MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Argentina 5.5 - 5.4 ; Indonesia 5.3 - 5.2 !More info here.

• 'Iran says it arrested suspects in scientist killing'.(JPost).Iranian authorities have arrested several suspects in connection with the assassination of nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan last week, Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani was quoted as saying in Iranian media Monday."A number of people who had a hand in the assassination of martyr Ahmadi-Roshan have been arrested," Mehr News quoted him as saying. "[An] investigation is underway to identify the terrorists and details about the assassination."Read the full story here.

• Saudi Arabia says it can raise oil production to fill any supply gap.(AlArabiya).The world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, said on Monday it could increase oil production by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) “almost immediately,” a day after Iran threatened its Gulf neighbors not to compensate for any shortfall in its oil exports if sanctions bite too harshly.“We can easily get up to 11.4, 11.8 million almost immediately, in a few days,” Dow Jones Newswires quoted Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi as telling CNN in an interview. The country currently produces just under 10 million bpd now.Saudi Arabia has promised repeatedly to fill any supply gap left if output from Iran or any other major producer is disrupted. But “to get to the next [700,000 barrels a day] or so, we probably need about 90 days”, he said.That would take Saudi Arabian output to its full capacity of 12.5 million bpd.Naimi said the kingdom favors an oil price of $100 per barrel, identifying an ideal oil price for the first time in more than three years.“Our wish and hope is we can stabilize this oil price and keep it at a level of around $100,” Naimi said.Riyadh has not specified a preferred price range since it said it favored $75 per barrel in November 2008. Recently, however, Naimi has said that price level was out of date.Iran has warned neighboring Gulf states not to compensate for a possible shortfall of its oil exports after it has been hit with Western sanction.“If the oil-producing nations on the Persian Gulf decide to substitute Iran’s oil, then they will be held responsible for what happens,” Iran’s OPEC representative Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying by Sharq newspaper.“We would not consider these actions to be friendly,” Khatibi added.“I personally do not believe that the Strait, if it were shut, will be shut for any length of time. The world cannot stand for that,” the oil minister.Asked if he is concerned about the war of words between Iran and United States, Naimi said: “I don’t think all these pronouncements are helpful to the international oil market or to the price of oil. It’s really disturbing.”Read the full story here.

• Oil prices, Iran are increasingly sources of concern.(WP).By Steven Mufson.The price of crude oil and growing tensions with Iran are bubbling to the top of economists’ and policymakers’ worry lists for 2012, as U.S. and European Union sanctions threaten to reduce the sales of Iranian oil and put pressure on one of the world’s largest petroleum exporters.“It’s been in the background for quite some time,” said Edward Yardeni, a leading investment strategist. “I’ve characterized it as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse for 2012. Now it’s come from behind to be at the head of the pack.”The push for tighter sanctions on Iranian oil exports comes at a time when oil prices are already high. Last year was a record-shattering year for oil prices, which averaged $107 a barrel, about 14 percent more than in the previous record year of 2008, according to figures from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.The U.S. oil import bill — for crude and refined products — jumped about $125 billion from 2010 to 2011.Rising oil prices could hurt the fragile global economy, which includes economists’ other big worry: Europe.Hmmmm......Why Obama cancelled the oil sanctions on Iran?Reelection purposes!Read the full story here.

• Iraq detains a few hundred foreign contractors in recent weeks, including many Americans who work for the U.S. Embassy.(Alarabiya).Citing unnamed industry officials, the newspaper said the detentions have occurred mainly at the airport in Baghdad and at checkpoints around the capital. U.S. troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq on December 18, leaving behind an Iraqi security force that officials said could maintain internal security.The contractors were detained after the Iraqi authorities raised questions about their documents, including visas, weapons permits and authorizations to drive certain routes, the report said.Although no formal charges have been filed, the detentions have lasted from a few hours to nearly three weeks, the paper noted.Last month, two Americans, a Fijian and 12 Iraqis employed by Triple Canopy, a private security company, were detained for 18 days after their convoy from Kalsu, south of Baghdad, to Taji, north of the capital, was stopped for what Iraqi officials said was improper paperwork, The Times said. One of the Americans, Alex Antiohos, 32, a former Army Green Beret medic who served in the Iraq war, said in a telephone interview that he and his colleagues were kept at an Iraqi army camp. He said they fed insect-infested plates of rice and fish, forced to sleep in a former jail, and were verbally threatened by an Iraqi general, according to the report.“At times, I feared for my safety,” Antiohos is quoted as saying. Just after the last U.S. troops left, the Iraqis stopped issuing and renewing many weapons licenses and other authorizations held by contractors, the paper noted. The restrictions led to a sequence of events in which contractors were being detained for having expired documents that the government would not renew, The Times said. Read the full story here.

• The End of SOPA (At Least in its Current Form): Congress Shelved SOPA, Putting Off Action on the Bill.(SHTF).Misguided efforts to combat online privacy have been threatening to stifle innovation, suppress free speech, and even, in some cases, undermine national security. As of yesterday, though, there’s a lot less to worry about. At issue are two related bills: the Senate’s Protect IP Act and the even more offensive Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, both of which are generated intense opposition from tech giants and First Amendment advocates. The first sign that the bills’ prospects were dwindling came Friday, when SOPA sponsors agreed to drop a key provision that would have required service providers to block access to international sites accused of piracy.The legislation ran into an even more significant problem yesterday when the White House announced its opposition to the bills. Though the administration’s chief technology officials officials acknowledged the problem of online privacy, the White House statement presented a fairly detailed critique of the measures and concluded, “We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” It added that any proposed legislation “must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet.”Until now, the Obama administration had not taken a position on the issue. The response was published yesterday as part of the online “We The People” petition initiative launched by the White House last year.Though the administration did issue a formal veto threat, the White House’s opposition signaled the end of these bills, at least in their current form.A few hours later, Congress shelved SOPA, putting off action on the bill indefinitely.The scariest part of the legislation, as Daisy points out above, is that due process would have been eliminated (just like in the NDAA), forcing internet providers, search engines and ad networks to simply shut down a web site(s) based on just the complaintant’s accusations, leaving those web site owners who were shut down to deal with the fallout with costly legal expenses and lengthy court battles.You may recall that in 2010 the government shut down 73,000 web sites in exactly this manner. Though the owners of the majority of the targeted sites were not technically infringing copyrights, some were linking to other sites that did, making them an accessory.Even more alarming is the ability, under legislation such as SOPA, of the government to control the flow of information across major internet providers. Articles or videos criticizing political figures or policies could easily be targeted, as they were in October of this year when the government moved to shut down rogue publishers of critical content .What it boils down to is that SOPA was an attempt to put the power of information back in the hands of an elite few who are rapidly losing the ability to control what the masses are reading, hearing and seeing. Alternative news and ‘extremist’ information was the target (and still is).While we applaud President Obama (yes, we agree with him on this move) for formally issuing a veto threat, we remain skeptical of his motivations. This being an election year, the last thing the President needs to be dealing with along with the economic crisis and tensions in the middle east, is the protests of millions of voters who would have undoubtedly taken to the streets when access to their favorite web sites like Youtube, Google, Facebook, and Twitter were shut down because of alleged SOPA violations.Moreover, we aren’t one bit convinced that this veto was done in the interests of free expression, as the administration may claim. In November, the President issued a similar veto threat about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows for the detention of American citizens determined to be threats to national security and public safety on the domestic (U.S.) battlefront. He flip-flopped on the issue just a couple of weeks later, and signed the bill into law over New Year’s weekend to complete silence from the mainstream media.It is our view that SOPA, in one form or another, will return with a vengeance.Hmmmm.......Brace yourselves for the Internet I.D. Card...........Incoming!Read the full story here.

• Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Aide: Iran to Use All Means to Defend Interests.(Fars). Speaking to reporters here in Tehran on Monday, Supreme Leader's Advisor for Military Affairs Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi pointed to a letter sent to Iran on the Strait of Hormoz, and noted that the strait is a strategic waterway both for global trade and global energy. Safavi further said Iran's coastal line is stretched from Iraqi Southeastern Al-Faw peninsula to Guatr in the Sea of Oman and for this very reason Iran can control and guarantee security of global energy in this region. An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway. He added that Iran believes that security of this region should be established through collective measures. "If a danger is posed to Iran, we will use different political and other types of measures to defend our interests," Safavi underscores. Earlier today, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast confirmed receiving a US letter on the Strait of Hormoz, and underlined that Tehran is studying the message and will respond to it if necessary. The US letter follows threats by Iran last month to shut off the Strait of Hormuz - the world's most important oil shipping lane - if new US and EU sanctions over its nuclear program halted Iranian oil exports. The United States has said it would not allow Iran to block the Strait, calling it a "red line" for the US military. In response, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami dismissed the US warning over the closure of the strategic strait, and stressed that powerful Iran acts on its own and never asks for anyone's permission to carry out what it desires. Iranian lawmakers and officials have recently warned enemies that Iran is entitled to the right to close the strategic oil lifeline as a defensive option against foreign invasion. "The closure of the Strait of Hormoz is not on the Islamic Republic of Iran's agenda (at present), but if threats against Iran come to trample upon the rights of our nation while others use the strait for exporting their oil, then Iran will be entitled to the right to close the Strait of Hormoz," member of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Taqi Rahbar told FNA late December. "The international conventions reserve such rights for the Islamic Republic of Iran as well," Rahbar underscored. The lawmaker, however, said, "For the time being, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not decided to close the strait, but this (closing the strait) depends on the conditions of the region." Hmmmmm.......After hearing Salami, Waiting now to hear from 'Baloni'.Read the full story here.

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it is committed to defense treaty with Syria.(AlArabiya).Following reports alleging its involvement in the violent repression of Syrian protestors, Iran’s government said it has not yet interfered in the situation in Syria, but stressed its commitment to the joint defense treaty to which Iran and Syria are signatory. Iran has viewed what is happening in Syria as a domestic affair, but it will definitely interfere in case a foreign attack in launched on Syria, a source from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told Al Arabiya on condition of anonymity.The source added that, according to preliminary estimates, the situation in Syria is “good” till now.“Our brethren in Syria see the same thing and expect the crisis to be resolved within two months or so,” the source said.The source pointed out that Syria is different from other countries that witnessed protests in the sense that it is surrounded by supporters from all sides.“We and our brethren in Iraq and Lebanon are protecting Syria,” the source explained in a clear reference to Nouri al-Malikil’s government and Hezbollah, both allies of Iran.Despite reports stating that so far the situation in Syria is “stable,” the IRGC, the source pointed out, is still worried of a division or a coup in the Syrian army.According to American officials who believe the IRGC is taking part in the fight against Syrian opposition, Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of IRGC al-Quds Force, which specializes in operations outside Iran was in Damascus this month.Read the full story here.

• Anti-Israel hackers strike El Al, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange websites.(JPost).Hours after anti-Israel hackers said they would strike the websites of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al, both sites were taken offline overnight on Monday.The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website made a swift recovery and was back online by Monday morning, but the El Al website remained unavailable into the morning.The prominent hacker 0xOmar, who has been at the forefront of an Internet assault on Israel, and who released tens of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers last month, sent an email to The Jerusalem Post before the attack.He said he had been joined by a hacking team called "Nightmare." The new group "promised to take down" the two websites by morning, he added.El Al released a statement saying it was aware that "a cyber war has been waged against the State of Israel for two weeks. El Al is closely monitoring the activities of the Saudi hacker [0xOmar]." El Al said steps being taken to fortify its official website "could cause disruptions to the website's activities." Both websites supply key information to members of the public, and their attack represents an escalation in the web war being waged against Israel.The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange confirmed it was targeted and said it was subject to a denial of service attack (DoS), in which a server is flooded with hits, making it unavailable to other users.TASE said its technicians were working to ensure its website would be fully operational on Monday.Meanwhile, a Jewish pro-Israel hacker named Hannibal published information enabling web users to break into the accounts of 20,000 Arab Facebook users.Hannibal said he held information that would allow for the breaking in to 10 million Iranian and Saudi bank accounts, and threatened to cause billions of dollars worth of damages.Hamas on Sunday also called for an escalation of Internet hacking against Israel, saluting Arab programmers who have managed to infiltrate Israeli computer systems.Read the full story here.

• Costa Concordia Disaster - Rescue Workers Search Desperately for Survivors.(Spiegel).By Julia Stanek. The death toll in the Costa Concordia disaster has risen to six after a body was found early on Monday. Sixteen people are still missing. Rescue workers described the treacherous conditions aboard the ship, which is lying on its side off the Italian island of Giglio.The passageways of the Costa Concordia are said to be as dark and damp as caves. The Italian rescuers who are searching the wrecked cruise ship for survivors know a lot about such environments. They belong to a special unit of the fire department that apply mountain-rescue techniques to water-based operations. On Sunday, they managed to rescue three people from their cabins, including a Korean couple on their honeymoon who were found trapped in a room. On Monday, the death toll from the accident rose to at least six people after the body of an adult male passenger was found just before dawn. More than 60 were injured, and 16 people are still missing on Monday. The ship, which had around 4,200 passengers on board, struck a rock on Friday evening just hours after leaving the Italian port of Civitavecchia and is now lying on its side close to the island of Giglio. "The ship is now tilting at an angle of about 87 percent," Flavio Vescovio, an Alpine rescue specialist, told Spiegel online.Read and see the full story here.

• Google's arguments in Indian court provoke sharp remarks from judge.(NDTV).New Delhi: Google and Facebook argued in the Delhi High Court today that there is no way for them to screen content before it is posted online. Both companies are among 21 whose executives have been summoned to appear in person in a lower court on March 13 for allegedly hosting obscene and objectionable content."It's easy for people to say you can use filters. If we were to block the word 'sex', for instance, all data on ration cards, passports etc. will get blocked in one go, as the word 'sex' figures in all this data," argued Google's lawyer, Neeraj Kishan Kaul. The company said that as a search engine, it leads to surfers to sites they're looking for. "The offending material belongs to the website, controlled by the owner of the website. Google has nothing to do with it," Mr Kaul added.  The legal trouble for companies including Orkut, Yahoo and YouTube is based on a petition filed by Vinay Rai, a Delhi resident who has pointed the court to obscene depictions that he found online of Hindu deities, the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ. A Delhi court has suggested the executives of these 21 companies be tried for criminal conspiracy; the government has sanctioned their prosecution. The companies appealed against this in the High Court, which warned last week that like China, India can choose to ban these websites."There are serious issues regarding freedom of speech. We have this freedom in our country unlike a totalitarian regime like China. We are proud we have this freedom," said Mr Kaul on behalf of Google.Read the full story here.

• Zhirinovsky warns Putin against returning as president.(RN).Russian presidential candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky said on Monday that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should decide against returning to the post of the country’s president as it is not accepted in the civilized world.“No one can be the head of the country for more than two terms. With the exception of Argentina, former presidents do not return to their posts as it is unbecoming and means that [he] does not want to give up his power,” Zhirinovsky said at a news conference.The populist firebrand and the leader of the ultra-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) said it would be harmful “when the very same person will be looking at us for six more years and telling us how we must live.”The 65-year old politician said the ruling tandem of Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev “will not give away their power to the opposition,” as they have an intention of keeping it until 2030.Zhirinovsky, running against Putin in the March 4 presidential election, said his campaign slogan will be “Zhirinovsky or it will be worse” and promised early elections to the Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in May next year if he is elected president.“We support all the demands of the opposition of any kind. We promise to hold early elections in May next year,” he said.“Why did you not hit the streets after June 12, 1991, when [late Russian President Boris] Yeltsin did not gain the votes that were attributed to him?” he said adding that all the following elections in Russia were falsified and that is why “there is such a complete mess in the country.”LDPR garnered 12 percent in the December 4 disputed parliamentary election.Read the full story here.

• Gulf business in Egypt brings with it sex trade.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Marwa is 20-years-old. She protested in Tahrir, cheered when Hosni Mubarak left power and had a sense of hope for the future of Egypt and herself. Now, with January 25 in less than two weeks, she is angry, frustrated and in her own words, “hopeless.”She is one of many young Egyptian girls who has fallen victim to the massive influx of Gulf Arabs to the country since the ousting of Mubarak, who have come to the country for “tourism.”Marwa’s story is shocking and sad. She is blunt and doesn’t mince details, some too descriptive to reveal publicly.“I was out with my friends and I met a nice man. We spoke for a while and he asked if I wanted to come for a drink,” she told Bikyamasr.com. “I thought okay, why not? I can do that in this free country.”When she arrived back at the man’s hotel room, a Saudi national who she did not name threw himself on her, ripping her clothes off.“He raped me over and over again for hours. It was horrifying. I was in tears and didn’t know what to do. At the end of the night he gave me money and passed me off to a friend,” she continued.“Then his friend did the same thing and then another. I was there for days. They gave me money and said I was a prostitute and if I told the police they would say that.”Her repeatedly being raped gave her a new sense of determination to fight against the growing sex trade in the country, which has seen numerous young girls forced to work in dirty, unfinished flats, or go out with predominantly Gulf men for the evening.“They are forced into it because there are no means for them to speak out or get help,” she said.It is part of a growing trend of wealthy Arabs arriving in Cairo to “experience the local” society.Waleed Abdelrahman, a wealthy tourist operator in Cairo who helps Saudis and other Gulf Arabs find flats for their summer vacation, says he is inundated by Saudis for “the place to get the best girls.”“They don’t just come for the good weather and cheap living, that is for sure,” Abdelrahman revealed. “They are here because now that they can’t go to Europe due to a number of restrictions, they come to Egypt instead, because our society is more open and free.”He said that in the past decade or so, Egyptian nightclub owners have learned quickly how to cater to their Gulf clients.Abdelrahman says that while his agency, which he asked to remain anonymous, does not participate in the day-to-day affairs of their Saudi guests, he knows what goes on. And it is not to his liking.“They come here to party. Sometimes, when we clean up a flat at the end of the summer, it is a mess because all they do here is drink alcohol and trash the place. Let’s not forget the girls,” he said.According to the tourism operator, nightclubs will hire, often forcing, young women and girls to work as prostitutes for their Arab clients. He said that at the hotels, including the 5-star hotels in Cairo, “there are dozens of call girls waiting and prepared to be an escort for the night, or the entire time the Saudi men are here.”Very few people talk about what goes on, and the Egyptian government does little to address the issue of prostitution in the country. Tourism is one of Egypt’s top foreign currency earners and the Gulf Arab influx in the summer months goes a long way to keep the industry booming.Dina Radwan, a 28-year-old aspiring writer, says that the desire for money by the Egyptian tourism industry is part of the “hypocrisy now flourishing in the country,” she told Bikyamasr.com.She argued that when the “Gulfies” come to Egypt, the same people who would be willing to throw a woman in jail for kissing someone on the street or pre-marital sex, are the same individuals “who support the prostitution” of girls and women.“They don’t care about anything except money and this is a main source of income for them during the year because the Saudis pay a lot of money for the girls,” she said.There are no statistics on prostitution in Egypt. It is a don’t ask don’t tell reality that Radwan says hundreds of women get involved in.“Often their families will get money for giving their girls away for the so-called ‘urfi [temporary] marriage to one of the rich Gulf businessmen. Nobody complains and the government turns a blind eye.”Now that the Saudis have their own flats, it will be easier to move for them and stay away from the gaze of police, said Abdelrahman.He believes that with so many Saudis owning property in the country, the police and military will not be able to do the little amount of cracking down that they had done in recent years.“The Saudis can simply pay them off and go to their own homes. There is nothing anyone can do until the tourism ministry takes it upon themselves to make this situation end. It is not good,” he added.But, for many, it is part of the business that earns millions of Egyptian pounds from their Saudi and Gulf guests.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood says no changes to tourism, alcohol and bikinis okay.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Representatives from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) sent a message of reassurance to tour operators and foreign workers in the tourism sector, at a meeting on Sunday, pledging no changes or restrictions over beaches in the coming period.The party also asserted the freedom of the tourist to wear whatever clothes, including bikinis, and have full access to all types of food and beverages.The FJP took almost 45 percent of seats in recent parliamentary and was followed by the ultra-conservative Salafist al-Nour Party, which won around 20 percent of the seats.“The party regrets the decline in tourism and other economic activities as one of the repercussions of the January 25 revolution,” said Ahmed Suleiman, Chairman of the Tourism Committee of the party, during a meeting organized by the Business Association and attended by representatives of the FJP and foreign tour operators.He pointed out that the party would contribute to the redoubling of “the rates of tourism in the coming period,” and that the situation of tourism and its present conditions “would remain the same as before the revolution and this sector will not be subjected to any changes as long as the FJP is represented in the parliament.”Suleiman stressed the need to reactivate beach tourism as it is one of the “most popular aspects of tourism in Egypt.”He said the FJP is already speculating tourism numbers, “taking a number of measures including the establishment of a series of museums along the Nile Valley to boost the cultural tourism traffic.”He pointed out that monuments and statues currently in stores will be taken out and displayed in the order of dynasties, in each governorate of origin, respectively.He explained that the party`s vision is to make good use of nature reserves, medical and therapeutic tourism and conferences.At the same meeting, Ahmed el-Imam, a member of the “tourism boosting committee” of the FJP said the government, without mentioning the military junta by name, “is one of the main reasons afflicting tourism internally, and while Egypt has about 33 percent of the monuments of the world, the state is incapable of utilizing them in an optimum way,” saying that the party aims at bringing 25 million tourists annually in the upcoming years.Hmmmm.......Heeeeeelp we're broke, Mummies and pyramides first ?Read the full story here.

• Two Palestinians caught with 10 pipe bombs near checkpoint.(Ynet).Military Police forces working at the Salem checkpoint caught two Palestinians carrying 10 pipe bombs, a gun and several bullets. The bombs were dismantled and the Palestinians were turned over to security forces. An initial investigation suggests that the soldiers detected two Palestinians in their 20s approaching a checkpoint near the military court carrying two bags. After a check they discovered the contents of the bags."An investigation of the previous incident suggests that the suspects planned on carrying out a terrorist attack at the court," the battalion commander Lt. Col. Erez Raven said. "The other side is not familiar with our MOs which change from time to time and we raised our alert level in the past week. There were no terror threat alerts." The Salem Military Court is scheduled to discuss a hearing on the sentence of Amjad Awad, one of the murderers of the Fogel family. Read the full story here.

• Belgium: Muslim executive 'under control of foreign countries'.(IIE).Via HLN (Dutch):"Belgian Muslim bodies are definitively under the control of foreign countries. The Muslim Executive will now be led only by people who will prioritze the interests of their land of origin over those of Belgian Muslims," says the AMDB (Democratic Alternative of Belgian Muslims), who say they unite 'all components of the Muslim community' in Belgium.The general assembly of the Muslim Executive recently extended Semsettin Ugurlu's term as chairman, as well as a series of other positions. The Executive also passed a motion of no-confidence against the new members, and the three members of ADMB were excluded. AMDB says the general assembly orchestrated the illegal exclusion of the three active members who refused to comply with embassy-Islam policy."Just 11 of the 44 members of the general assembly were present. AMDB say that this way they passed the motion of no-confidence against the AMDB members who are 'known for their battle for a transparent, democratic Islam' which is not linked to any state intervention.The AMDB do not recognize the legality of the decision and its members intend to continue in their positions and sue the Muslim Executive in court.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s “virginity tests” case postponed for third time.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: An Egyptian military court on Sunday postponed the “virginity test” case filed by Samira Ibrahim against a military doctor, Ahmed Adel Mohammed, to a session on January 29. This is the third such postponement since the case was filed.The postponement came as a result of a request from the Doctors Union, who showed solidarity with the defendant and sent a delegation of lawyers to defend him, and asked the court to give time for them to review the case.Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against the doctor, who works at a military facility, and has accused him of forcing her to undergo a virginity test last March, when she and other female protesters were arrested in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during a sit-in and taken to a facility.The women were forced, in front of dozens of other soldiers, to take down their pants and allow a doctor to examine them. When Ibrahim asked for the procedure to be done in private, she was assaulted, Ibrahim said.The military court has been charged the doctor of committing a “crime against modesty,” and “negligence of the obedience of the military orders.”Rights groups have told Bikyamasr.com that by using these charges, it eases the crimes from felony by physical assault to indecent misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment of no more than one year.Local groups have condemned the continued protection of the leaders and members of the armed forces from any accountability for crimes committed against civilians.Ibrahim described the decision to postpone her case as a “total mess and farce.”The lawsuit was filed by Ibrahim with the assistance of lawyers from the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture.Although dozens of young women were subjected to the tests on March 9, the 25-year-old Ibrahim is the only one who has spoken out about the incident and filed a lawsuit against the military rulers.Human Rights Watch interviewed Ibrahim and another victim, Salwa al-Hosseini, and reviewed the testimony of two others obtained by doctors at the Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture.All four concurred in their statements that on the morning of March 10, two officers went into the prison cell holding the 17 women and asked them who among them was married and who was not.“Then they told the seven of us that they were going to examine us to see if we were really virgins. They took us out one by one. When it was my turn they took me to a bed in a passageway in front of the cell.”“There were lots of soldiers around and they could see me. I asked if the soldiers could move away and the officer escorting me tasered me. The woman prison guard in plain clothes stood at my head and then a man in military uniform examined me with his hand for several minutes. It was painful. He took his time. It was clear he was doing it on purpose to humiliate me.”“I was beaten, electrocuted, and forced to strip naked in front of male officers,” Ibrahim told Human Rights Watch.The official complaint before the Administrative Court states that Ibrahim “was exposed to the ugliest forms of humiliation, torture and a violation of the sanctity of her body.”In a court hearing on October 25, the State Council lawyer denied this allegation and called for the dismissal of the case based on lack of evidence.The case, however strong in many corners of Egyptian society, received little local media coverage, angering and saddening Ibrahim.“It breaks my heart that international outrage over my case is stronger than that of my fellow Egyptians,” Ibrahim said.Violations against women are therefore hugely underreported in Egypt – one recent report from 2003 found that as many as 98 percent of rape and sexual assault cases are not reported to authorities.Read the full story here.

• Indonesia - 25 Volcanoes Showing Abnormal Activity: Presidential Aide.(JG).Padang, West Sumatra. Twenty-five volcanoes in Indonesia are now showing abnormal activity or have been put on alert or watch status, presidential special aide Andi Arief said here on Saturday. “According to official data, 25 volcanoes are now under alert or watch status and they must be given priority with regard to disaster mitigation planning at district or city levels,” he said at a workshop on journalists’ role in disaster management. He said in West Sumatra there were two volcanoes that need to be closely watched, namely Mount Marapi and Mount Talang, as they are still under alert status. Mount Marapi is located in Agam and Tanahdatar districts and rises 2891 meters above sea level, and Mount Talang (2597 meters above sea level) in Solok district was located around 40 kilometers from the provincial capital Padang. Apart from the two volcanoes, the government and regional disaster management agencies were also giving priority attention to Mount Papandayan in West Java, Mount Karangetan and Lokon in North Sulawesi, Mount Ijen in East Java, Mount Gamalama in North Maluku, Mount Krakatau in Banten and Lampung and Mount Lewoloto in East Nusa Tenggara. Read the full story here.