19 Sept 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa Democracy

Articles

World's oldest library reopens in Fez: 'You can hurt us, but you can't hurt the books'
by The Guardian, 19 Sep 2016

The caretaker stares at the wrought iron door and its four ancient locks with a gleam in his eyes. Outside, the Moroccan sun shines down upon the ornate coloured tiles of Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin, located in the old medina of Fez. This, it is widely believed, is the oldest library in the world – and soon it will be open to the general public again. “It was like healing wounds,” says Aziza Chaouni, a Fez native and the architect tasked with restoring the great library. The iron door is found along a corridor that once linked the library with the neighbouring Qarawiyyin Mosque – the two centres of learning and cultural life in old Fez. Inside it were kept the most prized tomes in the collection; works of such immense import that each of the four locks had separate keys held with four different individuals, all of whom had to be present for the door to be opened. The restored library boasts a new sewage and underground canal system to drain away the moisture that had threatened to destroy many of its prized manuscripts – plus an elaborate lab to treat, preserve and digitise the oldest texts. The collection of advanced machinery includes digital scanners that identify minuscule holes in the ancient paper rolls, and a preservative machine which treats the manuscripts with a liquid that moistens them enough to prevent cracking. A special room with strict security and temperature and humidity controls houses the most ancient works. The most precious is a ninth-century copy of the Qur’an, written in ornate Kufic script on camel skin.
 

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Syria's shaky ceasefire continues to crumble
by Al Jazeera, 19 Sep 2016

Syria's fragile ceasefire continued to unravel on Sunday with the first aerial attacks on rebel-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo and a southern village in the deadliest day since the truce began. The violations came as tensions between American and Russian brokers of the deal worsened following a deadly US air raid on Syrian government forces. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said evening air strikes on Aleppo killed one woman and wounded others, though it could not identify who carried them out. Ten people, including a child, were killed on Sunday when a pair of barrel bombs hit an opposition-held town in the southern province of Deraa, it said. "Today was the highest death toll since the truce began," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.  The air raid by the US-led coalition allegedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers and led to a harsh verbal attack on Washington by Damascus and Moscow. The US military says it may have unintentionally struck Syrian troops while carrying out a raid against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in eastern Syria on Saturday.
 

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Rival Libyan factions battle over eastern oil ports
by Al Jazeera, 18 Sep 2016

Eastern Libyan forces said they had re-established control over two oil ports where an ousted faction launched a counterattack on Sunday, briefly seizing one of the terminals. The Petroleum Facilities Guard - an armed group led by Ibrahim Jathran and loyal to the Tripoli-based government - said it attacked two of the oil ports captured by forces of rival military leader Khalifa Haftar. Last week, Haftar's forces seized the ports of Ras Lanuf, Al-Sidra, Zuwaytina, and Bregain the so-called oil crescent along the coast, which were then handed to the National Oil Corporation. Muftah al-Muqarief, who heads oil guards loyal to Haftar, said the assault on the ports was launched from the west by "militias backed by outlaws". "We repelled the attack and we are chasing them in the region," he said, adding "some" assailants had been captured.

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UN security council to hold emergency meeting on US air strikes in Syria
by The Guardian, 17 Sep 2016

The United Nations security council has called an emergency meeting to discuss air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria, diplomats said, after Russia said coalition warplanes had bombed and killed Syrian government forces. The 15-member council was due to meet behind closed doors on Saturday evening in New York, diplomats told Reuters. The US envoy to the United nations, Samantha Power, said she regretted loss of life in the Syria airstrike, but said the Russian call for the security council meeting was “a stunt”. Earlier on Saturday Russia’s ministry of defense said coalition planes had killed 62 Syrian soldiers, wounded 100 more and allowed Islamic State militants to gain an advantage through the strike. The Pentagon did not outright admit that coalition planes had hit Syrian forces, but said that pilots had “believed they were striking a Daesh [Isis] fighting position” and may have struck Syrian government forces instead.
 

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Egyptian court approves asset freezes in high-profile NGO trial
By Reuters, 17 Sep 2016

An Egyptian court on Saturday approved a freeze on the assets of five prominent human rights activists and three non-governmental organizations, the latest twist in a five-year-old case in which the NGOs are accused of receiving foreign funds to sow chaos. An investigating magistrate ordered the asset freezes in February, but they were subject to court approval. Saturday's decision paves the way for criminal proceedings against the defendants that could lead to life sentences if they are found guilty. Egyptian rights activists say they are facing the worst assault in their history amid a wider campaign to erase freedoms won in a 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. "We know from the start the case is political and the aim is revenge against NGOs that expose the state's abuses," said Gamal Eid, founder and director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information whose assets were frozen. Egypt has launched a renewed crackdown on human rights groups, questioning staff and ordering asset freezes on accusations they took foreign funding to destabilize the country. Some say they are working from home in anticipation of arrests.

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