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Egypt PM struggles to form government
Egypt PM struggles to form government (AFP) / 11 July 2013 Egypt’s new leadership faced increased difficulties on Thursday in forming an interim government after it issued a warrant for the arrest of the leader of the movement backing ousted president Mohamed Mursi. Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood has spurned an offer from interim premier Hazem Al Beblawi to join the new government, and called for a mass rally on Friday against what it called “a bloody military coup.” After a year in power through Morsi, the Brotherhood is now in tatters, with much of its leadership detained, on the run or keeping a low profile following the president’s overthrow last week in a popular military coup. Police were searching for the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie, after a warrant was issued for his arrest on Wednesday, in connection with deadly violence in Cairo. Badie and other senior Brotherhood leaders are wanted on suspicion of inciting clashes an army building on Monday which killed 53 people, mostly Morsi partisans, judicial sources said. Mursi himself is currently being held in a “safe place, for his safety,” foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty told reporters Wednesday, adding: “He is not charged with anything up till now,” he said. Military and judicial sources have said the ousted leader may face charges eventually. His overthrow by the military last week, after nationwide protests demanding his resignation, has plunged Egypt into a vortex of violence. In the restive Sinai peninsula, gunmen opened fire on the car of a senior military commander leading to clashes between security forces and “terrorist elements” which left one girl dead, the army said in a statement. The army later withdrew the statement from its official Facebook page, without providing an explanation. Witnesses had contested its account, telling AFP the girl was killed after soldiers opened fire on the car she was in when her father refused to stop at a checkpoint. Thousands of Morsi supporters joined those camped out at the Rabaa Al Adawiya mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City, vowing to leave only when Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president, is reinstated. “We are gathering here for Morsi. I voted for him and I want to know where he is,” said protester Mohammed, 47. “We will stay here either until the president’s return or martyrdom,” he said. According to the health ministry, 53 people died and 480 were wounded in Monday’s clashes in Cairo. The Brotherhood accuses the army of “massacring” its supporters, and the army says soldiers came under attack by “terrorists” and armed protesters. The public prosecutor pressed charges on Wednesday against 200 of the 650 people it detained during the violence. The warrant for Badie’s arrest will make it harder for Beblawi to reach out as he attempts to form an interim civilian administration. The liberal former finance minister, who began talks on his cabinet line-up on Wednesday, is ready to offer the Brotherhood ministerial posts, the state-run MENA news agency quoted an aide as saying. But the Islamists spurned the overture. “We do not deal with putschists. We reject all that comes from this coup,” Brotherhood spokesman Tareq Al Mursi said. Last week Badie gave a fiery speech in which he vowed that Brotherhood activists would throng the streets in their millions until Morsi’s presidency was restored. Interim president Adly Mansour has set a timetable for elections by early next year, while appointing Beblawi as premier and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei as vice president for foreign affairs. Opponents and supporters of Morsi alike have criticised the interim charter issued by Mansour to replace the constitution, which he suspended, and steer a transition the army has itself acknowledged will be “difficult.” An official with one of the parties in the National Salvation Front (NSF), the main coalition formerly led by ElBaradei, criticised Mansour’s 33-article declaration for according extensive powers to the interim president. Many within the coalition are wary of repeating the mistakes of the last military-led transition, between Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in 2011 and Morsi’s election in June 2012. Human rights groups condemned the use of “excessive” force against Brotherhood supporters on Monday, and called for an independent investigation. The United States, which provides $1.5 billion in mainly military aid to Egypt, said it was “cautiously encouraged” by the timetable proposed for a new presidential election. Continue reading
UNWFP urge to help fight starvation during Ramadan
UNWFP urge to help fight starvation during Ramadan Sarah Young / 11 July 2013 The UN is appealing to the online community to help fight starvation around the world, as the holy month of Ramadan begins and people experience the kind of hunger others around the world face every day. A Ramadan online gift-matching campaign by the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) is hoping to raise funds to the equivalent of 800,000 school meals during the next month, to help fight hunger in Muslim countries around the world. A Syrian girl gets her ration from WFP personnel at the Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp, Jordan; and (right) WFP personnel distributing food to Syrian refugee children at the camp. — KT file photos The Rotary Clubs of the UAE will match each dollar donated during the holy month. UNWFP Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia partnerships and business development manager Elise Bijon said the campaign would help families who most needed it, and wanted to celebrate Ramadan but did not have enough food to break their fast. “For hundreds of thousands of families celebrating Ramadan this month, Iftar is just a distant dream.” This is what “Ramadan is about”, she said. “Ramadan is a chance for anyone, regardless of religion, to connect with the poor. Through the experience of fasting, it’s a chance to feel in your body what hunger is like. It’s a chance to feel that connection — and to contribute.” She said she felt the target was feasible, particularly considering how active the Arab world was online. “We are a bit crazy but we are convinced hunger can be eradicated. Solutions exist, and they are affordable. It only costs one dirham to feed a child for a day.” Online donations to WFP campaigns from individuals in the UAE ranked the country the sixth most generous online donor country in the world, she said. The UAE comes in number one worldwide in the average gift amount donated. An average online gift from the UAE was a “super generous” $145. “And when it comes to social media, our Arab youth is our second biggest online Facebook community (behind England). If it follows this pace, it might be bigger than the English (Facebook WFP) community by the end of the year.” The programme’s largest operations were in Syria, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen and Indonesia. Last year, WFP provided food to more than 97 million people in 80 countries — and more than half of the beneficiaries came from Muslim countries, she said. In particular, Yemen, Sudan and Indonesia were countries “people tended to forget.” Nearly half of Yemen’s population was hungry or on the edge of hunger, she said. “It’s a major, major food crisis that is happening next door. Nearly half of kids under five are stunted as a result of malnutrition. And this is so close (to us). “(And) literacy among Yemen women is a huge issue. So we are deploying the core of our efforts to send little girls to school, and we do that by giving take-home rations to families to act as an incentive to let their girls go to school. “It’s so important — if they don’t go to school, they will likely be married early, and remain illiterate like their mothers and grandmothers before them. How can we expect to build a better Yemen if the women cannot support and educate their children? Educated women are the key to the wellbeing of a nation, and this is a very specific example of what is going on in a Muslim country that is right next door.” President of the Rotary Club of Jumeirah, Ahmad Belselah, said Ramadan was “a precious opportunity to feel, with our bodies and hearts, a connection with the world’s hungry poor”. He hoped the club’s commitment would encourage more people to support the campaign this year. Last year’s inaugural Ramadan campaign raised enough funds to provide 400,000 school meals to children in the Middle East. To make a donation visit: wfp.org/Ramadan. sarah@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Wimbledon champ to play in Abu Dhabi
Wimbledon champion to play in Abu Dhabi 9 July 2013 FOLLOWING HIS HISTORIC win, newly crowned Wimbledon Champion and world number two, Andy Murray, has confirmed he will return to Abu Dhabi for the 2013 Mubadala World Tennis Championship from December 26-28. Murray will join current world number one Novak Djokovic, whom he beat during the 2013 Wimbledon final. Followers of the two best players in the world witnessed one of the pair’s most thrilling installments yet when on Sunday, Murray fought to become the first British male to win the singles event at Murray mint Wimbledon champ to play in Abu Dhabi Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. History was made in just over three hours in a battle of epic proportions between the world’s top two players. The annual UAE tournament, which sees six of the world’s top players battle it out across three days of explosive tennis, will take place at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex at Zayed Sports City. For fans who don’t want to miss out on seeing the action, tickets are already on sale from www.ticketmaster.ae and 800 TM UAE (86 823). Prices start from Dhs50 and all tickets sold before September will be entered into a draw to win a VIP tournament experience including the chance to meet Djokovic at the Official Players’ Reception and an overnight stay at the 5-star Yas Viceroy Hotel. Continue reading
