Egyptians hold massive rally in Cairo

Egyptians hold Palestinian flags at a rally in Cairo on May 13, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/180868.html

Thousands of Egyptians have gathered in the main square in the capital, Cairo, urging the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak and his associates.

The demonstrators gathered in the landmark Liberation Square in central Cairo following the Friday Prayers.

The gathering dubbed 'Saving the Revolution' followed reports suggesting that Mubarak would be pardoned. Egyptians are opposed to granting amnesty to Mubarak as they say he ordered the killing of scores of protesters.

"We want our rights back' and 'We don't feel the change," the protesters chanted.

They want Mubarak and his government officials to stand trial for the crimes they have committed.

The protesters also denounced the release of Mubarak's ousted chief of staff Zakaria Azmi and his wife Suzanne Thabet. Mubarak and his wife face charges, which include corruption.

Egypt's judicial sources say Mubarak could face the death penalty if found guilty of ordering the killing of anti-regime protesters during the revolution. At least 846 people were killed during the uprising that led to Mubarak's eventual fall.

The demonstrators also called for the release of all those who were detained outside the Israeli embassy earlier this week. About 200 people were arrested during a protest on the Day of Nakba (Catastrophe) which marks the occupation of Palestine by Israelis.

Protesters called for an end to Israel's 63-year occupation of Palestinian lands, which began on May 15, 1948.

Under the US-backed Mubarak regime, Egypt consistently served Tel Aviv's interests in the region by helping to impose a crippling blockade on the impoverished Strip after the democratically-elected Hamas government took control of the territory in 2007.

Egyptians have frequently called on their military rulers to abandon Israel and lift the blockade on the besieged Gaza Strip.

8 Million children in Pakistan face food shortage

This file photo shows a boy sitting on the ground crying as he waits for an evening food handout at a center for flood victims near Nowshera in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on August 23, 2010.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155686.html


Eight million Pakistani children are suffering from food shortage in Pakistan and 3.5 million others do forced hard labor, a provincial official says.

Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Information Shamila Farooqi told reporters that the recent devastating floods had affected about seven million Pakistanis, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday.

“There are more than 10,000 street children under the age of 15 in Karachi while over 4,500 children are in prisons, out of which cases of 66 percent children are in pending at courts,” Farooqi added.

She further pointed out that flood-affected children are facing problems in getting medical treatment and education because many of the schools in interior Sindh were damaged or affected by the floods.

According to Farooqi, about 23 million Pakistani children are deprived of even basic education.

“Child Rights Bureau is the need of the hour to protect child rights and provide health, education and other facilities to them, particularly those affected by the floods,” she concluded.

'Food security,' Pakistan's main concern

The flooding, considered the worst in Pakistan's history, has left a fifth of the
country under water


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140901.html


Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has expressed concerns over food security due to the long lasting damage to the nation's agriculture.

He said floods have ravaged Pakistan's economy, and called the social impact of the disaster "serious."

"The floods have inflicted damage to the economy which may, by some estimates, reach USD 43 billion, while affecting 30 percent of all agricultural land," Reuters quoted Gilani as saying during a Cabinet briefing on Wednesday.

Agriculture is the core of Pakistan's economy and a major source of employment in the impoverished country.

"This economic loss will translate into massive job losses affecting incomes of thousands of families, which may have serious social implications,” the prime minister noted.

The international aid agency, Oxfam, has warned that Pakistan will face severe problems unless reconstruction begins immediately.

Torrential monsoon rains have triggered massive floods that have moved steadily from north to south of Pakistan over the past month.

The flooding, considered the worst in the country's history has claimed the lives of at least 1,600 people and displaced more than 17 million others, one out of every nine Pakistanis.

It has also affected the lives of 20 million others and left a fifth of the country under water.

The United Nations has warned that millions of children risk contracting deadly diseases while in contact with contaminated water.

World Bank boosts Pakistan aid to $1bn

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140941.html


As funding for flood-devastated Pakistan has almost stalled, the World Bank has boosted its support to one billion dollars from 900 million dollars.

The World Bank said in a statement on Wednesday that it has made the funding available to finance immediate recovery needs and longer-term reconstruction.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick also said the flood-hit Pakistan needs the world's support to meet urgent humanitarian needs.

Meanwhile, Manuel Bessler, head of the UN coordination agency, said the funding had been almost stalled since the beginning of last week.

The Pakistani government announced that the country had suffered losses of about 43 billion dollars because of the floods.

Heavy monsoon rains triggered the natural disaster, affecting 30 percent of agricultural land and more than 10 percent of the population.

According to the United Nations, more than 18 million people have so far been affected.

United Nations Children's Fund Executive Director Anthony Lake said the disaster has affected nearly 8.6 million children.

Pakistan's government has confirmed 1,645 people dead and 2,479 injured but officials warn that millions are at risk of fatal diseases and food shortages.

'Pakistan needs 3 years to recover'

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139848.html


Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says it would take years to rehabilitate the country after the devastating floods.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but three years is a minimum," Zardari told reporters Monday when asked how long it would take Pakistan to go through relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation after the floods.

He warned that his impoverished and volatile country is facing drastic problems.

“I don't think Pakistan will ever fully recover but we will move on," Zardari said, adding that the government was working to protect people from potential future flooding.

More than 1,600 people have lost their lives and 20 million have been affected by nearly a month of flooding which has engulfed a fifth of the country. Disaster is far from over as the country braces itself for a fresh wave of floods in the country's south.

Floodwaters have surged deeper into areas of Sindh province in southern Pakistan. More rains have been forecast for different parts of the flood-stricken country.

A Press TV correspondent reported from Islamabad that the situation in Pakistan's flood-hit areas is turning from bad to worse, particularly in the southern part of Punjab which is the biggest province of Pakistan and the food-basket of the country.

He said that 85 percent of the country's cotton crop depends on the southern belt of Punjab province which has been completely destroyed.
It is becoming very difficult for the Pakistani government to deal with such a situation, the Press TV correspondent said.

Meanwhile, the response to UN appeal for $460 million for rescue and relief operation in Pakistan rose dramatically to over $800 million by Friday.

Rwanda's genocide leader 'lives freely in France'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116928§ionid=351020603


A Rwandan rebel leader belonging to Armed Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and accused of genocide is reportedly living as a free man in a suburb of Paris.

Callixte Mbarushimana, executive secretary of the FDLR rebel group, coordinates the rebels' daily activities in Rwanda and its neighboring countries, AP reported Saturday.

Based on the report, the 46-year-old former UN employee is able to regularly send out press releases from his apartment in the French capital.

FDLR is one of several groups accused of creating instability in the African nation as many of its members are accused of taking part in Rwanda's genocide.

The Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by the Hutu dominated government.

An estimated 800,000 people were massacred in the genocide.

French Foreign Ministry has refused to extradite Mbarushimana to Rwanda whose men are accused of killing at least 700 civilians last year.

"France does not extradite the citizens of countries which apply the death penalty, as was the case in Rwanda, or whose justice systems do not fully guarantee their rights," French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Relations between two countries have reached a new low as Rwanda's government accuses France of playing an active role in the 1994 genocide.

The FDLR group is also accused of decapitating several hundred people a few months ago in the village of Busurungi in DR Congo.

The war, centered mainly in eastern DR Congo, has involved nine African nations and directly affected the lives of 50 million Congolese.

An estimated 5 million people died in Congo from disease and hunger as a result of the civil war which raged from 1998 to 2003.

US senators urge action on Iran Internet

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116700§ionid=3510203


Five US Senators publically urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to expedite aid flow to fight Internet restrictions in Iran, amid accusations that Washington interferes in Iran's internal affairs.

In a letter made public on Wednesday, the senators urged Clinton to swiftly spend $45 million that has been earmarked over the last two years to fight Internet restrictions in countries like Iran, the New York Times reported.

In July 2009, the US Senate ratified a plan to curb what it called "censorship" in the Islamic Republic.

A bill dubbed the Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act is aimed at funding measures "to counter Iranian government efforts to jam radio, satellite, and Internet-based transmissions."

It also allocates $30 million for the US government to expand activities of Radio Free Europe's Persian-language radio broadcasts into Iran.

Washington will also take measures to counter Tehran's "efforts to block, censor, or monitor the Internet in Iran" with another $20 million, the ratification said.

Republican Senator John McCain, one of the sponsors of the bill, said the VOICE Act would help to open up the Iranian society "by providing assistance for broadcasting and new Internet and communications technologies."

The move comes amid an assertion by Iranian officials that Washington has not changed its approach toward Tehran, and it continues to meddle in the country's internal affairs.