Saudi Arabia says one more person has died from a
new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 56
the number of deaths in the kingdom at the center of
the outbreak. The Health Ministry said that a 73-yearold, chronically ill man had died in a Riyadh hospital.
He was among 136 people who have been infected
with the virus in Saudi Arabia since September last
year. The ministry also says three new cases have
been detected, including two foreign women working in the kingdom’s health care services and a Saudi
man. The new virus is related to SARS, or severe acute
respiratory syndrome, which killed some 800 people
in a global outbreak in 2003.
December 23, 2013
Alerts:
North America
The security situation in Egypt is parlous. Demonstrations continue throughout the country, oftentimes
accompanied by sporadic exchanges of violence between protestors and security forces and/or residents. This past weekend, demonstrations spawned
confrontations that resulted in police dispersing tear
gas in response to protestors burning tires to block
roads, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, and to
separate rival groups.
Islamist consolidation of power over the rebellion in
Battles between rival ethnic groups spread across
South Sudan as foreign governments scrambled to
get their nationals away from reported slaughters
and a refugee buildup. Three US aircraft came under fire from rebel forces on Saturday while trying to
evacuate Americans from a spiraling conflict in South
Sudan. Four were wounded in the attacks. Nearly a
week of fighting in South Sudan threatens to drag the
world’s newest country into a Dinka-Nuer ethnic civil
war just two years after it won independence from
Sudan with strong support from successive US administrations. The US aircraft came under fire while approaching the evacuation site.
Syria has thrown US policy in Syria close to failure.
The Western backed Supreme Military Council is in
tatters and its leader General Salim Idriss had to flee
the country when Islamists took over warehouses
with much of the Western provided supplies, including lethal equipment. Some strategists have predicted that the Syrian conflict will continue for several
years and there is little likelihood of serious peace
negotiations. At this point is probably impossible to
find credible representatives to sit across the table
from Bashar Assad’s representative in Geneva as the
only rebels who would show up have no influence on
the battlefield. Members of the Islamic Front, a group
of six Islamist groups supported and funded by the
Saudis, claim differences with the al-Qaeda groups
but the Islamic Front is opposed to attending the Geneva negotiations that are supposed to find a political peace in January as the goal and intent to have
Assad remove himself from the Syrian leadership has
clearly failed. The Islamic Front is much stronger than
the SMC and is almost daily being a magnet for Western jihadis to join them in the battle.