Archiving news.meedan.net

Photo: meeadan

Today we are archiving news.meedan.net, our multilingual news site about the MENA region. The site which launched to the public on April 3, 2009 was built in partnership with the great team at IBM led by John Tolva with Salim Roukos. News.meedan remains one of the first models for hybrid, crowdsourced translation and stands as one of the web’s few cross-lingual websites (facilitating...

Photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in several Egyptian cities one day after Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi issued a decree giving himself the “powers of a pharaoh” putting him “above judicial oversight.” The pro-reform Mohamed ElBaradei has called the decree “a major blow to the revolution,” while Morsi opponents have stormed and set fire to...

Photo: FreedomHouse2

Iran held a conference today, Sunday, for around 200 Syrian opposition members and the National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar. However, there was no mention whether any of Syria’s major rebel or exile groups, most of whom distrust Iran, a major ally of their adversary President Bashar al Assad, had attended. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi blamed “foreign intervention...

Egypt lives the recent days a series of train accidents and clashes that resulted in many casualties, the most severe one was that of Manfalout in the south of Egypt which resulted in the death of 48 elementary students and another 3 persons, besides 17 injured students. A previous clash was since about two weeks when two trains clashed together and resulted in the death of at least three...

Photo: Roobee

Jordan has arrested 158 men in their 20s and 30s over the riots that erupted Tuesday over the hike in gas prices. While 30 have been released for lack of evidence, 80 have been charged with inciting violence, and 39 remain in questioning. The charged activists face up to 15 years of imprisonment.
The protests, which have been the most violent clashes in Jordan since the beginning of the...

Photo: Mohammed Ahmed

Gaza and Southern Israel have been exchanging rockets and shells for about a week now, since November 10, claiming the lives of three Israelis, and 13 Palestinians, including Hamas chief Ahmad Jabari, with conflicting reports on how many of the deaths are Hamas militants.

While mainstream media coverage says the conflict arose due to Palestine shelling Southern Israel,...

The Israeli forces have raided Gaza strip in a huge movement that results in many causalities and the death of the commander of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed El- Gaabary. Thus, the Egyptian president pulls the Egyptian ambassador back from Tel Aviv, and Israel did the same with its ambassador. At the same time hundreds of Egyptians have protested the recent Israeli strikes on Gaza and...

Photo: YaserHK. Meedan

President Barack Obama won reelection Tuesday night, as he could finally defeat his tough challenger, the Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Obama won by securing victory in a number of swing states, including Ohio, Virginia, and Florida, as no Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio.

It is reported that Romney's biggest problem was that Americans oppose his...

Photo: YaserHK. Meedan

In a ceremony at St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo this week, Bishop Tawadros was selected as the new head of the Coptic Church from a short list of three candidates. The selection followed an ancient tradition known as the Altar Lot, with a blindfolded boy selecting the new Pope by drawing his name from a glass bowl. The 60 –year-old new Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church succeeds Pope...

Photo: Wissam al-Saliby

A group of Lebanese citizens of no political affiliations held a “White March” on Thursday, October 25, in memory of the women, men, and children that have been and are being killed as a result of confessional and political conflicts throughout Lebanon. Around 1,000 white-clad people took part in the silent march from the symbolic Martyrs’ Square to Sassine Square, the...

The prince Hamad bin Khalifa of Qatar, visited Gaza strip as the first president to visit it since 1999. He headed to Gaza after landing in Al- Arish airport through Rafah crossing border. The visit was arranged for the purpose of reconstruction of Gaza Strip through holding some projects with a cost of 250 million US $. Besides, such a visit is also expected to provoke the Israeli responsible...

Photo: Facebook

A 50kg TNT car bomb went off yesterday in a residential and commercial area of Ashrafieh, Lebanon, injuring about 110 people, and claiming the lives of eight others. It was later discovered that the explosion had targeted and killed Brigadier General Wissam al Hassan, an anti-Syria and March 14 head of the Information Department of the Internal Security Forces.

Internet giant Google as well as social media websites Facebook and Twitter are caught at the brunt of the UK’s plans to spy on users’ accounts, emails, site visits and posts. Facebook has said it may go to court to resist the new law, while Google and Twitter executives have stated that they will refuse to reveal encrypted and confidential users data if the government attempts to...

Photo: Facebook

Malala Yousafzai, the 14 year old Pakistani schoolgirl that was shot in the head for advocating for women’s rights to education, has made a “miraculous recovery” and will leave the Birmingham hospital once her treatment is over and head back to Pakistan – despite new insurgent threats against her.
The Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attack, citing the...

Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s national carrier, has fired an employee and put another under disciplinary procedures after a Lebanese national, Abed Shaheen, turned to online activism over a racism incident. The employees were bullying nationals of the Philippines and Nepal asking them to be silent over the loudspeaker, and when Shaheen faced them up with the needless discrimination,...

The Institutional constitution committee has finished its first draft of the Egyptian constitution, which was expected to meet the different needs and rights of the Egyptian people, institutions and president as well. It was published online on Wednesday This draft is proposed into main four chapters; i.e. the first one is limited for the basic constituents of the nation and the society, while...

Photo: freestyle

Greek authorities have taken drastic security measures ahead of German chancellor Angela Merkel’s six hour visit to Greece for talks with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, including but not limited to stationing 7000 police officers on duty, positioning snipers atop buildings, and issuing a ban on marches and gatherings. Public order minister Nikos Dendias stated this was to...

Photo: alex and mac

Rockets and petrol bombs have injured 49 policemen and two demonstrators in Guellala, Tunisia protests over the reopening of a garbage dump on Tunisian holiday island Djerba. Six police vehicles were also burnt, but no arrests were made. Protests in Tunisia have been on the rise due to dissatisfaction with poor living conditions, increasing unemployment rates, water cuts, failure of the state...

Photo: DFID - UK

On orders of the head of the Pakistani army, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, a specialist school to rehabilitate “teenage victims of the Taliban’s indoctrination programme,” the Sabaoon School (“The first light of dawn”), has been set up. Around 180 boys, all veterans of the Taliban, are currently attending this school. It is estimated that over 4000 people have been...

Photo: Giorgio Montersino

Turkey has struck a Syrian border town, killing several Syrian soldiers, after a mortar strike killed five Turkish civilians. Turkey stated it is not interested in a war with Syria, but its parliament has approved further military action in the event of another spillover. Syria apologised to Turkey through the United Nations, saying the strike was a tragic accident and would not happen again.

Photo: Arian Zwegers

A depot in which unexploded Israeli arms are stored by Hezbollah went off in a series of blasts about 30km south of the Lebanese city of Baalbek, killing three Hezbollah militants according to the Islamist group’s Al Manar TV. A report by the AFP has said around nine people had died, with several injured. Hezbollah had fought a month long war with Israel in 2006. It also has close ties to...

Photo: OiMax

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has apologised for airbrushing all women and some girls from their Saudi catalogue, which up until then had been identical globally. IKEA has said that the exclusion of women was due to the fact that its Saudi branch is run by a franchisee, however, the step is in conflict with the firm’s core values, and it is thus reviewing its “routines” as a...

Photo: Antoinette Nicolas Haddad

A number of activists led by the Orthodox Party held a protest today, Saturday, in Beirut’s Sassine Square, against the showing of the $18m Turkish movie “Fetih 1453,” which “distorts historical facts” about the fall of Constantinople into the hands of Sultan Muhammad II, and insults Christian sanctities and symbols.

Photo: Alex Bikfalvi

Nakoula Basseley, the Egyptian American behind “The Innocence of Muslims,” the 13 minute YouTube movie that sparked global Muslim outrage, has been jailed without bond, allegedly for violating his probation from a bank fraud conviction. Basseley faces eight probation violation accusations in California, but there is no probe into the movie itself.

Photo: Forcalgeria

Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi addressed the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he stressed his status as “first democratically elected president of Egypt,” mentioning that Egyptians now share renewed confidence due to the creation of a “post revolution state.” He also spoke about the Palestinian struggles, called for the end of the bloodshed...

Photo: Ali Ghazvini

Mehdi Hashemi, son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, was arrested upon his return to Iran from Britain yesterday, Sunday, over charges of inciting unrest after Ahmadinejad was re-elected president in 2009. His sister, Faezeh, a former lawmaker and a women’s rights activist, was arrested on Saturday and sentenced to six months in prison for “spreading anti-state...

Iraq is seeking to change its current flag and anthem in an attempt to unify the country, which has suffered from decades of violence, privation, and sectarian strife. Iraqi MP Ali Shlah has announced that the plan is to decide on a flag and anthem “this year, in this legislative session.” Over 400 texts - which have been narrowed down to three potential candidates - by Iraqi poets...

Photo: YouTube

Police and protesters have stormed the headquarters of Ansar al Sharia, the militia suspected of having killed Libya’s US ambassador over an anti-Islam movie, and have driven them out of their locale in the east Libyan city of Benghazi, demanding the base be handed over to the army. Supporters of the militia had attempted to dispel the crowd by firing their weapons into the air, but fled...

After French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s publication of cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad, security has been reinforced at French embassies multinationally. As protests are expected following the new cartoons, French embassies, schools, and cultural institutions will be closed off on Friday.

Photo: Al Jazeera English

Syrian citizens will be unable to enter Saudi Arabia for hajj this year. According to state news agency SANA, the Syrian High Committee of Pilgrimage has failed to reach a consensus with Saudi authorities, resulting in the block. The committee reportedly “took all necessary steps for the 2012 hajj, but the relevant ministry in Saudi Arabia did not sign the accord as it had every year.”