US group rejects accusations of interference in Egypt

 

Accused of interference in Egypt s affairs, US pro-democracy groups whose staff are to be tried in Cairo reject charges they are working secretly for the US government, which largely finances them.

 

Barrie Freeman, director of the North Africa region for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), one of the US groups whose offices were raided in December, denied the NDI has a hidden agenda.

 

“We trained thousands of candidates, hundreds of them were from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist party,” Freeman told AFP, referring to Islamist groups that won a decisive majority in recent parliamentary elections.

 

“We don t favor any party over another. We don t fund parties directly. We don t fund revolutions. We trained poll watchers, we sent international election observers,” she said.

 

“The program components included bringing people who had been through transition in their countries at high level.

 

“We brought in a former general from Indonesia, we brought politicians from Chile and Poland to share their experiences,” Freeman said.

 

Since December, ties between the United States and Egypt s interim military rulers have become strained, and Washington has raised the possibility it could withhold military aid worth $1.3 billion a year.

 

“It s really puzzling,” says Charles Dunne, the Middle East and North Africa director at Freedom House, another US-funded group raided in November.

 

“There is a campaign to try to shut down or control completely the civil society in Egypt,” Dunne told AFP.

 

“We re involved in civic education,” he said.

 

Egyptian authorities disagree, accusing the groups of undermining the military-run government during a fragile transition following last year s ouster of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, once a close US ally.

 

Egyptian Judge Sameh Abu Zeid said in Cairo that the NGOs are operating “without license,” and that their work “constitutes pure political activity and has nothing to do with civil society work.”

 

But the US State Department said Thursday that it has not yet seen any document outlining the charges against the groups.

 

If convicted, the members of these organizations could be sentenced to five years in prison, according to another judge, Ashraf Ashmawi.

 

Activists opposed to Egyptian military rule see the accusations as an attempt to silence them under the banner of fighting “plots” from abroad.

 

The US-funded groups reject the charge they are secretly working for the US government.

 

“It s unfair,” said Eric Trager, a specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 

“If it s a foreign funding issue, these groups shouldn t be targeted exclusively, it should be the Salafist party, the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt is a poor country. Everyone receives money from abroad,” Trager said.

 

The NDI said it is financed up to 81 percent by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development. Its board of directors is chaired by Madeleine Albright, who was president Bill Clinton s secretary of state.

 

The NDI, which was present in Ukraine during the 2004 “Orange Revolution” and works on five continents, is not “affiliated” with the US government, said Kathy Gest, who is in charge of public relations.

 

John McCain, an influential senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, is the chairman of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute, also targeted by Egyptian authorities.

 

On its website the IRI says it is financed through subsidies from US government agencies.

 

For its part, Freedom House has a budget of $25 million for 2012, with $21 millions coming from the US government, according to communications manager Mary McGuire.

 

But for Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the question of financing is secondary.

 

“The same activities have been carried out in Belarus for at least 12 years and haven t produced very much,” Carothers told AFP.

 

“This idea that there is some kind of sinister technology that very quietly, the US or certain European actors go into countries and prepare them for revolution, is colorful and sounds like a good spy movie.”

 

Yuvraj vows to return stronger

 

India s cancer-stricken World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh has vowed to return “stronger than ever” to competitive cricket, saying he was responding well to treatment in the United States.

 

The ace all-rounder, named man of the tournament after India s World Cup win in April last year, is currently undergoing chemotherapy for a rare condition, mediastinal seminoma, a malignant tumour located between his lungs.

 

“I have immense faith in the doctors here and by the grace of God I shall be back to my best soon,” Yuvraj said from his hospital in Boston in remarks published in the Times of India newspaper on Wednesday.

 

“I am on medication and doctors have time and again told me that I am responding well and that I would be back playing cricket. I am a fighter and I will return stronger than ever.”

 

A senior Delhi-based oncologist who has been treating the 30-year-old Yuvraj, Nitesh Rohatgi also said Monday the cricketer would be able to start active training by May.

 

“Initially, I was angry and confused. I was even repentant and kept thinking I could have done some things in life differently,” said Yuvraj, an aggressive left-handed batsman and effective spinner.

 

“However, I have a counsellor here who has helped me get over the initial shock of learning that I am suffering from cancer. I have come to terms with it now.”

 

Yuvraj said he drew inspiration from American cyclist Lance Armstrong, who overcame testicular cancer to win numerous Tour de France titles.

 

“I am currently reading Lance Armstrong s book  It s Not About The Bike . I m sure the book will motivate me and pull me through this difficult time,” he said.

 

Yuvraj had a dream run in the World Cup, scoring 362 runs and grabbing 15 wickets in nine matches. He has not played competitive cricket since taking part in two of three home Tests against the West Indies in November.

 

Thousands of well-wishers, including team-mates, officials and politicians, sent messages of support. “It is the love of family, friends and fans that has kept me going,” said Yuvraj, who has scored 8,051 runs in 274 one-dayers and 1,775 runs in 37 Tests since making his international debut in 2000.

 

“Till a couple of days ago, I was responding to posts and tweets on my accounts on social networking sites, but the sheer volume of comments praying for my well-being would require people to be hired to ensure everyone is responded to.”
Yuvraj also appealed for an end to media speculation about his illness.

 

“I have asked my mother and friends not to speak to the media, as things may get sensationalised,” he said.

 

Eight held as police move in on Occupy Wall Street

 

Police swept through the Washington offshoot of Occupy Wall Street on Saturday, arresting eight people in a day-long raid that virtually shut down the tent colony a stone s throw from the White House.

 

Some scuffles broke out, but stunned members of Occupy DC otherwise put up little resistance as National Park Service police descended on their sprawling, scruffy encampment in McPherson Square at dawn.

 

By nightfall, police in riot gear and sanitation workers in white overalls, backed with forklifts and garbage trucks, had taken away dozens of tents, as well as soiled bedding, personal belongings and a few dead rats.

 

Police arrested seven people for disobeying orders to move or for crossing police lines, and an eighth was taken into custody for hitting and injuring a police officer with a brick, a Park Police spokesman told local media.

 

“It is a sad day in American history when the small act of occupying public space warrants the heavy-handed response of the federal government,” said Occupy DC in a statement to news media.

 

“Moving forward, the Occupy movement will not die,” said American University student Mana Aliabadi, 18, to fellow protesters who mustered as much morale as they could in the drizzle outside a police barricade. But it was unclear where the leaderless campaign against economic inequality and corporate power that first erupted in New York s financial district in September would go next.

 

Occupy DC took root in McPherson Square — in the heart of the K Street lobbying district — on October 1, growing in time to around 100 tents that included a library, a cafeteria, a medical clinic and a teepee.

 

But while the original Occupy Wall Street and other encampments fell in the face of evictions, protesters in Washington hung on, partly due to the National Park Service bending its no-camping rules and classifying the protest as “a 24-hour vigil.”

 

Under growing pressure from Republican politicians and local businesses, the federal agency changed tack last week, declaring it would begin strict enforcement at both Occupy DC and a second, less controversial camp nearby.

 

Dozens of police officers, some on horseback, and with a helicopter overhead, descended on McPherson Square at dawn Saturday. Surrounding streets were sealed off and barricades went up around the park.

 

“We are not here to evict,” but to verify compliance with the no-camping rules, one police officer told protesters. Those rules define camping as the use of park land for “sleeping activities.”

 

Protesters complied with a request to take down their “tent of dreams,” a huge blue tarpaulin they provocatively erected Monday over an equestrian statue of Civil War general James McPherson in the heart of the park.

 

But by mid-morning Saturday, as police slowly swept through the park, quadrant by quadrant, it was clear that any tent with anything inside would be confiscated — sending some occupiers scrambling to pack up their belongings.

 

Virmeko Scott, 30, was confident the clampdown would not be the end of Occupy DC. “There s going to be more tents down here,” he told AFP by his freshly emptied tent. “They re going to multiply.”

 

Fellow occupier Melissa Byrne agreed: “We have been evicted, but word is going to get out and we re going to be back stronger than ever.” But passerby Jacqueline Meyers Edlow, a retiree, said the protesters had overstayed their welcome, and that citizens who sympathized with them at first now “want them to get the heck out.”

 

“I feel they should have been cleared out earlier, because of (the risk of) disease,” she said. “I know of no other country that would have let them stay this long.”
 

EU ready to lift Libya oil, port sanctions: diplomats

The European Union is expected to lift sanctions against Libya s ports and 22 economic entities including some oil companies by Friday, diplomats said.

The EU reached an agreement in principle on Wednesday and governments will formally adopt the decision on Thursday, the diplomats said. The sanctions will be lifted on Friday when the move is published in the EU s Official Journal.

Police calm London, but riots flare across UK

LONDON: Thousands of extra police officers on the streets kept a nervous London quiet Wednesday after three nights of rioting, but looting flared in Manchester and Birmingham, where a murder probe was opened when three men were killed after being hit by a car.

An eerie calm prevailed in the capital, where hundreds of shops were shuttered or boarded up as a precaution, but unrest spread across England on a fourth night of violence by brazen crowds of young people.

Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings have frightened and outraged Britons just a year before their country is to host next summer’s Olympic Games, bringing demands for a tougher response from law enforcement. Police across the country have made almost 1,200 arrests since the violence broke out over the weekend.

In London, where armored vehicles and convoys of police vans patrolled the streets, authorities said there were 16,000 officers on duty — almost triple the number present Monday night.

The show of force seems to have worked. There were no reports of major trouble in London, although there were scores of arrests. Almost 800 people have been arrested in London since trouble began Saturday.

“What happened in London last night was, when community leaders and the police came together, there were significant arrests,” said police deputy assistant chief constable Stephen Kavanagh. “We used buses to make sure some looters were taken away before they got into doing anything, but it was that joint action that made the difference.”

Outside the capital, some looting erupted, but not on the scale of the violence that hit several areas of London on Monday.

In the northwestern city of Manchester, hundreds of youths rampaged through the city center, hurling bottles and stones at police and vandalizing stores. A women’s clothing store on the city’s main shopping street was set ablaze, along with a disused library in nearby Salford.

Manchester assistant chief constable Garry Shewan said it was simple lawlessness.

“We want to make it absolutely clear — they have nothing to protest against,” he said. “There is nothing in a sense of injustice and there has been no spark that has led to this.”

Britain’s soccer authorities were talking with police to see whether this weekend’s season-opening matches of the Premier League could still go ahead in London. A Wednesday match between England and the Netherlands at London’s Wembley stadium was canceled to free up police officers for riot duty.

Britain’s riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London’s Tottenham neighborhood turned violent. That clash has morphed into a general lawlessness in London and several other cities that police have struggled to halt.

While the rioters have run off with goods every teen wants — new sneakers, bikes, electronics and leather goods — they also have torched stores apparently just for the fun of seeing something burn. They were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods, and when police did arrive they often were able to flee quickly and regroup.

With police struggling, some residents stood guard to protect their neighborhoods. Outside a Sikh temple in Southall, west London, residents vowed to defend their place of worship if mobs of young rioters appeared. Another group marched through Enfield, in north London, aiming to deter looters.

One far-right group said about 1,000 of its members were taking to the streets to deter rioters.

“We’re going to stop the riots — police obviously can’t handle it,” Stephen Lennon, leader of the far-right English Defense League, told The Associated Press. He warned that he couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be violent clashes with rioting youths.

Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to the bombing and massacre that killed 77 people in Norway last month, has cited the EDL as an inspiration.

In the central England city of Nottingham, police said rioters hurled firebombs though the window of a police station, and set fire to a school and a vehicle but there were no reports of injuries. Some 90 people were arrested.

Some 250 people were arrested after two days of violence in Birmingham — where police launched a murder investigation after the deaths of three men hit by a car — some residents said the men had been patrolling their neighborhood to keep it safe from looters.

Police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of murder in the case.

In the northern city of Liverpool, about 200 youths hurled missiles at police and firefighters in a second night of unrest, and 44 arrests were reported.

There also were minor clashes in the central and western England locations of Leicester, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Bristol, and Gloucester — where police and firefighters tackled a blaze and disturbance in the city’s Brunswick district.

In London, hundreds of stores, offices, pubs and restaurants had closed early Tuesday amid fears of fresh rioting. Normally busy streets were eerily quiet and the smell of plywood filled the air as business owners rushed to secure their shops before nightfall.

In east London’s Bethnal Green district, convenience store owner Adnan Butt, 28, said the situation was still tense.

“People are all at home — they’re scared,” he said.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s government rejected calls by some lawmakers and citizens for strong-arm riot measures that British police generally avoid, such as tear gas and water cannons.

“The public wanted to see tough action. They wanted to see it sooner and there is a degree of frustration,” said Andrew Silke, head of the criminology department at the University of East London.

Cameron recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate on the riots Thursday.

Other politicians visited riot sites Tuesday — but for many residents it was too little, too late. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was booed by crowds who shouted “Go home!” in Birmingham, while London Mayor Boris Johnson was heckled on a shattered shopping street in Clapham, south London.

Johnson said the riots would not stop London from “welcoming the world to our city” for the 2012 Olympics.

So far 770 people have been arrested in London and 167 charged — including an 11-year-old boy — and the capital’s prison cells were overflowing. Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said it had teams of lawyers working 24 hours a day to help police decide whether to charge suspects.

A total of 111 officers and 14 members of the public have been hurt.

The violence was triggered by the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in Tottenham on Thursday under disputed circumstances.

Police said Duggan was shot dead when officers from Operation Trident — the unit that investigates gun crime in the black community — stopped a cab he was riding in. A Saturday protest demanding justice degenerated into a riot, which spread to neighboring parts of London on Sunday and by Monday had spread across the capital.

Duggan’s death resonated because it stirred memories of the 1980s, when many black Londoners felt they were disproportionately stopped and searched by police. Their frustration erupted in violent riots in 1985.

But the rioters who have taken to the streets since Sunday have been extremely diverse — those in central England appeared to be mostly white and working class. AGENCIES

Gilani ready to go to watch World Cup semifinal

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is prepared to watch the World Cup semifinal between Pakistan and India in Mohali, India.

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed refused to go with the Prime Minister

Relations among politicians speed-up, Altaf telephones Pagara

As the political scenario is changing in the country, the relations between the politicians are also increasing simultaneously. MQM leader Altaf Hussain telephoned PML (Functional)s head Pir Pagara.

The leader of MQM Altaf Hussain telephoned the head of PML (Functional) and spiritual leader of Hurs Pir Pagara. Both the leaders exchanged views upon the ongoing political situation of the country, issues faced by public and various other issues. Both these leaders agreed upon staying in touch, cooperating and working with each other. Pir Pagara said that in this crisis situation, some bold decisions and alliances of political parties are quite evident.

Giant solar boat land at Climate Conference

It was a moment in history, when the worlds largest solar boat, the Turanor PlanetSolar, docked at Cancun on Tuesday to witness the first major world climate conference since COP15 (Copenhagen, December 2009).

The Turanor, built by Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel, Germany, is a multi-hulled vessel carrying a large array of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. The boat supports the activities of the four sailors traveling around the world to bring home a message of sustainable energy technology, especially in water travel. Today, the boat says, for perhaps the first time in history, we have the technology to build a sustainable civilization. This is also the message leaders are hoping to receive at Cancun, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP16, is attempting to arrive at a consensus on how nations will proceed to fight the buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that threaten to warm the planet beyond habitation. A good first step and perhaps the only step needed in the immediate future would be to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels, both as sources of electricity and in transportation. But can we feasibly do that? The existing energy lobby says no that coal, oil and gas are the backbone of our energy and transportation infrastructure, and will remain so for at least several decades (perhaps even for the next 100 years). Is this necessarily true? In tiny Iceland, for example, where 73 percent of the generation mix is from renewables albeit geothermal rather than solar greenhouse gas emissions (per Gross Domestic Product, and per capita) are among the lowest in the world. Granted, Icelands population is also diminutive (318,200), but studies have already shown that installing solar PV on just 0.06 percent of Mexicos land would be enough to provide the entire country with electricity. Another study shows that a land area equal to 100 miles by 129 miles would power the entire United States, if the solar facilities were placed in areas of optimum solar insolation.We Americans could do that. We have the skills, we have the will, we even have the technology. We just have to make the mandate clear to our politicians.

PPP, PML-Q meeting not to affect us, claims Nawaz

PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday called for principled politics in the country, adding that the politicians should respect certain limits while doing politics.
Briefing the media in Peshawar, Nawaz urged the government to reform its ways before the angry public took to roads to get it done.
Answering a question about a meeting between two mainstream political parties i.e PPP and PML-Q, a non-chalant Nawaz said it will not affect us.
He called upon the government to take steps for early elimination of poverty from the country. Referring to the Supreme Courts rulings, he urged those at the helm to implement the court verdicts forthwith, adding that immediate action is needed to check corruption in the public departments. He lamented Pakistans 34th ranking in the Transparency International report for corruption, saying that it brought bad name for the people.
He ruled out any confrontation between the parliament and the Supreme Court.

Gilani asks NRO beneficiaries to resign voluntarily

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday has said those who have been benefited from National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) should voluntarily resign from their posts.
On one had you want safe repatriation of Dr Aafia and on the other hand you want to divide the Parliament that consisted of President, Senate and National Assembly, Gilani said while addressing the Senate on Friday.
The PM emphasised the supremacy of the Parliament wherein the President is an essential part of it and as such no case be initiated against him in any foreign country. The President enjoys immunity as per the Constitution – Constitution, which has been made by the Parliament itself and only it can take it away, the Premier maintained.
The PM asked how could the President prosecuted in any foreign country as he is the supreme commander of the Armed forces and is an indivisible part of the Parliament.
Referring to the rumours in the air regarding change in government set-up, the PM said that the government has completed two and a half years term and as much time is left, Take him (President) after that, the PM added. PM Gilani has said that respect is not necessary for the Supreme Court only, others institutions and Parliament also required it.
Give equal reverence to Parliament and other institutions, the PM advised. The prime minister said that Pakistan has been achieved by the politicians and only they could salvage it.
He lamented that a nasty propaganda has been unleashed against the elected representatives while the people tolerated the dictators for a decade. Regarding Dr Aafia, he assured her safe repatriation at the earliest.

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