Hossein Mousavi challenged the government

Hijacked the concept of Iranianism and nationalism," Mousavi said 

Iran's opposition leader said Saturday that a dictatorial "cult" was ruling Iran in the name of Islam - his strongest attack to date on the country's clerical leadership.

Mir Hossein Mousavi also challenged the government to let his supporters take to the streets freely, saying that would allow it to gauge the opposition's true strength. Two days ago, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, charged that Iran's the opposition had lost its credibility and its right to participate in politics by not accepting the results of June presidential elections

"This is the rule of a cult that has hijacked the concept of Iranianism and nationalism," Mousavi said in an interview published on his website. "Our people can't tolerate that [dictatorial] behaviours are promoted in the name of religion." The opposition alleges President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the vote through massive fraud and that Mousavi was the rightful winner. A massive wave of protests provoked a bloody government crackdown, in which more than 80 demonstrators were killed and hundreds of rights activists, journalists and pro-reform politicians were rounded up.

The government puts the number of confirmed death at 30. It has accused opposition leaders of being "stooges of the West" and seeking to topple the ruling system through street protests.

Meanwhile, it has put more than 100 people on a mass trial that began in August. Eleven people have been sentenced to death, and more than 80 others have been handed prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years.

Mousavi himself is free, in Tehran.

Iran's rulers point to several recent pro-goverment rallies as an indication that the opposition has lost popular backing.

But Mousavi accused the state of abusing in people to inflate the crowds at a February 11 rally marking the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. And he asked the government to let opposition supporters to take to the streets without being attacked or killed by security forces.

"Allow the Green Movement to invite people to a rally," Mousavi said. "How people respond will put an end to all speculation" about its strength, he added

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On the northern edge of the former Taliban

Marines and Afghan troops who fought through the centre of Marjah linked up Saturday with American soldiers on the northern edge of the former Taliban stronghold, clearing the town's last major pocket of resistance.

The joint force encountered almost no hostile fire, indicating that the militants have either fled or blended in with the local population - perhaps to stage attacks later if the Afghan government fails to hold the town. Some Taliban operatives are believed to remain west of Marjah

Establishing a credible local government is a key component of NATO's strategy for the two-week-old offensive on the Taliban's longtime logistical hub and heroin-smuggling centre. Earlier in the week, the government installed a new town administrator, and several hundred Afghan police have begun to patrol the newly cleared areas of the town in the southern province of Helmand.

After a gruelling four-day march, Marines and Afghan troops succeeded Saturday in linking up with a US Army Stryker battalion on Marjah's northern outskirts.

"Basically, you can say that Marjah has been cleared," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey, commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment.

As helicopters and unmanned drones circled overhead, NATO troops saw little resistance except from homemade explosives buried in the ground.

Kabul attacks

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called India's prime minister on Saturday to express regret over the deaths of at least six Indians in a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul, as New Delhi sent an air force jet to repatriate the bodies.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed India's "outrage" over Friday's assault that killed at least 16 people in all, and requested Karzai "ensure full security for Indian nationals in Afghanistan", a statement from Singh's office said.

It said Karzai promised a full investigation into the attack, which targeted an area of residential hotels in the Afghan capital rented by Indian embassy workers and other foreigners. An Italian diplomat and a French filmmaker also died.

It follows attacks on India's embassy in Kabul in July 2008 and October 2009.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for Friday's attack. He did not specifically name India as the target, but the Islamist has long opposed India's involvement in the country and its ties to the Northern Alliance that helped the US oust the Taliban regime in 2001.

"This attack specifically targeted Indian cooperation experts and workers, those who are serving the Afghan people and earning goodwill for India," Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad said. "It's clearly the handiwork of those who oppose our presence in Afghanistan." He said India sent an air force jet Saturday to repatriate the bodies of the dead Indians.

Prasad refused to point the finger specifically at archrival Pakistan or say whether it would damage Pakistan-India talks which resumed Thursday after a 15-month hiatus.

India accused a Pakistani spy agency of involvement in the July 2008 embassy attack, and Pakistani militants waged the November 2008 attacks in India's financial hub, Mumbai, that had prompted India to pull out of the peace dialogue.

"That's too much to speculate," Prasad said of the possibility that Friday's attack could derail talks. "It depends on where the precise provenance of the attack is.

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What is sure right now is that Dubai police have good camcorder

But what else they can do?

Most of the 26 people so far linked to the murder of a top Hamas commander are to be found in Israel, Agence France-Presse cited Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan as charging in comments published on Saturday.

Khalfan also again pointed the finger at Meir Dagan, the head of Israel’s secret service Mossad which is widely suspected of carrying out the Cold War-style hit on Mahmoud Mabhuh in his Dubai hotel room on January 20

Dubai police have published details of 26 suspects together with passport photographs and said on Friday they have DNA proof of the identity at least one of the killers.

“What is sure right now is that the majority of the murderers whose names have been announced... are to be found in Israel,” Khalfan said in comments published in Arabic-language Al Khaleej daily.

“Dagan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head the list [of an international arrest warrant] if it is proven that Mossad is behind the murder,” the police chief said.

Khalfan was quoted in the government daily Emarat Al Yom as calling on the Mossad chief to come clean.

“Meir Dagan, the boss, should admit the crime... or present a categorical denial that his service is implicated,” he said.

“But his current attitude shows he is afraid. Let him be a man, and tell the truth.”

Israel has sought to play down the row, saying there is no evidence of its involvement. It has rejected the calls for Dagan’s arrest as “baseless” and “absurd”.

The murder of Mabhuh, regarded by Israel as a key link in a weapons smuggling chain into the Gaza Strip that is controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, has mounted international pressure on Israel.

Twelve British, six Irish, four French, one German and three Australian passports were used by the suspects, according to Dubai police.

Khalfan said police had succeeded in identifying the suspects although some had worn wigs during the operation. The suspects were identified by footage from closed circuit televisions, which abound in security-conscious Dubai.

The revelation of stolen identities being used by suspected Israeli agents has caused a diplomatic outcry, with Australia threatening it would “not be silent on the matter”.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Saturday his centre-left government had an “absolutely hard line” on defending the integrity of its passport system and took seriously allegations that suspected Mossad assassins had stolen Australian identities.

“That is why the foreign minister has called in the Israeli ambassador and asked for an explanation,” Rudd told reporters.

“Thus far we are not satisfied with that explanation.”

Canberra summoned ambassador Yuval Rotem on Thursday and warned that friendly ties were at risk if Israel was found to have sponsored or condoned the tampering of three Australian passports, linked to the killing of Mabhuh.

The Israel-based Australians caught in the passport scandal - Joshua Daniel Bruce, Nicole Sandra McCabe and Adam Korman - were among 15 named in connection with the killing of Mabhuh.

The real McCabe, a 27-year-old mother to be who has lived in Israel for two and a half years, said she first learned of her passport’s link to the crime from a radio news bulletin.

“I have no idea how they got hold of my passport. Obviously it’s not my photo,” she told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “I don’t know any of these people, I don’t know the other Australians.”

“I’m terrified, I haven’t slept and I’m shaky. I’m worried for my health and I’m worried for my baby’s health,” she added.

Israeli ambassadors in four European countries have been summoned for talks and the European Union has also voiced outrage over the use of fake passports after an earlier list of 11 people was released.

The British embassy in Israel said an investigator was flown in this week to interview 10 dual Israeli-British citizens whose British passports may have been used in Mabhuh’s assassination, Reuters reported from Jerusalem.

At least six Britons with the same names as members of the alleged hit team live in Israel and say their identities were stolen.

The investigator will speak to the individuals when they come to the embassy to collect new passports, an embassy spokesman told Reuters. He provided no further details about the British probe.

Israel has officially remained silent on the January 20 assassination, though its foreign minister said there was nothing to link it to the killing.

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Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland…video

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi has called on Muslims around the world to declare a jihad against Switzerland. There has been an ongoing feud between the two countries after Gaddafi's son Hanibal was arrested in Geneva in 2008.

In a speech made yesterday, Gaddafi said that "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate – is against Muhammad, God and the Qur'an."

The row between Switzerland and Libya has escalated in recent months as one Swiss businessman was jailed in Libya on immigration charges.

A top UN official has condemned as "inadmissible" Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's call for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland.

"Such declarations on the part of the head of state are inadmissible in international relations," said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the UN chief in Geneva.

Col Gaddafi criticized a Swiss vote against the building of minarets and urged Muslims to boycott the country.

Libya and Switzerland are embroiled in a long-running diplomatic row.

The dispute dates back to 2008, when one of Mr Gaddafi's sons was arrested in Geneva, accused of assaulting two servants.

A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on the jihad call.

The Libyan leader made his comments while speaking at a meeting in Benghazi to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression," he said.

"Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Muhammad, God and the Koran."

Mr Ordzhonikidze, director-general of the UN mission in Geneva, said the UN's security in Switzerland was very professional and well-prepared for any incident. He was responding to questions from journalists about Mr Gaddafi's "jihad" call.

In a referendum last November, 57.5% of Swiss voters approved a constitutional ban on the building of minarets. An appeal against the ban has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights.

Tit-for-tat quarrel

Earlier this month, Libya stopped issuing visas to citizens from many European nations - those in the Schengen border-free travel zone. That drew condemnation from the European Commission.

Libya's move came after Switzerland allegedly blacklisted 188 high-ranking Libyans, denying them entry permits. The Swiss ban is said to include Mr Gaddafi and his family.

The row began after the arrest of Mr Gaddafi's son Hannibal and his wife, Aline Skaf, in Geneva in July 2008.

They were accused of assaulting two servants while staying at a luxury hotel in the Swiss city, though the charges were later dropped.

Libya retaliated by cancelling oil supplies, withdrawing billions of dollars from Swiss banks, refusing visas to Swiss citizens and recalling some of its diplomats.

In the same month that the Gaddafis were arrested, Libyan authorities detained two Swiss businessmen, in what analysts believe was a retaliatory move.

One was finally allowed to leave the country earlier this week but the second was transferred to jail, where he faces a four-month term on immigration offences.

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AIDS in Egypt

While the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Egypt is low, its treatment, care and support are in need of a bolster. This is because a combination of factors - overpopulation, poverty and illiteracy - increase the risks of an epidemic, say human rights and public health workers.

The United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has estimated the rate of HIV in Egypt at less than 0.1 percent, or the equivalent of roughly 10,000 infected people. However, according to the National AIDS Program, just 2612 cases of HIV/AIDS were detected between 1986 and 2006. 722 of these were foreigners, mainly Africans, and were deported. The first case of HIV/AIDS was detected in 1986. Official accounts put heterosexual intercourse as the main mode transmission of the disease for those cases detected, followed by homosexual intercourse.

The National AIDS Program is responding to the current situation through both prevention and care, via anonymous voluntary counseling and testing sites, pilot sexually transmitted infections clinics, and awareness campaigns. However a number of gaps remain, which mainly make the life of HIV/AIDS patients more difficult.

Follow up is one of the main gaps highlighted by HIV/AIDS activists. "More support is needed at all levels," says Raguia el-Garzawy, a medic and the head of the public health and discrimination unit at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. "There is not enough follow up for people living with HIV/AIDS. There is no scheme organized for follow up. There is a problem with medication for example - if the treatment received by someone does not work, he will not know what to do."

El-Garzawy adds that the Government Fevers Hospital, the main site where people living with HIV/AIDS receive their medication, has certain drawbacks such as a shortage of medication and failures in testing devices.

Zein el-Abedin el-Taher, manager of the National AIDS Program, cites action taken by the program in the context of follow-up operations, such as easy access to free drugs, psycho-social support and the prevention of mother to child transmission of the disease. "At the beginning, we thought there was no need for more than one site for drugs distribution in Cairo. Now there are four sites, in Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta and Minya," he says.

He adds that there are now CD4 and viral load tests every six months, which had not previously been available at such a frequency. These tests detect the development of the virus in the patient's body. The main medication line is locally manufactured and the Ministry of Health has made it permanently available. "There was a shortage only once in 2007 because of a problem with the company providing the main drug," says el-Taher. Roche, the Swiss manufacturer of Viracept, one of the main medication lines, had to recall the product from all markets as it had been accidentally contaminated with a carcinogenic substance.

While the official national response can be described as active in finding adequate interventions, the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS on a social level remains a predicament for people affected by the disease in Egypt. "The Tumors Institute refuses to receive cases living with HIV/AIDS even if they come with a tumor diagnosis," says el-Garzawy. The institute is the only national center that tackles tumor diseases.

"There are no proper places where they [people living with HIV/AIDS] can go to seek treatment if something happens to them," says el-Garzawy, which, according her, is a clear instance of discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients. "Doctors and nurses have an exaggerated fear of people living with HIV/AIDS which makes their work very difficult," she says, basing her information on testimonials by patients she works with.

El-Taher does not accept such criticism. "This cannot be a problem with trained hospitals and clinics under the National AIDS Program. This could be the case in private hospitals or in university hospitals that have not been trained well enough to deal with HIV/AIDS patients," he says. The program, according to el-Taher, has been active in raising awareness amongst religious leaders as well as high-risk groups with whom the majority of organizations are hesitant to work due to their illegal practices.

Another problem identified by the HIV/AIDS Theme Group, a coalition of Egyptian and international agencies working on the issue is lack of solid information about risk factors and HIV serology, within a surveillance system that contains significant gaps. This stands in the way of making realistic predictions about the status of an epidemic and any necessary response.

The National AIDS Program is supported by international donors such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has been involved both financially and technically.

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Suicide in front of passing Cairo Underground trains

WITHIN this week, two young Egyptian men threw themselves in front of passing Cairo Underground trains to put an end to their lives that became miserable either after the death of beloved ones, or because of poverty.

Fate is the only explanation for what happened to these two unfortunate young men,” says Hassan Khalil, a passer-by near el-Maasara and el-Khalafawi Metro
  Stations in northern Cairo, where the separate incidents have occurred on Monday and Tuesday.
  These two incidents should prompt sociologists and psychologists to explain why committing suicide under the wheels of Cairo's Underground Metro trains is becoming the most common method among the desperate young men and women, say the public.
  Some persons would say these suicides are a result of pressure, while others are of the view that they have occurred because the victims believed that “a swift death is the only solution to their chronic problems”.
  “There are elements within the life of these two young men, which compelled them and left death as their only option,” Naguib Ashaam Allah, a pharmacist in the Cairo neighbourhood of Hadayek el-Qubba, said, adding the issue must also be seen in the context of economic and emotional hardships against young people and their status in society.
  According to police reports, the victims, who were both unemployed and in their mid twenties, could have committed suicide due to emotional and economic reasons.
  "There is economic and emotional pressure on the young people. They can't make their own decisions, and limits are imposed on them," Ashaam Allah said.
  Commentators from private TV channels blamed economic hardships and frustration that permeates the whole society for El-Khalafawi and el-Maasara suicide incidents, which grabbed headlines.
  "The Government should be held responsible for these two incidents because it failed to provide the youth with appropriate living and economic conditions," one angry young man told a talk show aired by a private TV channel on Tuesday night.
  He also accused the Government of over looking the problems of the young people.
  "These problems such as unemployment put the young people under constant stress that drives them into despair, fleeing out of the country, extremism, doing drugs, or committing suicide under the wheels of the metro, which is more merciful than this harsh life," he said. 

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ElBaradei in Egypt

The plane carrying the former UN nuclear agency head Mohamed ElBaradei landed in Cairo as hundreds of Egyptians gathered at Cairo airport Friday to welcome him.

ElBaradei is seen as a possible future presidential candidate since he announced last year he would not rule out running for the country's presidential elections.

 

   Around 500 people were waiting at the airport for hours to welcome ElBaradei, whose plane was delayed for around two hours in Vienna. 

   While waiting, they chanted the national anthem as well as shouted slogans such as    'ElBaradei for Egypt' and 'ElBaradei, teach them a lesson - Free Egypt is not for succession.' 

   A report  Al-Shorouk independent daily quoted an anonymous security source as saying that some 6,000 police officers were deployed at the airport on Friday, adding that some of them were wearing civilian clothes, and had been ordered to break up any riots. 

   However, witnesses said that there was no apparent extra security at the airport early on Friday. Earlier this week Egyptian security officials warned against any illegal gatherings to welcome ElBaradei. 

   In Egypt, large public gatherings are illegal and can be broken up by police according to the emergency laws. 

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