RUTHFULLY YOURS

The flag the Turkish prime minister proudly witnessed while being hoisted at the United Nations is an inspiration of the flag used by the Arab Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century, which was the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt against Prime Minister Davutoglu’s beloved Ottoman Empire.

In his speech, Abbas did not forget to “convey our best wishes to our beloved Armenian brothers in Palestine, in Armenia and in the entire world,” and invited Armenian President Serzh Sarghsyan “to visit Palestine and we hope he will accept the invitation.”

Although it came as no surprise, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in his weekly parliamentary group speech last December, spoke like a Palestinian politician, not a Turkish one:

“The most oppressed people of the 20th and 21st centuries is the Palestinian people … Our support will continue until Jerusalem becomes the capital of independent Palestine … No one should doubt our devotion to the Palestinian cause … We won’t forget Palestine, Gaza, Jerusalem, not even in our dreams … We do politics for this holy way.”

The atmosphere on Swedish social media is now almost revolutionary. People post videos of themselves accusing the government of murder, of filling Sweden with violent people.

When Alexandra Mezher was murdered, she was alone in the residence with ten asylum seekers. She was stabbed by one of the “children” she cared for.

When National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson appeared on the “Good Morning Sweden” TV show, the day after Mezher’s murder, he expressed sympathy for the murderer, but barely mentioned the victim. This sparked frenzied outrage on social media.

Mass immigration is continuing to claim victims in Sweden. Murder, assaults and rape have become everyday occurrences in this small country, with a population just short of ten million, which last year opened its doors to almost 163,000 immigrants. The latest victim is 22-year-old Alexandra Mezher. She was stabbed to death last week by a so-called unaccompanied refugee child at the asylum house where she worked.

Although the massive influx of asylum seekers has decreased drastically since January 4, when Sweden implemented border controls on the Swedish/Danish border, the people who are already here pose a giant problem to municipalities, police and citizens. The police are fighting a losing battle against street crime, as well as daily incidents at asylum houses – general disturbances that include fights, rapes and threats.

SÃO PAULO—Health officials in Brazil reported two cases of the Zika virus being transmitted through blood transfusions, the latest challenge in the global battle against the fast-spreading mosquito-borne epidemic.

Both cases were reported by health officials in Campinas, a wealthy industrial city of about one million people an hour northwest of São Paulo, the country’s largest city.

A number of countries are tightening their rules on blood donations in response to the global Zika outbreak.

The American Red Cross said on Wednesday it is asking potential blood donors who have been in Mexico, the Caribbean or Central or South America to wait at least 28 days after their trip before donating.

Cármino Antonio de Souza, health secretary of Campinas, said on Wednesday that both transfusions occurred during the first four months of 2015, but the presence of Zika in the two transfusion recipients wasn’t confirmed until recently, in part because they were initially suspected of being infected with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus.

As many as 1.5 million Brazilians may have been infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus and now the U.S. and other countries are also reporting new cases. But what is the Zika virus? And why does it pose a threat to pregnant women? Dipti Kapadia explains. Photo: Getty Images

The first case involved a liver-transplant recipient who contracted Zika through blood donated in March 2015. The second was a gunshot victim who tested positive for Zika after receiving multiple blood transfusions; he later died of his wounds, not the Zika virus, Campinas health officials said.

BERLIN—German police said they have conducted raids in several regions and arrested three people in an investigation of four Algerian men who are suspected of planning attacks in Germany and having ties to Islamic State.

Berlin police said in a statement that two men and a woman were arrested in the raids conducted in the capital and in two western states, but that those arrests were based on existing warrants in other cases.

Authorities suspect that the four men under investigation had contacts with Islamic State and say that one of them was being sought by Algerian authorities for belonging to the extremist group. They seized computers, cellphones and other material.

Berlin police spokesman Stefan Redlich told n-tv television that the probe started in December.

Saudi Arabia has ordered the segregation of men and women in local council meetings, in a setback to women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Under the new rules, which follow the recent election of women to Saudi Arabia’s local councils, female representatives must now participate in the council meetings through a video link. The men will be able to hear their female colleagues, but not see them.

Females represent a fraction of the council members—38 out of 2,106 officials—but the same-room ban is a reminder of the challenges women face in Saudi Arabia, where they still can’t drive or travel abroad without the permission of a male relative.
“I am really upset,” said Samar Fatany, a women’s rights activist and columnist with Saudi Gazette newspaper of the rules, which were introduced last week by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs but only gained national attention in recent days. “You don’t put them out there for show and then marginalize them.”

The government order represents a particularly strict imposition of the country’s widely applied gender segregation policy. It is in contrast with the Shura Council, an unelected advisory body to the king, where women and men sit in the same assembly hall.

The elections in December were widely hailed at the time as a small but symbolic turning point for women’s rights in the kingdom. Yet the ruling underscores the continued sway of the country’s hard-line conservatives.

Conservative clerics protested against women’s participation before the election over concerns that it would lead to gender mixing and Westernization of society.

TEL AVIV—Three Palestinians carrying knives, guns and explosives attacked Israeli security forces at an entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, killing an officer and seriously wounding another.

The attack happened after Israeli security forces stopped the Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. Police later said the trio opened fire on the police before being shot and killed. The dead officer was identified as 19-year-old Hadar Cohen.

The attackers were found to be carrying explosives, and were planning a larger attack, according to Israeli authorities. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Jerusalem has been at the center of a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians that began in September and spread across Israel and the Palestinian territories. Increased security in Jerusalem has reduced the numbers in recent weeks.

Israel’s military is coordinating with forces from the Palestinian Authority to calm the violence, Nitzan Alon, the Israeli military’s head of operations, told reporters in Tel Aviv, though he warned it could continue.

MELLITAH TERMINAL, Libya—A 9-foot-high wall built of fabric, sand and steel that can withstand a car bomb surrounds this seaside oil-and-gas complex, a barrier against militant attacks that many in Libya hope will soon be fortified by a national army under a central command.

Two rival factions that have spent years fighting for control of Libya are now locked in a political battle to form a unity government capable of defending their country and its oil industry against escalating attacks by Islamic State.

The political standoff has swelled U.S. worries of Libya turning into a hub for international Islamic State operations. Top national security advisers met last week with President Barack Obama over Islamic State as military leaders increasingly point to the need for stepped-up operations against the militant group, including in Libya.

Libya’s National Oil Co., among the country’s last functioning institutions since the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, issued a “cry for help” last month amid killings, car bombings, gas line sabotage and the burning of oil storage tanks by extremists. The attacks appeared aimed at undermining the peace process and Libya’s oil industry, which supplies 95% of state revenues.

Islamic State “fills the void” left by the lack of a unified government, said Fathi Ali Bashaagha, a Libyan lawmaker helping negotiate a United Nations-brokered power-sharing agreement between the two rival factions. Libya’s fight against extremists has fallen largely to militias with varying allegiances.