Mideast | Hamas to Leave Syria; Media Claim Most Deaths Security Forces

LEADING THE NEWS

Hamas to Leave Syria
Al-Hayat
London-based Arabic daily

Hamas's political leadership announced it will relocate from Damascus to Doha in Qatar, after requests to Jordan and Egypt were denied.

It was not immediately clear if Hamas is relocating because of the insurgency in Syria or because of the newly announced unity with longtime rival movement Fatah. Hamas leadership has been operating in exile out of Damascus since 1999.

Syria: More than Half Fatalities Are Police and Army
Al-Baath
Syrian daily

The Syrian press reported a total of 148 fatalities since the insurgency began there six weeks ago, compared to an estimated 500 according to international human rights organisations.

According to Syrian reports, 78 of the fatalities have been police and army personnel. Syrian authorities have insisted since the insurrection that "armed elements under foreign influences" are behind the violence.

Separately, regional papers report that hundreds of Syrians have fled across the border to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey since the violence began in Syria.

Mubarak Battles Depression
Ahram
Egyptian daily

Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is reportedly depressed and "rarely smiles." He is in a military hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh, where he was transferred over two weeks ago after an apparent heart attack. He began to complain of chest pain during a meeting with prosecutors investigating the deaths of hundreds of protesters and allegations of corruption within the Mubarak regime.

According to the report, Mubarak's wife stays by his hospital bed and his two daughters-in-law visit him at the hospital, along with his grandchildren.

ON THE OPINION PAGES

Secret to West's Success: Hope
Alsharq al-Awsat
London-based Arabic daily

The secret to the West's advancement is its ability to "manufacture hope," according to a columnist at the paper.

"It is the hope captured by Kate Middleton, a commoner marrying a prince in a fairy tale wedding...or by Barack Obama, being the first African American president," wrote Mamoun Fendi.

The Jordanian king also married a commoner, an ordinary Palestinian young women, in something like a fairy tale wedding. But in that case, the royal couple disappeared into the folds of private married life, "whereas Britons yesterday took to the streets in expressing their joy, that one of their own daughters has married their prince, and therefore they become key players in manufacturing national hope.

"It is this manufacturing of national hope that led the West to land on the moon, all while we satisfied ourselves merely with the writing of poetry about the moon."

One reader asked, "How can we manufacture our own hope when so many of our religious leaders issue fatwas against our intellectual elite?" Mahmoud al-Takriti of Lebanon wrote, "We as a people do not believe that the person can make his own destiny with his own actions."

Rasha Elass is Tehran Bureau's Middle East news editor.

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