A lot of visitors from around the world flew to Germany’s capital just to witness the star-studded event. A lot of hotels in the city were fully-booked due to the great number of visitors who came to attend the awards night. Some of these are casino hotels like Casino Berlin & Forum Hotel Berlin. It is one of the best casino hotels in the area where tourists can stay and unwind inside the poker rooms. The hotel also offers great rooms and special services that customers can take advantage of. It houses at least 100 slot machines and offers the best atmosphere for poker players, whether they are learning the basic rules of online poker from websites like de.partypoker.com/how_to_play.html or concentrating on the current game that they are playing. A hotel like this is the perfect venue for people who are attending such events.

The Berlinale’s History

Historically, Berlinale struggled to survive in the very hard conditions of postwar. A number of German films had a difficult time gaining favor from the press or the public. It was just in 1955 before a German film won an award in this top film festival in the country. Another problem that was encountered by this film festival was the division between Berlin and Germany. During that time, not many people are aware about the German film festival. If not for of the efforts of Oscar Martay, an American film officer who was with the US Army in Berlin, Berlinale will not be set up. He is also the one who influenced the American military administration to help in fund the Berlin International Film Festival during its early years. In 1951, Martay was the very first recipient of the famous Golden Bear award because of his great efforts for this event. He worked in film production after he left the army. He stayed in Germany and married Renate Barken, a German actress in 1955.

63rd Berlin International Film Festival

The recently concluded Berlinale featured 24 films. Among these 24 films, 19 of them are eligible for the top awards in the festival—the Gold and Silver Bears. Dark Blood, River Phoenix’s last film, was featured in Berlinale. River died in 1993 while filming for the movie. In addition, the Berlin International Film Festival featured different films from many countries like Spain, US, South Africa, China, Belgium, and Canada.11

Photographers and designers working with Photoshop must be capable of uploading, manipulating and outputting images. They must demonstrate their ability to correct images and paint and retouch them in order to successfully master the materials necessary for passing the Adobe Photoshop CS6 exam.

In addition to covering Photoshop program features, tools and functionalities, the Adobe Photoshop CS6 exam also requires candidates to know how to utilize Adobe Bridge as well as how to use Camera Raw for processing digital image files.

Mastering the skills and knowledge necessary for passing the Adobe Photoshop CS6 exam requires hands on experience working with the program. Adobe also offers sponsored training courses appropriate for preparing for this exam.

Candidates may also want to consider using tutorials and practice exams for boosting their performance on the Adobe certification exam, like the services offered by Adobe exam prep providers like TestsLive.com, for example. Not only do practice exams allow candidates to measure their learning progress and their exam readiness, they also help many commit the details of program operations and functionalities to memory more quickly.11

In the last twelve months Vodafone have sunk millions of pounds into upgrading their network, and they plan to spend even more over the next twelve months. This is to ensure that when the new 4G standard becomes commonplace, their network is built to handle it. There are hardly any handsets on the market at the moment that are ready for 4G, but when they finally do roll out, Vodafone’s network will be ready.

One of the main selling points of the network itself is that they are always trying to find ways to reward their customers for staying with them. To this end they created the Freebeez scheme. Just by being a customer you accumulate points which you can then spend on mystery gifts. This might be a free minutes bundle, a star prize like a phone or a camera, or any of the other offers they have. Customers can also save up their points to spend on something bigger later on such as laptops and holidays, or they can trade in their minutes when their contract is up to get a phone upgrade when they renew their contract. Customers can accumulate these points by being a contract customer or a pay as you go customer. Such flexibility in their rewards scheme means that there is no worry of people feeling cheated because they are not on the most expensive plan. It makes everyone feel as valued as possible, giving much more customer satisfaction.11

Syrian People Rallying

The U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan is expected to convene a high-level meeting on Syria in Geneva on Saturday at a time when the level of violence in Syria is said to have surpassed the intensity before the six-point ceasefire plan proposed by him went into effect in April and was observed for a short period of time.

The demand made by Kofi Annan comes at a time when pressure is mounting on the Syrian regime after the downing last Friday of a Turkish military jet in the Mediterranean waters, a move which drew retaliation rhetoric from Ankara and the convening of the North Atlantic Council to discuss the development under Article 4 of the NATO charter.

On Tuesday, the United States has ascertained, based on the number of defections from the Syrian army lately, most of the defectors being headed for Turkey, that the regime in Damascus is slowly loosing the grip on the situation.

On Wednesday, gunmen raided the pro-governmental TV station Al-Ikhbariya, a private-owned television which strongly supports the president Bashar al-Assad. Seven employees were killed, others were kidnapped and offices were demolished, according to Syrian officials, who denounced the attack as “massacre against freedom of the press.”

According to the Ministry of Information, the attack occurred in the town of Drousha, 20 kilometers south of Damascus. The attackers had explosives, which they detonated before shooting the seven people who died.

The station remained on the air hours of the attack, broadcasting a rally in Damascus. It is not the first time when such a situation occurs with this station’s employees, who have been shot upon in other occasions during these months of unrest, but never at the TV station’s headquarters. The rebels denied any involvement in this incident, explaining that they do not target the media.

On Wednesday, the former head of the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, said that he took a trip to the northern area of the country and that the areas he visited in the Idlib province are governing themselves, without any regime presence in them. Ghalioun told Al-Jazeera TV that parts of the country are liberated.

The U.N. deputy envoy to Syria Jean-Marie Guehenno told the UN Human Rights Council that the investigations into the Houla massacre in May concluded that the governmental forces “may have been responsible” for many of the deaths as they, and the pro-governmental shabiha troops, had better access to the village than the rebel troops.

The head of the expert team that documented the crimes said that the modus operandi resembles many other documented executions carried out by governmental troops but added that a final verdict can only be delivered after more investigation. The Syrian ambassador to the U.N. dismissed the assessment as “quite fantastic.”

On Tuesday, Turkey has announced that new rules of engagement toward Syrian soldiers will be applicable after the downing of a military jet, as the international community continues to protest against this act, which did show the western countries that the instituting of a no-fly zone would be more difficult to do than it was in Libya last year. On Wednesday, the Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country had no intention of attacking Syria. One day before the same official was advising the neighboring country not to test the determination and wisdom of his country.

On Wednesday however the Turkish army moved tanks and troops at the long border with Syria, in a move to convince the Syrians that it was serious about its pledge to retaliate if any incident should occur.11

Mohamed Morsi and Hussein Tantawi

Egyptian president-elect Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday announced that he would nominate six vice-presidents, including a woman and a Christian, in a bid to keep his word to be a president to all Egyptian. The move is also perceived as a step toward ending the reign of the military, which is expected to hand over power by the end of this week.

The Muslim Brotherhood reached some agreements with the army regarding to the powers the newly elected Islamist president of Egypt will have, and what is to become of the dissolved parliament.  Mohamed Morsi resigned his position in the Freedom and Justice party in order to be a president for all Egyptians, and will count on a panel of six vice presidents, among which he wants a woman, a Christian, secularists or other non-Brotherhood representatives in the society.

An aide to the president said that Morsi is considering appointing as prime minister Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Nobel Prize winner. Another possible nomination for the job could be Hazem Beblawi, former minister of finance.

Mohamed ElBaradei was seen by Egyptians as the possible replacement for Hosni Mubarak even before the revolution in 2011. He was credited to win elections against either Mubarak himself or his son Gamal, who, at the time, was seen as heir apparent.

ElBaradei promised to run in elections only if they were correct and represented the real will of the Egyptian nation, and urged his country fellows to abandon the paradigm in which they were living their lives and become more involved in social and political matters.

His family was at the heart of a smear campaign even before the revolution, a move which was interpreted by many as a fact that the regime was afraid that he may actually reach to the people of Egypt.

After the revolution he kept a low-key appearance in the public life, and in January 2012 announced he would not run for president, accusing the military of not being able to hold free and democratic elections.

The aide to the president who disclosed the possible prime ministerial nominations added that the cabinet will be made of technocrats, and that the president is committed to important issues as resolving the fuel shortage, the collection of garbage in the cities, improve traffic flow, improve economy and restore security in the country.

National Post daily reporting on the meeting between the president-elect and the head of the military council in power, field marshal Hussein Tantawi, says that in the official picture of the two most powerful men in Egypt Morsi seemed a visiting president, that stressing out where the power in this country lies.

Sources close to the presidency also spoke of the mode in which the ministries will be divided in the cabinet. Thus, after a consultation with the military, the finance and the foreign affairs may go to the Muslim Brotherhood provided that they do not take defense, interior and justice ministries.

The negotiations with the military come at a time when Egypt’s Administrative Court has ruled that the military has no right to arrest civilians, a decision which is seen by many as a step toward reclaiming the power in the country by the civilian authority, though many agree that there is still much to be done for the military to hand over total control over power.

Mohamed Morsi will be sworn in as president of Egypt on Saturday making out of the location where he will pledge his allegiance the first occasion to tackle the military grip of power, as the SCAF announced that the ceremony will be held in front of the constitutional court, while the president wanted to be inaugurated in front of the parliament, which is now dissolved by military decree.

Voice of America cites the opinion of an Egyptian analyst who speculates that the stakes of the location the inauguration will be held in are very high because if the president backs down on his decision to be inaugurated before the parliament it will be indicative of the way he will behave toward the military.

The military dissolved the parliament in the run-up to the presidential runoff, and issued a constitutional decree by which the presidential powers were restrained, giving decision to the military in many fields, including the budget decisions and the decision related to the constitutional assembly, which the military wants to form anew after the previous one was dissolved by the justice because it was considered non-representative for the minorities in the country.

On Tuesday, Israeli officials have admitted that it was possible that the new regime may uphold the peace treaties signed between the two states. Morsi had promised during the campaign to protect the treaties with the neighboring country.11

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned Syria against any aggressive activity at the long common border, alluding that Turkey will retaliate at any perceived provocative action against it, following an incident last Friday, when a Turkish air jet was shot down by the Syrian anti-aerial missiles in the waters of the Mediterranean.

The tone of the Prime Minister, The New York Times reports, was unchanged as compared to the last days, when the Turkish authorities threatened to retaliate for the downing of their plane, which they considered an aggressive action, especially since, in their opinion, it was the result of an honest mistake made by the Turkish pilots.

On Monday, the Turkish Foreign Minister explained that the pilots, whose whereabouts have not been determined after all these days, had been warned by the Turkish military that they entered Syrian water space and advised to leave and that they left and were in the international waters at the time when they were shot down from the sky.

Some wreckage of the jet has been recovered, the Turkish officials announced, but not the pilots. The president of Turkey last Saturday explained that this kind of accidents happens every day in the world but that the jets which trespass do not get shot down.

The Turkish authorities complained that no procedure in this case was observed, that is their plane was not warned by the Syrian army, nor was it escorted out of Syrian space by Syrian air forces.

The incident was condemned by many world leaders, including the United States State Department, which urged the Turks to exercise caution in responding to the Syrian neighbor.

Turkey invoked on Monday the Article 4 of the NATO charter, which allows the consultations between the 28 members of the North Atlantic Council, the governing body of the organization.

After the emergency talks held in Brussels on Monday, NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO considers the downing of the Turkish jet by the Syrian aviation as “unacceptable.”

NATO issued a unanimous statement in which it says that the downing episode is another example of “Syrian authorities disregarding international norms, peace and security and human life.”

NATO chief said he was expecting such actions not to reoccur and that the organization will follow closely the developments in Syria and will convene and decide what to do if something like this happens again.

The Turkish PM in Ankara said that his country’s army has revised the rules of engagement toward Syria and that all military elements approaching the Turkish border will be treated as military targets, if Turkey considers them a risk to its security, or that they pose any danger.

The premier has asked the Syrian authorities not to test Turkish determination and wisdom. Erdogan said that “at a time, place and method” Turkey will decide how to make use of its rights which derive from the international law and take firmly action against the injustice it was submitted to.

Erdogan added that the Turkish authorities will continue to support the rebel fighting against the regime and will offer the “Syrian brothers” the entire backing until the “cruel dictator” is removed from power.

The NATO officials used this incident to ascertain Syria’s capacity to respond to an aerial raid on its territories. NATO compared this capacity to the one offered by Libya last year, probably in the view of a possible no-fly zone imposed on the Syrian territory. No decision has been made by international decision-making bodies as to a possible intervention in Syria, in spite of a surge of violence in the country which has been embattled by a popular uprising for the last 16 months.

On Monday, the Syrian authorities said that the wreckage of the ship shows holes produced by machine guns, which gives the Syrians ground to argue that the plane was hovering over the Syrian land, not over the international waters.11

Yiannis Stournaras

New Greek government is already looking for a new finance minister days after the rest of the government was sworn in as incumbent finance minister Vassilios Rapanos filed his resignation on Monday, and was let to go by the prime minister Antonis Samaras.

Vassilios Rapanos is the chairman of the Greek national bank and on Friday had a physical breakdown which made it compulsory for him to be hospitalized. Rapanos motivated his decision with the incapacity to execute his office due to health problems.

Rapanos was diagnosed with nausea and dizziness days after the new Democracy party forged an agreement with the leftist PASOK and the Democratic Left. Vassilios Rapanos was never sworn in as minister, and his resignation leaves the newly appointed government without a finance minister.

Rapanos was the first minister to be announced by Antonis Samaras after the elections on June 17, as the leader of the new government wanted to convey a strong message to the European partners that the country’s finances are in good hands.

On Tuesday, the premier announced he was considering the nomination of Yiannis Stournaras as finance minister, the state TV Net reports, a proposal which is said to be backed by the other two leaders of the coalition. Evangelos Venizelos, leader of PASOK, and Fotis Kouvelis, leader of Democratic Left, are expected to meet at Samaras’s house at 1630 GTM.

The premier himself was hospitalized in Athens for an eye problem, and underwent surgery, making it impossible for the leader of the government to attend the summit of the European Council later this week. The Greek parliament cleared the president Karolos Papoulias to represent the country to the European summit.

The prime minister will not be able to negotiate new terms for the agreement and to answer the questions the European leaders may have for them. Greece is expected this month to receive a $163 billion bailout package which would help the country avoid default.

Yiannis Stournaras is a 56-year-old economist, professor of economics at the University in Athens, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, participant in the admission of Greece to the Economic and Monetary Union.

The finance minister is very important for a country like Greece, which has underwent two rounds of parliamentary elections in order to establish a government after the people of Greece cast a very negative vote in May, following the European trend against the austerity measures.

In May, the radical leftist party Syriza came second in the elections, by a few mandates less than the New Democracy. This situation made it impossible for the leaders of the first three parties to create a government as in order for a government to be formed the coalition of all three was required, but the Syriza declared that it would never ally itself with a party that signed and supports the austerity measures which have hurt the life standard of many people in the country.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said that his party will form a government alone if the people give them enough votes to do so, and refused to the end to do what it was expected of him. The leaders of the other parties accused Syriza and Tsipras of advancing a personal agenda with no concern for the public matters.

As it became clear that no government can be formed, the president of the republic called for renewed elections, which were held on June 16 and were won, once again, by the New Democracy, by a small margin. The government was formed with the PASOK and Democratic Left, two socialist parties which announced that they would support a government without participating with minister in a conservative government.11

Yulia Tymoshenko

Ukrainian former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Monday did not appear in court, where she is to answer to charges of evading taxes 15 years ago, motivating that she was not in a health condition that would allow her to stand on trial.

Yulia Tymoshenko is already serving a seven-year sentence for a case of abuse of office, a sentence which drew Ukraine hard criticism and boycott to the Euro 2012 soccer tournament from many European countries’ leaders.

The charges in this case relate to evading paying an amount of $3.7 million in taxes when she headed a Ukrainian energy company in 1997-1999. The former prime minister denied all accusations and reiterated that the case was another stage of the fight of the regime to remove her from Ukrainian public life.

The court in Kharkiv was adjourned after a brief session, and the next session in this case will be resumed on July 10. Some analysts consider that this decision was made in connection to the higher stages of the Euro 2012 tournament, whose final match is to be hosted by the capital of Ukraine, Kiev. The court ordered a medical examination to ascertain whether the former premier may stand on trial.

The supporters of the former premier accused the judicial system of disconsidering her health condition, as she was diagnosed by German doctors with herniated spinal disk earlier this year, after a hunger strike she undertook to protest the treatment she was having in the prison in Kharkiv.

In April, Tymoshenko complained that she was forced by the prison personnel to have her health checked in a Ukrainian municipal hospital, which she refused, arguing that she feared an attempt by the authorities to assassinate her.

Tymoshenko complained that she has been beaten by the personnel and taken to the hospital by force, an accusation rejected by the prosecutors, who claimed that the personnel did not act outside the framework of the legislation, which, they said, allowed them to use non-violent restraining force to compel the patient to go to the hospital to have themselves checked.

The former premier ended the strike when the German doctors were allowed to visit her and offered her a diagnostic and the proper care in the Ukrainian hospital. Tymoshenko’s health condition was deemed as incompatible to standing in court, as she was not able to even sit in a chair for a long period of time.

On Tuesday, Tymoshenko’s appeal to overturn the sentence passed against her in October was heard in Kiev, with little hopes for success, according to her lawyer, who told the Ukrainian press that there was no justice for Tymoshenko in Ukraine under the rule of the incumbent president.

The president Viktor Yanukovych declared that he would not intervene in the case of the former PM before all trials and appeals are over. The president said on many occasions that the cases against Yulia Tymoshenko were not political motivated, being part of the justice reform the Western countries demanded so much of their country.

The European countries, however, accused Kiev of “selective justice” and demanded that her health condition be attended by professional doctors. Many of the European leaders refused to attend the Euro 2012 matches, in spite of the plea of the Polish PM Donald Tusk, who reminded them that the election of Ukraine as co-host to the tournament is due to Tymoshenko’s pleas as she was the prime minister of her country.

The case of Yulia Tymoshenko sparked much debate around Ukraine’s judicial system and its preparedness to become a member of the European Union, a bid president Yanukovych was pushing for last year.

In November 2011, following the incarceration of the former premier, the European Union postponed sine die the signing of a trade agreement with Ukraine, which sparked dissatisfaction among the leaders of Ukraine.

Analysts believe that the move could bring Ukraine in the sphere of the Russian interests, as Moscow is preparing to launch the idea of a Union similar to the European Union, a Eurasian Union which would comprise the former Soviet states and whoever else would want to join it.

Ukraine has already signed last year a free trade agreement with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, a move considered by many as a response to the refusal of the EU to sign a free trade agreement with them.11

NATO Council

NATO on Monday announced that it would hold emergency talks on Tuesday over the downing of a Turkish plane by the Syrian anti-aerial batteries over the weekend but a decision on the matter is not expected to be made in the sense of a military intervention in retaliation against Syria.

The downing of the plane drew strong criticism from the U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton, who said that it was reflecting the “callous disregard” of the Syrian regime for the international norms, “human life, peace and security.”

Hillary Clinton added that America will be in close contact with the Turkish authorities, so that it may assist them in the decision on what kind of response Turkey will offer for the downing of the plane.

The Turkish authorities on Saturday promised to have a response to the incident but were reluctant to say what it was or whether it was military in nature. The U.S. State Secretary even spoke of action by the United Nations Security Council to hold Assad’s regime accountable for this.

The Turkish authorities recovered parts of the wreckage of the F-4 jet but the pilots are still missing. The Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said that the plane was training in the international waters, verifying its radar capacities, not spying on Syria.

The entering in the Syrian waters is considered by the Turkish authorities an honest mistake, which are easily made by this kind of speedy jets. Davutoglu said that the jet was out of the Syrian waters when it was shot down, after the Turkish authorities warned the pilots about the trespassing.

The Syrian authorities said that the downing of the plane was not an attack and that the Turkish jet had entered their national space. Turkey contended that the jet had not been warned about the entering of the airspace and that the Syrian air forces did not confront it.

The Turkish president on Saturday commented on the incident that had happened a day before by saying that even though the plane might have entered the Syrian space, the Syrian forces should not have brought it down, as this kind of incidents happen all the time in the world.

On Tuesday, the North Atlantic Council, which is composed by the 28 ambassadors of the NATO countries and is the governing body of the military organization, will be convened on the grounds of the Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which stipulates that whenever a member state demands a consultation over possible threats to its territorial integrity, political independence or security.

Turkey invoked the Article 4 in 2003, in relation to the escalation of the tension with Iraq. That consultation did not lead to an invocation of Article 5, which authorizes the use of force against a country which threatens a member of NATO.

In other development, dozens of members of Syria military crossed into Turkey with their families, defecting from the army of the former regime. 224 people crossed into Turkey, 33 soldiers among them.11

Al-Mahmoudi Al-Baghdadi

The president of Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, on Monday called the extradition of the former Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi by his country “illegal,” contending that the former Libyan official, the first to b extradited and appear in a trial in his country, was not approved by him.

Al-Mahmoudi, 70, fled to Tunisia last year, during the conflict that brought down the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi and the leader’s demise, and was in Tunisian custody since. Earlier this year the Tunisian president promised to deliver al-Mahmoudi to the Libyan authorities after the Libyan officials made sure he would face a fair trial. In May, Marzouki said that he was in principle opposed to the transfer.

Human rights groups warned that should he be sent back to Libya, al-Mahmoudi could be submitted to human rights violations. BBC reports that the Tunisian government had made the decision to extradite the former PM based on a report issued by a delegation which visited Tripoli and determined that the demands for a proper trial were met by the Libyan authorities.

The Tunisian government decided to extradite the Libyan PM without the consent of the president, arguing that this decision did not need the president’s signature. The presidential office, however, issued a statement in which it said that the decision of the government would affect the foreign policy of Tunisia, which is within the purview of the presidential office.

Al-Mahmoudi was transferred by helicopter on Sunday and is expected to stand on trial in Tripoli as his lawyers fear for his life, considering that he is about the last one to know many secrets of the former regime.

The former PM was arrested in Libya in September last year, after the fall of Tripoli, and was sentenced to six years in prison, a sentence which was overturned by the appeal. In Libya, al-Mahmoudi is expected to be accused of crimes committed during the Qaddafi regime.

The Guardian reports that Libyan authorities are extremely satisfied with having such a pivotal figure of the former regime brought to justice, and hope to receive from him information related to the accounts of Qaddafi abroad, given that al-Mahmoudi spent two decades in the ministerial ranks of the regime, occupying at some point the chair in the high councils for oil and gas.

Libya hopes that the gesture of Tunisia will be followed by other countries, which have other high-ranking leaders of the former regime, including two sons of the former leader, who are being hosted by Algeria and Niger respectively.

The move comes at a time when the parliamentary elections are expected to be held on July 7, the first free elections in the northern African country since independence.11

Mohammed Morsi

Egyptian president-elect Mohammed Morsi on Monday said in an interview published by the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars that his country will work toward closing ties with Iran, while preserving its international obligations, a promise The Jerusalem Post considers a reference to Israel.

The Iranian agency quotes Morsi to say that the ties with Iran will balance the pressure in the area, which in turn will make sure that Morsi’s political program can be carried out. The statement was made hours before the election results were officially announced on Sunday.

In his first speech as president, Morsi promised to preserve the international obligations of the country, with reference to the peace treaty with Israel. Morsi made sure that the people of Egypt were reassured that his new mandate will not lead to the Islamization of the country, promising to be a president for all the people in the populated northern African country.

The new president was careful not to tackle the matter of the military grip of power, calling the military leaders as “brothers.” The victory by a narrow margin over former Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq marks the end of the Mubarak era, but not necessarily the end of social turmoil created by the ouster of the former regime.

The military supreme council, which grabbed power in February 2011, at the end of weeks of protests against Mubarak’s rule, which brought him down, leaving the power into the hands of his former military colleagues.

The military has had to deal with a very difficult year, as the Egyptian democracy was being born very difficultly, with renewed protests, with sit-ins of the people in the iconic Tahrir Square, with the need of the police and the army to open fire on the protestors.

This created the premises for the military to attempt to defend their privileges and attempt to avert possible prosecution for the violence that occurred over the last year, when the military was in power. Egyptian military has always had a special place in the society, and all the leaders before Morsi came from the military, including Hosni Mubarak.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was expected to hand over power to the civilian by the end of July, but the military seems eager to create a constitutional framework to allow it to preserve a very important saying in the political and economic fields.

For that reason, they issued a constitution decree two weeks ago by which the presidential powers were clearly restricted in favor of the military. Thus, by this decree, the president was no longer the leader of the army, had no right to dissolve the constituent assembly or the make-up of the government.

The budget issues are also under the control of the military by this decree and the creation of the new constitution is to be achieved by a 100-member assembly appointed by the military rulers.

The constituent assembly has been dissolved earlier this year by a court of justice, due to allegations of lack of representation formulated by the leaders of the Christian community and those of the secularists and liberals.

The dissolution of the constitution panel was followed by the dissolution last week of the parliament itself, dissolved by the supreme council. The Muslim Brotherhood had a comfortable majority in the parliament, and with the winning of the presidential office they were expected to monopolize power in the country, though they have promised to treat all segments of society with the dignity and fairness required by a democratic rule.

The supreme council also re-established a National Defense Council, which places the military at the head of the national security issues. The right to arrest civilians for trial in military courts until the new constitution takes effect, which was granted to the police and the military by the Justice Ministry, was seen by many as a de facto institution of the martial law.

Mohammed Morsi is expected to be sworn in on June 30, and will start forming a government. The president-elect was congratulated by world leaders, including the American president Barack Obama, who promised to cooperate with Egypt on the basis of mutual respect.

People in Egypt cheered on hearing about Morsi’s victory, and the celebration is said to have been prolonged until the early hours on Monday. People were said to have shouted in the streets: “Down with the military!” while the president-elect promised that “the revolution will go on” until all the objectives have been fulfilled.11

F-4 Phantom

Turkey promised to offer Syria a “necessary” response after Syrian forces downed one of its military jets in the Mediterranean, near the sea border, the president of Turkey Abdullah Gul promised on Saturday. It was not clear to which sort of response Gul was referring, though he admitted that the air jet might have violated Syrian space. The Turkish and Syrian armies mounted a joint operation intended to retrieve the airmen on board the jet.

Turkey may increase economic sanctions, demand an apology or take other kind of steps to retaliate against Syria, with which it already is at odds, as the Turkish government is one of the most serious critics of the Assad regime, and Turkey is the place where the resistance can find refuge.

Turkey says that an unarmed F-4 was shot down by Syrian forces 13 kilometers from Latakia port of Syria on Friday. Syria said that the plane had entered its space, prompting the Labor and Security minister Faruk Celik to say that even if the case was true and the air jet had entered Syrian space, the response should have been different than to shoot it down.

Turkey said that it could not overlook the incident and suffer it in silence, and promised that it would be avenged. However, the fact that it did not react on impulse was praised by the German Foreign Minister, while the Iraqi Foreign Minister said that the defection of a Syrian pilot to Jordan, and the shooting of a Turkish jet show that the Syrian conflict could have international regional repercussions.

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu chaired a meeting with the leaders of the army with the purpose of thinking possible responses to the incident and creating a team to look for the survivors. There were no press releases after the meeting.

The Turkish president explained that it was “routine” for high-speed jets to unintentionally cross into neighboring countries’ airspace due to the speed and that these incidents should not be seen as ill-intentioned.

The Syrian state-run news agency said late Friday that the military had spotted an “unidentified aerial target” flying at high speed and low altitude, and that the anti-air defenses have hit it directly. The agency added that the jet was Turkish and that it was “dealt with according to laws in observance in such cases.”

Syria claims that the jet violated the Turkish air space by entering 1 kilometer into the Syrian waters, and that the military found out that it was Turkish after firing on it.

Turkish media, which had on Saturday banner headlines like “Syria Plays with Fire” or “Syria Will Pay the Price,” announced that some wreckage of the plan have been found, but that the quest for the two crew members was still on.

The Turkish opposition leaders joined those in power in urging calm and cool heads, while condemning the downing of a plane as unacceptable.

Reuters cites an American professor in Beirut who speculates that Turkey may have sent the jet in connection to the Kurdish activities in the southeast of Turkey, as Turkey may suspect Syria and Iran of helping the Kurds somehow. The same professor expressed confidence that the Turks will not engage the Syrians because they are “at tight leash by the United States,” which does not want a war in the region.

In April, when Syrian troops opened fire across the border with Turkey, Turkey contemplated the idea of invoking the Five Article of the NATO Charter referring to the obligation of the states to support an attacked member state. It is not clear what Turkey will do this time.11

Frederico Lugo

The President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, on Saturday announced that he would step aside from office after the Senate of the country impeached him by a swift impeachment trial on Friday. Lugo, former leftist priest, said he deemed his removal from office as a blow to democracy in his country.

The Vice President Federico Franco was rapidly sworn in as president while people took to the streets protesting the ousting of the president, who took power after promising the people to end poverty. The president averted more unrest by announcing that he was renouncing the office as a result of the decision made by the parliament.

Lugo was judged by the Senate for five charges related to poor execution of office, one of them being the poor management of the conflict between police and landless people, which ended in the death of 17 people.

The trial lasted for five hours and the vote was of 39 to four in favor of impeachment, while two of the senators were absent. The vote in Senate came one day after the Congress, the lower house of the parliament, voted for his impeachment.

Lugo’s political demise marks four years of political unbalance between his uncompromising policies and the political partners, who found it more and more difficult to work with him.

People took to the streets of the cities to express their support for him and it took water canons and riot police to drive them from the streets. Lugo is said to have watched the procedures from the presidential office, refusing to attend the session.

The Senate refused the demand made by the lawyers to offer him an 18-day period to mount of defense. The parliament chamber decided that there were no grounds for such a request.

ABC reports that the trial was triggered by an attempt of the police to evacuate 150 farmers from 2,000 hectares of forest reserves, which is part of a huge estate of a Colorado Party politician. The advocates for the farmers say that the land was taken decades ago through political influence, and contended that it should be put to better use for the agrarian reform.

The incident brought the resignation of the interior minister and the chief of police, both of them accepted by the president. The other four counts Senate judged were allowing the leftists to have a meeting on a military base; allowing an illegal invasion of a Brazilian soybean farm; the failure to apprehend a guerilla movement; and the signing of an international protocol without the consultation of the Congress.

Lugo won the elections in 2008 with the help of the Authentic Radical Liberal party of Federico Franco, but their political friendship ended soon after, as the former priest offered the leftists most of the positions in the new government.

Soon after the president said he was bidding farewell as president, Franco expressed satisfaction that Lugo’s reign has ended. He is to be president until the mandate of the impeached president is over, that is August 2013.11

Utoya Island

Prosecution in Norway on Thursday demanded in their closing argument at the trail that Anders Behring Breivik be considered insane, prompting prosecutor Svein Holden to say that Breivik should be placed in psychiatric care, not in prison, though the reports about his health condition are conflicting.

The sentence for the case which shocked the entire world, as Breivik single-handedly killed 77 people and injured 242 on July 22, 2011, is to be delivered in July or August. If found guilty and sane, he could spend 21 years behind bars with the possibility that the warden of the penitentiary prolong his staying, if they found that he was not completely recuperated.

If found insane, Breivik could be committed to a medical institution for assistance. Breivik went to great lenghts to demonstrate that he was sane, arguing that his action would perish, if he were to be considered demented.

Breivik acknowledged his action, namely the killing of 77 people most of them young, committed on the Utoya Island, and downtown Oslo, but refused to consider himself guilty, arguing that he was in legitimate defense, as his cultural identity was being under attack from the Muslim community.

Breivik claimed that he was the leader of a far-right group called Knight Templar with the aim of fighting Islamization, a process which is, in his opinion, in progress all over Europe.

Breivik admitted to have staged his attacks at the Utoya Island, where the Socialist party youth was having its summer school, as a means to draw attention of the people that the Socialist party was opening the gates of Norway to the Muslim immigrants, in his own words.11

Greek PM Antonis Samaras Sworn In

Greece has a new government as the leaders of the New Democracy, PASOK, and smaller Democratic Left agreed to support in the parliament a coalition capable of taking the country out of the crisis it is in. The new prime minister sworn in on Wednesday is New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, whose allies from PASOK and Democratic Left refused to allow any member of the parliament from their parties to participate in the government, motivating that it is not appropriate for socialist parties to participate in a conservative government.

Antonis Samaras is expected to announce his ministers amid speculations about his government’s capacity to last and tackle the difficult problems of the country. Vassilis Rapanos, the chairman of the National Bank of Greece, is expected to become the minister of finance.

BBC reports that Angela Merkel has reportedly congratulated Samaras and announced that she was looking forward to working with him. The eurozone ministers are expected to discuss the situation of Greece in Luxembourg, where they are expected to convene.

Antonis Samaras is expected to announce the rest of the cabinet after a renewed meeting with the leader of PASOK, Evangilos Venizelos, and the one of the Democratic Left, Fotis Kouvelis.

The cabinet is expected to have 16 ministers and 12 deputy ministers, significantly shrunk as compared to the 49-member government of his predecessor. Two new ministers are being created out of the development ministry, the tourism and merchant marine ministries, in an attempt to take advantage of the two main sources of income for the country.

The people in the streets of Athens, who spoke to the international media, manifested their conviction that unless the old politicians made room for new ones, who had never been involved in the political decision-making. The disbelief of the Greeks in their politicians is no different from the skepticism of the East European nations in the neighborhood, fed up with a society dominated by corruption which the people in these countries blame on political decision-making.

BBC reports that Greece will be represented by the eurozone meeting in Luxembourg by outgoing finance minister George Zanias, as the new finance minister is not expected to be sworn in until Saturday.

Greece is expected to be told by the members of the eurozone that it must apply new salary cuts or tax raises, or face paying themselves salaries. Greece has already received 110 billion euros from the European Union-International Monetary Fund in 2010, and is expected to receive other 130 billion this year. 107 billion in debt have already been written off by investors.

The new government comes at the end of a second round of elections held in June, won by a narrow victory by the New Democracy party, with the leftist Syriza coming second and the smaller leftist party Democratic Left in the third place.

The coalition reunites the two parties which negotiated with the European partners: the New Democracy, which scored 79 seats and received 50 as bonus for coming first; PASOK, which scored 33 seats, less then the 41 scored on May 6, on the occasion of the first parliamentary elections; Democratic Left, which scored 17 seats, two less than the score in May.

The radical leftist Syriza, which opposed the austerity measures and announced that it would no longer respect the agreement with Europe, came second, with 71 seats, 19 more than the score in May. Syriza refused to cut any deal with the parties that collaborated with the western countries.

The 300-member parliament of Greece needs 151 seats for a majority to be created. The new coalition has 179 but its chances to succeed are not as strong as the number of seats may indicate.11

NV Alaed

The owners of the Russian cargo ship whose insurance coverage was revoked by the British authorities and was returned from the waters of Scotland denied accusations that it was involved in illegal activities of carrying helicopters to Syria, as the media reports were announcing on Tuesday.

In a statement given by Femco, the shipping company based in Sahalin Islands, which operated the MV Alaed ship, it was said that the company was not involved in any illegal activity and that it would not blemish its reputation by getting involved in such actions.

Femco said that reports about MV Alaed’s illegal actions were inaccurate and that the ship was making a regular commercial voyage in full accord to the international laws and sea regulations.

Reports emerged in the international media on Tuesday that the NV Alaed was stopped near the Scottish coastline yesterday, that the insurance holder cancelled its policy and that the ship was carrying Russia Mi-25 helicopters, known as “flying tanks,” to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia holds the only military base outside its national territory.

The insurance holder is said by Huffington Post to be the British insurance company Standard Club, which removed all cover from ships owned by the Russian company, after the British government informed the company that doing otherwise could be construed as a breach of European Union embargo on Syria.

In a statement cited by Huffington Post, the insurer said it was made aware of the allegations that the Alaed was carrying weapons to Syria, and that they informed the ship’s owner that the coverage ceased immediately given the nature of the voyage.

In a statement from the Foreign Office it was said that the British authorities were aware of a ship carrying a “consignment of refurbished Russian-made helicopters” to Syria. The statement reminded that the Foreign Office had told the Russian counterpart earlier this month that all defense shipment to Syria must stop in consistency with the efforts of the international community to stop Assad’s regime from killing civilians.

The European Union has imposed a ban on direct selling supplies to Syria, including weapons and the mere providing of insurances for such supplies would be considered a violation of the ban.

Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated that Russia was not interesting in defending the regime of Assad, but the chance of the people in Syria to determine their own destiny. The ministry denied any implication in carrying weapons to Syria.

The incident involving Alaed comes at a time when the international community is desperately trying to put an end to violence as it is reported that as many as 30 people were killed on Wednesday alone across Syria in different conflicts between the governmental forces and the rebel troops.

The peacekeeping mission in Syria was reported to have terminated its activity on Tuesday, as the observers were ordered to base because of violence.

On Tuesday, the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pressed the United States into admitting Iran as part of the team. The United Nations is attempting to create a contact group, which would include the UNSC permanent members and the local powerhouses, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

The group is expected to find ways of ending the conflict between the Syrian government and its citizens, and to deal with the transition to democracy and with the fate of Bashar al-Assad and his aides. Russia and China insist upon a transition made by the population of Syria.11

Antonis Samaras

The Greek centre-left parties on Wednesday agreed to back the New Democracy party in its effort to form a new government but are reluctant to placing their political leaders in governmental offices, as the new government is expected to face a bitter struggle to bring economy to a normal development after five years of crisis which made it compulsory for the state to cut a deal with the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank by which Athens agreed to impose austerity measures in exchange for a bailout fund.

Antonis Samaras, the leader of New Democracy, is expected to meet with the leaders of PASOK and the Democratic Left and cut a deal by the end of the day. Samaras has a three-day mandate to form a government, otherwise risking to throw the country into the same political chaos it was in the wake of the first parliamentary election, in May.

On that occasion, the leftist party Syriza came second in the election, as it did in June, and its refusal to form a coalition with the New Democracy and PASOK led to a new round of elections.

If a government will be formed, it will have to deal with the need to soften the measures which made the parties that agreed to them so unpopular. Reuters argues that if Samaras does create a government, he will have to deal with the economic situation in the country, and with the fact that he must keep together a coalition formed of its traditional political adversaries.

Democratic Left supported a motion to back the coalition but refused to send members of its leadership to become part of the government, which Reuters considers to be a sign of lack of commitment to the new government.

The same is said to be the case with PASOK, the party that was in power until early this year, and took the blame for the austerity measures that changed the lifestyle of the Greek people. PASOK and New Democracy signed an agreement by which they promised to uphold the measures agreed with the international lenders, whichever of them comes to power after the elections.

Syriza, on the other hand, made it clear that it did not want to participate in such an agreement, and refused after May 6, and refuses still, to cooperate with the parties that ruled before, saying that the vote of the Greeks showed that the people disagreed with the austerity measures.

Alexis Tsipras refused to work with PASOK and New Democracy, placing the entire country at risk of being eliminated from the eurozone, though the Syriza announced that it was in favor of remaining in the zone, which seems to be the choice of the Greek too.

Reuters reports that Evangilos Venizelos, the leader of PASOK, angrily disputed with the senior leaders of the party against nominating ministers in the new cabinet, which will be led by the right. The two leftist parties have the possibility of appointing technocrats whom to offer political backing.

New Democracy scored a narrow victory against Syriza, and with the 50 seats in the parliament as bonus and the seats of PASOK has 160 seats, to which it may add the Democratic Left votes to make a comfortable 179 seats. The Greek parliament has 300 seats and it only takes 151 seats to have a majority.

Though it may be made, the majority is still very weak, analysts believe, because of its make-up, but also because Germany, the most important sponsor of the bailout program, is suspicious of Antonis Samaras, who turned from opposing the bailout to carefully endorsing it.11

Julian Assange in London

The founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, on Wednesday demanded political asylum at the embassy of Ecuador in London, days after the UK Supreme Court dismissed his appeal to reopen the case and avert extradition to Sweden.

Assange fears that an extradition to Sweden, which is requested by Swedish authorities on the grounds of two sexual assault charges and was already cleared by the British Supreme Court, could be a phase and that he could end up in a trial in the United States, in the case of the diplomatic cable leak scandal, which embarrassed America in 2010.

The Australian-born editor believes that such a trial could end in a death sentence or in an incarceration at Guantanamo Bay. The Swedish authorities argue that the European Court for Human Rights will make sure that Assange does not get submitted to any “human degrading” treatment or an unfair trial in the United States.

The British Foreign Office said that Assange was out of police reach, being in the Ecuadorian embassy and enjoying the presence on diplomatic territory, but that it was cooperating with the Ecuadorian authorities to see what can be done to solve the situation. Ecuador announced that it was studying and analyzing the case.

In 2010, Assange was offered Ecuadorian residency for a short period of time by the deputy foreign minister, who argued that the reason for his offer was to allow Assange to continue his work freely. The president of the republic, Rafael Correa, dismissed the offer by saying he had not approved it.

The Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom on Tuesday issued a statement in which it said that that afternoon Julian Assange had requested political asylum, and that he was at the embassy.

As a signatory of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ecuador was compelled to pass the request on to the competent department in Quito, and that for the time being the editor would remain in the embassy under the Ecuadorian protection.

The Ecuadorian authorities made it clear that their considering the request should not be considered as interference in the judicial business of the United Kingdom or Sweden. Quito will ask the opinion of the UK, US and Swedish authorities before they make a decision about the political asylum.

Assange has until June 28 to file an appeal by the European Court for Human Rights to appeal the decision of the supreme court in Britain. Should he fail to do so, the extradition takes effect immediately after that date and he will be taken to Sweden, where he is expected to answer to claims made by two women who had volunteered for WikiLeaks activity. They say he had sexually assaulted them, Assange denies any wrongdoing, claiming that the sex was consensual.

Associated Press says that the Foreign Minister of Ecuador had told the press that Assange wrote a letter to the Ecuadorian president Correa, in which he informed him that he was being persecuted and that he sought his country’s protection against persecution.

BBC quotes Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, a human rights activist, to say that she understood from the Swedish lawyers that Assange would be handed over to the U.S. judicial system as soon as the investigation on the sex assault claim was over.

She told British press that according to international law, a country which receives an extradited person should hold them accountable for the charge that stood as ground for extradition and that as soon as they have dealt with him over that charge the person should be set free to leave the country at their pleasure.

Kennedy said that Ecuador would gladly let Assange go to Sweden, if the Scandinavian nation could provide any assurances that the editor will be treated according to the provision of the international law.

Julian Assange is under a bail of 200,000 pounds made by some of his supporters, who expressed their surprise at the announcement that Assange was seeking political asylum. The bail was made to prevent flight or to make sure that he gets to court.

WikiLeaks also posted an alert on Twitter, saying that Julian Assange was under the protection of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.11

Yusaf Raza Gilani

Supreme Court in Pakistan on Tuesday demanded that prime minister Yusaf Raza Gilani be “disqualified” as prime minister and removed from office, following a case of contempt of court earlier this year as he refused to revive a case of corruption against incumbent president Asif Ali Zardari.

Gilani was demanded to ask the Swiss authorities about some accounts which were considered in connection with irregular dealings of the president. When he refused to comply was brought to court on charges related to refuse to cooperate with justice.

The judicial in Pakistan suspected that Asif Ali Zardari and his wife, late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had taken bribery from Swiss companies, and has demanded the prime minister since 2009 to write a letter to the Swiss authorities and demand clarifications.

Gilani has consistently refused to do so, arguing that the president enjoyed immunity for the duration of his office, and that he could not investigate him for that reason.

The court found him guilty of contempt of court but did not impose any jail term for this, though the law permitted it to sentence him to at most six months in prison. In exchange, the court decided that the conviction takes effect since April 26, when it was pronounced, thus placing a lot of legislative acts Gilani has signed under the possibility that they may be null.

It was not clear whether the prime minister would resist the ruling or will create legislation to make it null, but analysts believe that this situation could throw the country into political chaos, and a constitutional standoff.

If Gilani is forced to stand down, the party has the power in the parliament to elect a successor from the same political side, but the image of the president would suffer at a time when he is preparing for elections at a time when the electorate is most dissatisfied with the economic performance and the power outages which leave many Pakistanis without electrical power for 12 hours or more a day.

According to Pakistani law, a lawmaker or prime minister accused of contempt can remain in position, if the parliament’s speaker decides so, which in this case was decided by the speaker of the parliament, who is a member of the same party as Gilani.

The opposition however filed complaints against the speaker’s decision, and a three-judge panel agreed that in the case of Gilani disqualification must be followed by leaving the office of prime minister.11

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday challenged the appropriation by the military council of presidential prerogatives days after the presidential elections on June 16 and 17, which the Brotherhood claims to have won. The Brotherhood announced it would join the mass rally of the young people in Cairo on Tuesday, protesting against the military’s decisions to give itself legislative and executive powers, by a constitution declaration they issued on Sunday in which the military is to retain the right to legislate and to have a saying in the elaboration of the new constitution.

The Brotherhood’s protest also comes after a decision of a court to dissolve the parliament of the country, where the Brotherhood has a large majority. A court ruling disbanded a few months ago the constituent assembly entrusted with issuing a new constitution.

On Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi reiterated his claim to victory, a claim his contender, Ahmed Shafiq, made as well. The final results of the election will be announced on Thursday, and they are expected to end the period of transition from the rule of Mubarak to democracy.

The military council had promised to hand power over to the government appointed as a result of the elections, but the recent developments allude that the military is not ready to go, or at least wants to fight for its privileges before leaving power to the civilian government.

The Pentagon, which is supporting the Egyptian army with $1 billion per year, has urged the generals of the supreme council in power to relinquish power to the civilian authorities and observe the human rights of the Egyptians.

According to Egyptian analysts, the dissolving of the parliament and the constitutional decree places the military above the state, creating a “state above the state,” which is immune to any challenges.

Bloomberg reports that the Brotherhood’s hardship does not end here, as two lawsuits seeking to dissolve the organization on the grounds that it was not properly registered, were deferred until September.

According to the new interim constitution the newly elected president of the country would have the right to appoint a Cabinet and to approve or reject laws, while the supreme council would have the power to make them.

The president would lose the title of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces to the generals of the army, while the supreme council of armed forces in power now would have the right to appoint a 100-member panel with the task of drafting a new constitution.

Analysts of the Egyptian political life say that by these provisions the military is taking a serious step toward controlling the state but cannot have all the power in it, even though it becomes more powerful than the Muslim Brotherhood and the political parties.

Analysts consider that while denying having staged a real coup in Egypt, the military will continue to play an important role in the country’s politics, even though they will be forced to cede an amount of power to the newly elected authorities at the end of serious negotiations. Today’s Zaman’s editorialists are wondering whether they will choose to keep their grip on the power for the next years overtly, as they do now, or choose to exert it through a civilian government.

According to the new constitution declaration, the new president may be in power for a year after which he would have to cede power back to the military until the next elections are set. Since the new constitution will change completely the Egyptian political landscape it is expectable that the new realities to demand that the president too go to new elections, which could be staged sometime next year, if the constitution is adopted late this year.11