In Geneva, 24-26 February
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Money will help people off the hook in capital punishment cases, according to a round table discussion at the fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty, held in Geneva 24-26 February. That, and the victim being a foreigner makes it unlikely that he or she will be put to death. Panelists from Bahrein, Pakistan and the United States argued that “money can buy you immunity” from prosecution. “Torture and the death penalty are for the poor,” says Kamran Arif, a lawyer from Pakistan, which hands down one-third of the world’s death sentences.
A 12-year-old Saudi Arabian girl, married a year ago to an 80-year-old man, is receiving help from the country’s Human Rights Commission in what could turn out to be a test case. Marriages of young girls to older men are not uncommon in some parts of the country and are legal, but a draft law under consideration would create a minimum of 16-18 years. The girl’s mother reportedly filed for her daughter to divorce but withdrew it a month ago without explanation.
Sudden rain on a scale rarely seen in Saudi Arabia earlier this week caused floods with a death toll that has now risen to 77, according to Saudi officials, who say the worst-hit area was Jeddah, about 60km from the holy city of Mecca, Wednesday 25 November. Thousands of pilgrims making their way to Mecca for the annual Hajj were warned by the government to take extra care, with more heavy rain forecast for the area. Aljazeera reports that thousands of people are stuck in Jeddah, unable to start the trip to Mecca.
Scientists from Saudi Arabia are assessing the risks posed by the annual hajj, pilgrimage, in the spread of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus along with experts from the World Health Organization, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2009, more than 2,5 million pilgrims are expected in Saudi Arabia from 160 countries around the world for the five-day religious observance between 25-29 November, the height of the flu season. The risks are that so many people packed together in such a short time will act like a giant incubator to transmit the disease worldwide.
Saudi authorities have asked people at risk – pregnant women, young children, the elderly – not to come this year, and recommend people come vaccinated. The airports have been equipped with thermal scanners and other scanning equipment. People are encouraged to wear masks, wash hands frequently and observe “cough etiquette”. New York Times, Reuters, WHO
Oil prices rose to their highest since October 2008 in trading 24 August. A barrel of light sweet crude oil trading on the NY Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) for October delivery touched $74.81 before closing at $74.37. Traders give several reasons, chief among them the continuing demand for oil from China, which has seen a massive expansion in the number of automobiles on the road. Oil output from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia is steady, and the onset of the hurricane season in the North Atlantic adds to supply worries. Increased optimism about the economy is driving the price of commodities higher, too. US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was cautiously optimistic about the US economy last week and said that it was nearing recovery.
Others are not so optimistic. Nouriel Roubini, a NY University professor who accurately predicted the world financial melt-down, says that growth could be anemic for several years in the major economies. He says that commodity prices are running ahead of fundamentals and sees signs of speculation in those markets. BBC, Reuters, Romandie News (Fre)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s tourism office and political authorities are taking steps to calm the situation and in particular relations with Saudi Arabia after Geneva police confirmed 10 August that a Saudi Arabian man was beaten unconscious in Geneva and his credit cards stolen three weeks ago. Police spokesperson Jean-Philippe Brandt confirmed the news on Swiss radio station RSR. The confirmation followed strongly worded statements from Saudi Arabia’s consul general Nabil Mohamed Al-Saleh that police in Geneva have not done their job, accusations that he repeated Tuesday morning 11 August in an interview with Fribourg newspaper La Liberté. Other representatives of the Arab community in Geneva nevertheless said the situation must be kept in perspective, that Geneva does a good job of welcoming Arab tourists.
US vice president Joe Biden told ABC television Sunday 5 July that the US could not restrain Israel from taking military action if it felt threatened by a nuclear build-up in Iran. Biden has just returned from a Middle East trip. Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel will not allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. Israel bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. The Sunday Times of London reported 5 July that secret talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia raised the possibility that Israel would not be hindered if it flew through Saudi airspace on its way to Iran. BBC, Reuters
Update 17:45 FULL TEXT of Obama speech (pdf) US President Barack Obama is set to speak to the Muslim world from Cairo University in Egypt today 4 June in a major speech months in the crafting. US officials are playing down the speech’s importance, saying that years of misunderstandings between the US and the Muslim world could not be set right overnight. Obama spent yesterday with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, saying “I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began.”
Al Jazeera broadcast what it said was an audio tape from Osama bin Laden 3 June, which condemned US policies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. His deputy, Egyptian Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in another tape recording called on Egyptians to reject the Obama visit. In Jerusalem, officials said they would be watching the speech carefully. Tensions have risen recently between Israel and Washington on the subject of continuing West Bank settlements.
The US government has set up a special site for people to send in SMS comments on the speech, which the State Deptartment will translate into 13 languages. NYT, BBC, Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post
Elections to 178 local councils will be delayed two years, announced Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers, King Abdullah at its head, the New York Times reports 19 May. The country’s first elections were held in 2005, when men only were allowed to vote for half the representatives. The rest were appointed. Local human rights activists say they were disappointed by the decision.
A top US intelligence offical has told the NY Times that a former Yemeni detaine at Guantanamo Bay was released to Saudi Arabia, put through a rehabilitation programme – and he has has now surfaced as part of a Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia disagrees.
