YEMEN COURT SENTENCES ALLEGED 5 AL-QAIDA MILITANTS

SANNA, Yemen (AP) -- Yemen's state security court has sentenced five alleged al-Qaida militants to up to 10 years in prison for carrying out attacks against security forces and supporting the group logistically in the southern province of Abyan in 2011.

The court on Sunday gave the defendants sentences ranging from four to 10 years. It was not immediately clear how many would serve the maximum sentence.

The court ordered the release of six others who had already spent about 18 months in detention. They were found guilty of supporting al-Qaida but not direct involvement in attacks. They will be under government monitoring after their release.

Journalists were in the courtroom.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has ordered trials for dozens of al-Qaida suspects held without charges for over a year.

Syria's Assad begins rare national address

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has started a rare televised speech about the uprising against his rule.

With rebels fighting their way closer to the seat of his power, state media said in a statement on Saturday that al-Assad spoke on Sunday about the "latest developments in Syria and the region".

It was the 47-year-old leader's first speech in months and his first public comments since he dismissed suggestions that he might go into exile to end the civil war, telling Russian television in November that he would "live and die" in Syria.

Since that interview, rebels have strengthened their hold on swathes of territory across northern Syria, launched an offensive in the central province of Hama and endured weeks of bombardment by the regime forces trying to dislodge them from Damascus's outer neighbourhoods. 

Syria's political opposition has also won widespread international recognition. But al-Assad has continued to rely on support from Russia, China and Iran to hold firm and has used his air power to blunt rebel gains on the ground.

Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from Amman in neighbouring Jordan, reported that the opposition refuses to accept any kind of solution that does not stipulate the stepping down of Assad. 

"Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy to Syria mentioned that he would rely on the Geneva Declaration, which was issued in June," El-Shamayleh said."This declaration talks extensively about amendments in the constitution, forming the unity government [and] holding presidential and parliamentary elections, but it stops short of stipulating that Assad steps down."

She added that this was a "key demand by the opposition".  

With the conflict showing no sign of abating, Syria's deputy foreign minister visited Iran on Saturday to ensure the support of al-Assad's main ally in the region.

Iran's Fars news agency said Faisal al-Makdad would meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials.

Foreign intervention 

But NATO is sending US and European Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to the Turkish-Syrian border.Despite the estimated death toll of 60,000 announced by the United Nations earlier this week - a figure sharply higher than that given by activists - the West has shown little appetite for intervening against al-Assad in the way that NATO forces supported rebels who overthrew Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The United States military said US troops and equipment had begun arriving in Turkey on Friday for the deployment. 

Germany and the Netherlands are also sending Patriot batteries, which will take weeks to deploy fully.

Turkey and NATO say the missiles are a safeguard to protect southern Turkey from possible Syrian missile strikes.

Syria and allies Russia and Iran say the deployments could spark an eventual military action by the Western alliance.

Syria's war has proved the longest and bloodiest of the conflicts that arose out of popular uprisings in Arab countries over the past two years and led to the downfall of autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

The war pits rebels mainly drawn from the Sunni Muslim majority against al-Assad, a member of the Shia-derived Alawite minority sect, whose family has ruled Syria since his father seized power in a coup in 1970.

Al-Assad's last formal speech was delivered to parliament seven months ago, in early June. "If we work together," he said, "I confirm that the end to this situation is near."

New Salafist Al-Watan Party ‘welcomes’ Copts and women

The new Salafist Al-Watan Party, which was launched on Tuesday, will include Copts in its ranks and women on its electoral lists, the party’s deputy head Yousry Hammad said on Friday.

Hammad made the statement to the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, few days after he withdrew from Salafist Party Nour to join Al-Watan, which also includes former Nour head Emad Abdel-Ghafour.

The Nour Party, where Hammad worked as an official spokesman before stepping down, had a strong stand against women’s participation in elections.

The ultraconservative Islamist party publicly spoke out against having female representatives in elections but was forced to add women to its electoral lists in the last parliamentary elections to fulfill the female quota.
Abdel-Ghafour, who resigned as head of Salafist Nour party last week, had announced the launch of new Al-Watan (Homeland) party Tuesday.
Before his resignation, Abdel-Ghafour represented what was dubbed as the “reformist camp” of the Nour Party. He reportedly quit following a dispute with the followers of influential cleric Yasser El-Borhami, one of the founders of the Salafist Calling, a movement that spawned the Nour Party in 2011.
In response to the formation of Al-Watan Party, the Salafist Calling, considered the largest and most influential Salafist movement, announced that the Nour Party remains its sole political arm.

Egypt's cabinet reshuffle to see new interior, finance ministers

Ten Egyptian ministers are decided to be replaced in a partial cabinet reshuffle, including the interior and finance ministers, state news agency MENA reported.

The Ministry of Interior will be taken over by General Mohamed Ibrahim, who was an assistant of former minister Ahmed Gamal and head of the prison service.
The new Minister of Finance will be El-Morsi Hegazy, an economics professor at the University of Alexandria and author of several articles on Islamic banking.
Succeeding Rashad El-Metiny, who resigned as Minister of Transportation following the infamous Assiut accident that killed tens of children last November, is Hatem Abdel-Latif, an engineering professor at Ain Shams University.
Abdel-Latif is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which President Mohamed Morsi hails.
Two more members of the powerful Islamist group are included in the imminent ministerial appointments.
Bassem Ouda, who headed the fuel file in Morsi's 100-day plan and is the chairman of the energy committee of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, will be installed as Minister of Supply and Interior Trade.
Mohamed Ali Beshr, a Brotherhood member since 1979 and engineering professor at the University of El-Menoufia, shall be appointed as Minister of Local Development.
Beshr will replace Ahmed Zaki Abdeen, who stirred up controversy of late with a decision to close down shops across Egypt starting 10pm. The decision was never put in effect.
Engineer Ahmed Imam, who was appointed last December as assistant to ex-Minister of Electricity Mahmoud Balbaa, has been chosen to replace the latter.
Imam, who shall be tasked with preempting anticipated power outages next summer due to fuel shortages, was also the head of Cairo Electricity Production Company from 2002 to 2011.
Atef Helmi, ex-chief executive of computer technology corporation – Oracle – in Egypt, was appointed as Minister of Communication and Information Technology.
Omar Salem will become the Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, a position he held under the interim premiership of Kamal El-Ganzouri, the predecessor of incumbent Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.
The new Minister of Civil Aviation will be Wael El-Maadawi, who was the head of Smart Aviation Company – a corporate airline operator.
Khaled Fahmy Abdel-Aal was picked to be the Minister of State for Environmental Affairs.
The ten candidates are to take oath before President Mohamed Morsi on Sunday before assuming their respective roles in Qandil's four-month-old cabinet, which consists of 35 ministries.
Late last month, Morsi commissioned Qandil to instigate the necessary ministerial changes after the government had faced a baptism of fire due to chronic economic woes and political turmoil.

Hamas allows mass Fatah rally in Gaza, renews hopes of reconciliation

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party on Friday held a mass rally in Gaza, their first since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

"Victory is near and we will meet you in Gaza in the near future," Abbas said in a short speech from his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, beamed to the Gaza crowd at the Saraya complex on giant screens.
"Gaza was the first Palestinian territory rid of (Israeli) occupation and settlement and we want a lifting of the blockade so that it can be free and linked to the rest of the nation."
Hamas, in a sign of reconciliation with Fatah, permitted the rally to go ahead as the climax of a week of Gaza festivities celebrating the 48th anniversary of Fatah taking up arms against Israel.
Demonstrators, many of them women and children waved Palestinian and Fatah flags and carried pictures of Abbas, an AFP correspondent reported. Balloons in the colours of the Palestinian flag with portraits of Abbas hovered above.
"This crowd is a vote in favour of (Abbas's) Palestinian Authority and shows that Fatah is still out in front," local Fatah leader Selim al-Zaraei told AFP.
Fatah Gaza spokesman Fayez Abou Eita told AFP that "hundreds of thousands of people are currently taking part in the public festivities."
Hamas congratulated Fatah on the anniversary, saying it considered it a "celebration of national unity and a success for Hamas as well as Fatah."
"This positive atmosphere is a step on road to restoring national unity," it said.
Abbas's address was to be followed by a speech by senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath, who travelled to Gaza from the West Bank for the event. He was to be followed by Hamas official Rawhi Mushtaha, who was to speak in the name of all the Palestinian factions.
But Shaath and Mushtaha did not end up delivering their speeches after the crowd became rowdy, Abou Eita said.
Khan Younis resident Ayman Barbakh, 24, said he hoped the rally marked "the beginning of true unity and reconciliation, because our Palestinian people have suffered enough."
"It's been six years since we in Fatah have been waiting for this moment," said participant Sabrine Srour. "I feel the joy I can see on people's faces."
A young man attempting to fasten a Fatah banner to an electricity pylon was killed and seven others were injured by electrocution, medical sources said.
Some participants brandished portraits and chanted slogans in favor of ex-Fatah strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, excluded from his movement and reviled by Hamas.
Hamas and Fatah had been at loggerheads since the Islamist movement seized control of Gaza in June 2007, following its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections the previous year.
The anniversary commemorates the first operation against Israel claimed by Fatah's armed wing, then known as Al-Assifa (The Thunderstorm in Arabic), on January 1, 1965.
Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organisation, and is opposed to it moving closer to Fatah.
The reconciliation process
 The two groups reached an Egyptian-brokered unity agreement in April 2011, although its main articles have not been applied so far.
In December, leaders of Hamas and Fatah called for the renewal of reconciliation attempts that has been totally stalled for more than a year.
 In Gaza, the exiled head of the Hamas movement Khaled Meshaal, in his first ever trip to the coastal territory, said it was time for the bitter opponents to make good on the deal they signed in Cairo in 2011.
"We want national unity in the armed resistance and popular resistance. I urge you towards reconciliation and national unity of the Palestinian ranks," he said in a speech at Gaza's Islamic University.
"Palestine is too big for a single movement," he added. "Palestine is for all of us, we are partners in this nation. Hamas cannot do without Fatah or Fatah without Hamas, or any movement."
"We are under occupation, we need free and fair elections, then a national partnership to assume responsibilities," Meshaal said later during a meeting with the families of those killed in last month's conflict between Israel and Gaza militants.
Meanwhile, Abbas called at a meeting in Doha for reconciliation efforts to resume, saying holding the elections called for in 2011 would be the key.
"Without these elections there will be no reconciliation," he said at an Arab League gathering in Qatar.
In a speech at a rally celebrating Hamas's 25th anniversary, Meshaal also called for new efforts to implement the 2011 deal, which stalled over the formation of an interim consensus government before new elections.
The 2011 deal agreed in Cairo was intended to pave the way for presidential and legislative elections by May 2012, but disagreements over who would head a transitional government snarled implementation of the agreement.
In the beginning of 2012, Meshaal and Abbas signed a new deal in Doha, under which the president would head the interim government. But Hamas leaders in Gaza rejected the deal, and accused Meshaal of taking decisions without their backing.

Cyprus apologises to Egypt over envoy's footwear row

Egyptian ambassador Menha Mahrous Bakhoum was involved in an argument with police when she was asked to undergo security checks to enter a departure terminal on 29 December, where she was seeing off members of her family.
Cypriot media reported the ambassador agreed to undergo security screening but objected to removing her boots. In a heated debate that followed, media reported, a police officer was slapped and the ambassador was manhandled by police.
An apology released by Cyprus on Wednesday lauded its "brotherly relations" with Egypt. Cyprus shares a common sea border with Egypt in an area thought to be rich in oil and gas.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly and sincerely expresses its regret and apologises over the treatment of the Ambassador," Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou Markoullis said in a written statement.
Treatment of the ambassador was not consistent with the ambassador's individual rights or her diplomatic status, the minister said.

Investigation report stirs media debate over Brotherhood role during Tahrir uprising

Leaks of an investigation report issued by a fact-finding commission have stirred media debate over whether the Muslim Brotherhood had any role in the violence against protesters during the 2011 January revolution.

The commission, which was formed by Egypt President Mohamed Morsi to pinpoint the culprits in the killing of demonstrators during the 18-day uprising, has yet to make its report public but the media have leaked some of its content.

Ahmed Ragheb, a member of the commission, told the Associated Press that the report implicates the military and security forces in murdering more than 800 demonstrators during the revolution that ousted autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.

“Mubarak knew of all the crimes that took place directly. The images were carried to him live, and he didn't even need security reports,” he added.

Mubarak was sentenced to life sentences for failing to prevent the killing of protesters.

Brotherhood role?

Leaks about the Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, stirred controversy after reportedly shedding light on the group’s role during the revolution.

Independent daily newspaper Watan quoted Mohsen Bahnasi, another member of the commission, as saying that the report found out that a Brotherhood unit named "Unit 95" was present in Tahrir Square during the 18 days.
“Two lawyers, Khaled El-Desouki and Raef Bishara, presented to the commission a video of an Al-Jazeera interview with Brotherhood member and current Minister of Youth Osama Yassin in July 2011, in which he proved the existence of such a unit,” Bahnasi argued.
However,  Yassin said in an article published in the newspaper of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) that  Brotherhood members climbed onto rooftops surrounding Tahrir square to protect demonstrators after they were shot by live ammunition.
“The commission is still investigating claims that the Brotherhood was involved in the Battle of the Camel violence against demonstrators,” Bahnasi added.
The infamous Battle of the Camel, which occurred on 2 February 2011, saw thousands of Mubarak supporters attack opposing protesters in Tahrir Square with camels and horses. On the same day, snipers were reportedly seen firing live ammunition from rooftops, killing 11 demonstrators.
A number of Mubarak-era figures were acquitted by court of involvement in the notorious battle.

For its part, the Muslim Brotherhood echoed the sentiment of Yassin, saying its members were only trying to confront “Mubarak’s thugs”.

“We would have never climbed onto the rooftops to shoot at demonstrators. We were trying to stop the Mubarak thugs from doing that,” Islam Fares, a Brotherhood member, was quoted as saying by Watan.

The purpose of the fact-finding commission is to find new evidence to retry those accused of killing demonstrators during the revolution which was backed by a decreee issued by Morsi on 22 November.