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Issue 255, Friday 30 July 2010 - 18 Sha'ban 1431

Brief World

Indonesian Muslims facing Africa during prayers
Indonesian Muslims have been facing Africa - not Mecca - while praying.
Indonesia’s highest Islamic body acknowledged on July 19 it made a mistake when issuing an edict in March saying the holy city in Saudi Arabia was to the country's west. It has since asked followers to shift direction slightly northward during their daily prayers. “After a thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts, we learned they’ve been facing southern Somalia and Kenya,” said Ma'ruf Amin, a prominent cleric of the Indonesian Ulema Council. “We’ve revised it now to the northwest.” He said Indonesians need not worry, however: The miscalculation did not affect God's ability to hear their prayers. “God understands that humans make mistakes” he said. “Allah always hears their prayers.”

US to grant Israel 2.775 Billion in security aid
US Assistant Secretary of State, Andrew Shapiro, announced on July 16 that the Washington intend to grant Israel the amount of $2.775 Billion in what was described as the largest military-security aid to Israel. He said that the money is considered a special military-security aid to Israel in order to ensure “its security needs are met under the current circumstances”. The Obama administration already asked the Congress to grant this amount to Israel.

Flotilla deaths were a “mistake”, says IDF report
The killing of nine Turks in a raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last month followed intelligence and planning “mistakes”, according to an Israel Defence Force report.
At the same time, the report, defends the use of live ammunition by commandos and congratulates them on their “professionalism, bravery and resourcefulness” during the operation on board the Mavi Marmara.

CNN editor leaves after Fadlallah tweet
Octavia Nasr, senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs at CNN, is leaving the network after sending a message on Twitter praising the late Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Nasr said in a “tweet” she was “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”
She followed that up with a blog post on July 6 on CNN.com expressing “deep regret”
“It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I’m sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah’s life’s work,” Nasr wrote. “That’s not the case at all.”
The journalist said she was referring to his “contrarian and pioneering stand among Shiite clerics on women’s rights …this does not mean I respected him for what else he did or said,” she wrote “far from it.”

Illegal settlements control 42% of West Bank
Jewish settlers control over 42% of the occupied West Bank, a new report by B’Tselem has revealed. The findings by the leading Israeli human rights group say some half a million Israelis are living over the Green Line: more than 300,000 in 121 settlements and about 100 outposts, and the rest in 12 Israeli neighborhoods established on land seized.
Drawn from official military maps and population statistics, the report reveals a huge section of the land has been seized from Palestinian landowners.
“The extensive geographic-spatial changes that Israel has made in the landscape of the West Bank undermine the negotiations that Israel has conducted for 18 years with the Palestinians and breach its international obligations,” B’Tselem said.

Saudi uni wins UN award
King Saud University (KSU) has been awarded a UNs’ award for excellence in public service on June 26. The award was given by the Secretariat for Economic and Social Affairs, an affiliate of the UN. The prize is the highest recognition of e-services. The KSU, is the first Saudi university to achieve this distinction..
The award was received by Abdullah Al-Othman, rector of the university, at a function in Barcelona, Spain.

G8 fails aid pledge
At Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005, G8 leaders responded to the Make Poverty History campaign by pledging to double overseas assistance by 2010; the G8 said it would increase overall aid spending by $50bn by 2010, providing an extra $25bn for the poorest nations in Africa. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris said in its annual health check this year that less than half the money to Africa had been provided.

Millions of Bangladeshis poisoned by arsenic-laced water
A fifth of all deaths in Bangladesh are linked to drinking water contaminated by arsenic, while up to 77 million people - half the population - have been chronically exposed to the poisonous metalloid, according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal last month.
Researchers tracked 12,000 people over a period of 10 years, taking urine samples every two years and analysing water from 6,000 wells to detect arsenic, confirming what the World Health Organization warned of a decade ago when it predicted “a major increase in the number of cases of diseases caused by arsenic if the population continues to drink arsenic-contaminated water.”
A decades-old programme of digging tube wells to reach what was thought to be clean drinking water is being cited as the cause of the mass poisoning, says the report.
Arsenic contamination of ground water is thought to affect 140 million people around the world, including in Thailand, China and the USA.

Prospects for war have grown: Assad
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the tension between Israel and Turkey has increased the possibility of war in the region. Speaking on July 5 Assad warned, “the prospect of war grows.”
He added, “Turkey knows the ins and outs of the Middle East,” and “there was never such a significant factor as Turkey for peace talks, and the stability of the region.”
In 2008, Turkey mediated four rounds of indirect talks between Damascus and Tel Aviv. The talks stalled following the December 2008-January 2009 war on Gaza, which left over 1,400 Palestinians dead and inflicted more than $1.6 billion in damage on Gaza’s economy.

Turkey threatens to cut ties with Israel
Turkish foreign minister says Israelis must either apologise or accept international inquiry into deadly raid. Turkey has hardened its stance towards Israel over the freedom flotilla taking aid to the Gaza Strip, warning on July 5 that it will sever diplomatic relations unless the Israelis issue a formal apology or accept an international investigation into the incident.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, “Israelis have three options, they will either apologise or acknowledge an international, impartial inquiry and its conclusion. Otherwise, our diplomatic ties will be cut off.”
Ankara withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv after the flotilla raid.

Munich raid organiser dies in Syria
A Palestinian nationalist, who planned the deadly attack against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, has died of illness at the age of 73 in Syria.
Abu Daoud died of kidney failure on July 4, a day after he was admitted to Andalus hospital in Damascus, Hana Oudeh.
Daoud was best known for organising the attack in Germany that killed 11 Israeli athletes. He was a leader of Black September, an offshoot of the Fatah faction of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, that was established to avenge the 1970 expulsion of Palestinian fighters from Jordan. Two Israeli athletes were killed in the assault, and nine others died in a bungled rescue attempt by the German police. A German policeman and five Palestinian attackers also were killed.