For Iranian parachuting enthusiast Bahareh Sassani, skydiving is "a way to prove that women are just as capable as men" -- a small step from a big height for women's equality in her country.

The 35-year-old accountant has been skydiving less than two years but already has more than 220 jumps under her belt.

"I encourage all women to try this experience. It gives you the feeling you can do whatever you want. Women should not be excluded from anything," she said.

Sassani -- one of just a handful of female skydivers in her deeply conservative homeland -- refuses to describe herself as a "feminist".

But her motto is firmly "there is no difference between men and women and a woman can do anything she wants and succeed".

That still runs against the grain of Iranian society, where women have had a lower legal status than men since the Islamic revolution of 1979 even if they have battled to stay equal in daily life.

Her favourite pastime is still very much the preserve of men in Iran -- made more complicated by the fact there is no parachuting club so she must do it with the army.

"When they organise jumps, the army invites everyone, including civilians," she explained.

- Liberating -

There were a handful of women parachutists in pre-revolutionary Iran: archived images published recently by the ISNA news agency showed the first four female army skydivers from 1965.

But today, women are not permitted to join the army.

The police has an elite unit that does some parachuting practice, but Sassani says she knows only five other qualified women from the civilian population.

Unlike her friends who chose to buy a car, clothes or jewellery with their first pay cheques or savings, Sassani said she opted instead to invest in parachuting, despite the adventurous sport being a male bastion in Iran.

At the start, her motivation for taking up skydiving was to combat a fear of heights, she said. But now she loves the sense of liberation from everyday cares that it gives her, she added.

Male reactions can be rather extreme though, she says.

"Men often avoid women like me, thinking we aren't made for marriage because we are uncontrollable," she said, bursting into laughter.

"But a small number do show an interest in what I'm doing."

It can also generate interest abroad, said Sassani, who has jumped in Russia, Kenya, Thailand and the UAE.

"Even abroad, when I skydive, people are surprised. They think there are a lot of restrictions in Iran, but I explain to them that there are women doing motocross, flying planes and, yes, parachuting," she said.

A recent photo did the rounds in the Iranian media, showing Sassani jumping with an Iranian flag.

"I meet lots of cultures and beliefs abroad, but I'm a patriot and I love doing jumps in Iran more than anything," she adds.

Source: AFP

What role should women play in society, political, and business leadership is a question at the center of controversy in the conservative Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) where religion, customs, and traditions strongly influence the role of gender in society. Yet there is a growing recognition that to develop the GCC states and overhaul their economies to remain prosperous in the post-oil era, women must be increasingly involved in more areas of life. 

In a watershed last month, Qatar appointed women to the Shura Council for the first time in the Arabian emirate’s history. Four women will participate in the 45-seat council, which will discuss the bills passed by the Cabinet after approval, the government’s general policies, and the state budget draft.

The important step came two days after the Qatari Foreign Ministry appointed a Qatari woman to be Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, marking a first in the country’s history. Shortly before that, the UAE appointed a Minister of State for Youth Affairs to be the youngest woman minister in the UAE. In Kuwait a female MP elected in 2016 serves in the 50-member National Assembly.

Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to allow Saudi women to drive has received substantial international attention because Saudi Arabia was the only country that prevented the woman from doing so. However, the Saudi Shura Council in the latest decision before the end of 2017 rejected the recommendation to empower Saudi women to leadership roles in the Kingdom’s embassies, consulates, and attachés.

Since 2003, women in the GCC have participated more in public life, education and business, particularly in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The struggle for suffrage in Kuwait reached a watershed in 2004 when Kuwaiti women gained the right to vote and run in elections. Despite more than a decade having passed since women entered Kuwait’s political arena, many female candidates in Kuwait remain unable to secure enough votes to qualify for appropriate representation in parliament.

In terms of the workforce, the gender ratio remains highly imbalanced. Of the GCC’s population (54 million in 2016), more than 52 percent of them are women who make up no more than 29 percent of the workforce in these countries.

The recent study by the International Labor Organization revealed that women’s participation in the labor force was 28.6 percent in Oman; 39.4 percent in Bahrain; 43.4 percent in Kuwait; 46.6 percent in the UAE, and 50.8 percent in Qatar.

Qatar ranked the highest among the six GCC states while Saudi Arabia ranked the lowest at 18.2 percent, indicating that women in the Gulf still occupy low levels, despite promises by Gulf regimes to enact reforms aimed at empowering women. In reality, gender disparities continue to plague institutions in the GCC including educational ones. Political and economic reforms in the GCC countries have not fundamentally changed the role of women in the Gulf because such reforms have failed to overcome cultural barriers and values rooted in hearts and minds of GCC citizens.

Eleven Arab countries, including the GCC members, have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). But none have put in place effective mechanisms to implement their provisions. For example, in Saudi Arabia every Saudi woman has a male guardian (usually her father or husband, but in some cases her brother or even her son) who has the power to make many important decisions for her from renting an apartment to filing legal claims and accessing health care to working a job. All women in Saudi Arabia, regardless of socio-economic status, are subject to this guardianship law.

Long-term human development in the GCC can only become a reality when women are empowered in all fields. As all of the GCC states’ visions for economic diversification realise, women in the Gulf need a voice to defend their interests and the right to participate in decision-making and change.

Educational sector has been rocked by a serious scandal after the sudden death of a cleaning worker — as revealed by female cleaning workers in some public schools.

Although the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohammad Al-Fares last week tried to end a protest initiated by cleaning workers in some schools, the corpse of a female who lost her life in the course of aborting an illegitimate pregnancy is a wake-up call, especially after the police has detected she was working in a school at one educational area without residence visa.

A security source said the corpse was found close to a clinic and police investigation revealed that she did not have any identity card. Further investigation indicated she was working in a public school, which prompted detectives to request the school principal for data of the workers.

They discovered that 80 percent of the workers did not have residence visa but the principal cleared herself from the responsibil- ity, saying the company that sup- plied the cleaning workers had signed the contract with Ministry of Education rather than the school.

The cleaners were referred to investigation. Official statements made at the police station revealed details of the cleaning worker who died in her vain attempt to abort a pregnancy. It also revealed the deceased declined to visit the clinic for treatment to avoid arrest since she did not have residence visa.

The incident has made the majority of cleaning workers to desert the school in question for fear that they’ll be arrested, although the police did not go after them since the school was not responsible for the contract. Consequently, the school administration and students have been facing difficulty since the incident was reported last Tuesday.

Officials of the ministry have since expressed concern that moral decadence of this nature has nega- tive implication on the school and students.

Investigation revealed the act of employing absconders as cleaning workers is not limited to the school under consideration, because most of the public schools use cleaners who are without identity cards and have run away from their sponsors.

Kuwait's Sheikha Intisar Salem Al Ali Al Sabah and veteran singer Nawal have won the Arab Woman Award 2017.

During a ceremony held in London Thursday evening by the Arab Women Organization (AWO), an intergovernmental specialized agency affiliated to the League of Arab States, Sheikha Intisar was offered the prize for her non-profiting initiative "Alnowair" for disseminating positive thinking.

The event was attended by Dean of Diplomatic Corps, Kuwait's Ambassador to Britain Khaled Al-Duwaisan and a representative of the London Mayor.

Talking to KUNA, Sheikha Intisar voiced delight for attending the "distinctive" gathering to honor Arab creative women in various fields.

She stressed the integral role of Arab women in serving their communities, saying that in Kuwait, for instance, they represent 80 percent of the output of higher education. She believes this is the case in most world countries.

It is high time, people knew that women are the "active element" in development and the success of any work they get involved in, she added.

Sheikha Intisar commended support to women by the Kuwaiti political leadership, with His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on top.

His Highness the Amir has relatedly directed the government to provide all means for empowering the Kuwaiti women to play their due role in the society, she said.

In a similar statement to KUNA, Nawal, who was honored for her three-decade distinctive musical career, said that "being honored in Britain means a lot for me." She urged Arab women to work seriously and not to yield to any obstacles, saying: "The path to success requires strong determination and will."

Winners included Sudan's Haniya Morsi, community leadership; prominent Lebanese media figure Raghda Dhurgham, press and media; Lebanon's Maha Al-Khalil, culture.

Saudi Princess Luma Al Saud was honored in the charity work category, Bahrain's Sheikha Hind Al Khalifa in trade development, and Egypt's actress Yasmin Sabri in promoting women's status.
Envoy Al-Duwaisan expressed pride for taking part in the honoring of two Kuwaiti women in Britain.

Sheikha Intisar and Nawal have managed through their hard efforts to realize further achievements for Kuwait, he said.

INJAZ Kuwait is currently preparing for participating in the 11th Annual INJAZ Al-Arab Young Entrepreneurs Regional Competition, to be held, at the Four Seasons Hotel Nile Plaza, Cairo- Egypt on 20 and 21 November.

As usual, the competition will witness participation of the winning teams at the Company Program Competition (CPC) from all over the Middle East and North Africa, that includes 17 teams from 10 countries; namely Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia,  Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon and  Oman, where students will compete and showcase their knowledge and understanding of companies’ establishment, marketing, and profit making, to a panel of distinguished businessmen and leaders from the Arab region.

INJAZ Kuwait will participate in this competition, representing Kuwait, with two companies 'Agrivage' for high school category, and 'Youth Creation' for university category, both teams were winners of ‘Best Student Company of the Year 2017’ in INJAZ Kuwait Company Program Competition.

“Agrivage” is a startup business created by a group of Kuwaiti students, aim to help the environment by recycling the food waste and turn into a usable rich soil. The project supervision was handled by Othman Boodai, who is a previous INJAZ Kuwait student and one of the founders of Green Target Company, which won the first place in the INJAZ Al- Arab Regional competition for 2008.

“Youth Creations”, is a company established by university students to offer innovative products and entertainment solutions to raise awareness among the society by giving exciting tips and challenges. They launched its first product, an entertaining game called “Bo Tambeh”. The project supervision was done by Mr. Abdullateef Al-Sharikh, Head of Corporate Communications at Alghanim Industries, in coordination with Dr. Samar Baqir from Kuwait University.

Through the competition process, participating teams will have to present their ideas to the panel of independent and carefully selected judges, who will base their decisions on student’s creativity, delivering successful vision for innovative ideas, their ongoing commitment towards their business, and professionally executing it.

The program consists of four main stages, including handing a report that discusses the various stages students underwent in establishing and managing their companies, discuss the different challenges that they had to overcome to keep the business progressing, a visit by the judges to their booths to check their progress. Lastly, the participating companies will have to meet with the judges individually to further discuss their developments.

INJAZ Kuwait CEO, Laila Al Mutairi said: “INJAZ Kuwait has always been keen to participate in various Arab competitions, an act that helps supporting young Kuwaitis capabilities and skills and enhance their practical experience, through dealing with other students from different countries with different background”.

“Agrivage and Youth Creations are among the strongest teams participating in the regional competition, both are so committed and excited to be part of such a renowned competition. We wish them both all the best and wish other participating teams the best of luck as well,” added Al Mutairi.

The INJAZ Al-Arab Young Entrepreneurs Competition was established in 2007 and is recognized as the region’s leading entrepreneurship competition for Arab youth. Since its inception, the annual event has been hosted by various INJAZ Al-Arab member nations including Oman, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and now Egypt for the first time. To find out more about INJAZ Al-Arab Young Entrepreneurs Regional Competition, you can follow through #YECINJAZ.

Since 2005, INJAZ-Kuwait has reached over 54,336 students from 129 educational institutions, thanks to 4,859 volunteers—and growing. INJAZ Kuwait connects corporate volunteers to mentor youth in collaboration with the privet sectors and organizations, who have provided their professional experience in the financial literacy, entrepreneurship and business management fields. INJAZ Kuwait continues to equip and support youth, to ensure a more prosperous future for generations to come.

Kuwaiti women empowerment is one of the objectives of Kuwait sustainable development strategy, said Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Dr. Hind Al-Sebeeh on Monday. "Today we have seen Kuwaiti women serving as doctors and researchers and engineers at various quarters and academies namely Kuwait University," said Al-Sebeeh in a statement to journalists on sidelines of the International Conference on Women Leaders in Science and Technology, which kicked off earlier today at the Arab Organizations headquarters.

The Ministry and General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development support the Kuwaiti women in sciences, where aid is provided to female researchers, she added.

For his part, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Mohammad Abdulatif Al-Fares, also speaking on the convention margins, affirmed that Kuwait has made headways on the path for women empowerment at various levels.

Many Kuwaiti female citizens have occupied senior posts and specialized in technology, engineering and innovation. Meanwhile, Dr. Fayza Mohammad Abdulmohsen Al-Kharafi, the conference chair and board member of Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), said in her statement at the event that the conferees would debate women leadership toward social and economic development.

The United Nations, she added, has affirmed that objectives of the sustainable development for 2030 emphasize the need for empowering the woman and putting her on par with man. The convention deliberations focus on hindrances facing the women in various fields, propose solutions and incentives to enable the females make accomplishments, Dr. Al-Kharafi added.

US Ambassador to Kuwait H.E. Lawrence R. Silverman, also addressing the conference, has asserted that the whole world nowadays needs full and effective participation of the women for facing looming challenges.

Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dr. Celeste M. Rohlfing told the conferees that the United Nations has adopted the issue of women empowerment and gender equality as some of the goals of the sustainable development till 2030. KFAS Director General Dr. Adnan Shihab Eldin said a number of women involved in sciences are partaking in the three-day convention.

Citing a UNESCO's report, he said proportion of female graduates from universities globally reached 53 percent, as compared to 37 percent in Arab countries.

A deal to end a three-day government shutdown in Washington sent a jubilant Wall Street to a fresh set of records on Monday, as US stocks continued their seemingly irrepressible upward march.

Most other global markets also rose but across the Atlantic results were mixed, with Paris and Frankfurt up while London sagged.

Word of the bargain struck among lawmakers in Washington early Monday afternoon sent all three New York stock indices soaring to fresh heights -- the eighth time this year that Wall Street has hit a trifecta of record finishes.

"The market collectively breathed a sigh of relief as the government shutdown is over and it did not get dragged out or disrupt normal Main Street or Wall Street activities," said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments.

Sarhan said corporate profits again are the central focus of investors, and 68 percent of companies that have reported so far have beaten Wall Street's estimates.

"Until we have more clarity in respect of what is going to happen on the earnings front in 2018, the bulls deserve the benefit of the doubt," he told AFP. "The market refuses to fall, even in these extended circumstances."

Struggling industrial behemoth General Electric, which also is due to post quarterly earnings, fell another 0.6 percent Monday -- briefly sinking below $16 per share -- after a downgrade of its stock by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

- A breakthrough in Germany too? -

Meanwhile, prices edged higher in Paris and Frankfurt, after Germany's center-left Social Democrats voted Sunday to begin formal coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives.

The news, which brought Europe's top economy a step closer to a new government after months of deadlock, helped guide the euro higher.

"This is a step in the right direction for German politics and traders will be watching it closely," said CMC Markets UK analyst David Madden.

The thumbs-up will come as a huge relief to Merkel, staving off the threat of snap polls or the unappealing prospect of leading an unstable minority government.

Shares in the French and German telecoms giants, Orange and Deutsche Telekom, were boosted by a report in French daily Le Monde that the two held merger talks between May and September 2017 last year, traders said. Shares of both companies ended the day around two percent higher.

The report said there were "confidential discussions" held between the two companies examining the options for a "merger of equals."

 - Key figures around 2200 GMT -

New York - DOW: UP 0.6 percent at 26,214.60 points (close)

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.8 percent at 2,832.97 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: UP 1 percent at 7,408.03 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,708.82 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.2 percent at 13,463.69 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 5,541.65 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 3,665.28 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: FLAT at 23,816.33 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.4 percent at 32,393.41 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 3,501.36 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.2263 from $1.2225

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3987 from $1.3860

Dollar/yen: UP at 110.92 from 110.77 yen

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 42 cents at $69.03 per barrel

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 25 cents at $63.62

Source: AFP

Possibly one of the biggest scandals of the Obama administration was the blocking of active investigations into Hezbollah and Iran’s complicity in the deadly global trade in drugs and armaments. Former US Treasury official Katherine Bauer testified that these investigations were “tamped down for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardizing the nuclear deal.” In recent days, the US Justice Department has reopened these investigations. This couldn’t come a moment too soon.
We all remember former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cozying up to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as part of their anti-American axis. It later came to light that this alliance brought forth a vast drug-trafficking operation, which saw Venezuelan cocaine sales skyrocket from 50 to 250 tonnes a year — mostly bound for the US. In and around 2007, Venezuela’s state airline was ferrying large quantities of cash and drugs to Tehran each week, returning laden with weapons and Hezbollah operatives.
Venezuela was just one segment of Iran and Hezbollah’s strategy for cultivating crime networks in South America, operating via Lebanese and Syrian communities across the continent. US officials recognized that Hezbollah was becoming one of the largest global crime networks, yet this flew in the face of the criminally naive Obama administration orthodoxy that the Islamic Republic could be sweet-talked into becoming a constructive member of the international community. Barack Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan was an advocate of cultivating Hezbollah’s “moderate elements,” commending the movement’s success in “assimilating” into the Lebanese political system, just as Hezbollah was rolling up its trousers to wade into the blood-soaked Syria conflict. In reality, the 2015 nuclear deal emboldened Tehran, eased the constraints of sanctions, and removed global pressures as European nations trampled each other in the unseemly stampede to tap into Iran’s oil economy.
Figures like Lebanese arms dealer Ali Fayad, who the Obama administration missed an opportunity to extradite from the Czech Republic, are today deeply involved in diverting a flood of Russian heavy weapons to Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and the wider region. Similar routes transported chemical weapons used by Bashar Assad against his people: Just one strand of a dense clandestine network connecting Iran, North Korea and entities like the Pakistani A.Q. Khan network for smuggling nuclear and ballistic materials.
Hezbollah’s ambassador to Tehran, Abdallah Safieddine, reputedly oversaw one of the world’s largest drug-smuggling operations, laundering around $200 million per month out of the US from profits of narcotics imports. At one point an “entire Quds Force network” was active in the US, laundering money and trafficking drugs and weapons. Counter-narcotics officials amassed detailed information about this activity, which ran in parallel with plots to assassinate foreign diplomats and terrorist operations elsewhere. However, Obama hindered investigations (known as Project Cassandra) by his own law enforcement agencies and blocked preventative action; even though US agents discovered that narcotics revenues were being channelled to Iraqi Shiite militants who were then engaged in killing American troops. Nevertheless, during 2016 some Hezbollah personnel were indeed arrested by US police on drugs trafficking charges.
A DEA official who led these investigations commented: “(Hezbollah) were a paramilitary organization with strategic importance in the Middle East, and we watched them become an international criminal conglomerate generating billions of dollars for the world’s most dangerous activities, including chemical and nuclear weapons programs and armies that believe America is their sworn enemy.”
Hezbollah previously dabbled in arms smuggling and criminal activity, but observers were dumbfounded by this wholesale shift into global organized crime from around 2006. Hezbollah strongholds became awash with foreign currency, with cash reserves of US dollars in Lebanon doubling to $16 billion in just a few years. This was massively important in helping Hezbollah rearm and rebuild its infrastructure after the 2006 war with Israel. Hezbollah operations in south Beirut during April 2017 against local drug dealers appear designed to ensure a monopoly over the drugs trade. Hezbollah was criticized for behaving like a state within a state by embarking on such actions.
Iran’s shared border with Pakistan and Afghanistan is one of the world’s busiest drug smuggling corridors (an estimated 140 tonnes a year). The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is well placed to monopolize this cross-border trade. This has had terrible consequences inside Iran, with up to 10 percent of Iranian nationals estimated to be drug addicts — the highest proportion in the world. 
With Hezbollah heavily implicated in Syria, Iranian financial transfers to the movement recently soared to an estimated $800 million, yet this is exceeded by the approximate $1 billion a year it is reported to receive from narcotics, arms trafficking and organized crime. Data indicates that the IRGC may double its formal budget (around $8bn) through illicit economic activities. After encroaching on territory formerly held by Daesh, Iran’s new corridor of control through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the Mediterranean opens up lucrative and potentially destabilizing pathways into the heart of Europe. 
Tehran’s proxy militias of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (the Popular Mobilization Forces) in Iraq act like gangsters in the expanding territories they control, with militants fighting among themselves to monopolize the oil smuggling trade around Basra; reportedly conducting systematic kidnappings of Sunnis and often murdering them after ransoms are paid; and engaging in the full spectrum of organized crime: Extortion, drugs, expropriating property, terrorizing local people, and the theft of historical artefacts. As primary benefactors of laundered funds from Hezbollah’s American narcotics network, Al-Hashd factions are said to be investing these funds in activities to perpetuate Tehran’s cultural control: Universities, schools, religious institutions and paramilitary training for young people — all calculated to indoctrinate Iraqi Shiites into Iran’s theological model of Wilayat al-Faqih.
Iran has reportedly become deeply complicit in arms smuggling throughout Africa. Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Senegal and other states are key proliferation hubs, with a broad range of African insurgent and terrorist groups benefiting from Iranian military munificence. Several West African states also became integral parts of Hezbollah’s cash-laundering network for billions of dollars of drugs money flooding out of the US. Sudan had been a key ally in facilitating Iranian arms smuggling towards conflicts that claimed countless lives. However, GCC states notched up a remarkable success in drawing Sudan away from Tehran’s orbit. 
Intelligence officials describe a standard operating procedure of Hezbollah, Quds Force and Iranian diplomats establishing connections through the Lebanese diaspora across Africa and the Americas. Front companies and smuggling routes are then established and evangelical Shiite institutions are set up to cultivate local support and nurture proxy groups. These channels are then exploited for a variety of illicit purposes. Iran’s support for the Houthis in Yemen, meanwhile, offers opportunities to expand new routes through Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Ocean.
The US Justice Department’s reopening of investigations into Iranian crime networks may have to start from scratch, having lost institutional expertise and on-the-ground sources after Project Cassandra was closed down. We have yet to see whether these investigations are a stepping stone to decisive action against Iran and its proxies, or whether this is more empty rhetoric against both Tehran and the Obama administration.
After the investigation announcement, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah came out with a vigorous denial of any involvement in drugs, claiming that such activities violated the movement’s fundamental principles. I fervently wish this was true, just as I wish that Hezbollah had adhered to its founding principles of being a Lebanese nationalist bastion against Israel — yet a mountain of evidence tells us otherwise. 
All this illustrates why Tehran constitutes a greater proliferation threat than Pyongyang. While tiny North Korea is an isolated and encircled failed state in Far East Asia, imperialist oil-rich Iran is expanding out of Central Asia, through the Middle East and towards the shores of Europe. Tehran is furthermore aggressively branching out through Africa, Latin America and South Asia, profiting from organized crime to bankroll its blueprint for paramilitary expansionism. With each successive year that the world turns a blind eye to these activities, Iran becomes stronger, more belligerent, wealthier and wider-reaching.
Even though the Trump administration is willing to revisit evidence of Hezbollah’s role in narcotics and arms trafficking, much of the West remains stubbornly in denial that Iran, Hezbollah and Al-Hashd al-Shaabi are pursuing a coherent long-term strategy for aggressively expanding their influence. What will it take for Europe to wake up to the Iranian proliferation threat? Automatic weapons in the hands of Eastern European anti-democracy militias? The streets of Hamburg, Paris and Barcelona awash with heroin? Or a 9/11-style major terrorist atrocity?

Women's rights protesters took to the streets in European cities on Sunday (Jan 21) to voice their frustration at sexual harassment, violence and discrimination against women.

Hundreds of people gathered in London chanting "Time's up! Time's up!", as similar demonstrations took place across the continent.

"I am here today to say time is up on violence against women and girls all across the world," Kiyleigh, 29, told AFP at the march outside Prime Minister Theresa May's Downing Street office.

"I work with women who suffer from domestic abuse, sexual abuse from male perpetrators and I don't want to see that anymore," she said.

Protesters also waved placards reading "Don't touch my rights" and "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries".

Social campaigner Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, was among the speakers.

"'No' means 'no'. Sexual harassment is not OK. Abuse is not OK. People have to respect what women say," said Liberty Folker, 27, who came with her dog Gwen and held a placard reading: "Even this dog knows 'no' means 'no'".

"Every woman I know has experienced some kind of harassment or abuse or rape. I myself have and I don't want that for any woman anywhere, not just here but all across the world," she told AFP.

'GRAB 'EM BY THE MID-TERMS'

In Berlin, a few dozen people gathered by the US embassy at the Brandenburg Gate and waved slogans in English including "Resist", "Stand, unite, fight" and "Time's up: Impeach now", referring to US President Donald Trump.

Others denounced Trump's remarks about women, one held a placard reading: "Grab 'em by the patriarchy".

As protesters moved through Berlin's government district, the crowd grew to around 1,000, including expatriate Americans and a large male minority.

Many parents brought their school-age children, who carried signs with slogans including "Love trumps hate" and "Equality for all".

Speakers encouraged Americans abroad to sign up for absentee ballots for the US midterm congressional elections in November.

A popular poster read: "Grab 'em by the midterms".

Meanwhile in Spain about 200 people, mostly women, gathered in Plaza Isabel II in downtown Madrid.

They chanted slogans and held signs in Spanish and English decrying Trump and encouraging a global feminist "revolution".

"We stand here united to find our way towards equality and to demand our rights", said Cristina Rodriguez-Carretera, a 40-year-old university professor in the United States on a visit to her native Spain.

"We are more united than we think," she added, noting that women feel under attack by Trump's constant "misogyny".

In the United States, protesters took to the streets en masse on Saturday, hoisting anti-Trump placards, banging drums and donning pink hats for a second Women's March opposing the president - one year to the day since his inauguration.

Hundreds of thousands of marchers assembled in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, Boston and other cities nationwide, many donning the famous pink knit "pussy hats" - a reference to Trump's audiotaped boast of his licence to grope women without repercussions.

They were joined by actresses including Whoopi Goldberg in New York and Natalie Portman in Los Angeles.

Other demonstrations were held elsewhere in Europe including Paris.

Germany's centre-left Social Democrats voted Sunday to begin formal coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, bringing Europe's top economy a step closer to a new government after months of deadlock.

At a special party congress in the western city of Bonn, 372 out of 642 delegates (56 percent) backed SPD chief Martin Schulz's appeal to approve a preliminary coalition deal painstakingly hammered out with Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc.

The thumbs-up will come as a huge relief to Merkel, staving off the threat of snap polls or the unappealing prospect of leading an unstable minority government.

The veteran chancellor, in power for more than 12 years, said she welcomed the SPD's green light but warned that there were "many issues left to work out".

"We have a lot of work ahead of us."

The narrow vote victory also means a reprieve for Schulz, who had staked his political future on a "yes" outcome, despite initially rejecting another stint as Merkel's junior coalition partner.

"We are relieved, the result shows that we had to fight for this majority," Schulz said.

The vote, which was closely watched in Germany and abroad, paves the way for negotiators to launch in-depth talks that should lead to an official coalition agreement in several weeks.

Merkel said the first meetings on how to organise those talks would start Monday.

But another make-or-break hurdle looms before she can clinch a fourth term, as Schulz has pledged to give the SPD's 440,000 rank-and-file party members the final say on any formal coalition "contract".

If the deal is approved, a new government could be in place by mid-March at the earliest -- nearly six months after September's tricky election.

- Europe waiting -

Sunday's breakthrough is likely to be welcomed in capitals across Europe, eager to see an end to a political impasse in a pivotal member state that has left key EU policy decisions on hold.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been openly rooting for a repeat grand alliance in Berlin given the enthusiasm among the pro-EU SPD for his EU reform plans, including his more ambitious proposals to install a eurozone budget and finance minister.

Macron "is waiting for a partner," Schulz said in an impassioned speech to delegates ahead of the vote.

He urged the SPD to seize the chance to help drive deeper EU integration and counter the rise of right-wing populists across the continent.

"Only a strong and united SPD can make our country and Europe stronger," he said.

The European Commission hailed the SPD's "yes" vote, with EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici praising the "sense of responsibility" shown by the Social Democrats.

The closer-than-predicted result however underlined the SPD's lack of enthusiasm for the coalition blueprint thrashed out earlier this month, which critics said contained too many concessions to the CDU/CSU.

- Scepticism -

Germany has been stuck in political limbo since September's inconclusive general election saw mainstream parties bleed support to the far-right AfD, which tapped into anger over Merkel's open-door refugee policy.

Stung by his party's worst result in decades, Schulz initially vowed to go into opposition but then caved to pressure to reconsider after Merkel's attempt at a novel tie-up with two smaller parties collapsed in November.

The U-turn angered many grassroots SPD supporters, who believed some time on the opposition benches would help the 150-year-old party regain its fighting spirit.

Resistance to a renewed Merkel alliance was loudest among the SPD's left and youth wings, who complained the preliminary coalition agreement fell short of campaign pledges.

The 28-page document that lays the basis for future government policies promises more spending on childcare and education as well as joining France in its push to overhaul the bloc.

But the SPD failed to secure a tax hike for the rich or a restructuring of the country's two-tier healthcare system -- two key campaign promises.

Schulz on Sunday vowed to extract more concessions in the formal coalition talks.

He also pledged to resist the CSU's demand to cap migrant arrivals at 200,000 a year and promised that any future coalition government would be put up for review after two years.

Merkel, often dubbed the world's most powerful woman, has been hamstrung on the global stage as the domestic drama has played out.

Commentators say her struggles to form a new government have damaged her political standing and she is increasingly described as entering the twilight of her rule.

When Dawa Yangzum Sherpa first set her sights on being a mountain guide, she was told it was no job for a girl. Now she has proved her doubters wrong, becoming Nepal's first woman to earn a prestigious international qualification.

Last month, the 27-year-old completed a rigorous course run by the Swiss-based International Federation of Mountain Guides, often described as a PhD in mountaineering.

The prestigious qualification has been awarded to around 6,000 people worldwide and just 50 men in Nepal, despite climbing being a major revenue earner for the impoverished country.

Sherpa belongs to the Himalayan ethnic group that has become synonymous with mountain guiding thanks to their reputation for being strong climbers with a natural tolerance for the lack of oxygen at high altitudes.

But in Nepal -- home to eight of the world's highest mountains -- climbing remains a man's job.

"This is a challenging field, even more so if you are a girl. There were people who said this is not a girl's job, that I won't get work or (asked) what will I do if I have kids," Sherpa said.

Mountaineering is the lifeblood of Sherpa's home village in Rolwaling valley, which neighbours Mount Everest, and scores of its residents have summited the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) peak.

"I knew what I wanted to do. My passion was to be outdoors, to climb. And my family did not discourage me," Sherpa told AFP.

At 17, Sherpa was already guiding tourists on trekking routes, and soon after that scaled her first mountain, Nepal's 5,500-metre Yala Peak.

American climber David Gottlieb, who works with US-based expedition operator Alpine Ascents International, remembers Sherpa showing great promise when he roped her in for an ice-climbing trip in the Rolwaling Valley.

"It is something else to see that great a promise of ability in a craft that not everybody is good at. And she displayed that immediately," Gottlieb said.

- 'Like an addiction' -

After racking up a number of summits of smaller mountains, in 2012 Sherpa was selected to join an expedition organised by National Geographic to the world's highest peak.

"Everest used to be my aim. I used to think that once I scale Everest it will be enough. But climbing is like an addiction. The more I climbed, the more I wanted to climb," she said.

It was after returning from that successful summit that she signed up to become a certified mountain guide.

In 2014, she was part of the first Nepali women's team to scale Pakistan's K2, considered one of the world's toughest climbs.

Last year, she attempted to climb the world's third highest peak, Kangchenjunga on the Nepal-India border, but bad weather forced her to turn back before the summit.

"She was already moving forward to become one of the top women mountaineers not just in Nepal but in the world, but this certificate will open many new opportunities for her," said Sunar Bahadur Gurung, President of the Nepal National Mountain Guides Association.

"Dawa is very capable but is also extremely determined."

Sherpa is planning to guide a team to North America's highest peak Denali with Alpine Ascents International this June, and will then return home to Nepal where she also works as an instructor at two climbing schools.

She hopes that she is just the first of many women from Nepal who will look to the fabled peaks of the Himalayas for a career.

"I didn't have anyone to look up to and sometimes doubted if I could do it," she said.

"But hopefully my small success will inspire other girls to follow their dreams."

Source: AFP

Giant crowds are expected at rallies around the United States Saturday for a second Women's March opposing President Donald Trump, and calling for voter mobilization ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

On January 21, 2017, one day after Trump's inauguration, more than three million people marched nationwide opposing the president, according to a Washington Post estimate. The flagship rally was held in Washington, echoed in sister protests around the world.

The giant outpouring illustrated the depth of resistance to the Republican billionaire president, whose hardline policies have impacted the rights of women, immigrants and minorities. But the demonstrations were also criticized for being too white and liberal.

This year the spotlight will be in Las Vegas, Nevada, a state which in 2016 voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump and elected the country's first Latina senator, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.

More than 300 towns and cities are organizing anniversary marches and rallies, not all of them affiliated to each other. In New York, 82,000 people have registered as "interested" in attending on the event's Facebook page.

- "Power to the Polls" -

The strapline for Las Vegas is "Power to the Polls," designed to drive national voter registration and maximize women's involvement in the 2018 midterm elections, in which a record number of women are standing for election.

Protesters are expected to denounce Trump's hardline immigration policies, promote women's rights, address the gender pay gap, concerns about health care and call for the removal of barriers to voting by marginalized communities.

"In 2018, we must turn our work into action ahead of the midterms. This new initiative will address voter registration and voter suppression head on," says Tamika Mallory, co-president of Women's March.

Las Vegas, which in October was the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, has been rocked by sexual assault allegations against elected officials and is considered a battleground state that will shape the US Senate in 2018.

"As a swing-state that will shape the Senate in 2018 and as home to a strong activist network, Nevada is the perfect place to commemorate the Women's March and continue building our electoral power," wrote organizers on the event's Facebook page.

Last year, a sea of demonstrators brought downtown Washington to a standstill, in a parade of knitted, pink "pussy hats," an allusion to Trump's videotaped boasts of being able to grope women with impunity.

Pop diva Madonna also delivered an expletive-laden indictment of the president.

Source: AFP

Former president Dilma Rousseff said Friday Brazil will be ungovernable if a court decision due next week blocks Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva from running in October polls, and upholds his corruption conviction.

"Any government that assumes power by winning the 2018 elections, without a transparent and correct electoral process, without maneuvers to invalidate candidates -- as in Lula's case -- will not be able to govern this country," Rousseff told AFP in an interview.

Lula was sentenced in July to 9.5 years behind bars after being convicted of corruption in Brazil's huge "Car Wash" graft scandal. The court in Porto Alegre said it will rule on his appeal on January 24.

That could decide whether Lula -- hugely popular during his 2001-2010 two-term presidency -- can take part in October 2018 presidential elections in which he is currently the frontrunner.

Speaking by phone from her home in Porto Alegre, Rousseff -- who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budget rules -- said she believed Lula can calm the South American country's stormy political waters.

"I don't think that insisting on the political use of the judicial system will stabilize and grow the country," she said.

"Lula can help turn the page, help in a transition period between now and a reconstruction.

"We are going to have to try to heal the wounds and mend the country."

After years of economic decline and corruption scandals, Brazilians are so far turning away from centrist, traditional candidates, with Lula a comfortable leader in the polls, despite his many legal problems.

Rousseff, 70, still believes that her impeachment was a parliamentary coup intended to cut a cycle of 13 years of leftist rule, and that the legal process against her mentor Lula is aimed at "dismantling" his socialist policies.

Rousseff lives near her daughter and grandchildren in Porto Alegre, where the court verdict on Lula's future will be delivered on Wednesday.

- Tensions ahead of verdict -

Lula's Workers' Party (PT) expects to flood the southern Brazilian city with its supporters ahead of the ruling.

The local authorities have called on the army to provide extra security. PT chairman Senator Gleisi Hoffman said that if they wanted to arrest Lula they would have to "kill people."

Rousseff distanced herself Friday from such talk.

"What there is, is indignation, and indignation is a peaceful, democratic feeling. That indignation is an expression of an awareness of injustice and political persecution," she said.

Rousseff remains convinced of a plot by judicial, political and business sectors to sideline the PT.

They wanted to "destroy the PT, destroy their greatest leader, but they went wrong because all the polls show a growing intention to vote for Lula."

Rousseff -- who is active on social media, where she describes herself as "president-elect of Brazil" -- says she is still evaluating a possible run for Congress, but for now is focusing her efforts on defending Lula, who faces six other corruption cases.

She believes that the man responsible for removing Brazil from the UN hunger map will not go to prison.

"I don't believe in that possibility. They're not going to want to make him a bigger hero than he already is."

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday she is expecting her first baby, and is set to become the country's first leader to give birth while in office.

The 37-year-old, who was sworn in last October, made global headlines when she slapped down pre-election questions over whether she intended to start a family, insisting pregnancy had no bearing on a woman's career opportunities.

Ardern was all smiles Friday as she appeared with partner Clarke Gayford at their home to announce the "unexpected but exciting" news of their first baby.

"Clark and I are really excited to share...that in June we are looking forward to welcoming our first child," she told reporters.

"We still have to get used to saying that out loud because we've been keeping that to ourselves for quite a long time."

The charismatic leader enjoyed a rapid rise to the top ranks of politics, winning office last year just months after taking the helm of the centre-left Labour Party.

"We thought 2017 was a big year!" she tweeted.

"This year we'll join the many parents who wear two hats. I'll be PM and a mum while Clarke will be 'first man of fishing' and stay at home dad."

Ardern said she would take six weeks off after the birth of her child, with maverick Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters taking the reins of office.

She said she aimed to be "contactable and available" during the period and would resume all leadership duties when it was over.

Ardern, who did not reveal whether she was expecting a boy or a girl, said she and Gayford previously had doubts they could conceive.

"Clarke and I have always been clear we wanted to be parents but had been told we would need help for that to happen," she said.

"That's made this news a fantastic surprise."

She tweeted a picture of two large fishing hooks, one with a smaller hook inside it, in reference to Gayford's career as a television fishing show presenter.

- Sexism row -

Ardern's plans for a family sparked a sexism row during the election when a television host quizzed her on the issue, saying voters had a right to know before they cast their ballots.

She rejected the line of questioning as "unacceptable", saying pregnancy and child rearing should not hinder women's opportunities in the workplace.

"It is a woman's decision about when they choose to have children and it should not predetermine whether or not they are given a job or have job opportunities," she said.

While several male prime ministers have become parents in office -- including Britain's Tony Blair -- late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is believed to have been the first head of government to have given birth during her term, when she had a baby in 1990.

Ardern said "there's no doubt times have changed" making it possible for her to juggle motherhood and a high-profile political career.

But she played down suggestions she was a trailblazer.

"I am not the first woman to multitask. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby," she said.

"I know these are special circumstances, but there are many women who would have done this well before I have.

"There are plenty of women who carved a path incrementally to make it possible for people to look upon my time in leadership and think 'yes I can do the job and be a mother'."

- 'More excited than election' -

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered his congratulations on the "wonderful news".

"When we spoke this morning you sounded more excited than you did when you won the election!" he tweeted.

Ex-New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, Ardern's mentor early in her career, said her former charge was in for "a super busy year".

"Every woman should have the choice of combining family & career," she tweeted.

Green Party co-leader James Shaw said Ardern's announcement was significant for many women.

"That a woman can be the prime minister of New Zealand and choose to have a family while in office says a lot about the kind of country we are and that we can be -– modern, progressive, inclusive, and equal," he said.

Gayford was non-committal when asked if the pregnancy meant he would now marry Ardern.

"Wow, I like the idea that we are doing everything in reverse," he told reporters.

"We bought a house together, then we are having a baby and will see..."

A California couple pleaded not guilty Thursday to multiple counts of torture as grisly details emerged of how they allegedly kept their 13 children in locked rooms or chains, allowing them to shower no more than once a year.

David Allen Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise Anna Turpin, 49 -- who had registered their home as a school -- were hit with 12 counts of torture, 12 of false imprisonment, six of child abuse and six of abuse of a dependent adult ahead of their court appearance in the city of Riverside.

The couple arrived in court dressed in black with their hands and legs shackled, and were represented by a public defender.

David Turpin was also charged with committing a lewd act against a child by force or fear or duress, District Attorney Mike Hestrin told a press conference.

The court set bail at $12 million for each of the defendants.

"If convicted of all charges, they face 94 (years) up to life in prison," Hestrin told reporters in Riverside.

Sheriff's deputies in Perris, a town southeast of Los Angeles, found three of the captives had been shackled with chains and padlocks in their filthy, foul-smelling home Sunday after receiving an emergency assistance call from their teenage sister who had managed to escape.

Hestrin said the 17-year-old had been working on a plan to escape for more than two years, and took one of her siblings with her, who became frightened and turned back.

The teenager was so emaciated that officers first thought she was a young child.

Officers also initially assumed all the other siblings to be children, but were shocked to discover seven ranging in age from 18 to 29.

All 13 are being treated for malnutrition and undergoing other diagnostic tests.

- 'Prolonged abuse' -

Hestrin said all the children had been subjected to "prolonged abuse," were not allowed to shower more than once a year, and barred from seeing a dentist or doctor.

"Circumstantial evidence in the house suggests that the victims were often not released from their chains to go to the bathroom," he told the press conference.

"If the children were found to wash their hands above the wrist area, they were accused of playing in the water and they would be chained up," Hestrin said.

When they were not chained up, they were locked in different rooms and were not allowed to have toys, "although there were many toys found in the house that were in their original package and had never been opened."

While the children's ordeal began when the family was living in the Fort Worth region of Texas, it "intensified over time and worsened" when they moved to California.

"They were fed very little, on a schedule," Hestrin added.

Mark Uffer, chief executive officer at the Corona regional medical center where the adults were being treated, has described their condition as stable.

Neither parent was able to immediately explain why their children were restrained, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

There was no indication that either suffered from mental illness, Perris police chief Greg Fellows said, or that the children's ordeal was linked to the family's religious beliefs.

- 'Begged to see them' -

Initial investigations have confirmed that the couple were the biological parents of all 13 siblings.

According to police, the family moved in 2014 from Texas to a middle class neighborhood of Perris, some 70 miles (110 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, homeschooling their children in their Spanish-style stucco house.

A sister of Louise Turpin, Elizabeth Flores, told ABC the couple kept to themselves.

"This has been going on before they even had children... they were real private, and they didn't come around much," said Flores. "We begged to Skype them. We begged to see them."

As a university student Flores lived with the Turpins for a while.

"I thought they were really strict, but I didn't see any abuse," Flores said.

But she said she did have disturbing memories of the husband. "If I went to get in the shower, he would come in while I was in there and watch me. It was like a joke. He never touched me or anything."

The case recalls previous kidnapping horrors that have made global headlines in recent years.

Ariel Castro abducted three young women he repeatedly raped for a decade at his Cleveland home. He was arrested in May 2013 after one of his victims escaped.

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped as an 11-year-old and repeatedly raped over 18 years by convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido in California. She was rescued in August 2009.

Austria has seen two high profile kidnaps -- Elisabeth Fritzl was imprisoned and raped over a period of 24 years by her father Josef while Natascha Kampusch was held for eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil before her 2006 escape.

Source: AFP

Despite enjoying some newfound freedoms such as the right to attend a football match, Saudi women, particularly rights activists, continue to be silenced, two rights groups said Wednesday.

The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) said the "scandalous" treatment of women activists in the Islamic kingdom raised questions about the monarchy's "genuine willingness" to modernise.

"On the one hand, since 2016, there have been momentous announcements on the societal reforms to come; on the other, since 2011, there has been an ongoing and unprecedented wave of repression directed against human rights defenders," they said in a joint report released in the French capital.

Last week, Saudi Arabia allowed women to enter a football stadium for the first time to watch a game. The move came four months after King Salman announced an end to a longstanding ban on women driving -- a major change to the country's ultraconservative social order.

The FIDH and OMCT said that largely "symbolic" move had detracted attention from the plight of women activists.

"Although in recent years the government has given indications of more openness, especially since the arrival of a 'new generation' of leaders represented by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, women are still exposed to a double vulnerability," they said.

Like all women they are still subject to a guardianship system, meaning they have to obtain permission from a male family member to study, travel and engage in a host of other activities.

And as activists, the report added, they risk being jailed under terrorism, religious and other laws used to detain dozens of rights campaigners, bloggers and lawyers.

Under new counterterrorism legislation, those who defame or insult the king or crown prince risk up to 10 years' imprisonment.

- 'Most activists silenced' -

Addressing a Paris press conference by Skype, US-based Saudi activist Hala Al-Dosari, a researcher at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, said the modernising image the Saudi crown prince was trying to project abroad contrasted with the repressive climate at home.

"Most of the (female) activists have been silenced," she said.

The report profiled seven women, including 28-year-old Loujain Al-Hathloul, who spent 73 days in jail in 2014-15 for driving a car, and Maryam al-Otaibi who spent more than 100 days behind bars last year for leaving her male guardians.

Dozens of princes, ministers and businessmen were also arrested last year in a purge billed as a crackdown on corruption.

Source: AFP

An Israeli military judge Wednesday ordered a Palestinian teenager who was arrested after a viral video showed her hitting two Israeli soldiers held in custody through her trial, possibly for months, despite calls from rights groups for her release.

The teenager's mother has also been ordered held until trial in the high-profile case that has put the family at the centre of a propaganda war between Israelis and Palestinians.

"I found no alternative other than to order her detention in custody until the end of proceedings," the judge ruled, referring to 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi.

"The gravity of the offences of which she is accused does not allow an alternative to custody."

Ahed Tamimi has been hailed as a hero by Palestinians who see her as bravely standing up to Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Israelis accuse her family of using her as a pawn in staged provocations.

She has been charged with 12 counts including assault and could face a lengthy jail term if convicted.

The charges relate to events in the video and five other incidents. They include stone-throwing, incitement and making threats.

The judge's decision on Wednesday raises the possibility she could spend months in custody before the conclusion of her case.

Representatives from the French and Swedish consulates as well as the European Union attended the hearing for Tamimi, who sat impassively in a khaki prison jacket.

"The court said that because she is so dangerous there is no possibility of bail," her lawyer Gaby Lasky told reporters.

Human rights groups have criticised the minor's continued detention since her arrest on December 19, while the EU has expressed concern.

Lasky says it violates international child welfare conventions.

Her mother was arrested over the incident the same day, while her cousin Nour Tamimi, 20, was arrested on December 20. Nour was released on bail on January 5.

The accusations against Nariman Tamimi include using Facebook "to incite others to commit terrorist attacks" and participating in the incident on video.

- 'Discriminatory treatment' -

Ahed Tamimi's family says the December 15 incident that led to the arrests occurred in the yard of their home in Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah in the West Bank.

Israel's military said the soldiers were in the area to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists.

A video shows the cousins approaching two soldiers and telling them to leave before shoving, kicking and slapping them.

Ahed Tamimi is the most aggressive of the two in the video.

The heavily armed soldiers do not respond to what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them.

They then move backwards after Nariman Tamimi becomes involved.

The scuffle took place amid clashes and protests against US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Relatives say that a member of the Tamimi family was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet fired during those protests.

Seventeen Palestinians have been killed since Trump's declaration on December 6, most of them in clashes with Israeli forces. One Israeli has been shot dead since then.

Ahed Tamimi has been involved in a series of previous incidents, with older pictures of her confronting soldiers widely published.

She has become something of an icon for Palestinians who have flooded social media with praise and support.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has praised her and spoken with her father.

Rights group Amnesty International has called on Israel to release her immediately, while the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights has criticised Israeli authorities' actions in the case.

It said "deprivation of liberty of children shall only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and the best interests of the child are to be a primary consideration."

The video has led to varied reactions among Israelis.

Some have hailed the restraint of the soldiers, but others said the Tamimis' actions merited a tougher response and called for a heavy sentence.

Source: AFP

Inventor Peter Madsen was charged Tuesday with killing Swedish journalist Kim Wall during a trip on his private submarine, with prosecutors saying he either cut her throat or strangled her before dismembering her body and dumping it into the sea.

Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen called the case "very unusual and extremely disturbing."

Madsen, 47, is charged with murder, dismemberment and indecent handling of a corpse for the way he disposed of Wall's body. He is also charged with having sexual relations with Wall, 30, of a "particularly dangerous nature" before she was killed.

 The charges were made public by the Danish prosecution authority.

Buch-Jepsen said the killing was premeditated. Prosecutors will urge that Madsen be sentenced to life in prison, or be locked up in a secure mental facility if deemed necessary by psychiatrists for as long as he's considered sick and dangerous to others.

 "There is much technical evidence but I won't go into details right now," Buch-Jepsen told a brief news conference. He also declined to comment on Madsen's motive.

"Evidence must be presented in court and not in the media," he said, adding he also didn't want to comment out of respect for Wall's family.

 Madsen's defense lawyer Betina Hald Engmark had no immediate comment in reaction to the charges, adding her client still denies murdering Wall.

Madsen and Wall had gone on a trip in Madsen's submarine on Aug. 10. Wall, who was working on a story about Madsen, was last seen aboard the vessel as it left Copenhagen. The next day, Madsen — an entrepreneur who once dreamed of launching a manned space mission — was rescued from the sinking submarine without Wall.

Police believe he deliberately sank the vessel.

Madsen has offered a shifting variety of explanations for Wall's death. Initially, he told authorities he had dropped Wall off on an island several hours after their voyage began. Then he claimed that Wall died accidentally inside the submarine while he was on deck during the excursion and he had "buried" her at sea. However, he later admitted throwing her body parts into the sea.

Wall's dismembered, naked torso was found on a southern Copenhagen shoreline in late August. Her head, legs and clothes were discovered in bags at sea in October, along with heavy metal objects designed to take them to the ocean floor.

 Multiple knife wounds had been found on her torso and Buch-Jepsen said Tuesday Madsen had stabbed Wall several times while she was alive but declined to elaborate.

Authorities also want to destroy Madsen's submarine.

Madsen's trial starts March 8 and a verdict is expected on April 25.

source: AFP

Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Founder and Royal Patron of the Friends of Cancer Patients (FoCP) and International Ambassador for the World Cancer Declaration of the Union for International Cancer Control, (UICC), has called for combined global efforts to promote worldwide awareness of paediatric cancer and provide access to treatment for children suffering with cancer, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

The call was made on the sidelines of the launch of the Access to Essential Medicines for Children with Cancer (Sharjah PORTAGE) Forum, being held under the theme ‘Challenges and Pursuit of Innovative Solutions’, which began today (January, 16) with the participation of 60 senior officials of international health organisations, medical and health experts and heads of private and public sector entities from around the world. The forum runs until tomorrow (January, 17).

“By playing host to the childhood cancer forum in line with the vision and directives of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member Ruler of Sharjah, the emirate is taking a new step in its commitment to combat cancer. Sharjah is pushing even further towards joint initiatives and collaboration with various international agencies as part of a worldwide campaign to promote awareness about the importance of early detection of cancer and combining efforts to save the lives of thousands of children with cancer around in the world, many of whom have died due to lack of resources,” said Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi, who is also the International Ambassador for Childhood Cancer for UICC.

“Our duty towards children diagnosed with cancer or those at risk of cancer takes more than one approach. While our humanity prompts us to come together to save the lives of millions of children, we must acknowledge that the loss of children due to inaction or negligence by institutions and individuals who could have saved their lives, is a loss of human capital. Children are the real wealth that any nation pins so much hope on for bettering its future. Many children around the world die of cancer due to the inability of their countries to provide them with early detection examinations or prompt treatment,” Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi added.
 
Her Highness continued: “I call on civil society and public and private institutions to make real and active efforts and stand together in adopting clear policies to provide treatment for children with cancer all around the world. I would like to tell those who think saving children in the world is an impossible mission, your effort alone might be minimal, but by combining yours with others, there is no such thing as ‘impossible’. These efforts will have a great impact that one can only see in the eyes of mothers when they see their children recovering, leaving the suffering behind and turning a new page of their lives.”

HE Sawsan Jafar, Chairperson of FoCP’s Board of Directors, opened the forum stressing the importance of Sharjah PORTAGE in encouraging global cooperation to eliminate children’s cancers and secure treatment and medicines.

Highlighting the global burden of child cancer and challenges to secure treatment for young cancer sufferers, especially in poor countries, Ruth Hoffman, CEO of the American Childhood Cancer Organization, said: “Over 300,000 children develop cancer worldwide each year. 80% live in developing countries where survival rates can be as low as 20%, compared to 80% in high-income countries. Thousands of children are dying unnecessarily when they could be treated or cured.”

Participants praised Sharjah’s immense efforts in supporting the fight against all types of cancer on a global scale and underscored the importance of organising the forum.

On day one, Avram Denburg from SickKids Hospital/International Society of Paediatric Oncology, gave a presentation on the importance of facilitating access to the essential and basic therapies for paediatric cancers that afflict children.

Anja Nitzsche-Bell from International Atomic Energy Agency followed up with an overview of the difficulties and challenges facing children with cancer to get radiation therapy on the global stage.

Day one also presented a session titled ‘Developing Access to Basic Treatments for Childhood Cancers: A Public-Private Partnership’. The session involved Jennifer Dent from Pew Global Attitudes Projects; Bharat Mehta from the Oncology Program for Children’s Cancer Hematology at Baylor University, Texas; and Michelle Ndebele, Cancer Program Manager, Analytics and Markets at the World Cancer Program of Clinton Health Access Initiative.

The next session, ‘Improving Access to Basic Treatments for Childhood Cancers: Civil Society Innovations and Global Health Management Solutions’, included Mariek Korstin from the International Association of Polyclinics; Busi Nkosi, Advocacy Manager of the International Children's Palliative Care Network; Salim Salama, Medical Officer of Non-Communicable Diseases at the Middle East Regional Office of the World Health Organization; and Khama Rogo Odera from the World Bank.

They discussed partnership opportunities for obtaining medicines and the management of medicine supplies in low and middle-income countries, and identified difficulties in the provision of basic palliative care therapy for children. They also threw light on the need for international leadership and innovative financing methods.

Activities held on the forum’s first day concluded with the workshop ‘Collaborative Solutions: Opportunities for Multi-Initiatives for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines’ by Ephraim Dinburgh.

High-profile participation
Sharjah PORTAGE has seen the participation of high-profile officials from  a number of local and international companies, organisations and associations, including Andreas Stiller, World Bank Economist in addition to health specialists from around the world, such as Dr. Michael link, Pediatric Cancer Specialist at Stanford University and former President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology; Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, Chair of Department of Global Pediatric Medicine - ‎St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; Lindsay Fraser, Professor of Pharmacy at Harvard University; Jonathan Klein, Executive Director of Children’s Non-Communicable Diseases; and Alessandra Ferrario, Department of Medicine Research in Africa at Harvard University.

The forum also welcomes the participation of Giancarlo Francis, Senior Project Manager of Global Health at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; Thomas Tuma, Head of Sales and Supplements at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; Dr. Ibtaham Fadhil, President, Regional Non-communicable Diseases Organization, Advisor to the World Non-communicable Diseases Organization, Non-communicable NCD Advisor, Ministry of Health and Prevention, among many others.

On Day two, the forum will debate the importance of training healthcare professionals to deal with initiatives aiming to treat children with cancer and setting a strategic framework to facilitate international access to medicines for paediatric oncology, especially in low and middle-income countries.

Sharjah PORTAGE is organised by FoCP as part of its efforts to combat cancer and support endeavours to eliminate the disease. It seeks to identify innovative financing mechanisms and funding partners to implement priority initiatives as well as develop strategies for effective communication between medical institutions and relevant authorities and organisations to coordinate efforts for fighting paediatric cancerous tumours.

Actress Catherine Deneuve apologised to victims of sexual assault who were offended by a column denouncing "puritanism" she signed following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, but maintained her reservations about the #MeToo campaign.

Deneuve and 99 other French women signed a column in Le Monde last week saying the campaign, which saw millions of women take to social media to share sexual harassment stories, had gone too far and was fuelled by a "hatred of men".

In a letter in Liberation newspaper on Monday, Deneuve stood by the statement that sparked an international outcry, but distanced herself from comments made by other signatories.

In particular, she referred, without naming her, to former radio presenter Brigitte Lahaie, who during a debate on French TV said women could "orgasm during a rape".

"I'm a free woman and always will be," Deneuve said. "I send my sisterly regards to all the victims of abject acts who would have felt attacked by this column in Le Monde, and it is to them, and them only, that I offer my apologies."

"Saying on a TV channel that you can orgasm during a rape is worse than spitting in the face of all those who suffered from this crime," she said.

But the 74-year-old actress said she did not like the "media lynching" and "climate of censorship" she said was unleashed by the #metoo campaign, known in France as #balancetonporc or "rat out your abuser".

"An actor can be digitally removed from a movie, the director of a great New York institution can be forced to resign for groping somebody's buttocks 30 years ago with no other form of trial," she said.

"I don't like this pack mentality, all too common these days," she added. 

source: AFP

Two women carrying goods between Morocco and Spain's Ceuta enclave were killed on Monday in a stampede at the border between the two countries, a rights group and officials said.

The stampede took place at the Tarajal II crossing for pedestrians between the Moroccan border town of Fnideq and Ceuta, rights activist Mohamed Benaissa said.

Two women in their 40s named Ilham and Souad, both from Fnideq, were killed, the head of Morocco's Northern Observatory for Human Rights said.

Known as "mule women" on the Spanish side of the border and "hamalat" or porters in Morocco, these impoverished women eke out a living lugging back-breaking goods between the two countries.

Ilham and Souad were about to cross the border with merchandise when the stampede occurred.

Local officials said in a statement that authorities were investigating the deaths.

Last year, at least four female porters were trampled to death in crushes at the same border crossing.

The porters often carry loads much heavier that their own weight strapped to their backs.

It is estimated that around 15,000 female porters tread the route between Ceuta and Morocco, even if the daily number is lower after the Spanish authorities established a limit of 4,000 people per day.

Rights groups have repeatedly denounced the work as "humiliating", saying it is tantamount to trafficking tolerated by the authorities.

Watchdogs say the women are being exploited by powerful interests.

There could be no better metaphor for the injustices of the occupation than the case of Ahed Tamimi. This courageous young activist faces the possibility of life in prison for slapping two heavily armed Israeli troopers. Ahed furiously confronted them after security personnel shot her young cousin at close range with a rubber bullet, damaging his skull.
When a video of her act of defiance went viral on social media, an Israeli politician demanded that this fearless schoolgirl and her female relatives should “finish their lives in prison.” However, as Amnesty International pointed out: “The footage of this incident shows that she posed no actual threat and that her punishment is blatantly disproportionate.”
At 16 years of age, Ahed is already a veteran of the Palestinian protest movement, hailing from a family renowned for its activism against the injustices of occupation. Several family members have been victims of state violence and detention, with Ahed’s father in 2012 recognized by Amnesty International as a “prisoner of conscience,” and her mother arrested no fewer than five times. Ahed is one of about 700 Palestinian children prosecuted each year through the Israeli military’s juvenile courts.
Ahed’s experience exposes the horrors of life under occupation at a human level: The indignity of daily checkpoints, the reality of police brutality, and the humiliation of seeing your home raided and personal possessions searched. Small children are violently dragged off into waiting vehicles for trivial or imaginary offenses. For posting a video of Ahed’s confrontation on Facebook, her mother faces an additional stiff charge of incitement, revealing the Stalinist mindset of a system where recording the reality of Palestinian daily life constitutes a dangerous crime.
Ahed defines a new generation of Palestinian activism. The evils of occupation have reinforced the passionate attachment of young Palestinians to their land and made them determined not to endure the humiliating loss of identity experienced by successive generations of Palestinian refugees driven overseas. In cyberspace, Ahed has become one of the most recognizable Palestinian faces through social media posts and frequent videos showing her facing off against Israeli soldiers, who tower above her.
With her obvious intelligence and independent spirit, in any normal country Ahed would be promised a glittering future. She had aspired to finish high school and study law but the curse of being born under Israel’s apartheid system means that, even if she avoids a lifetime in jail, has only the brutality of life under the shadow of occupation to look forward to.
Ahed taps into a rich tradition of women’s activism: Not only the role of Arab women in early bouts of confrontation against the Zionist movement, but also heroines such as Djamila Bouhired in the Algerian war of liberation, facing arrest and torture at the hands of the French colonial authorities. More recently in Iran, not just women activists but also the female lawyers defending them, have refused to be cowed by relentless persecution. Ahed and her generation represent a return to the values of the First Intifada: Resolute defiance without resorting to weapons — extolling nationalist principles, while shunning divisive and counter-productive Islamist agendas.
The world is comfortable celebrating women activists in Nigeria, Russia, Pakistan and Myanmar. While activists such as Malala Yousafzai have been feted by world leaders and the global media, Ahed has tended to receive the cold shoulder in the West, with barely a mutter of protest when the Israeli authorities banned her from traveling for a series of speaking events in the US last year. The Zionist lobby relentlessly tarnishes the reputation of all Palestinian activists as terrorists, as if the act of demanding their rights makes them suspicious radicals. Ahed, with her blue eyes and mass of golden hair, confuses the outside world because she sports neither a suicide belt nor a beard.
Liberal sections of the Israeli media have recognized the terrible injustices encountered by Ahed and those like her, with an article in Haaretz arguing: “Israel will pay a heavy price for its aggression against this girl who resists the occupation, who acted with minimal violence toward the representatives of the army who invaded her home and had earlier critically wounded her cousin... Leaving Ahed Tamimi in jail for a long time will once again show the ugly face and violence of the Israeli occupation.”
The Palestinian movement is in a dark place after Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — immediately followed by threats to halt Palestinian funding when Jerusalem’s rightful inhabitants failed to welcome the decision with open arms. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government seized the moment to legislatively kill off any prospect of a viable Palestinian state — including proposals for formally annexing land seized for illegal Jewish settlements and extending Israeli law across the Occupied Territories, leaving little more than a few isolated micro-cantons upon which a Palestinian state could be established.
In Jerusalem, changes to the Basic Law aspire to make it legally impossible for future Israeli administrations to hand over any areas of the city to non-Israeli control. Gerrymandering of constituency boundaries would disenfranchise Palestinian communities and exclude them from voting in municipal elections. A purge of unlicensed Palestinian homes could affect tens of thousands of citizens, given the impossibility of obtaining Jerusalem construction permits.
The cumulative impact of such policies is to accelerate the Israeli extreme right’s vision of a single “Greater Israel,” within which Palestinians are marginalized and exiled. Israeli Security Minister Gilad Erdan declared: “We are telling the world that it doesn’t matter what the nations of the world say… The time has come to express our biblical right to the land.”
Ahed is detested and feared by Israeli hard-liners because she embodies determined, unarmed resistance to Israel’s project of stealing the entirety of Palestine. By standing defiantly in the path of soldiers and tanks, fearless of death in the pursuit of justice, she represents humanity at its most courageous. We hope her inspiration will be the spark that breathes life back into the beleaguered Palestinian cause, at a time when developments appear so unpromising and dispiriting.
The world must also act to prevent the flower of Palestinian youth from being devoured by the Israeli prison system. When teenagers face jail for having the courage to take a stand against oppression, is this the kind of world we are content to passively accept our own children growing up in?
Just as Ahed represents the Palestinian struggle in microcosm, by unashamedly celebrating her as a heroine and championing her cause we play a part in fighting for a fairer and more humane world where all young lives are cherished and protected.

 Norway's right-wing coalition on Sunday took in a small centre-right party, but remains a minority government and will continue the search for the parliamentary majority needed to ensure it can pass laws.

The European Union voiced concern Friday over the Israeli detention of two Palestinian minors, one of whom who was arrested after a video of her confronting Israeli soldiers went viral.

German coalition party leaders reach breakthrough, reports Reuters German coalition party leaders reach breakthrough   19 Hours Ago | 01:52 Political leaders in Germany have reached a breakthrough in talks to form a new coalition government, following months of uncertainty after elections in September failed to produce an overall majority for any party.   Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel entered into talks with a rival party earlier this week in a last-ditch effort to form a government. This after a political deadlock in the euro zone's largest economy that had shed some doubt on the future of Merkel's leadership.   After 24 hours of grueling discussions — that reportedly ran all through the night — a new blueprint for more formal coalition talks was presented to party members on Friday morning. At best, a government will still not be sworn in by late March or early April, according to some experts. Nonetheless, the euro surged higher Friday morning on the news and German bond yields hit fresh five-month highs.   Merkel, the head of a conservative alliance made up of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister-party the Christian Social Union (CSU), met with Martin Schulz, the head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), for the preliminary talks. The SPD had previously refused to enter into another coalition government given that its voters punished it in the last election for its previous alliance. But after coalition talks between Merkel and two other parties failed to find an agreement, the SPD changed its stance.   The blueprint The blueprint for the next round of talks features a range of points, according to Reuters who cited sources close to the negotiations. It is still subject to change but says that there will be no new tax rises, according to the document, and both parties are committed to strengthening the euro zone in close partnership with France. Both parties also reportedly want to transform a rescue fund that was used during the euro zone sovereign debt crises and are prepared to boost Germany's contributions to the EU.   Reuters also reported that the blueprint showed that the new German government could look to cap, at 1,000 a month, the number of people who will be allowed to join their family who are already living as refugees in the country.   Merkel sounded optimistic ahead of the talks, commenting last Sunday that she believed an agreement "can be done," but the SPD's Schulz vowed to extract concessions from the CDU/CSU on many of its key policies. On Friday Monday, the German leader said she had recommended to her party to begin formal talks with the Social Democrats. She also highlighted a push for reforms on Europe alongside France.Even though the parties do seem to have found enough common ground this week to proceed, the SPD must then get backing for the deal from its members at the party's congress later in January. If that succeeds, then the parties will proceed to full-blown coalition talks.   Election last September Talks between Germany's political parties have taken place since an election last September failed to produce an overall majority for any party, although coalition governments are common in Germany.   The latest talks come after months of failed negotiations between Merkel's conservative alliance and smaller parties, the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats, failed to form a coalition government.   The stakes for the latest talks were high given the changing political landscape in Germany. The election in September saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) become the country's third largest party and enter the German Bundestag for the first time, unsettling the political establishment and many voters.   The center-left SPD has been reluctant to re-enter a coalition with Merkel's conservative bloc as its previous alliance seems to have put voters off with the party garnering just 20 percent of the vote in the September election, its worst result since World War II.

Saudi Arabia allowed women to enter a football stadium for the first time to watch a match Friday, as the ultra-conservative kingdom eases strict decades-old rules separating the sexes.

The new measure comes after Riyadh, long known for imposing harsh restrictions on women, announced it was lifting a ban prohibiting them from driving, as well as reopening cinemas.

Women supporters, all wearing the traditional black abaya robe, arrived well ahead of kick-off in the Jeddah stadium, some in sunglasses and others with loose-fitting veils.

The Islamic kingdom has announced a series of reforms initiated by powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since last year.

The first football match women are being allowed to attend is a clash between Saudi Premier League clubs Al-Ahli and Al-Batin in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Alone or accompanied by their families, many women sat in reserved seats in Jeddah's Pearl stadium.

The game was scheduled to kick off at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT), but enthusiasm for the historic encounter began well before the kick-off.

Lamya Khaled Nasser, a 32-year-old football fan from Jeddah, said she was proud and looking forward to the match.

"This event proves that we are heading for a prosperous future. I am very proud to be a witness of this massive change," she told AFP.

Ruwayda Ali Qassem, another Jeddah resident, called Friday a "historic day in the kingdom which culminates (in) ongoing fundamental changes".

"I am proud and extremely happy for this development and for the kingdom's moves to catch up with civilised measures adopted by many countries," she said.

The Saudi government said last week women would be allowed to attend a second match on Saturday and a third next Thursday.

The kingdom, which has some of the world's tightest restrictions on women, has long barred them from sports arenas through strict rules that keep the sexes apart in public.

- 'Happiness and joy' -

But in September, hundreds of women were allowed to enter a sports stadium in the capital Riyadh, used mostly for football matches, for the first time to attend celebrations marking the country's national day.

The easing of social controls comes as Prince Mohammed looks to repackage the oil-rich nation as more moderate and welcoming.

The powerful crown prince's "Vision 2030" programme for a post-oil era stems partly from an economic motive to boost domestic spending on entertainment as the kingdom reels from an energy slump.

Noura Bakharji, another Jeddah resident, said she always felt bitter when her brothers came back from stadiums to tell her about the excitement of watching football matches in person.

"I always watched games on TV while my brothers went to the stadiums... I asked myself repeatedly 'Why I can't go?'" she told AFP.

"Today, things have changed. It's a day of happiness and joy."

Hours before the game, Saudi clubs were encouraging women to attend through tweets on social media.

Some clubs are offering special abayas -- traditional head-to-toe robes for Saudi women -- in team colours.

State-owned Saudi Airlines announced prizes of free tickets for five families who want to travel between cities to watch games.

The wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi is allowing herself to dream: might the modernising new crown prince in her ultra-conservative homeland be about to free her husband?

Ensaf Haidar, mother to the couple's three children and wife of 16 years, recently heard from a delegation of European parliamentarians who visited Riyadh in late 2017 and asked about Badawi's case.

The 34-year-old prisoner, who ran a blog that promoted free speech and women's rights in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for "insulting Islam" in a case that sparked an international outcry.

After returning from meetings with human rights groups in Riyadh in November, European lawmaker phoned Haidar to tell her that her husband might be a candidate on a list of royal pardons.

"That's what he told me, but I don't know if it's true," Haidar told AFP in an interview in Paris.

Weidenholzer did not reply to messages when contacted and the head of the European delegation, former French defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie, declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the case.

Saudi Arabia is undergoing fast and unprecedented change since the emergence in June of 32-year-old Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince -- and de facto leader -- of the world's oil superpower.

He has promised to create a "moderate" Muslim Saudi Arabia and battle fundamentalism, and the government has since issued highly symbolic decrees lifting bans on women driving and cinemas.

Among other domestic reforms, there have been moves to clip the power of the widely feared religious police and an anti-corruption drive that has led to the arrest of dozens of political and business figures.

"I have faith in Mohammed bin Salman because the prince is putting into practice Raif's ideas," said Haidar, who is originally from the southern Saudi region of Jazan.

"Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to modernise Saudi Arabia, Sharia law... that means that he wants to free prisoners of conscience and human rights campaigners too," she said.

- Family politics -

Other human rights groups are more cautious, however, pointing to continued arrests for dissent in the kingdom amid worries that the crown prince, known by his initials MBS, is an impulsive and authoritarian character.

There have been false hopes for Badawi before, notably in 2015 when a Swiss official said that he could be on a list of prisoners set to be pardoned by King Salman, who frees inmates every year during Ramadan.

A top official at the National Society for Human Rights in Riyadh told AFP that the group had visited Badawi in prison about a month ago.

"We hope that he is on a pardon list, and that he is freed soon," the official said, but he explained that Badawi's father was a potential obstacle for his release.

Badawi senior has repeatedly supported punishing his son in TV interviews, and his blessing would be needed for him to be released early.

"This problem has to be fixed before he gets a royal pardon," the official at the National Society for Human Rights said on condition of anonymity.

- 'His children need him' -

Haidar, who has been granted asylum by Canada and lives in the French-speaking province of Quebec, said she continued to speak to her husband two or three times a week when he calls on the public prison phone.

Conversations are short -- around 15 minutes -- and Badawi tells her little about the conditions of his detention.

"His spirits change," she said. "It's harder for Raif to keep believing. I believe because I see the world, social networks... governments that speak about Raif."

While he remains behind bars more than five years after his arrest, Haidar is bringing up their children now aged 14, 13 and 10 as a single mother, but keeps up a campaign internationally to free her husband.

He received the first 50 of his 1,000 lashes in January of that year, but there have been no more following criticism from a host of Western countries and the United Nations.

While in Paris, Haidar hopes to hold meetings with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa.

She has also contacted the cabinet of President Emmanuel Macron, who will welcome Prince Mohammed to Paris in February.

Softly spoken but determined, only once does her composure crack during a conversation at the Maison d'Amerique Latine in the chic 7th Arrondissement of Paris.

When asked what message she would like to send to the Saudi leader, she chokes up as she recalls her children back in Canada who remember their father only from photographs and are growing up without him.

"I would like to say to Mohammed bin Salman that he should pardon my husband because his children need him," she said.

Source: AFP