Egypt parliament names constitution panel

CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian parliamentarians on Saturday are casting ballots to select a 100-member panel that will draft the country's new constitution, amid deep polarization between liberals and Islamists over the process.

Secularists and liberals fear that parliament's Islamist majority will pack the panel with their supporters and ignore minority concerns.

These fears have spiked over the last week after parliament decided to allocate 50 percent of the seats in the panel to its own members, and when a leading Islamist deputy said that the country's most prominent democracy advocate, Mohamed ElBaradei, would likely not be included.

Egypt's ruling council issued last year an interim constitution that gives elected members of the parliament's two houses the right to select those who will draft the new constitution that will define Egypt's future identity. The old 1971 constitution was suspended after the uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

After the panel writes the constitution, it will be put to a vote in a national referendum. However the ruling military council left the guidelines for the process vague enough to spark a hot debate between liberals and Islamists on who should be included.

Egypt's Islamist groups, including both the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Salafis, between them make up nearly three-quarters of parliament after sweeping the vote in the first post-revolution elections that began in November.

They passed a vote last week to appoint 50 of the panel members from inside the parliament, while the rest come from outside.

Liberals, among whom are youth groups and secular parties that led the uprising but performed poorly in elections, say that a permanent constitution should not be written solely by the victors in a single election.

They argue that the constitutional process should include a wide range of members from the country's different ideological trends, professional syndicates and unions, women, and members of the Christian minority. They say that parliament's decision to have its members dominate the process violates earlier Brotherhood pledges to draft the charter by "consensus" and fear it represents a capitulation to the Salafis.

The new constitution is expected to curb presidential powers and give parliament more authority, a drastic change to Egypt's political system. Although the changes are intended to prevent the abuses of power associated with Mubarak, liberals fear that empowering the legislature will also empower the Islamists who have a majority there.

Another key concern is the role of Islamic Shariah law, which is subject to a wide variety of interpretation.

The old 1971 constitution says Shariah is the "main source of legislation," but many in the hardline Salafi bloc that makes up nearly a quarter of parliament's members want specific mention of statutes based on strict interpretations of Shariah: mandating segregation of the sexes, banning banks from charging interest and punishing theft by cutting off thieves' hands.

Another divisive issue is the role of the military and the future of the country's military rulers. The ruling generals want assurances they won't lose their political clout and that parliament will have no say over the military's budget.

Anti-military youth activists fear the Islamists will give the military what they want, in exchange for the generals allowing them carte blanche in the constitution writing.

"We are before a historic mission," said parliamentary speaker Saad el-Katatni, a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. "There will be no exclusions for anybody," he said, adding that the constitution should not be written by "the majority," but instead by "consensus and partnership."

That pledge however has been called into question by the exclusion of ElBaradei, whom Brotherhood parliamentarian Mohammed el-Beltagi said on his Facebook page Friday would normally be included "only if he didn't oppose the current road map" for drafting the document.

ElBaradei had criticized the parliament - the product of the first open elections after decades of dictatorship - as not fully representative, and the process of drafting the constitution as rushed. He posted in a Tweet that the charter "is not a fast food meal."

Parliamentarians also dropped an earlier proposal to give a quota of 25 seats to representatives of prominent Egyptian institutions, which prompted a young liberal-leaning lawmaker Mustafa al-Nagar to boycott the voting process.

He posted on his Twitter account that he would boycot the selection of the constitutional panel because it is "an exclusion to all Egyptians."

Liberal judges and activists have filed legal challenges to the 50/50 panel makeup.

With drums and chants, youth activists rallied outside parliament against Islamists and military for what they see as sabotaging the revolution.

"No Salafis, no Brotherhood. The constitution is for all Egyptians," they chanted. "We said the military hijacked the revolution ... They (Islamists) said no, the military are sweet like sugar."

Roadside bombing kills 5 in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A roadside bomb detonated by remote control killed five people Saturday in southern Afghanistan, including a former Afghan senator and tribal leader who worked to foster peace and development.

The ex-lawmaker, Khairo Jan, was riding in a vehicle with three Afghan policemen, who served as his bodyguards, and another tribal leader from the area when the bomb exploded on the road as they passed, said Fareed Ayal, a spokesman for the Uruzgan province police chief.

Jan is an elder of the Popalzai tribe, the same tribe that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is from.

The Uruzgan governor's office said Jan worked to unify residents of the province to help bring peace to Afghanistan.

Ayal said the blast occurred about 1:30 p.m. local time about six kilometers (four miles) south of the provincial capital of Tirin Kot.

In the east, a NATO service member died Saturday as a result of a non-battle related injury, the international military coalition said. No other details were released.

On Friday, an Afghan civilian was killed when a NATO vehicle collided with another driven by a local resident in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, the alliance said. The person killed was a passenger in the civilian vehicle. The international military coalition and Afghan officials are investigating the incident.

Egypt’s Brotherhood mulling run for president

Younger Brotherhood members are disobeying the group’s leadership by supporting a former Brotherhood leader, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, who was expelled from the movement after he announced his decision to join the race. (File photo)

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful political group, says it is considering running its own candidate in upcoming presidential elections, dropping its previous decision to avoid direct participation in the race. 

The group appears to be playing one of its last cards in a power struggle against the ruling military council, after it failed to force the military to replace its Cabinet with a new one appointed by the Islamist-dominated parliament.

If a Brotherhood fields a candidate and wins the presidency, the group would control the two main branches of power. In parliamentary elections, the first since a popular uprising unseated President Hosni Mubarak last year, it won nearly half the seats.

Since then, the Brotherhood has sought to allay fears of local liberals as well as Egypt's Western allies about an Islamist takeover by saying it would not field its own candidate for president. Elections are set for May 23-24.

That appears to have changed. Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood’s general secretary, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his group has been “forced to consider the option of fielding a candidate from its own ranks.”

Besides rejecting its demand for a new Cabinet, Hussein charged that the generals are working behind the scenes to persuade presidential candidates to turn down Brotherhood support.

“When we reach out to some people, they either refuse because they feel they are not up to the mission or they come under pressure from the military council,” he said. He declined to give names.

Another factor is that younger Brotherhood members are disobeying the group’s leadership by supporting a former Brotherhood leader, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, who was expelled from the movement after he announced his decision to join the race.

Abolfotoh, a strong presidential hopeful, also has the backing of some liberals, who see him as a reformer.

For the Muslim Brotherhood to field a candidate after expelling Abolfotoh for defying its ban on running would be seen as double standards, said Essam Sultan, a lawmaker from the Wasat, or Centrist, party.

“The Brotherhood is in real crisis over the tremendous support Abolfotoh has among its youth, but it will be in a double crisis if tries to solve this by fielding” another candidate, Sultan said.

The name of the Brotherhood’s deputy chairman, Khairat el-Shater, has been mentioned in local media as the group's likely candidate.

Critics warn the Brotherhood against taking too much on itself just a year after it emerged from decades of operating in the shadows as an illegal organization.

“It would be a fatal mistake, because they would be faced with huge challenges,” said Mohammed Habib, a former deputy leader of the group who quit last year, citing the group's undemocratic policies.

The ruling military council has presidential powers to dismiss Cabinets and form new ones. Under Egypt’s interim constitution, the parliament doesn’t have the power to take a no-confidence vote in the military’s hand-picked government.

In heated parliament sessions, the Brotherhood along with other political parties have harshly criticized Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, a 78-year-old Mubarak-era premier, for failing politically, economically and even over internal security.

El-Ganzouri, appointed in November by the military council, has taken criticism for ineffective handling of explosive issues such as a political spat between Egypt and the United States over U.S.-funded democracy groups, a deadly soccer stadium riot that killed at least 74 people, a surge of armed robberies and other crimes and periodic shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Sultan said that the government is “fabricating” crises such as fuel shortages in an attempt to reduce the Brotherhood's support among the people.

“The military council, through its government, is telling the people, ‘look, your representatives are not able to solve your problems,’” Sultan said. 

Qaeda gunmen kidnap, kill Yemen intelligence officer

 



Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed a Yemeni intelligence officer by cutting his throat after kidnapping him at Mukalla, capital of the southeastern Hadramawt province, a police official told AFP. 

“Commander Faraj Saeed al-Odsani was snatched (Wednesday) afternoon from a road near Mukalla airport by Qaeda gunmen who drove him towards the nearby province of Shabwa,” a Qaeda stronghold, the official said.

Security forces chased the kidnappers and traded gunfire as they fled, said the official, who added that a policeman was wounded and the extremists’ car was damaged in the exchanges.

“The Qaeda militants escaped into nearby farms while the commander was found with his throat cut in the car, which they abandoned,” he said.

A military official confirmed to AFP that “Qaeda militants” had killed a kidnapped intelligence officer by cutting his throat.

The Islamists have exploited the weakening central government in Sanaa to strengthen their presence in Yemen, launching deadly attacks against security forces especially across the restive south and southeast.

The United States says the Yemen-based Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is the most active branch of the global extremist network. 

EU to ban Asmaa al-Assad from shopping trips after email leaks

European Union states are set to impose a shopping and travel ban on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s wife this week, following the recent publication of several emails obtained by Al Arabiya from the couple’s inboxes.

Asmaa al-Assad became the focus of media attention last week when the emails revealed extravagant purchases under alias emails during the ongoing civil conflict in Syria that has resulted in thousands of deaths since March 2011.

The trove of 3,000 emails came from the private accounts of the ruling couple which were passed by opposition activists to Al Arabiya and other media outlets.

The EU had previously responded to Syria’s violence with a broad range of sanctions, which include a ban on Syrian oil imports to Europe and measures against the Syrian central bank and other companies and state institutions.

But these international sanctions had forced Mrs. Assad to shop online with an alias she used to ask friends to collect jewelry from Paris and receive a delivery of furniture from a friendly shipping company in Dubai. Meanwhile, several emails revealed that the furniture was delivered to a specific address in a Gulf Arab country, but not Syria.

On Friday, the European bloc is expected to take new steps. Foreign ministers are set to agree on a new round of measures, the bloc’s 13th, and impose asset freezes and bans on travel to the EU against 12 people, include Asmaa.

For Mrs. Assad, the bans will mean she will no longer be able to travel to the EU or buy products from EU-based companies, in her own name.

“The text (of sanctions) has gone through,” said one EU diplomat, referring to an agreement reached by envoys in Brussels to a list of new sanctions. Another diplomat confirmed Assad’s wife is included in the list of sanctioned individuals, according to Reuters.

President Assad’s inbox also revealed his fondness for purchasing electronics and mobile applications. He received numerous emails from Apple confirming his purchase of iPad and iPhone applications. One of those emails showed that Assad had bought a game adapted from the famous Harry Potter movies.

Asmaa, a British-born former investment banker who had once cultivated an image of a woman inspired by Western values, has become a hate figure for many Syrians.

She has stood by her husband during a year-long crackdown on the popular unrest in which the U.N. says at least 8,000 people have died.

However, despite the seemingly normal life of the First Couple, under the ongoing crisis, the leaked emails showed that the First Lady was slightly worried.

She kept buying bullet proof vests; she held contacts with a fashion-designing company for lining normal clothes with bullet proof material. She later chose some of these designs and emailed them to President Assad for his review.

New foot and mouth disease strain hits Egypt

A new strain of foot and mouth disease (FMD) has hit Egypt and threatens to spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East, jeopardizing food security in the region, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday.

There have been 40,222 suspected cases of the disease in Egypt and 4,658 animals, mostly calves, have already died, the FAO said in a statement citing official estimates.

“Although foot-and-mouth disease has circulated in the country for some years, this is an entirely new introduction of a virus strain known as SAT2, and livestock have no immune protection against it,” the Rome-based agency said.

Vaccines are urgently needed as 6.3 million buffalo and cattle and 7.5 million sheep and goats are at risk in Egypt, the FAO said.

“The area around the Lower Nile Delta appears to be severely affected, while other areas in Upper Egypt and the west appear less so,” Juan Lubroth, FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer, said, calling for strong action to prevent the spread of the disease.

FMD is a highly infectious and sometimes fatal disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, buffalo and pigs. FMD is not a direct threat to humans.

Meat and milk from sick animals are unsafe for consumption, not because FMD affects humans, but because foodstuffs entering the food chain should only come from animals that are known to be healthy, the FAO said.

Egypt has some reserves of its own vaccines, but these do not protect against the SAT2 strain. The country could need regional support in mobilizing effective ones, the FAO said.

With vaccines sometimes taking up to two weeks to confer immunity, joint efforts to boost biosecurity measures to limit the spread of the disease are urgently needed, said the FAO whose emergency team visited Egypt last week.

Such measures include limiting animal movements and avoiding contact with animals from other farms; avoiding purchasing animals in the immediate term since they could have come from contaminated sources, preferably by burning carcasses.

West Bank farmers frightened away from water springs by Israeli settlers

According to a report issued by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel controls 30 out of 56 water springs located near the West Bank settlements while the rest are threatened with seizure by Israeli settlers. (File photo)

Constant attacks by Israeli settlers have made a large portion of West Bank farmers unable to irrigate their land from springs around their villages amid concerns over the increased control exercised by the occupation on the water resources in the Palestinian territories.

“I was attacked by dozens of settlers while getting water from a spring next to a land I rented,” Amjad Mazloum, from the village of al-Janiya in west Ramallah, told Al Arabiya.

Mazloum added that they smashed his car and told him that both the spring and the land are theirs.

“This is not the first time they’ve done that. They always come at the end of the week and they are always armed.”

Settlers, Mazloum pointed out, are now partially controlling the spring and have started coming to bathe in it on regular basis.

“Very soon they will have full control on it.”

The increased infringement of settlers on Palestinian water rights forebodes an imminent crisis that might leave land owned and cultivated by West Bank farmers in a state of drought, said Ayman Jarar of the Palestinian Water Authority.

“Israel is waging an unprecedented war on water resources in the Palestinian territories,” he told Al Arabiya.

Jarar added that since 1995, Israel has not permitted Palestinians to get the amounts of water they need even from territories under the full control of the Palestinian Authority.

“Eventually this will lead to the desertification of Palestinian land.”

Israel, Jarar noted, has already seized 350 artesian wells and is preventing Palestinians from using other available resources.

“They are not allowing us to use the water of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River.”

Added to this, said Jarar, many of the wells under Palestinian control have dried out.

“This means that our share of water is diminishing drastically.”

Jarar explained that the water share of each Palestinian individual is estimated at 70 liters per day compared to 320 for each Israeli settler and 230 for each Israeli citizen.

“This means that a settler gets four times and half more than a Palestinian.”
Jarar stated that the water one Palestinian gets is a lot less than international standards while an Israeli settler gets a lot more.

“According to the World Health Organization, the amount of water an individual requires to satisfy all daily needs is estimated at 150 liters.”

According to Jarar, Palestinians get only 15 percent of renewable water sources in Palestine and which is estimated at 2,600 million liters in total.
“Half of this 15 percent we get from wells under our control and the other half we buy from Israel,” he concluded.

According to a report issued by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israel controls 30 out of 56 water springs located near the West Bank settlements while the rest are threatened with seizure by Israeli settlers who keep scaring Palestinian farmers away with constant armed attacks.

Settlers, the report added, have started renovating the areas around those springs in preparation for turning them into national parks for their own use despite the fact that Israel itself admits that 84 percent of the seized wells are owned by Palestinians.

The report called for putting settlers on trial for infringement on Palestinian water rights, construction work without permit, and the terrorization of peaceful civilians. Those acts, the report explained, are not only criminalized by international law but also by Israeli law.

Israeli authorities, however, have not responded to those demands and no measures have so far been taken against the settlers.