Arabic Web domain opens

Egypt:  Egyptian communications minister Tarek Kamet yesterday announced the introduction of the first Arabic domain, meant to ease Internet access to millions of Arabic speakers around the world.

Registration was to begin for the .misr country code top-level domain, Kamey told the fourth meeting of the Internet Governance Forum.

The announcement follows a decision by the United States-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to end the exclusive use of Latin characters for website addresses, allowing Internet users to write an entire website address in Chinese, Arabic, Russian and several other scripts.

Barack Obama meets Shanghai students in China

Shanghai:  US president tackles internet censorship and the US stance on arms sales to Taiwan in meeting broadcast on Chinese television.

The US believes that freedom of expression and political participation are universal values, Barack Obama told an audience of young Shanghai students today, in a townhall-style meeting streamed live on the White House website, broadcast on a local Shanghai television station and carried as text on a major Chinese portal.

The president tackled issues ranging from internet censorship and the US stance on arms sale to Taiwan to his Nobel Peace Prize, in his question-and-answer session with around 300 students – his sole meeting with the Chinese public during his three-day visit to the country.

But some expressed disappointment at the soft tone of many questions and said he should have addressed human rights violations in China more directly.

In brief opening remarks Obama repeated earlier assurances that America welcomed China's rise adding: "Because of our co-operation, the US and China are more prosperous and more secure."

But he went on to highlight differences between the two countries, telling his audience: "We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation.

"But we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation."

"These freedoms of expression, and worship, of access to information and political participation – we believe they are universal rights. They should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China or any nation."

Asked about China's great internet firewall Obama described himself as "a big supporter of non-censorship" and said criticism enabled by freedom of expression in the US made him a better president.

The president, who arrived in Shanghai late last night to begin the Chinese leg of his four-nation tour, answered questions from internet users and called at random on questioners in the audience – handpicked by officials at universities in the area. Participants in such events are carefully briefed in advance on what they may ask.

China-watchers in the US have long encouraged their government to reach out to the Chinese public, as well as the country's leaders. But the lengthy negotiations required to arrange today's town hall meetings – and the compromises required – are testament to the difficulties of doing so.

At one stage US officials considered ditching the event because of disagreements over the number of attendees – they initially wanted 1,000 present – and whether it would be broadcast live or not.

Campaigners have pushed hard for the president to speak out publicly on human rights issues. Aides have already indicated that he will raise them in his meetings with Chinese leaders.

But Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Obama had missed an opportunity, framing such issues as a question of political culture rather than international legal norms.

"What's important is to put a degree of pressure on the Chinese government for its repressive practices," he said.

"You cannot do that without a degree of straight talk. That's not what happened at this meeting … What was needed was to include things relevant to what is happening in the country – as he did in Cairo, for example."

For the most part, the president focused on a message of collaboration and mutual respect. Many of the most sensitive issues mentioned in the thousands of questions posted ahead of the event – such as Tibet – did not emerge.

"There are very few global challenges that can be solved unless the US and China agree," he told a questioner, citing the need to make progress on climate change.

"Other countries around the world will be waiting for us … If they say 'The US and China are not serious about this', they will not be serious either.

That's the burden of leadership that both countries now carry."

Obama's acknowledgement yesterday that time had run out to secure a legally binding deal at Copenhagen and backed plans to postpone a formal agreement until next year at earliest. But aides hope that the world's two largest emitters can move closer on the way forward.

Obama is now on his way to Beijing for two days of talks with Hu and premier Wen Jiabao, which will also address North Korea and Iran's nuclear programmes and the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He will also visit the Forbidden City and Great Wall.

Mo Shaoping, one of China's best-known human rights lawyers, told the Financial Times that people "from the American side" had contacted him to see whether he would meet Obama and that he was subsequently questioned about the event by public security officers. The US embassy said it had no knowledge of such a meeting.

Obama Addresses Town Hall Meeting in Shanghai

China: U.S. President Barack Obama met with local political leaders in Shanghai, China Monday and held a town hall meeting with Chinese college students.

At the town hall meeting, Mr. Obama answered questions from the audience and submitted by the Chinese public on various Web sites, including Xinhuanet, Sohu and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The Chinese government carefully controlled media coverage of the event, allowing it to be broadcast on local television but not nationally.

In opening remarks, Mr. Obama announced that the U.S. would expand the number of American students studying in China to 100,000.

Australian Leader Apologizes for Child Migrants

Australia:  The children were gathered up by the tens of thousands, some of them as young as 3, taken from single mothers and impoverished families in Britain, then sent abroad for what was supposed to be a better start in life. What they found was isolation, physical and sexual abuse, and what the prime minister of Australia said Monday was “the absolute tragedy of childhoods lost.”

In an emotional address in Canberra, with many in the audience weeping, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a national apology for Australia’s role in child migrant programs that forcibly brought an estimated 150,000 British youngsters — known in Australia as the Lost Innocents — to Australia, Canada and other parts of the Commonwealth.

“We come together today to deal with an ugly chapter of our nation’s history and we come together today to offer our nation’s apology,” Mr. Rudd said. “The truth is this is an ugly story and its ugliness must be told without fear or favor if we are to confront fully the demons of our past.”

He said Australia was “sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation, and the cold absence of love of tenderness of care.”

A 1998 report by the British Parliament said that the child migrant program helped relieve financial burdens on Britain’s social service agencies. Also, the report noted, “a further motive was racist: the importation of ‘good white stock’ was seen as a desirable policy objective” that would “maintain the racial unity of the Empire.”

The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, is expected to add Britain’s apology soon.

Mr. Rudd also expressed regret Monday about the so-called Forgotten Australians, those children who were placed in state institutions — and suffered there — during the 20th century. A 2004 Senate report said more than 500,000 children were placed in foster homes and orphanages during the last century. Many of those children, the report said, were abused.

“The truth is,” said Mr. Rudd, “a great evil has been done.”

“Today is your day,” said the opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, who also spoke at the Canberra ceremony. “Today we acknowledge that with broken hearts and breaking spirits you were left in the custody — you can hardly call it care — of too many people whose abuse and neglect of you made a mockery of the claim you were taken from your own family for your own good.”

Rod Braydon, 65, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he was 6 years old when he was raped by a Salvation Army officer. It was his first night in a Melbourne boys’ home.

“When we reported this as kids, we were flogged to within an inch of our lives, locked up in dungeons and isolation cells,” Mr. Braydon said.

He reportedly has received a cash settlement from the Salvation Army and has sued the Victoria state government.

John Hennessey, 72, from Campbelltown, near Sydney, was a former child migrant who cooperated with the 1998 British parliamentary inquiry. On Monday, he told The A.P. he was 6 when he was sent from a British orphanage to a boys’ school in Western Australia.

Mr. Hennessey still speaks with a stutter that was caused, he said, by a savage beating he received from an Australian headmaster when he was 12. He said his transgression was stealing grapes from a vineyard because he was hungry.

Visit a hamam, step back in time to old Yemen

Yemenis flock to traditional Turkish-style bathhouses

SANAA : A hint of incense in the dark and narrow alleys leading to the 410-year-old Hamam al-Abhar in the Yemeni capital's old city reminds the visitor that each step taken is one farther back into history.

For centuries, the traditional Turkish-style bathhouse, hamam in Arabic, has been a cornerstone of life in the Middle East, a place for social gatherings as well as for ritual cleansing.

Many hamams are also architectural jewels in their own right. Inside Hamam al-Abhar men of all ages relax after their steam bath in rounded halls where beams of natural light stream through holes in dome-shaped ceilings.

Sanaa has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years, and its old quarter, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has 14 hamams in an architectural treasure trove of 103 mosques and more than 6,000 houses, all built before the 11th century.

On arrival at Hamam al-Abhar, bathers leave their traditional daggers and long white robes in lockers before indulging in the age-old ritual.

Many believe a visit to the hamam helps to keep disease at bay, while others swear it does wonders for sexual prowess.

For 65-year-old jeweler Ismail Abu Taleb, the hamam is a place where friends can discuss the issues of the day as they chew qat, the mildly narcotic leaves used daily by most Yemenis.

"I live in the old city and visit this hamam almost every day," he told AFP. "For many people, all these surroundings are remnants of a glorious history, but for us history is part of our daily lives."

Boosting sex life

Hashem al-Hamzei, a 30-year-old merchant with two wives, says he comes to the bathhouse four days a week both to bathe and also to boost his sex life.

"The hot water and the massage makes your blood circulate better and makes you a better man during the night," he said, explaining that he divides the days of the week between his two women -- and also takes a day off.

"Tuesday is my private day. I come here to bathe, enjoy time with my friends. On that day I cannot look at any woman."

Hamzei said that most of the young generation in Yemen visit hamams for the same reason. "The hamam is just the beginning. Then chewing the qat makes you feel like a tiger," he added with a smile.

The first stage of the ritual is the warm room, where bathers perspire in a flow of hot dry air as they sit on stone black benches.

The next room is warm and humid. Here customers wash, and the soapy water runs away through gutters cut into the floor.

In the hot massage parlor, a masseur pummels vigorously at a client, working on his legs, hands, stomach and back.

For women only

The hamam's doors also open at other times for women only, especially on Thursdays, the weekend in Yemen when most weddings take place.

"On the wedding day special rituals are observed for both bride and groom," said Yehya al-Sadik, 40, one of the owners of Hamam al-Abhar.

"After the bride takes a steam bath, special oil and incense is used on her body to prepare her for the big night."

The cost of a visit to the bathhouse varies between 200 riyals (one dollar) and 2,000 riyals.

"As soon as the client enters the hamam, he is charged 200 riyals and then the price depends on what the client wants. For each service there is a price. That may also include lunch inside the hamam," said Sadik.

Many Yemenis also believe visiting the hamam is good for the health, and that a day there is better than any prescription from the doctor.

Some also say it is a natural remedy to combat swine flu, the potentially deadly A(H1N1) virus sweeping the world.

"My son Mohammed is suffering from flu, so I bring him here for a daily bath. The hot water and steam are better than any medicine," said Khaled Rafiq, 39.