A Signature Rebellion

I got in a taxi on Thursday and within a few minutes of conversation the driver asked my nationality. This has been a sensitive question recently; last week an American near the embassy answered in the positive and was stabbed in the neck for his troubles. ‘I hate America,’ the assailant confessed afterwards.

For the taxi driver, however, it was an opportunity of a different sort. After I owned up to my nationality he leaned over to his glove compartment and…

… pulled out a sheet of paper.

In fact it was one of many, some signed, most not yet. The driver was preaching the merits of a new campaign to oust President Morsi, and wanted me to convey the message to America. they aim to collect fifteen million signatures to their petition, vaulting over the total number of votes cast for Morsi in the presidential elections. They claim two million to date.

Their grand finale is planned for June 30, at the presidential palace, one year to the day in which Morsi took office.

Here is the translation of their flyer:

REBEL

To withdraw confidence from the Brotherhood regime

The Rebellion Campaign

(to withdraw confidence from Mohamed Morsi ….)

Because security has not yet returned to the street … we don’t want you

Because the poor still do not have a place … we don’t want you

Because we are still begging from abroad … we don’t want you

Because the rights of the martyrs still have not been fulfilled … we don’t want you

Because there is still no dignity for myself or my country … we don’t want you

Because the economy has collapsed and is built upon begging … we don’t want you

Because you follow the Americans … we don’t want you

Since Mohamed Morsi the … came to power, the simple citizen has felt that not one goal of the revolution has been achieved – for bread, freedom, social justice, and national independence. Morsi has failed to realize them all. No security, no social justice – he is a demonstrated failure in the complete sense of the word. It is not fitting for him to administrate a nation of Egypt’s weight.

Therefore:

I, the undersigned, from my free and complete will, as a member of the general assembly of the Egyptian people, withdraw confidence from the president of the republic, the dictator Mohamed Morsi, and call for early presidential elections. I pledge to hold firmly to the goals of the revolution and to work on their behalf, spreading the Rebellion Campaign among the masses until we are able to achieve social dignity, justice, and freedom.

Name:

National Number:

Governorate:

Signature:

Would you sign?

Saudi Arabia executes 5 Yemenis in Jizan, displays bodies in public

 

Saudi Arabia executed five Yemenis  on Tuesday and displayed their bodies in public for killing a Saudi national and forming a gang that committed robberies across several towns in the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

The five were executed in the south western town of Jizan, bringing the number of people executed in the kingdom this year to 46, according to  AFP stats. The five men in the above picture are seen hanging from a rope tied to their waists on a horizontal bar between two cranes. It is uncertain whether  they were beheaded or shot.

The ministry said that Khaled, Adel ,Qasim Saraa , Saif Ali Al Sahari and Khaled Showie Al Sahari had formed a gang which committed “several crimes in various regions in the kingdom and robbed stores.”

The Ministry added that the five had killed Ahmad Haroubi, a Saudi, by beating him up and strangling him.

Under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of Sharia law, rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death.

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The number of people executed in Saudi Arabia this year reached 46, according to news agency AFP.

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said that Khaled, Adel and Qassem Saraa, Saif Ali al-Sahari and Khaled Showie al-Sahari had formed a gang which committed “several crimes in various regions in the kingdom and robbed stores”.

The gang had killed Ahmed Haroubi, a Saudi, by beating him up and strangling him, the ministry said.

Murder, apostasy, armed robbery, rape as well as drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.

The death penalty in the world. Map by euronews

#Saudi Arabia Religious Police Say Twitter Is the Path to Hell

Hell is other Twitter users — according to the head of Saudi Arabia's religious police force, anyway.

Sheikh Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said Wednesday that Muslims who use Twitter or other social media have "lost this world and his afterlife," as quoted by BBC News.

Saudi Arabia has a complicated relationship with social media as its usage skyrockets in the country. However, the Saudi government is worried social media could help the political opposition in the country organize in spread, similar to the ways it has been used throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.

"The Kingdom is particularly concerned with how Twitter has been used to keep people informed of human rights activists who have been tried for the crime of free speech," writes Jonathan Turley, professor of law at The George Washington University Law School. "Leaders on the web have been detained while others have been charged with apostasy and other crimes for statements made on these sites."

Software engineer Moxie Marlinspike recently alleged in a blog post that Saudi Arabia wants the ability to spy on Twitter and such popular messaging services as Viber and WhatsApp.

Several years ago, Saudi Arabia threatened to ban BlackBerry devices unless the company made it easier for the government to read users' messages. The company reportedly decided to comply with those demands.

Other religious figures, including the Dalai Lama and the Pope, have embraced social media to varying degrees as a way to spread their message or connect with those inside and outside their faith. Can religion and social media mix? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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I, Robot Maker: Making robots to interact with humans

Would you be comfortable being surrounded by robots?

A British manufacturing firm is trying to make robots that share more human characteristics, to make interaction with them more natural and intuitive than ever before.

Cornwall's Engineered Arts is in the vanguard of this area of research, which aims to make robots' facial expressions, body language and way of moving more recognisable to real people.

Founder Will Jackson gave a tour of his robot factory to the BBC, and explained how he and his team of a dozen people are looking to expand the frontiers of robot technology.

Video journalist: Dougal Shaw

Raw power of the Sun

 Flare on 12 May Solar filament and flare on 3 May 2013  Between 12 and 14 May, the Sun unleashed four intense bursts of radiation, or flares. These X-class flares - the most intense type - represent the strongest activity on the Sun so far in 2013. This picture from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the first of these on 12 May.

  

 Flares are associated with eruptions known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. These can release billions of solar particles into space in the form of charged gas and other material. This picture from the Stereo spacecraft shows a CME earlier this year. The black disc blocks out the Sun so that fainter features can be seen.

 Flares and CMEs originate around active regions known as sunspots. These are temporary dark patches on the Sun caused by magnetic activity. The recent flares were released from a sunspot called AR1748; this picture, taken in 2010 by the New Solar Telescope in New Jersey shows a different feature.

 

Syria’s lung-eating rebel explains himself

 

The shocking video of a Syrian rebel eating the lung of a pro-Assad fighter spread like wildfire across the Internet earlier this week. The rebel, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, has filmed a YouTube video explaining his actions. 

"I am willing to face trial for my actions if Bashar and his shabeeha [militiamen] stand trial for their atrocities," he says. "My message to the world is if the bloodshed in Syria doesn't stop, all of Syria will become like Abu Sakkar."

The Syrian rebel, whose real name is Khalid al-Hamad, goes on to explain that he did what he did because of atrocities committed by pro-Assad fighters. He said that evidence taken from their cell phones showed how they raped women, killed children, and tortured men. In an article published this week by TIME magazine, the rebel fighter explained that he had a sectarian hatred of Alawites, and that he had made another video where he cuts up a pro-Assad fighter's body with a saw.

Abu Sakkar's actions not only created controversy among observers of the conflict, but also prompted the Syrian rebel leadership to take action. The Free Syrian Army's Military Council released a statement condemning Abu Sakkar's "monstrous act," and instructed field commanders to being an investigation "in which the perpetrator will be brought to justice."

So far, however, Abu Sakkar appears to still be on the battlefield. At the end of the video, the cameraman asks him whether he will continue fighting after this controversy. "Victory or martyrdom, I will fight to the death," he replies, then walks off down the road. 

Posted By David Kenner

Yemen plane crash: Pilot dies after mid-air explosion

 

A pilot in Yemen has died after the plane he was flying exploded in mid-air, according to an army official.
The aircraft was reportedly on a military exercise when it crashed in a residential district of the capital
From a few kilometres across town, the blast sounded like a muffled thump - the grim reality of an explosion going off inside a packed crowd.
Sitting under fruit trees in a beautiful garden in Sanaa, my Yemeni companions looked up from their cups of tea and waited for the sound of gunfire to follow.
When they did not, we all settled back into our conversation.
We had no idea from our leafy oasis that the worst single terror attack in Yemen's history had just occurred.
Within 30 minutes, we were driving back to our hotel crammed into the usual chronic traffic. The sound of ambulance sirens screamed past us.
An al-Qaeda suicide bomber had just pulled off a ruthlessly symbolic attack at a rehearsal for Tuesday's National Day military parade.
Menacing group
The parade was supposed to celebrate Yemen's unification since 1990, when a war between the north and south ended in northern victory.
But the southern secessionists have been replaced by a more modern, more menacing group pulling Yemen apart: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Their local affiliate, known as Anshar Al Shariah, later claimed responsibility for the attack in a message sent across the capital of this less-than-unified Arabian Peninsula nation.
The attack was set against the backdrop of a raging war in the southern provinces of Yemen. Al-Qaeda fighters have taken advantage of almost a year and a half of political chaos to grab swathes of the country there.
To the alarm of Western security concerns, al-Qaeda was taking ground, invading cities and getting close to their dream of their own Caliphate. Yemen, in fact, was looking like the group's biggest success story in recent years.
Since Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to resign as president and hand power over to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, however, the fight against al-Qaeda has been stepped up enormously.
Targeted drone strikes and a fresh offensive have been attributed to US military co-operation.

The American government has not confirmed it is carrying out the current targeted air strikes against the fighters, or that it has sent military advisers to help Hadi fight AQAP.

Strength or desperation

Monday's attack could be seen as either a sign of strength or desperation by the group.

They have lost hundreds of fighters in recent weeks to the fighting, according to the Yemeni government, and have been pushed back from some of their territories in the south.

So, these attacks are in many ways revenge against the government.

They also clearly show the strength of the group, carrying out an attack right in the centre of the capital, literally metres from a main military base and down the street from the presidential palace.

A few hours after the attack, reports circulated of two other would-be bombers found hiding in a park nearby.

What was a huge blow at the heart of Yemen's new government and military, could have been even bigger.