EGYPT: Authorities detain and deport American blogger

Egyptian authorities briefly detained an American journalist at Cairo International Airport on Thursday before barring him from entering the country, without stating a reason.

Travis Randall had been living in Cairo for the last 2 1/2 years, working as a freelance writer and an environmental consultant. He was stopped by authorities upon his return from the United States and was told that his name was on a list of people banned from entering Egypt.

The 27-year-old Denver native was taken to a cell where he spent 12 hours before being placed on a flight heading to London.

"It's pretty weird to be deported and no one gives you a reason. I'm basically going to stay in London and figure out what happened, figure out if [Egyptian authorities] could tell me why," Randall told reporters in London.

GAZA: Has Hamas unofficially imposed Islamic dress code on students?

Educators in the Gaza Strip have begun enforcing an unofficial decree by the Hamas leadership requiring high school girls to wear Islamic dress, despite Hamas Education Minister Muhammad Asqoul denying such a policy as recently as two days ago, Arab news outlets reported.

"Palestinian society is committed by nature and does not need decrees to force it to be so," Asqoul said, according to a front-page report by Qays Safadi in the left-leaning Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar (Arabic link). Asqoul went on to describe the media furor surrounding the decision as a "tempest in a teapot."

But, as Safadi points out, Asqoul's comments directly contradict the signs posted outside schools informing girls that this year they are required to wear dark blue robes, a white headscarf and black or white shoes.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Google launches local search engine

Google, one of the top search engines in the world, launched a local Arabic search engine for the Palestinian territorities Thursday, which will enable Palestinians to access more relevant data based on their searches, the Lebanese daily The Daily Star reported Friday.

Localized searches will also enable more effective targeted advertising via Google's AdWords software, which places ads using search terms and location based on IP address.

GAZA: Short film takes on rape, a taboo subject in Palestinian enclave

Basma Abualila, a journalist and filmmaker living in Gaza, recently caused a stir in the strip with her short film on rape in Gaza. In her 10-minute film, “ A Call at Night," based on a real-life incident, a young woman shares her story of how she was raped by her boyfriend and then forced to marry her rapist out of fear when she got pregnant. 

 
 

 

“He said he needed to talk to me but said we couldn’t talk while standing in the street because everyone was watching us. So he asked me to get into his car to talk. I get into the car and he puts something over my face,” the woman tells Abualila in a telephone conversation in the film. 

What then happens is unclear. The woman remembers nothing after getting into the car with the man. She wakes up hours later in an apartment with her clothes torn off and a terrible headache. Her boyfriend is in the room, looking at her from a distance. She believes she has been drugged. 

MIDDLE EAST: Daily headlines from Gaza, Israel, Iran in your mailbox

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You can subscribe by logging in or registering at the website here, clicking on the box for "L.A. Times updates," and then clicking on the "World: Mideast" box.

— Los Angeles Times staff

IRAN: For Obama, the road to Tehran leads through Jerusalem

Barely noted in the reports about Monday's meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a revealing exchange toward the end of the question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters.

The president was asked whether he agreed with Netanyahu's view that dismantling Iran's nuclear program and getting it stop supporting militant groups in the Levant was the first step toward a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

Obama said while the charged atmosphere in the Middle East makes it tough for Israel to negotiate with its rivals, he viewed the situation the other way around. 

Read the little-cited quotes below:

GAZA: Hamas blamed for executions

Human Rights Watch has condemned the radical group Hamas, saying the group killed, tortured and maimed at least 32 Palestinian political opponents and suspected collaborators during the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip in January.

In a new 26-page report, "Under Cover of War: Hamas Political Violence in Gaza," the rights organization claims that between Dec. 27, 2008, and Jan. 18, 2009, Hamas security forces executed 18 men, most believed to have been Israeli collaborators. Another 14 men, many of them alleged political opponents, have been killed since late January.

“During Israel’s attack on Gaza, Hamas moved violently against its political opponents and those deemed collaborators with Israeli forces,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “The unlawful arrests, torture and killings in detention continued even after the fighting stopped, mocking Hamas’ claims to uphold the law.”

Read the full report here.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Hamas militants. Credit: Reuters

QATAR: Egypt gives Qatar the cold shoulder

One could call it a cold-shoulder war.

With his decision not to show up at the Arab Summit in Doha, Qatar, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak furthered the ongoing mutual hostility between his country and the Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar.

“There won't be any reconciliation between Qatar and Egypt soon,” wrote Ahmed Moussa, a staunch spokesman of Mubarak’s regime, in today’s issue of the semi-official Al Ahram daily. “Egypt sent a message to the Qataris and reduced the level of representation, which shows that Qatar should revise all its positions toward Egypt.”

It was announced Saturday that Mubarak would not attend the summit. But Egypt will be represented by a delegation headed by the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, Moufid Shehab.

ISRAEL: 1,000 days of captivity for Shalit

Hundreds of people came to Jerusalem on Saturday evening to mark the 1,000th day since Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. In recent weeks, his family had joined the protest tent already manned for months by volunteers and sat up the block from the residence of the prime minister, a constant reminder to Ehud Olmert of his unfinished business as he finishes his term.

Olmert's final push to secure a deal with Hamas for Shalit's freedom in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners fell through, amid a bitter public debate in Israel over the price of such an exchange. As mediators and negotiators shuttled back and forth between Cairo, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in an attempt to reach agreement in the last few days of the incumbent government, time -- often a liquid concept in the region -- was pressing.

ISRAEL: First rocket-free play center

Given the choice, Sderot probably would have preferred to be known for the successful musicians it produced. But its proximity to Gaza has kept the small, southern town under constant threat of Kassam rockets and atop of the news. 

Now it can also be known as the site of the country's first rocket-free playground, with the dedication of  a giant safe-play center for kids. 21,000 square feet of an old textile factory have been converted into a unique indoors recreational facility complete with a mini-soccer field, climbing-wall and multiple-reinforced shelters.

The center will serve children of all ages from Sderot and the neighboring communities, and the multipurpose shelters will provide instant protection in case of a rocket attack, finally delivering kids and parents from the 15-second dash to safety that the "color red" rocket warning system grants.