Middle East

Beirut, 6 Oct., 2011 – Six months into pro-democracy protests in Syria, allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by supporters of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime proliferate.The latest UN figures talk about 2.900 deaths.

Since 2007, life conditions of the Gazans are turning from bad to worse as a result of the Israeli-enforced blockade. The blockade’s bad consequences have negatively affected all the sectors of the Palestinian society in Gaza Strip especially fishing sector which threaten to hurt thirty-thousand people who are dependent on this industry as their main source of income.

Cairo, October 3, 2011 – It’s Maikel Nabil Sanad’s 26th birthday but he is in no celebratory mood. When I arrive at El Marg prison north of Cairo during visiting hours on Saturday 1 October, I can barely hide my shock at seeing his bony physique.

The United Nations urged the international community to take action against mounting threats posed by climate change on the world’s urban areas, warning that climate-related events could force up to 200 million people worldwide to flee their homes by 2050.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says Syrian military and security forces have killed at least 2,700 people; but activists and human rights groups put that number as high as 5,300.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas handed over a request to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, asking the United Nations to admit the state of Palestine as a full member. Then he told the General Assembly “I call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favour of our full membership.”

In a closed envelope delivered to UN secretary-general with little hope, the Palestinian Authority submitted on September 23rd its demand to the United Nations to recognise Palestine as an independent State, while giving time to the Security Council to consider what it had repeatedly claimed but it will now reject due to the U.S. “veto”:

While very busy covering French president and British prime minister visits to Libya, and talking about the day when Libyan oil will feed again cars and industries, mainstream media has nearly ignored the continuing killings in Yemen and the growing hunger of which more than 7,5 million Yemenis are victims.

The latest available regional information about labour in the Middle East and North of Africa unveil strongly discouraging facts– youth unemployment rates are among the highest ones in the world, and unemployment rates among young women are two to three times higher than among young men, just to mention some striking examples.

The world lives in the era of knowledge and information sharing. With satellite TV, mobile phones and the internet, the word “distance” has lost its meaning as there is hardly a place today that is too’ remote’ for information access. The uprisings in the Arab World are a striking example of the rapid dissemination of information.