20 killed in Cairo clashes outside Defense Ministry

CAIRO (AP) -- Clashes erupted on Wednesday between assailants and mostly Islamist protesters gathered outside the Defense Ministry in the Egyptian capital, leaving twenty people dead and nearly 50 wounded, security officials said.

The violence is the latest episode in more than a year of turmoil in Egypt following the ouster of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak and will likely fuel more tensions just three weeks ahead of presidential elections.

The military generals who took over from Mubarak in February last year have promised to hand over power to a civilian administration by July 1 but that has not stopped rallies demanding the generals leave immediately.

The security officials said the clashes broke out at dawn when the assailants set upon several hundred protesters who had camped out in the area since early Saturday to press their demand for the military to go. The protesters fought back and the Health Ministry said that by noon, nine people were killed and 49 were injured.

It was not clear if the victims were all protesters or if any of the attackers were among the dead. It was also not clear who the attackers were. The clashes resumed later in the morning, after a few hours' lull.

Most of the protesters were supporters of Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultraconservative Islamist who was thrown out of the presidential race because his mother held dual Egyptian-U.S. citizenship, which violates eligibility rules for running in the election.

The officials said rocks, clubs and firebombs were used in the clashes. Witnesses reported hearing gunshots during the fighting, which lasted several hours. Video footage broadcast on regional television channels showed pitched battles between the two sides on residential streets close to the Defense Ministry in the Cairo district of Abbasiyah.

The rattle of gunshots could be heard in the footage and bearded Abu Ismail supporters chanting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic, as others pelted their attackers with rocks. It was not clear who was shooting. Some of the protesters carried clubs, while many wore hard hats to protect their heads from flying rocks.

The protest camp near the Defense Ministry began Saturday with only Abu Ismail supporters but they were later joined by die-hards from various pro-democracy groups. The protesters' number would swell to up to two or three thousands in the evenings but stayed around 1,000 during the days.

There have been unconfirmed media reports that some of the Abu Ismail supporters brought firearms to their encampment after an attack by assailants earlier this week that left one protester dead.

The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

As in earlier attacks on protesters around the Defense Ministry, troops and police deployed in the area did not attempt to intervene until noon on Wednesday, when lines of black-clad riot police backed by armored vehicles moved in to separate the two sides.

Since the weekend, Egypt's pro-military state media said the assailants were residents angered by the disruption caused by the protests to life in their neighborhood. But pro-democracy activists maintain the assailants operate with the blessing of the police or the military, and that they may even be on their payroll.

Wednesday's attack came hours after the protesters outside the Defense Ministry said they had caught an off-duty army officer who came to the area to look around, an act that must have been taken by the generals as an insult to the armed forces.

South Sudanese in Sudan kidnapped to fight: ambassador

South Sudanese youth have been reported kidnapped by armed gangs in Sudan and sent to fight -- including in the recent Heglig oil conflict, South Sudan’s ambassador told AFP in an interview.

But Kau Nak, who admits his job is the toughest in his young country's foreign service, optimistically forecast that current tensions which have raised fears of all-out war will not last.

For the moment, though, “the war has affected everybody, whether from this side or from the other side.”

His mobile phone is always on, he says, fielding calls from Southerners needing help or relaying another story about an abducted youth.

“The last information I received yesterday, that somebody was grabbed in the market here in Souk Arabi, and up to now nobody knows where he is... It happens on a daily basis to South Sudanese,” he said in a high-ceilinged lounge room at the embassy.

Nak said armed South Sudanese are kidnapping their countrymen on Sudanese soil. While some are able to pay a ransom and earn their release, Nak suspects others “are taken to (the) front.”

Southerners have also complained to him about kidnappings along the routes to South Sudan.

Church sources last December made similar allegations, that ethnic Southern youth were being abducted to fight in Sudan’s border region, where the over-stretched military is battling insurgents, or with rebels operating in South Sudan.

Khartoum denies backing insurgents over the border.

The number of kidnappings is difficult to gauge, says Nak, a former water driller who joined the South's foreign service after the 2005 peace agreement ended Sudan’s 22-year civil war and led to South Sudan's independence in July.

“It varies. Some people they say... ‘You know, from this bus they have loaded about 20 people, 10 people’.”

Nak said one man, abducted earlier this year, recently fled into South Sudan and contacted a relative there.

“Some of them were engaged in the current conflict of Heglig and it seems one of them managed to run away... some of them died...,” he said, recounting what the relative told him.

The escapee said he had been sent to fight with a militia for the Sudanese side.

The most serious border fighting yet between Sudan and South Sudan raged in April around the Heglig oil region, which is part of Sudan's South Kordofan state although the South disputes its status.

South Sudan’s army occupied the Heglig area for 10 days and Sudan carried out air strikes over the border in Unity state.

Nak says another immediate concern is the Sudanese parliament's planned debate this week of a bill which, after Heglig, proposes punitive measures against South Sudan.

The bill would confiscate South Sudanese assets in the north, order a withdrawal of Sudan's wealth in the South, and restrict diplomatic activity, he says.

Nak jokes that he has already restricted his movement because he lives at the embassy, but the bill is no laughing matter.

It comes at a time of heightened nationalist sentiment in Sudan.

If diplomatic activity is limited, South Sudan will retaliate, meaning the two sides’ envoys will be unable to fulfill their role of reducing tensions, he says.

“They will not be able to assess the real problem so that they advise government on how to handle the problem in a peaceful way. So it is kind of allowing the war to spread.... It’s not a good decision.”

The embassy estimates that about 350,000 South Sudanese remain in the north after an April 8 deadline for them to go South or legalize their status. Nak said most of those remaining are awaiting transport South.

Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war killed two million people and drove many others to the north, but independence has led hundreds of thousands to return South.

A privileged few with enough money flew home, until Sudan implemented new rules treating the Khartoum-Juba route as an international journey from April 9, effectively halting flights.

While efforts to resume air links are stalled -- like so many other unresolved issues between the two nations -- Nak says encouraging cross-border links between ordinary people can only reduce tensions.

“These people are the ambassadors of peace,” he says.

Chuckling in agreement that the current climate must make his job the most challenging for a South Sudanese diplomat, he says: “It is... but all what is happening will not last long.”

An Arabic speaker, Nak says he himself has friends and relatives in the north, reflecting close ties between people of what had been one nation.

“So the reality is, let's live together,” he says. “It is only political differences that are trying to overshadow other unifying factors.”

Al-Qaeda targets Yemeni women for not wearing face veils

Al-Qaeda militants in southern Yemen have begun to harass women who do not wear the veil with Bikya Masr reporting on one instance of physical abuse as militants forced a woman to don the full face veil in Aden.

The group, known as Ansar al-Sharia, believes a woman should follow the example of the Prophet’s wives and be fully covered, including her face.

Women in Aden, however, have expressed outrage at the recent form of harassment against them, according to a report on Sunday.

“How can they dare attack girls and women who do not wear the veil? It is a personal choice, which should not be imposed on anyone,” school teacher Anessa Abdelaalem was quoted by Bikya Masr as saying.

Ansar al-Sharia has also been accused by local authorities of throwing acid on several girls “for refusing to bow to their demands.”

Deep rooted problem

Harassment is not limited to Aden or to intimidation or attacks by militant groups.

Yemen is considered one of the poorest countries in the world with a terrible record on gender equality. However, during the protests against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, more women stepped out of their homes to join the demonstrations.

The Arab world’s first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, Tawwakul Karman, is Yemeni.

But women remain marginalized and have little recourse to justice when it comes to harassment.

A 20-year-old woman from Ibb, who only gave her name as Zainab, complained of being harassed by a police officer in Taez, according to a report Monday in Yemen Times.

When she shouted at him in the hope that he would be intimidated or she would attract attention of people around her, she was arrested by the police man for indecent behavior.

The issue is not effectively dealt with by law enforcers as a result of which women do not report incidents.

An official from the interior ministry, Lieutenant Haifa Hussein told the Yemeni paper that although a phone line for complaints has been set up, few people call in due to fears of being stigmatized.

Yemenis will go to the polls in 2014 to vote in the first independent elections. Women activists are pushing for a law that will guarantee them 30 percent representation in parliament – a move they hope will help them challenge traditional norms from a legal perspective. 

Egypt foiled ‘Iranian’ plot to kill Saudi ambassador in Cairo: embassy advisor

Egyptian security services arrested three Iranians for allegedly plotting to kidnap and murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Cairo, Ahmed Abdel Aziz al-Qattan, three months ago, a legal advisor at the Saudi embassy told Al Arabiya on Tuesday.

Advisor Sami Gamal Eddine said in a telephone interview that Egyptian officials informed Saudi authorities at the time but the Kingdom preferred to stay silent about the incident.

Gamal Eddine said the plot was foiled three months ago and Egypt’s ruling military council offered to tighten security for the Saudi ambassador but that the latter refused any increased protection.

He said a recent decision by Saudi Arabia to recall its ambassador to Cairo was based on “serious security concerns” against the embassy staff.

Gamal Eddine added that Saudi Arabia was concerned that protests in front of its embassy in Cairo last week could be exploited by a “third party” to attack the kingdom’s diplomatic mission and its employees.

A small group of Egyptians had protested against the detention of an Egyptian lawyer and rights activist on arrival at Jeddah airport on April 17.

Saudi Arabia said the man, Ahmed Mohammed al-Gazawi, was detained after he was found with more than 20,000 Xanax pills hidden in his luggage.

However, many Egyptians dismissed the claims, saying Gizawi was arrested for criticism of the Saudi government and awarded a sentence of one-year in prison and 20 lashes delivered against him in absentia.

In an interview with MB 1’s “Thamina” (Eight) program, Ambassador Qattan pointed to a “third party” behind the protests in Cairo.

“It is a minority [of about] 400 individuals who was possibly pushed and manipulated by a third party,” said Qattan.

“If any embassy or consulate staff member was attacked, there would have been problems. The recalling of the ambassador was to protect the relations,” he said, adding that only a “tiny minority” of the Egyptian people wants to damage the ties between the two countries.

1 year on from OBL raid, no answers from Pakistan

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- One year since U.S. commandos flew into this Pakistani army town and killed Osama bin Laden, Islamabad has failed to answer tough questions over whether its security forces were protecting the world's most wanted terrorist.

Partly as a result, fallout from the raid still poisons relations between Washington and Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment, support for Islamist extremism and anger at the violation of sovereignty in the operation can be summed up by a Twitter hashtag doing the rounds: 02MayBlackDay.

The Pakistani government initially welcomed the raid that killed bin Laden in his three-story compound, but within hours the mood changed as it became clear that Pakistan's army was cut out of the operation. Any discussions over how bin Laden managed to stay undetected in Pakistan were drowned out in anger at what the army portrayed as a treacherous act by a supposed ally.

That bin Laden was living with his family near Pakistan's version of West Point - not in a cave in the mountains as many had guessed - raised eyebrows in the West. The Pakistani army was already accused of playing both sides in the campaign against militancy, providing some support against al-Qaida but keeping the Afghan Taliban as strategic allies.

A week after the raid, President Barack Obama said bin Laden had a "support network" in Pakistan and the country must investigate how he evaded capture. Pakistan responded by announcing the formation of a committee to investigate bin Laden's presence in Pakistan as well as the circumstances surrounding the U.S. raid.

Soon after it began its work, the head of the committee said he was sure that security forces were not hiding bin Laden. Other statements since then have also suggested the report will be more of a whitewash than a genuine probe.

Last week, committee spokesman retired Col. Mohammad Irfan Naziri said its findings were being written up but they might not be released publicly.

"We're disappointed," said a U.S. official about the investigation. "They promised to do it, but they haven't yet."

The public line of the Obama administration is that no evidence has emerged to suggest bin Laden had high-level help inside Pakistan. Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency said bin Laden's long and comfortable existence in the country was an "intelligence failure."

But suspicions have increased following recent disclosures by one of bin Laden's wives in a police interrogation report that the al-Qaida leader lived in five houses while on the run and fathered four children, two of whom were born in Pakistani government hospitals.

"I just find the idea that he lived in a place like Abbottabad without the ISI's knowledge strains credibility," said Shawn Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Bradford University in the U.K. "It is ridiculous that he wasn't being protected."

Since the raid, Pakistan has tried to close one of the most notorious chapters in its history.

The three-story compound in Abbottabad that housed him for six years was razed by bulldozers in a surprise, nighttime operation. Just last week, his three wives and 11 daughters, children and grandchildren were deported to Saudi Arabia; their side of the story is unlikely to be told anytime soon.

In this relatively wealthy and well-ordered town that has become infamous for hosting bin Laden for so long, it's hard to find anyone prepared to say they supported the American operation. Many don't believe bin Laden ever lived in the house, reflecting the popularity of conspiracy theories in a country where the rulers often obscure the truth.

Umair Ishaq, who grows vegetables close to the empty lot, said he remained angry about the raid.

"You go there to the compound, there is a still a fragrance from those who were killed," he said, referring to Islamic belief that those who die as a martyr to the faith give off a sweet smell at death. "They were innocent and they were martyrs."

Most of the rubble has been hauled away from the site, on which local children now play cricket. Farmers cross over it on their way to the fields, and on a recent day older boys were smashing away at bits of masonry, trying to extract the metal poles inside so they could sell them.

After the helicopter-borne operation, the country's generals retaliated by kicking out U.S. special forces trainers operating close to the Afghan border, cutting intelligence cooperation with the CIA and restricting the travel of foreign diplomats and aid workers.

Authorities arrested a Pakistani doctor who assisted America in tracking down bin Laden. The doctor remains in detention, facing possible treason charges. The country has made not made public the arrests of anyone connected bin Laden's time on the run.

Relations had barely recovered when in November U.S. airstrikes inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani troops along the Afghan border. Pakistan immediately blocked U.S. and NATO supply routes across its soil into Afghanistan. They remain shut, despite U.S. attempts to renegotiate a new deal with Pakistan.

Even before the raid, anti-American sentiment was so rampant in Pakistan that anyone who opposed Washington was lauded by many sections of society. Bin Laden was no exception, even as his followers carried out numerous bloody attacks inside the country.

"OBL was considered as a hero by the general public at large, and his death generated a lot of sympathy," said Aftab Khan Sherpao, a lawmaker from the northwest who has three times been targeted by Islamist militant suicide bombers. "No one has been able to control and contain his supporters."

Despite reservations about Pakistan's commitment to U.S. goals in Afghanistan and doubts over how bin Laden managed to evade capture for so long, the Obama administration feels it has little choice but to ally itself with the country. Pakistan has nuclear weapons and will remain important in the fight against al-Qaida in years to come.

Many believe Islamabad's cooperation will be essential for getting any Afghan peace deal to stick, allowing the U.S. to withdraw troops.

Israel ex-opposition leader Livni quits parliament

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced her resignation from parliament on Tuesday, weeks after she was ousted as opposition leader, in a move that could shake up Israeli politics ahead of widely expected national elections.

Livni, a one-time chief peace negotiator who is widely respected internationally, vowed to remain active in politics. She has been rumored to be considering joining a new centrist party being formed by popular former TV anchorman Yair Lapid.

"I leave at this stage, but I'm not leaving public life," Livni said. "The citizens of Israel deserve more than the current policy."

Just a few years ago, Livni was one of the country's most popular politicians. A founder of the centrist Kadima Party, she served as foreign minister from 2006 to 2009, a time when she was Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians. That experience gained her respect in international circles and helped land her on lists of the world's most influential women compiled by such publications as Time, Forbes and Newsweek.

But in her three years as opposition leader, she faced heavy criticism for what was widely seen as an ineffective term. Kadima, which won 28 seats in 2009 elections, making it the largest party in parliament, has plummeted in opinion polls and is only expected to win about a dozen seats, if that, in the next vote.

Last month, Shaul Mofaz, a former Israeli military chief, trounced Livni in internal elections for Kadima's leadership, setting the stage for her departure.

By leaving the door open to continued involvement in political life, Livni's comments were likely to fuel more speculation that she would be joining Lapid's new "Yesh Atid" or "There is a Future" party. She did not elaborate on her specific plans.

Speaking to reporters at the Knesset, or parliament, Livni said the people of Israel "deserve more" than what the current leadership has given. With peace talks deadlocked for the past three years, she accused the government of ignoring the Palestinians.

Israel is sitting on a "volcano" and its survival as a Jewish, democratic state is in "mortal danger" if it does not find an accommodation with the Palestinians, she said.

"The real danger is a politics that buries its head in the sand," she said.

The Palestinians, and Israeli doves, have warned that Israel risks turning into a "binational" state of Jews and Arabs if a Palestinian state is not established in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

Some 4 million Palestinians live in these areas, and combined with Israel's own Arab population, they could soon outnumber the roughly 6 million Jews living in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled this week that he would soon call early elections. The next vote is scheduled in October 2013, but an array of issues, including disagreements in Netanyahu's coalition over draft exemptions for ultra-religious Jews, threaten to tear the government apart.

Netanyahu, who is mourning the death of his father, was expected to make a decision next week.

An opinion poll this week predicted Netanyahu's Likud would remain the largest party in parliament if elections were held now, with 30 seats in the 120-member chamber.

But the poll said an alliance joining Livni and Lapid would be the second-largest party, with 16 seats. Combined with the resurgent Labor Party and the remnants of Kadima, this dovish bloc could pose a formidable challenge to Netanyahu if he tries to cobble together another hard-line coalition.

The poll of 500 people was published Monday by the Dahaf institute, a prominent polling agency. It had a four-seat margin of error and reflected other recent surveys.

Israel challenges Egypt over Sinai security chaos

Egypt must take control of the rising unrest which is sweeping through the Sinai Peninsula if it wants to preserve the peace with Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said late on Monday.

“We urge Egypt to contain the lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula -- this is imperative in order to keep our two nations firmly on the path of peace,” the Israeli minister told reporters at a meeting of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.

Israel has repeatedly raised the alarm over the growing wave of lawlessness in the Sinai which has spiraled since the revolution which overthrew Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Border security incidents have increased in recent months, and Israel has warned that the vacuum is being exploited by militants bent on attacking the Jewish state, such as those who sneaked over the border in August 2011 and killed eight Israelis.

Although Egypt has deployed thousands of troops in Sinai to stamp out militant activity, the situation remains highly volatile.

Despite the ongoing unrest, Barak said Israel’s security communication with Egypt was “open and effective.”

“Israel, Egypt and Jordan have tasted the fruits of peace, and even during these uncertain times, the crucial communication channels between the Israeli and Egypt security establishments remain both open and effective,” he said.

Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but relations, which have never been warm, have been very strained following the fall of Mubarak.