Excerpts: Obama. Fatah/Hamas recriminations.Big charity plans.US/Russian
arms negotiation.50,000 Egyptian private medical clinics strike 10 April
2009

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 8 April '09:""Obama appeals to faiths in Istanbul"
Round-table discussion: US President Barack Obama speaking during a student
round table discussion at the Tophane Cultural Centre in Istanbul yesterday.
BEIRUT (News agencies) - Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem praised
US President Barack Obama's address to the Arab and Islamic world in Turkey,
and many Arabs were cheered by the American leader's promises to push for a
Palestinian state.

In an interview published yester-day, al-Moallem said Obama's speech
"reflects a clear attention towards the two-state solution".Al-Moallem said
Obama's words were "important" and "positive".But he hinted that Arabs
expect Washington to pressure the new hard-line Israeli government of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the creation of a Palestinian
state."We need to see how the United States will deal with an Israeli
gov-ernment representing the extreme right, and continues to reject the
two-state solution," al-Moallem told Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper.
Netanyahu's office on Monday issued a statement saying Israel would "work
closely" with the US on peace, but it avoided any men-tion of a two-state
solution.Syria is one of the big tests of the Obama administration's
attempts to strike a new tone in relations with Mideast nations. Obama's
predeces-sor George W. Bush sought to iso-late Syria to force it to stop its
sup-port of groups like Lebanon's Hizbollah and Palestinian Hamas and do
more to prevent insurgents from entering Iraq.The Obama administration has
said it seeks a dialogue with Syria - as well as with Syria's ally and
Washington's biggest regional rival, Iran. Damascus has appeared eager for
better ties, hoping for an eco-nomic boost and US mediation of peace talks
with Israel, though it has shown little sign of being ready to cut its
backing for gunmen groups.Meanwhile, Obama met religious leaders in Istanbul
yesterday as part of an effort to unite moderates of major faiths against
extremism. Obama told the Muslim world in a speech on Monday that the United
States was not at war with Islam, using his first international tour to try
to repair the United States' dam-aged image abroad. Pursuing his message,
Obama talked with Istanbul's senior Islamic official, the city's chief rabbi
and representatives of Orthodox Christian churches.In a further sign of
engagement, Obama toured Turkey's most impor-tant mosque, the Blue Mosque,
accompanied by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Mufti Moustafa
Cagrici.Obama is on the last leg of his debut trip on the world stage as
president. He is trying to rebuild ties with Muslims after anger at the
invasion of Iraq and war in Afghanistan, made more urgent by a strengthening
al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgency.

+++ARAB NEWS "Abbas move to form new govt denied"
FULL TEXT:RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official yesterday denied that
President Mahmoud Abbas intends to form a new Palestinian government next
week.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the PLO's Executive Committee said
in a statement that "the reports are rootless," adding "this subject has not
been raised even for discussion and the current acting government would
remain until President Abbas makes his mind."
The report, published by the Jerusalem-based Al-Manar daily, quoted
well-informed sources as saying that Abbas intends to designate current
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to form a new Palestinian government next week.
Hamas threatened that if Abbas forms a new government headed by Fayyad
again, it would name a new interior minister to succeed late minister Said
Siam, who was killed during January Israeli offensive on Gaza.
"If Abbas forms a government headed by Fayyad, for us (Hamas) it means that
Abbas undermines all attempts to bridge the gaps in the dialogue to reach an
agreement and end the rift," said Ismail Radwan, Hamas spokesman.
Rival Fatah and Hamas movements are still negotiating the formation of a
national accordance government for both Gaza and West Bank.
However, they still disagree on the political platform of the new unity
government. They will return to Cairo on April 26 to continue the broader
talks.
After Hamas took over Gaza Strip by force in June 2007, Abbas sacked the
three-month-old Hamas-led national unity government, and nominated Fayyad to
form a caretaker government to rule the Palestinian affairs. But Hamas
leaders in Gaza rejected Abbas decree and continued acting in the Gaza
Strip, which is under a very tight Israeli blockade. The talks between the
two rival sides hadn't yet achieved any breakthrough.
Nonetheless, a senior Fatah leader said the two movements agreed on
continuing bilateral meetings until reaching a pact ending all controversial
issues. The agreement was reached following a 90-minute meeting between
delegations of Hamas and Fatah in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on
Wednesday night.

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 10 April ,09:"OIC Zakat Fund to target four areas"
EXCERPTS:JEDDAH - An over $3 billion global Zakat and Charity Fund has been
announced by the International Zakat Organisation (IZO), an important new
charitable body of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
The global initiative, which promises to be the largest in the Islamic
world, will manage charitable funds to address needy causes, said a press
release issued Thursday('09).
Many of the 57 members of the OIC have already committed themselves to IZO
and its initiatives.
The Fund will invest in community development projects with an emphasis on
sustainability. The four major areas to be targeted are income generation
through the provision of private equity investments to small and medium
enterprises; development of social enterprise through the establishment of
hospitals, educational institutions and housing developments; development of
agricultural and other vital infrastructure and the provision of relief and
emergency funding.
The Fund will also cooperate with governments and institutions to approach
problem areas jointly.
Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister's
Department and Chairman of the Board of Directors of IZO, said every Muslim
"has the responsibility to solve the collective crises of poverty,
corruption and inequality suffered by millions of Muslims throughout the
Islamic World."
The development of this Fund is enormously significant as it is the first
time the OIC has agreed on a common initiative to uphold and focus Zakat,
the third of the five pillars of Islam . . .

+++EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 10 April '09:"Russia arms treaty could take longer -
US",Agence France Presse
WASHINGTON (AFP) -
EXCERPTS:The new US negotiator on a major arms reduction treaty with Russia
said yesterday that talks could last beyond a year-end target, pledging to
seek the best possible deal.President Barack Obama, who has vowed to work to
a world without nuclear weapons, agreed last week with his Russian
counterpart Dimitry Medvedev to jumpstart negotiations on a new treaty.The
1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires at the end of the
year.
Negotiated with the Soviet Union, it eliminated 80 per cent of strategic US
and Russian nuclear weapons from Europe. . . .
=============================================================================================================
Russia arms treaty could take longer - US
WASHINGTON (AFP) -

US-Iran ties: Iranian students burning pictures of US President Barak Obama
shaking hands with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and standing
with past US presidents outside the former US Embassy, during a gathering to
mark the 30th anniversary of freezing Iran and US diplomatic ties in Tehran
yesterday.
The new US negotiator on a major arms reduction treaty with Russia said
yesterday that talks could last beyond a year-end target, pledging to seek
the best possible deal.President Barack Obama, who has vowed to work to a
world without nuclear weapons, agreed last week with his Russian counterpart
Dimitry Medvedev to jumpstart negotiations on a new treaty.The 1991
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires at the end of the
year.Negotiated with the Soviet Union, it eliminated 80 per cent of
strategic US and Russian nuclear weapons from Europe.

+++EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 10 April,09:Egyptian private clinics strike

QUOTE:"50,000 clinics took part in the strike"
.
PRIVATE clinics around the nation closed their doors yesterday as Egypt 's
doctors staged a strike against their low salaries and deteriorating living
conditions.Around 50,000 clinics took part in the strike that was made in
response to a Doctors ' Association General Assembly decision taken days
ago,reflecting the mounting anger of the nation 's medical practitioners
against what they call the "disregard of the Government " to their
doctors."We
've been demanding a salary raise for more than 20 years now," said Rashwan
Shaaban,a cardiologist who took part in the strike by not going to his
private clinic in downtown Cairo yesterday.

"... .An Egyptian doctor receives a(monthly) total salary of LE470
($84)after graduation.Twenty years into the business,however,this doctor
receives LE1,000 ($178),an amount of money that does not enable him/her, the
nation 's medical profession- als say,to put food on the table for his/her
family.. . .A few days ago,Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said he expected
economic growth to slow to a little more than four per cent in the fiscal
year that ends in June,as the financial crisis hurt revenues from
tourism,the Suez Canal,and investments.The Prime Minister said the growth
might further decline next year if the crisis deepened. Growth in Egypt has
exceeded seven per cent for the past three years.The Central Bank has cut
the benchmark interest rate in the past two months as inflation and the rate
of economic expansion slowed....Officials at the Doctors 'Association say a
salary raise for the nation 's 70,000 medical practitioners would cost the
Government no more than half a billion pounds,something that can be a mere
sliver of the Government 's bud - get of 400 billion or so.Despite this,the
Government has kept disre- garding the living difficulties of the doctors
for years,prompting some of them to leave the medical profession altogether
for other jobs
=========================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA