PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2012
PAGE 32
Libyan council hands power to new assembly Libya council hands power to new assembly
South Africa anger over ‘beard and Bin Laden’ killing
S
outh Africans have reacted with outrage to the killing of a Muslim man in an alleged Islamophobic attack. Two white men beat Mohammed Fayaaz Kazi to death in the town of Magaliesburg, after insulting him over his beard and calling him "Bin Laden", a survivor of the attack, Ansaar Mahmood, said. Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's former intelligence minister, said the attack carried the "stench of Islamophobia". Religious violence in South Africa is rare, analysts say. A leading South African Muslim advocacy group, the Media Review Network, called on Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to ensure a speedy investigation into the 27-year-old Mr Kazi's death. Researcher Ibrahim Vawda said there was widespread anger in the Muslim community. "We strongly urge all members of our community to exercise restraint and patience and to allow the normal process of the law to take its course," he added.
UN chief urges sanctions on Mali rebels
B
an Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has called for sanctions against fighters who have taken over northern Mali. The UN chief asked the Security Council on Wednesday to consider financial and travel sanctions against rebels and fighters linked to radical Islamist groups, including several who are allied with al-Qaeda. Ban said that the 15-member council should "give serious consideration to the imposition of targeted travel and financial sanctions against individuals or groups in Mali engaged in terrorist, religious extremist or criminal activities". He also termed the destruction of historically significant shrines in Timbuktu by Ansar Dine, an alQaeda-linked group, a "callous" act. A March 22 military coup in the West African country set off a chain of events which led to Tuareg rebels and Ansar Dine taking over most of northern Mali. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) refused to recognise the new coup leader and forced him to cede power to a transition government.
L
ibya's National Transitional Council has handed over power to a new assembly in a symbolic move marking the first peaceful transition after more than 40 years of rule by the late Muammar Gaddafi. "I hand over the constitutional prerogatives to the General National Congress, which from now on is the
legitimate representative of the Libyan people," NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said at a late-evening ceremony on Wednesday. He passed the reins to the oldest member of the 200-seat legislative assembly elected on July 7 at a ceremony that was scheduled late in the day because of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when believers
fast until dusk. A conference room was arranged in an upscale hotel in the Libyan capital as a makeshift venue for the assembly, which is due to begin its work a week from now, according to the official LANA news agency. The authorities put in place tight security measures for the ceremony, in view of the ongoing violence in the
eastern city of Benghazi and in the capital, where a car exploded during a marketplace gun battle on Saturday. The interior ministry said it had cordoned off the hotel and that "all the roads near or leading to the conference will be closed" between 1700 and 0100 GMT. Representatives of civil society groups and diplomatic missions in Libya, as well as NTC and government officials, are due to attend. Tarik Yousef, Libyan and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Al Jazeera that the NTC "has had a pretty patchy record of delivering on the ground of being transparent". "This National Congress assumes power today while at the same time being expected to act, and act soon... to deal with issues that Libyan people see as essential to the country," Yousef said. "Many of them [assembly members] have enjoyed friendships and business dealings... but never have 200 people come together to work in an open, transparent and democratic process as the national legislature." The General National Congress, the outcome of last month's ballot, will be tasked with choosing a new interim government to take over from the NTC, and will steer the country until fresh elections can be held, based on a new constitution, to be drafted by a constituent authority of 60 members.
New fossils point to ‘more human species’
T
hree new fossils have been found in Kenya which show that there are two additional pre-human species besides the one that eventually led to modern humans, researchers say. A team led by Meave Leakey, daughter-in-law of famed scientist Louis Leakey, found facial bones from one creature and jawbones from two others in northern Kenya that led the researchers to conclude that man's early ancestor had plenty of humanlike company from other species. The new bones were found between 2007 and 2009 about 10km away from the old site near the fossil-rich Lake Turkana region, Leakey said. These would not be Homo erectus, believed to be our direct ancestor. They would be more like very distant
cousins, who when you go back even longer in time, shared an ancient common ancestor, one scientist said. The research has been published online on Wednesday in the journal, Nature. But other experts in human evolution are not convinced by what they say is a leap to large conclusions based on limited evidence. It is the continuation of a longrunning squabble in anthropology about the earliest members of our own genus, or class, called Homo. And much of it stems from a controversial discovery that the Leakeys made 40 years ago. The scientist team says that none of their newest fossil discoveries match erectus, so they had to be from another flat-faced relatively large species with
big teeth. The new specimens have "a really distinct profile" and thus they are
"something very different", said Meave Leakey, describing the study in Nature.
The new bones were found between 2007 and 2009 near the fossil-rich Lake Turkana region of Kenya [AFP]
Sinai: Egypt sends reinforcements as offensive builds
E
gypt has deployed extra troops, tanks and other armoured vehicles to the Sinai peninsula in an escalation of its military offensive in the area. The reinforcements follow the killing of 16 border guards by suspected Islamist militants on Sunday. The army has also begun sealing off tunnels into Gaza, according to Egypt's Mena news agency. Earlier reports that fresh fighting had broken out in al-Arish have been denied by a source quoted by the agency. According to Nile News TV, violent clashes had broken out between police and armed men outside a police station in the town. At least a dozen military transporters, each carrying two armoured personnel carriers, passed
Egypt's 1973 war with Israel and a small crowd of locals stood by staring. One man told us he hoped the army would come down hard on Islamist militants, describing the killing of 16 Egyptian border guards
us on the main coastal road in alArish. We watched as they unloaded at the main military base here. Sights like this have not been seen in the Sinai Peninsula since
A heavy military presence is building up in al-Arish
last weekend as "heinous". Others in al-Arish have expressed more cautious opinions, pointing out that in the past there has been a heavy-handed approach from security forces when dealing with the local Bedouin population. Tensions are likely to rise as action is taken to destroy the smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. There are said to be hundreds of them used mainly to transfer fuel and goods into Gaza, but sometimes to move weapons and people illegally. After years with little economic development, many North Sinai residents rely on the tunnels trade. But a security source told Mena the shots had been fired into the air by a man driving an unlicensed car.