Press Interpreter

09/15/06 -- Pope Benedict XVI has stirred a wave of criticism in the Muslim world with comments he made regarding Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, PBUH. Among those criticisms are calls for him to apologize regarding the insulting fallacies.

10/28/05 -- Iran was not in need of new problems before the fiery speech presented by its new president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in which he called for "the elimination of Israel from existence." And corresponding to the admiration deserving of that headline, he was chosen by the Islamic Committees for Students of Religious Schools in Iran to deliver his speech at its conference, entitled "The World Without Zionism," based upon that creed as practiced by radical right-wing Zionist extremists in Israel, a racist and wicked dogma which encourages the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity with respect to the Palestinians, and the call of President Ahmedinejad for the elimination of Israel from existence is a call that no country is prepared to respond to now or in the foreseeable future. And for Ahmedinejad and the other great Iranian leaders, who the world considers speak with him, hearing the vocal protests, especially from Western leaders, realize that the call of Ahmedinejad was just that, despite what he said, merely heated empty words, which may well yield Iran disastrous consequences.

10/07/05 -- Journalists for Al-Jazeera in Lebanon reported that the Lebanese army ordered its units settled around the Palestinian refugee camps to take the necessary measures to counteract attempts of a likely strike by Israel.

10/03/05 -- The American company ExxonMobil, the British company British Petroleum, and the Italian company ENI have won contracts for the drilling of oil in Libya. 120 companies submitted applications during the second round of applications for oil extraction licenses. 19 of the new high-profile licenses are situated in high-yield locations for oil such as the region of Sirte in the center of the country and the Murzuq oil fields in the southwest. The Socialist Republic awarded the first round of applications, which included 57 regions, last January / Kanoon al-Thany. An employee of the national oil organization said that ExxonMobil won a contract to drill in the middle of the country in cooperation with the Japanese Nippon Oil Company and the Indonesian oil company Pertamina. British Petroleum acquired two contracts in the Sirte region in cooperation with Pertamina and the Indian National Oil Company, while ENI and British Petroleum have won two contracts in the Kufra oil fields.

09/12/05-- Sources within the Mauritanian opposition said that an airplane is carrying scores of members of the Mauritanian opposition in exile, who will return en masse today.

08/13/05 -- The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Fayssal Mekdad, announced that President Bashar al-Asad has decided to attend a summit of the United Nations next month, this being the first time in recent history that a Syrian President has attended the international organization in New York.

08/11/05 -- President Field Marshal Omar Al-Bashir said that he is completely ready for cooperation with the People's Liberation Movement in implementation of the peace agreement and for continuation of joint work started by late Dr. John Garang.

07/30/05 -- The ousted Iraqi president faced a bare-knuckled assault last Thursday while appearing for a hearing before a special Iraqi court in Baghdad.

In a statement regarding Saddam, his defence team claimed that "a man took a shot at Saddam and the two of them exchanged blows during the hearing, which was attended by the lawyer for the defence, Khalil Aldulaimi."

07/09/05 -- The leaders and imams of the Islamic Union appealed to the Muslims of Macedonia to ease tensions, after the escalation of a clash over the presidency of the union, following an attack upon five of the imams by armed and masked men.

06/19/05 -- The regional office of the United Nations organization for education, science, and culture (UNESCO) came to agreements in the Egyptian capital with the companies Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett Packard for the planning and undertaking of training programs for Arab teachers in information technology, so that these programs would be successful according to the standards which UNESCO has established.

06/13/05 -- Madame Suzanne Mubarak, wife of the president of the republic, stated that woman's obtaining her full rights demands adoption of various practical policies, and turning toward pragmatic, effective programs. It is absolutely necessary to help those programs for rural women which obtain them education and technical skills, and encourage them, and offer them opportunity to establish small commercial enterprises.

06/10/05 -- Today, Friday, the American military announced the killing of five members of the marine infantry (marines) in an explosion in western Iraq.

The American forces explained that the five marines met their deaths yesterday, Thursday, in combat in Haqlaaniyya.

05/31/05 -- The Canadian Red Cross has admitted that they were at fault in the distribution of contaminated blood supplies. These supplies have led to the infection of thousands of Canadians with the HIV virus, which in turn causes AIDS and Hepatitis C. More than 3,000 people have died during the 1980’s due to the contaminated blood supplies. This exposure to contaminated blood is considered one of Canada’s worst health catastrophes ever. After years of legal wrangling, this admission from the Canadian Red Cross comes as part of a plea bargain made with representatives of the prosecution to avoid charges of criminal negligence.

06/06/05 -- The Ministry of Environmental Affairs issued the first report on the state of the environment in Egypt for 2004, indicating considerable progress in the reduction of air pollutants sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, thoracic particles, ozone, and smoke, along with a noteworthy reduction in pollution levels in the Nile and oceans and lakes.

06/03/05 -- BAGHDAD -- al-Quds al-Arabi : An informed source reported that the Syrian government was behind the arrest of Sabaawi Ibrahim, the half-brother of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in the final days of the month of Shebat (February) this year.

06/02/05 -- The second conference on the development of female leadership skills has demanded the full coordination of the secretary of women’s affairs and the secretary of rural affairs in implementing, at all levels of the National Party, the rural women and youth political participation encouragement project in the upcoming stage. The emphasis is being placed on communication with co-ops in order to support rural women and youth in view of advancing democracy, as well as finding the spirit of cooperation, existence, and hard work among woman and youth in the country.

05/21/05 -- The Gulf States have some of the lowest prices of cigarettes in the world because of the low taxes the governments impose. For this reason, the smoking epidemic and its related diseases are spreading throughout all levels of society. As for the efforts of the governments in their battle against smoking - they have gone astray in their attempt to persuade people to stop smoking by using “so called� restrictions that are only ineffective. The ideal way to curb interest in taking up smoking is to raise tariffs on tobacco. These tariffs should be raised to at least 300% in order to equal those found in developed countries.

05/25/05 -- An Italian judge has ordered Oriana Fallaci, an American author of Italian descent, to stand in court on a charge of defaming Islam, which has infuriated the Italian Justice Minister, but delighted representatives of Muslim emigrants.

05/27/05 -- The Al-Qaeda organization in Saudi Arabia said that their colleague Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi is "healthy" two days after the announcement that he was injured and taken to a neighboring country for treatment, according to a new press release from the organization on the internet.

05/26/05 -- The US is growing increasingly dependent on crude oil despite attempts to increase local production to meet a rise in demand.

Doug McIntyre, an analyst at the US government’s Energy Information Administration, said that long-term demand expectations pointed to an increase on the US dependence on imports.

05/24/05 -- Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa and Mauritanian Foreign Minister Mohamed Vall Ould Bellal told Aljazeera that the North African summit, which was set to take place in the Libyan capital on Thursday, had been delayed for an unspecified time.

05/14/05 -- An Aljazeera correspondent in Pakistan, relying upon tribal sources there, reported that a prominent member of the al-Qaeda organization was killed within the past few days, when an American spy plane targeted him with a rocket within one of the tribal regions of Pakistan.

04/28/05 -- Finally, after a tug of war lasting three months between different political blocs, both great and small, the National Assembly of Iraq (the Parliament) bestowed its confidence in the government of the Prime Minister, appointed by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, with the majority of 180 votes out of the 185 representatives present at the session of the 275-member parliament, a day after the principal committee agreed to their selection.

04/21/05 -- Aljazeera.net has learned that Iraqis supported by the Norwegian humanitarian ministries are determined to raise a suit against a group of Iraqis possessing Norwegian citizenship, who were associated with the torture of Iraqi detainees while they were working as translators with the American army in Iraq.

04/14/05--In the last few months, Yemeni authorities have concentrated on measures aiming to prevent the sale of their antiquities abroad, orchestrated by international groups, and have strengthened supervision at border crossings, airports, and harbors. They have achieved some notable successes during this period, which have contributed to the defeat of smuggling by antiquarians and the arrests of merchants and dealers both local and foreign.

04/08/05 -- The Egyptian actor Khaled El Nabaoui confirmed that the film, the production of which is currently taking place in Hollywood, about the period of the Crusades between the Muslims and the Christians, will justify the superiority of the West over the Arab and Islamic worlds, but it will not endeaver to instill the old rigid stereotypes known about them, as some fear.

04/07/05 -- Reuters attributed to an official within the Egyptian Ministry of Health a statement that four people, among them an American man and a French woman, were killed in a bombing in Cairo’s First District.

04/07/05 -- Baghdad -- In a historic session of the interim National Assembly, Iraqi representatives chose Jalal Talabani as President. He will become the first Kurd to occupy that position in Iraq's history.

04/02/05 -- The United States voiced its disappointment in Ethiopia’s decision to expel three American organizations, saying that they had worked to further democracy in Addis Ababa, guaranteeing reforms in the elections scheduled last 15 May / Adar.

03/31/05 -- The newspaper Yeni Safak wrote yesterday that the foreign ministers of Egypt and the countries surrounding Iraq will hold the next round of their periodic conventions in Istanbul on April 14 and 15.