Ousted Egyptian leader Mubarak gets three years jail for embezzling millions

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• Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is seen in the courtroom for his trial at …
  

By Maggie Fick

CAIRO (Reuters) - Deposed former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for embezzling millions in public funds for lavish renovations to family properties.
The verdict may please some Egyptians who lived through three decades of autocracy under Mubarak before a 2011 uprising toppled him. But business executives still loyal to him remain influential and rights groups say the abusive security practices of his era remain alive and well today with another former military man set to win a presidential election next week.
Mubarak's two sons were sentenced to four years in jail on the same charges of stealing state funds that had been earmarked for the renovation of presidential palaces but were instead diverted to sprucing up family residences.
The Cairo court also fined Mubarak and his sons 21.197 million Egyptian pounds ($2.98 million) and ordered them to repay about 125 million Egyptian pounds of funds they were accused of siphoning off.
Mubarak has been under house arrest at a military hospital since August pending retrial in a case of complicity in killings protesters during the 2011 revolt. He is further accused in two other cases of corruption that have yet to reach court.

He (Mubarak) should have treated people close and far from him equally," said Judge Osama Shaheen as the 86-year-old fallen leader watched from a cage flanked by sons Gamal and Alaa. "Instead of abiding by the constitution and laws, he gave himself and his sons the freedom to take from public funds whatever they wanted to without oversight and without regard."

Mubarak spent 23 months in jail from the uprising until August 2013, when he was transferred to house arrest. It was not immediately clear how much of that time served would be applied against Wednesday's sentence, but judicial sources told Reuters that they did not expect Mubarak to serve the entire three years as punishment for the corruption charges.

They said his sons, who have already done three years in jail, will also probably not serve their complete sentences. Four other defendants were acquitted.

Mubarak's former military intelligence boss, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is poised to be elected president next week in a vote that could boost the legitimacy of a military-backed government.

TOUGHER SENTENCES

Since ex-army chief Sisi toppled elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July in the face of mass unrest over his rule, courts have meted out tough sentences primarily on members of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and secular activists.

Wednesday's Mubarak ruling was for a financial crime, not a criminal one. However, many prominent activists have recently been given harsher sentences for street protests than Mubarak received for embezzling millions while serving as president. Senior members of the Brotherhood, including the spiritual guide of the Islamist movement, have been sentenced to death.

A court in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura sentenced 155 Brotherhood supporters, some of them students, to jail terms on Wednesday, giving 54 of them life sentences. The case was related to violence after Mursi's ouster, and charges included membership in a banned group and instigating violence.

Police fired tear gas at demonstrators chanting against the verdict outside the Mansoura court. In Alexandria, police also used tear gas against students protesting at its university, some of them over a jail term imposed on a fellow student.

Reacting to the Mubarak verdict on Twitter, some activists compared the sentence for him and his sons to a Tuesday ruling against Mahienour el-Masri, a young revolutionary activist given two years in jail for protesting without a permit.

The judiciary is now regarded by critics as part of a state crackdown against all dissent to the army-backed government. Indeed, court decisions have been a mirror of the state's mood at pivotal moments during Egypt's turbulent period since 2011.

Legal challenges against wealthy Mubarak-era officials and business associates were brought after the uprising and some were sentenced before and during Mursi's year in power. But since Mursi's fall, the judiciary's focus seems to have shifted to cases against Islamists and secular, liberal activists.

Some of the cases against businessmen who profited from the Mubarak system have been dropped, while high-profile figures like Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, have been acquitted on corruption charges.

Leaders of Mubarak's former ruling party were banned last month from running in any coming elections, but the court order did not list any names, drawing complaints that a lack of clarity could blunt the move's impact.

Sons Alaa and Gamal, who was once widely tipped as Mubarak's successor, became wealthy businessmen during his presidency as part of a "crony capitalism" patronage network that enriched an elite few while tens of millions lived in poverty.

The website of state newspaper Al-Ahram reported that the court had ordered Mubarak transferred to Tora Prison, where his sons are jailed. His health may mean that he will be held at the prison's hospital.

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Australia alleges smuggler had bird eggs in pants

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  Associated Press/Australian Customs and Boarder Protection Service - This Tuesday, May 20, 2014 photo provided by Australian Customs and Boarder Protection Service shows small bird eggs hidden in a strip of …more 

SYDNEY (AP) — Australians call tiny swimming trunks "budgie smugglers," but the term might have new meaning after customs officials at Sydney's airport said Wednesday that they found 16 wild-bird eggs in the crotch of a passenger's pants.

The 39-year-old Czech man arrived Tuesday on a flight from Dubai when customs officials selected him for a baggage examination, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service said in a statement.
"Officers conducted a frisk search of the man and allegedly found 16 small eggs concealed in his groin area," the statement said.
There was no word on whether it was budgies — small parrots also known as budgerigars — that were allegedly smuggled. The species has yet to be identified.
The man, whose name has not been released, was to appear in a Sydney court on Wednesday charged under environmental protection laws with attempting to import regulated live specimens without a permit. The charge carries maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and a fine of 170,000 Australian dollars ($157,000).

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Dubai Attorney General seeks life sentence for maid accused of meat cleaver attack on kids

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Dubai’s AG seeking life sentence for maid accused of attack on children with meat cleaver

Dubai’s Attorney General is seeking a life sentence for a housemaid accused of trying to kill two sisters and their brother in their home.

Issam Issa Al Humaidan has referred the Ethiopian woman to Dubai Criminal Court after charging her with attempting to murder the children, as well as attempted robbery.

“Those charges, if she is convicted, will put her behind bars for life,” he said. “We asked for the toughest penalty due to the savage nature of the crime as the maid attempted to kill the children using a meat cleaver. They begged her to stop and were bleeding, but she didn’t stop attacking them.”

Al Humaidan said the maid wanted to kill the children, aged 12, 14 and 16, to spite their mother for refusing to let her travel to her home country. He said: “That is not enough to make someone kill a child. The society must look carefully to this case as an example to avoid such crimes in the future.”

According to Dubai Public Prosecution the children are still suffering as a result of the attack, in April.

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Father refuses to bail out sons who rack up Dhs500,000 in debts

A father is refusing to pay Dhs500,000 in debts racked up by his ex-wife and their children – saying he’s already spent a fortune on their education.

Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation heard that after the Arab man divorced his wife, his three eldest sons and three younger siblings moved to a rented villa in the capital with their mother.

Court records show that the family stayed there for 10 years without paying rent or utility bills – accumulating debts of Dhs500,000. The landlord eventually gave the family an eviction notice and demanded they pay Dhs240,000 in rent arrears and clear their outstanding bills.

The children told their dad he was responsible for the debts as they were young and he should take care of them. They went to the family court to settle the dispute and later the appeal court.

The father initially agreed to pay 30 per cent, but later said that since he had spent a lot of money on his sons’ education, they should pay the Dhs500,000 in debts.

Abu Dhabi family court and the appeal court both ordered the brothers to pay Dhs200,000 of the money. But the sons, who argued they didn’t earn enough to pay, challenged the verdict in the Court of Cassation, which has now sent the case back to the appeal court for a fresh hearing

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Unable to pay SR5.1m blood money, Saudi languishes in jail

Saudi Gazette repor

HAFR AL-BATIN - A 33-year-old citizen has spent the past eight years in jail as he is unable to pay the blood money set for causing a traffic accident that killed 17 Bangladeshi nationals.

Mamdouh Al-Tuloohi has to pay SR5.1 million before he can be released from prison, Al-Hayat daily reported.

Neither he nor his family can afford to pay the blood money and they have been asking for the assistance of philanthropists, but the amount they have collected is barely enough.

Mansour, a relative of Mamdouh, said the case has become popular in social networking sites, even in the Gulf countries.

He added that this is God's wish and anyone could have been involved in such an accident and that Al-Tuloohi is continuously concerned that his mother will die before he is released from prison.

His parents are very old and find it very difficult to travel from their city to visit their son in prison.

Al-Tuloohi’s father said: "God Almighty has given us Mamdouh and I ask God to bestow His mercy on us and release our son from prison.

"Mamdouh’s mother is continuously weeping and wishes to see her child before she dies."

Meanwhile, Riyadh governorate has set up an account to receive donations for Mamdouh. The account, set up with Al-Rajhi Bank, has the number 101608010099990.

© Copyright 2014 The Saudi Gazette. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

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Obama takes humorous jabs at health care stumble

WASHINGTON (AP) — Little was sacred when President Barack Obama tossed out playful but pointed jokes Saturday night — not even his own health care plan.

"We rolled out healthcare.gov. That could have gone better," Obama said in remarks at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. "In 2008 my slogan was 'Yes we can.' In 2013 my slogan was 'Control-alt-delete.'"

One the plus side, the president said, "they did turn the launch of healthcare.gov into one of the year's biggest movies." On a screen flashed the poster for "Frozen."

When a video Obama introduced failed to play properly, he asked, "Does anybody know how to fix this?" To laughter, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stepped up and said: "I got this. I see it all the time." In the wake of the problems with the website, Sebelius has announced she is stepping down.

The annual dinner has become a tradition in the nation's capital, promising a black-tie evening of humor and celebrity gazing. The event once again attracted an array of journalists, government officials, politicians and media personalities as the association raised money for college scholarships. The featured entertainer was comic actor Joel McHale, the star of the NBC series "Community."

In his own stand-up routine, Obama didn't waste any time turning his barbed jokes toward the news media.

"MSNBC is here," he said. "They're a little overwhelmed. They've never seen an audience this big before."

Noting that he had traveled to Asia recently, Obama said: "The lengths we have to go to to get CNN coverage these days. I think they're still searching for their table."

The president saved his sharpest jabs for another cable news network. "The Koch brothers bought a table here tonight, but as usual they used a shadowy right-wing organization as a front. Hello, Fox News!"

He added: "Let's face it, Fox. You'll miss me when I'm gone. It will be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya."

Republicans didn't escape untouched. "Washington seems more dysfunctional than ever," Obama said. "Gridlock has gotten so bad in this town you have to wonder: What'd we do to piss off Chris Christie so bad?"

The correspondents' association, which represents the White House press corps, celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Journalists were honored for their coverage of the presidency and national issues:

—Glenn Thrush of Politico and Brianna Keilar of CNN won the Aldo Beckman Award, which recognizes excellence in the coverage of the presidency.

—Peter Baker of The New York Times and Peter Maer of CBS News won the Merriman Smith Award for deadline coverage.

—Megan Twohey of Reuters and a partnership between The Center for Public Integrity's Chris Hamby and ABC News' Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross won the Edgar A. Poe Award for coverage of issues of national significance.

—George E. Condon Jr. of National Journal received the first President's Award for exceptional service to the organization.

The organization also honored the late Harry McAlpin, the first black reporter to attend a presidential news conference, by establishing a scholarship in his name. McAlpin had been denied membership to the WHCA while covering the Roosevelt and Truman administrations because of his race.

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what this girl knows at 4 1/2 years old

Where do I start?  Because she knows so much.  She's growing up too fast.  I could sit here and list all the things she knows like I've done before.  How she tells stories and jokes and makes up songs and dances.  And how she's at day camp this summer and everyday she comes home with a new chant.  A new dance.  A new story.  A new friend.  I could talk about the art she makes and the letters she writes and the books from the library we read.  I could tell you how she now loves the water and will swim by herself (with her life jacket on, I know it's not like she's really swimming, but when you watch your little girl all by herself in the pool, you can't help but think that time is slipping away).....And time is slipping away.  That's life.  So enjoy it.  Before it's all gone. And now I think about writing this blog as the girls get older.  And what these girls will know then.  Because it already feels like 1 of them knows too much.  And I can't stop her from growing up.  And before I know it, she'll be interested in boys and she'll be going to high school and looking at colleges and eventually leaving us.  But for now, she's still my little girl.  Who wakes up way too early.  Maybe that's something I could look forward to.  Sleep.  And retirement.

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Twenty-five new Saudi MERS cases found

• Twenty-five new Saudi MERS cases found

Saudi Arabia has found 25 more cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the kingdom's health ministry has said.

Seven people were confirmed as having MERS, followed by 18 more on Saturday, the biggest daily increase in new infections so far.

The total number of cases in the kingdom is 396, of whom 109 have died.
The new cases include nine in Riyadh, 10 in Jeddah, four in Mecca and two in Medina. In July, many foreign pilgrims are expected to visit Mecca and Medina during Islam's fasting month of Ramadan. Millions more are expected in early October for the annual Haj.

On Friday, the US said it had discovered its first confirmed case of the disease in a man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt said it discovered its first case, also in a man who had been in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday.
Infections of MERS in Saudi Arabia, where it was discovered two years ago, have more than doubled since the start of April, but the total number of deaths has increased at a slower rate.
A higher number of people without symptoms are also being found with the disease, suggesting that the rapid increase in recent weeks is partly due to wider testing of people who have been in close contact with MERS patients.
MERS, a form of coronavirus like the more deadly SARS, can cause fever, coughing, shortness of breath and pneumonia.
However, it is not easy to transmit between people and the World Health Organisation has not advised any travel restrictions for Saudi Arabia.

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Saudis get Internet hotline to the king

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  AFP/Brendan Smialowski - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, pictured in Rawdat al-Khuraim, on January 5, 2014

Saudi citizens can now petition 90-year-old King Abdullah directly and lodge complaints through an Internet site set up at the initiative of the monarch himself.

The portal , named after the Arabic word for communication, was launched on an experimental basis on Wednesday.

All messages are to be forwarded to the king.

"People will be able to inform the king about any shortcomings in the services offered by government agencies, and to take suitable action for the benefit of all citizens," the website says.

More and more Saudis in the ultra-conservative Muslim state are turning to social networking sites to demand improved living conditions.

However, the authorities, who block access to politically sensitive or pornographic websites, made several arrests in March for tweets deemed offensive to the king.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy where protests are banned.

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MERS virus death toll in Saudi reaches 111

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  AFP - A Saudi man wears wears a mouth and nose mask as he walks down a street in the capital Jeddah on April 27, 2014

Saudi health authorities announced Saturday two new deaths from the MERS coronavirus, raising to 111 the number of fatalities since the disease appeared in the kingdom in September 2012.

A 25-year-old man has died in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and a woman of 69, who suffered from tuberculosis and anaemia, died in Mecca, also in western Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said.

It later said the death toll has now climbed to 111, revising its earlier figure of 109 deaths.

At the same time, 35 new cases of the severe respiratory disease have been recorded, raising the number infected in Saudi Arabia over the past two years to 396, the world's highest tally.

American health officials on Friday said the first case of MERS has been confirmed in the United States.

The person infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a health care provider who had travelled to Riyadh for work, they said.

Last week, Egypt recorded its first infection after a person who arrived from Saudi Arabia tested positive.

Public concern in Saudi Arabia over the spread of MERS has mounted after the resignation of at least four doctors at Jeddah's King Fahd Hospital who refused to treat patients for fear of infection.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for MERS, a disease with a mortality rate of more than 40 percent that experts are still struggling to understand.

Some research has suggested that camels are a likely source of the virus.

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Child dies in family car horror which marks third tragedy in two weeks on Al Ain roads

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A three-year-old boy was killed after the car he was in with his family overturned in Al Ain.

He is the third youngster to die in a road accident in the Garden City in the past two weeks. Police said the Arab dad was driving in the Nahl area of Al Ain city with his wife, daughter and three-year-old son on Thursday evening when he lost control of the car and crashed into a pavement. The car subsequently rolled over.

The young boy died at the scene after sustaining severe injuries. His parents and his sister sustained severe to moderate injuries, police said.

Authorities have not said whether the boy was in a child car seat. He was buried in Al Faoaa cemetery in Al Ain on Friday. It is the latest incident of a child being killed in a road accident in Al Ain.

Last Sunday, a 10-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a speeding car. The Arab child, who had gone to a shopping mall in the Al Haili area to make photocopies of his school papers, was crossing the road when a car driven by an Asian man hit him.

Just days earlier, a six-year-old Arab boy died after being knocked down by a car in front of his mother and brothers in the Al Tawelah area. Police have reiterated a message to motorists to strictly follow traffic rules.

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Cup win could start successful era for Arsenal - Ramsey

LONDON (Reuters) - Victory over Hull City in this month's FA Cup final could set Arsenal up for a long overdue period of success, their Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey has told The Observer.

Arsenal go into the May 17 final as strong favourites to claim their first silverware since their last FA Cup win in 2005 and Ramsey says a victory could be the catalyst for a new period of trophy-gathering for the success-starved North London club.

"In terms of us players, hardly anyone has won anything in the dressing room, so that will just give us, hopefully - all being well and we do win the FA Cup - the hunger to realise what it is like to win a trophy and the feeling that you get afterwards, which will drive us on.

"There are leaders in this team, there are people that are hungry to win and we're still a really young team,

"We showed that with what we achieved up to February when we were top of the league up till then.

"So we're close. Maybe we just need to win one thing to go on and be successful for five or 10 years."

Arsenal topped the table from September to January apart from one week over Christmas, but their title challenge faded during Ramsey's 21-match injury absence.

By the first week of November, the 23-year-old Wales international had scored 11 goals - as many as he had done in the previous five years.

But while he was sidelined, Arsenal were beaten 5-1 at Liverpool and 6-0 at Chelsea and in a nine-match spell between the beginning of February and the beginning of April they won only two league matches.

They also lost 6-3 at Manchester City just before he was injured and the Welshman says those defeats proved insurmountable as far as the title challenge was concerned.

"Those were the games that really cost us. You take those three matches away and we've been really solid as a team. So that's what we need to build on next season, stay in the games early on in the first half, when maybe we've been a bit naive."

After Everton's defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, Arsenal are guaranteed a Champions League qualifying place for next season, but their immediate target is success in the Cup final over first-time finalists Hull.

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Passengers killed in India train accident

At least 19 people were killed and more than 100 others injured when a passenger train derailed in the western Indian state of Maharstra, according to reports.

The engine and four coaches of Diva-Sawantwadi passenger train jumped the tracks near Roha station, 110km south of the financial hub of Mumbai, said police officer Ankush Shinde on Sunday.

According to the Associated Press news agency, the rescuers used gas cutters to open the derailed coaches to reach those trapped inside.

Big cranes were deployed to remove these coaches from the rail track, Shinde said.

Two of the derailed coaches tilted on one side, said railway spokesman Anil Kumar Saxena.

Shinde said the injured passengers, some of them in serious condition, were taken to a nearby hospital.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

Train movement in the area was suspended as the derailed coaches and the rescue operation blocked an adjacent track as well.

Railway accidents are common in India, which has one of the world's largest train networks and serves 20 million passengers a day.

Most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.

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Beauty of Message show highlights Islamic art

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  View PhotoSaudi Gazette - Hamida Ali Reza (L), Najia Aizaz (C) and Afshan Khokher (R) cut the ribbon to open the Arabic calligraphy exhibition as Consul General Aftab Khokher looks on. — SG photos by Syed Mussarat K …more 

Syed Mussarat Khalil

Saudi Gazette

Calligraphy has arguably become the most venerated form of Islamic art because of the Arabic script. In the calligraphers’ works we can see beautiful compositions written in Kufi, Diwani, Thuluth, Naskh and Nastaleeq - the different styles in Arabic calligraphy.

In order to promote this art form, an exhibition "Roa’t ur Resalah - Beauty of the Message" of Arabic calligraphy by a group of Pakistani calligraphers was opened at Red Sea Mall on Thursday.

The exhibition highlighted the continuity calligraphy tradition, which goes back to the time of Caliphs Umar Bin Khattab and Ali Bin Abu Talib. In various Islamic lands this tradition has been carefully nurtured and enriched, particularly in Pakistan where it constitutes the country’s primary cultural identity and heritage.

The exhibition was organized by the Consulate General of Pakistan, in collaboration with Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef, president of the World Muslim Congress (WMC), an Islamic organization based in Karachi, Pakistan.

Hamida Ali Reza, philanthropist and renowned Saudi educationist; Najia Aizaz, chairperson of Pakistan Foreign Office Wives Association; and Afshan Aftab Khokher jointly inaugurated the exhibition accompanied by Pakistan Consul General Aftab Ahmed Khokher and Dr. Tanweer Hasan Zaman, director of WMC-Jeddah.

Prominent Saudis who appreciated calligraphy, consulate staff and a large number of art and calligraphy lovers from the subcontinent community living in Jeddah were present on the occasion.

The 13 Pakistani artists who are displaying their works and specimen of calligraphy in the exhibition are Iqbal Ibn-e-Kaleem, Irfan Ahmed Khan, Ajab Khan, Hafiz Anjum Mahmoud, Malik Mohammad Abdul Rehman Naqash, Nasir Mahmoud, Ashraf Mohammed, Abdul Rasheed, Mohammed Hassan, Abdul Razzaq Razzi, Maqsood Ali Lashari, Mohammed Hassan Kashigar and Ms. Mussarat Qudoos.

Speaking to Saudi Gazette at the opening ceremony, Aftab Khokher, said the exhibition "is a part of the celebration of our 74th National Day and this is a culmination of our program, which we began in February 2014." This event is the third of its kind, which the consulate has organized.

"The main objective of this exhibition is to promote Islamic arts and calligraphy. Saudi Arabia is the best place to showcase our talent of calligraphy from Pakistan. We will continue to do this with the collaboration of the Saudi businessmen and establishments," Khokher added.

The consul general expressed his gratitude to Sheikh Salah, CIO Ehsan Hameed and CEO of Red Sea Mall Iqbal for giving space and support to organize the exhibition.

Deputy Consul General Imran Siddiqui said the aim of organizing the calligraphic exhibition was to keep the public aware about the potential of the unique art form of calligraphy to spread Qur’anic teachings.

Haj Director Abu Ahmed Akif said it is a great honor for the consulate that the work of these great artists have been put on display for the public to view and appreciate.

Eminent calligrapher Ibn-e-Kaleem Ahsan Nizami, who is in this field for the last 50 years, said: "This exhibition is being held not only to boost ties between the two friendly countries, but also to project the cultural image of Pakistan and to show that this age old art form is thriving in Pakistan."

Noted artists from Karachi Abdul Rasheed and Mussarat Qudoos too hoped this exhibition would further promote relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The exhibition will remain open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Red Sea Mall until Thursday.

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