egypt

"The danger, I think, is when the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture."

President Obama responded to the criticism he's received for his upcoming high-profile speech in Egypt, a country with few political freedoms. Obama told the BBC that although there are obvious human rights issues in the Middle East, it is not the US's job to lecture countries; instead, the US should lead by example and help countries embrace universal principles as part of their own national identities. Obama also said that Iran has a right to nuclear power, so long as it proves that it proves its peaceful intentions.

How do you like this new brand of "freedom spreading"?

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• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her first visit to the Middle East as top diplomat, meeting with international leaders in Egypt. — CBS News
• Severe snowstorms have hit the Eastern United States, canceling flights and causing deadly car accidents and power outages. — ABS News
• President Obama has chosen Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for health and human services secretary. He will announce the pick later today. — AP



• The latest US consumer spending figures show a rise in January spending, ending six months of consecutive drops. — CNN
• The US government will give insurance giant AIG an addition $30 billion "as needed" after the company claimed $61.7 billion in losses. — AP

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The hunt for Germany's most wanted Nazi, Aribert Heim (aka Dr. Death for his "medical" procedures) began in 1962 after he barely escaped capture. It only ended recently when a briefcase containing the details of his post-Nazi life and death was found in a hotel where he lived in Cairo.

The New York Times and the German television station ZDF obtained the briefcase and found the following:

• An article about his own manhunt and trial in absentia (underlined and annotated)
• His medical and financial records
• Drawings by the children he left behind in Germany
• An application for Egyptian residency under the name Tarek Hussein Farid, who had the same birth date and place of birth as Heim.

Investigators now know Heim fled to Egypt, converted to Islam, and died in 1992 as Tarek Hussein Farid. The Middle East has been an oft overlooked hideout for exiled Nazis, but countries like Egypt actually welcomed them for their military technology knowledge after World War II.

Until the briefcase discovery, Heim was believed to be alive in South America. In fact the Simon Wiesenthal Center — a Jewish human rights organization — had searched for him in Chile last year and was about to raise the reward for information leading to his arrest from $400,000 to $1.3 million.

Below, check out where Dr. Death lived until his own death.

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A not-so-playful police sting in Cairo netted about 400 teenage boys accused of flirting with girls. Just yesterday, law enforcement rounded up the underage wannabe-seducers in front of schools, universities, or other public places where teens hang out. The teens will most likely face fines.

While a crackdown on innocent flirting seems oppressive, something beyond prudish attitudes motivated the sting. Egyptian women deal with an extraordinary amount of sexual harassment and assault in public. In Egypt, two-thirds of men admit to harassing women in public.

Last month, an Egyptian court handed down a sentence of hard labor and three years in jail for a man convicted of groping a woman in public. Now it looks like officials want to teach younger males a lesson before they graduate from flirting to groping. Do you think the Casanova roundup will work?

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Sexual harassment in Egypt won't get you a slap on the wrist, but it will get you years in jail time and a sentence for hard labor. In what was most likely the first jail sentence for sexual harassment in Egypt, defendant Sharif Gomma was also ordered to pay his victim $895.

While in his car, Gomma drove slowly next to his victim, groping her as she walked on a sidewalk. The victim fought back, eventually hauling him into the police station herself. After much media attention showered on the case, the judge handed down a harsh sentence to prove that such behavior will not be tolerated in Egypt, where two-thirds of men admit to harassing women in public.

In New York City, one chronic groper, arrested 53 times, faced life in prison for his latest offense on the subway. Do you think three years in prison and physical labor for a first sexual harassment offense would count as cruel and unusual punishment in the US?

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