“A Martian Odyssey”: that’s how Stanley Weinbaum entitled one science fiction novel of his in 1994. Same words are oddly suitable in presenting Domenico Quirico’s story.
He disappeared on 9 April in Syria and he returned home on 9 September, finally free again. Quirico has forcedly spent five months into Syrian arid lands, through what he has himself defined as «a sort of an Odyssey» through a prison term experienced within «bombs, breaks and humiliation». He felt it was just like living on the Red Planet: «as though I’ve lived on Mars for five months. And I discovered that Martians are evil […] In detention? They did not treat me properly». Those were Quirico’s first words, words that have been spoken as soon as he landed in Italy.
Croatia is the latest and 28th European Union member state. Zagreb submitted a full membership request in latest February 2003 and now the former Jugoslav federal republic joined the other twentiseven members under the starry EU flag, more than a decade later. Croatian entry into the European peace area was combined with one hope: forgetting mid-nineties’ civil war horrors and letting people moving on once for all.
In a dramatic day yesterday as Egypt has experienced dramatic moments over 525 fibula killed by the Egyptian army, most of them are hit with bullets to the head and heart not to forget the people burned alive. Aladwiya Square has become a scene of a horror movie, unfortunately, a film that still live our brothers in humanity the Egyptian brothers.
Scenes from Arab revolution on the square of the Bulgarian Parliament, barricades and threw stones and bottles at the symbol of power corrupt and inefficient, unable to pull the country out of an unprecedented crisis.
In the streets of Sofia's protest shows no signs of running out and every day different peaceful demonstrations sinking into a violent drift.
It seems that the push for regional political settlements have begun impacting on recent developments in the region. Several political messages have also been communicated from the US Secretary of State, John Kerry’s visit to the Middle East. There has been an indirect call for Arabs to normalize relations with Israel. The American reassurance of the security of Israel have served to push for the pending issues regarding this point to be immediately resolved.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, welcomed with great satisfaction the decision of the EU to include the military wing of Hezbollah on the blacklist of terrorist organizations, adding, inter alia, that Israel does not distinguish between the army and the political faction of ' organization being two sides of the same coin.
Israeli Prime Minister thanked the leaders of the 28 EU Member States and expressed the hope that the decision would lead to "concrete steps against the organization."
Numerous conflicts parallel and the bloody civil war of March 2011 set fire to Syria.
And 'now certain that the guerrilla struggle against the Syrian regime is deeply divided between gangs and groups Qaedist more moderate, the novelty now seems to be an escalation of the internal conflict that now flows in a war within a war, a deadly "all against all" .
On 11 July he was in fact killed Kamal Hamami, leader of an organization composed mostly of deserters from the armed forces loyalist, called "Free Syrian Army" and considered by the more generic Syrian resistance too pro-Western.
The newly appointed chairman Adli Mansour, has promised that he will fight with every means those who are trying to drag Egypt into chaos.
The Muslim Brotherhood in fact they plan to encourage mass protests to demand the return of the ousted Islamic leader Mohamed Morsi.
Darfur, southern Sudan. On Saturday 13 July Darfur civil war (ongoing since 2003) showed its latest violence episode: around 9 am an UNAMID patrol (part of the UN-African Union joined force operating in Darfur since 2007 in order to protect civilian population and to guarantee security condition to humanitarian personnel) has fallen into an ambush approximately 25 kilometers west of the Mission's Khor Abeche team site while it was moving from one checkpoint to another. The patrol came under heavy fire from a large unidentified group which engaged the peacekeepers using light weapons and RPG rockets. Seven military personnel were killed and 17 were wounded (13 troopers and 4 police officers); their nationality has not been revealed yet but according to some newspapers they probably belonged to the Tanzanian force.
“Security is the priority” - This could be the slogan of the coming period for most of the countries in the region. As the Syrian crisis passes through a new phase, and there is a real focus on putting an end to the violence, there will be consequences for the region, mostly regarding security. Most of the countries are expected to face real security challenges, especially those who were part of the conflict in Syria, on political or a geographical level.
Jordan is one of the countries that could face this kind of challenge. Many indicators show that Jordan has adopted more proactive plans that help to maintain the security and stability of the country.