By Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum on comic-book blockbuster turning heads with its strength among female ticket buyers
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The Price of Kings – Yasser Arafat: Film Review
The Bottom Line
An engrossingly edited, celebratory view of PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s personal sacrifices during his political career.
Venue
Dubai Film Festival (Arabian Nights)
Director
Richard Symons
Screenwriters
Richard Symons, Joanna Natasegara
British documaker Richard Symon’s planned 12-part series on world leaders kicks off with the long, colourful and controversial Yasser Arafat, whose political and diplomatic achievements are here depicted in the most positive light possible. Choosing not to address the accusations of terrorism that have been levelled at Arafat’s PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), this well-researched doc focuses on the personal sacrifice made by the man Arafat to create a portrait verging on hagiography. Most interesting is the appraisal of friends and adversaries like his widow Suha, former Maltese president Guido de Marco and Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, who will be the subject of Symon’s next film. The quality of the film-making lifts it above straight history channel material, and it should see the light in a number of fests before dvd life begins.
The story of Arafat (1929-2004) starts with the 1947 partition of Palestine when he was still a student in Cairo, though it was not until 1959 that he founded the political party Fatah, espousing liberation from Israeli domination through the efforts of Palestinians themselves.
Per Suha Arafat, her husband was “never a killer or a terrorist, but a freedom fighter.” When statesman Guido de Marco suggested to Arafat that he pursue a policy of non-violent passive resistance like Mahatma Gandhi, the PLO chief replied there are a billion Indians but only a few hundred thousand Palestinians, who could be shot and killed. Nevertheless, by 1974 Arafat seemed to realize that military means would never achieve peace.
Arafat was the first Palestinian leader to recognize the state of Israel, and his concessions in Oslo in 1993 and at Camp David in 2000, agreeing to accept the 1967 boundaries of Palestine with only 22-23 percent of the original land, are recognized on camera by Israel’s chief negotiator as major concessions. He comes across anyway as a wily, astute politician “married to his country,” flexible on the outside but tough as nails underneath. He also won the grudging respect of Israeli P.M. Yitzhak Rabin, whose assassination in 1995 came as a terrible blow to Arafat’s negotiations for peace.
Symons skillfully edits a great deal of complex Middle East history into digestible, bite-size chunks, and narrates Arafat’s life through an array of important interviews. There is no attempt to make journalistic scoops about the corruption of Arafat’s coterie, or to espouse unproven theories about his death. Suha Arafat is both articulate and frank in recounting her personal relationship to the Palestinian leader.
Venue: Dubai Film Festival (Arabian Nights section)Production company: Spirit Level Films Director: Richard SymonsScreenwriters: Richard Symons, Joanna Natasegara Producer: Joanna Natasegara Directors of photography: Jake Corbett, Audrey AquilinaMusic: Stuart Briner, Tom McFarlandEditor: Richard Symons Sales Agent: Spirit Level Films No rating, 73 minutes
Why Royal Dutch Shell oil is pulling out of Syria
Royal Dutch Shell said Friday that it will shut down all oil operations in Syria. On Friday, Syrian troops fired at anti-Assad demonstrators near Homs, Syria.
Royal Dutch Shell said on Friday it would cease operations in Syria Syria to heed new European Union sanctions against Damascus, deepening the international isolation of President Bashar al-Assad imposed over his violent crackdown on popular unrest.
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In continuing bloodshed, Syrian army defectors killed eight Air Force intelligence personnel in an attack on their base in the north of the country, according to an opposition group.
Thursday’s incident suggested that armed deserters are turning increasingly from defending civilian protesters against violent repression by Assad’s security forces to an offensive of ambushes and roadside bombs, raising the spectre of civil war.
RECOMMENDED: Who’s still backing Syria’s leader?
On Friday, Syrian troops fired at random into an anti-Assad demonstration after Muslim prayers in the village of Kfar Laha northwest of the city of Homs, killing one man and wounding 10 people, opposition activists said.
Western and Arab countries have been intensifying punitive sanctions to press Assad to carry out pledges to halt bloodshed by withdrawing forces from restive cities, admitting Arab League observers and starting transition talks with the opposition.
Royal Dutch Shell said it would be shutting down in Syria to comply with EU sanctions slapped on Syria’s economically vital oil and financial sectors the day before.
A Shell spokesman said: “Our main priority is the safety of our employees … We hope the situation improves quickly for all Syrians.”
The EU on Friday extended sanctions to three Syrian oil concerns, including the state-owned General Petroleum Corporation (GPC) and Syria Trading Oil (Sytrol), to crank up the financial pressure on the Assad government.
The three oil concerns were among 11 entities and 12 Syrian leadership figures added to an EU blacklist now aimed in part at bringing the Syrian ventures of oil giants to a halt. Royal Dutch Shell was the first to bow out. [ID: nL5E7K50S9]
Syrian oil comprises under 1 percent of daily world output but accounts for a big chunk of Syrian government earnings.
The expanded EU sanctions list encompasses media companies and firms the EU says supply sensitive equipment to a research centre that supports Assad’s suppression of dissent. The United States and the Arab League have also imposed an array of economic sanctions and banned travel by some Syrian VIPs.
CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTION
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for international action to protect Syria’s civilian population from “continual ruthless repression that, if not stopped now, can drive the country into a full-fledged civil war”.
More than 4,000 people have been killed, including 307 children, in the military crackdown on unrest since March and more than 14,000 people are believed to be held in detention, she told an emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“In light of the manifest failure of the Syrian authorities to protect their citizens, the international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people,” Pillay said in Geneva. “All acts of murder, torture and other forms of violence must be immediately stopped.
Pillay did not spell out what measures world powers should take. Russian and Chinese envoys, whose governments have blocked tougher U.N. sanctions on Syria, brushed aside her appeal.
“We would like to warn against illegal interference by outside forces even under the pretext of protecting human rights. “This will have serious and unforeseen consequences,” Russia’s Valery Loshchinin told the Council session.
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Islamists poised for big win in Egypt vote
CAIRO?? Egypt’s ruling military painted a dire picture of the economy on Thursday as election officials delayed releasing results of a landmark parliamentary poll that Islamist parties looked set to win, saying votes were still being counted.
They said first-round results would be declared on Friday, a day when youthful protesters demanding an immediate end to army rule have called a rally in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to remember the 42 people killed in clashes with riot police last month.
The election commission previously said results from the two-day balloting would be announced late Thursday. But the state MENA news agency quoted commission head Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim as saying a large voter turnout has slowed down the counting process.
Egyptians voting freely for the first time since army officers ousted the king in 1952 seem willing to give Islamists a chance. “We tried everyone, why not try Sharia (Islamic law) once?” asked Ramadan Abdel Fattah, 48, a bearded civil servant.
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Islamist success at the polls in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, would reinforce a trend in North Africa, where moderate Islamists now lead governments in Morocco and post-uprising Tunisia after election wins in the last two months.
Parliament, whose exact makeup will be clear only after Egypt’s staggered voting process ends in January, may challenge the power of the generals who took over in February after a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak, an ex-air force chief.
Muslim Brotherhood bends rules to win big in Egypt
The army council, under growing pressure to make way for civilian rule, has said it will keep powers to pick or fire a cabinet. But the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s party said this week the majority in parliament should form a government.
The poll results had been expected on Thursday, but some constituencies had not completed their counts.
In an alarming revelation, an army official said foreign reserves would plunge to $15 billion by the end of January, down from the $22 billion reported by the central bank in October.
Mahmoud Nasr, financial assistant to army chief Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, told a news briefing that a widening budget deficit might force a review of costly subsidies, especially on petrol, to save money.
The economic crunch has forced the Egyptian pound to its lowest level in nearly seven years after tourism and foreign investment collapsed in the turmoil since Mubarak’s overthrow.
The world is closely watching the election, keen for stability in Egypt, which has a peace treaty with Israel, owns the Suez Canal linking Europe and Asia, and which in Mubarak’s time was an ally in countering Islamist militants in the region.
Washington and its European allies have urged the generals to step aside swiftly and make way for civilian rule.
Gains for Islamists
Western powers are coming to accept that the advent of democracy in the Arab world may bring Islamists to power, but they also worry that Islamist rule in Egypt might erode social freedoms and threaten Cairo’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist group, says its new Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) is set to win about 40 percent of seats allocated to party lists in this week’s vote, which passed off peacefully, albeit with many irregularities.
FJP officials say the party also leads the race for individual seats that make up a third of the total in the poll.
Al-Nour Party, one of several newly formed ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist groups, said on Thursday that it expects to pick up 20 percent of assembly seats overall.
“In light of the media campaign against us, we believe our results are largely acceptable,” said Youssry Hamad, Nour’s spokesman. “We are doing as well as the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Story: Egypt’s Christians prepare for new political climate
The liberal multi-party Egyptian Bloc has said it is on track to secure about a fifth of votes for party lists.
“For the first time in Egypt we don’t see a political intention by the state to forge the elections,” said Magdy Abdel Halim, coordinator of an EU-backed group of election monitors.
He said the infractions observed did not affect the legitimacy of a vote held in a “reasonably fair atmosphere.”
Egypt’s April 6 youth movement, a prime mover in the revolt against Mubarak, said an Islamist win should not cause concern.
“No one should worry about the victory of one list or political current. This is democracy and this great nation will not allow anyone to exploit it again,” its Facebook page said.
If the FJP and Nour secure the number of seats they expect, they could combine to form a solid majority bloc, although it is far from certain the Brotherhood would want such an alliance.
Senior FJP official Essam el-Erian said before the vote that Salafis, who had kept a low profile and shunned politics during Mubarak’s 30-year rule, would be “a burden for any coalition.”
The FJP might seek other partners, such as the liberal Wafd or the moderate Islamist Wasat Party, set up by ex-Brotherhood members in 1996, although only licensed after Mubarak’s fall.
Nour Party spokesman Hamad said solving Egypt’s problems might be beyond one party. “We believe a coalition government that comprises all political streams is the best option. The burden is too much after all these years of corruption.”
Perils of democracy
Some Egyptians fear the Muslim Brotherhood might try to impose Islamic curbs on a tourism-dependent country whose 80 million people include a 10 percent Coptic Christian minority.
Ali Khafagi, the leader of the FJP’s youth committee, said the Brotherhood’s goal was to end corruption and revive the economy. Only a “mad group” would try to ban alcohol or force women to wear headscarves, he said.
The priority of the Brotherhood, which gained trust by aiding the poor under Mubarak, is likely to be economic growth to ease poverty and convince voters they are fit to govern.
Essam Sharaf’s outgoing government quit during protests against army rule last month in which 42 people were killed, most near Cairo’s Tahrir Square, hub of the anti-Mubarak revolt.
Kamal al-Ganzouri, asked by the army to form a “national salvation government,” aims to complete the task in the next day or two, but acknowledged on Wednesday that five presidential candidates had turned down invitations to join his cabinet.
Protesters who returned to Tahrir last month, angered by the military’s apparent reluctance to cede power, say the generals should step aside now, instead of appointing a man of the past like Ganzouri, 78, who was a premier for Mubarak in the 1990s.
Mohamed Taha, 46, an accountant who supports the liberal Egyptian Bloc, said the election showed that young activists had failed to present a viable program. “Their revolution was stolen and they are stuck searching for who stole it,” he said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45510369/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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Kazakhs flock to new Almaty subway (AP)
ALMATY, Kazakhstan ? After nearly a quarter-century of waiting, residents of Kazakhstan’s largest city are able to ride the subway.
Work on the 8.5-kilometer (5.2-mile) line in Almaty began in 1988, when Kazkhstan was part of the Soviet Union. The USSR’s collapse three years later severely delayed the project.
Need for the transit system has risen sharply amid the city’s growth. It now has about 1.5 million people.
Thousands of residents flocked to the system on Friday, the day after it was officially opened by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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Queerty: GOP Ladies’ Man Herman Cain Basically Quits GOP Presidential Race – http://t.co/z1ZPHuwH
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Where Antarctic predatory seabirds overwinter
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Public release date: 2-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ]
Contact: Ute Schoenfelder
presse@uni-jena.de
49-364-193-1041
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena
Polar-ornithologists of Jena University explain flight routes of skuas with international team
In order to identify the flight routes of the birds, postgraduate Matthias Kopp, under the guidance of Dr. Peter, equipped South Polar skuas with geolocators in their breeding areas on King George Island, about 120 kilometers off the Antarctic Mainland. Thus he has been screening their position data over a period of several years, followed by an analysis together with British colleagues and a scientist from Switzerland. “With the help of these data we can now for the first time definitely say that the South Polar skuas are not overwintering, like their close relatives, the brown skuas, off the Argentine coast but mainly in the northern hemisphere”, explains the head of research, Dr. Peter. So far the scientists could only speculate about where the birds overwinter and which routes they are heading for. “The observation of single birds led us to the assumption that they overwinter in the Atlantic. But so far it wasn’t known that a great part of them stay as well in the middle of the Northern Pacific in the winter”, says the Jena scientist who has been researching in Antarctica since 1983 on a regular basis.
No matter, which ocean the birds are heading towards for overwintering, their flight routes show remarkable similarities. Thus the flight routes from the north and the return travel to the south are always shaped like a slip knot crossing on the equator. On both flights together the birds showed a big figure-of-eight flight pattern. At first the skuas which are overwintering in the Atlantic fly on a wide corridor northwards along the east coast of South America, and then change direction after having passed the equator and head towards the northwest. At the end of May they arrive at their destination in the Northern Atlantic. In the three months they spent on the open sea they wander along with the wind and the ocean current for more than 1,000 kilometers in a eastward direction, before they start their return flight in end-August. Before arriving at their breeding sites on King George Island they have a stop-over. For up to three weeks the birds are resting off the Patagonian coast and refill their body reserves.
The flight route into the North Pacific leads at first along the coast of South America and then changes direction towards the northwest above the equator. In mid-May, two weeks earlier than their conspecifics overwintering in the Atlantic, the skuas arrive at their winter quarters in the Pacific. These animals too, let themselves drift along with the wind and the waves up to 3,000 kilometers eastwards. Their way back leads them in a wide curve in a southwestern direction towards New Zealand and finally turns in a southeasterly direction into Antarctica. There, they are resting for a few days as well before they return to their breeding site. “We think that the animals need this resting phase to recover from the strain of the long trip through the tropics where food is scarce”, Dr. Peter says.
Once the skuas have decided on an ocean for a winter quarter, they will head towards the same destination in the following years as well. Until now the scientists didn’t know the ultimate reason for the animals’ decision on one particular direction. “We know for sure though that the animals get their own bearings and don’t learn the route from their parents”, Dr. Peter says. And so for him and his colleagues some questions still remain unanswered. Therefore the Jena scientist will leave for a research trip to Antarctica this year 100 years after Roald Amundsen, the first person ever to reach the South Pole. Two of Dr. Peter’s students are already on site and have captured the first Skuas. For Hans-Ulrich Peter it is he 22th expedition to the world’s most southern continent.
###
Contact:
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Peter
Institute of Ecology
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Dornburger Str. 159, D-07743 Jena, Germany
phone: ++49 3641 949415
email: Hans-Ulrich.Peter@uni-jena.de
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 2-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ]
Contact: Ute Schoenfelder
presse@uni-jena.de
49-364-193-1041
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena
Polar-ornithologists of Jena University explain flight routes of skuas with international team
In order to identify the flight routes of the birds, postgraduate Matthias Kopp, under the guidance of Dr. Peter, equipped South Polar skuas with geolocators in their breeding areas on King George Island, about 120 kilometers off the Antarctic Mainland. Thus he has been screening their position data over a period of several years, followed by an analysis together with British colleagues and a scientist from Switzerland. “With the help of these data we can now for the first time definitely say that the South Polar skuas are not overwintering, like their close relatives, the brown skuas, off the Argentine coast but mainly in the northern hemisphere”, explains the head of research, Dr. Peter. So far the scientists could only speculate about where the birds overwinter and which routes they are heading for. “The observation of single birds led us to the assumption that they overwinter in the Atlantic. But so far it wasn’t known that a great part of them stay as well in the middle of the Northern Pacific in the winter”, says the Jena scientist who has been researching in Antarctica since 1983 on a regular basis.
No matter, which ocean the birds are heading towards for overwintering, their flight routes show remarkable similarities. Thus the flight routes from the north and the return travel to the south are always shaped like a slip knot crossing on the equator. On both flights together the birds showed a big figure-of-eight flight pattern. At first the skuas which are overwintering in the Atlantic fly on a wide corridor northwards along the east coast of South America, and then change direction after having passed the equator and head towards the northwest. At the end of May they arrive at their destination in the Northern Atlantic. In the three months they spent on the open sea they wander along with the wind and the ocean current for more than 1,000 kilometers in a eastward direction, before they start their return flight in end-August. Before arriving at their breeding sites on King George Island they have a stop-over. For up to three weeks the birds are resting off the Patagonian coast and refill their body reserves.
The flight route into the North Pacific leads at first along the coast of South America and then changes direction towards the northwest above the equator. In mid-May, two weeks earlier than their conspecifics overwintering in the Atlantic, the skuas arrive at their winter quarters in the Pacific. These animals too, let themselves drift along with the wind and the waves up to 3,000 kilometers eastwards. Their way back leads them in a wide curve in a southwestern direction towards New Zealand and finally turns in a southeasterly direction into Antarctica. There, they are resting for a few days as well before they return to their breeding site. “We think that the animals need this resting phase to recover from the strain of the long trip through the tropics where food is scarce”, Dr. Peter says.
Once the skuas have decided on an ocean for a winter quarter, they will head towards the same destination in the following years as well. Until now the scientists didn’t know the ultimate reason for the animals’ decision on one particular direction. “We know for sure though that the animals get their own bearings and don’t learn the route from their parents”, Dr. Peter says. And so for him and his colleagues some questions still remain unanswered. Therefore the Jena scientist will leave for a research trip to Antarctica this year 100 years after Roald Amundsen, the first person ever to reach the South Pole. Two of Dr. Peter’s students are already on site and have captured the first Skuas. For Hans-Ulrich Peter it is he 22th expedition to the world’s most southern continent.
###
Contact:
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Peter
Institute of Ecology
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Dornburger Str. 159, D-07743 Jena, Germany
phone: ++49 3641 949415
email: Hans-Ulrich.Peter@uni-jena.de
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/fj-wap120211.php
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F-35 makes headway amid criticism, U.S. budget crunch (reuters)
Video: What to expect from Cyber Monday
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45452274#45452274
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