Saudi King orders massive $29.3 billion spending

King Salman bin Abdulaziz has ordered a massive $29.3 billion (110 billion Saudi Riyals) spending in a series of decrees issued on Thursday, that include lavish payments of two months bonus salary to all Saudi state employees and a series of subsidies.

Former government employees will receive two months bonus pension, while students, people with special needs and people receiving welfare payments will also benefit from a bonus payment equivalent to two months of their annual income.

The King posted a statement later on Twitter in which he addressed his people saying: “You deserve more and whatever I do will never meet your right. I ask Allah to help me and you for the service of religion and the nations. Don't forget me in your prayers.”

Included in the handouts was $5.3 billion (20 billion riyals) pledged in subsidies for electricity, water, and housing.

King Salman succeeded his brother, the late King Abdullah, who died after a short illness last week.

And in a commitment to the arts, King Salman pledged $267,000 for each art club in the kingdom.

Egypt military targeted in deadly Sinai attacks

At least 26 people, mostly soldiers, have been killed in a series of attacks by Islamist militants in the north of Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

Most of the casualties were in the provincial capital, El-Arish.

Militant group Sinai Province, which changed its named from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis when it pledged allegiance to Islamic State, said it carried out the "extensive, simultaneous" attacks.

Egypt's president cut short a visit to Ethiopia because of the attacks.

They represent some of the worst anti-government violence in Egypt for months, and indicate a previously unseen level of co-ordination, correspondents and analysts say.

The US condemned the attacks, saying it remained "steadfast in its support of the Egyptian government's efforts to combat the threat of terrorism".

Insurgents have intensified attacks since Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in 2013.

Tensions have also been raised across Egypt this week amid protests marking the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ousted then-leader Hosni Mubarak.

Security officials said rockets were first fired at police offices, a military base and a military hotel in El-Arish, before a car bomb exploded at the rear gate of the military base. Several army checkpoints in the city were also targeted.

Newspaper al-Ahram said its El-Arish office - which is opposite the hotel and base - had been completely destroyed.

Four soldiers were wounded in an attack at a checkpoint outside El-Arish and an army major was later shot dead at a checkpoint in Rafah, medical and security sources said.

More than 50 people were wounded in Thursday's attacks.

North Sinai has been under a state of emergency and a curfew since October, when an attack on a checkpoint killed dozens of soldiers.

The army has launched major operations to try to quell violence in the region, but has so far failed.

Sinai Province has become the biggest threat, staging many attacks on security targets.

The group, which was originally inspired by al-Qaeda but pledged allegiance to Islamic State in November 2014, has called on Egyptians to rebel against President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

President Sisi is the former military chief who led the crackdown on Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood has said it rejects violence.

Egypt is creating a 1km (0.6-mile) buffer zone along the border with Gaza in a bid to stop militants smuggling weapons in from the Palestinian territory using tunnels.

The project has displaced more than 1,000 families in Rafah and severed an economic lifeline for many Palestinians.

North Korea leader 'to visit Russia'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has confirmed he will attend celebrations in Russia in May marking the Soviet victory over Germany in World War II, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, citing a Kremlin spokesman.

The trip would mark Kim's first official foreign trip since taking power in 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il. The celebrations would be attended by a host of world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Yonhap said the Kremlin, responding to an emailed query, said 20 leaders had confirmed their attendance so far.

According to Yonhap, the Kremlin response also noted that the confirmation process was "still ongoing" and a final list of participants had yet to be drawn up.

According to AFP, Russia only confirmed that a North Korean leader would attend the celebrations, but did not specify who yet.

If Kim Jong-un does make Moscow the destination of his first foreign trip, it would reflect a desire to reduce his country's dependence on China, which remains Pyongyang's main ally, diplomatic protector and economic safeguard. Russia is one of North Korea's few allies, along with China.

Xi Jinping and Kim have kept their distance since each assumed power and Xi's first visit as head of state to the Korean peninsula was to the capitalist South last year, rather than the North.

South Korean president invited

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has also been invited to the Moscow event, but has yet to announce whether she will attend.

Both have opposed the United Nations' call for Pyongyang to be referred to the International Criminal Court over its human rights record.

The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited Russia in August 2011 in his personal train for a rare meeting with then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia is seeking to expand economic ties with North Korea and is eyeing a project worth about $25bn to overhaul the country's railway network in return for access to mineral resources.

Russia has also pushed ahead with plans for natural gas projects with North Korea in the hope of boosting gas exports to Asia and exporting coal to South Korea through an experimental consortium based in the North.

Two Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah missile attack

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed by a Hezbollah missile fired at at an Israeli military vehicle in the Shebaa farms area on the border with Syria and Lebanon.

The Israeli military confirmed that seven soldiers were also injured in Wednesday's strike.

In response to the attack, Israeli forces fired shells across the border into southern Lebanon, killing a UN peacekeeper from Spain. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed the death. 

Responding to the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised those behind it would be held responsible.

"Those behind the attack today will pay the full price," Netanyahu said as he launched consultations with security chiefs on a possible further response to the incident, according to a Reuters news agency report.

There were also reports of Israeli war planes flying over the border with Lebanon.

A Hezbollah statement claiming responsibility for the attack said: "11:25am this morning, al-Quneitra Martyr's group targeted an Israeli convoy with specialised heavy duty rockets in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa farms area.

The convoy included Israeli artillery, an officer and several soldiers many of whom were injured," the statement read. 

"Await retaliation"

The attack by Hezbollah was likely in retaliation for an Israeli air strike in Quneitra on January 18th that killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general. Both Hezbollah and the Iranian army had vowed revenge, and earlier on Wednesday Iran said that Israel should "await retaliation" for the strike.  

A Lebanese army spokesman said the missile was not fired from Lebanese territory, and that the artillery response by Israel was randomly falling on areas along the border, but that no shells had landed on villages with civilians yet.

Shebaa Farms is a small strip of disputed land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Schools closed in and around Shebaa, and residents stayed indoors as the shelling continued throughout Wednesday morning.

Residents in neighbouring towns carried on as normal, telling Al Jazeera they did not feel things would escalate into full-blown war.

"Whatever happens happens, but we're not moving and we're not scared," one resident of Marjayoun, a town a few kilometres from the border with Israeli, said.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, condemned the attack, saying Hezbollah had been "stockpiling" weapons in southern Lebanon in violation of a UN resolution.

"Israel will not accept any attacks on its territory and it will exercise its right to self-defence and take all necessary measures to protect its population."

Al Jazeera's Nisreen el-Shamayleh, reporting from Jerusalem, said that while a response was expected from Israel against Hezbollah, an escalation of hostilities was unlikely.

Lebanese politician Samir Geagea, a member of the March 14 opposed to Hezbollah, said that the organisation "doesn't have the right to involve the Lebanese army and government in a battle with Israel."

Walid Jumblatt, another politician considered to be centrist, said the attack would lead to "turbulent" times for Lebanon.

On Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak on the Quneitra strike.

In 2006, Israel fought a bloody war against Hezbollah that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Iran sends 'warning to Israel via US officials'

Tehran said it sent a warning to Israel through the United States over the recent killing of an Iranian general in an Israeli air strike in Syria, the official IRNA news agency reports.

"We told the Americans that the leaders of the Zionist regime should await the consequences of their act,'' IRNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying. Israel has "crossed our red lines'', he added.

Amirabdollahian said Iran had sent the message on Tuesday through diplomatic channels to US officials, to hand over to Israel. He did not elaborate.

The January 18 strike in the Syrian-controlled part of the disputed Golan Heights killed Iranian General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards, along with six Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.

Allahdadi was one of the highest ranking Iranian officers known to have been killed abroad in decades. 

Amirabdollahian spoke during a commemoration on Tuesday for the Iranian general. The Guards' acting commander, General Hossein Salami, said Iran will soon retaliate for his death.

"We tell them [Israelis to] await retaliation but we will decide about its timing, place and the strength,'' Salami said at the ceremony.

US disregards threat

Both Iran and Hezbollah, close allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, blamed Israel, which is believed to have been behind a number of air strikes in Syria in recent years. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the air strike.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki would not comment on private diplomatic talks with Iran, beyond saying that no threat to Israel was delivered in the latest round of nuclear talks between US and Iranian officials.

"We absolutely condemn any such threats that come in any form," Psaki told reporters.

Iran and the US have had no diplomatic relations since Iranian armed students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held Americans there hostage for 444 days in 1979.

The two nations normally exchange diplomatic messages through the Swiss embassy, which looks after US interests in Iran.

Diplomats from both countries also meet directly on other occasions, such as the current negotiations to limit the scope of the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for easing harsh international sanctions against Tehran.

Source: Associated Press

28 January 2011: Egypt’s Decisive Day

28 January 2011 marked a turning point in Egyptian history. On that day, anti-Mubarak demonstrations escalated their protests, engaging in violent confrontations with police forces all over the country. Protesters surrounded police stations, and police forces opened fire, killing many.

Reports mentioning deaths only reinvigorated the demonstrations, leading protesters to directly attack police stations and target officers. Outnumbered, police forces withdrew from their positions, leading to widespread looting, acts of thuggery, and hundreds of deaths.

Police stations were targeted because they were seen a symbol of police brutality and regime corruption. Since then and until today, the government has been campaigning for a different image for police forces. Slogans such as “the police are in the service of the people”, and “police and the people are one hand” are constantly used in pro-government propaganda and in posters on the streets.

However, local and international human rights organisations continue to condemn the Egyptian security forces for their brutality and torture of civilians in police stations and prisons.

Unholy silence

The Middle East is by almost any reckoning the world's worst region for freedom of expression. Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom lobby, puts war-torn Syria 177th out of 180 countries on its latest annual ranking, in 2014. Iran is 173rd, Sudan 172nd, Yemen 167th, Saudi Arabia 164th. The highest any of the region's countries make it is 91st, with Kuwait, which has a democracy of sorts. According to the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, as of 2012, 14 of 20 Middle Eastern countries criminalise blasphemy and 12 of 20 make apostasy—leaving Islam—an offence.

Freedom of expression is particularly curtailed where it concerns politics, sexual matters or Islam, the region's main religion. Even secular or less devout leaders refuse to grant religious freedom, in part to keep hardline clergy and their followers happy, and in part to extend their totalitarian rule into their subjects' private lives. One example is Saudi Arabia, where the ruling family imposes harsh penalties based on sharia law because it rules in tandem with the puritanical Wahhabi clerics. Being openly gay is not tolerated anywhere except in central areas of Beirut, Lebanon's capital, and charges for "debauchery" are not uncommon. The region offers almost no space for legal protest; some countries set ridiculous requirements for protests to have official permission before going ahead—which is only granted when the protests are pro-government. Vague national-security laws and emergency laws allow prosecution for almost anything that rulers do not like.Restrictions bite not only on what is said in the media or public forums. Some countries, including Iran and Syria, have large numbers of security agents who listen in to private conversations on the street or in the market, and use reports from informers who shop their neighbours for badmouthing the regime. Taxi drivers can earn handsome supplements by filing reports on their customers. Only at the dentist, runs a popular Arabic joke, is it safe to open your mouth.

Mocking Jordan's monarch is a criminal offence punishable by prosecution in a military court, but when King Abdullah of Jordan (pictured above with the French president, François Hollande) attended the demonstration on January 11th in Paris to express support for free speech in the wake of the Paris attack, some found ridicule hard to suppress. How could he march in defence of freedom of expression abroad, they asked, when he is such a serial abuser of that freedom at home? Last June he expanded the remit of an anti-terrorism law to include public criticism of the king or his allies. His spooks trawl social media for dissenting Jordanians to arrest. On December 18th the deputy leader of Jordan's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was tried before military judges for a colourful posting on his Facebook page denouncing Jordan's allies in the Emirates. Salafi preachers who decline to opine in favour of coalition attacks on Islamic State are sent back to jail. "Everyone in Jordan is assumed to be a terrorist until proven innocent," says an embittered Islamist.

A few days after the king marched in Paris, his security forces beat back protestors heading for the French embassy in Amman. In recent years the king has closed hundreds of news sites for lacking a licence, and ordered those that still operate to appoint editors more likely to toe the government line. An irate taxi driver criticising the king stops himself as he passes a police post in the capital, and then punches the air with his fist to illustrate what might befall him should he speak out.

Egypt's constitution says freedom of belief is absolute, but only guarantees freedom to practise their religions to Muslims, Christians and Jews. That leaves atheists unprotected, and the government, which appears to see homogeneity as desirable and likely to make ruling easier, has recently been cracking down on them. In June it announced a campaign to confront the spread of unbelief. Since a farcical survey in December which found that Egypt had a suspiciously specific 866 atheists, and that this was more than any other country in the Middle East (no mention of the fact that Egypt is also the region's most populous country), the persecution has worsened. On January 10th a court in Idku sentenced Karim Ashraf Mohamad al-Banna, a student, to three years in prison for saying on Facebook that he was an atheist, which, the court decided, counted as "insulting Islam".

Although cases for apostasy and depicting the Prophet Muhammad make the news, many of the region's Muslims agree that such offences should be penalised. Mr Banna was reportedly harassed by his neighbours for his views, before the state got involved.