Quick News Roundup

Another earthquake in Van, Turkey.  This was a smaller 4.9.


A Bangladeshi man in Oman died of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).  Apparently some animals in Oman carry the animal version.  A Pakistani man died of similar symptoms several weeks ago.  It is thought they both contracted CCHF from handling contaminated meat.  It's not common, but it does happen.  In 1995-1996 there were 4 cases.

A small passenger ship sank off the coast of Iran today.  Rescue efforts are underway.

The Egyptian election is over.  The Freedom and Justice Party (Muslim Brotherhood) won the most seats.  Their speaker will be Saad al-Katatni.

Protests Protests Protests! Update I

Yahoo!'s Mideast protests at a glance.

Bahrain is in a world of hurt.  More protesters were attacked and injured, overwhelming the hospital.  So far, over 200 people have been injured and President Obama has been speaking to the Bahraini king.  The king has appointed the Crown Prince as a kind of mediator with the protesters, and he has issued his own statement.  There was also a pro-government rally.

Protests in Libya are getting very bloody with over 40 protesters dead, and there are reports that 2 policemen were hung.


Protests in Yemen are on their 9th straight day, and 4 more people are dead.  Journalists are also being attacked.  Protesters in Ta'iz were attacked with a grenade.

Jordanians have been protesting for 7 days straight.  The 2,000 protesters were followed by some pro-government supporters.

Egyptians held a celebration protest.  It's been a week since Mubarak left.

Oman is generally considered the safest country in the Middle East.  When I visited, I found the Omanis very polite and nice.  So it makes sense that when they held a protest today, it was a polite one.  Really.  Read the article.

Women's News February 18, 2011

A Syrian blogger named Tal Mallohi has been sentenced to 5 years in jail, accused of spying for the US.  She has several blogs and is only 19 years old.

Saudi women are worried that harassment of them is increasing.  But the protests in Egypt may be helping to decrease harassment of women there.

Helen Clark, who heads up the UN Development Program (and used to be PM of New Zealand), visited Yemen.  She discussed a number of issues, including advances that need to be made for women.

During the protests, Tahreer Square in Sana'a, Yemen was supposed to be the site of a traditional crafts fair for women.  I don't know how things went, but hopefully the fair was still able to go on.

Bloggers Update

Kareem Amer, Egyptian blogger, was arrested in Tahrir Square on February 7th, then released a few days later.

Tal Mallohi, teen-aged Syrian blogger, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison.  She was convicted of giving information to the United States.  Free Tal website.

Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam is still in jail.  Free Ali website.

Quick News Roundup February 12, 2011

ArabNews (Saudi Arabia) reports that the subcontractors to the US Embassy are abusing their employees.  They cite a report by the US Office of Inspector General, and provide a link to it.  Abuse of South Asian employees is fairly common in the Gulf.  I don't mean that as an excuse, just as a piece of information.

A senior rabbi in Israel is under arrest for supporting a book (Torat Hamelech) that says when it is okay to kill Gentiles.  He refused to be questioned by police, because it is a religious issue.  This whole thing originally came to a head in January of last year (see this article).  I'm not sure what to think of it.  It sounds as though some people want it to be thought of as a scholarly work, while others see it as inciting violence.  The article I linked to makes some good points about the authors of the study (also rabbis) and that they may be inciting violence.  I will say one thing though:  if a Catholic priest wrote a book saying that the Bible says sometimes it's okay to kill Jews, there would be a huge uproar and calls of anti-Semitism.  But almost no one would say it's a religious issue and the police should stay out of it.

There's more about that senior rabbi in this article, which compares the Muslim Brotherhood to the ultra-Orthodox religious right in Israel.  They believe that Judaism trumps democracy, and want to take Israel even further down that road.

This was written before Mubarak left, but it's a quick look at how events in Egypt are affecting the Gulf.  And this more recent article covers the current situation.  Even Palestine is affected and should have elections in September.

Egypt Rocks!

Congratulations to the people of Egypt!  It's so inspiring to see the peoples of Tunisia and Egypt make a change for themselves.  Let's hope that both countries will be able to create a new democratic government of the people.

I have been a little concerned with some of the media coverage of Egypt in the US.  They keep talking about "what does this mean for us?"  And harping on how good a friend Mubarak was in the fight against terrorism.  Of course, they don't mention that one reason he was such a good friend is because the US could send suspected terrorists to Egypt to be tortured.

I am also really sick of hearing how "stable" the Mubarak regime was and how we need stability in the Middle East.  I am all for stability, but not under a dictatorship.  Some of the media outlets have been pointing to other Middle Eastern countries that are stable and what might happen if they have protests.  This reminds me of US foreign policy during the Cold War, when we were propping up these brutal right-wing dictators in Central and South America.  But hey - it was stable!  It drives me crazy that so many Americans had no idea what was going on then, and have no idea what is going on now.  How can a country that wields this much power have people who are so clueless?

Who Cares About Democracy?

The US news is worried about how the events in Egypt will affect America.  Will we be less safe?  Will Al-Qa'eda take over in Egypt?  Will the Suez Canal shut down?  Will the price of oil go up?  But they're not talking about democracy.  I thought the whole point of having a large democratic country and trying to convince other countries of democracy was that the US would actually support democracy?  I guess I should know better by now.  The US is interested in security, even if that means propping up brutal dictators who repress their own country and represent everything we hate.

What hypocrisy.

Women Protest in Egypt and More

See photos on facebook here. (h/t @krmaher)

Latest rumor is that Mubarak was rejected by Saudi Arabia and is going to Israel.

Is Yemen going up next?

News on TV

Sorry - I've been in presentations all day and watching Egypt on my Twitter feed at the same time.  I highly recommend Twitter for that.  Also, here's Al-Jazeera's Egypt Live Blog.

We were all hoping to see Mubarak leave, but no such luck yet.  Maybe tomorrow, insha'allah!

Egyptian Protests: Update II

News on Twitter is that Egypt has blocked SMS and now has just turned off the Internet there.  Apparently this happened right after AP posted video of a man being shot (h/t @arabist).

Things are getting more violent in Egypt, especially Suez.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has arrived in Cairo now.

To my friends in Cairo - Stay Safe!

Edit:  The hackers group Anonymous has joined the Egyptian protests, by attacking Egyptian government web sites.  See their press release via Sophos.

Egyptian Protests: Update I

Wow.  Egypt is on fire.  There are protests everywhere and the government is trying to crack down and beating and arresting people.  At least 5 people are dead, mostly in Suez.  This is the 2nd day of protests and it's not slowing down.  Journalists are being targeted and Facebook and Twitter may or may not be shut down.

It's a shame that this is the only way Egyptians have of removing a president who has been in power for 30 years.  The United States is worried about losing an ally, but it should be more concerned with helping Egypt become a true democracy.

Egyptian Protests

The tumult in Tunisia seems to be inspiring the Egyptians.  Several of them have tried lighting themselves on fire, with at least one of them dying.  Activists want January 25th to be a day of protest, although Mubarak supporters are now calling for it to be a day of support for Mubarak.

It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere.  Surely if Tunisia can kick out a president, so can Egypt?  Otherwise I don't see Mubarak leaving until he dies of old age.  See more by Middle East bloggers.

Sharks at Sharm el-Sheikh: Update IV

A friend sent this article to me.  Supposedly a drunk Serbian man killed the killer shark at Sharm el-Sheikh.  Here's an excerpt:

“Dragan jumped high and plunged down to the sea, but didn’t make as much splash as we thought he would”, explained Milovan.
 . . .
Dragan was able to swim to the shore and told his friends he had twisted his ankle, telling them the water was not that soft.
The water is soft buddy, you just landed on a shark.

 I really doubt this is true, but it is a great drinking story!

Sharks at Sharm el-Sheikh: Update III

The saga continues.  The experts are saying that the decline in fish for sharks to eat, plus people trying to feed the fish and/or sharks and dumping animal carcasses, are the reasons for the shark attacks.  The experts want the dumpers fined, as well as watch towers on the beach and boat patrols in the water too.  If you haven't seen the movie Jaws, you really ought to. 

Sharks at Sharm el-Sheikh: Update II

Well, some of the beaches are now open.  Most of them are still closed.  I guess they're waiting to see if they can catch more sharks, or counting how many they see.  I read an article that compared the situation to the first Jaws movie.  It's a bit scary.

Sharks at Sharm el-Sheikh: Update I

The beaches are still closed at Sharm, and another shark has been caught.  US shark experts are there helping out.  The shark that was caught is a Mako, and they're still looking for an Oceanic White Tip.

Egyptian Elections: Update II

Well, the runoff elections are over.  And, no surprise, Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party won.  As usual, the elections were plagued with charges of fraud and even voter intimidation.  The Muslim Brothers boycotted the runoffs, which means they were shut out of parliament.  Human rights organizations are calling for the elections to be annulled.  Personally, I doubt that will happen.  Considering all the irregularities in past elections, why would Mubarak care about this one?  Especially since his party has even more control over parliament (an estimated 83% plus help from some independent parties).  Next year is the presidential election.  You'd think the United States would be concerned about democracy in Egypt.

Sharks at Sharm el-Sheikh

There has been another shark attack at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.  Four people were attacked last week, and beaches were closed until 2 sharks were caught.  They had only been open a few days when the current attack happened, and now the beaches are closed indefinitely.  This could really hurt Egypt's tourism industry, since much of it is beach tourism.

Egyptian Elections: Update I

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd have pulled out of the run-off election in Egypt, in protest of election fraud.  According to the BBC:

Following the first round, Egyptian media carried images and testimonies of mass faked ballots and voters being intimidated at polling stations.

The end result is that most of the seats in parliament will go to the National Democratic Party of Hosni Mubarak.  So much for democracy in Egypt.

Egyptian Elections

Elections were held yesterday in Egypt.  The Muslim Brotherhood and New Wafd appear to be the losers and the Brotherhood is claiming fraud.  Which is pretty standard for elections in Egypt.