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(Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies) – Israel approved on Sunday the construction of a barrier along its border with Egypt, Israeli media reported on Monday.- - -
"I took the decision to close Israel's southern border to infiltrators and terrorists. This is a strategic decision to secure Israel's Jewish and democratic character," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement.
In recent weeks, the number of African migrants detained by Egypt whilst trying to enter Israel has increased. On Sunday, Egyptian security sources revealed that security forces thwarted two attempts by African migrants to enter Israel through Egypt's Sinai border. Many have been shot dead at the border by Egypt.
"We cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our country with illegal aliens,” Netanyahu added.
Israel’s border with Egypt spans approximately 266 kilometers and the new wall is tipped to cost Israel more than 270 million US dollars, taking two years to complete. The new wall will be accompanied by advanced security and monitoring installations.
Egypt’s steel wall
Meanwhile, Egypt began constructing a steel wall along the border that will extend underground in an attempt to cut off a network of smuggling tunnels. The tunnels are a lifeline for Palestinians living under an Israeli-led blockade.
In December, Egyptian government workers constructing the massive metal barrier along the Egypt-Gaza border came under fire from Palestinian gunmen according to Egyptian security sources.
The presence of Gaza’s smuggling tunnels, which were constructed to attempt to ease the ongoing siege, is deemed a focal security concern for both Israel and Egypt.
In part, Israel’s Operation Cast Lead last winter aimed at collapsing and destroying the industry, which the Israeli army has termed “terror tunnels.”
Egyptian authorities regularly report shutting down smuggling efforts which include the transfer of cigarettes, bottled water, and fuel into Gaza.
On Friday, following an airstrike, the Israeli army dropped leaflets across southern and northern Gaza, warning residents to “take responsibility for their future.”
"Terrorists, tunnel owners, and the smugglers of military equipment know for certain that the continuation of terrorist attacks, the smuggling of military equipment, and the digging of tunnels will be targeted by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], but they continue to work in your residential areas and seek refuge among you," according to the flier, which was written in Arabic.
Israeli airstrikes on the rise in Gaza
Meanwhile, three Palestinians affiliated to the Islamic Jihad movement were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight in central Gaza. Islamic Jihad leader Khalid Al-Bashta has warned that all signs point to a new Israeli operation in the besieged coastal strip. Israel is seeking international support for such an operation, he claimed.
Netanyahu said in his weekly cabinet meeting that "Last week 20 rockets and mortar rounds were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. I regard this very seriously.”
“The IDF responded immediately; it attacked missile producing factories in the Gaza Strip and tunnels through which Iran smuggles missiles and rockets into the Strip. The Government's policy is clear: Any firing at our territory will be responded to strongly and immediately.”
Cairo (Egypt) — For the last decade, the autumn skies over Egypt - especially over capital Cairo, have been overshadowed by a thick haze people call "the black cloud".
The black cloud first appeared in 1998, ironically after the creation of Egypt's ministry of environment. Three environment ministers since then have failed to solve the problem, which manifests itself in an ugly pall of haze from dusk until dawn between mid-October and December.
This year has been no exception.
"Black cloud covers Cairo-Alexandria highway...resulting in an increase in the number of road accidents owing to decreased visibility," independent daily Al-Dustour reports. A headline in independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reads: "The black cloud covers Cairo, (as well as urban governorates) Qalioubiya and Helwan."
The cloud has direct health effects. In mid-October, independent weekly Youm Al-Sabaa reported some 300 daily cases of respiratory problems in the Nile delta province Gharbiya as a result of the cloud.
The weekly quoted Mohamed Ibrahim, member of the government-run National Councils of Specialists as saying that the appearance of the black cloud had become "a seasonal phenomenon."
Ever since it first appeared, the government has blamed it on widespread burning of rice straw on the outskirts of Cairo and in the countryside. This is an annual practice among farmers during the autumn rice harvesting season.
Minister of state for environmental affairs Maged George says the burning of rice straw accounts for more than 50 percent of all air pollution in Egypt.
"Farmers aren't adhering to established quotas for rice burning every year," George said. He stressed the need for to financial penalties and even arrest in order to deter anyone who threatened the environment through agricultural or industrial practices.
The governor of Gharbiya province says 1,031 farmers have so far been charged by the authorities with burning excess rice straw. Each faces fines ranging between 5,000 and 100,000 Egyptian pounds (930 to 18,600 dollars) each.
A handful of public-private projects, some in cooperation with international development agencies, have sought to eliminate the practice by encouraging farmers to recycle straw for other uses. Under one such initiative, farmers are paid roughly 45 Egyptian pounds (8.40 dollars) per ton of straw they turn in at designated collection centres. The straw, along with other forms of agricultural waste, is then recycled into fertiliser.
But many experts say such initiatives - while a step in the right direction - are far from adequate.
"There's far more rice straw than can be processed by these recycling facilities, which are only available in three or four provinces," Ahmed Abdel- Wahab, professor of environment at Benha University told IPS. "Meanwhile, the cost of transporting the straw to recycling centres usually ends up being more than what farmers receive for it."
What's more, while environmentalists laud the notion of recycling, they point out that the government tends to focus - unfairly, they say - on the rice- straw burning while overlooking other causes of the cloud.
"The cloud will continue as long as the government insists on ignoring its real causes and concentrates solely on rice farmers as the usual suspects," Ibrahim said. "In greater Cairo at least, vehicle exhaust emissions, garbage burning and industrial pollution constitute the main causes of the phenomenon."
"The government is only focusing on the margins of the problem," Mohamed Nagi, head of the Cairo-based Hapi Centre for Environmental Rights tells IPS. "Most experts agree that the burning of rice straw represents only 12 percent of the cause of the cloud."
Abdel-Wahab agrees that automobile exhaust emissions and industrial pollution from factories are prime causes for the cloud.
"Every day, some two million cars hit the streets of greater Cairo, which is also surrounded by industrial factories, and both of these represent bigger pollutants than the straw burning," he said. "While straw burning certainly contributes to a rising carbon content in the air, vehicle emissions are just as much - if not more - to blame."
"The only reason that the cloud appears in the fall is the natural drop in temperature, which tends to trap accumulated air pollution close to the ground and make it visible to the eye," Abdel-Wahab added. "But the pollution is still there - just not as visible - during the rest of the year."
Nagi says that the rice farmers are being "unfairly accused of responsibility" for the cloud. "The environment ministry has taken some measures against straw burning, but it has failed to address any of the other root causes of the phenomenon."
Nagi pointed to two earlier government decisions - one to seize or fine automobiles with high exhaust emissions, and another to withdraw polluting factories from the capital. "Both of these decisions have yet to be implemented," he said.
Nagi says several government ministries - not just the one for the environment - are responsible for the lapses.
"It's not only the environment ministry that's to blame," he said. "The interior ministry is responsible for automobile emissions, the industry ministry for factories, and the agriculture ministry for farmers."
"The government lacks a consistent policy to fight air pollution in general, not just the black cloud," Nagi added. "Unfortunately, civil society - which should pressure Egyptian officialdom to lay out a clear plan to combat air pollution - has been no less negligent than the government in this regard."
Under such circumstances, local experts fear that the cloud is set to remain a seasonal occurrence for a long time to come.
"The black cloud, which represents a clear violation of the citizen's right to a healthy environment, is likely to stay with us for several more years," said Nagi.
Abdel-Wahab said that without a more effective environmental policy, "the black cloud will be around for at least another 20 years."
(Khartoum) – There is still tension between Egyptian and Sudanese soccer fans following Egypt’s defeat by Algeria in Omdurman two weeks ago.
Egyptian fans claim that Sudanese police failed to protect them when fighting broke out between rival supporters after the match.
A Sudanese living in Egypt, Mahir Musa, was attacked on Monday following an argument about the match. He spoke to SRS in Cairo.
[Mahir Musa]:"I had gone to visit my relatives in Alashir. At night I went to buy cigarettes from the kiosk. I politely asked the owner of the shop to hand me a cigarette. He then noticed from the way I spoke that I was from Sudan.
He then started talking to me about the football match. From there I said I was not interested in the cigarettes anymore and that he should give me back my money so I could leave. when I said I didn’t want anything from him, I just wanted my money, he started insulting me, I got annoyed and when I responded suddenly he came out from the kiosk carrying a knife and he and his friend started attacking me by stabbing me. My relatives had to take me to the hospital. This is just one of many the incidents happening to Sudanese in Cairo.”
The Egyptians claimed that they were attacked by Algerian fans after the match and that the Sudanese authorities did nothing to protect them.
Pharoah the cat has been put into quarantine Photo: ARCHANT
The male ginger and white cat, named Pharaoh by his rescuers, was shut in a container which was brought to the Port of Felixstowe, a Suffolk County Council spokeswoman said.
She said the hungry animal was found in a freight depot a month after it left Port Said in Egypt.
RSPCA officers collected Pharaoh and he is now being looked after a quarantine cattery near Colchester, Essex.
''He was not in a very good state and at first it was thought he might not survive,'' said the council spokeswoman.
''He has been taken to a quarantine centre at Colchester, checked for rabies and other problems, fed and been looked after and now looks much better.
''Pharaoh will have to stay in quarantine and then he will be re-homed here.''
Algeria's ambassador to Cairo has been summoned to the foreign ministry after a series of attacks on Egyptian workers and companies by crowds of angry Algerian football fans furious at being beaten 2-0 by Egypt in a World Cup qualifier in Cairo.
The envoy was called in to explain the violence in Algeria, which Egyptian businesses say has intensified ahead of a play-off between the teams today on neutral territory in Khartoum, Sudan's capital. The match will determine which of the sides attends South Africa 2010.
Egypt is the largest investor in Algeria outside the oil and gas sector.
The two countries are traditional football rivals and their games have often been marked by violence. A World Cup qualifier in 1989 is best remembered for rioting and the issuing of an international arrest warrant against one of the Algerian players.
The violence started after reports the Algerian team had been attacked in Cairo before Saturday's match. Images broadcast on the internet showed Algerian players with blood on their faces and the team coach with broken windows.
Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian executive chairman of Orascom Telecom Holding, said mobs had ransacked the headquarters of Djezzy, Orascom's Algerian subsidiary, and destroyed its factory and 15 of its shops.
He said that with the destruction of crucial equipment there was a danger the company's network, which serves 15m subscribers, could stop functioning, and that the cost of the damage could run into "tens of millions" of dollars.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
(Nairobi) - Sudanese living in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Malaysia will now be able to register for the elections scheduled for 2010.- - -
The National Election Commission had earlier exempted some countries from participating in the voter registration exercise which started on November 1.
The Sudanese Ambassador to Kenya, Majok Guandong, told Sudan Radio Service in Nairobi on Thursday that he had received a circular from the NEC instructing him to start the voter registration. exercise in Kenya.
[Majok Guandong]: “Yes it is true, the news came yesterday morning (Wednesday) that the NEC has allowed us to establish voter registration centers in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Malaysia. So since yesterday we have been informing the Sudanese who are residing here, starting from tomorrow (Friday). The registration process will start at the Embassy and the GOSS liaison office. This is good news, because it is a constitutional right for the Sudanese to vote in the elections.”
Majok Guandong said that the registration period will be extended to compensate for the late start. He emphasized that the exercise will take 30 days, as required by NEC.
[Guandong]: “If we start tomorrow (Friday), we will be counting the days we have missed since the official start day, because it should be 30 days as scheduled. Secondly, all the documents are available at the Sudanese Embassy, and all Sudanese have the right. Since 1997, more than 5000 Sudanese have managed to get official documents, the passport, identity cards etc. The process is still on. So they have the right, if they need any official documents, there is no problem at all.”
Earlier, the deputy chairman of the NEC, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, told Sudan Radio Service that NEC was only concentrating on the countries with large Sudanese populations.
The countrywide voter registration exercise is scheduled to finish at the end of November.
(Rumbek) - Ten people posing as registration officers have been arrested in Rumbek, Lakes state.Click on 'Election' label (here below at Sudan Watch) to read news report Nov. 10, 2009, entitled "SSDF to sue NEC for denying Sudanese in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia a chance to register as voters in the general elections"
The 10 are under police custody as investigations are going on. They are being held for registering voters, collecting people’s identification and convincing people not to register at the official registration centers set up by the state High Elections Commission.
Our correspondent in Rumbek, Mageng Wade, sent this report.
[Mageng Wade]: “These people said that they were being sent and given money by the NCP to come and register people locally in order to prevent them from registering for the elections next year. So that is the agenda behind the registration of people in their houses.”
Rumbek Central county commissioner Abraham Akol Bol also spoke to Sudan Radio Service.
[Abraham Akol] “They have been arrested by the police and they are now under police investigation and we have not yet received information from the police whether this group belongs to a political party. They were trying to register people and were telling them not to go to the registration centers because they had already been registered. They also took ID cards from the citizens, those who tried to register but the culprits were found by police and they are now under investigation.”
The deputy governor of Lakes state, David Ngok, said that the people are trying to sabotage both the voter registration exercise and the elections.
[David Ngok]: “If there are some people who are trying to sabotage the voter registration process then they are also sabotaging the elections. We will not tolerate this as the government because this is government policy and it’s part of the CPA and the constitution so we will not allow them to do it.”
The deputy governor of Lakes state, David Ngok, spoke to Sudan Radio Service on Thursday
November 12, 2009 (MALAKAL) — The National Election Commission (NEC) of Sudan today confirmed acceptance of additional countries to the previous list for registration and voting to enable Sudanese abroad to participate in the upcoming elections next year.
Following the publication of a list of countries comprised mostly the Golf countries where the members of the Sudanese Diaspora are from northern Sudan, the SPLM asked to take in consideration African countries where Southerners reside massively.
The initial list includes Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain, the UK, Belgium (for all Western Europe) and Washington, New York, Los Angles for the USA.
"We have allocated more registration and voting centers in Africa and Asia, said Abel Alier, NEC chairman at Malakal airport as he was en route to Khartoum after inspecting southern states voter registration centers.
Countries newly agreed upon for inclusion by the two parties in Africa includes Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa as well as and Malaysia, he said adding discussions are underway to add other neighboring countries.
Therefore, as commission, "we request Sudanese people residing in those countries to immediately establish contacts with the Sudanese embassies and other designated offices for registration," he emphasized.
Asked why being selective with countries hosting number of Sudanese people abroad to participate in the ongoing voter registration, he said, national election commission gets approval of countries to be included in the registration process from the presidency.
"The Presidency is the highest authority which decides on issues pertaining to country affairs such as voter registration," he commented expressing wishes all Sudanese people abroad open registration centers.
However, he was quick to say the Commission tries its best to ensure inclusion of more centers so that every Sudanese participates in the upcoming elections.
He said constitution allows participation of legally registered citizens to elect their leaders in the upcoming April 2010 elections.
"If you are not registered, it will be hard to vote for the person one sees as leader," he said adding voter registration remains opened to the last day of November 2009.
Alier also requested local authorities to give logistical supports to voter registration teams. He also acknowledged assistance being rendered by United Nation Mission in Sudan in transportation of voter registration materials and teams in where government supports is required.
"UNMIS is greatly supporting registration process in water zones and areas without good roads mostly in the southern part of the country and transitional areas," he stressed.
