Breaking News : 120 Seconds

First of all Arabic channels have just aired the video of Shalit , those expensive 60 seconds that prove he is a live and fine not to mention healthy
I will work to post it here. Shalit looks fine in fact great unlike the Palestinian and Arab prisoners. Shalit’s message was recorded last September 14, 2009 as the newspaper he was holding showed the date.

Today earlier Israel has released 19 female prisoners for those important 60 seconds, very important 60 seconds which are recorded for sure.
I want to say something , this small deal is very important , yes most of those 19 female prisoners were going to be released sooner next year but the fact that for just 60 seconds , 19 prisoners were released after years of negotiations.

Israel did not win in this deal as much as both Hamas and Omar Soliman did and I say Omar Soliman because this is a bounce for his foreign policies political record.

Updates #1 

First of here is the video of Shalit from the Israeli TV , it is in Hebrew ,you can find the transcript of what he had said after the video

Muntader Al Zaidi speaks about his tortue

Last Saturday Al Jazeera channel aired the longest interview ever made for Muntader Al Zaidi after his release. I saw this episode last Saturday and since then I have been searching for it online till dear Tafatefo kindly uploaded it :) " What Shall I do without you Tafatefo !??"

Muntader discussed the day he threw Bush with his shoes in that part of the interview, why he had done it and the 24 hours followed his historical act.
What Muntader had seen in the first 24 hours is a human rights abuse crime , you can't imagine the torture and suffering he saw , the man is lucky to be alive. He was tortured by the orders of the Maliki's men in the Green Zone , in fact the torture started moments after his arrest in the same building!! 
There is no difference between Maliki's men and Saddam's men , the same cruelty , the same mentality !!
You can watch the episode below along with a summary to the major points he mentioned, next Saturday  the second part of the interview will be aired on Al Jazeera channel

Where Is Hani Sorror ??

Hani Sorror , the famous businessman and NDP member of Parliament whose famous controversial corruption case is still in front of the court has suddenly disappeared ; he is no where to be found currently in the country according to Al Ahrar newspaper yesterday. You do not need too much time to think that he left the country , he is not the first businessman nor NDPian to flee the country ; Mamdouh Ismail did it before him.
The judge who will announce the final verdict in his case aka Hideline case is Mohamedi konsowah who earned public fame because of the Suzanne Tamim's murder case, konsowah is known to be strict and also fair in his verdicts. There have been lots of expectations that Sorror will be convicted this time when it was announced that Konsowah was the judge in the appeal.
The verdict was to be announced last September 17th, 2009 but due to the fact that none of the accused has appeared in court ,the Judge decided to delay the sentence hearing to next November 19th ,2009. Either Sorror will show up on that date or he will be another runaway NDP businessman.
If this man really has left the country then he will be hurting his son in law Cinema star Karim Abdel Aziz's career a lot.
To refresh your memory  Hany Sorror used to import blood bags through his medical supplies company Hidelina , those bags turned out to be contaminated with germs which threaten thousands of patients' lives with dangerous diseases and viruses especially that they were mainly used in the public sector hospitals.

What Now ?? The Jeep driver Was crazy as usual !!??

With no introduction and reason an Israeli army jeep entered a schoolyard of the "Izz al-Din al-Qassam" school in Yabad terrorizing the students and killing 17 years Fuad Mohamed Nayef Turkman in front of his brother, relatives and friend.
The jeep ran over Turkman and then pulled him for more than 25 meters out of the school in front of the students !!
I do not understand why a military vehicle attacks a school like that , did the driver believe that this is where the "Izz al-Din al-Qassam" brigades are or from where the Qassam rockets are launched ??
I do not doubt if the IDF investigates the incident the driver will turn to be a crazy manic as usual , well he is for sure a sick man to terrorize people like that regardless of their nationality and identity.
I do not think that those students who saw their friend Fuad to be killed and dragged in that way will have positive feelings and thoughts about Israel !!?? I think some of those teenagers will begin to think in revenge and you can't blame them.
Technorati Tags: War Crimes, IDF, Politics, Regional, Palestine, West bank, Yabad, Citizen Journalism, Politics, Israel, Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, Human rights, Peace, Middle East, Mideast

Just Wondering About The Yemen’s War

I wondered from couple of weeks ago about this on going war in Yemen which the world seems to ignore despite hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed and thousands have been displaced for months now.

People told me that it is part of the Saudi-Iranian cold war in the region where Ali Abdullah Saleh represents the Sunni Saudi and the Huthis represent the Shiite Iranian but then when you look to the profile of Saleh you will be surprised to know that he is a Zaydi Shiite Muslim just like the Huthis , oh yes dear he is a SHIITE Muslim !!

This shows that it is not about religious rivalry or sectarian differences.

Also King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is going to visit Syria after his invitation to Bashar Al Assad to attend the inauguration of the KAUST and the official Saudi denial that it will let the IAF use its skies to hit Iran. Syria is a proud ally of Iran and for sure Al Assad is playing a role as a mediator between Saudi Arabia and Iran just like between Iran and the West.

So this shows you that it is about regional rivalry either , again Saleh is a Shiite and logic says he will be on the Iranian side more , already from the Saudi blogs I feel that the Saudi people are not fond of him that much.

So what is or who is behind this terrible war ??

Well rumor says it is not about regional powers more about internal powers collision on rule between Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son Ahmed who is expected to take over the rule of Yemen after father’s and one of the army commanders there , I am trying to remember his name but unfortunately I forgot to write it down :(

Ahmed is currently assigned to head the troops which are fighting the Huthis in Sa’dah and just like other sons of Papa presidents he has share of corruption cases involving bribes and using influence.

Again I do not know much about the war in Yemen but if that rumor is true then Ahmed Saleh and that other general will send Yemen to hell , not only they will be causing the death and displacement of thousands but also regional instability. Of course those two men can also have a regional back up , the world’s silence is a proof of this.

I wonder where the role of the Arab league is in this conflict , of course Egypt after what happened in 1960s thinks twice before involving in any Yemeni affair.

Technorati Tags: Yemen,Politics,News,Regional,Huthis,Sa'dah,Mideast,Middle East,Zaydi,Iran,Saudi Arabia,Islam,Shiites,Religion,War,Ali Abdullah Saleh,Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh

H1N1 Follow Up : Schools,hospitals, Cinemas and army

I am sorry that I am not following the H1N1 news in Egypt as I used to be but it is never too late. In the number language: our infection toll is over the 944.
There were also news that Swine flue has reached to our jails , in particular Abou Zabal prison , the thing which the ministry of interior has denied.
There is a huge debate now on whether the schools and universities should open their doors and the study should start. The families are scared to send their children but at the same time can't afford to make them stay home for months and waste a semester or even a whole year.
According to the ministry of education the study will start next Saturday but several parents I have met in this week told me that they won't send their children except after two weeks when every thing is stable. The ministries of education and health are saying that they made sure that our schools in that week were prepared for the H1N1 , of course they can say whatever they want but the real challenge is not in the private schools or the public schools in the Capital but rather in the country side and in poor populated areas where students can´t afford buying Dettol wipes. ¨The importer of Dettol is living his golden time now !!¨
I also heard that the ministry of education gave its orders to school to teach only 1/3of the curriculum , this year is a bless for students in Egypt , I envy them. I also heard another rumor that the schools and universities will be opened only for one month , already it is expected that peak of H1N1 will be in November , so may be they will be closed one month and reopened again.
We are still in rumors town but we are leaving it very soon , the last H1N1 rumor I hear was that our infection record is higher than what is announced , of course this is resulted from our government´s policy to hide everything from the public but honestly the ministry of health can´t hide the real numbers even for too long because the WHO is behind it. Egypt is being monitored very closely because we have both Swine Flu and Avian flu.
Now to the real world,The Eid season in the Egyptian film industry was hit by the Swine flu, major producers and stars were afraid their films in this season after the warnings of the ministry of health in Ramadan from cinemas as closed places. Semi Cult films were released this season.
The army is going to found a factory to produce the H1N1 vaccine , bad news for Roche and Glaxo Smith Kline for sure. The army always saves the day.

Daily World Chronicles 10/01/2009

• Inside Michael Jackson’s Private Kingdom: Homes: architecturaldigest.com

  Architectural digest shows A rare look at a part of Neverland in time of Michael Jackson

  tags: MJ, architecturaldigest, Daily Links, In the wind's directions, Photos

• Wahid Hamad on our public money spent in the ads of Ramadan

  Despite my differences with him , I can't deny that I really respect and admire the articles Wahid Hamad has written in Al Shorouq newspaper about useless advertising ads in Ramadan
  This is one is about the ministries' advertising campaigns in Ramadan and about our public money which is spent or rather wasted, the public money we should ask how it is spent and in what exactly !!
  P.S I love the part he describes Rola Gabriel and Tarek Nour's campaign to promote her show !!

  tags: Economy, Egypt, News, Citizen Journalism, Daily Links, In the wind's direction, Press

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.