Friday in the Arab world has dawned with relative quiet, albeit a likely temporary pause, as the position of several governments in many places shifts.
Egypt: widespread rumours that appear to have started with the New York Times have the US and President Hosmi Mubarak discussing his departure with a three-head government to replace him.
Tunisia: the interim government is dismantling the old Ben Ali regime by replacing all 24 governors and several top security officers.
Algeria: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has agreed to lift the 19-year-old state of emergency that limits internal travel and is behind other restrictions.
Yemen: The largest gatherings against the government in two weeks of protests, 3 February, brought out several thousand people in what turned out to be mostly peaceful calls for the president to step down, in a country where unemployment runs at 40 percent.
More violent clashes by people protesting the high cost of living and scant job opportunities in Tunisia have left at least 14 dead over the weekend 9 and 10 January in Thala, Kasserine and Rgeb, cities southwest of the capital Tunis, according to Al-Jazeera, citing state media. French newspaper Le Monde has counted at least 23 deaths, including that of several suicides, since the violence erupted more than three weeks ago.
The government in Tunis has been reluctant to comment on the unrest, saying only that police had fired on the crowds over the weekend in “legitimate self-defense”. News reporting in Tunisia is restricted by the government. In Paris a small bomb exploded outside of the Tunisian consulate early Sunday 9 January, causing little damage.
In neighbouring Algeria, riots over the price of food broke out in a working-class neighbourhood in Algiers 4 January and have spread to other major cities and towns. Clashes have claimed three lives and many people have reportedly been injured. The government announced 9 January in an emergency meeting that it was slashing duties on imported sugar, oil and other foods.
Links to other sites: CNN, Maghrebia News, New York Times
The Swiss national team
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss football team is down one man due to injury. The Swiss football federation announced Christoph Spycher’s knee injury is preventing him from playing at the World Cup.
Spycher had planned to retire after the world championship but his injury is forcing him into early retirement.
The defender will be replaced by Ludovic Magnin who is recuperating from a broken hand. According to the Swiss coach, Magnin will wear a cast during training camp which begins on 25 May.
Switzerland will play Costa Rica on 1 June in Sion, and Italy in Geneva on 5 June as part of its pre-World Cup training.
India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria are the main customers for the Russian arms industry, which expects to see a 12 percent increase in international sales in 2010, to $9.5 billion. Vietnam also recently became a client, ordering submarines, aircraft and “other military hardware”, reports Russian news agency Ria Novosti. Russia’s main competitors are China, Germany and the US.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has benefited from an outpouring of nationalist fervour following the Egyptian soccer team’s loss to Algeria after two qualifying matches 14 and 18 November. The fallout from the football matches has included Egyptians being attacked in Algiers, Algeria, and a rupture in diplomatic ties between the two countries. Mubarak addressed the country’s parliament Saturday 21 November and vowed to protect the dignity of Egyptian citizens living abroad, to loud applause.
The incidents surrounding the arrival of the Algerian football team in Cairo, Egypt 14 November for a World Cup qualifying match with arch-rivals Egypt are to be investigated by the disciplinary committee of the world football regulatory body, Fifa announced 19 November. The bus carrying the Algerian team was beset by rioters and stoned as it moved from the airport to the hotel.
Update 12:30. Russia’s defense minister has confirmed that the Arctic Sea, a Malta-registered ship found off Cape Verde 17 August was the victim of a pirate attack 24 July. Eight men including Russians, Estonians and Latvians have been arrested. BBC, CNN
The Arctic Sea, a cargo ship that loaded timber in Finland and was en route from the Baltic Sea to Bejaia, Algeria when it went missing, has been located in the Atlantic ocean off the Cape Verde islands. A Russian warship took the crew off the ship and is interrogating them to find out what happened. The crew is in good health, according to the Russian government.
The ship, with a 15-man Russian crew, was last heard from by British authorities 24 July as it went through the English Channel. The ship’s crew informed authorities then that it had been boarded by 8-12 armed masked men wearing uniforms with the word “police” on them. The men disembarked a day later in a rubber dinghy, the crew said. BBC, CNN, Moscow Times
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Ecosoc, the United Nations’s Economic and Social Council in Geneva, has taken two controversial decisions: to suspend the Paris-based Arab Commission for Human Rights, at the request of Algeria, and to approve the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals. One of the main jobs of Ecosoc is to take decisions on the consultative status at the UN of NGOs (non-governmental organizations), with over 3,000 of them currently approved.
