Muslim Brotherhood gains in Egyptian parliamentary elections despite government-sponsored thuggery
CAIRO, EGYPT – After unprecedented success for the Muslim Brotherhood in the first round of Egypt's three-stage parliamentary election, Hosni Mubarak's regime appeared to be taking no chances in Sunday's second round, held in the northern city of Alexandria and surrounding towns in the Nile delta.

Thugs from the ruling party were dispatched to polling places and ruling party "voters" were bused in to hotly contested constituencies, independent poll monitors said. After releasing every Muslim Brotherhood political activist from jail before the first round of voting in Cairo on Nov. 10, the government arrested approximately 400 over this weekend.

Mass grave found near former Syrian army headquarters
At least 20 bodies were discovered Saturday in a mass grave in east Lebanon, near the former headquarters of the Syrian army intelligence.
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The Lebanese Army took over the onion farm after Syrian troops and intelligence agents withdrew from Lebanon in April following the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Lebanon MPs blame Syria media man's slaying
Beirut - Lebanon's top parliamentary faction blamed Damascus on Tuesday for the murder of anti-Syrian newspaper boss and member of parliament (MP) Gibran Tueni, and called for an emergency session of parliament to decide the future of pro-Damascus President Emile Lahoud.

Tueni, 48, and three other people were killed Monday when a car bomb exploded in a Beirut suburb, just hours after the Christian parliamentarian returned from France, where he had taken refuge fearing his life was in danger.

ANALYSIS-Lebanon shows cracks under weight of killings
BEIRUT, Dec 13 (Reuters) - It has become all too familiar in Lebanon. An anti-Syrian politician or journalist is killed, condemnations pour in from friends and foes alike, the funeral attracts thousands, while officials urge unity.
Yet the longer a U.N. inquiry into the murder of ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri drags on, the more every assassination threatens to rekindle sectarian divisions between the mostly Shi'ite Muslim supporters of Damascus and its Christian, Sunni and Druze opponents.

Egyptian politician sentenced for forgery
The United States has called on the Egyptian government to release a leading political opponent who has been sentenced to five years in prison for forgery.

In a statement, the White House said it is "deeply troubled" by the sentencing handed down in Cairo on Saturday against Ayman Nour, the distant runner-up in Egypt's presidential elections earlier in the year.

Death Toll Rises in Egyptian Raid on Camp
CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian police turned water cannons on Sudanese war refugees and beat them with sticks Friday, seeking to end a three-month protest at the ramshackle squatters camp in a small city park. At least a dozen people were killed, according to government figures, and one of the protest leaders estimated the deaths at more than double that.

Hundreds of Sudanese have been living in the park since September to protest the U.N. refugee agency's refusal to consider them for refugee status. They want to be resettled in a third country, such as the United States or Britain, rather than go home after a peace deal ended the 21-year-long civil war in Sudan.

Syria to try former vice president Khaddam for treason, corruption
DAMASCUS (AFX) - The Syrian government will try on high treason charges former vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who has accused Damascus of involvement in the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, and investigate him for corruption.

The announcement came after Khaddam's explosive allegations that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had threatened Hariri before his death, which he made in an interview Friday on Al-Arabiya television.

Well, sure! The studies that concern me and fit my overall global vision - they're Islamic studies. As you know, ever since 9/11, we have been trying to bridge the gap between West and East.

Which has backfired at least once. You became notorious in New York when Mayor Giuliani declined to accept a $10 million donation from you to victims' families after you suggested that the U.S. was too friendly with Israel.

By the way, my check was taken to the bank and cashed. The problem was with my statement. I accepted that. Subject closed.

Subject reopened. The money was returned to you. Have you told Harvard, as you told the City of New York, that the U.S. needs to "adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause"?

Are you spending any money in Iraq?

So far, I am investing nothing. Zero.Very simple. I have investments in 150 nations, but I will not invest in Iraq until they have political tranquillity and a functioning government.

But where will they get money to rebuild?

Uncle Sam. The United States is spending like hell over there.

Why don't you help us?

If I go there right now and say, "I want to build a hotel," they will laugh at me. You need schools and hospitals and the airport, and then after, you can talk about the hotels.

Middle-Eastern Supporters of US are Pissed

"It's a success story for al-Qaeda, a success story for autocratic Arab regimes that made democracy look ugly in their people's eyes. They can say to their people: 'Look at the democracy that the Americans want to bring to you. Democracy is trouble. You may as well forget about what the Americans promise you. They promise you death,' " said Salameh Nematt, a Jordanian analyst and the former Washington bureau chief for the Arabic-language daily newspaper al-Hayat.

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"What's coming is worse than what is now," columnist and editor Ghassan Tueni wrote in Beirut's an-Nahar newspaper.

Lebanon students clash; 2 reported dead

Government and opposition supporters clashed at a Beirut university campus Thursday, battering each other with sticks, stones and even furniture in new violence spilling over from Lebanon's political crisis. At least two people were reported killed.

Black smoke poured into the sky from cars engulfed in flames as armored vehicles full of troops moved in to try to keep the two sides apart. But the riot spread through the streets around Beirut Arab University as students smashed parked cars in a battle that raged for three hours.

Saudi Arabia, Iran target Mideast's sectarian discord
TEHRAN, IRAN - The leaders of rival regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia are vowing to curb the sectarian strife that is increasingly defining conflict across the Middle East.

The pledge to calm tensions, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his first official visit to meet Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on Saturday, illustrates the growing regional alarm over Shiite-Sunni violence. Sectarian bloodshed has soared in Iraq – often at the hands of allies and coreligionists of these rival nations – and is threatening stability in Lebanon.

White House rethinking its ties with Saudi prince
Despite Bandar's reassurances, his uncle — the king — is increasingly going against U.S.
WASHINGTON — ... Prince Bandar has mentored Bush and his father through three wars and the broader campaign against terrorism, reliably delivering — sometimes in the Oval Office — his nation's support for crucial and sensitive Middle East initiatives requiring the regional legitimacy that Saudi help and approval brings, and keeping the United States apprised of Saudi regional priorities that might appear to be in conflict with U.S. policies. But now, current and former Bush administration officials are wondering if the administration's longtime reliance on Prince Bandar has begun to outlive its usefulness.

Bush administration officials have been scratching their heads over steps taken by Prince Bandar's uncle, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, that have surprised them by going against the American playbook, after receiving assurances to the contrary from Prince Bandar during secret trips he made to Washington.

50 killed as Lebanese army fights Islamists
At least 50 people were killed and scores wounded in battles between Lebanese army troops and Sunni militants in and around the northern city of Tripoli yesterday in the worst violence to hit the city in two decades.

Witnesses described a constant barrage of gunfire amid clouds of dust and smoke as troops and tanks fired into a building where three militants from the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam were holed up. The militants responded with grenades and cries of "God is great". Fighting quickly spread to a nearby Palestinian refugee camp, home to 40,000 people.

Lebanese minister pleads for money and weapons
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanon's economy minister on Monday asked for money and resources to help Lebanese forces battling members of an Islamic militant group in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli.

... The militant group Fatah al-Islam, he said, is well-financed and heavily armed, but the army's morale is high, and the government has public opinion on its side.

Lebanese tanks shoot way into refugee camp
In the heaviest fighting since the standoff at the Nahr al-Bared camp began, sustained, massive explosions, long bursts of heavy gunfire and huge plumes of black smoke billowed from well inside the camp as dusk fell.

... Inside Nahr al Bared, the extremist Islamic fighters of Fatah al-Islam, who have be besieged by the army for 10 days and have vowed to fight to the death, returned the heavy fire.

The World's Hot New Franchise
Siniora now faces three choices: rely on the Americans to provide more guns and political support, enter a power-sharing deal with Hezbollah and try to unite the country, or attempt to balance relations with the United States and Hezbollah to fight a common enemy: al-Qaida.

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Fatah al-Islam did not appear overnight and was the result of a concerted effort by jihadists responding, in part, to the war between Israel and Hizballah last summer, which deeply unnerved jihadists who fear Shi'a and Iranian hegemony in Lebanon.

“Lebanon, in particular, with a weak central government and containing several religious sects competing for power, is ripe for exploitation by the jihadists, as happened in Iraq after the U.S. invasion. Any base or stronghold in Lebanon or Syria would provide the jihadists with an excellent staging ground for attacks against Israel and the surrounding Arab regimes.”

But the problem goes well beyond Lebanon.

As Egypt cracks down, charges of wide abuse
Cairo - The regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is in the midst of one of its largest crackdowns against public dissent in a decade.

Seven journalists have been given prison sentences in recent weeks; more than a thousand activists of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most popular political opposition, languish in jail; and labor organizers involved in a wave of strikes at government-owned factories have been detained.

Syria Blocks Facebook

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian authorities have blocked Facebook, the popular Internet hangout, over what seems to be fears of Israeli "infiltration" of Syrian social networks on the Net, according to residents and media reports.

Residents of Damascus said that they have not been able to enter Facebook for more than two weeks. An Associated Press reporter got a blank page when he tried to open Facebook's home page Friday from the Syrian capital.

Bush delivers arms sale to Saudi Arabia
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - President Bush, on his first visit to this oil-rich kingdom, delivered a major arms sale Monday to a key ally in a region where the U.S. casts neighboring Iran as a menace to stability.

Coinciding with Bush's trip, the Bush administration in Washington notified Congress on Monday that it will offer Saudi Arabia the chance to buy sophisticated Joint Direct Attack Munitions — or "smart bomb" — technology and related equipment, the State Department said. The administration envisions the transfer of 900 of the precision-guided bomb kits, worth $123 million, that would give the kingdom's armed forces highly accurate targeting abilities

 

Dubai property boom gets hit by financial crisis

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - This Arab Gulf boomtown - so business-friendly it's been called "Dubai Inc." - is suddenly getting a nasty taste of the global financial crisis.

... Dubai developers - like their counterparts in the West - are finding it harder to raise funds. Deyaar has shelved recently announced plans to raise more than $1 billion through the sale of Islamic bonds and is paring its international growth plans from about 10 countries to about three, Giebel said.

ABC News Exclusive: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh

(ABC) A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates shows a member of the country's royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails.

In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.

History made in Kuwait as women elected to parliament

Kuwaiti women have achieved another historical milestone by winning their first ever seats in the oil-rich Gulf state’s parliament.

US-educated liberal Aseel al-Awadhi and Rula Dashti were declared among the first 10 winners in the third district, according to official results released today. Awadi came in second position while Dashti was in seventh place.

Former health minister Massouma al-Mubarak, who became the first Kuwaiti woman minister in 2005, and another female candidate, Salwa al-Jassar, also secured seats in parliament.

Saudis bomb Yemen rebels across border

(AP) SAN'A, Yemen – Saudi Arabia sent fighter jets and artillery bombardments across the border into northern Yemen on Thursday in a military incursion apparently aimed at helping its troubled southern neighbor control an escalating Shiite rebellion.

The Saudis — owners of a sophisticated air force they rarely use — have been increasingly worried that extremism and instability in Yemen could spill over to their country, the world's largest oil exporter. The offensive came two days after the killing of a Saudi soldier, blamed on the rebels.

Seven Turkish officers charged over coup plot

ISTANBUL, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Seven senior Turkish military officers were charged on Wednesday over an alleged plot to topple a government that secularist hardliners fear is pursuing a hidden Islamist agenda.

Turkey's top military commanders, who have seen the army's role as ultimate guardian of secularism eroded under European Union-backed reforms, held an emergency meeting late on Tuesday and warned in a statement of a "serious situation".