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Hooked on chill pills in war-torn Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The new drug overtaking the Gaza Strip doesn't stimulate hallucinations or give endurance at the dance club. It merely chills you out, which is exactly what many Gazans say they need. Ruled by Islamic hard-liners from Hamas and locked in by Israel, Gazans can't travel outside the strip, have few places to go for fun, and are faced with a failing economy.

Thus the boom in the popularity of tramadol, a painkiller known here by a common brand name, "Tramal." Growing numbers of Gazans have begun using the drug over the past year and a half to take the edge off life in the impoverished seaside strip, pharmacists and residents say.

This worries medical personnel, who say the drug can cause dependence. It is a prescription drug in many countries, and the Hamas-run Health Ministry has made efforts to control it, but without much success in a society where medicines available only by prescription elsewhere are often sold over the counter. Tramadol is especially popular among young men. Some down the pills with coffee or dissolve them in tea. Others pop them freely when hanging out with friends. Grooms have been seen passing them out at weddings.

Source: [MSNBC]

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Abused labor concerns NYU - Guggenhem in UAE

By Megan Chuchmach

In a rush to establish outposts in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, venerable American institutions, including New York University and the Guggenheim Museum of Art, are not addressing concerns about migrant labor, human rights advocates say.

NYU, which will have the first American comprehensive liberal arts school campus in the Middle East, and a Frank Gehry-designed branch of the Guggenheim Museum are some of the big names that have buildings in the works on the developing Saadiyat Island off the coast of Abu Dhabi and which are of concern to activists.

"We don't believe that they are doing nearly enough to avoid the exploitation of workers in their own projects," said Human Rights Watch's Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the organization's Middle East and North Africa division. She said that the institutions have not made public commitments to ensuring that its construction workers are not exploited.

Source: [ABC News]

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Jordan: More Christians deported; reports condemned

(ISTANBUL) Jordan has continued deporting foreign evangelical pastors, as the government last week admitted to expelling foreigners for "illegal" missionary activities. Acting Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told the Jordanian parliament on February 20 that authorities had expelled missionaries operating "under the cover of doing charitable work," suggesting that evangelistic activity is illegal in Jordan.

If such evangelistic work were illegal -- with a missionary permit or not -- Jordan could be opening itself to accusations of violating Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the country published in its official Gazette in July 2006, giving it the force of law.

Article 18 of the covenant states that everyone has the inherent right publicly or privately to "manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching." It also states, however, that such freedom may be subject to limitations prescribed by law to protect public "order."

Source: [Compass Direct News]

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Jordan deports Christian missionaries who 'broke law'

(AMMAN) The Jordanian authorities have deported a number of foreign Christians who "violated the law" by carrying out missionary activities, Minister of State for Information and Communication Affairs Nasser Judeh said Wednesday.

"The authorities have deported a number of people who entered the country under the pretext of performing voluntary work but were spotted carrying out missionary activities," Judeh told the lower house of parliament in response to interpolations by deputies. He praised a statement issued earlier by leaders of churches in Jordan, who denied allegations by the deportees that Christians in Jordan were being discriminated against.

"The statement issued by the Council of Churches made it clear that Christians in Jordan lived in peace and security with their Muslim brethren and that the Jordanian constitution guaranteed the rights of all Jordanians regardless of their religion and sect," Judeh said.

Source: [Earth Times]

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Tourists warned of UAE drug laws

Travellers to the United Arab Emirates are being warned about its severe drug laws which have seen dozens detained for apparently minor offenses. Fair Trials International said arrests were being made over tiny quantities of drugs and over-the-counter medicines.

British tourist Keith Brown was sentenced to four years in prison after Dubai customs officers found a 0.003g trace of cannabis stuck to his shoe. Fair Trials, a legal charity, said it has seen a steep rise in such cases.

Golden beaches

Possession of painkillers like codeine and some cold and flu medication could result in a mandatory four-year prison sentence, Fair Trials International said. In one of the most extreme cases, it reported a man being held after poppy seeds from a bread roll were found on his clothes.

Source: [BBC]

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Press Attack: What's the frequency, Jamil?

By Rita Barotta

BEIRUT: It was 10.30 p.m. on January 25 and Jamil Nimri was at his home in the Gardens District in Amman when there was a knock on the door. Someone asked to see the journalist in person. Nimri opened the door to find a total stranger on his doorstep. After making sure that he was indeed facing Nimri, the stranger said he needed to get something from his car.

He turned, only to turn around again quickly – this time with a knife in his hand. The stranger went straight for Nimri's face but Nimri had a quick reaction and took a step back. He was quick enough to avoid serious injury but not quick enough to get a small cut on his face. His assailant ran away, jumped into a waiting car and disappeared into the night.

This is unfortunately not a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock horror movie. This is what actually happened to Jamil Nimri, a columnist for Jordan's Al-Ghad newspaper, and the host of a political TV talk show, called "Bila Qoyood" (Without restraints). Nimri is a famous media personality in Jordan, and is well respected as an intellectual who approaches issues with total objectivity and a great ability to listen and converse. Yet, someone out there doesn't like him.

Source: [Menassat]

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Jordanian authorities expel 'foreign' Christians

(ISTANBUL) Jordan has increased pressure on foreign Christians living in the kingdom, expelling many long-time residents over the past 13 months in what local churches see as an attack on their legitimacy. Authorities deported or refused residence permits to at least 27 expatriate Christian families and individuals in 2007, a number of them working with local churches or studying at a Christian seminary, Compass has confirmed.

In all but one case, officials refused to provide written explanations for the decisions. But many of those expelled told Compass that they had been questioned by intelligence officers regarding evangelism of Muslims. "They said that I am a threat to Jordanian security and I am making the society unstable," said Hannu Lahtinen, a Finnish pastor deported last month. "They have a thousand ways to say you are preaching the gospel."

Though not illegal, Christian "public proselytism" of Muslims is against government policy, according to the U.S. State Department's annual report on religious freedom in Jordan. But a Jordanian spokesperson told Compass that the government only deported foreigners who had broken the law or had been dishonest in their application for residency.

Source: [Compass Direct News]

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In Rape Case, a French Youth Takes On Dubai

By Thanassis Cambanis

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Alexandre Robert, a French 15-year-old, was having a fine summer in this tourist paradise on the Persian Gulf. It was Bastille Day and he and a classmate had escaped the July heat at the beach for an air-conditioned arcade.

Just after sunset, Alex says he was rushing to meet his father for dinner when he bumped into an acquaintance, a 17-year-old, who said he and his cousin could drop Alex off at home. There were, in fact, three Emirati men in the car, including a pair of former convicts ages 35 and 18, according to Alex.

He says they drove him past his house and into a dark patch of desert, between a row of new villas and a power plant, took away his cellphone, threatened him with a knife and a club, and told him they would kill his family if he ever reported them. Then they stripped off his pants and one by one sodomized him in the back seat of the car. They dumped Alex across from one of Dubai's luxury hotel towers.

Source: [NY Times]

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Iraqi Christians seek new life in Europe

MOSUL -- Members of the Iraqi Christian community in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk have asked European countries to expedite their visa applications and grant them asylum, according to Christian leaders there.

"Most of the Christians in Iraq have moved to northern provinces as they flee violence against their religious group. Most of them were taking refuge in Mosul and Kirkuk but in the past two months, at least 27 Christians were killed in Mosul and Kirkuk as they were leaving their churches or community prayers in private residences," said cleric and spokesman for the Christian Peace Association (CPA), Lucas Barini.

"Panic has spread, especially since women and children were among the victims," Barini added. "In the past two weeks, at least 120 families have received threatening letters at their homes giving them a month to leave Mosul and Kirkuk but they don't have anywhere else to go."

Source: [IRIN]

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Two Egyptian police jailed for torture

Two Egyptian policemen have been jailed for three years each for torturing a bus driver during police custody. The police officers filmed the sexual assault of Emad al-Kebir, 22, on a mobile phone. The footage eventually emerged on the internet.

The case is one of several notorious incidents of abuse by the security forces to be uncovered in Egypt, mostly driven by activist bloggers. Mr Kebir, who was in court to hear the verdicts, welcomed the ruling. "God is great! Thank God!" he said. "I regained my rights. I don't want anything more than that."

The police officers, Capt Islam Nabih and non-commissioned officer Reda Fathi, sexually assaulted Mr Kebir with a stick and hit him with shoes, a whip and a gun, the court heard. Court officials said both men will appeal against the verdict.

Source: [BBC]

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