Saudi Woman Driver Freed after Agreeing to Quit Campaign
THE GUARDIAN: Manal al-Sharif, jailed after posting a YouTube video of herself driving, leaves Women2Drive movement

A Saudi Arabian woman who was jailed for driving a car has been released after nine days, having pledged to take no further part in a campaign to persuade the Saudi authorities to allow women to drive.

Manal al-Sharif, 32, was freed from the women's prison in Dammam on Monday. She was arrested after posting a video of herself driving around the eastern city of Khobar as part of the Women2Drive campaign of which she was a key organiser.

Her case attracted international attention after her lawyer said she had been charged with driving without a licence, prompting other women to do the same and provoking public debate in Saudi Arabia. Two other women associated with the campaign were also questioned by police and warned off further campaigning. One Muslim cleric even called for Sharif to be lashed.

"She wrote a pledge that she will not drive a car and after what has happened she has decided to give up the campaign and not be part of the protests," said Sharif's lawyer, Adnan al-Salah.

He said the authorities had not imposed the conditions, but Sharif had decided to make the pledge herself.

The climax of the Women2Drive campaign, a mass drive on 17 June partly inspired by demonstrations against restrictions on civil liberties across the Middle East, now appears to be in doubt.

On Tuesday, Sharif expressed "profound gratitude" to King Abdullah for ordering her release and appeared to abandon her call for women to be allowed to drive, according to a written statement published by the al-Hayat newspaper. » | Robert Booth | Tuesday, May 31, 2011


Saudi Arabia’s ‘Women2Drive’ Movement Reacts to Arrest »

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Pat Condell: Let's Blame the Jews

Die bestbezahlten Politiker: Was sie verdienen
DIE PRESSE: Betteln müssen sie alle nicht. Trotzdem gibt es zwischen den Staatschefs dieser Welt dicke Gehaltsunterschiede. Ein Überblick über die Bestverdiener:

1. Singapur

Dieser Mann spielt in einer eigenen Liga, kein anderer Politiker verdient annähernd so viel Geld wie er: Umgerechnet 2,2 Mio. Euro casht Singapurs Premierminister Lee Hsien Loong im Jahr ab. Der Gehalts-Weltmeister findet daran nichts anrüchiges: "Unsere Einstellung ist: Wenn du die besten Leute willst, dann musst du dafür auch zahlen." »

Une Pakistanaise chrétienne condamnée à mort pour blasphème

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: En juin 2009, au Pakistan, Asia Bibi, une villageoise chrétienne, boit l’eau d’un puits réservé aux musulmans. Elle est accusée de la souiller. Accusée de "blasphème", elle est condamnée à mort.

"Blasphème". C'est le titre du livre qu'Asia Bibi, chrétienne pakistaniase [sic] condamnée à mort pour avoir bu l'eau d'un puits réservé aux musulmans, a co-écrit avec une journaliste depuis le fond de sa cellule. Dans ce témoignage, elle appelle à l'aide.

Pendant cinq mois, Anne-Isabelle Tollet, reporter à "France 24", a pu communiquer avec cette mère de cinq enfants, condamnée à la pendaison en novembre 2010 pour blasphème. Elle est la seule femme dans ce cas au Pakistan, selon les associations de défense des droits de l’Homme.

Depuis, elle attend dans sa cellule sans fenêtre de la prison de Sheikhupura son jugement en appel. » | AFP | Mardi 31 Mai 2011

L'UE demande au président Saleh de quitter le pouvoir au Yémen
LE POINT: Catherine Ashton, chef de la diplomatique de l'Union européenne, est "choquée" par l'usage de la force à Taëz.

La chef de la diplomatie de l'UE Catherine Ashton s'est dite mardi "choquée" par l'usage de la force à Taëz, au Yémen, et a de nouveau demandé au président Saleh de signer "sans délai" l'offre de médiation du Conseil de coopération du Golfe (CCG) prévoyant son départ. "Il est temps maintenant, sans nouvelles échappatoires, de signer et de mettre en oeuvre l'offre de médiation du Conseil de coopération du Golfe (CCG)", a souligné Mme Ashton dans un communiqué. » | Source AFP | Mardi 31 Mai 2011

Franco Frattini Pledges Support to Libyan Rebels
Al Jazeera's Cal Perry reports from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Franco Frattini's visit to Libya

Egypt's Mubarak Unfit for Prison Move: Prosecutor

REUTERS: Egypt's public prosecutor said on Tuesday that ousted President Hosni Mubarak was in no condition to be transferred to a prison hospital and would remain in a health facility in a Red Sea resort for the time being.

Mubarak, overthrown on February 11 after a popular uprising, has been detained since mid-April in a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh, rather than in a prison medical center, after it was reported that he suffered heart problems during initial questioning.

A medical team determined that Mubarak should not be transferred "outside of Sharm el-Sheikh hospital at the current time and to hire a specialized medical team to oversee his treatment," the prosecutor said in a statement.

"The committee examined the patient in his intensive care room and found that he is clearly frail and depressed and cannot leave the bed without assistance," it said.

It added that the Torah prison hospital on Cairo's outskirts was "unsuitable for a patient in a critical condition." » | Reporting by Dina Zayed; editing by Michael Roddy | CAIRO | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Libya's Gaddafi: I Will Not Leave My Country
REUTERS: Muammar Gaddafi is emphatic he will not leave Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday after talks with the Libyan leader that left prospects for a negotiated end to the conflict looking dim.

But new questions emerged over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said shortages of food and medicine in areas of Libya controlled by Gaddafi amounted to a "time bomb."

Within hours of Zuma's departure from Tripoli late on Monday, Libyan television reported that NATO aircraft had resumed attacks, striking what it called civilian and military sites in Tripoli and Tajoura, just east of the capital.

Zuma was in Tripoli to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war with thousands of people killed. » | Peter Graff | TRIPOLI | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Zuma Meets with Gaddafi
May 30 - South African president Jacob Zuma meets with Gaddafi, marking the first time the Libyan leader has been seen in public since May 11. Deborah Gembara reports

Mistrust Abounds as Bahrain to Lift Emergency Law
ZAWYA: MANAMA - Tanks have begun withdrawing from Manama's streets ahead of the planned lifting Wednesday of a state of emergency enacted amid a crackdown on demonstrators but mistrust still abounds in Bahrain.

Backed by Saudi-led Gulf troops, Bahraini forces in mid-March crushed the Shiite-led pro-democracy demonstrations that had paralysed central Manama, the capital of Sunni-ruled Bahrain, for a month.

Authorities continued with a crackdown on Shiites, who make up the majority of the kingdom's population, storming their villages and arresting hundreds of men and women, mostly for the mere accusation of supporting the peaceful protests.

But with the apparent gradual return to normality, stories are told behind closed doors of continued persecution of Shiites and mass dismissals from public-sector jobs for people accused of participating in the protests.

Sunnis, on the other hand, have been radicalised, with many of them welcoming the government's heavy-handed approach as a measure that saved the tiny kingdom from an Iranian-backed[A] Shiite plot to overthrow the regime.

Many do not trust the Shiites. » | Ali Khalil | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Italy: 25 Egyptian Illegal Immigrants Repatriated
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL: Rome - Twenty-five Egyptian illegal immigrants were deported on a flight from the Sicilian city of Catania to Cairo, Italy's interior ministry said.

Most of the migrants had arrived last week on Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa by boat from Libya, according to the ministry.

The migrants had claimed to be Iranian and minors under 18 years of age, but officials managed to establish that they were in fact Egyptian adults.

The interior ministry said. 412 Egyptian illegal immigrants have been repatriated from Italy since January. » | AKI | Monday, May 30, 2011

Russia Shuts Leading Islamic Organization

ON ISLAM: CAIRO – A court decision to close a leading Islamic organization in Russia was criticized as bureaucratic political order targeting the Muslim minority and reflecting a growing authorities' desire to bring the country's Muslims under Kremlin control.

"This is a bureaucratic order from people who want the Muslim part of society to be represented by puppets," Abdul-Wahid Niyazov, the chairman and founder of the Islamic Cultural Center, told The Moscow Times on Friday, May 27.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court confirmed a decision from the Justice Ministry last fall to close the center for "multiple violations of financial regulations."

The court order said that 21 of the center's 54 regional branches lacked proper legal documentation. » | OnIslam & Newspapers | Friday, May 27, 2011

Bangladesh Retains Islam as State Religion

ON ISLAM: DHAKA – Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced her support for retaining Islam as the state religion in the Bengali constitution, relinquishing articles in 1972 constitution about the secular nature of the state, Indo Asian News Service (IANS) reported on Tuesday, May 31.

The government would like “Bismillah Rahman-ur-Rahim; meaning ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate’,” retained, Sheikh Hasina told a special parliamentary committee formed to study changes in the constitution in the light of Supreme Court verdicts on Monday.

Hasina’s aids explained that the decision was issued as the ethos of the majority of the population could not be ignored.

Bangladesh is the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation with a population of some 148 million.

The country has a secular legal system but in matters related to inheritance and marriage Muslims follow Sharia'h. » | OnIslam & News Agencies | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Can Strauss-Kahn Buy His Way to Freedom?

THE INDEPENDENT: The ex-IMF chief is sparing no expense to stay out of jail. David Usborne reports

He has bought himself freedom on bail and secured a luxury townhouse in Manhattan where he must drum his fingers until trial. But Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief accused of sexual assault, is busy investing in something more vital: the crack defence team he hopes will keep him out of prison for good.

Money is being spent quickly to win the services not only of braggadocio-filled lawyers like Benjamin Brafman, whose past clients have included P Diddy and Michael Jackson, but also figures more used to operating in the shadows. Former CIA spies may be on board, as well as a retired US diplomat, a secretive security and investigative firm in New York and some well connected PR pals from Paris.

The defendant, known around the world now by his initials, DSK, has denied the charges against him of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching, all arising from an encounter with a hotel maid in Manhattan on 14 May. Even so, with the trial still months away, he may want to test the premise that justice is blind to money and social stature.

His lawyers told a judge at his arraignment that he was worth "roughly $2m". But they added that Ann[e] Sinclair, his wife and the granddaughter of the art collector Paul Rosenberg, had "substantially greater assets". It is Ms Sinclair, who rushed to New York when her husband was arrested, who found the townhouse (monthly rental $50,000) and has led the hiring spree so preparations for the trial can begin. » | David Usborne | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Washington Should Plan for a Post-Assad Syria

YA LIBNAN – EDITORIAL: Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama gave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an ultimatum: Lead a transition to democracy, or, in Obama’s words, “get out of the way.”

The speech recognized an inconvenient truth for Washington: Although the Assad regime has not yet reached a tipping point like that of the Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes, nearly three months of protests across Syria have shaken the Assad regime to its core.

Government forces have killed 1,000 protesters and arrested another 10,000, yet demonstrators continue to fill the streets demanding the fall of the government.

Assad is now caught in a dilemma: He can continue relying on his fellow Alawite security chiefs and the minority system they dominate to persecute the predominately Sunni protesters, or he can enact deep political reforms that could convince the protesters to return home but would end the Alawite-led system on which he so heavily relies. Either way, the Assad regime as it has existed for more than four decades is disintegrating.

Now, to follow through on his bold declaration last week, Obama and his advisers must plan for a Syria without the Assad regime as it currently exists. To do so, Washington should try to push Assad from power while pulling in a new leadership.

As a start of this “push” strategy, Obama must go even further than he did in his speech last week and publicly state that Assad must go. Such a move would signal that the United States will no longer deal with Assad. Put bluntly, high-level U.S. officials would no longer plead for Assad’s support on questions of U.S. interest in the region, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. » | Mara Karlin and Andrew J. Tabler | Editorial | Monday, May 27, 2011

Obama and Cameron Kissing

NOW LEBANON – BLOG: A “special relationship,” indeed.

Is it weird to be slightly turned on by an image of US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron kissing?

What’s the verdict, peeps: is this Photoshopped? Read on and comment » | Angie Nassar | Monday, May 30, 2011

Kuwait Port Encroaches on Territory: Iraq
Kuwait's proposed Mubarak al Kabeer port on the island of Bubiyan encroaches on its territorial waters says the Iraqi government.

It will also block two of its shipping lanes -lifelines for its crucial import and export trade.

Al Jazeera's Omar al Saleh reports from Baghdad.

Sexist French Politicians 'In Trouble' over Treatment of Women

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France's male politicians are becoming increasingly anxious about their futures after one female minister warned half of the country's male MPs were potentially "in trouble" due to their treatment of women.

Still reeling from the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief, on sexual assault charges, France's political class was struck by a fresh sex scandal on Sunday with the resignation of Georges Tron, the public works minister accused of molesting two former female staff members.

The massage enthusiast's "foot fetish", which two ex-town hall employees in their thirties claim morphed into full-blown abuse, has sparked a backlash from France's embattled female politicians. They are calling for an end to the "French exception" of "everyday machismo" among male peers often bordering on harassment. » | Henry Samuel in Paris | Monday, May 30, 2011

Swedish King Denies Improprieties as Scandal Grows

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf on Monday gave a rare interview in an attempt to quash a swelling scandal, flatly rejecting media reports he had visited strip clubs and even had indirect contact with organised crime.

In a long interview with the TT news agency published late on Monday, Sweden's head of state denied recent reported claims from a former mafia member, Mille Markovic, that he had pictures in his possession showing the king in a sex club in the same shot as two naked women.

"No, it is impossible that they exist," the king insisted, stressing that "it is also difficult to comment on something one has not seen and no one else has seen either."

The royal court has demanded that public broadcaster TV4, which in a report two weeks ago about the alleged pictures said a journalist had seen them, show the shots to prove there is any substance to the claims.

The TV4 report and a new book about another shady figure from Sweden's underworld alleged friends of the king had been willing to pay large sums of money to block the publication of pictures of the monarch in compromising situations.

One of the king's childhood friends, Ander Lettstroem, admitted in a statement last week he had contacted people involved with organised crime, but insisted it was purely his own initiative and had nothing to do with Carl XVI Gustaf. » | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Libya: Senior Officers Defect from Gaddafi Army
BBC: Eight senior officers who defected from Col Muammar Gaddafi's army have appealed to fellow soldiers to join them in backing the rebels.

One of the eight accused pro-Gaddafi forces of "genocide".

The men - who are said to include five generals - appeared as a news conference in Rome. » | Monday, May 30, 2011