The Skeptic الشكاك

564 Exchange Student ‘Starved’ in Egypt

Very strange story from AP today: A 17-year-old exchange student lost 50 pounds, almost a third of his body weight, while staying with a host family in Alexandria. His family is suing the exchange program, partially because the program didn’t tell them that the host family, Coptic Christians, would fast 200 days a year, and that they starved him. The family says they fed the boy plenty, that they specially prepared meat for him while they were fasting, and that the story is a lie.

He does look sickly thin in the photos, but his account of his diet sounds pretty typical:

He said he never got breakfast and his first food of the day usually was a small piece of bread with cucumbers and cheese that he would take to school for lunch. There was a late-afternoon dinner consisting of beans, vegetables and sometimes fish, and a snack of bread later in the evening.

That’s about as much as I eat most days. And while I’m not a growing teenager, I’ve been getting pudgy since I stopped going to the gym. But right. Who cares?

Point is, people here—while they do struggle to make ends meet, particularly with rising food prices—aren’t starving (though I have heard stories of food aid trucks supplying people in the desert south of the Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam). How can an American kid whose parents can afford to send him on exchange programs starve in Egypt? You can still get a koshari for the equivalent of 10 cents. OK, it’s basically animal feed, but if you’re shedding a third of your body weight, I imagine it’d start to look better. He could have asked his parents for $37 and filled his belly for a year. Something doesn’t make sense.

The weirdest detail: The kid now wants to spend a year in Zimbabwe, where people really are starving.

563 Barack OBollywood

Never mind those scandalizing photos of Barack Obama looking “Muslimy” in Somali dress; the real scandal is Obama’s shady past as a Bollywood star:

Except you probably won’t be able to see this in Pakistan. Or perhaps anywhere, if the government of Pakistan has crashed the entire bleeping Internet by the time I finish writing this post. (Thanks, Issandr)

562 No Verdict in Brotherhood Military Trial

The verdict in the military trial of 40 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood has been postponed until March 25, according to friends who went out to Haikstep Military Base today in the hope of being the first to hear.

561 Preacher Dies in State Security Custody

Al-Misry al-Youm reports that Khaled Said Badran, a 42-year-old preacher, died in State Security custody on February 12, ten days after his arrest. State Security reportedly told his family that he had committed suicide:

560 Mass Protests in Gaza and Cairo

• Thousands of Gazans have formed a human chain along the Israeli border to protest the continued closure of the Strip.
• In other border-related news: Egyptian soldiers fatally shot an Eritrean woman trying to cross the border to Israel illegally today.
• Thousands of students at Cairo’s Ain Shams University protested against the military trial of 40 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood yesterday. The tribunal is expected to deliver its verdict tomorrow.
• From RSF:
  

  Blogger Tariq Biasi, who has been detained since 7 July 2007, denied posting comments critical of Syria on a website when he was questioned by a Damascus state security court on 22 February. The authorities identified him as the author of the offending comments on the basis of the connection through which they were posted, but he told the court he shared it with six other subscribers including an Internet café.

  Aged 22, Biasi is to be tried on 17 March on charges of “undermining national sentiment” and “publishing false information” under articles 285 and 286 of the criminal code, which carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

  There’s a petition for his release here.

558 Hillary Clinton Wins Israel

Posted without comment:

Ballots were cast from 164 countries and territories, from Antarctica to Zambia, according to Democrats Abroad statement. American citizens living outside the U.S. who joined Democrats Abroad, an official arm of the Democratic Party, were eligible to take part.

In Israel, which is home to an estimated 200,000 U.S. citizens, Hillary received 54 percent of the total vote among members of Democrats Abroad. Obama captured 45 percent of the vote in Israel.

In the global race though, Obama captured 66 percent, compared to Clinton’s 33 percent.

According to reports, Clinton also won the country vote in the Dominican Republic and the Philippines.

[Haaretz]

According to the press release, Obama has so far won 6 delegates from the contest, to Clinton’s 3. No word yet on how the candidates did in Egypt specifically, but Obama won the Europe/Middle East/Africa regional vote by a margin of 2:1 (4 delegates to Clinton’s 2).

The 22 delegates representing Democrats outside the United States get half a vote. I’m not sure if that applies to the four “super-delegates” representing Democrats overseas as well.

555 ???? ?????

Egypt’s least-remembered president, Sufi Abu Taleb, died on Thursday. He was acting president for eight days following Anwar as-Sadat’s assassination. I think it’s sad that I couldn’t find a single photo of him on the Web, even after a long search for his name in English and Arabic. An anonymous commenter wrote in with some links to photos of him. Amending the post to include a little .gif of him taken from parliament.gov.eg.

554 Ghost Ship

From Al-Ahram Weekly:

Egypt’s missing cargo ship Badr 1 was supposed to reach Sudan more than 20 days ago, but it never made it. Badr 1 was reported missing in the Red Sea by the end of last month although it disappeared from sight and from radar screens only three days after its departure on 9 January while heading to Port Sudan from the Suez Canal, an almost 800-mile trip which normally lasts just a few days. Neither Egyptian nor Sudanese authorities have been able to locate the vessel since.

Most authorities concerned and government officials state that Badr 1 has yet to be found. Some people, though, claim they know something others don’t.

[Read on…]

552 Police Informer Kills Cop in Revenge

From Egypt’s newest opposition paper, al-Badil, via TortureinEgypt.net and Hossam: A police informer has killed his handler after the latter raped and tortured him. Or so the paper reports. This would make a great movie script:

???? ?????? ????? ????? ???????? ???? ?????? ???????.. ??? ??? ????? ??? ????? ????? ??????? ??????? ??? ???? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ??????? «???? ?????» ?????? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ???????? ??? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ??? ????? «???? ??????».
??? ?????? «????? ?????? ?????» ?????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ??????.
???? ??? ??????- ???? ?? ???? ????? ?????????????? ????? ?????? ?????- ???????? ???? ???? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ?? ???? ???? ???????? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ????? ??? ??? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ????????? ?? ????? ????? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ????? ???? ?????? ???????? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ??? ????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ??? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??? ???? ????? ???? (24 ???) ????? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ????????

551 Israeli MP Blames Earthquakes on Gays

Lest anyone think that we in the Muslim world have a monopoly on backwardness and comical fundamentalism:

Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave “legitimacy to sodomy”.

Israel decriminalised homosexuality in 1988 and has since passed several laws recognising gay rights.

Two earthquakes shook the region last week and a further four struck in November and December.

[BBC]

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