 | | We must emulate Maathai´s
green deeds: Kenyan envoy |
 AS the world continues to mourn
the death of Nobel Laureate for Peace
Wangari Maathai, Kenyan Ambassador
to Qatar HE Galma Mukhe
Boru advised the people to follow
her example and learn from her life.
Professor Maathai, who passed
away on September 25, was the first
African woman to be awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her
contribution to sustainable development,
democracy and peace... |
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|  |  | | Mad Hatter´s Tea Party |
 CURIOSER and curioser, as
Alice said in her adventures in
Wonderland. The longer the
crisis in the eurozone has gone
on, the more it has come to
resemble something penned by Lewis
Carroll.
Here are just a few of the surreal
aspects of the current state of affairs.
The answer to a lack of growth in struggling
countries such as Greece is austerity
of such ferocity that recessions deepen.
The solution to a... |
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| |  | | HOLDING CHINA
TO ACCOUNT |
 THE dire state of the world
economy reflects destructive
actions on the part of many
players. Still, the fact that so
many have behaved badly
shouldn´t stop us from holding individual
bad actors to account.
And that´s what Senate leaders
will be doing this week, as they take
up legislation that would threaten
sanctions against China and other
currency manipulators.
Respectable opinion is aghast.
But respectable opinion has... |
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Panetta bids to defuse Egypt-Israel tensions
AFP
CAIRO US DEFENCE Secretary Leon Panetta was holding meetings in Cairo on Tuesday in an effort to defuse tensions between Egypt and Israel that have mounted since the end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule.
Also on the agenda was Egypt’s plans for elections and a transition to a civilian-led government, a US official said.
The Pentagon chief met with Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took power when Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February, state TV said.
He was also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf.
Before flying out of Tel Aviv after a one-day visit to Israel, Panetta said he would seek to encourage Egypt and the Jewish state to ease friction over the Sinai and would ask Egypt’s military rulers to release an alleged Israeli spy.
Ilan Grapel, a US-Israeli dual national, is accused of spying for Israel and has been in custody since June 12 but Israeli officials say it is all a mistake.
Speaking to reporters in Tel Aviv on Monday, Panetta said he hoped Grapel would be released but did not say whether the accused would be freed during his visit to Cairo as reported by some media.
“There’s really nothing I can say about the specifics of that,” Panetta said.
“We have made our concerns known to the Egyptians about holding that individual,” he said. “We would hope that whether it happens with me, or whether it happens at some point in the future, that they do take steps to release that individual.” Grapel has been charged with being an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and of sowing sectarian strife in Egypt during the uprising which ousted longtime US ally Mubarak in February after three decades in power.
Egypt said on Saturday it was considering releasing Grapel.
Relations between Egypt and Israel, which have been bound by a peace treaty since 1979, have entered a turbulent period since Mubarak’s overthrow.
The end of the veteran strongman’s rule has coincided with uprisings across the Arab world that could give greater voice to popular anger over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Panetta expressed concern that Israel was “increasingly isolated” in the diplomatic arena and needed to work to shore up its relations in the region, particularly with Egypt and Turkey.
Speaking to reporters before his arrival in Tel Aviv on Monday, Panetta said Israel and Egypt needed to engage “directly” to defuse problems in the Sinai peninsula.
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