CAIRO — From deep in Egypt’s south to the nation’s Mediterranean shores hundreds of kilometres to the north, everyone knows that it’s all but a formality for Hosni Mubarak to win next month’s presidential election. Such apathy is routine given Egypt’s long record of electoral fraud. Yet surprisingly, many in …
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Sunnis mobilise to defeat charter
FALLUJAH — As the Sunni tribal chiefs file into the bullet-scarred headquarters of the US-led coalition in the centre of Fallujah, it is immediately clear what they came to talk about. “The constitution is weak and it casts the Sunnis aside,” says one. “We have to keep Iraq united from …
Read More »Reuters demands release of wounded journalist
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Reuters demanded the immediate release on Monday of an Iraqi cameraman who was still being held by US forces in Baghdad more than a day after being wounded in an incident in which his soundman was killed. Iraqi police said the news team was shot by US …
Read More »Iraqi Sunnis urge charter change
BAGHDAD (AP) — Thousands of Sunni demonstrators rallied in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on Monday to denounce Iraq’s new constitution a day after negotiators finished the new charter without the endorsement of Sunni Arabs. Sunni leaders have urged their community to defeat the charter in a nationwide referendum on …
Read More »Suicide bomber strikes in Beersheva
Abbas condemns attack, describes it `terrorist operation’ OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A suicide bomber blew himself up yesterday wounding some 40 Israelis, two of them seriously, in the southern Israeli town of Beersheva. The bombing came four days after Israeli troops killed five Palestinians, three of them teenagers, in the northern …
Read More »Palestinians’ long wait at Gaza border for Israelis to go
RAFAH — Although Egypt lies a mere 800 metres away, Naim Mohammed may wait hours or even days to get there. For Palestinians in this impoverished border town, very little has changed since Israel’s historic evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza. Throughout August, around a thousand Palestinians arrive daily at …
Read More »Only heat has candidate Mubarak sweating
CAIRO — Dabbing sweat from his brow with a neatly folded white handkerchief, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak plods on with his election campaign speech, promising building land for the young and more investment in agriculture. He starts with the ritual homage to the history of the town he is visiting …
Read More »Iran bids to open out talks beyond Europe
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran does not consider Britain, France and Germany to be the sole negotiating partners on its nuclear programme and believes the process should be opened out beyond Europe, the foreign ministry said Sunday. “We will continue negotiating with them, but on the other hand we will not …
Read More »Road to Iraqi charter far rockier than expected due to miscalculations, overblown optimism
BAGHDAD — Since the early days of the occupation, the United States has aimed for a democratic constitution to serve the interests of all Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups. Getting one has proven tough. The tortured process, now approaching a climactic stage, has been marked by false starts, overblown optimism …
Read More »Bush touts constitution, prods Sunnis
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President George W. Bush on Sunday dismissed the rejection of Iraq’s new draft constitution by Sunni negotiators as the opinion of a few, expressing confidence that the failure to secure backing from all the country’s ethnic and political groups won’t derail a transition to democracy. Bush …
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