EGYPT: Cairo recalls its ambassador to Algeria after soccer violence

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki confirmed today that Egypt recalled its ambassador to Algeria after Egyptian fans were attacked by their Algerian counterparts following the two countries' playoff match in the 2010 World Cup qualifications held in Khartoum, Sudan, on Wednesday.

The incident comes days after Algeria's ambassador to Cairo, Abdel Qader Hadjar, was summoned by the Egyptian government to explain violence against Egyptians living in Algeria in the days leading up to the crucial match, which Algeria won 1-0. Hadjar was summoned once again today, hours before a decision was issued to recall Egypt's ambassador in Algiers for "consultations."

The Foreign Ministry announced that it informed Hadjar of "Egypt's extreme displeasure with the assaults on Egyptian citizens who went to Khartoum to support the Egyptian team."

"Egypt also expressed its outrage and its denunciation after continuing reports and many appeals from Egyptian citizens residing in Algeria over the assaults and intimidation they face," the statement to Hadjar concluded.

EGYPT: Algerian ambassador summoned to clarify post-football match incidents

Egypt's Foreign Ministry announced that Algeria's ambassador in Cairo Abdel Qader Hadjar has been called on to explain the violence against Egyptians living in Algeria following the two countries' football World Cup qualifier, the ministry's official spokesman Hossam Zaki confirmed.

Relations between the two countries have been recently marred by football fanaticism, which reached its peak right before and after the crucial match that ended when Egypt defeated Algeria 2-0 at Cairo International Stadium on Saturday.

In addition to the loss, Algerians' emotions were further provoked when Al Chourouk newspaper wrote that six of their fans died in clashes after the game. The allegation was denied by Hadjar, who said that no less than eleven of his fellow countrymen were injured but no deaths happened.

Since then, a number of attacks on members of the Egyptian community in Algeria have been reported.

On Monday, Egypt Air regional manager Nasser Mohamed Aladdin announced that the airline's bureau in Algiers was seriously damaged by Algerians who broke into its premises on Sunday evening. Aladdin added that Egypt Air decided to temporarily close the office in fear for its staff's safety.

Officials at the Egyptian-owned Orascom Telecom said that their subsidiaries' buildings in Algiers were similarly battered by stones and Molotov cocktails, and the head of Egypt's Arab Contractors said his company's branch was also assaulted but none of its workers was harmed.

After opening the score line in the third minute Saturday, Egypt hit a second in the game's dying seconds to be level on both points and goal difference with Algeria. The two teams, which share a history of animosity, will now meet in a one-match playoff in Khartoum, Sudan, on Wednesday, with the winner qualifying directly to summer's World Cup in South Africa.

--Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: A bus carrying Algerian players was damaged in Cairo. Credit: Mohamed Messara / EPA
 

MIDDLE EAST: Women's status up in Saudi Arabia, down in Syria, says study

The subject of women's rights in the Middle East is contentious. Sensational media coverage of honor killings and child brides equates religious conservatism with gender inequality, incensing Western feminists on the one hand and provoking regional backlashes on the other.

The reality is far more nuanced, according to the the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report released in late October by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries based on women's economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.

In Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- socially conservative Persian Gulf countries that all rely on some form of Sharia Islamic law -- more women than men enroll in higher education, although they have yet to be fully incorporated into the workforce. 

Syria, on the other hand, which is ruled by a nominally secular regime, has slid in the rankings for the last three years. 

Iran scores low in the fields of economic, educational and health equality, but performs relatively well on political empowerment. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt still hover near the bottom of the list, but have improved steadily since 2006. 

Yemen remained the lowest-ranked country in the world for the fourth year in a row.

TUNISIA: Online activists rally to free fellow blogger Fatma Riahi [Updated]

Lina Ben Mhenni was one of the last people to see Fatma Riahi the day she was arrested. The two women bloggers had been in touch online and by phone, but it wasn't until Ben Mhenni saw that Riahi's Facebook profile and blog had been shut down that they made urgent plans to meet for coffee on last Sunday. Riahi, a high school drama teacher in the small seaside city of Monastir, had been ordered to report to the Criminal Brigade in the capital, Tunis, where Ben Mhenni lives.

"From one cup of coffee, we spent the whole day together," Ben Mhenni wrote of Riahi in a series of e-mails to the Times. "In fact, I discovered an exceptional person -- funny, full of life, [an] artist [...] We talked about music, we laughed watching Tunisian television, we talked about blogs and bloggers."

They also talked about the Criminal Brigade, the investigative security force Riahi would have to answer to, and Ben Mhenni's boyfriend, Muhammad Soudani, who was arrested on Oct. 22 after giving an interview to a foreign radio station and has not been seen since.

[Updated, Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11:55 p.m. PST: Fatma Riahi was released Saturday morning, according to a statement posted on the Facebook page and blog devoted to her release. 

The statement said Riahi was in good health but was still in danger of being re-arrested.]

TUNISIA: Government cracks down on press freedoms, opposition before elections

It's a big weekend for Tunisia's longtime ruler, Zine el Abidine ben Ali.

Less so for its voters.

Ben Ali, who has ruled the North African country since wresting power from previous lifetime President Habib Bourguiba in 1987, is expected to extend his mandate Sunday through an election his critics have described as a "masquerade." 

Ben Ali has introduced constitutional amendments to allow himself to run for another term, limit the number of opposition candidates and guarantee his Constitutional Democratic Rally an overwhelming majority in parliament.

The U.S.-based advocacy group Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized the Tunisian government for its news media crackdown, including the arrests and violent attacks on critical Tunisian writers. This week, French reporter Florence Beauge was detained while attempting to enter the country and sent back to Paris.

But Tunisia's relative stability and secularism have made it a Western ally in the global "war on terror," and the same international community that condemned Iran's and Afghanistan's flawed elections is unlikely to exert the same pressure on Tunisia, despite recent crackdowns on reporters and serious opposition figures.

MOROCCO: Ramadan 'protest picnickers' face prosecution

Moroccan authorities are expected to prosecute a group arrested for organizing a forest picnic to protest a law that forbids Muslims from eating publicly during Ramadan fasting hours, media reports say.

Members of the Moroccan Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms (MALI) had planned to hold the picnic on Sept. 13 in the woods near the town of Mohammedia, between the Moroccan capital Rabat and Casablanca. Word of the picnic was spread through a page on the social networking site Facebook. 

But as would-be picnickers arrived at the train station in Mohammedia, they were met by a large police squad that searched them and took the names and phone numbers of some of them, according to a statement issued by Human Rights Watch.

MIDDLE EAST: U.N. report finds many problems in Arab world

Even the most optimistic of demographers can find reams of troubling statistics and startling anecdotes gleaned from living conditions in Arab nations across the Middle East and Africa.

The newest in a series of U.N. studies called the Arab Human Development Reports offers a sobering glimpse at the problems facing the Arab world: water scarcity, urban growth, persistent poverty, lack of democracy and human rights and a rapidly growing young population. 

These strains are intensifying during the global economic crisis.

The dominating headlines in the Arab world tend to be the Iraq War, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and apprehension over Iran's nuclear program. 

But the region's living conditions -- from high unemployment and rising hunger -- also threaten regional stability.       
   
Highlights in the U.N. report, Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries, include: 

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MOROCCO: Rabat tells Iranians to back off

Rivalry between Iran and the Arab states on both sides of the Persian Gulf makes sense. After all, they share the same cramped quarters.

But one could wonder why Morocco, an Arab kingdom located in northwest Africa thousands of miles away from the Islamic Republic, would engage in a heated row with the Iranians.

Some are wondering whether Morocco is assuming the role of a proxy for the epicenter of Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia, which for decades has been competing for power in the region with Shiite Iran.

EGYPT: Make that 118 pyramids

Desert winds blow, sands shift, archaeologists dig, and one day you find a pyramid.

Egyptian authorities announced today they discovered what’s left of the base of a pyramid estimated to be 4,300 years old near Saqqara.

The site has been under excavation for 20 years and is believed to have belonged to Queen Sesheshet, the mother of King Teti, who ruled the Sixth Dynasty around 2291. (View photos of the excavation.)

“It’s common for us to find a tomb or a statue, but to find a pyramid, that is rare,” Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council on Antiquities, told reporters. “There are probably many more discoveries to be made around this site.”

Archaeologists have yet to enter the pyramid’s tomb. About 12 miles south of Cairo, Saqqara was a necropolis for rulers of ancient Egypt.

The newest find brings to 118 the number Egypt’s discovered pyramids.