Thousands of Palestinians stuck in Sinai

Posted on By 3arabawy

From AP…

Sleeping in the sand and running out of money, thousands of Palestinians have been stranded in Egypt’s desert for more than a month since the border with Hamas-controlled Gaza has been closed.
Conditions in the frontier town were increasingly desperate yesterday, with one woman saying she was forced to sell her wedding ring to feed her family. Others complained authorities weren’t even providing blankets or other basic necessities.
The Rafah border terminal has been closed since June 9, the start of the final round of bloody factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas that led to the Islamic group’s takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Egypt said this week it had ruled out opening the border anytime soon, a move intended to put pressure on Hamas to resolve its conflict with Fatah.

Peruvian protesters detain police

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Al-Jazeera:

Hundreds of angry demonstrators have taken nine police hostage in southern Peru, amid a string of protests against President Alan Garcia.
Police said that some 1,000 protesters had blocked the highway, some 1,100km south of the capital Lima on Friday, to demand the government invest in the region.
The protesters also expressed support for public teachers’ strike that started this week.
“The protesters surrounded a group of nine police that were lifting a road blockage on the Arequipa-Puno road, and took them hostage,” a police officer said.
“They (protesters) tied them up, and they are still being held by the mob,” he added.
Local media reported that protest leaders want to swap the hostages for 14 demonstrators detained earlier.
Meanwhile, hundreds of public teachers took to the streets of Lima on Friday to demand the government withdraw an education reform plan, which they say will leave hundreds of teachers unemployed.

Executions imminent after unfair trials

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Amnesty International:

Three men are facing imminent execution in Egypt. Muhammed Gayiz Sabbah, Usama ‘Abed al-Ghani al-Nakhlawi and Younis Muhammed Abu Gareer were convicted of terrorist offences after a grossly unfair trial.
The three were tried before the (Emergency) Supreme State Security Court in Ismailia in connection with a series of bomb attacks in Taba and elsewhere on the Sinai Peninsula in October 2004.
Amnesty International condemned these attacks, which left at least 34 people dead, and called on the Egyptian authorities to bring those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards and without recourse to the death penalty.
The men denied the charges, but the emergency court sentenced them to death in November 2006. Ten other people were convicted in connection with the bomb attacks and sentenced to terms of imprisonment.
Muhammed Gayiz Sabbah, Usama ‘Abed al-Ghani al-Nakhlawi and Younis Muhammed Abu Gareer continue to be held on death row in separate cells in Liman Tora Prison and are allowed short family visits only once a month.