Delegates from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China met in Brussels to turn up the heat on Iran.

Tehran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes, but other countries worry that it gives Iran the ability to make an atomic bomb.

Trita Parsi, the co-founder and president of the National Iranian American Council, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the possibility of new sanctions.

Do you think Iran can ever be trusted to come clean about its nuclear program?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

Angry football fans converge on the Algerian embassy in Cairo. Photo: madmonk

Hoda Osman, a special correspondent for Worldfocus and an Egyptian-American, writes about the diplomatic crisis that followed a World Cup match between Egypt and Algeria on Saturday. She explains the intense emotions surrounding the sport and how the rivalry reflects the strains in pan-Arab relations.

It’s hard to believe, but yes a soccer match is straining relationships between Egypt and Algeria. Unfortunately, I believe this time around the animosity and hostility between the countries’ 115 million people are here to stay.

A bitter history

Egypt and Algeria have a history of soccer-related violence. In 1989, Egypt qualified for the World Cup after winning over Algeria. Riots erupted. The Egyptian team’s doctor lost an eye after being attacked with a bottle by an Algerian player.

Fast forward to 2009. Keywords: the Internet and satellite television channels.

The two countries were preparing for a crucial match in Cairo. Egypt had to win by a three-goal difference to qualify for the 2010 World Cup next summer in South Africa — and by a two-goal difference to secure a rematch.

Emotions were running high ahead of the match. Special songs and commercials were produced specifically for the game. The media in both counties was obsessed. There were some who even blamed the media for inciting hatred.

The Internet also played a big role. It was used intensively by fans of the two teams to attack each other. Edited videos and altered pictures were posted on several websites with the intention of humiliating the other team.

Upon the arrival of the Algerian team to Cairo, Egyptian fans allegedly threw stones at their bus and injured a number of players. FIFA opened an investigation into the incident.

The U.S. warned its citizens in Cairo against being on the streets on the evening of the match.

To calm things down, an Egyptian and an Algerian pop star organized a joint concert.

Egypt won the Nov. 14 match 2-0, thereby securing a rematch with Algeria in Sudan a few days later.

Millions of Egyptian celebrated on the streets across Egypt till the early hours of the following morning. If you saw the pictures you would think the whole country won some global lottery that would solve all their problems.

Violence in Khartoum

Violence was expected in Sudan. Security was intensive. Egyptian interests had already come under attack in Algiers after the first match and the Egyptian government summoned the Algerian ambassador in Cairo over it.

Algeria won 1-0 and secured its place in the coming World Cup. Life goes on, right? It’s just a game.

Unfortunately not. Algerian fans attacked their Egyptian counterparts in Sudan following the game. Some of the Egyptian fans and celebrities who were attending the match called into television programs and said they were trapped and hiding in Sudanese houses. I also got first-hand reports of the violence from people who were in Khartoum.

The Egyptian government reported 21 were injured and recalled its ambassador to Algeria for “consultations.” The Egyptian media also pointed the finger at Sudan, claiming it was unable to protect the Egyptians after the match. Sudan summoned the Egyptian ambassador in Khartoum to object.

In Cairo, security forces clashed with Egyptians who rioted and burned Algerian flags in front the Algerian embassy there.

Arab unity – an unrealistic dream

The events are unfortunate but also interesting on several levels. They elucidated the fragile relations between the two countries on the popular and the state level.

The head of the Egyptian Artists Union announced on television that he would call for canceling Algeria’s membership in the union because its artists were silent about the offenses. Numerous Egyptian celebrities called into a television show Wednesday evening calling for cutting cultural relations with Algeria, announcing they were giving back prizes they won in Algerian festivals and asking that their work not be aired in Algeria. Some media personalities were even suggesting stopping Egyptian investments in the country.

The animosity runs so deep now, that I can’t see how this can be repaired.

Arabs have always dreamed of Arab unity. Although the match was between only two of the 22 Arab countries (Sudan also got caught in the middle), to me, it’s still proof of how difficult accomplishing that goal is. Egypt and Algeria may have been frail to begin with, but relations between most other countries are not that much better.

The power of soccer

If you saw the pictures of the celebrations by the fans of the two countries you’d be amazed. Soccer is big in the Arab world.

I’ve read a lot about the game and found that nobody explained the role soccer plays in the Arab world better than the manager of a Cairo restaurant interviewed by Time Magazine. “Soccer provides an outlet for emotion, both positive and negative, that so many Egyptians so desperately crave, says Maher Gamel, manager of one of Cairo’s most popular restaurants, al-Omda.”

I remember a sociology class I took at the American University in Cairo years back. We were discussing patriotism and agreed it becomes most vivid during soccer matches.

When seeing the pictures of the Egyptian celebrations following the first match and the Algerian celebrations following the second, you might wonder why the people of those countries don’t do the same to remove their dictators or gain more rights. Is it fear? Is it lack of hope? I don’t really have an answer.

But as I was watching the story develop, I wondered about something else. How can this enormous energy be used positively. The people of the two countries are at this moment united around one issue. What if this energy was used to produce something, to build, to educate or to clean the cities? How can they be mobilized that same way, with the same enthusiasm? If we find the answer, we may find the solution to problems many countries around the world.

- Hoda Osman

Click on map to enlarge. Courtesy of Ir Amim.

Worldfocus spoke with Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force for Palestine, a non-profit dedicated to a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Originally from Beirut, Ibish is the former Washington D.C. correspondent for Lebanon’s Daily Star and current author of IbishBlog.

Worldfocus: How would you characterize the current situation in Jerusalem?

Hussein Ibish: Jerusalem is the most divided city in the world. Israelis in West Jerusalem and the Jewish quarter feel like normal citizens of the Israeli state living under Israeli law. For them, life is very normal.

But East Jerusalem is more than 80 percent Arab. The situation is similar to that in the rest of the occupied territory, but it’s starker in Jerusalem because they’re living in such proximity. Insofar as an analogy to “apartheid” applies, this is more stark in Jerusalem than anywhere else, where separate and unequal is almost universal.

Most Jerusalem Arabs are not in effect subjects of Israeli law but practically live under martial law. In many cases, they’re technically residents of Israel — but not citizens. They can’t vote in national elections. And they generally don’t vote in municipal elections. Jerusalem is the flash point for the conflict.

Worldfocus: Why can’t the leaders on both sides reach a rational agreement about sharing the city?

Hussein Ibish: The cultural, religious and political importance of the holy places means that Jerusalem is central to both populations. Both sides are becoming increasingly influenced by right-wing religious rhetoric. The conflict is transforming from an ethnic struggle over land and power in a small area — into a religious struggle between bearded fanatics on both sides about the will of God and holy places.

The Old City of Jerusalem requires a creative solution and the unique formula like the Vatican City. It can’t be the exclusive preserve of any of the religious or ethnic groups. A unique formula has to be found. But it’s not beyond the wit of man to come up with a solution for this, because the national interests of all parties require it.

Worldfocus: Are there certain deal-breakers on the issue of Jerusalem?

Hussein Ibish: For the Israeli side, the “right of return” (for Palestinian refugees) is a deal-breaker just like the claim that Jerusalem is the undivided and eternal Israeli capital is for the Palestinians. This kind of rhetoric acts as a political narcotic: it makes people feel good, but it’s extremely damaging.

But when you get into the final status agreement, these are all issues that can be negotiated successfully. Both parties have a stake in making it work. That could keep Jerusalem united and parts of the city jointly administered — although with separate sovereignty. All it takes is political will and some creativity. I’ve thought about it a lot, and I’m a skeptical person, but it seems possible to me. It’ll be an unusual arrangement reflecting the unique character of the place.

There are reciprocal bitter pills on the right of return and Jerusalem both sides must swallow in their own existential national interests.

The only serious player really resistant to this idea [to create two capitals in Jerusalem] is the Israeli government, which is trying to prevent Jerusalem from being a topic of discussion in any the final status talks. But Obama made it very clear that the terms of reference need to be clear and precise — and involve security for both parties, borders, refugees and Jerusalem. The U.S. position on Jerusalem is closer to the Palestinian view than to the Israeli one. There is implicit understanding in the U.S. that most of East Jerusalem needs to be the Palestinian capital.

There will also clearly have to be a land swaps. The Palestinian people accept that, and the leadership accepts it. Not every settlement in and around Jerusalem must be evacuate. I don’t mean that the Palestinians will be unwilling to have Israelis [in Palestinian-controlled East Jerusalem] or elsewhere in the Palestinian state. But the Israel government would probably not want to face the crisis of some incident involving Israeli citizens living in newly sovereign Palestinian state, and I think it will be they who push for
evacuation in the event of an agreement.

Both sides should be creative and flexible and Israel should be willing to evacuate settlements that make Palestinian statehood impossible. It’s politically problematic but not impossible. These are painful concessions for both but they are obviously necessary. It’s all about a series of complicated quid pro quos. This is not a menu where you can go through and choose what you want based on your tastes, its a delicate pattern of concessions. It’s also a kaleidoscope. Every time you move the image a little, the whole pattern shifts.

Worldfocus: Do you envision that Jewish Israelis will be able to stay on in the areas that become Palestine in East Jerusalem and the West Bank?

Hussein Ibish: Palestinian citizenship or dual citizenship for them is possible, but I don’t think the Israeli government will allow it in the West Bank, though they might find a way to make it work in East Jerusalem.

An agreement is in the core existential national interest of both parties. Settlements will be evacuated according to a variety of formulae. At least 75,000 [Jewish settlers] will need to be removed. That means perhaps up to 200,000- 300,000 will be staying where they are in the small parts of West Bank such as Ma’ale Adumim that will become part of Israel.

The bottom line is that the Palestinians cannot be denied 22% of Mandatory Palestine — the equivalent of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. I think they need and deserve that.

Worldfocus: What role will Palestinian Gaza play if it continues to be a separate entity from the Palestinian West Bank?

Hussein Ibish: Gaza has no independent future from the rest of Palestine. The idea of a political status that is separate is completely wrong. Very few people in the Gaza Strip want that. Israel is strategically trying to emphasize these divisions, but it’s not something that will take.

I don’t think we’re looking at a scenario yet where Hamas can really succeed in replacing the PLO. They’re quite far away from that. All they hope to do so is for negotiations to break down. Hamas are weak and isolated — only able to maintain control in Gaza through brute force and oppression. Hamas thrives on chaos, stalemate [in talks] and a rhetoric of confrontation and violence. Their core constituency — at most 13-15 percent of the Palestinian population — believes in the Muslim Brotherhood model. But that’s not really a major political force unless there is no hope for peace.

Worldfocus: How about fresh alternatives to the Fatah-Hamas split?

Hussein Ibish: Salam Fayyad a very serious actor on the scene, yet he’s not a politician. Fatah is a dysfunctional political party but commands major support. The PA could use Fatah’s political authority to facilitate Fayyad’s state-building agenda and technocratic prowess. This is crucial because Fayyad’s plan provides another avenue for progress, change and momentum towards ending both the occupation and the conflict. If 1/20 of Fayyad’s plan could be implemented, there would be a serious transformation of the strategic environment, greatly enhancing Palestinian interests and the prospects for peace.

I think his plan could serve as a crucial augmentation of diplomacy and a parallel track that is constructive, serious and transformational. The biggest threat to it at the moment is the idea of dissolving the PA and going back functioning strictly through the PLO as a diplomatic but not a governing entity. With international financial support and political protection, it would be very difficult for Israel to block this institution-building plan. In short order, this could really change the Palestinian political scene and the strategic environment for the better.

- Ben Piven

Listen to Worldfocus Radio: Martin Savidge hosts “Jerusalem United or Divided?” with Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative and Gershon Baskin of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information.

Listen to Worldfocus Radio: Martin Savidge hosts “Jerusalem United or Divided?” with Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative and Gershon Baskin of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information.

Click here for more of Worldfocus’ coverage of Israel.

Currently, Barghouti is the Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party that was formed in 2002 with Edward Said, Dr. Haidar Abdel-Shafi and Ibrahim Dakkak. The Initiative (al-Mubadara in Arabic) calls for nonviolent resistance against the Israel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Worldfocus producer Mohammad al-Kassim recently interviewed Barghouti in New York. The rising Palestinian politician talks openly about the difficulties facing the Middle East process, infighting among Palestinians and the Obama administration. Despite all the obstacles, Barghouti feels surprisingly positive about the future.

Also, listen to Barghouti on Worldfocus Radio: Jerusalem United or Divided?

Israeli soldiers argue with a Palestinian farmer in at-Tuwani, West Bank. Photo: Flickr user JoshHough

The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is in crisis, with no sign that a key issue — freezing Israeli settlements — can be resolved any time soon.

With that in mind, we want to go beyond the rhetoric and look at how Israelis and Palestinians see their shared land.

Should Israel agree to demands to freeze all settlement building?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

Daljit Dhaliwal speaks with prominent Israeli scholar on Iran, Professor David Menashri. He is director of the Center for Iranian Studies and dean of special programs at Tel Aviv University.

Menashri explains whether or not Israel and other countries think the perceived threat by Iran can be eliminated without using military force. He also discusses Israeli public opinion on the Iranian nuclear program.

SOUTH KOREA: President Barack Obama delivered a stern message on Thursday to North Korea and Iran telling them to halt their nuclear ambitions to avoid facing further sanctions and isolation.

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld death sentences on the five ex-army officers convicted of killing the country’s first president in a coup 34 years ago.

SOUTH AFRICA: South African leader Jacob Zuma vowed to make the fight against corruption a top priority for his government.

Runner Castor Semenaya, whose gender was questioned, will keep her  World Championship medal.

GUINEA: An African Union human rights representative says he was denied entry into Guinea, where he planned to investigate alleged mass killings and rapes by the country’s military.

EU leaders are meeting today in Brussels to decide who will be the new EU President. France and Germany are likely to support the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development doubled its 2010 growth forecast for developed economies, which is largely due to accelerated growth in Asian economies.

France beat Ireland in a contentious win in its World Cup Soccer qualifying match Wednesday night, on a play that many believe included an illegal “handball” from French player Thierry Henry.

RUSSIA and CIS:

Russia’s Constitutional Court has extended a moratorium on the death penalty, which was imposed after it joined the Council of Europe in 1996. The Court chairman said the ban has set in place an “irreversible process to abolish capital punishment” in Russia.

Speaking at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, President Medvedev spoke out against the 3,500 deaths caused daily by accidents on the road. Russia is one of six countries that will receive part of a $125 million donation from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to promote road safety.

Kyrgyzstan has deported a human rights activist who was investigating abuses against Muslims. The activist, Bakhrom Khamroyev, who worked for the human rights group Memorial, was detained and deported to Russia. Actisits say political freedoms in Kyrgyzstan have been declining since Kurmanbek Bakiev came to power in 2005.

Opposition activists in Moscow have obtained a copy of of a high-level police memo ordering officers to disrupt a series of lawful protests.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is expressing concern about the declining status of the Russian language in former Soviet Republics, particularly in the Baltics and in Ukraine, where Russian has no official status and where there reportedly is pressure on Russian-language education. In Kyrgyzstan, the country’s main political party has adopted draft legislation making Kyrgyz the official language for diplomats and diplomatic record-keeping.

MEXICO: Mexico’s abortion debate is headed to the federal level after a 17th state in the country passed a law declaring life begins at conception.

CUBA: Experts in Cuba say 70 percent of the soil on the island is threatened by erosion.

YEMEN: The Yemeni army said that it has succeeded in pushing back an attack by Houthi rebels on the northern Yemeni city of Saada.

AFGHANISTAN: In a ceremony in the capital Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second five-year term.

PAKISTAN:At least 19 people have been killed and dozens injured in a suicide bomb blast in Peshawar, Pakistan.

PALESTINE: Israeli jets bombed a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip today. The airstrikes came in response to recent rocket attacks on Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview with Egyptian television denied that Israel, or the US has asked him to remain in office.

IRAN: US President Barack Obama warned of “consequences” if Iran does not accept the IAEA-backed proposal on a nuclear fuel deal.

ISRAEL: China criticized the Israeli government’s decision to build 900 more units in the part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians, saying it poses new obstacles to the Middle East peace process.

A group was formed to restore Jewish presence to the Joseph’s tomb compound in Nablus nine years after the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from the area.

In one of the world’s most contentious cities, there are two conflicting claims to sovereignty over holy places and residential neighborhoods. East and West Jerusalem are divided along ethnic and religious lines — in addition to the separation fence that Israel built to secure the city.

Palestinians claim the eastern sections of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state. While successive Israeli prime ministers have announced support for a two-state solution, there is ambivalence about how and when to alter the city’s political fabric.

Martin Savidge hosts Mustafa Barghouti and Gershon Baskin on this week’s Worldfocus Radio show “Jerusalem United or Divided?”

The radio show builds upon three Worldfocus signature videos about Israel — on hi-tech, divorce and settlements — and will focus on the following areas:

• Geography of Jerusalem: East and West, Old City, Temple Mount and security barrier
• Demographic Shift: secular flight, “Judaization,” and “united” capital city
• Shared Capital: unilateral statehood, joint sovereignty and Palestinian government

Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Ben Piven

GUESTS:

Mustafa Barghouti is the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative (al-Mubadara), also known as the “third way.” A Ramallah resident, he serves in the Palestinian parliament (PLC) and was the Minister of Information in the short-lived Palestinian unity government. He came in second (with 19%) to Mahmoud Abbas in the 2005 presidential elections. He also appeared on the Daily Show last month.

Gershon Baskin is co-chairman of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, a Jerusalem-based organization committed to the two-state solution. He specializes in the future of Jerusalem, strategic cooperation and water issues. He was also on Israeli PM Ehud Barak’s team of Jerusalem experts following the Camp David talks.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Ben Piven and Lisa Biagiotti
Researcher: Mohammad al Kassim

A Yemeni government tank used against Houthi rebels in the north. Photo: Al Jazeera video

For the past 15 years, Dwight Bashir has worked on international conflict, human rights and religious freedom issues. He is a senior advisor for an independent U.S. commission focusing on international religious freedom. The views expressed here are his own personal views.

A war of words is heating up between Iran and Saudi Arabia over an ongoing armed conflict in northern Yemen between Shi’a Houthi rebels and Yemeni security forces. This week, Iran accused Saudi Arabia of state-sponsored “Wahhabi terrorism” in Yemen, while the most senior Saudi cleric accused Houthi rebels of being backed by Iran to spread Shi’a Islam in “Sunni Islam’s heartland.”

Both Yemen and Saudi Arabia accuse Iran of providing financial and/or military support to the rebels. Iran denies any kind of support for the rebels.

The conflict in Yemen is complex — with numerous interlocking factors, such as underdevelopment, limited resources, tribal tensions, political exclusion and security concerns. Some have posited that the conflict is exacerbated by the fact that Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaging in a proxy war on Yemeni soil.

The truth is that for 30 years both Iran and Saudi Arabia have spent billions of dollars exporting competing religio-political ideologies in the region and globally, while committing egregious human rights violations at home to defend and bolster their respective ideologies.

Ever since Saudi Arabia entered the conflict two weeks ago after Houthi rebels crossed into Saudi territory from northern Yemen and allegedly killed two Saudi border guards, tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have risen almost daily.

UN officials have estimated that, since 2004, as many as 175,000 people have been displaced in northern Yemen. And at least 240 villages in Saudi Arabia have been evacuated in recent weeks.

To better understand the conflict, it is important to understand religious demographics in Yemen. Between 40-45% of the Yemeni population of 23 million are Shi’a Muslims, mostly from the Zaydi school of Shi’a Islam founded more than 1,000 years ago.

Although Yemen’s majority is Sunni, Zaydi Muslims make up a majority of the population in the north where the fighting is taking place. In general, there are few societal tensions between Yemen’s Shi’a and Sunni Muslims.

The Yemeni government claims that Houthi rebels — considered a Zaydi militant group — have sought to develop a political faction modeled on Hezbollah in Lebanon, in order to undermine the government and impose Shi’a Islamic law. This is similar to how the Iranian government’s interpretation of Twelver Shi’a Islam is the law of the land in Iran.

The rebels follow the late Zaydi cleric, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi (hence “Houthi rebels”). Al-Houthi is a former Yemeni parliamentarian who was killed during a 10-week rebellion in 2004 against the Yemeni government in the northern province of Saada, where the fighting started more than five years ago. The rebels claim they are fighting against government repression, although they have never articulated clear objectives, political or otherwise.

Despite both the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels insisting that the conflict is not sectarian in nature, the Iranian government is doing everything it can to portray the conflict as two predominantly Sunni Muslim states, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, cooperating to massacre Shi’a civilians in Yemen. Despite the complexities, these Iranian claims are exaggerated, at best, and downright contrived at worst.

Some Zaydi Muslims in Yemen have been subject to discrimination and harassment for perceived or actual sympathy toward Houthi rebels. According to human rights groups in the region, some Zaydi Muslims not connected to the rebels have been inadvertently targeted by the Yemeni government.

Because Iran and Saudi Arabia have long been promoting competing religio-political ideologies, it is not surprising that both countries would fan the flames of sectarian warfare. Yemen is a fragile state with an active al-Qaeda presence that threatens regional security, and its government is fighting for economic and political stability.

To date, the international community has not played an active role in the conflict. With the spillover into Saudi Arabia, the international community must engage and help broker an end to the current crisis. If not, the conflict could quickly escalate and the region may be facing a new security reality that would likely have wider implications.

- Dwight Bashir

CHINA: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with US President Barack Obama in Beijing, where they discussed a range of issues of common concern to both countries. China made few concessions to the U.S.

INDIA: Ahead of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington, the U.S. is asking Pakistan to take actions against the groups allegedly responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

SOUTH KOREA: Legislators of South Korea’s National Assembly were in favor of the government’s latest decision to dispatch military forces to protect civilian aid workers in Afghanistan.

SOMALIA: Late Tuesday a woman accused of committing adultery was stoned to death in Somalia. A judge working for the militant group Al-Shabaab said the women had given birth to a stillborn baby. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes.

Pirates on Wednesday attacked the US flagged ship Maersk Alabama for the second time. Just seven months ago the ship was attacked and the captain taken hostage, though he was eventually rescued. This time the ship was able to repel the attack.

ITALY: The UN Food and Agriculture Summit ended Wednesday with little progress in the way of a new strategy to combat hunger, as aid agency Oxfam said the effort offered little more than “crumbs” to the one in six people who do not have enough to eat.

GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that German troops would stay in Afghanistan for another year, though she would not commit additional troops to the region.

UK: Queen Elizabeth II laid out new plans for financial regulation in her speech at the opening of Parliament on Wednesday.

LATIN AMERICA: Analysts say that the number of people per household in Latin America will drop by 18% in 2020.

EL SALVADOR: The government in El Salvador estimates $880 million worth of damage due to flooding and mudslides in the country in early November.

MEXICO: Experts in Mexico say that the epidemic of obesity in children could reduce life expectancy rates in the country.

IRAQ: Preparation for Iraq’s January general elections are on hold because Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president vetoed part of an election law.

ISRAEL: The United States, in an unusually strong criticism of Israel, voiced dismay at the approval of new Jewish housing in annexed east Jerusalem.

A charity linked to the militant Hamas group offered $1.4 million dollars for anyone who takes an Israeli soldier hostage.

UAE, DUBAI: American talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey apologized to her followers for an episode of her show featuring women from around the world in which a guest from Dubai gave false information about life in Dubai.

PALESTINE: Israeli bulldozers demolished a two-family Palestinian home in the town of Al-Isawiya in occupied East Jerusalem today, the second home demolition in two days.

CHINA: U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged cooperation between the two countries on a range of issues including the climate change and nuclear safety in the Korean peninsula and in Iran. However, both leaders have not refrained from pointing out remaining differences between the two nations.

SOUTH KOREA: South Korea has promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below expected levels in 2020. The announcement is expected to put pressure on other developed nations to fight global warming more aggressively.

GUINEA: Recruits for Guinea’s military junta are being trained by South African and Israeli military officials according to the news agency AFP. Witnesses claim to have seen the training exercises in a town south of the capital Conkary.

Man using a vuvuzela at a soccer game

SOMALIA: Somalia is once again the world’s most corrupt country. In Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, Somalia took the lowest spot with a score of 1.1 out of 10.

SOUTH AFRICA: The noisy South African vuvuzela trumpet is under attack again, this time by Japan. The Japanese Football Association President has requested the trumpet be banned from next years World Cup saying its loud noise limits communication with players, coaches, broadcasters, etc. The vuvuzela is a common instrument used by South African soccer fans.

GERMANY: A 90-year-old former Nazi SS member was charged Tuesday with 58 counts of murder in the deaths of forced Jewish laborers in Austria.

SPAIN: Pirates have released a Spanish vessel with 36 crew members which they had held for 6 weeks, according to Spain’s prime minister.

FRANCE: A Frenchwoman who was kept in Iranian prison after allegedly “provoking rioters” during Iran’s post-election protests appeared in Iranian court on Tuesday, and then returned to the French Embassy, where she has been permitted to remain since August.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czechs mark the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution today, which lend to the end of Communist rule in the former Czechoskovakia. Thousands of people in the capital Prague are celebrating with with reenactment of a student protest.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

A British security software firm says Russian criminals are making millions off the H1N1 flu epidemic by selling fake flu drugs over the Internet. The firm, Sophos, intercepted web sites and hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical span adverts, many of which are based in Russia.

A Russian human rights campaigner has been killed with a bullet shot to his head, as he entered his apartment building. The 26-year-old, Ivan Khutorsky, reportedly campaigned actively against neo-Nazi groups.

Vladimir Nabokov’s last unfinished novel “The Original of Laura” goes on sale today in London and New York. Nabokov had made his wife promise to burn the manuscript after his death, but she refrained from doing so, leaving it to their son Dmitri to decide its fate.

The Russian Orthodox Church is considering severing ties with the Evangelic Church in Germany, after the latter elected its first female leader last month. The Orthodox Archbishop reportedly said the church could not maintain a dialogue with a church headed by a woman.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the death in a Russian prison of a lawyer for the investment fund Hermitage Capital. The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was jailed a year ago on tax evasion charges. At a court hearing this past September, he complained of inhumane conditions at the prison and of being denied medical treatment.

EL SALVADOR: The Yaqui indigenous group in Mexico has finally won the battle to get back the remains of some of their lost heroes, held in the storage of New York’s American Museum of Natural History for more than a century.

ARGENTINA: Argentina has granted its first marriage license to a gay couple, both men HIV positive.

GUATEMALA: Forty percent of Guatemala’s elderly are living in a state of poverty.

PALESTINE: The European Union said that it is “premature” for the Palestinians to try to have the UN recognize an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza.

ISRAEL/SYRIA: French president Nicolas Sarkozy says his country is ready to mediate between Syria and Israel and warns that extremists could benefit from a continued deadlock in the Mideast peace process.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia’s government has said that all military activities have ceased on its southern borders with Yemen.

EGYPT: Amnesty International warned in a report out today that Egypt must take immediate steps to ensure there is no repeat of a 2008 rockslide that killed more than 100 residents of a Cairo shantytown.

IRAN: Iran’s nuclear envoy denied that the IAEA tour of its recently revealed uranium enrichment site has turned up any evidence that the Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

ISRAEL: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned today that Iran’s nuclear program posed a threat not just to Israel, but to the entire world.

President Obama at the Ft. Hood memorial service. Photo: Flickr user USarmy

Ambassador S. Azmat Hassan is a former Ambassador of Pakistan to Malaysia, Syria and Morocco and Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations. He is currently an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and is a contributing Worldfocus blogger.

The implications of Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s rampage at Fort Hood continue to excite public scrutiny. The US is no stranger to deranged individuals of different religious persuasions indulging in mass murder in the past.

President Obama, in a moving eulogy to the dead, cautioned against a rush to judgment. The facts would have to be painstaking pieced together before a fair approximation of what motivated Hasan’s dastardly attack on fellow servicemen can be arrived at.

The fact that Hasan was an Army psychiatrist administering to the post traumatic stress syndrome issues faced by returning Army soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, added to the puzzling enigma of his act.

It seemed that a healer, trained to mend soldiers broken by the awful physical and psychological traumas inflicted on them by war, had himself cracked under the professional and personal strain he had apparently undergone.

There is little doubt that Hasan had increasingly become a misfit in the Army. Reportedly a loner, he found solace in increasing religiosity. As a Muslim-American, he appeared to be struggling to come to terms with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

He had publicly declared that he considered America’s involvement in these wars as a war against Islam. He agonized over whether Islam permitted Muslims to fight Muslims in war. It seems these warning signs were not noticed by his superiors who were about to deploy him to Afghanistan.

If the U.S. Army draws the conclusion that its Muslim soldiers are not to be trusted, this would be a big mistake. Most Muslims soldier and officers have fought bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some have given the supreme sacrifice for their country.

Colin Powell personally knew and attested to the valor of one such Muslim officer who died in Afghanistan. He rests in peace in the Arlington cemetery, an acknowledged hero. The acts of one deranged man cannot and should not sway our military leadership. If we succumb to this attitude how can we trust our Iraqi, Afghani, Pakistani and other Muslim allies?

Instead, it would be better to reform Army procedures to catch its misfits in time. Such persons who cannot be nursed back to mental normality should be weeded out.

I cannot end without commenting on the ease with which weapons can be procured in America. In most first world countries this is not the case. There it is very difficult, if not virtually impossible to get a license for lethal weapons.

With stringent gun control imposed here, it might just be possible to avoid putting guns in the hands of alienated individuals who can wreak havoc on innocent citizens. Otherwise we are probably fated to see a repeat of such horrific incidents in the future. Civil society should take the lead in asking for reforms of the current gun laws.

When I served in Malaysia two decades ago, I noticed that it was a crime punishable by death to own an unlicensed revolver. Even owning bullets attracted heavy punishment. Crimes such as the recent rampage are unknown in Malaysia. They are also virtually unknown in Europe, although there are plenty of misfits in these countries.

Think about it.

- Amb. S. Azmat Hassan

CHINA: President Barack Obama pointed out the importance of unlimited access to information and called for Internet freedom during a town hall-style meeting with Chinese students in Shanghai. President Obama’s meeting was not broadcast live on national TV across China and the national news website Xinhua only made the transcripts of the meeting available even though it had earlier announced the meeting would be broadcast live online.

Police detained dozens of activists and petitioners in Beijing and other parts of China as President Obama arrived on his first trip to the country, human rights groups said on Monday.

AUSTRALIA: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a historic apology to thousands of impoverished British children who were forced to migrate to Australia with promises of a better life and were abused and neglected under state care. However, the government ruled out paying compensation.

MAURITANIA: Law enforcement and justice officials are learning some key tools to fight the practice of slavery. On Sunday training began to help these groups of officials uphold the 2007 law that bans slavery in Mauritania.

KENYA: Eleven people were killed when cattle raiders ransacked a village in central Kenya. There has been in increased amount of similar attacks as pressure from severe conditions due to the ongoing drought pushes clans to vie for resources.

ZIMBABWE: Tourism seems to be on the rise in Zimbabwe. According to the chief of tourism hotels have been around 60% full since the formation of the unity government in February compared to last years occupancy of only 30%. He attributes the increase to better political and economic stability brought about by the new government.

FRANCE/BRAZIL: The leaders of France and Brazil presented a joint plan on Saturday aimed at cutting emissions in advance of the Copenhagen climate change conference next month. They hope to convince other world leaders to adopt their plan.

UK: The British and Australian governments have issued an apology to the thousands of poor British children who were shipped to Australia and other former British colonies until the 1960s. Many of the children were abused and neglected, and often wound up in institutions or as farm laborers.

KOSOVO: Kosovo has peacefully conducted its first independent elections. Despite minority Serb calls for a boycott, voter turnout was estimated at 45 percent.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russia’s Energy Minister announced that it has delayed the launch of Iran’s first nuclear power plant, citing technical reasons.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke out following President Medvedev’s meeting with Barak Obama on Sunday, declaring that Moscow is still hoping for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear problem.

The world’s largest country is growing even bigger. As a result of earthquakes in the far east, Russia’s territory has expanded 4.5 square kilometers over the past three years.

Chechnya’s international airport opened this morning, when its first international flight in 15 years set off with passengers traveling to Saudi Arabia to make the Hajj pilgrimage.

LATIN AMERICA: Due to the fact that Europe is tightening its immigration laws, more and more immigrants from Africa are headed to Latin AmerIca.

EL SALVADOR: Authorities in El Salvador have raised the death toll to 192, after heavy rains caused massive mudslides in the country last week.

BRAZIL: Wrapping up a visit to Brazil, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights decried discrimination against Afro-Brazilians and indigenous groups, who she said lack access to basic services, employment, and are “mired in poverty.” She said these problems would hamper Brazil’s progress in other areas.

YEMEN: Yemen is once again is accusing Iran of funding Houthi fighters in their war against government forces in northern Yemen. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s military is continuing its shelling of Huthi positions in northern Yemen while a spokesman for the rebels said the Huthis have fired Katyusha rockets at a Saudi military base.

IRAN: The IAEA reported that Iran may have more secret nuclear sites.

PALESTINE: Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday that seeking UN Security Council recognition was aimed at protecting the two-state solution, which the PLO still prefers.

An Israeli cabinet minister said that Israel could annex more of the West Bank if Palestinians declared statehood without concluding a peace agreement.

PAKISTAN: A suicide bomber attack has killed at least four people in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.

Al Jazeera English’s Hamish MacDonald reports on how Iraq is positioning itself as a tourist destination again.

JAPAN: The United States and Japan must “find ways to renew and refresh the alliance for the 21st century,” said President Barack Obama in Tokyo on Friday. He agreed to reopen talks on the contentious issue of the relocation of a U.S. airbase in the island of Okinawa.

CHINA: The general consensus at today’s APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting was that the balance of global growth is shifting towards Asia, with China, India and to some extent Indonesia leading the recovery from the global economic recession.

SUDAN: Eleven people were recently killed in tribal clashes in South Sudan’s Jonglei state. Clashes among rival ethnic groups often erupt over issues of cattle rustling and natural resources. Over 2,000 people have died and 250,000 been displaced in South Sudan since January.

SOMALIA: Twelve Somalis were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of piracy by the French navy. The suspects were captured 650 miles off the coat of Somalia.

Europe has officially emerged from the worldwide economic recession. The European Union expanded by 0.2 percent in the third quarter.

SWITZERLAND: Google Inc. is headed to court over charges of violating Switzerland’s personal privacy laws though the use of its Street View application. The application — which allows users to see a 360-degree view of a street-level location– is being criticized for identifying people without their knowledge.

VATICAN: A four-day symposium to bring the Vatican into the digital age began on Thursday. Officials and bishops are being trained on internet tools such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and Google.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russian President Medvedev will meet with US President Obama on Sunday on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Singapore. On the agenda: a new arms reduction deal and the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs.

The diaries of a British journalist who was one of the first to write about the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine will go on display to the public for the first time in London tomorrow.

Three people have been killed in a blast in a cemetery in the southern republic of Dagestan. The victims had come to pay tribute to police officer Abdumalik Magomedov, who had been killed last year.

Russia’s police scandal is widening. Two more policemen have posted appeals to President Medvedev on YouTube speaking out against abuse and corruption in the country’s police force: Mikhail Yevsev, who alleges police fabricated cases against innocent citizens, and Gregory Chekalin.

Lake Titicaca in Bolivia Photo: flickr user: Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak

BOLIVIA: Evaporation due to global warming has caused the Lake Titicaca in Bolivia to be at its lowest level since 1949.

MEXICO: Mexican President Felipe Calderon says he rejects a proposal by business leaders in the border town of Ciudad Juarez for U.N. peacekeepers to enter the town and quell drug-related violence.

CHILE: Michelle Bachelet, the Chilean president, said that there are signs that the economies of Latin America are turning the corner after the global recession.

EL SALVADOR: Aid agencies say that as many as 10,000 people may need food assistance in the Central American country after massive floods which left at least 140 people dead and destroyed acres of crops.

PAKISTAN: A suicide bomber today attacked the northwestern regional headquarters of the Pakistani intelligence agency killing more than 17 people and wounding many more.

TURKEY: A Turkish diplomatic source has said that the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog (IAEA) revealed the details of a proposal suggesting Turkey as a third-country destination for transport of Iran’s enriched uranium. On another front, the Turkish government announced new details today of its plan to reconcile with its minority Kurds in hope of ending an insurgency that has dragged on for 25 years.

SYRIA: Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, in France to meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy, says Syria wants peace with Israel but questions Israel’s commitment to the process.  The visit comes after talks between Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

ISRAEL:Israeli army officials said today that Israeli troops killed one Palestinian and wounded four others along the Gaza border in what the military described as an attempted bomb attack.

An American Jewish group criticized Hezbollah for removing the “Diary of Anne Frank” from textbooks in a private school in Beirut.

AFGHANISTAN: The Taliban claimed responsibility on Friday for a suicide bombing attack near US military base outside the Afghan capital Kabul. The attack target was a NATO convoy.

SINGAPORE: Asia-Pacific nations pledged on Thursday to embrace more flexible exchange rates as they start to scale back their stimulus spending in the wake of easing of the global financial crisis.

NEPAL: Tens of thousands of Maoist demonstrators flooded the streets of Nepal’s capital on Thursday to call for the resignation of the government.

CHINA: Human Right Watch released a report on Thursday accusing China of running unlawful detention centers called “black jails” in which ordinary citizens can be kept for months.

SOMALIA: A judge well known for sending Islamic militants and pirates to prison was gunned down outside a mosque in Somalia’s Puntland region. Three people have been arrested in relation to the killing.

SUDAN: The Sudanese government has announced that the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps that house millions of displaced Darfuris will be shut down beginning in 2010. The government says they have begun constructing housing units to relocate the IDPs. Rebel groups have criticized the move.

NIGERIA: A Nigerian group is demanding that traditional leaders follow in the footstep of Britain and the US and apologize for their complicity in the transatlantic slave trade.

FRANCE: France has begun vaccinating high-risk people as it launches its swine flu vaccination campaign, despite a recent poll which revealed 76% of the public does not want to be vaccinated.

UK: Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced plans to toughen immigration rules into the UK by restricting the number of professions that can recruit in countries outside of Europe.

NORWAY: A freelance journalist from Norway who was captured in Afghanistan with his interpreter has been freed, according to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented his annual address to the nation today, emphasizing the need for Russia to refocus its economy on telecommunications, space and information technology.

Vladimir Putin has been named the third most powerful person of the year by Forbes Magazine, following Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President Barak Obama.

The legendary Russian goldsmith Faberge, known for the jeweled eggs it produced in the 1880s, is back in business. The House of Faberge is introducing a new line of jewels that will be sold on-line and at its single shop in Geneva.

A German court has dropped all charges against Dmitry Kovtun, who had been a suspect in the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Estonia’s economy shows signs of improvement: the country’s economic decline slowed in the third quarter for the first time since 2007.

AFGHANISTAN: The White House has said that US military commitment to Afghanistan is “not open-ended,” warning that the Afghan government must take steps to improve the way the country is run.

LEBANON: The leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah has accused US President Barack Obama, of “absolute bias” in favor of Israel and of disregard for the dignity of Arabs and Muslims.

ISRAEL: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signalled to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel is willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal between Syria and Israel.

YEMEN: A Yemeni Houthi leader has called for a ceasefire and expressed his group’s willingness to engage in dialogue with Saudi Arabia amid reports that Saudi Arabia’s forces have penetrated inside Yemen.

PALESTINE: The Palestinian Election Commission has recommended the postponement of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for January.

Yasser Arafat with Kofi Annan at the 2001 World Economic Forum. Photo: Flickr user WorldEconomicForum

Palestinians marked the fifth anniversary of the death of PLO leader Yasser Arafat today, as deep uncertainty hovers over the future of the peace process with Israel.

In the West Bank, thousands held a rally to honor Arafat. Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who has declared his intention not to run again, said resuming negotiations depends on Israel changing its position on settlements.

Five years after Arafat’s death, why isn’t there peace in the Middle East?

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