the legislation making Texas an American state on December 29, 1845. Ominously, the Mexican minister had meanwhile warned the U.S. that his nation would consider annexation an act of war and demanded his passport in preparation for departure. Mexico and the United States would be at war within a year.

"Texans ratify a state constitution and approve annexation." 2008. The History Channel website. 12 Oct 2008, 04:50 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=4305.

On This Day

54 A.D. - The Roman emperor Claudius I died after being poisoned by his wife, Agrippina.

1775 - The U.S. Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet.

1792 - The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion was laid in Washington, DC. The building became known as the White House in 1818.

1812 - American forces were defeated at the Battle of Queenstown Heights. The British victory effectively ended an further U.S. invasion of Canada.

1943 - During World War II, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies and declared war on Germany.

1944 - During World War II, British and Greek advance units landed at Piraeus.

1977 - Four Palestinians hijacked an Lufthansa airliner to Somalia. They demanded the release of members of the Red Army Faction.

1981 - Egyptian voters elected Vice President Hosni Mubarak as the new president one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

1990 - Le Duc Tho died at the age of 79. He was a co-founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

October 13, 1843

B'nai B'rith founded

B'nai B'rith, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, is founded in New York City by Henry Jones and 11 others. B'nai B'rith, meaning "Sons of the Covenant," organized its first lodge in November, and Isaac Dittenhoefer was elected the first president. The fraternal organization went on to become a national leader in charity work and disaster relief, and in 1913 it formed the Anti-Defamation League to combat anti-Semitism. Today, some 500,000 men and women are members of B'nai B'rith.

"B'nai B'rith founded." 2008. The History Channel website. 12 Oct 2008, 05:00 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5433.

 

الرئيس حسنى مبارك يستمع الى شرح من المشير طنطاوى حول منتجات مصنع الكيماويات التى تخدم القطاع المدنى

كانت موافقة مصر علي معاهدة السلام من منطلق

  مش عا وزين  يسيبو دليل زى  دى  --------.<>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

و خلا ص . الرئيس حسني مبارك‏ الرئيس الو سخ  اتفقس ع النت هو كما ن . جورج فتن و عملها‏

بعد  سنين و نبيهم محمد الو سخ  بقي عا وز اللى يمسحله . النبي محمد اتفك . جورج فكه .

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has pardoned a newspaper editor sentenced to jail for publishing an article questioning his state of health. Ibrahim Eissa was last month given a two-month jail sentence for printing pieces a court said were likely to disturb public security.

Al-Dustour's editor-in-chief is one of the president's more outspoken critics. Mr Mubarak issued the pardon on Armed Forces Day "to affirm his concern for freedom of opinion", state media said.

The 80-year-old also wanted to ensure there was "no feud between him as president and any Egyptian citizen", the Mena state news agency added. An Egyptian national holiday, 6 October saw the start of the 1973 war with Israel, as well as the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. By tradition it is also an occasion when the president announces his official pardons.

Last year, Mr Eissa's newspaper carried an article arguing that the Egyptian people had a right to know about the health of Mr Mubarak - who has been president for nearly three decades.

"The state wants to present [Mr Mubarak] as a sacred person who never does anything wrong, with whom nobody can compete," said the article. "He can never fall ill. Nobody should dare to think he can die like other human beings!"

The presidential succession is a sensitive topic in Egypt that few dare to raise in public.

SOURCED FROM BBC

ISTANBUL, October 2 (Compass Direct News) – Following the Appeal Court of Alexandria on Sept. 24 granting custody of 13-year-old Christian twins to their Muslim father, their mother lives with the fear that police will take away her children at any moment.

Kamilia Gaballah has fought with her ex-husband Medhat Ramses Labib over alimony support and custody of sons Andrew and Mario in 40 different cases since he left her and converted to Islam so that he could remarry in 1999.

The court ruled in favor of Labib in spite of Egyptian law’s Article 20, which grants custody of children to their mothers until the age of 15, and a fatwa (religious ruling) from Egypt’s most respected Islamic scholar, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, giving her custody.

“This decision was dangerous because it was not taken in accordance with Egyptian law but according to sharia [Islamic] law,” said Naguib Gobraiel, Gaballah’s lawyer and president of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations.

He explained that Egypt’s civic code calls for children under the age of 15 to stay with their mother regardless of their religion. Gobraiel said that sharia tends to favor the Muslim parent in such cases.

“They want to stay with their mother,” said Gobraiel. “They don’t know anything about Islam and sharia. They are Christians and go to church on Sundays.”

The twins have publicly stated their faith, and during a test in a mandatory religious class two years ago they scribbled only, “I am a Christian” on their answer sheets and otherwise turned them in blank. The twins intend to go on a hunger strike if they are forced to live with their Muslim father, whom they hardly know, sources said.

“We only want one thing,” said Gobraiel. “We want the law to be applied in our cases like this one, not the sharia, because the government owes us citizenship. This is a civilized, secular country, not a religious country.”

The decision of the presiding judge, El Sayed El Sherbini, to give the father full custody is not even based on sharia but is purely arbitrary, Gaballah and her eldest son George Medhat Ramses claimed, since the country’s State Mufti had granted custody to the mother in April 2006.

“We don’t want to give them to anyone or comply with the sentence,” Ramses told Compass. “All the legal ways have been wrong to us. We’ve been trying to make it as legal as we can, but the court has not been fair.”

Ramses, 21, who is also a Christian and lives with his mother and two little brothers, said the judged showed bias in favor of his father because he converted to Islam shortly after he left Gaballah.

“The decision was unfair and oppressive,” Gaballah told Compass. “I am treated differently than other Egyptians, as if this is not my own country.”

Gaballah, who has been fighting to keep her sons since the court decided in 2006 that custody of her sons should be given to her ex-husband, fears that her children will grow up without hope and a sense of justice.

“I am so sad and afraid about their psychology,” she said, “because they are facing something that is fundamentally against all the principles I have taught them.”

Gaballah said she is ready to keep fighting with the few means left in her power to keep her sons, even if it means tarnishing her with a criminal record by not handing them over to their father.

“And I’m determined to get justice in my own country, because it is my natural right and my sons’ right,” she said. “I cannot see how I can comply with the people who are taking my rights away from me and taking my children from me to give them to an unworthy father and another woman.”

Labib is now married to his third wife, with whom he has a 4-year-old son. He is a businessman working in exports and travels between Alexandria and Cairo.

Gobraiel said that he intends to send a clear message to Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and the international human rights community that judgments like this one are hypocritical on the part of a government that claims to be “civilized.”

“How can they think we live in a civilized and secular country when they are applying sharia law on us?” he asked. “We will send a message to human rights organizations in Egypt and around the world to help us. We are angry and we want to declare it!”

Problematic Birth Certificates

Even under their father’s custody, the twins have the legal right to live with whomever they choose in two years, when they turn 15. But Ramses said he doubts the court would let them return to their mother.

“The same law that states that they should stay with mother until the age of 15 is the one that says they can decide where to live after the age of 15,” he explained. “If the court didn’t apply the first part of the law, they won’t apply the second.”

At the age of 16, when Mario and Andrew apply for their identification cards, they will face yet another hurdle, said Ramses. In 2005, Labib went to the population register and changed the twins’ birth certificates from Christian to Muslim, to reflect his own religion.

Now Ramses fears that a Sept. 23 court ruling in the case of Bahia Nagy El-Sisi, sentencing her to prison for three years for “forgery of an official document,” could be what awaits him and his little brothers. Nagy El-Sisi’s father had converted to Islam briefly in 1962, when she was 3 years old, and her documents were never altered to reflect the change as she remained a Christian. She and her sister discovered that their father had temporarily converted to Islam when the sister, Shadia Nagy, tried to issue marriage papers for her son.

Shadia Nagy was sentenced to three years in prison in 2007, also for “forgery.”

“These women are us in the future,” said Ramses.

Over the past few years, as Christians have found out about the twin boys’ case, Ramses said many have called them to give support. Many also have pledged to go on a hunger strike with the boys if they are handed over to their father.

“Christians see them as Coptic heroes and martyrs who stood up in front of all and said they were Christians and held on to it,” said Ramses. “All of them say they see the greatness of their ancestors and Christian heroes of long ago in them … and they carry a lot of respect and love for what they have done.”

Report from Compass Direct News

What will happen now?
How will we view all this in a few days?
How will it affect McCain and Obama?

I don’t know...and I’m not even going to try to figure it out right this minute.

Instead, we’re going to take a trip halfway across the world to a country that has been essential to understanding the Middle Eastern story, has been at the center of international conflicts time and time again...and has lessons to teach us that, if we learn them well, could make us a much smarter “Foreign Policy Nation” than we are today.

The country? Egypt.

So grab your virtual passport...and after we arrive, there are a few people I want you to meet.

This is part one of a bigger story, and over the next few days I’m going to try to give you some recent history (well, recent for a country with a history that goes back 7,000 years...), along with an explanation of how political factions are aligned today...how some political factions aren’t even allowed to align...and a few words about the hazards of having an opinion in Egypt—even if it’s online.

Included will be a critical lesson: Democracy and Freedom, which we say we support, can lead to the election of people we don’t like...and that the true measure of a democracy is accepting—and sometimes even encouraging--those outcomes, even if we don’t like them.

So before we can talk about Egyptian politics, we have to talk about...Egyptian Politics.

The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt has provisions that pretty much guarantee that there will be no meaningful political opposition. We’ll go right to the Constitution itself for an explanation of how it’s done (where it appears, emphasis was added by me):

PART ONE
THE STATE

Article 5
The political system of the Arab Republic of Egypt is a multiparty one, within the framework of the basic elements and principles of the Egyptian society as stipulated in the Constitution (Political parties are regulated by law).

PART TWO
BASIC CONSTITUENTS OF THE SOCIETY
CHAPTER 1
Social and Moral Constituents

Article 7
Social solidarity is the basis of the society.

PART THREE
PUBLIC FREEDOMS, RIGHTS AND DUTIES

Article 47
Freedom of opinion is guaranteed.
Every individual has the right to express his opinion and to publicise it verbally or in writing or by photography or by other means within the limits of the law.
Self-criticism and constructive criticism is the guarantee for the safety of the national structure.

Article 48
Freedom of the press, printing, publication and mass media shall be guaranteed.
Censorship on newspapers is forbidden as well as notifying, suspending or cancelling them by administrative methods.
In a state of emergency or in time of war a limited censorship may be imposed on the newspapers, publications and mass media in matters related to public safety or purposes of national security in accordance with the law.

The “State of Emergency” provision was invoked in 1981 after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat—and it has been faithfully renewed by his successor, President Hosni Mubarak, every two years since, most recently in May of this year.

You may have noticed that political parties are regulated by law. Specifically, it’s Law 177/2005. Below is the important language (emphasis will again be added where I think it is needed):

Article 4:
For a political party to be established or maintained, it shall satisfy the following conditions:

ii: The party's principles, goals, platforms, policies or modalities of exercising its activities shall not contradict the Constitution or requirements of maintaining national unity, social peace and the democratic system.

iii: The party's platform shall constitute an addition to the political life according to specific methods and goals.

iv: In its principles or platforms or in practicing its activities or selecting its leaderships or members the party shall not be based on religious, class, sectarian, categorical, geographical grounds or on manipulating religious feelings or discrimination on account of origin or creed.

VI: The party shall not pose as a branch of a foreign party or political organization.

Article 7:
A notice in writing shall be submitted to the chairman of Political Parties Affairs Committee stipulated in Article 8 hereof as regards the establishment of the party signed by at least 1000 constituent members whose signatures shall be officially authenticated. The members shall be drawn from at least ten governorates with no less than fifty members from each....

Article 8:
The Political Parties Affairs Committee shall be composed as follows:
1- the Speaker of the Shura Council, as chairman;
2- Minister of Interior;
3- Minister for the People's Assembly Affairs;
4- three former heads or deputy heads of the judiciary bodies who are not affiliated to any political party; and
5-three public figures who are not affiliated to any political party, as members.
The selection of the members stipulated in Items 4&5 shall be made by a Presidential decree for three years renewable.
The Committee shall have the competence to examine and consider notices of the establishments of the parties according to the provisions of this law, let alone the other competencies stipulated therein...

We will continue with the text of Article 8 in a moment, but before we do, some explanations are in order.

The Shura Council is one of the two halves of Egypt’s Legislative Branch; and it serves a function somewhat similar to that of the United States Senate.

Because Egypt’s National Democratic Party (NDP) controls Parliament and the Presidency, the Political Parties Affairs Committee (PPAC), who grants the license you need to form a political party (and can revoke it as well...) consists of the Speaker of the Shura Council, (obviously, an NDP member), two members of the President’s Cabinet, and six people appointed by the President.

The obvious conflicts between this arrangement and what we would think of as a true multiparty system will be the focus of part two of this story...but for now, we return you to Article 8, already in progress:

...To exercise its competencies, the Committee may demand much documents, papers, data and clarifications at it deems as necessary, from the concerned parties as much time as it determines. It may also demand any documents, papers, data or information from any official or public body and it may conduct on its own or through a sub-committee of its own such research as it may deem appropriate. It may also commision [sic] any such official bodies as it may deem appropriate to conduct or study necessary to reach the truth about matters submitted thereto...

Article 9:
The party shall be a private judicial person...

Article 11:
The resources of the party shall consist in subscriptions of its members, financial support received from the State and the donations by Egyptian natural persons...

The party may not accept any contribution, privilege or benefit from any foreigner, any foreign or international body or from any judicial person type even if it enjoys Egyptian citizenship.

These clauses tell us that the Government’s PPAC can start it’s own investigations of any party—and that Parties are not allowed, by law, to align themselves together in coalitions.

I am often guilty of going too long in these stories...so let’s get to the end of part one.

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and the NDP have created an ongoing quarter-century “emergency situation” that allows them to decide who can be a political party, that allows them to revoke the license of a party that they feel violates the rules they create...and because of the Constitutional mandate to protect “National Unity”, any political party that says the NDP is doing anything wrong is potentially in violation of the law.

These rules create conditions that are impossible to satisfy, and as a result politicians, protesters...and even bloggers...are at risk for arrest and imprisonment. But that’s a story for another day—and to make the story better, when we get together next time we’ll be meeting one of those politicians in a very close-up and personal way.

Harper's 'lifted' speech makes news aroundحدريم و ماجيك لاندجز فنادق مصر

 حجز جميع فنادق مصرحجز جميع فنادق مصر

'It's soap-opera politics...'Islamic Bak Magic Satanism.Prophet muhammed is a fake and a fuck

Bernier's sultry ex exposes his hate for a 'fat and lousy' Stephen Harper  .

<!---->

الـزمـالك قـدم العــيدية لجماهيره فاز علي الترسانة بهدف جعفر‏ كتب - هشام شاهين صعد الزمالك لقمة الدوري عقب فوزه علي الترسانة بهدف للاشيء في اللقاء الذي جمع بينهما مساء أمس في اطار مؤجلات الأسبوع الخامس من عمر الدوري الممتاز‏,‏ ليحتل الزمالك المركز الأول

 

Video results for hosni mubarak

Egypt. Hosni Mubarak 6 min www.youtube.com

Charlie Rose - HOSNI MUBARAK 57 min www.youtube.com

News results for hosni mubarak

Voice of America

Egypt Journalists to Appeal Editor's Jail Term in Mubarak Case - 29 Sep 2008 ... appeal the sentencing of opposition newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa, who was convicted of publishing rumors about the health of President Hosni Mubarak. ...

Couillard also says in the about-to-be-released "My Story" that:

-Bernier was relieved he was going out with Couillard because he hadn't had a girlfriend in two years and because some of his political colleagues thought he was gay as he was friends with an openly gay fellow cabinet minister.

- He often printed up government documents and left them at her house to be thrown out when his briefcase got too full.

-That he thought Harper had a lousy sense of style, was fat and unhealthy and that he drank too much Pepsi.

-That he believed Harper wouldn't survive a first term as PM and that Bernier would replace him as Tory leader.

-That he opposed Canada's mission in Afghanistan and believed the war had more to do with the heroin trade than fighting terror.

-That he believed Quebec sovereignty was inevitable and that he was ready for it.

-And that he made disparaging remarks about his constituents in the Beauce riding south of Quebec City.

In a statement released Wednesday, Bernier dismissed Couillard's comments as "soap-opera politics and completely ridiculous."

I'm not going to dignify this with a response," he said.

"During my mandate and despite my busy schedule as a member of Parliament and a minister, the most rewarding part of my job has always been to return to my riding several times per month in order to meet and exchange with the people that I so proudly represent.

"Everywhere I went, I've always expressed the pride that I feel for the people of Beauce. It is very disappointing that this person would insult me and the people of Beauce in the way that she has."

Couillard's story begins with her modest upbringing in Montreal, her father's infidelity, her struggle with epilepsy and her first great love affair, before delving into details about her foray into modelling, acting and real estate.

She describes her "happiest days" as those spent with murdered Hells Angels sympathizer Gilles Giguere and recounts the story of her brief and turbulent marriage to ex-Rockers member Stephane Sirois."

But her grittiest accounts are saved for her relationship with Bernier which began in earnest in the summer of 2007.

"My Story" portrays her ex-boyfriend as an egotistical womanizer who often embarrassed himself in public and breached political protocol.

According to Couillard, the relationship came as a relief to Bernier who she says hadn't had a girlfriend in two years.

"On the Hill, people are whispering that I'm gay," she quotes Bernier as saying.

"Now they'll see that I have a girlfriend."

While Bernier has publicly denied any knowledge of Couillard's biker past, she insisted she "confided those details" early on in their relationship and that his reaction suggested he already knew.

"There were no 'oohs' and 'ahs,' not even so much as a raised eyebrow," she said. "No questions. He seemed only barely surprised.

"Say what you will but not everybody can claim to have had a spouse who was murdered".

As for the "forgotten documents" that eventually led to his departure from cabinet, Couillard said Bernier pulled them out of his briefcase the morning after a tryst - they'd been broken up for four months but still slept together occasionally - and asked her to toss them out on garbage day.

"That blend of vanity and flippancy was just like the Maxime I knew," she said.

"It was as if he had said to me, 'Look at me, I'm a minister of the Crown. I'm somebody incredibly important walking around with ultra-confidential documents in his briefcase, but I'm above all that. You see what I'm doing with them?"'

She said he didn't own a laptop and often had large files sent to her unsecure home computer to be printed off. His briefcase would often become too full and it wasn't the first time he'd left paperwork with her to be tossed out.

Couillard writes that Bernier often criticized Harper for his weight, his hairstyle and his choice of clothing.

He also showed little respect for the Tory leader's wife, Couillard said, adding he once ran right into her at a function in Ottawa without apologizing or even acknowledging her existence.

"At one point, he was even convinced that Stephen Harper would not survive a first term as prime minister, that there would be a leadership convention before the next election call and that he would win it," she writes.

While his disdain for Harper was relatively subdued, Couillard said Bernier was more overtly hostile when it came to his dealings with the Prime Minister's Office.

Ordered to clear all media interviews before hand, Bernier said he was once sent an email reprimand for going ahead and meeting with a TV reporter.

"Maxime decided to have a bit of fun with that," Couillard wrote, adding he ran into the reporter at an event, showed him the message on his BlackBerry and offered to forward him a copy.

"Luckily for Maxime, all this was going on under the watchful eye of another guest at the event... When he realized that Maxime was about to commit a blunder of monumental proportions, he went over to him and said, 'Maxime, you can't do that."'

Couillard also alleges that Bernier whispered the disparaging remarks about his own constituents at a corn roast in his home riding of Beauce, where he is seeking re-election on Oct. 14.

"Whatever Maxime didn't like about these people, they were still the people who had elected him," she said. "It seems to me that, even with me, he should have been more circumspect and kept his reflections to himself."

She also describes Bernier as a reformer with libertarian values who was "more vain than 10 Hollywood actors put together."

She said he opposed Canada's decision to send troops to Afghanistan and believed the war was "simply a battle for control of the worldwide heroin trade."

And Couillard says she was "completely flabbergasted" when he offered up his views on Quebec independence.

"Of course it doesn't frighten me at all, that's where we're headed," she quotes him as saying. "It's obvious. And I have no problem with that. I'm ready. I'm expecting it."

Couillard also claims Bernier thought himself something of a ladies' man and that he was having an affair with an Ottawa journalist while they were dating.

She said she also caught him embracing a married guest, though it's not clear whether the woman was a willing party to the embrace, during a dinner party in Paris at the Canadian ambassador's home.

Wordpress.com. g!

Egypt maps.google.ca

YouTube - معمّر القذافي يسأل المسيحيين (نصارى اقباط مصر ... a اغتصاب روبي mark_at2002 وَامْرَأَةً مُؤْمِنَةً محمد متعه ... 43 sec - www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8N3wv3BCM8

The guilty verdict was issued by a lower court, for publishing false information about Mr Mubarak's health. Mr Eissa wrote that the 80-year-old leader occasionally lapsed into a coma.

"National stability" was threatened by the reports said the judges, who sentenced the journalist to six months.

Arguing that the verdict was too light, State Security prosecutors appealed it, but on Sunday the court reduced his sentence by four months.

Although he wasn't in court Sunday, Mr Eissa, editor of the daily Al-Dustour, said he planned to turn himself in to serve his sentence.

"I'm feeling quite well. I greet the Chinese people and the people of the world," Zhai said as he climbed out of the craft, his historic achievement carried live on state television.

Zhai, the 41-year-old son of a snack-seller, unveiled a small Chinese flag, helped by colleague Liu Boming, who also briefly popped his head out of the capsule.

Zhai re-entered the spacecraft safely after a walk of about 15 minutes, marking the high point of China's third manned space flight, which has received blanket media coverage.

He wore a $4.4 million Chinese-made suit weighing 120 kg (265lb). Liu wore a Russian-made suit and acted as a back-up.

Zhai, tethered to the ship, slowly made his way toward a chunk of solid lubricant outside the capsule, took a sample and handed it to Liu, the official Xinhua news agency said, in an experiment aimed at improving the durability of the materials.

The crew later launched a small satellite to take the first full images of the spacecraft from the outside.

Shenzhou VII, which took off on Thursday, is due to land on Sunday at around 5 p.m (0900 GMT), said mission spokesman Wang Zhaoyao.

President Hu Jintao spoke to the astronauts on their return to the capsule, congratulating them on their efforts and wishing them a "triumphant" return.

"You've done a great job," Hu said.

Zhai, apparently reading from a prepared script, thanked Hu. "The space walk mission has been accomplished smoothly. Please set your mind at ease, Chairman Hu and the people of China," Zhai said.

"In the vastness of space, I felt proud of our motherland."

The risky space walk was a step toward China's longer-term goal of assembling a space lab and then a larger space station.

The fast-growing Asian power wants to be sure of a say in the future use of space and its resources.

Chinese Communist Party leaders, also celebrating the mission, hailing the country's achievements in a year in which Beijing has staged a successful Olympics and coped with a devastating earthquake in Sichuan in May.

"UPBEAT NOTE"

A Xinhua commentary praised the mission as adding "an upbeat note to an eventful year" -- references to events such as the earthquake.

"(The space mission) is seen as another source of pride and joy for the people after the Olympics."

But Xinhua also said that China remained far behind the two leading space powers, Russia and the United States. "Compared with these countries, China is still a latecomer and is only taking its starting steps," it said.

Xinhua said millions tuned in to watch the event on television, some on large outdoor screens.

"It's worth the money. It shows our country is getting stronger, and other countries will not dare bully us," said civil servant Jiang Guishan, watching along with hundreds of others in Beijing's fashionable Wangfujing shopping district.

"We have encountered a lot of difficulties, but we will not be defeated when faced with them, and will only overcome the obstacles and be strong. Now this is a great example," added travel agent Wu Qixin.

China's space programme has come a long way since late leader Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China in 1949, lamented that the country could not even launch a potato into space.

China's first manned spaceflight was in 2003, followed by a two-man flight in 2005. The only other countries that have sent people into space are Russia and the United States.

(

Many of the detained were students at al-Azhar University, Egypt's most prominent institute of Islamic learning, security sources said. The men were accused of membership of an illegal organisation and possessing literature of a banned group, security sources said. Police detained 19 of the men in Manoufiya and 12 in Sharkia, both in the Nile Delta where the Brotherhood has a strong base.

The detainees were taken into custody while holding secret meetings, the sources said. Brotherhood spokesmen could not immediately confirm the detentions.

The detentions could signal a fresh crackdown on student activists as the school year opens. Police detained 39 Brotherhood members in the Nile Delta on July 21.

The government calls the Brotherhood a banned organisation, but the group operates openly and fields independent candidates in parliamentary elections. It won a fifth of seats in 2005 parliamentary polls.

Political analysts say the government wants to stop the Brotherhood from posing a serious challenge to President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981. Mubarak's ruling party has a comfortable majority in every elected body in the country.

http://jpn.icicom.up.pt/2008/08/20/amnistia_internacional_denuncia_que_guardas_egipcios_disparam_contra_africanos_que_tentam_entrar_em_israel_ilegalmente.html

Amnistia Internacional denuncia que guardas egípcios disparam contra africanos que tentam entrar em Israel ilegalmente

Por Cláudia Sobral - lcc07045@letras.up.pt

25 terão sido mortos desde meados de 2007. Outros foram presos e levados a julgamento ou enviados de volta para o país de origem.

As autoridades egípcias estão a usar força letal contra africanos que tentam entrar em Israel pela fronteira com o Egipto, denuncia a Amnistia Internacional (AI).

Tratam-se, essencialmente, de sudaneses e de eritreus que fogem às violações de direitos humanos de que são vítimas nos países de origem. A AI já pediu ao presidente egípcio, Hosni Mubarak, que ponha fim a estas acções.

Segundo dados da AI, desde meados de 2007, altura em que as autoridades egípcias intensificaram o controlo da fronteira, 25 pessoas foram mortas pelos disparos dos guardas.

Uso desnecessário da força

As forças de segurança de um país só devem disparar sobre civis em casos muito específicos, em que vidas estejam em perigo e não haja outra forma de resposta. Segundo a AI, "não há nada que indique que esses que procuram viver no Egipto e atravessar a fronteira para Israel tenham feito uso de força ou que tenham ameaçado os guardas da fronteira egípcia que os balearam".

A Amnistia Internacional não tem conhecimento de qualquer investigação por parte do governo egípcio para averiguar em que situações é que os guardas da fronteira dispararam sobre as pessoas que a tentavam atravessar ilegalmente.

Julgamentos injustos

1.300 migrantes foram detidas e levadas a tribunal, sob a acusação de tentarem atravessar a fronteira do Egipto ilegalmente. Estes julgamentos são, para a AI, injustos. Até à data, ainda nenhum teve acesso aos representantes egípcios do Alto Comissariado das Nações Unidas para os Refugiados (ACNUR), apesar de "muitos serem refugiados ou pessoas que procuram asilo em necessidade de protecção internacional", refere a AI, em comunicado. Normalmente, são aplicadas penas suspensas aos migrantes, que são enviados de volta para os países de origem.

Só entre 12 e 19 de Junho deste ano, mais de 1.200 eritreus foram deportados. Na Eritreia, enfrentam o risco de "tortura e de outras violações sérias dos direitos humanos", frisa a AI. Fogem do serviço militar indefinido ou das perseguições aos cristãos. O controlo da fronteira egípcia com o Sudão tem sido intensificado. É por aí que entram no país muitos dos migrantes eritreus. Apesar de o Sudão já ter concedido o estatuto de refugiados a muitos deles, o Egipto insiste em negar-lhes esse direito, assim como o acesso ao representante do ACNUR.

Scroll down to the bottom.

http://www.parliament.gov.eg/English/VotingSystem/Last+Results/

In case this is deleted later.. it reads: "This is to test that this page is working in good way, it's so bad that u working in place not ur place i need to go home also to help my sister in taking care of little baby abd el ra7man as he is so noisy and he keeps on crying all day i dont know why is he crying what do u thinks of going out i really dont know."

Oh.. Oh.. Only in Egypt! Let freedom ring from every burning government building and proclaimed from every bored IT kid!

A egípcia Ghazala Khamis, 27, deu à luz séptuplos neste sábado na cidade de Alexandria, informou Emad Darwish, diretor do hospital El Shatbi. A mulher passa bem.

Após o parto, segundo o diretor, Khamis encontrava-se em estado estável, apesar de ter precisado de uma transfusão de sangue durante a cesariana por causa de uma hemorragia.

Os bebês, quatro meninos e três meninas, foram colocados em incubadoras porque nasceram prematuros. "Esta é uma gravidez muito rara, algo que eu nunca havia testemunhado nos meus 33 anos de profissão", disse Darwish

Ele acrescentou que decidiu realizar a cesariana no fim do oitavo mês de gravidez devido à pressão do útero nos rins da mãe. Os bebês pesam entre 1,45 e 2,8 quilos. Khamis já é mãe de três meninas.

A população do Egito triplicou desde 1952 para 76 milhões de pessoas em 2006, de acordo com o último censo.

Neste verão, o governo egípcio lançou uma nova campanha para aumentar a consciência sobre as conseqüências do aumento da população. Em março, o presidente Hosni Mubarak acusou a superpopulação pela escassez de pão que atingiu milhões de pessoas, assim como a falta de habitação.

_______________________________
Ghazala = Gazela, Logo:

Quem é este pokémon animal ?

I guess it's time to update my Facebook account. -- This is happening in the U.S. with the phone wiretapping; internet monitoring, email eavesdropping and the like. This must be why Egypt is our ally.

Robert Mugabe's junta gets all the attention, but there's a host of other despots on the African continent escaping attention. Like king Mswati III, a virtual despot in Swaziland (covered in the new documentary "Without a King") or the oil-rich (that's them personally, their families and their aids, and not their people) Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Angola or Omar Bongo in Gabon. And there's Hosni Mubarak who has ruled Egypt for the last 27 years with the aid of the army and police. Its illegal to hold protests, publicly challenge his rule (unless you're a famous writer whose arrest will result in howls of protest in the "West." As for ordinary Egyptians, sorry). Mubarak gets by since he is a staunch ally of the US in the Middle East and North Africa.  But his repressive apparatus can't always keep up with technology or the guile of its youth -- really with blogs, Facebook and Youtube -- as this excellent documentary by Journeyman Pictures show.

A foto diz tudo. O cenário é a Paris de ontem. O primeiro-ministro israelense Ehud Olmert, à esquerda da imagem, abraçando calorosamente o presidente do Egito, Hosni Mubarak. No canto direito, o presidente sírio Bashar Assad, de costas para Olmert. Tudo durante o intento da França de criar a Union pour la Méditerranée entre a Europa e países do Oriente Médio e do norte da África - o "Club Med do Sarkozy".

Apesar das anunciadas e comemoradas negociações (indiretas, mediadas pela Turquia) entre Jerusalém e Damasco, o (des)encontro entre os dois em plena Praça da Concórdia, em Paris, mostra a que ritmo anda o diálogo...

Enquanto isso, Olmert disse, no mesmo cenário, posando de mãos dadas com os presidentes Nicolas Sarkozy, da França, e Mahmud Abbas, da Autoridade Palestina, que a paz com os vizinhos sem país nunca esteve tão próxima. Só pode ser piada.

O comentário acontece no momento em que Jerusalém tenta negociar a liberdade do soldado Gilad Shalit, levado pelo Hamas em 2006, e no mesmo momento em que um cessar-fogo capenga não consegue barrar o disparo de mísseis Qassam contra as cidades em torno da Faixa de Gaza. Paz?

Abbas, que sempre parece mais pessimista e pé no chão que Olmert, mediu as palavras antes de completar com o bordão "somos sérios e queremos alcançar a paz".

O comentário de Olmert vem também no momento em que Israel e o Hizballah se preparam para trocar presos e defuntos, amanhã. A cerimônia deve deixar um sabor azedo em Israel, que ainda espera ver os reservistas chegando caminhando, ainda que debilitados, e não em caixões. Do lado libanês, festa. E o temor de que o Hizballah esteja preparando mais um ataque logo depois da troca...

Em Israel a impressão é a de que quanto mais perto de um indiciamento pela polícia, mais perto Olmert parece acreditar estar da paz com os vizinhos - com os palestinos, com os libaneses ou com os sírios, apesar de nem ter trocado olhares (nem falar de apertos de mãos, claro) com Assad.

Assad, aliás, foi categórico em uma entrevista dada à televisão francesa: "não estamos procurando símbolos". Ele e Olmert nunca estiveram tão próximos e tão distantes. Talvez não tenham se dado conta de que a foto que mostra a frieza entre eles é um símbolo mais forte do que um aperto de mãos poderia ser.

(Dica do Me tire deste ócio)

De la retragerea ordonată de generalul de Gaulle din Algeria, relaţiile dintre şeful statului francez şi armată nu au mai fost atât de tensionate. Presimţind un gest de sfidare din partea armatei, Nicolas Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa şi-a anulat iniţial prezenţa la parada organizată cu ocazia zilei naţionale, invocând agenda ocupată cu sommet-ul mediteranean. Anunţul făcut vineri a fost retras. Absenţa şefului statului francez de pe Champs- Elysées ar fi fost un gest gratuit de ostilitate. În plus, soldaţii în care mocneşte revolta ar fi fost obligaţi să dea onorul unei tribune în care se găseau cel puţin doi dictatori: Bashar al-Assad, şeicul Siriei, şi Hosni Mubarak, faraonul Egiptului. Prezenţa preşedintelui Mubarak nu a scandalizat, dar nici nu a produs simpatie. În schimb, moştenitorul fotoliului prezidenţial al Siriei a fost primit cu ostilitate aproape paroxistică. Armata franceză nu a uitat atentatul sângeros din 1983 din clădirea Drakkar, Beirut, atribuit sirienilor. În acel atentat 58 de soldaţi francezi au fost sfârtecaţi într-o explozie programată.

Sperând să aplaneze conflictul dintre el şi armată, Sarkozy a decis să participe la parada militară. Fără efect. Soldaţii, într-un gest de sfidare faţă de comandantul suprem, au refuzat să prezinte onorul, întorcând privirile în partea stângă. O interpretare mai flexibilă şi favorabilă este nu fronda faţă de preşedintele Franţei, ci protestul faţă de prezenţa lui al-Assad în tribuna oficială. Deşi e greu de crezut că soldaţii l-ar fi salutat pe Sarkozy, chiar dacă preşedintele al-Assad nu ar fi fost prezent în tribuna oficială. După tragedia de la Carcassonne (17 victime), şeful statului francez a folosit la adresa armatei termeni ca “amatorism” şi “incompetenţă”. Apoi a urmat "raportul" Surcouf, în care este denunţată subfinanţarea armatei şi reducerea efectivelor armatei terestre. Raportul a fost “declasificat” şi dat publicităţii de ofiţeri din cadrul Ministerului Apărării şi ilustrează intenţia preşedintelui francez de a diminua rolul armatei franceze. Sarkozy a cerut capetele vinovaţilor de scurgerea de informaţii. În replică, şeful statului-major al armatei, generalul Gorgelin, a replicat: “Nu vreau o vânătoare de vrăjitoare în armată. Cunosc prea multă istorie militară şi ştiu ce daune au produs acţiuni similare în trecut.” Un avertisment voalat adresat preşedintelui francez?

According to a story in today's Washington Post, by 2050 Egypt's population will be double that of its current estimate of 81 million people.

Egypt is the 16th most populous country in the world, and the most populous Arab nation. Its fertility rate, 2.7 children born per woman, places it 88th among nations, according to 2008 estimates in the CIA World Factbook. The United States ranks 126th with 2.1 children per woman.

Rather than follow in the footsteps of the Chinese government, President Mubarak has asked his nation to limit their households to two children, a request that will be difficult for the majority of Egyptians to carry out as many believe that there are financial benefits to having a large family.

As Milad Hanna, an urbanization and population expert based in Cairo states,

People listen to the president, but they don't follow his recommendation, because it is an absolute social and economic necessity for them to have children...The problem is unsolvable.

The full story can be found here.

Gaza. Almeno tremila munizioni, Rpg e una trentina di missili anti aereo. La polizia egiziana ha scovato ieri cinque scatole piene di armi nascoste in una grotta di una montagna nel Sinai, a ottanta chilometri dal valico di Rafah, al confine con Gaza. Lo ha riferito un responsabile delle forze dell'ordine spiegando che le armi dovevano essere contrabbandate nella Striscia. Questa montagna era già stata utilizzata come riparo per i gruppi islamici locali, che hanno realizzato tre grandi attentati nel Sinai, in cui sono morte 125 persone. Da questo confine poroso passano anche valigie piene di soldi per aggirare l'embargo che grava sulla Striscia. Il governo di Israele ha spesso accusato l'Egitto di non fare abbastanza per fermare le armi che, attraverso Rafah, arrivano ai gruppi palestinesi, Hamas e Jihad islamica in testa.

In questo momento di instabilità politica Israele che va verso una crisi di governo, la Striscia sempre più terra di nessuno, ancora ieri un'esplosione in una casa del centro di Gaza ha ucciso un militante di Hamas, il Libano che è sempre teatro di scontri, con un soldato ucciso in un'esplosione vicino a Tripoli e un sospetto attentatore ucciso vicino a un campo profughi palestinese la collaborazione degli stati arabi moderati è decisiva. Per questo a Gerusalemme molti sono preoccupati per il vertice della Fao che si apre la prossima settimana a Roma, in cui è previsto un incontro tra il rais egiziano, Hosni Mubarak, e il presidente iraniano, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, che vuole estendere la sua egemonia su tutto il Medio Oriente.

(Fonte: Il Foglio, 31 Maggio 2008 )

Il caso.Stato ebraico e Centro Wiesenthal sul piede di guerra per le minacce dell'esponente arabo

«Brucerò di persona i libri israeliani»

A rischio la poltrona di capo dell' Unesco per il ministro della Cultura egiziano

Le parole di Hosni «ricordano il linguaggio e le azioni di un altro “ministro della Cultura”, il nazista Josef Goebbels»

Un personaggio a dir poco controverso, Faruq Hosni. E non certo nuovo a gaffe, polemiche, critiche. Ma questa volta il longevo e potente ministro della Cultura del Cairo (in carica da 21 anni, quasi quanto il raìs-faraone Hosni Mubarak) ha davvero esagerato. «Libri israeliani nelle biblioteche egiziane? — ha dichiarato il 10 maggio — Se li trovassi li brucerei io stesso». Frasi pronunciate in Parlamento, luogo che più pubblico non poteva essere. Frasi, ovviamente, non passate inosservate. E pensare che il ministro-pittore — nato nel 1938, un passato da (mediocre) artista ad Alessandria, poi da diplomatico a Parigi, infine a Roma — è (era?) in corsa per la prestigiosa poltrona di direttore generale dell'Unesco. A fine 2009, quando Koichiro Matsuura lascerà i vertici dell'agenzia Onu per la cultura e le scienze, molti Paesi arabi e non (si è parlato anche di Italia, Francia e Spagna) sarebbero (stati?) favorevoli a sostenerne la candidatura.

Quella frase del ministro — ex protégé di Atef Sedki (premier dal 1986 al 1996, morto tre anni fa), oggi molto vicino (si dice) alla First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, protagonista di frequenti battaglie con i Fratelli Musulmani, con i riformisti, perfino con membri del partito di governo, con quasi tutti in sostanza — ha però suscitato una vera bufera. L'ambasciatore israeliano al Cairo, Shalom Cohen, ha presentato protesta ufficiale al ministero degli Esteri egiziano. «Pronunciarsi contro la normalizzazione culturale è un conto», ha detto Cohen, riferendosi alle quasi nulle relazioni in ambito artistico, cinematografico e letterario tra i due Paesi, a frontedi una certa cooperazione economica, politica e di intelligence da Camp David in poi. «Emanare un tale odio è inaccettabile, porta alla memoria le pagine più buie della recente Storia», ha continuato l'ambasciatore, aggiungendo di «non aver una posizione particolare sulla candidatura di osni all'Unesco».

Molto più esplicita e dura la protesta del Centro Simon Wiesenthal. Che una settimana fa -ha scritto a Matsuura in persona — per mano del capo delle relazioni internazionali, Shimon Samuels — sostenendo che le parole di osni «ricordano il linguaggio e le azioni di un altro “ministro della Cultura”, il nazista Josef Gòbbels». E chiedendo la bocciatura di Hosni dalla gara per la guida dell'agenzia Onu.

Lui, il «piromane letterario» (definizione di Samuels), non ha negato. Ma ha detto che quelle parole andavano «contestualizzate». Stava rispondendo agli attacchi di un parlamentare integralista— ha detto — e sostenere che «avrebbe bruciato ogni libro israeliano si fosse trovato nelle biblioteche egiziane» era «un'iperbole». Un modo di dire che sicuramente tali libri non esistono. «Un ministro della Cultura non può chiedere di mettere al rogo nessun libro, nemmeno se israeliano», ha continuato, pur ribadendo che una «normalizzazione culturale» tra i due Paesi sarà possibile solo quando ci sarà una «pace giusta e globale» in Medio Oriente. Tesi appoggiata per altro dalla stragrande maggior parte degli intellettuali egiziani, compresi i (moltissimi) che non amano certo il loro ministro.

«Perché quella di Hosni non è politica, è solo terrorismo verbale», dice al Corriere Gamal Ghitani, il più importante scrittore egiziano, considerato l'erede di Naguib Mahfouz, direttore della rivista letteraria Akhbar al Adab su cui ha appena pubblicato un appello contro «il rogo di testi nemici». E ancora: «Per me tutti libri del mondo sono sacri, voglio poterli leggere e infatti li leggo. E se devo rispondere lo faccio con un altro libro. Quell'uomo non è certo un intellettuale, lo conosciamo bene per le sue censure di tanti scrittori egiziani, per i suoi tentativi di compiacere islamici e liberali. Che se lo prenda l'Unesco, per l'Egitto sarebbe un bene».

Un noto artista egiziano, che chiede di non essere citato, ricorda alcuni di questi «tentativi» di piacere a tutti. Come la proibizione del film «Codice da Vinci» («per ingraziarsi i cristiani»), la condanna del velo islamico («per farsi vedere liberai»), i riavvicinamenti alternati ai Fratelli Musulmani con frasi (tipo quella sui libri) che poi gli si sono ritorte contro. «E non dimentichiamo che quasi tutti i suoi uomini sono stati processati per corruzione, due sono ancora in carcere, e che il commercio illegale di antichità non è mai stato così fiorente come nell'era Hosni». Un personaggio che inoltre e comunque, conclude l'artista, «non ha certo la statura e le competenze per guidare l'Unesco».

Cecilia Zecchinelli

(Fonte: Corriere della Sera, 26 Maggio 2008 )