Bahrain Police Continue Crackdown on Anti-Gov’t Protests

Bahraini police fired tear gas and stun bombs to break up protests overnight in Shiite-populated villages around Manama, leading to arrests and injuries, witnesses said on Saturday.
The protesters took to the streets in response to a call by the February 14 Youth Coalition for rallies against a blockage imposed on the Shiite locality of Mahazza, near the capital, since November 7, AFP reported.
“The blockade will not make us afraid” and “Down with Hamad,” chanted the protesters, in reference to King Hamad.
The protesters, some of whom wore masks, waved the Bahraini flag and pictures of prisoners.
Police responded by firing tear gas, sound bombs and buck shot, injuring some of the protesters, according to the witnesses who did not specify the number of casualties.
People injured at anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain avoid going to hospital for fear of being arrested.
In the latest clashes, police detained several demonstrators, and the skirmishes continued until dawn on Saturday, according to the witnesses.
Demonstrations have shaken Bahrain since its security forces crushed a Shiite-led uprising against the ruling Sunni regime in March last year.
The United States last week expressed concern about rising violence in Bahrain, one year after an inquiry report was issued on the violence, saying the country needed to put more of its recommendations into effect.
Amnesty International urged Bahrain on Friday to release 13 jailed opposition activists, saying doing so would prove the monarchy is “genuinely committed” to reform and respecting human rights.
Amnesty said the men, who were involved in anti-government protests last year and convicted by a military tribunal on charges that included “setting up terror groups to topple the regime,” were prisoners of conscience who should be freed immediately.

Egyptians Rally Behind Morsi

From Page 1
Members of the constituent assembly were due to hand Morsi at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) the final draft of the constitution adopted after a marathon overnight session on Thursday that was boycotted by liberals, seculars and Christians.
Thousands of pro-Morsi demonstrators including from the Muslim Brotherhood, on whose ticket Morsi ran for office, and other hardline Salafists gathered at Cairo University, with riot police on standby and roadblocks in place.
“The Muslim Brotherhood supports President Morsi’s decisions,” read a banner carried by Islamists who chanted, “The people want the implementation of God’s law”.

Protests in Other Cities
Pro-Morsi protests were also staged in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the central Egyptian province of Assiut.
The Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters have branded the opposition as enemies of the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Across the Nile river, hundreds of protesters camping out in Tahrir Square since Morsi issued a decree expanding his powers were expected to be joined by more demonstrators throughout the day.
The National Rescue Front--a coalition of opponents led by dissident former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, ex-Arab League chief Amr Mussa and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi--has called on the decree’s opponents to keep up the pressure.

“Reject Illegitimate” Decree
It has called on Egyptians to “reject the illegitimate” decree and the “void” draft constitution, and stressed the public’s right “to use any peaceful method to protest including a general strike and civil disobedience”.
The crisis was sparked when Morsi issued the decree on November 22 giving himself sweeping powers and placing his decisions beyond judicial review, provoking mass protests and a judges’ strike.
His decree prevented the top legal body the Supreme Constitutional Court from potentially dissolving of the Islamist-run constituent assembly, in a ruling it was to make on Sunday on the body’s legality.
“Rushing through a draft while serious concerns about key rights protections remain unaddressed will create huge problems,” said Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International said the draft “raises concerns about Egypt’s commitment to human rights treaties,” specifically ignoring “the rights of women (and) restricting freedom of expression in the name of religion”.
In an interview broadcast Thursday night, Morsi stressed again his new powers would expire once the constitution was ratified, a point which Islamist supporters have repeatedly made in favor of his decree last week.
The Brotherhood and the secular-leaning opposition had stood side by side in Tahrir Square in 2011 as they fought to bring down Mubarak and his regime.
But since Mubarak’s downfall in February last year, the Islamist movement has been accused of monopolizing power after dominating parliament--following vows not field candidates for a majority of the seats--and backtracking on a promise not to nominate a presidential candidate.

Opposition Boycott Overshadows Kuwait Election

From Page 1
Limitations
Under the new rules, each voter chooses only one candidate instead of four, a move the opposition says will prevent its candidates winning the majority they had in the last vote.
In the past, candidates have called on supporters to cast their additional ballots for allies. They say such informal affiliations are crucial due to a ban on political parties.
“The old system was unfair for people in some areas of Kuwait,” 28-year-old Dalal Al-Aboud said at a voting station in a suburb on the edge of Kuwait City.
“I think it will be better if we try this new method, then we judge if it is fair or not,” she said, adding she respected the right of people to boycott the poll. The OPEC member state has the most open political system in the Persian Gulf and tolerates more dissent. Parliament has legislative powers and the ability to question ministers.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT), and about 423,000 Kuwaitis are eligible to cast ballots to choose the 50 members of parliament. Voters trickled into stations set up in about 100 schools around the country.
Past turnouts in elections have been around 60-80 percent, but analysts said the numbers could be lower this time, given the boycott and exhaustion after the long string of elections.
“Voter apathy is to be expected, after all this is not only the second parliamentary election of 2012, but elections were also held in 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2008, and 2009,” IHS Global Insight analyst Jamie Ingram wrote in a note.
Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said there was a “significant and positive” voter turnout in the second district which comprises the capital and nearby areas.
The opposition tends to dominate voting in districts furthest away from the capital.
The opposition won around two-thirds of the National Assembly in February and formed a bloc that put pressure on the government, forcing two ministers from office.
That parliament was dissolved after a June court ruling, the latest stage in a standoff which has stalled investment and economic reforms.

Foreign Fighters Killed in Syria

Syrian security forces killed as many as 20 Lebanese gunmen who were fighting alongside rebels in Syria on Friday, raising tensions amid mounting fears that the Syrian civil war is enflaming the region.
The Lebanese security officials said the gunmen were killed as they tried to enter the Syrian town of Tal Kalakh, near the Lebanese border, AP reported.
The officials asked that their names not be used because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Syrian state-run media also reported that Lebanese gunmen were killed. But the SANA report said there 17--not 20--fighters. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.
The Lebanese gunmen were Sunni Muslims, as are the vast majority of Syria’s rebels. Syrian President Bashar Assad--along with his most elite troops--belong to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Lebanon is particularly vulnerable to getting sucked into the conflict in Syria. The countries share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries that are easily enflamed. Lebanon, a country plagued by decades of strife, has been on edge since the unrest in Syria began in March 2011, with deadly clashes between pro- and anti-Assad Lebanese groups erupting on several occasions.
The deaths came as rebels have tried to close in on the Syrian capital, Damascus, in recent days.
On Friday, Syrian soldiers fought rebels in and around the capital as Internet and most telephone lines were blacked out for a second day. But the intense battles around the country’s international airport appeared to have calmed.

Israel’s New Settlement Plan Condemned

From Page 1
“This is a doomsday scenario,” Daniel Seidemann of Ir Amim, a group that promotes coexistence in Beit-ul-Moqaddas, said of the building plans.

Embarrassing US
Israel’s decision was bound to embarrass the United States, which was among just nine countries in the 193-member General Assembly to vote against accepting Palestine as a nonmember observer state.
Accelerated settlement construction could also set a more confrontational tone as Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas weighs his next moves.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland criticized the Israeli announcement. “These actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or achieve a two-state solution,” she said.
Friday’s decision was taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and eight senior Cabinet ministers, according to the Israeli news website Ynet.
The plans include 3,000 new apartments in the West Bank and East Beit-ul-Moqaddas, as well as preparations for new construction in other large West Bank settlements, including Maaleh Adumim, near East Beit-ul-Moqaddas, said an Israeli regime official.
Among the projects is an expansion of Maaleh Adumim, known as E-1, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the decision with reporters.
Successive US administrations have pressured Israel not to build in E-1 because it would effectively cut off East Beit-ul-Moqaddas from the West Bank, and split the northern part of the territory from the southern part. Israel has said in the past it envisions 3,500 apartments there.
“E-1 will be the death of the two-state solution,” said Seidemann, referring to the establishment of a state of Palestine alongside Israel. “If the pronouncements are to be treated seriously, we are months away from the implementation of E-1. This is very serious and very problematic.”

“Decision Isolates Israel Further”
Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former foreign minister and chief negotiator with the Palestinians, warned that “the decision to build thousands of housing units as punishment to the Palestinians only punishes Israel ... (and) only isolates Israel further.”
Since 1967, the number of Israelis living in settlements in the West Bank and East Beit-ul-Moqaddas has risen to half a million, compared with 2.7 million Palestinians in those areas, and continued construction makes partition of the land increasingly unlikely.
The new UN observer state status could enable the Palestinians to pursue possible war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court over settlement construction on war-won land.
In his speech to the UN on Thursday, Abbas said he would coordinate with sympathetic countries and act responsibly, suggesting he would not seek confrontation with Israel.

Amr Moussa:

Qatar Ready to Pay ‘In Full’ for US Military Presence

Former head of the Arab League Amr Moussa has revealed that Qatar has offered to pay “in full” for the expansion of US military presence on its soil in return for protection.
In an interview with London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, Moussa said Qatari Emir Prince Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani told the US he was willing to pay for all their military expenses if Washington agreed to establish more military bases in the gas-rich Persian Gulf country.
“Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa is Qatar’s real power and Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim assists him. The prince managed the country’s affairs well and took crucial decisions very easily,” Moussa said.
“When he thought of protection and saw that Americans are the only ones willing to provide it, here he thought of the American military, which forming a base in Qatar was not among its priorities. But Sheikh Hamad told Americans that he will ensure their expenses are paid in full, so now he enjoys security and has moved forward,” he added.
Qatar, which hosts the largest American military base of any Arab state, is a major oil and gas producer in the Persian Gulf region.

Palestinian Dies of Israeli Fire

One of six Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli troops on Friday while protesting at the Gaza Strip boundary fence died on Saturday, hospital officials said.