ROBERT FISK
Monday 20 July 2015
The images of an Egyptian gunboat exploding off the coast of Sinai last week were a warning to our Western politicians. Yes, we support Egypt. We love Egypt. We continue to send our tourists to Egypt. Because we support President Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi – despite the fact that his government has locked up more than 40,000 mostly political prisoners, more than 20,000 of them supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, hundreds of whom have been sentenced to death. The Egyptian regime continues to pretend that its Brotherhood enemies are the same as Isis. And Isis – in its dangerous new role as the Islamist power in Sinai – has killed hundreds of Egyptian troops, more than 60 of them two weeks ago, after which a military spokesman in Cairo announced that Sinai was “100 per cent under control”. However, after last week’s virtual destruction of the naval vessel, we might ask: who does control the peninsula?
Yet, while the biggest battle is fought in Sinai since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, we psychologically smother this conflict with our fears about Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. So relieved are we in the West that a secular general has replaced the first democratically elected president of Egypt that we now support Sisi’s leadership as benevolently as we once supported that of Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Americans have resumed arms supplies to Egypt – and why not when Sisi’s men are fighting the apocalyptic Isis?
Some of the ancient mausoleums of Timbuktu, shrines and tombs of Sufi saints which were a place of pilgrimage for centuries have been restored through a local and international project, three years after they were deliberately destroyed by armed groups linked to al-Qaida.
The director general of Unesco, Irina Bokova, visited the city in Northern Mali on Sunday, praising the reconstruction work as “an answer to all extremists whose echo can be heard well beyond the borders of Mali”.
Monday 20 July 2015
What a choice for Egypt – a megalomaniac president or the madness of Isis
Egypt is following the path of so many other countries that are being torn apart. If you torture your people enough, Isis will germinate in their woundsThe images of an Egyptian gunboat exploding off the coast of Sinai last week were a warning to our Western politicians. Yes, we support Egypt. We love Egypt. We continue to send our tourists to Egypt. Because we support President Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi – despite the fact that his government has locked up more than 40,000 mostly political prisoners, more than 20,000 of them supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, hundreds of whom have been sentenced to death. The Egyptian regime continues to pretend that its Brotherhood enemies are the same as Isis. And Isis – in its dangerous new role as the Islamist power in Sinai – has killed hundreds of Egyptian troops, more than 60 of them two weeks ago, after which a military spokesman in Cairo announced that Sinai was “100 per cent under control”. However, after last week’s virtual destruction of the naval vessel, we might ask: who does control the peninsula?
Yet, while the biggest battle is fought in Sinai since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, we psychologically smother this conflict with our fears about Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. So relieved are we in the West that a secular general has replaced the first democratically elected president of Egypt that we now support Sisi’s leadership as benevolently as we once supported that of Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Americans have resumed arms supplies to Egypt – and why not when Sisi’s men are fighting the apocalyptic Isis?
Timbuktu's historic tombs restored in show of confidence for war-ravaged Mali
Local and international project in ‘city of 33 saints’ reconstructs 14 Sufi mausoleums smashed up by al-Qaida backed extremistsSome of the ancient mausoleums of Timbuktu, shrines and tombs of Sufi saints which were a place of pilgrimage for centuries have been restored through a local and international project, three years after they were deliberately destroyed by armed groups linked to al-Qaida.
The director general of Unesco, Irina Bokova, visited the city in Northern Mali on Sunday, praising the reconstruction work as “an answer to all extremists whose echo can be heard well beyond the borders of Mali”.
Puerto Rico's ignored debt crisis fuels statehood proponents
The Standard & Poor's ratings agency cut Puerto Rico's credit rating down to junk status this week. Can an initiative to make the US territory the 51st state save its economy, or will the island become the next Greece?
Puerto Rico's economy appears to be in deep trouble. The US territory continues to struggle in refinancing its $73 billion (67 billion euros) in outstanding government debts, keeping the island in economic and political deadlock. Initial defaults this week have set the scene for what might perhaps turn into the biggest rescue talks since Greece.
Puerto Rico's arrears may only be about a fifth the size of Greece's, but with a higher population density the island territory presently appears to boast about two-thirds of Greece's per capita debt levels. In a televised address, Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla recently hinted that the debt pile per capita will likely have doubled by 2025, potentially threatening to outshine Greece which is still threatened with a eurozone exit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping tells army to learn from 'uncorrupt past'
July 20, 2015 - 1:40PMBen Blanchard
Beijing: China's military must learn from the glorious, uncorrupt example of its revolutionary forebears and thoroughly banish the deep-rooted, pernicious influence of the army's worst corruption scandal in decades, President Xi Jinping has told officers.
Mr Xi, who heads the military, has made weeding out corruption in the armed forces a top goal. Several senior officers have been felled, including one of China's most senior former military officers, Xu Caihou, who subsequently died of cancer in March.
Meeting soldiers in the north-eastern city of Changchun, Mr Xi said there can be no ambiguity when it comes to fighting graft.
"The damage caused by Xu Caihou's discipline and law-breaching activities is all-encompassing and deep-rooted," Mr Xi said, according to a Defence Ministry statement issued late on Sunday.
Xu, who had been a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission which Mr Xi leads, died before he could be brought to trial.
Philippines cheers growing outcry over South China Sea
The Philippines on Sunday hailed what it termed growing international support for its efforts to counter China's claims to most of the South China Sea.
The comments from a presidential spokesman came as the US Pacific Fleet released photographs of its commander in a surveillance flight over the sea, where tension is rising between Manila and Beijing.
Herminio Coloma, spokesman for President Benigno Aquino, said that "there are additional voices supporting our move for a peaceful resolution to the debate over... the South China Sea."
He said many nations agreed that the dispute "must go through legal process as signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea".
Japan's Mitsubishi apologises to US prisoners of war
Historic apology is first made by a Japanese firm for forced labour during World War II.
| Asia Pacific, Japan, War & Conflict, World War, War
Japanese corporation Mitsubishi has issued an historic apology for forcing American prisoners of war (POWs) to work in its mines during World War II.
While Japan's government has formally apologised to American POWs in 2009 and again in 2010, Sunday's move by Mitsubishi was the first made by a Japanese corporation.
The apology came 70 years after the war ended.
During WWII, 12,000 American prisoners were shipped to Japan and employed as slave labour, including 500 who were forced to work for Mitsubishi's predecessor, the Mitsubishi Mining Co.
Hikaru Kimura, a senior executive of the firm, extended a "most remorseful" apology to 94-year-old James Murphy of California, who is among only two of the surviving US prisoners.
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