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.
