Cairo, Egypt David E. Miller – Egypt’s birth rate dramatically increased in 2009 compared to the previous year, casting doubt on the effectiveness of government-led birth control policies.

“A high birthrate isn’t good for Egypt,” Maye Kassem, a political scientist from the American University in Cairo, told The Media Line. “The Egyptian government is unable to provide jobs and education for so many people.”

According to the Annual Bulletin of Births and Deaths Statistics 2009, Egypt’s live birth rate increased 8.1 percent in 2009 from 2008. The bulletin, published by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAMPAS), also noted that Egypt’s crude birth rate, an indicator referring to the total number of births at midyear, reached 28.8 per 1,000 population in 2009, compared to 27.3 in 2008.

Most of Egypt’s estimated 79 million people live crowded along the two banks of the Nile River. The most populous country in the Middle East, millions live in shanty towns and squat in tombs as the government strains to provide homes and jobs for its people. Experts warn that uncontrolled population growth will stifle efforts to boost standards of living.

If the current growth rate continues at the current rate of one baby every 23 seconds, or 1.3 million every year, Egypt will be home to at least 160 million people by 2050.

Since coming to power in 1981, President Hosni Mubarak has urged Egyptians to have smaller families and population growth has fallen from extremely high levels. This makes the latest statistics mark an embarrassing setback.

In 2008, the Health Ministry launched an $80 million family planning campaign called “Two Children per family – a chance for a better life.” While Mubarak himself has only two children, the average Egyptian woman gives birth to 3.01 children. Commercials broadcast on public television juxtapose a family with two well-dressed, clean children in a groomed house, with a noisy, unruly family with multiple children living in squalor in a dilapidated home.

“Through these commercials, the government is telling the public: every child born is your responsibility, so don’t have more children than you can afford,” said Kassem.

With parliamentary elections occurring in two weeks’ time, the new data are being used by Egypt’s opposition as political currency to slam the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). A headline in the Al-Wafd opposition newspaper claimed that “CAMPAS announces the failure of government planning policies.”

Abd Al-Rahman Abd Al-Hadi, a researcher at the Demographic Center of Cairo, said government attempts to curb birth rates are failing because the general public wasn’t involved in policymaking.

“The attempt to dictate policy from the ivory tower isn’t working,” he told The Media Line. “To influence people you must involve them in policy.”

Abd Al-Hadi said poor, often illiterate, rural families depended on large numbers of children as a source of revenue. He added that the Egyptian population was generally suspicious of government policies dictated from above.

“People here don’t believe the government is working for them,” he said. “The government does whatever it wants, and presents optimistic statistics to please the West.”

Abd Al-Hadi said that policymaking must take religion into consideration, as it is a key element in the life of most Egyptians. He added that most religious scholars agreed with the principle of family planning, as long as the method of birth control used is reversible.

“There are scholars who support family planning and those who don’t,” he said. “The problem is that less educated clerics live in rural areas, where the challenge is bigger. These clerics need to be convinced by more enlightened ones.”

Maye Kassem, the political scientist, said that although government provides free birth-control pills, Egyptians traditionally view children as a blessing from God and a source of wealth, not an economic burden. She added that in a society with no real welfare network, large families are regarded as insurance policy for parents’ old age when they can count on multiple children to support them.

“This is a cultural concept that will take a long time to change,” Kassem said.

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Frankfort, KY, United States (AHN) – The campaign worker for GOP candidate Rand Paul who stomped on a female liberal activist wants the woman, a supporter of state Attorney General Jack Conway, to apologize to him.

A MoveOn activist had tried to give Paul a mock award as the candidates debated on Sunday, but she was wrestled to the ground by the Republican candidate’s supporters and then stomped on by Tim Profitt, who was at the time a coordinator in Bourbon County for the Paul campaign.

The incident, which came a little over a week before elections, caused an uproar and Paul later condemned the actions of Profitt, who has been banned from campaign events and is facing a misdemeanor assault charge.

The 53-year-old Profitt, however, believes the activist is to blame. “She’s a professional at what she does,” he told WKYT. “I think when all the facts come out, I think people will see that she was the one that initiated the whole thing.”

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” he added. “I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest.”

The activist, 23-year-old Lauren Valle, suffered a concussion and a sprained shoulder. She had been trying to give a RepubliCorp award to the GOP candidate at the time she was assaulted. RepubliCorp is a mock award given by MoveOn to emphasize what the liberal group says are ties between the GOP and corporate interests.

Paul currently has a 7-point lead in the latest CNN/Time poll, up from tying evenly at 46 percent with Conway last month.

Another survey by Public Policy Polling has the Republican ahead by 13 points. The poll also found Conway’s “Aqua Buddha” television ad may have backfired. Fifty-six percent of voters said the controversial ad was “inappropriate,” and only 24 percent of Democrats approve of the ad.

The ad is based on a profile of Paul published by GQ. In the magazine article, a classmate of Paul at Baylor University described the Republican candidate’s college days as a member of the NoZe Brotherhood, a secret society that was at one time banned by the university for “sacrilege.”

GQ also interviewed a former female student at the university who said Paul and a friend had forced her to smoke marijuana, had bound her hands and taken her to a creek in the countryside, where Paul told her to bow down and worship “Aqua Buddha” as her god.

“Why was Rand Paul a member of a secret society that called the Holy Bible ‘a hoax’ — that was banned for mocking Christianity and Christ?,” a narrator in the ad asks. “Why did Rand Paul once tie a woman up? Tell her to bow down before a false idol and say his God was ‘Aqua Buddha’?”

An eye surgeon who defeated the GOP’s chosen nominee, Paul came under fire this summer for arguing that drug addiction is “not a real pressing issue” and for refusing to say he would vote for the Civil Rights Act by arguing, “Does the owner of the restaurant own his restaurant? Or does the government own his restaurant?”

Conway had meant his Aqua Buddha ad as a warning to voters about what he said were Paul’s “extreme” beliefs, but questions were soon raised about whether Paul had kidnapped the female student, who later told the Washington Post that the TV spot had gone too far in portraying a college prank.

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Mogadishu, Somalia (AHN) – Hundreds of people have gathered in Mogadishu on Saturday for a demonstration organized by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia to show support to Somalia’s new prime minister.

“Your Excellency Prime Minister, injustice made the country and its people in this abominable situation, you are needed justice right now” Moahamoud Ahmed Nur, TFG’s Mayor of Mogadishu, told the demonstrators.

Some demonstrators in Mogadishu were waving the images of Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the president of Somalia and the newly elected Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Others held placards proclaiming victory for the new premier.

Some members of the parliament, military and police officials from the transitional government were spotted in attendance at the demonstration.

God Abdalle Magen, Somali MP spoke at the rally calling on members of Somalia’s transitional parliament to shore up Mohamed Abdulahi “Farmajo” newly selected prime minister.

On Thursday in Mogadishu Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia’s embattled president appointed Somali-American, Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed “Farmajo” as the new prime minister in the transitional federal government. He will replace Omar Abdi rashed Ali Sharma’arke, the resigned Prime Minister.

The new Premier said his priority will be restoring peace and security in Somalia, indicating he will work with both the president and the Somali Parliament.

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Albany, NY, United States (AHN) – Republican candidate Carl Paladino is behind state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo by double digits but New York’s Senate race remains fluid, according to a poll released as Paladino counters criticism for fighting with a reporter seeking proof of his claim that Cuomo had paramours.

Cuomo leads the conservative, 53 percent to 38 percent, among likely voters in the Marist poll. The Democrat had a 52-33 percent advantage in a similar survey last week, before former Rep. Rick Lazio dropped out from the race.

Among moderates, Cuomo leads 57 percent to 34 percent. The state attorney general holds a commanding 70 percent support in New York City, but is statistically even with Paladino upstate, 46 percent to 47 percent.

The race has grown competitive in the suburbs, where 49 percent choose the Democrat and 43 percent support the Republican, significantly changed from Cuomo’s 53-30 percent lead last week.

Sixty percent have a favorable impression of Cuomo, while 31 percent have an unfavorable view of him and 9 percent are undecided. In contrast, 34 percent have a positive view of Paladino, 48 percent view the conservative negatively, and 18 percent are unsure.

The GOP continue to be more enthusiastic about the elections than Democrats. But the discrepancy has decreased from 51 percent of registered Republicans and 34 percent of Democrats to 44 percent of GOP voters and 33 percent of Democrats.

The poll is the first since Lazio withdrew from the race. The four-term congressman lost to Paladino during the Republican primary early this month despite having secured the Republican nomination in a state convention.

Paladino, a real estate developer and former Democrat, petitioned his way onto the ballot and became one of a number of political newcomers with Tea Party backing to defeat establishment candidates in this election year filled with voter distrust.

The Republican candidate is under fire because of a videotaped heated exchange this week with New York Post editor Fredric Dicker, who was asking him about his allegation that Cuomo had affairs.

The shouting match, which has Paladino threatening, “You send another goon to my daughter’s house and I’ll take you out,” has been widely viewed on YouTube and has prompted editorials questioning Paladino’s qualifications for governor.

“Try to imagine a man with Paladino’s anger-management issues dealing with the daily pressures and complexities of the job,” the New York Daily News said. “Imagine him winning over the Legislature. Imagine him responding calmly and coolly to a natural disaster or, God forbid, a terrorist attack.”

“It appears as though the man who so enjoys dishing it out can’t even take a tough grilling from an irritating reporter,” the New York Times added.

Dicker was seeking proof behind Paladino’s comments in an interview early this week with Politico.

“Has anybody asked Andrew Cuomo about his paramours?,” the Republican had told the newspaper. “When he was married or asked him why his wife left him or threw him out of the house?”

The campaign manager for Paladino said Friday the altercation happened because the GOP candidate was trying to protect his daughter. According to Michael Caputo, a photographer from the Post attempted to take photos of Paladino’s young daughter through the windows of their home.

“We believe this conduct puts Carl Paladino’s daughter in harm’s way, susceptible to kidnapping or sexual predators,” Caputo said. “This behavior by the New York Post and their senior political editor Fred Dicker is unacceptable. Endangering the safety of a 10-year-old child is repugnant.”

Paladino has also backpedaled from his allegation about Cuomo’s affairs, despite telling Dicker repeatedly during their argument that he would reveal evidence of his claims “at the appropriate time.”

The conservative told the Buffalo News he was not accusing Cuomo of infidelity but expressing exasperation over questions about his life. Paladino early in his campaign admitted to having fathered a child out of wedlock.

“Mr. Paladino should not be surprised by the media’s interest in his families, as he has invited public scrutiny of his personal life by running for governor and speaking openly about his mistress and love child,” Post editor-in-chief Col Allan argued.

The controversy is the latest surrounding Paladino, who previously came under fire for forwarding dozens of emails containing photos of bestiality, pornography and racism.

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