On Monday Bahrain reported seven new cases of swine flu in the country, Middle East Online reports. Seven out of thirteen students who returned from the United States were diagnosed with the disease. At the same time, Saudi Arabia reported three more cases of swine flu. Therefore, there are eleven cases of swine flu in Saudi Arabia in total. Previously, Kuwait and UAE reported cases of the virus. Last month 18 American soldiers in Kuwait were found to have contracted the disease, while UAE reported at least two cases. Last week WHO declared a state of swine flu pandemic, mostly due to the rapid rise in the cases of swine flu in Australia, where over a 1000 cases have been registered so far. Swine flu has been detected in 74 countries of the world and nearly 30000 people have become infected. However, most people have only mild symptoms and so far only about 100 people have died, which means the virus is not deadlier than the regular flu.

In Iraq the leader of the largest Sunni bloc in the parliament was killed at a mosque. According to police reports, six people were killed during the attack, including the killer himself. As Gulfnews reports, on Friday the attacker opened fire in the mosque and then threw a grenade. It is being predicted that this killing, which was apparently aimed at fuelling the fight between Sunnis and Shi'ites, will trigger other attacks and undermine the reconciliation process in the country. This attack also demonstrated that the security level in the country is still low. At the end of this month, US troops are expected to leave urban centres in Iraq, and there is no guarantee that it will not lead to an upsurge in violence in the country.

The leader of Lebanese pro-western alliance, Saad Hariri, announced his bloc’s victory in the parliamentary election. Therefore, Hezbollah’s bloc, which is supported by Iran, lost, despite the fact that experts predicted it would win with a slight majority. According to preliminary results, Hariri's bloc got 70 seats out of 128 in the parliament, while Hezbollah got just 52 seats. The official results are not yet available and are expected later on today, reports Gulfnews. Hariri said the following: "There is no doubt that democracy won today and the bigger winner is Lebanon."

A Round table was organized at the press-centre of one of the biggest news agencies of Russian Federation the RIA NOVOSTI on May 13, 2009 devoted to the International Islamic Finance and Business Summit which will be held in Kazan. Participants of the Round table were: Mr. Linar Yakupov, Head of the Organizing Committe, Director of the Russian Centre of Islamic Economics and Finance and General Director of IFC Linova, Mr.Shamil Ageev, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Mr.Khairul Nizam Munier, commercial counsellor of the Malaysian Embassy in the Russian Federation.

They spoke about preparation for the Summit, objectives and tasks of its Organizers before represantatives of various public and commercial organizations, as well as journalists of authoritative mass media agencies in Russia such as RIA Novosti, Delovoi vtornik, Russia today, Rusiya Al-Yaum, Al-Jazeera (Russia), Gatra weekly (Indonesia), State television and radio company of Iran, Aliyans Media TV, Islamnews, IslamRF, Muslim press, KSA2 (Kazakhstan), business portal “Republic”, “Sovremennaya mysl”, Al-Khayat, Al-Mussavar, Sovremennyi Islam and others.

The International Islamic Business and Finance Summit will be held for the first time in Kazan, Russia, on June 25-26 2009. The organizers of the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit are: IFC Linova (Tatarstan, Russia), the Islamic Research and Training Institute (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Kuala-Lumpur Business School (Malaysia), and the Russian Centre of Islamic Economics and Finance of the Russian Islamic University (Tatarstan, Russia).

Mr. Linar Yakupov said, the Summit is aimed at developing innovative economic relations through establishment of international business links and attraction of investments based on Islamic business principles.

The idea of organization of the event on an annual basis, which came as a result of the first International Investment Conference held in Kazan in June 2008, was met with support by the Islamic Development Bank and developed further due to the collaboration between the Islamic Corporation for Development of the Private Sector (ICD), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, and IFC Linova.

Representatives of various business structures and world-renowned scholars in Islamic economics and finance will take part in the Summit. Speakers from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Russian Federation have already confirmed their participation in the Summit.

Among the participants who confirmed their participation in the Summit are: CEO and General manager of ICD, IDB Group (Saudi Arabia), General Secretary of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (Bahrain), President of the Kuala-Lumpur Business School, deputy of the General Secretary of the Islamic Financial Services Board (Malaysia), CEO of oil company TATNEFT (Tatarstan, Russia). Representatives of two auditing companies of the Big Four – PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, as well as the law firm Pepeliaev, Goltsblat & Partners (Russia) and many others.

Talks are being held concerning participation in the Summit of delegations led by ministers from Malaysia, Bahrain and Kuwait. Invitation letters were also sent to embassies and consulates of the main countries of the Muslim world in Russia.

“Muslim world has a special approach to doing business, attracting and investing funds. And the Organizers of the Summit want Russian business to also be introduced in the global orbit of the events which are held to establish economic relations between various countries”, says one of the organizers of the Summit.

At the same time, it is the Russian business community that has to be willing to work according to new principles. It would be wrong to expect investments to come from the countries of the Islamic world without changing our own view point, says Linar Yakupov. “Investors should be able to find partners with whom they could understand each other without words and who would be familiar with principles of the Islamic economic model”. Such events as the International Conference “Islamic banking: peculiarities and prospects” held recently in Moscow, the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit, to be held in Kazan, are aimed at paving the way for interaction of interested parties, finding points to introduce Islamic finance in the Russian reality.

“Islamic banking does not necessarily mean that only foreign specialists should come to our country and open their Islamic banks here”, Linar Yakupov says. “In my point of view we need to introduce Islamic banking in Russia to have the opportunity to mobilize financial resources of Russian people and properly invest them in the county’s economy ”, he added. The Head of the Organizing Committee says that 20 million Muslims living in Russia should have the opportunity to conduct business, save and invest without violating their ethical norms.

Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan, Mr Shamil Ageev, also spoke about the great opportunities that the Summit could present, adding that Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Russian Federation supported the Summit. “It is important that the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit is being held amid economic downturn. During crises everything seems to be shrinking. But organizing the event the Organizers want to reveal the potential available in our Republic. Tatarstan is open to investments – for instance, the Republic raised $268 billion for the last year only. We expect that both Russian and Tatarstan businesses will take an active part in the Summit and come out establishing some more new business contacts”, Mr. Ageev told.

Distinguished practitioners in Islamic finance and banking from Malaysia are going to provide support to and participate in the Summit, according to the commercial counsellor of the Malaysian Embassy in the Russian Federation, who thanked the Organizers of the Summit “for their initiative in such challenging times”. Mr Khairul Nizam Munier says “today there is much talk about economic recession, but it does not mean we have to put things aside, and sit waiting. We need to be doing our best to develop cooperation in this field”.

Malaysia is known to be one of the leading countries actively using and developing Islamic financial instruments. But, according to Mr. Munier, there were many opponents of the Islamic economic model in Malaysia at the beginning. But now about 50% of customers of Islamic banks are non-Muslims.

This speaks again of the universality of Islamic financial instruments. That’s why we invite a wide range of different participants to the Summit: scholars, experts, entrepreneurs, representatives of various public, religious and non-religious organizations, state and large commercial structures, Mr. Linar says.

During the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit the participants will work in two formats. During the two days participants of the Business session will study jointly current problems in the sphere of business, Islamic banking and finance, find and try to work out solutions and general schemes of future development.

And possibilities of introduction of Islamic financial system model into the current legislative base of Russia and other countries are to be discussed within the framework of the Academician session.

One of the objectives of the Summit is representation of the Russian Federation in the international arena. “Both in academician and business spheres there are now representatives of the Russian Federation who closely deal with Islamic finance. We would like Russia to make an important contribution to the world Islamic industry as well”, Mr. Yakupov says.

The Head of the Organizing Committee pointed out in particular that in spite of the International Islamic Business and Finance Summit being held in Kazan it should not merely become a regional project. He called for support of mass media to bring to the public the idea of the Organizers – to make this platform in Kazan a real international event, where all the counties of Muslim world and regions of the Russian Federation have equal opportunity to present their potential.

The National Energy Company of Abu Dhabi (TAQA) made public its profits for the first quarter of this year. It announced an 89% fall from the first quarter of last year – AED40m versus last year’s AED398m. According to TAQA, such decline in profits was due to much lower oil and gas prices and worse currency exchange rates. The chief executive of the company, 75% of which belongs to the government, called the first three months of this year "the most challenging to date" for TAQA as well as for the world economy. However, he said that this was also a direct outcome of the company’s diversification strategy. He also assured that the company remains well funded and can deal with current obligations and ensure growth in the future. As for March 31, TAQA'a total assets stood at AED87bn, reports Arabian Business.

Prices for property in Dubai fell by 41% in the first 3 months of this year, reported BBC quoting a recent research by Colliers International. This is another sign that the world economic crisis did not spare the previously booming property market in Dubai. The research analyzed property prices in those regions of Dubai where foreign workers were permitted to buy property. A spokesman for Colliers said, that the prices are falling due to employment problems and that they were likely to decline further.

WASHINGTON - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Friday urged the United States to back Palestinian statehood in "words as well as deeds," and pressed Israel to chose between integration or isolation in the Middle East. Abdullah said Israelis seeking to reverse peace negotiations and Arabs calling for war are "already testing American credibility," even if President Barack Obama has made a "good beginning" with Arabs and Muslims.

Palestinian development should not be a substitute for independence, he warned, as the new right-wing government of hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stresses economic progress over statehood.

"Now is the time for the United States to lead," said Abdullah, who held talks on Tuesday with Obama who has embraced a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

The king said the Obama administration must make a high-level effort to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table and remain involved to the point of being ready to offer its own proposals in the event of a deadlock.

"A moment of truth is here for all who claim to seek peace and justice," he added.

Obama has invited Netanyahu as well as Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to Washington next month and called for "good faith" gestures from all sides, including Israel, as he signaled he plans to make the peace process a priority.

The king said the administration's "good beginning needs to move forward without any break, adding the US commitment to Palestinian statehood must be "unambiguous in deeds as well as words."

"This is central to America's standing not only in the region but in the entire Muslim world," he said.

The king recalled Obama's inaugural pledge to renew relations with the Muslim world.

He said the United States sends positive signals when it ensures relief and rebuilding in Gaza as well as provides humanitarian aid for the West Bank.

But the United States sends negative signals when it "fails to act ... against illegal settlement building, against Israeli actions to force Jerusalem's Arab Muslim and Christian population out or threaten Muslim and Christian holy sites," the king said.

Abdullah floated again the 2002 Arab peace initiative which calls for an end to Israel's occupation of Arab lands seized in 1967 and Palestinian statehood in return for security guarantees and normal ties for the Jewish state.

"We've made our choice," Abdullah told the audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.

"Israel now has to make its choice to integrate into the region ... or to remain fortress Israel, isolated, holding itself and the entire region a hostage to continued confrontation," the king said.

"Israel must know that attempting to delay this (two-state solution) will be disastrous for its own future as well as for future of the Palestinians," he said after a week of talks that included a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

http://www.middle-east-online.com

A US sergeant has been found guilty of the murder of four Iraqi prisoners in spring 2007. A court martial in Germany on Wednesday found Master Sergeant John Hatley guilty of shooting the blindfolded and bound detainees in the head before dumping them in a canal in Baghdad's West Rasheed neighbourhood. The eight-member military jury found the defendant guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder after a three-day trial. Hatley, 40, was acquitted of another murder in January 2007 of an Iraqi opposition fighter, who medics said was shot when already close to death.

Derrick Grace, the army prosecutor, said testimony had conveyed "a complete breakdown of discipline and crimes that are among the worst of a soldier".

"On two separate occasions, the accused became the judge, jury and executioner," he said.

Hatley will be sentenced on Thursday at the US army's Rose Barracks in southern Germany and faces up to life in prison without parole.

He had pleaded not guilty and showed no emotion on hearing the verdict, after which he embraced his wife, fellow soldiers and friends.

'No physical evidence'

The incident for which Hatley was convicted occurred in March or April 2007, when Hatley's unit had exchanged fired with a group of four Iraqis.

Weapons were then found in a building the four had fled to, and the men were taken into custody.

Hatley was accused of overseeing the shootings of the detainees and telling his colleagues that they were to "take care" of them and kill them.

The defence asserted that there was no physical evidence of the deaths as no bodies, witnesses or blood have been found.

Hatley was the highest ranking of three soldiers tried for killing the prisoners, the other two were convicted of the murders separately earlier this year.

Two other soldiers were also convicted of involvement in the spring 2007 incident.

All were with the 1st battalion, 18th infantry regiment, 2nd brigade, 1st infantry division in Baghdad. The unit is now part of the Germany-based 172nd infantry brigade.

Hatley had previously served in the first Gulf War and Kosovo.

http://english.aljazeera.net

A delegation of seven Arab foreign ministers were meeting in Amman Saturday ahead of King Abdullah's upcoming visit to Washington to formulate a common stance on the new Israeli Natanyahu government and the future of the Arab Peace Plan. Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and Saudi Arabia including Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa met Jordan's King Abdullah II Saturday to express their support Israeli-Palestinian peace process based on a two-state solution.

"The meeting aims to reaffirm the Arab world's commitment to the Arab peace initiative, the option of peace and the solution of two states, Palestine and Israel," Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told AFP.

The delegation, set before Saudi King Abdullah's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, expressed optimism over the new U.S. administration and aimed to convey Arab views on the means to revive the stalled Mideast peace process, mainly through the Saudi peace plan that has been on the table since 2002.

“We are keen to familiarize the Obama administration with our position. The administration wants to understand the positions of the parties involved before taking any action,” he said.

Stalled peace plan

A Saudi-inspired Arab peace plan, the Arab peace initiative deal offers Israel full recognition in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from occupied Arab land in the 1967 war, the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees.

The initiative was reoffered at the most recent Arab summit in Doha at the end of March, but Arab leaders cautioned that the offer would not remain on the table much longer.

In a closed-door meeting on the eve of the Doha summit, Arab foreign ministers resolved to reaffirm their commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative and to support the Arab League General Secretariat's efforts to investigate possible war crimes that Israel may have committed during its offensive in Gaza in December-January.

The concept of a two-state solution which would see a viable Palestinian state existing in peace alongside a secure Israel is central to Obama's Middle East policy. However, it is unpopular in the new hawkish government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

http://www.alarabiya.net

ALGIERS - Oil-rich Algeria voted Thursday with high voter turnout boosting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's near-certain bid to land a third term and fight off persistent extremist attacks. Polls closed at 8:00 pm local time (1900 GMT), with voter turnout put at 74.11 percent by the Interior Ministry several hours later -- significantly higher than the 58.7 percent in 2004, when Bouteflika won with 85 percent of the vote. The diminutive Algerian leader cast his ballot in the morning in the chic heights of the Algiers El Biar neighbourhood, accompanied by two young nephews and a brother, but made no public comment.

While political opponents -- many of whom boycotted the polls -- consider the result a foregone conclusion, observers paid keen interest in voter turnout.

"I voted because Bouteflika took care of the main problem my family has suffered from," said Algiers resident Farouk, whose family now lives in a new apartment thanks to a government housing programme for middle-class residents.

But the atmosphere appeared tense in the capital as voters headed to the polls, and the elections were marred by disruptive incidents -- two in the north of the country and one in an area east of Algiers -- according to Interior Minister Yahid Zerhouni.

Armed extremists injured two police officers in a bomb blast at Naceria near Boumerdes, 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Algiers, locals said, adding that the security forces had defused two other devices.

Zerhouni mentioned the incident, but gave no details.

"Vote, even vote against me, but vote," the paternalist Bouteflika urged 20.6 million electors as he criss-crossed the north African nation after his third five-year term was made possible by a constitutional amendment.

But one Algiers resident, Said, refused to answer that call.

"He asks us to vote even as the price of potatoes has tripled," the 40-something shoe store owner grumbled.

The 72-year-old Bouteflika, whose portrait dominates city building facades, is up against five less well resourced candidates who complained that state machinery oiled the incumbent's slick campaign.

Security was tight around the 46,577 voting booths and other "sensitive" targets, Zerhouni said.

Two polling stations were closed at Rafour in the northeastern Kabylie district, the heartland of Algeria's indigenous Berbers, Zerhouni said later on television.

"A group of 10 to 15 people tried to stop the election ... at Rafour. They destroyed the ballot boxes. We were forced to close these two polling stations, where 6,000 voters are registered."

African Union, Organization of the Islamic Conference and Arab League observers were all present and the United Nations has sent a review mission that will report to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Bouteflika hopes that a bigger turnout than the election five years ago will enhance his authority.

As Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyhaia cast his vote in downtown Algiers, he tipped a high turnout.

His many supporters say Bouteflika ended a civil war in the 1990s between the military-backed government and insurgents that left at least 150,000 people dead.

The unrest stemmed from the military's intervention in a parliamentary poll in 1991 to stop an Islamist election victory.

Along with measures to create jobs and build homes, Bouteflika has raised the possibility of holding a referendum on a general amnesty for militants who surrender.

His national reconciliation policy has already led several thousand militants to lay down their arms.

Bouteflika's rivals also appealed for a high turnout, calling on Algerians to vote against corruption, cronyism, social injustice and unfair division of wealth.

"No winner can collect 50 percent of the vote (enough for an outright win) in the first round because I have seen how angry" people are, Djahid Younsi of the El-Islah party said.

Another candidate, Louisa Hanoune, the only woman candidate and leader of the Trotskyist Workers' Party (PT), collected only one percent of the vote in 2004.

Moussa Touati, president of the Algerian National Front (FNA), Mohamed Said of the Justice and Liberty Party (PJL) running as an independent and Ali Fawzi Rebaine of the AHD-54 nationalist party completed the ballot.

http://www.middle-east-online.com