Egyptians brandishing banners reading "no to indented power" and "no to another mandate" take part in a rally organized by the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, August 14. (AFP File Photo)

CAIRO, Egypt,
Dec. 10--If the Muslim Brotherhood had its way, alcohol would be banned in Egypt and violators punished with up to 30 lashes and tough fines, AP reported.
Though the proposal was defeated four years ago, it illustrates an Islamic fundamentalist agenda many in Egypt fear.
A small but outspoken band of 15 Brotherhood lawmakers in the outgoing parliament waged a noisy campaign against “immorality,“ pushing to ban books and rid state television of racy music videos.
Now the party has increased its power in parliament nearly sixfold, forming an opposition bloc that is not only bigger-- about 20 percent of the 454-seat legislature--but also more vigorous.
The victory has panicked secular Egyptians, Christians and many women, who fear the Brotherhood will try to impose Saudi-style restrictions on personal rights--and even try to impose Islamic rule.
Brotherhood lawmakers are eager to use their new strength.
“Before, any proposal we presented was immediately crushed by the hundreds of hands of (ruling party) lawmakers raised up. Now our proposals will find their way out, God willing,“ said Ali Laban, a re-elected Brotherhood legislator.
The Brotherhood’s deputy leader, Mohammed Habib, wrote last week in an editorial that the movement wants to change Egypt’s constitution, empowering courts to ensure legislation conforms with Islamic Sharia law.
Egypt’s constitution calls Sharia “the principle source“ of legislation. But aside from rules on divorce, inheritance and other family issues, the country’s laws are mainly secular. Alcohol is legal, and “Islamic“ punishments like lashing and beheading--as occur in Saudi Arabia--are unknown.
Egyptian society is conservative, with most women wearing head scarves or veils. But that is not mandatory, and women have broader rights and mix with men far more freely than in Saudi Arabia and many Persian Gulf countries.
For now, the Brotherhood does not have the numbers to bring profound change. They emerged from Wednesday’s final phase of the three-stage elections with 88 seats in parliament. President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party still holds an overwhelming majority of 333 seats.
So far, Brotherhood leaders are taking a moderate tone, saying their legislative priority is not enforcing morals or Sharia.
“At the top of our agenda are political reforms, the economy and fighting unemployment and corruption,“ returning lawmaker Hussein Mohammed told The Associated Press.

Pakistani Shiite Muslims set fire to a US flag during a demonstration in Karachi, May 21. (AFP File Photo)

RIO GRANDE, USA, Dec. 10--Muslims around the world strongly doubt the United States is trying to establish democracy in the Middle East and many think the Iraq war has done more harm than good, a poll showed.
The Gallup poll, conducted in 10 nations that comprise 80 percent of the world’s Muslim population, found an average of only 31 percent of respondents per nation believed US objectives were centered on establishing democracy, Reuters reporetd.
Jordan and Egypt were the most skeptical of US intentions with 66 percent and 64 percent, respectively, disagreeing with the perception. By contrast, 65 percent of Moroccans agreed.
There was no data on Saudi Arabia for that question because pollsters were not allowed to ask it, said Gallup leadership consultant Dalia Mogahed.
Gallup released the results in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, at a conference sponsored by the Alliance for a New Humanity, a non-profit group that promotes social change and peace. Its president is motivational author Deepak Chopra.
The countries surveyed were Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
More than 85 percent of respondents in Jordan, Bangladesh, Morocco and Egypt said the invasion had done more harm than good. On average, 76 percent of all respondents per country thought the Iraq war has done more harm than good.
When asked how the West could improve relations with the Muslim world, “respecting Islam“ was the most often offered response, Mogahed said.

Robert Mugabe

ESIGODINI, Zimbabwe, Dec. 10--Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe accused a top UN envoy of being a “hypocrite and a liar“ and said he would refuse to accept future emissaries from the world body if they were British agents, Reuters reported.
Mugabe told a conference of his ruling ZANU-PF party that UN humanitarian affairs and relief coordinator Jan Egeland had gone out of his way to insult and misrepresent Zimbabwe after he ended a four-day tour of the country this week.
“You can see how they raise this, so that the rest of the international community can say ’human rights in Zimbabwe are being violated, people are suffering’ in the hope that the United Nations can support the British in their evil campaign to try and have control here,“ Mugabe said.
“He tells lies ... he’s a hypocrite and a liar.“
Mugabe’s blistering attack on the UN official marked the official launch of the annual conference of his ruling ZANU-PF party, which has tightened its grip on power despite a deepening economic and political crisis critics blame on 25 years of Mugabe’s misrule.
Egeland said from New York he had told the truth about his tour of Zimbabwe, and understood Mugabe’s speech was for the benefit of his audience. “He was speaking to party activists and therefore the language was strong,“ he told reporters.
“I have tried truthfully to reflect the situation in Zimbabwe as I saw it and as I heard all who worked there describe it,“ Egeland said, adding he looked forward to working with Mugabe’s government to prevent “further massive suffering.“
The two-day congress by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party was expected to examine the struggling agriculture sector as Zimbabwe fights to overcome food shortages amid drought and falling production.

WASHINGTON,
Dec. 10--The United States rejected a fresh call by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for full access to terror suspects, saying some of those detained were “exceptional“ and posed “unique threats“ to US security, AFP reported.
The ICRC on Friday sought access to all detainees held by the United States in the campaign against terror groups, including those allegedly held in “secret prisons“ abroad.
The group is at present allowed to visit detainees held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under an internationally recognized legal mandate to oversee the fair treatment of detainees captured in conflicts.
But recent reports by human rights groups have alleged that the United States is holding more detainees in “secret prisons“ abroad.
The Geneva-based ICRC made the request for full access one day after comments by a senior US State Department official indicating that the humanitarian agency could not have access to the full range of detainees.
“The Geneva Conventions covers prisoners of war. The people that were being held and that we’re talking about are not prisoners of war, so they are not covered by the Geneva Conventions,“ Adam Ereli, deputy State Department spokesman, told reporters.
“They are Al-Qaeda, they are terrorists,“ he said. “For a variety of legal reasons and by a variety of legal definitions they do not qualify as prisoners of war.“
But he hastened to add that the United States still treated them “consistent with the Geneva Conventions.
“So we’re going the extra mile here,“ he said.
Asked why the Red Cross was not allowed access to all detainees if the United States had nothing to hide, Ereli said, “Well, there are some that we choose or that as a matter of law and policy we do not apply those provisions to.
“And those are exceptional cases that pose unique threats to our security.“
Ereli said the United States faced tough choices in the war on terror between protecting Americans and adhering to its legal obligations and principles as a nation.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 10--The UN probe into former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri’s killing wants to question more Syrian officials in Vienna, AFP quoted the German magistrate heading the enquiry as saying in an interview published Saturday.
Detlev Mehlis told the Al-Mostaqbal newspaper, which is owned by deceased billionaire Hariri’s family, that he would ask Syrian authorities “in the coming days“ to question more regime officials over the February assassination.
Mehlis’s interim report implicated Lebanese and Syrian officials in the fatal Beirut bomb blast, after which it took weeks to agree on Vienna as a neutral venue for questioning Syrian officials.
Five were questioned there this week, the first such interrogations to take place outside Syria.
“The Syrian part of the enquiry will be intensified in its current stage,“ Mehlis told the paper before heading to UN headquarters in New York where he was due to submit his report Tuesday.
Mehlis said his team was examining the interviews conducted in Vienna this week to decide on further interrogations or possibly seeking arrest warrants.
The UN enquiry cannot itself issue arrest warrants, but must instead ask the Lebanese or Syrian authorities to issue and enforce them.
Mehlis described the three days of questioning in Austria as “very intense“, revealing “interesting information (that was) naturally better“ than that obtained from questioning in Damascus.
Mehlis said he was “completely satisfied with the clues and proof contained in the dossier“ he will present to the UN.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Dec. 10--Nepali police fired wat
r cannon to break up a rally by human rights activists on Saturday and detained at least 50 people as they tried to defy a ban on protests and march into central Kathmandu, Reuters quoted witnesses as saying.
Scores of riot police holding bamboo canes and plastic shields stopped the activists who chanted “Respect human rights“ and “We don’t accept an autocratic regime“.
Protesters were dragged into iron-meshed blue police vans and driven to a detention center, witnesses said.
The activists were protesting against the seizure of power by King Gyanendra in February which he justified as necessary to crush a deadly Maoist revolt in the impoverished kingdom.
After sacking the multi-party government, the monarch suspended civil liberties, curtailed press freedom and jailed human rights activists.
“This is our challenge to the royal regime,“ human rights campaigner Krishna Pahadi told Reuters before he was taken away by police. “We don’t accept the king’s despotic regime.“
In recent weeks, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the Himalayan nation demanding civil liberties and restoration of democracy.
Last week, the rebels, who declared a unilateral truce in September, extended the ceasefire by one month. But the Nepali army has dismissed the extension as a “crooked trick“ to regroup.
King Gyanendra is under pressure from the United Nations to declare a matching truce and begin talks with the Maoists, as well as political parties, to resolve the crisis.
More than 12,500 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the nine-year Maoist revolt.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Dec. 10--Israel has threatened to impose an “economic siege“ on the Gaza Strip unless Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas disarms militant groups, Reuters quoted Israel’s Channel Two television as saying.
It said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Abbas that unless a crackdown on militants begins by Sunday, Israel will redesignate two commercial terminals on the Gaza boundary as border crossings, which could choke off Palestinian trade.
There was no immediate comment on the report from officials close to Mofaz, who is running for leadership of the right-wing Likud Party ahead of Israeli general elections in March.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he was unaware of such a threat being made, but said it would be inconsistent with a US-led “road map“ to peaceful Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel.
“This should not be acceptable to anyone,“ Erekat said.
Israel quit Gaza in September after 38 years of occupation, stirring peace hopes. But violence has surged intermittently.
After a Palestinian suicide bomber killed five Israelis Monday, Mofaz ordered a resumption of air strikes against militants. Three leading Gaza gunmen have since been killed.
Meanwhile, in another development Reuters quoted Israel as saying on Saturday it had no plans to impose an “economic siege“ on the Palestinians if President Mahmoud Abbas failed to crack down on militants following a suicide bombing this week.
“I have no intention of placing the Palestinians under siege, the opposite is true,“ Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Israel Radio, contradicting an Israeli TV report on Friday.
An official in Mofaz’s office said on Friday night that he had issued Abbas a 48-hour ultimatum threatening to limit the flow of goods across its boundary unless the Palestinian Authority stops the flow of militants and weapons across Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt.
Mofaz made no mention of a deadline in the radio interview except to say that he was waiting to hear from a US envoy who was trying to resolve differences over Gaza’s border.