UAE = RESPONSIBLE FOR 25% OF WORLDWIDE HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The United Arab Emirates [UAE] is one of the biggest destinations for men and women, predominantly from South and Southeast Asia, trafficked for the purposes of labor and commercial-sexual exploitation. Migrant workers, who comprise more than 90 percent of the UAE's private sector workforce, are recruited from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, China, and the Philippines. Women from some of these countries travel willingly to work as domestic servants or administrative staff, but some are subjected to conditions indicative of forced labor, including unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, or physical or sexual abuse.


Legally, once a foreign female domestic worker enters her employer's house, she is totally under his/her control, since the employer is usually her visa sponsor. Even today, United Arab Emirates labour laws do not recognize domestics as part of the labour force. The employer has total control over them. The immigration regulations governing the status of domestic workers and the social practices towards foreign female domestic worker in the United Arab Emirates enslave them to their employers until the duration of their contract ends.

A significant portion of the foreign female workers in UAE as well as in other Arab countries are forced to offer sex to the employer, as well as many of them are even sold to the private brothels or sex rackets by the recruiting agents or pimps.

Alina, 22-year old Kyrgyz girl arrived in United Arab Emirates in 2008, on a visit visa following a promise of a pastry job for US$ 700 by a compatriot woman who arranged for her the visa, air ticket and accommodation. An unidentified woman received Alina at the airport. Later Alina came to know that, she had been sold to the gang in UAE for US$ 32,000. The woman, who came to airport to receive Alina told her that she had to pay back the costs in prostitution. Later, Alina was taken to a place, where she saw four Uzbek women and two Afghan men. These Afghan men were working as pimp to collect customers. On the first night, Alina was raped by both the Afghan men and she was told to please at least 10 customers every day. After nine months, Alina managed to escape from the captivity of the Afghan men and decided not to return home..

Nargis, an Uzbek woman, who came to Dubai six years, back from Thailand, where, she had been sold to sex racket by her own boyfriend. Here is her story:

"It was 2003. I met my boyfriend at my girl-friend's house. He had been dating me for two months already when he told me he was going to marry me. My boyfriend told me we could earn some money for our wedding if we went to work in Greece at his friend's company. He said, we would stay in Greece for three months, and return home after earning enough of money. I was extremely happy. I could not believe all that was happening to me. He took my passport and all necessary papers and said that he would take care of visa and travel arrangements. As I was having highest trust and confidence on my boyfriend, I did not ask to see the tickets or documents. Few days later, we boarded on a flight, which was first going to Thailand and then to Greece, that what exactly my boyfriend said. But, surprisingly, the travel stopped at Bangkok and my boyfriend said we needed to spend a night in the city hotel to catch the flight for Greece the next day. I had no fear or confusion, as was sure, my boyfriend would never deceive me.

"He took me to a hotel and said that he was going to see his friend in Bangkok and would be back soon. Two hours later an Uzbek man came asked to accompany him to another hotel, where my boyfriend was waiting. I was confused and was not really realizing, what was happening. When I reached another hotel, the same man told me that, I was his property. I could not understand, I kept saying that it was a misunderstanding and that my boyfriend would be very upset seeing him saying such indecent things to me. But, to my utter surprise, the man told me that my boyfriend had already sold me to him and from now on he would have my documents and I had serve the clients this man would arrange for me. Onwards, everyday, I had to wait for the instruction from that man in my mobile phone, and had to rush to the hotel or apartment, as he instructed, to attend customers.

"Sheikh Hashim had his nick name Tony. He was running a medium type transport business in Dubai and was also investing is real estate. Tony, at the age of just 34, was able to make a few million dollars from the business, as he was a distant relative of the Emirs of UAE. On the first night, for some reason, Tony became emotionally weak to me, as he possibly was not expecting such warm behavior from a mere hooker. Most part of the night, we were chatting, singing, drinking and easting Arabian kebab. When I was leaving Tony's apartment, he very decently handed me the money in envelop. This was a real shock to me, seeing such softness and decency in any Arab man. In my own knowledge [as I also attended few Arab customers in Thailand], Arabs are very rude by nature. But, Tony was an exception.

"Gradually, Tony introduced me to at least 20-25 young Sheikhs, all of whom are his friends or even class-mates. This was, I rather turned into a posh hooker, serving the rich Arab elites. Few months later, Tony asked me if I could bring in more young girls from my country. I readily nodded. And just in 4 days, I was sent back to Uzbekistan for bringing few more 'Russian Virgins' for the harem of the Arab sheikhs.

You’re only sorry we caught you…..

Senator Bernie Sanders, a staunch critic of oil speculators, leaked the information to a major newspaper in a move that has unsettled both regulators and Wall Street alike.

In a June 16 e-mail reviewed by Reuters, a senior policy adviser to Sanders discusses how his office received private data with the names and positions of traders and forwarded it exclusively to a Wall Street Journal reporter.

The e-mail, which also attaches two files with the data, was sent to Public Citizen's Tyson Slocum asking him to review it and speak with the newspaper about his observations.

In a statement from Sanders provided to Reuters, Sanders said he felt the data needed to be publicly aired.

"The CFTC has kept this information hidden from the American public for nearly three years," he said. "This is an outrage. The American people have a right to know exactly who caused gas prices to skyrocket in 2008 and who is causing them to spike today."

The leaked information has sparked concern at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is legally prohibited from releasing confidential information that identifies trader positions and identities.

The leak also raises broader questions as U.S. regulators gear up to collect massive new amounts of private data from market players on everything from swaps and hedge funds to blueprints for how large financial firms can be liquidated. The breach of data could make Wall Street less reluctant to hand over sensitive information if they fear it is not appropriately safeguarded.

Republicans have already raised concerns in recent hearings about the Treasury's new Office of Financial Research created by Dodd-Frank, and whether its collection of data from hedge funds and banks may constitute a regulatory overreach.

Although the CFTC is barred from releasing confidential data, the law does require the CFTC to hand over such information if a Congressional committee acting within its proper authority requests it. Once it is in the hands of Congress, there is nothing to prevent lawmakers from releasing it publicly.

The leaked data contains long and short positions held by oil traders in 2008, the same year that oil prices spiked to $147 a barrel. Critics at the time accused oil speculators of driving up prices, leading lawmakers to later insert a provision into the Dodd-Frank Wall Street overhaul law compelling the CFTC to place stricter limits on how many commodity contracts any one trader can control.

Among the kinds of traders accused of excessive speculation included passive long investors such as pension funds, which often seek exposure to commodities markets indirectly by going through an intermediary swap dealer such as such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Free Speech is like a river; let it flow; for if you dam it; you run the risk of drowning

For the past eight months, the world has watched, captivated, as from one country to the next, youth have manipulated the digital tools that have become part and parcel of their everyday lives to serve their activism. The world too has witnessed as, in each country, state actors have made various attempts to quash the use of such tools.



In each case, governments have learned from what came before. While Tunisia's Ben Ali sought to open up the internet, promising an end to censorship in a speech just one day before fleeing the country, Egypt's Mubarak took from his failure what not to do, preferring instead to clamp down on social media sites one by one, eventually shutting down the internet entirely. Though Libyan leader Gaddafi followed in Mubarak's footsteps, finding it easy to shut down dissent among the five per cent of the country's population that actually has access to the internet, Syria's Assad took a new approach altogether, opening up access only to then use it against social media users.


But while it comes as no surprise that despots might find new weapons in the digital space, what's more troubling is the ways in which democratic governments have adapted to the use of digital tools for protest, seemingly taking lessons from their authoritarian counterparts.


Cameron calls for crackdowns


Following days of rioting in London, British Prime Minister David Cameron proposed looking at "whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality" and noted that he had "asked the police if they need any other new powers", going on to suggest that Twitter, Facebook, and BlackBerry ought to consider removing messages that might spur further unrest in the country.


Cameron's calls came just two days after member of Parliament, David Lammy, urged in a tweet for BlackBerry to suspend its encrypted messenger service; BlackBerry responded via Twitter that the company had engaged with authorities to assist in any way possible.

While Twitter took a public stand for its users free expression, and Facebook took measures to remove "any credible threats of violence" from its platform, BlackBerry has remained largely silent, burned, perhaps, by the media frenzy of 2010 that surrounded its negotiations with the Indian and UAE governments. Still, all three companies have plans to meet with UK Home Secretary Theresa May.

Though the UK police no doubt have the right to pursue any individual inciting violence, those powers already exist; tacking on additional measures to censor speech will likely have the opposite effect as intended.


San Francisco transit company 'pulls a Mubarak'

Amid the news of protests in the UK, a smaller protest was allegedly being planned in the US city of San Francisco. The protest reportedly would have been modelled after a July demonstration during which protesters disrupted Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) services in response to the fatal shooting of passenger Charles Blair Hill, by BART police, on July 3. Though the protest never happened, BART authorities took preemptive steps to quell it nonetheless, shutting down mobile services on several subway platforms in an attempt to block communications.

The move drew ire from civil liberties groups as well as from passengers and the public at large, prompting Anonymous to go after the transit company, taking down one of their sites and publicly displaying user information gleaned by hacking another. On Twitter, the move drew comparisons between the Mubarak government and the BART authorities, inspiring the hashtag "#MuBARTek".

BART authorities explained the measure by claiming that only certain areas of the subway platforms are available for "expressive" activities, and that paid areas of the platforms are off-limits to expression. And yet, by making available the use of mobile phones in the first place, the action of cutting off access to prevent a potential protest constitutes prior restraint on the right to free expression of all BART customers.

From Tahrir to the States


Both recent incidents indicate an alarming precedent being set. Cameron's consideration of broad censorship powers echoes similar measures once proposed -and rejected - in Turkey, while the actions of BART authorities have been conducted only by the most extreme of despots.

These are not isolated examples of chilling restrictions on free speech emanating from democracies. In fact, 2011 has been full of prime examples: In July, the Israeli parliament enacted a law banning calls for boycott amidst a growing movement; the law effectively forces self-censorship upon Israeli bloggers, who not only risk penalties for their own writing but also for comments posted to their sites, for which they may be liable.

In India, the world's largest democracy, a new regulation will soon prohibit intermediaries - that is, any site or content host - from hosting a slew of content, including anything that might be "racially or ethnically objectionable", or that "harms minors in any way". The overbroad statute will no doubt scare many intermediaries into submission, resulting in chilling effects on free expression.

And from the UK to South Africa and in numerous nations in between, plans intended to hamper piracy and protect intellectual property continue to put the interests of the entertainment industry before the rights of citizens, instituting in many cases regulations that could block or remove offending sites.

Indeed, it seems that the sentiments expressed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just eight months ago have in many places - including the United States - fallen by the wayside. Rather than moving toward internet freedom, we're moving toward increased internet censorship everywhere.


Jillian York is director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. She writes a regular column for Al Jazeera focusing on free expression and Internet freedom. She also writes for and is on the Board of Directors of Global Voices Online.

S&P’s $2 Trillion gaffe downgrading democracy and upgrading oligarchy

Eleven days after lowering the credit rating on the U.S. for the first time, Standard & Poor’s is suffering a downgrade among global investors as American bonds are proving world beaters -- undermining S&P’s mathematical assumptions -- and prompting disbelief among political scientists months after the company upgraded China because of the stability fostered by Communist Party rule.
China has been upgraded five times by S&P since 1999, Bloomberg data show. “We believe the Chinese authorities would respond to future threats to financial stability with timely measures, based on our observations over the past two years,” S&P said Dec. 16 in a statement.

Since S&P, the New York-based subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Cos., dropped the U.S. to AA+ from AAA on Aug. 5, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, a benchmark for everything from home mortgages to car loans, has declined to as low as 2.03 percent from a high this year of 3.77 percent, with American debt on pace in August for the biggest monthly gain since December 2008. Interest rates on American bonds are lower today than on most of the countries with AAA ratings by S&P and the Treasury recently financed its outstanding debt at the lowest cost ever.

If anything, the decision from S&P, the largest ratings provider, resulted in an upgrade of U.S. securities as the American bond market outperformed world bond indexes during the period since the downgrade by S&P. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, the two next biggest rating companies, affirmed their AAA rankings on the U.S.

“The market has upgraded U.S. Treasuries,” said Andrew Johnson, the head of investment-grade fixed-income in Chicago at Neuberger Berman Fixed Income LLC, which oversees $85 billion. “Treasuries are still where people run to hide at least temporarily and that’s what we’ve seen over the past week.”

S&P made its decision, saying the U.S. government is becoming “less stable, less effective and less predictable,” even after acknowledging to the Treasury Department a $2 trillion error in its calculations that by its own methodology could have prevented any change from a AAA rating. Since S&P still insisted on downgrading the U.S. eight months after raising China’s rating, the company’s credibility has come under increasing scrutiny.

“It was really kind of bizarre that they’ve become political analysts,” said Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. “I certainly never look to any of the three rating agencies as a source of expertise, knowledge or wisdom on the political system.”

When Warren Buffett was asked about S&P’s decision, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said the U.S. should have been upgraded to “quadruple-A.”

The cut left the U.S., whose currency accounts for about 60 percent of the world’s reserves, rated below at least 15 other nations and on the same level as Belgium, which hasn’t had a government since June 2010.

your person in panama

About a mile long, several hundred feet wide and more than 100 feet deep, the excavation is an initial step in the building of a larger set of locks for the Panama Canal that should double the amount of goods that can pass through it each year.

The $5.25 billion project, scheduled for completion in 2014, is the first expansion in the history of the century-old shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific. By allowing much bigger container ships and other cargo vessels to easily reach the Eastern United States, it will alter patterns of trade and put pressure on East and Gulf Coast ports like Savannah, Ga., and New Orleans to deepen harbors and expand cargo-handling facilities.

Right now, with its two lanes of locks that can handle ships up to 965 feet long and 106 feet wide — a size known as Panamax — the canal operates at or near its capacity of about 35 ships a day. During much of the year, that can mean dozens of ships are moored off each coast, waiting a day or longer to enter the canal.


The new third set of locks will help eliminate some of those backlogs, by adding perhaps 15 passages to the daily total. More important, the locks will be able to handle “New Panamax” ships — 25 percent longer, 50 percent wider and, with a deeper draft as well, able to carry two or three times the cargo.


No one can predict the full impact of the expansion. But for starters, it should mean faster and cheaper shipping of some goods between the United States and Asia.


Dean Campbell, a soybean farmer from Coulterville, Ill., for instance, expects the expansion will help him compete with farmers in South America — which, he said, “has much poorer infrastructure for getting the grain out.”

The canal expansion “will have a definite impact on us,” Mr. Campbell said. “We think in general it will be a good thing, we just don’t know how good.”


Jean Paul Rodrigue, a professor of global studies and geography at Hofstra University who has studied the expansion project, said that the shipping industry was waiting to see how big the impact would be. “They know it’s going to change things, but they’re not sure of the scale.”

For now the hole, parallel to the existing smaller Pacific locks and about a half-mile away, is a scene of frenetic activity by workers and machines laboring in the tropical haze. At one end, giant hydraulic excavators scoop blasted rock into a parade of earth movers that dump it topside on a slowly growing mountain of rubble. At the other, where the machines have finished their work, a pack of about 50 men buzzes over the rock floor, preparing it to serve as a foundation for a bed of concrete.

If you didn't see this coming, then don't go out alone at night...

Evergreen Solar Inc. (ESLR), a maker of electricity generating solar panels, filed bankruptcy with plans to sell itself at an auction in order to pay creditors owed $485.6 million.

Investors who hold more than 70 percent of the company’s convertible senior secured notes have agreed to act as the so- called stalking-horse, or initial bidder, in a proposed auction for Evergreen’s assets, including new technology to make solar wafers at lower cost, Evergreen Chief Executive Officer Michael El-Hillow said in court papers today.

The company, based in Marlboro, Massachusetts, blamed the bankruptcy on increased competition from government-subsidized solar-panel makers in China and the failure of the U.S. to adopt clean-energy policies.

Prices for solar panels fell in 2010 and 2011 because of “massive overcapacity” in the industry at a time of lower subsidies, El-Hillow said in court papers.

Since 2010, Evergreen has been the worst-performing company on the Bloomberg Global Leaders Solar Index. Solar-energy equipment makers are being hurt by excess capacity, the cutback of subsidies in Europe and increased competition from manufacturers in China, Moody’s Investors Service said in a June 1 report.

The global production capacity of photovoltaic plants jumped 139 percent to 18.2 gigawatts in 2010, Moody’s said.

Never a better time to launch a municipal solar program; better kit; better prices; and loads of roof-tops!!!!

Mubarak, Sadat's Assassin?

Roqaya al-Sadat, the daughter of former president Anwar Sadat, has accused ousted president Hosni Mubarak of involvement in the assassination of her father at the hands of Islamists in 1981.


In a report she filed with the attorney general, al-Sadat said new evidence has emerged to prove the complicity of Mubarak, after former minister Hasaballah al-Kafrawi made statements at a recent seminar about the assassination.

The report calls for referring Mubarak for criminal trial and the death penalty, according to Egyptian state media.

Al-Kafrawi claimed Sadat was not killed by bullets fired by Khaled Islambouli, the military academy student accused of the assassination in official accounts. Al-Kafrawi added that bullets were also fired from the podium where Sadat and Mubarak were standing together when Sadat died.

He said Mubarak had an interest Sadat's assassination.

UAE, Date Rape Drug; sexual assault rampant

Maybe less money on bullshit and a little on some ethics and morality training?

At 21, Eve was living the life of her dreams. A successful model and choreographer, her career was kicking off. "I worked manic hours all day, posing and pouting in front of a camera and partied hard late into the night. Surrounded by the best-looking people in town, all falling over themselves to buy me a drink and party with me, life couldn't have been better.


"But one such night changed my life forever. I was at a bar in February, following an exhausting photoshoot. So accustomed to not caring where my next drink came from, I happily took a large sip from a drink handed over to me by a guy who looked vaguely familiar. I'd seen him at a few parties and recall him trying to strike up a conversation with me. But he wasn't my type and I didn't really care to spend more than two minutes exchanging pleasantries. Unfortunately, that's the last thing I remember, him smiling at me, when all of a sudden everything went dark. The next thing I knew I was curled up in my bed at home, and it was well into the day. Sore and with a massive migraine, I tried piecing together the events of the previous night.

Mind went blank

"Nothing. My mind was blank. The man's smiling face was my last memory. Trying to move was impossible. A searing pain in my private regions made movement impossible. Eventually, things started making sense. Acquaintances confirmed they saw me leave the club with this guy shortly after finishing my drink, which he must have spiked with Rohypnol. My ability to rationalise had been compromised. I don't know where he took me, but I am sure I was raped."

Rohypnol, or flunitrazepam, is used to induce sedation, muscle relaxation, reduction in anxiety and prevention of convulsions. Rohypnol's sedative effects are approximately seven to 10 times stronger than Valium, a widely used sedative. The effects of Rohypnol appear 15 to 20 minutes after administration and last approximately four to six hours.

The pill is known to cause partial amnesia and is particularly dangerous when used to aid sexual assault. Victims may not be able to clearly recall the assault, the assailant, or the events surrounding the assault. If Rohypnol exposure is to be detected at all, urine samples need to be collected within 72 hours and subjected to sensitive analytical tests. The problem is compounded by the onset of amnesia after ingestion of the drug, which causes the victim to be uncertain about the facts surrounding the rape. This uncertainty may lead to critical delays or even reluctance to report the rape and to provide appropriate biological samples for toxicology testing.
Eve's case is not an isolated one. The so-called date rape cases are growing at an alarming rate in the UAE, alarming enough for the British embassy to alert British visitors and residents in the UAE. Around one million British visitors come for holidaying each year and around 100,000 live in the UAE. A recent announcement on its website reads: "Each year, our consular staff in the UAE help a number of British nationals who were the victim of a serious sexual offence.

"Drink spiking, known to be used in date rape, can also happen. Consular staff has noted an increase of drink spiking in nightclubs in the UAE, resulting in sexual assaults on both men and women. Do not accept drinks from strangers or leave drinks unattended, including non-alcoholic drinks. When in pubs and clubs, stay with your friends and avoid getting separated in the crowd. Do not leave with a stranger."
"I've had ex-colleagues talking about being date-raped on an almost weekly basis." Sometimes, the drug is given not just for sexual purposes, but also in cases of theft. When cabin crew are staying in a hotel, there's a strong chance they are carrying a decent amount of cash and jewellery on them. As crew we were constantly reminded never to leave our drinks unattended at the bar, never to accept a drink from a stranger, never to leave our room keys in view of another, to carry our room cards discreetly, so no one can read our room number… More recently, the airline's head office started selling coasters to detect the spiking of our drinks," the Belgian national told XPRESS.

"Each coaster comes with two test areas. All one needs to do is put one drop from the glass onto their coaster, to see if the drink tests positive or negative for any of the date rape drugs, including Rohypnol.
Online forums have many stories of women who've had their drinks spiked at the majority of UAE's top bars.

One woman even says she succumbed to date rape after accepting a bottle of water from a taxi driver. Another talks of barmen who are tipped off by clients, who have their eye on a woman, and pay the barman to spike her drink.

Late last year, a woman was jailed for eight months in Fujairah for claiming three men raped her after her drink was spiked in a hotel bar.


The woman, identified as Alicia Gali, said she ordered one drink from the bar in the hotel where she was working, but then remembered nothing until waking up the next afternoon. Gali was arrested after reporting her rape to police and later sentenced to 11 months' jail for having illicit sexual relations in addition to one month for consumption of alcohol.

Louise, a cabin crew member from Scotland, told XPRESS she bumped into two Arab men at a pub last Christmas. "We were laughing and joking like old friends within an hour of meeting one another. They appeared so kind and friendly that I didn't think twice before asking one of the guys to buy me a drink from the bar while I was on the dance floor. Despite all the repetitive warnings we get at work, and the date rape posters put up in our staff clinics, I fell victim to their scam. The next thing I remember it was early the next morning and I was all alone in the desert, with no handbag, mobile phone, cash, credit or identity.
"To this day, I'll never know if I was raped or not, but I lost a very expensive designer handbag, at least Dh2,000 in cash, as well as all the jewellery I was wearing, which was quite a lot."
Upon gaining consciousness, Louise had to walk through the desert, hoping to find a road and catch a lift.

Nuclear energy is not a sovereign decision; it’s a global choice

As some nations push on with nuclear programs and others can’t retire their existing plants fast enough. It is clear, much like climate change, the actions of one nation effect the viability of the others on this blue-ish brown (smog) planet.
California scientists witnessed a spike in radioactive airborne material in March following the meltdown of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, a study showed.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, observed the highest levels ever detected of radioactive sulfur in the atmosphere, 15 days after Fukushima’s operators cooled the damaged reactors by pumping in seawater, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The 40-year-old Fukushima plant withstood the country’s worst earthquake on record, only to have its power and back-up generators knocked out by the 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that followed. Lacking electricity to pump water needed to cool the atomic core, engineers vented radioactive steam into the atmosphere to release pressure. A series of explosions ensued, blowing out concrete walls around some reactors.

The amount of radioactive material that escaped from the reactor’s core and found a kilometer above Fukushima was 365 times higher than normal, researchers calculated in the study. About 0.7 percent of the material made its way 5,800 miles across the Pacific Ocean to California, the study said. Researchers made their measurements in La Jolla, California.

Ramadan TV soap operas: Now starring former dictator and torturer Hosni “Ozymandias” Mubarak of EGYPT

Mubarak appeared inside the courtroom in a caged defendants' box, along with his sons, Gamal and Alaa, who face corruption charges.

Mubarak, who is charged with conspiring in killing of protesters and abusing his power to amass wealth, answered, "present", when the judge called his name.

Hundreds of riot police stood guard outside the court surrounded by those demanding that Mubarak be held responsible for those killed in the final weeks of his rule.

Defence lawyers have called for hundreds of witnesses to testify in the case, including the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who was Mubarak's defence minister for two decades.

Tantawi's possible testimony on the former president's role in trying to suppress the 18-day uprising, in which about 850 people were killed, is considered critical by many to the outcome of the case.

"Tantawi's testimony would help the court determine whether Mubarak gave orders to interior minister Habib al-Adly to fire at protesters or whether Adly was acting independently," said one member of the defence team, who asked not to be named.

Lawyers for the families of those killed have also demanded Tantawi testify in the trial.

"The defence team sees Tantawi as a compurgator, or a witness whose testimony would exonerate Mubarak," another lawyer handling the case said.

"The plaintiffs' lawyers, however, expect him to testify that he received orders to fire, which is necessary to convict Mubarak."

Meanwhile, Mubarak laid on the stretcher looking composed and stern, with hands clasped over his chest.

Amr Shalakany, a professor at Cairo University's law school, said the trial scenes were a "circus" full of drama often seen on "Ramadan TV soap operas".

"One, he does not look that sick and the whole stretcher business is once again, like what you see on Ramadan TV soap operas," Shalakany told Al Jazeera.

"[Mubarak's] hair is being dyed black, which doesn't indicate any kind of deep depression that he has said he suffers from.

"His facial expressions are those of not just defiance but fundamentally looking down at the entire process."

Mubarak made his first court appearance on August 3 in a case that has gripped the Arab world.

The first Arab head of state to stand trial in person since popular uprisings swept the Middle East, the former air force commander faces charges that could carry the death penalty.

Let’s blame in the stars! (a long tradition of not holding ourselves accountable)

Next we can blame witches.....

Rollercoaster financial markets and the worst riots Britain has seen in decades have made it quite a week for a time of year that is usually so dead the newspapers are filled with "silly season" tales of amusing pet antics.

Everyone is pointing fingers -- at blundering politicians, hooded thugs, disaffected youths, bumbling police and greedy bankers -- but could the cause for all the madness really be the star at the center of our solar system?

There isn't a lot of evidence pointing to little green men involving themselves in Earthly affairs, but the sun has been throwing bursts of highly charged particles into space in a phenomenon known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs.

Three large CMEs prompted U.S. government scientists to warn of solar storms that can cause power blackouts and the aurora borealis, or northern lights, caused by disturbances in the Earth's atmosphere, have been spotted as far south as England and Colorado, NASA said.

"Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from a CME strike on August 5th that sparked one of the strongest geomagnetic storms in years", website SpaceWeather said.

Some academics have claimed that such geomagnetic storms can affect humans, altering moods and leading people into negative behavior through effects on their biochemistry.

Some studies have found evidence that hospital admissions for depression rise during geomagnetic storms and that incidents of suicide increase.

A 2003 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that such storms could affect the stock market, as traders were more likely to make pessimistic choices.

"Unusually high levels of geomagnetic activity have a negative, statistically and economically significant effect on the following week's stock returns for all US stock market indices," the authors found in their report.

It could of course be mere coincidence that this has been a rollercoaster week on the markets, and that Britain was rocked by a wave of ferocious rioting and looting.

But market watchers may take comfort from the fact that the space weather forecast for Friday has gone quiet again.

They shouldn't be too complacent though. The solar cycle is on an upswing due to peak in 2013 and there are likely to be more geomagnetic storms heading Earth's way in the months to come.