Why the Middle East is a mess

By Frida Ghitis, Special to CNN

November 30, 2012 -- Updated 1323 GMT (2123 HKT)

The tension between Israelis and Palestinians is just one of many troubling situations in the Middle East.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Frida Ghitis: Obama trying to pivot to Asia, but Middle East chaos stays center stage
• Why? She says region long at the center of historical currents and conflicting ideologies
• There's a battle for the future in Egypt, Iran, Syria, Israel and with the Palestinians, she says
• Ghitis: Fight is dictators vs. democracy; pluralists vs. Islamists; women don't fare well

Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter: @FridaGColumns.

(CNN) -- Have you looked at the Middle East lately? It's a giant mess, with civil wars, massive popular protests, cross-border fighting, armed insurgencies, exploding car bombs and on and on. And that's just in the past few days.

The Middle East refuses to acknowledge that the United States has decided to pivot toward Asia. It refuses to step out of the spotlight.

What we see today is proof that long-standing notions about the region -- the old conspiracy theories, the oversimplifications -- were just not true. Claims that the world paid attention to the area only because it had oil or that the key to every single problem in the Middle East involved Israel have been proved wrong.

The Middle East still monopolizes the attention of diplomats, forces military experts urgently back to their drawing boards, keeps world leaders awake at night and would do so even if it did not hold a drop of oil or if the Arab-Israeli conflict did not exist.

Why?

Peres: Iran is competing with Egypt

Egyptian government drafting constitution

Syrian rebels say they shot down plane

Peace holds in Gaza conflict

The Middle East stands, as it has for centuries, at the center of historical currents and conflicting ideologies.

What goes on there reverberates across national borders and leaps over oceans. When (most of) you attend religious services on the weekend or when you take off your shoes before boarding an airplane, you do it because of an idea that was born in the Middle East.

The region is in crisis because it suffers from endemic corruption, poor governance, discrimination against women and serious economic problems.

Rival philosophies are battling for the future -- Shiites competing with Sunnis, advocates of democracy challenging dictators, Islamists trying to overpower pluralists and Christians concerned over their future. Those are just a few of the ingredients fueling the conflicts.

Democracy supporters may have become more muscular, but other determined fighters aspire to create profoundly anti-woman, anti-liberal and anti-American states. The implications of those beliefs will become evident as history unfolds.

For America, the full pivot will have to wait.

Consider the recent fighting in Gaza, dramatic developments in Egypt, slaughter in Syria, multiple bombings in Iraq, or the Palestinian bid at the United Nations.

On the front burner:

Egypt

The streets of Cairo are boiling with rage against President Mohamed Morsy, who stunned the country -- and the White House -- when he announced he was taking powers in what many view as a return to dictatorship. Protesters worry about a creeping power grab by the Muslim Brotherhood. One respected Arab observer compared Morsy to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. Morsy insists his move is necessary and only temporary. Eventually we will find out who is right.

The answer will help set the future of democracy in the Arab world, where Egypt leads in ideological, political and cultural trends. That's why when Egyptians picked up the flame from a popular uprising in Tunisia two years ago, every dictator in the region trembled. Every Western capital had to review its strategic alliances.

Iran

The United States might want to focus on Asia, but it cannot stop worrying about Iran. Some will insist the concern is about oil, but the U.S. could still buy oil from a nuclear-armed Iran. Obama, and the world, fears Iran's nuclear program will trigger a nuclear arms race in the most politically unstable part of the planet.

On Wednesday, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization vowed that Iran will accelerate enriching uranium, despite harsh international sanctions. Separately, U.S. officials told CNN that Tehran is already finding ways to ship weapons to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, just days after the U.S. helped broker a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.

Israelis and Palestinians

This conflict remains a neuralgic point in the region and a challenge to American influence. Hamas vows to destroy Israel, while the Palestinian Authority refuses to sit down for talks, laying the blame at Israel's feet. Defying Washington's wishes, the authority took its case to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, where an automatic majority of Arab, Muslim and Non-Aligned Movement countries guaranteed a positive response to its upgraded status request.

The move unhelpfully delinks the process of gaining statehood from the need to reach a negotiated peace.

Syria

In Syria, some 40,000 men women and children have died in the country's civil war. The rebels are making gains in their very worthy cause of overthrowing the repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad. But the West, including the United States, worries about what might come after al-Assad's fall.

The opposition includes progressive advocates of democracy, but it also counts all manner of other ideologies, from mild Islamists to extremists who would like to see Syria as part of a supranational Islamic caliphate. Washington looks confused about what to do, but it cannot afford to ignore what is happening.

It would be nice if the American president could decide which regions will command his attention.

But this is the Middle East, and like it or not, it promises to remain at or near the top of the agenda.

In Uganda, Not Everyone Loves an Elephant

A village on the southern edge of Queen Elizabeth National Park, where crop raiding elephants destroy subsistence farmers' livelihoods, September 28, 2012. (H. Heuler/VOA)

• Interpol Conducts 'War' on Poaching in Africa
• Wildlife Advocates: Religious Leaders Vital to Endangered Species
• US Targets Traffickers as Rhino Horn Value Soars
• Saving African Elephants: The Global Debate

Hilary Heuler

November 28, 2012

KAMPALA — They come by night, stripping saplings, flattening rice paddies, uprooting whole fields of corn. Voracious and practically unstoppable, they lay farmers’ livelihoods to waste.

 

But here in Western Uganda, where the most destructive animals aren't locusts or crows, but highly protected elephants, conventional pest control is not an option.

 

"Just two months ago elephants ripped up an acre of my sorghum crop and [my] two children had to go hungry," says Latib Kalema, whose village borders Queen Elizabeth National Park, home to around 5,000 of the hungry giants.

 

Because the animals destroy acres at a time, many of his neighbors have resorted to growing tobacco — less elephant-friendly than standard food crops, but also less profitable. 

 

“I have no problem with elephants, as long as they stay in the park," says Kalema. "But once they come into our villages they become a real nuisance.”

 

Dwindling herd numbers

 

With a resurgence of poaching and herd numbers in alarming decline, African elephants have recently returned to the headlines. Earlier this year, the Ugandan army was implicated in an incident in the Democratic Republic of Congo in which 22 elephants were slain.

 

Despite conservationists’ best efforts, the gentle giants are not popular with everyone.

 

"Where elephant concentration is, that’s where the big problem is," says Patrick Agaba, project director for Uganda Conservation Foundation, who calls elephants the most destructive of all the park's inhabitants. "By walking along, it’s a destruction; turning around, it’s a destruction; eating, it’s a destruction, so there is a lot of damage. They can’t help it.”

 

When the crops are ripening, farmers have taken to sleeping out in their fields to guard against elephant raids, make noise to chase the massive animals away. But according to Charles Tumwesigye of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), farmers’ anger does sometimes boil over with fatal consequences.

 

“In the last two years I can recall one incident where the community, through a mob, killed an elephant which had raided their gardens," says Tumwesigye. "The whole village mobilized and people came with spears, and by the time our staff arrived it was too late.”

 

In another incident, he says, several people were arrested carrying pineapples filled with vials of acid, intending to poison the creatures.

 

Although the problem isn't new, Benon Mugyerwa, the national park's warden, says it is being newly exacerbated by burgeoning population growth.

 

“There is a high demand [for] this land, [and] people are digging up to the boundary," he says. "Originally, they used to put trees around the park boundary, but now, because the land is not enough, they need some food for eating, not trees.”

 

Traditional elephant control involves digging ditches, though elephants have been known to fill them in with dirt, September 28, 2012. (H. Heuler/VOA)

​​A new tactic

 

While traditional elephant control involved digging ditches, the pachyderms learned to fill them with dirt and find their way to unprotected crops, so rangers have called on some of the park’s smallest residents to tackle the problem: bees.

 

In Kalema’s village, wooden beehives now line a small valley that was once a favorite crossing for elephants. But since the hives were put up last year, Kalema says, not a single elephant has 

Latib Kalema stands beside the bee hives that have been preventing elephants from crossing to raid his crops, September 28, 2012. (H. Heuler/VOA)

​​passed this way.

 

​​Although it is only a pilot project, the UWA's Tumwesigye says that, so far, it seems to be effective.
 

“Elephants don’t like bees — the noise and the stinging, especially on their ears, they don’t like it," he says, adding that his organization plans to roll out more beehives in elephant-prone communities, along with additional deterrents like ground-chili paste and possibly electric fences.

 

The elephant conflict is part of a larger problem involving relations between local communities and the national park, he says, explaining that not everyone appreciates the parks’ protected status.

 

“They look at it as free land," says Tumwesigye. "Others look at it as a source of meat — they need the protein, there are free animals, free meat. Park officials are there to ensure that the integrity of the parks is maintained, [that] there is no poaching. They will always be in conflict with the communities.”

  

In the meantime, 20 percent of the park's gate proceeds are put back into projects that benefit the surrounding community.

 

It's one way to ensure that even if some villagers resent the elephants, at least they get more than trampled crops out of the arrangement.

KNU chairman Tamla Baw resigns

Wednesday, 28 November 2012 17:04 Mizzima News

Gen Tamla Baw, the 93-year-old Chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU), has announced his resignation and retirement.

According to a KNU source, he made the announcement on Monday in a speech at the opening ceremony of the KNU’s 15th Congress which is currently being held in Hlaing Bwe Township in Karen State.

No successor has yet been chosen, the source said.

The KNU leadership has been in turmoil recently following an internal rift between a faction led by Gen Mutu Say Poe and a hardliners headed by Tamla Baw’s daughter, Zipporah Sein.

The KNU source said, “Tamla Baw is old and in poor health. It is difficult for him to travel. That’s why he is stepping down.”

The two-week congress is being held in Lay Wah, an area under the control of KNU Brigade 7. A new Karen leadership is scheduled to be elected on the final day of the congress.

The KNU central committee has announced that Gen. Mutu Say Poe will continue as commander-in-chief of the KNU until a permanent decision is made at this congress.

The KNU has been fighting successive Burmese governments for more than 60 years, demanding autonomy. In January, it signed a ceasefire agreement with the government.

Chinese industrialist buys top Bordeaux chateau

• View PhotoDifferent shapes of bottles are displayed on November 27, at the Vinitech wine professional …

A Chinese industrialist has bought Chateau Bellefont-Belcier, a leading wine estate in the St Emilion region of Bordeaux, sources involved in the sale said on Thursday.

The property is the first of its status -- Grand Cru Classe (classified growth) -- to fall into Chinese hands.
Chinese investors have acquired a string of lower-ranked properties in the region in recent years and China has become the biggest export market for Bordeaux wines.
Chinese purchases have generally passed off without much fuss in Bordeaux, where there is a long tradition of foreign ownership of wine estates.
In contrast, the acquisition by a Chinese buyer of Chateau Gevrey-Chambertin in Burgundy earlier this year caused a major row, with some local winemakers and far-right politicians claiming that the country's heritage was being sold.

ภาพถ่ายสัตว์สวยๆ สิงโตเเสบ เเอบจิ๊กกล้องโปร ร้ายจริงอะไรจริง

ชมรูปภาพสัตว์สวยๆ เมื่อกะตั้งกล้องเเอบถ่ายสิงโต เเต่ที่ไหนได้เจ้าสิงโตตัวเเสบ ดันเดินมาหากล้องเเล้วเเอบจิ๊กกล้องโปรไปคาบเล่นอย่างสบายใจเฉิบ ขอบอกเลยว่าร้ายจริงอะไรจริง เซ็ตนี้เราไปชมภาพสวยๆของตากล้องที่สามารถจับ นาทีที่เจ้าสิงโตเเอบจิ๊กกล้องกันไปดีกว่าครับ เเต่ละภาพถ่ายได้สวยจริงๆ

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           เมื่อวันที่ 26 พฤศจิกายนที่ผ่านมา เว็บไซต์เดลิเมลของอังกฤษ รายงานว่า นาย โทนี่ ทราวูอิลลอน นักวิทยาศาสตร์ ได้บันทึกภาพที่ชาวโลกออนไลน์ให้ความสนใจแชร์กันมากในขณะนี้ เป็นภาพน้ำแข็งสูงขนาดยักษ์คล้ายคลื่น ขนาด 50 ฟุต อยู่ในสภาพแข็งตัวอย่างฉับพลัน ในบริเวณขั้วโลกใต้

           โดยบางคนแสดงความคิดเห็นเกี่ยวกับภาพดังกล่าวว่า อาจ เป็นคลื่นยักษ์สึนามิที่เกิดการเย็นตัวอย่างฉับพลันในขั้วโลกใต้ อย่างไรก็ตาม มีผู้เชี่ยวชาญรายหนึ่งเปิดเผยว่า คลื่นดังกล่าวเป็นปรากฏการณ์ของน้ำแข็งขั้วโลกสีฟ้า ที่น้ำแข็งเป็นสีฟ้าเพราะว่าแสงสามารถเดินทางผ่านน้ำแข็งที่หนามาก และน้ำแข็งดูดซับแสงแดงเข้ามาเพื่อขับปล่อยสีฟ้าออกไป ซึ่งถ้าฟองของน้ำไม่ถูกบีบอัด ก็จะไม่กระจายแสงออกไป ทำให้น้ำแข็งเป็นสีขาวทั้งหมด

           ทั้งนี้ ยิ่งใต้ผืนน้ำแข็งที่มีความลึกมากและเป็นน้ำแข็งบริสุทธิ์มากเท่าไร ก็จะยิ่งดูดซับแสงได้ดีขึ้น และก็จะแสดงสีนั้น ๆ ออกมาตั้งแต่สีเหลืองไปถึงเขียว เขียวไปน้ำเงิน และออกน้ำเงินสว่างที่สุด ด้านนายโทนี่เดินทางไปยังขั้วโลกขณะทำปริญญาเอกของมหาวิทยาลัยนิว เซ้าท์ เวลส์ ของออสเตรเลีย โดยเขาได้ทำวิจัยทดลองความรู้ทางวิทยาศาสตร์ ภูมิศาสตร์ โดยการใช้รีโมทเซนซิ่งและกล้องโทรทรรศน์ในการตรวจหาช่วงความยาวคลื่นที่เกิด ขึ้นที่ขั้วโลก

Police bust Australia's biggest credit card scam

• View PhotoA Romanian syndicate allegedly responsible for the biggest credit card data theft …

Australian police have uncovered the country's biggest ever credit card data theft and smashed a Romanian syndicate allegedly behind the scam.

An international investigation saw seven people charged in Romania with stealing the details of about 30,000 credit cards and using the information to buy goods around the world worth some Aus$30 million (US$31 million).
Police reported that the data was stolen by hacking into the computer systems of around 100 small Australian retailers.
It was then used to create false credit cards, enabling thousands of counterfeit transactions in numerous locations including Europe, Hong Kong and the United States.
The investigation was sparked when an Australian financial institution alerted police to suspicious credit card transactions and the probe grew to involve law enforcement agencies in 13 countries.
The scam culminated in 16 people being detained in raids on 26 properties across Romania on Wednesday, with seven charged.
Reports in Australia said that an international wrestling champion, Gheorghe "The Carpathian Bear" Ignat, was among those held but later released.
"This is the largest data breach investigation ever undertaken by Australian law enforcement," said Commander Glen McEwen, manager for Cyber Crime Operations at the Australian Federal Police.
"Without the cooperation of 13 other countries, along with Australia's banking and finance sector, we would not have been able to track these illegal transactions to the criminal network in Romania.
"Today's successful outcome is a culmination of 17 months of hard work with these partners."
Australian banks and credit unions have reimbursed customers for their losses.

More about the story

• Australia seizes $246 million of drugs from China
• Dead body, 200 kg of cocaine found on Tonga yacht
• M'sian cops bust African credit card phishing syndicate
• Another assault on Korean in Australia raises alarm
• Police probe French racism row in Australia
• 'Thuggish' Australian police blasted over Taser death
• Girl, seven, feared taken by crocodile in Australia

The old man and the sea: 73-year-old to sail solo around world in 'bathtub' boat

By Sheena McKenzie, CNN

November 28, 2012 -- Updated 1334 GMT (2134 HKT)

The swedish boat builder says bigger vessels are more dangerous than smaller ones, adding: "My boat is like a little capsule --it will capsize, it will pitchpole, but it will always come back up."

Setting sail

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• 73-year-old man plans to sail around world in world's smallest boat
• At 3meters-long, the vessel is only slightly bigger than a bathtub
• World renowned boat builder Sven Yrvind says creation is safer than big boats
• Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, first solo world sailor, says plan is possible

Editor's note: MainSail is CNN's monthly sailing show, exploring the sport of sailing, luxury travel and the latest in design and technology.

(CNN) -- When faced with the most ferocious waves on the planet, most people would seek protection in the largest, sturdiest vessel they could find.

But when Swedish pensioner Sven Yrvind sets out on his ambitious mission to circumnavigate the globe, it won't be in a hefty ship piled high with food, creature comforts and telecommunications equiptment. Instead, the 73-year-old plans to traverse the high seas cocooned in a sailboat only slightly bigger than a bathtub.

For many, the proposition of sailing non-stop around the world for a year-and-a-half in a vessel just three meters-long will sound rather ambitious, and coming from a man well past the retirement age, downright far-fetched.

Indeed, few would likely take the idea seriously were Yrvind not one of the world's most respected boat-builders.

The sailing world's hardest race

Designing super yachts

During his accomplished life he has given lectures to the Swedish king and queen and received awards from the prestigious Royal Cruising Club in Britain, among others.

"People have said it's a suicide mission," said Yrvind. "But a big boat is actually more dangerous than a small one. You've got bigger forces throwing you around -- a bigger engine, a bigger beam, a bigger deck.

"My small boat is like a little capsule -- nothing can happen to you. It's like throwing a bottle in the water -- it will capsize, it will pitchpole (somersault), but it will always come back up," he added.

Read: Are traditional sailboats the future of trade?

If successful, Yrvind will make history for sailing the smallest boat around the world without docking on land.

The record is currently held by Italian Alessandro di Benedetto, who in 2010 circumnavigated the globe in a 6.5 meter yacht -- more than double the size of Yrvind's creation.

Yrvind, from the small village of Vastervik in south east Sweden, started building the ground-breaking vessel in March. Now half-complete, he is reluctant to put a time on its launch.

Click on the pindrops above to trace Sven Yrvind's proposed circumnavigation route.

Named Yrvind Ten after its 10 foot length, the miniature vessel will be just 1.8 meters wide with two six meter-tall masts.

Weighing 1.5 tons, it will be made out of a composite foam and fiberglass material which, he says, is "excellent for insulation and floatation."

Powered by wind, solar panels, gel batteries and a foot crank, Yrvind Ten will set sail from Ireland in a 48,000 kilometer return journey around the globe.

Read: The world's greatest yachting cartoonist

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail around the world in 1969 in a 9.8 meter yacht, said there was a real possibility Yrvind would complete the voyage.

Briton Knox-Johnston, who also founded the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, added that many people had thought his own bid to circumnavigate the globe was impossible at the time.

"One of the biggest challenges he'll face is when he's coming up against these massive 25 meter waves in the Southern Ocean. In a boat that size he's just going to be rolled around and around like he's inside a giant washing machine," Knox-Johnston said.

"He might also find he's using a lot more energy -- and will need a lot more food -- being rolled around like that."

Read: Life of a superyacht chef: Dream job or nautical nightmare?

The Swede will collect rainwater in sails, funneled by a hose to a tank. With no heating equipment on board, he'll rely on 400 kilograms of muesli and sardines, supplemented with vitamin tablets and fish caught from the sea.

This will prolong my life, not the other way around
Sven Yrvind

"I need just half-a-kilogram of food a day and this will give me enough food for 800 days," he said.

"In the beginning I will have fruit but obviously that will run out. I also have a friend in Melbourne with a boat who will come out with supplies."

The self-described "recluse" plans to spend his days swimming, philosophizing and reading more than 400 books, which weigh around 100 kilograms.

"On land, people are watching TV, driving cars in traffic, smoking, drinking -- it's not healthy," Yrvind explained.

"Out at sea it's a cleaner environment -- mentally and physically. When I come back I will be a healthier, younger person. This will prolong my life, not the other way around."

Read: Paralympics sailor: 'My disability is a gift'

Growing up on the small Swedish island of Branno in the North Sea, Yrvind quickly learned to sail in an area so remote he needed to cross water simply to buy a loaf of bread from the shop.

In his 50-year career building boats, Yrvind has been lavished with awards from around the world. In 1980 he received a Seamanship Medal from the Royal Cruising Club in Britain for single-handedly sailing a six meter boat around the stormy waters of Cape Horn, Chile.

Eight years later he was inducted into the Museum of Yachting's Hall of Fame, based in Newport, Rhode Island, for his many single-handed expeditions.

In a boat that size he's going to be rolled around like he's inside a giant washing machine
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston

The museum also has one of Yrvind's boats on permanent display -- a six meter yacht he built in his mother's basement and sailed from Sweden to Newport in 1983.

In 1989 Yrvind also built and sailed a 4.5 meter boat from France to Newfoundland, now on display at the Swedish National Maritime Museum in Stockholm.

And the sprightly septuagenarian is no closer to slowing down -- last year sailing a tiny 4.5 meter-long boat from Ireland to the Caribbean.

Yrvind, who is also on the look-out for sponsorship, hopes his boat will not simply break the record books, but pave the way for a new environmentally-friendly design for living.

"We are on Earth living beyond our resources -- oil is running out, fossil fuels are running out, water is running out," he said.

"If I can show I can live on a boat 10 foot-long for more than a year, with all the food I need with me, I think it might benefit mankind."

For a man who "loves all things small," should he accomplish the feat it would be a huge achievement in the history of sailing.

Clashes in Cairo as Egypt plunges deeper into crisis

• View PhotoRiot police fire tear gas on Tahrir Square during clashes with protesters in Cairo …
• View PhotoEgypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi addresses his supporters in front of the …

Egypt on Wednesday plunged deeper into its worst political crisis since Islamist President Mohamed Morsi took office in June, with massive opposition rallies nationwide signalling a new "revolution" nearly two years after Hosni Mubarak was toppled.

Police early Wednesday fired tear gas into Cairo's Tahrir Square, where several hundred protesters spent the night after a mass rally to denounce Morsi's power grab.
Clashes that have been erupting on streets just off Tahrir near the US embassy spilled into the square, with canisters falling into the crowd forcing protesters to run and sending clouds of tear gas over the tents housing the demonstrators.
The outskirts of the square have seen sporadic clashes now entering their ninth day, in what started as an anniversary protest to mark one year since deadly confrontations with police in the same area.
Clashes also raged through the night between supporters and opponents of Morsi in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla and the canal city of Port Said.
In Mahalla, 132 people were injured while 27 were hurt in Port Said, medical sources told AFP. According to a security official, calm in both towns had been restored by morning.
Tuesday's huge turnout for a protest rally in the iconic square in the heart of Cairo, as well as in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and most of Egypt's 27 provinces, marked the largest mobilisation yet against the president.
"The revolution returns to the square," headlined the state-owned daily Al-Akhbar.
"Revolution to save the revolution," said the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm in a bold front-page headline.
Protesters are furious at the decree that Morsi announced last Thursday allowing him to "issue any decision or law that is final and not subject to appeal", which effectively placed him beyond judicial oversight.
The move helped consolidate the long-divided opposition, with leading dissidents former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei and ex-Arab League chief Amr Mussa uniting with former presidential candidates in the face of Morsi and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, on whose ticket Morsi ran for office.
The Brotherhood and the secular-leaning opposition had stood side by side in Cairo's Tahrir Square in 2011 as they fought to bring down Mubarak and his regime.
But since the strongman's downfall in February last year, the Islamist movement has been accused of monopolising politics after dominating parliament-- following vows not field candidates for a majority of the seats-- and backtracking on a promise not to nominate a presidential candidate.
The movement went on to dominate a committee tasked with drafting the country's new constitution, prompting a string of walkouts by liberals, leftists and churches who say the panel fails to represent all Egyptians.
Morsi's decree also bans any judicial body from dissolving the controversial panel, putting him on a collision course with the judiciary. Several courts have suspended work in protest.
The decree is temporary, valid only until a new constitution is in place, and Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party says the measures are aimed at speeding up a seemingly endless transition.
US officials said Washington was closely following the drama unfolding in Egypt, with a warning that Cairo could put vast amounts of international aid at stake if it veers off the democratic course.
The situation was evolving, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
"I think we don't yet know what the outcome of those are going to be. But that's a far cry from an autocrat just saying, my way or the highway," she said.
Nuland stressed that "we want to see Egypt continuing on a reform path to ensure that any money forthcoming from the IMF truly supports a stabilisation and a revitalisation of a dynamic economy based on market principles."
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said Egypt can still get its $4.8 billion loan, agreed last week, despite the turmoil as long as there is "no major change" in its reform commitments.

Wider World by CS: เหรียญหลวงปู่ทวด/เหรียญเลื่อนสมณะสักดิ์ พระอาจารย์ทิม ๒๕๐๘

Wider World by CS: เหรียญหลวงปู่ทวด/เหรียญเลื่อนสมณะสักดิ์ พระอาจารย์ทิม ๒๕๐๘

เหรียญหลวงปู่ทวด/เหรียญเลื่อนสมณะศักดิ์ พระอาจารย์ทิม ๒๕๐๘

เหรียญหลวงปู่ทวด รุ่นเลื่อนสมณะศักดิ์ ของพระอาจารย์ทิม ปี ๒๕๐๘ ถือว่าเป็นเหรียญอันดับหนึ่งของท่านโดยเฉพาะ เหตุเพราะจัดสร้างขึ้นเพื่อการนี้ คือการได้เลื่อนสมณะศักดิ์เป็นพระครูวิสัยโสภณ ของท่าน เป็นเหรียญที่ข้าราชการชื่นชอบโดยเฉพาะตำรวจชื่นชอบที่สุดเพราะนามของเหรียญเป็นเหตุ ทุกคนแสวงหากันเป็นอย่างมาก และสู้ราคา บางคนถึงกับขอยืมเพื่อนมาใช้ก่อนเพื่อเป็นศิริมงคล แต่คืนยากหลังได้เลื่อนยศสูงขึ้น คงเป็นเพราะอยากได้ยศสูงอีกมั๊ง อันนี้ก็แล้วแต่....

เหรียญนี้มาอันดับแรกราคาพอกับเหรียญรุ่นแรกของหลวงพ่อทวดปี๒๕๐๕รุ่นแรก ผู้เขียนขอยืนยันว่า ถ้าท่านจะเล่นเหรียญรุ่นนี้ ทั้งสอง กรุณาให้เล่นเนื้อทองแดงเป็นหลัก เพราะถือเป็นหลักสากล อีกร้อยปีก็จะนิยมไม่เสื่อม เหรียญทองคำ/เหรียญเงิน/เหรียญอัลปาก้า นิยมเป็นรองและเชียร์กันเฉพาะหมู่เฉพาะพวก ไม่สากลนิยม นะครับ ต้องเล่นเนื้อทองแดงล้วนๆ

การปลอมแปลงไม่ต้องพูดถึง มีเยอะมากๆ การเล่นเหรียญนี้ให้เน้นเส้นขนแมวเป็นหลัก จุด/ขีดยังเป็นรอง เพราะเส้นขนแมวเป็นธรรมชาติของเหรียญเอง ส่วนจุดนั้นอาจเกิดจากความสกปรกของblockเมื่อเวลาปั้มเหรียญ บางจุดอาจมี/ไม่มีได้ แต่ก็ยังเป็นเหรียญแท้ปั้มในเวลาใกล้เคียงกัน ในซอกลึกๆก็ยังมองเห็นขนแมว และมักจะเหมือนๆกันแทบทั้งนั้น ท่านจงเอาของแท้ของท่านมาส่องดูเถอะครับและรองเอาไปเทียบกับของเพื่อนๆท่านที่เป็นของแท้ก็ได้ อีกอย่างเนื้อเหรียญต้องตรึงดูลึกๆ ตัวหนังสือเป็นธรรมชาติ ตัวหนังสือนี้สำคัญมากนะครับ จะสวยอ้วนเป็นเส้นขนมจีน บางตัวก็บิดพลิ้วงาม อย่างเช่นตัว ท  การชี้ตำหนิเหรียญแท้นั้นท่านต้องระวัง เพราะมันไม่ใช่เหรียญอันเดียวกัน แต่ถ้าท่านอยากได้เหรียญอันเดียวกัน ท่านก็ต้องให้ทุกอย่างเหมือนกันหมดไม่งั้นมันก็คนละอันนะครับ พวกเซียนชี้ตำหนิเหรียญมักพลาดเรื่องนี้ทำให้ถูกตอกกลับหน้าเสียมามากแล้ว เหรียญแท้รุ่นเดียวกันไม่ใช่จะเหมือนกันหมดทุกๆจุดนะครับจำไว้ด้วย ลองเอาเหรียญบาทใหม่มาส่ิงดูก็ได้ สองเหรียญยังไม่เหมือนกันเลยแต่มันก็แท้ ไม่รู้พวกเซียนชี้ตำหนิเคยเอามาส่องดูบ้างหรือเปล่า พวกเศรษฐีเงินถังเงินถุงต้องระวังเซียนพวกนี้ให้ดีๆ เพราะหลงทางมามากแล้วกู่ไม่กลับ เล่นพระอย่าเชื่อเรื่องพงศวดาร anecdote/เกล็ดความรู้ตลกขบขัน เพราะมันนำมาใช้พิสูจน์ความแท้ไม่ได้

ภาพประกอบ (ภาพถ่ายสีเข้มไปหน่อย/แต่สีสรรค์เกือบเหมือนจริงมากๆ) เหรียญทองแดงรมดำ

ม.โชคชัย ทรงเสี่ยงไชย

CB announces credit card deal in Burma

Tuesday, 27 November 2012 18:33 Mizzima News

JCB is to become the third of the major global credit card companies to launch operations in Burma after its international subsidiary, JCB International (JCBI), signed an agreement with Myanmar Payment Union (MPU) to issue JCB cards in the country.

The company said it aims to expand JCB card acceptance early in 2013 and to launch a JCB card issuing program in the near future.

JCB, meaning Japan Credit Bureau, is the leading credit card in Japan and has increased its presence heavily in other parts of Asia in recent years. JCBI says its cards are now issued in 16 countries and territories, with more than 77 million card members worldwide.

Japanese press reported on November 26 that JCB—following in the footsteps of US giants VISA and MasterCard— had signed a Memorandum of Understanding for building a JCB ‘card acceptance network” and for issuing JCB cards in Burma through the member banks of MPU.

MPU was established by the Central Bank of Myanmar in 2011 with 17 local banks to promote the acceptance and issuance of payment cards in the country.

The MPU debit card scheme was officially launched in September among eight private banks out of the 17 members. Those were: Myanmar Citizen Bank, Myawaddy Bank, Myanmar Oriental Bank, Kanbawza Bank, Cooperative Bank, Asian Green Development Bank, and Myanmar Apex Bank.

It was announced that the first ATMs would be installed in the three main cities of Rangoon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw.

The cash amount an MPU card-carrying customer can request is set at a minimum of 1,000 kyat ($1.14) and a maximum of 5 million kyat (about $5,700).

On November 1, Co-operative Bank Ltd launched the first ATM in Burma at its head office in Rangoon. The name of the ATM service is “Easi Banking”.

Seas rising 60 percent faster than UN forecast: study

• View PhotoFile photo of flooded Bangladeshi houses in Gabura after a cyclone slammed into the …
• View PhotoBuildings are seen near the ocean in Miami, Florida in March 2012. Rising sea levels …
• View PhotoFile photo shows tourists in a kayak off Kurumba island, Maldives. Dozens of tiny …

Sea levels are rising 60-percent faster than the UN's climate panel forecast in its most recent assessment, scientists reported on Wednesday.

At present, sea levels are increasing at an average 3.2 millimetres (0.125 inches) per year, a trio of specialists reported in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
This compares with a "best estimate" by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007, which projected that by today, the rise would be 2 mm (0.078 inches) per year.
The new figure converges with a widely-shared opinion that the world is heading for sea-level rise of around a metre (3.25 feet) by century's end, co-author Grant Foster of US firm Tempo Analytics told AFP.
"I would say that a metre of sea level rise by the end of the century is probably close to what you would find if you polled the people who know best," Foster said.
"In low-lying areas where you have massive numbers of people living within a metre of sea level, like Bangladesh, it means that the land that sustains their lives disappears, and you have hundreds of millions of climate refugees, and that can lead to resource wars and all kinds of conflicts," he added.
"For major coastal cities like New York, probably the principal effect would be what we saw in Hurricane Sandy.
"Every time you get a major storm, you get a storm surge, and that causes a major risk of flooding. For New York and New Jersey, three more feet of water would be even more devastating, as you can imagine."
The investigation, led by Stefan Rahmstorf of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), gauged the accuracy of computer simulations that the IPCC used in its landmark Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.
That report jolted governments into nailing climate change to the top of their agenda, culminating in the ill-fated Copenhagen Summit of 2009, and helped earn the Nobel Prize for the IPCC.
The new study gave high marks for the document's forecast on global temperature, saying there was a "very good agreement" with what was being observed today, an overall warming trend of 0.16 degrees Celsius (0.28 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade.
But it said the IPCC's projection for sea levels was much lower than what has turned out.
The panel's prediction for the future -- of a rise of up to 59 cms by 2100 -- "may also be biased low," it warned, a caution shared by other studies published in recent years.
Foster said the bigger-than-projected rise could be attributed to meltwater runoff from land ice, something that was a big unknown when the IPCC reported in 2007 and remains unclear today.
Other factors were technical uncertainty, he said.
The IPCC's projection had been based on information from 1993 to 2003, and there has been more data since then, helping to prove the accuracy of satellite radars that measure ocean levels by bouncing radar waves off the sea surface.
The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report will be published in three volumes, in September 2013, March 2014 and April 2014.

Why it’s such a big deal that Obama said ‘Myanmar’ rather than Burma

Posted by Max Fisher on November 19, 2012 at 12:09 pm

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive in Rangoon. (Soe Than Win — AFP/Getty)

One small but potentially telling detail I and others were watching for in President Obama’s trip Monday to Southeast Asia’s longtime dictatorship and rogue nation Burma, a historic visit meant to encourage the country’s impressive democratic reforms and to displace Chinese influence there, was what name Obama would use for the country. The United States still officially refers to it as Burma, even though the country’s leadership renamed it Myanmar about 20 years ago. Neither name was an ideal option for Obama, who did use a number of phrases such as “this spectacular country.” But you probably can’t be the first sitting U.S. president to visit a country without using that country’s name at least once, and he did: Myanmar. From The Washington Post’s David Nakamura:

After meeting with President Thein Sein, the civilian leader who took control of the country from the junta, Obama for the first time referred to the country as “Myanmar,” the name used by the nation’s own leaders. The U.S. government’s policy has been to continue using “Burma” — the English name based on the Burmese colloquial word for the country and the one used by the opposition when speaking English. A year after brutally crushing pro-democracy demonstrations, the junta changed the name of the country in English from the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar in 1989.

This might seem like a small issue, but it gets to one of the most difficult questions in U.S. diplomacy with nasty regimes: How much legitimacy to bestow on a government that has done terrible things but is demonstrating both a willingness and ability improve? While Obama has emphasized that his visit is not an endorsement of the regime, using the name “Myanmar” would certainly risk that impression. The U.S. refusal to adopt “Myanmar” has been a way of communicating American disregard for the abusive military junta and its right to speak on behalf of the nation it rules. So, in a small way, adopting “Myanmar” at least hints at the United States moving away from this approach, and thus toward accepting the government’s legitimacy. That would also mean potentially bolstering the legitimacy of the Burmese government, which is still staffed by a number of people who have done some awful things.
Some people aren’t ready to accept the name Myanmar, and thus implicitly acknowledge the government’s legitimacy in changing the country’s name from Burma. One of them would seem to be Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, whom Obama also met with on Monday. In a recent interview with a major Indian newspaper, The Hindu, she was asked which name she preferred. She explicitly linked her choice — Burma — with the government’s legitimacy and its past abuses. Here’s the relevant part of her answer, with my emphasis added:

Well, I think it’s up to you. I’ll explain why I use Burma. Burma was known as Burma since independence. Suddenly, after the military regime took over in 1988, one day, just like that, out of the blue, without so much as a by your leave from the people, they announced that Burma was going to be known as Myanmar in English from now on officially, and it would be Myanmar at the U.N. and so on. And the reason they gave is this, that Myanmar referred to all the peoples of this country whereas Burma, first of all, is a colonial name; and secondly, it had only to do with the ethnic Burmese.
To begin with, I object to a country’s name being changed without reference to the will of the people, without so much as the courtesy to ask the people what they might think of it. That of course is the sort of the thing only dictatorships do. So I object it to it on those grounds.

The case for Obama to use Myanmar gets to an uncomfortable reality of reforming dictatorships: sometimes the regime, for all its past and perhaps even ongoing abuses, is also the group capable of doing the most good. If Obama empowered the Burmese government by implicitly endorsing its chosen national name, then perhaps that also empowers the government to continue reforming. If Burmese leaders believed that the United States considered them all war criminals who should be locked up at The Hague as soon as possible — or, worse, killed in a popular uprising like the one that toppled Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi less than a decade after he gave up his nuclear weapons and instituted his own more meager reforms — then they’d presumably be a lot less willing to push for more democracy and human rights.
The issue of Burma or Myanmar perhaps boils down to one of confidence. The more confident that Obama is in the Burmese government’s ability to continue evolving from a military dictatorship to a liberal democracy, the more reason he would have to grant the small but significant concession of using their chosen name of Myanmar. If Obama continued to use Burma, that would communicate skepticism toward the government’s efforts and perhaps even its sincerity, risking a backlash from that government or a setback in the burgeoning U.S.-Burma (U.S.-Myanmar?) relations he traveled there to improve. That he chose “Myanmar” shows a degree of confidence in the country’s ruling government and in the reforms it’s seeing through — as well as a willingness to continue working with the regime, partially on its terms.
The Burma/Myanmar dilemma is still a difficult one — will the State Department officially change its official designation from Burma to Myanmar? Will Secretary of State Hillary Clinton make a pointed reference to “Burma” if reforms stall? — but no one said that the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” would be easy.

US Targets Traffickers as Rhino Horn Value Soars

Rhinos with cut horns on a farm owned by Dawie Groenewald, who, along with two veterinary surgeons, is accused of rhino poaching, Musina, Limpopo province, South Africa, May 9, 2012.

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• Record Number of Rhino Killings in South Africa
• S. Africa Sentences Rhino Horn Trader to 40 Years

Ivan Broadhead

November 13, 2012

HONG KONG — By prioritizing the arrest of rhino-horn traffickers, the United States is signaling its ongoing commitment to the eradication of wildlife-related crime. Through stiff prison sentences and tactics like seizure of financial assets, authorities are moving aggressively to protect the world’s endangered rhino.

For those who may dismiss the seriousness of wildlife smuggling, U.S. special agent Edward Grace has a startling figure. He says the value of wildlife crime is estimated at up to $8 billion a year, making it the most lucrative illegal activity after arms and drugs trafficking.

Deputy chief of law enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Grace says the same criminal syndicates peddling weapons and narcotics are driving species such as the rhino toward extinction.

Dwindling species

Rhino poaching in South Africa, 2007-2012

​​“Criminals see the wildlife trade as low risk, high profit," said Grace. "Get caught smuggling a kilo of heroin, you will probably go to jail for the rest of your life if; smuggle a kilo of rhino horn, which nowadays is worth more than heroin or gold, in several countries worldwide you may only go to jail for a couple of years."

The plights of Africa’s Black and White rhinos are well known. In Asia, Vietnam lost its last Javan rhino in 2010, and it now is believed that fewer than 200 of the Sumatran subspecies have survived.

In response, the U.S. recently launched Operation Crash — "crash" is the collective noun for rhinos — in which more than 200 federal agents are targeting illegal commerce of the animal’s horn.

“When organized crime gets involved in any wildlife trade, they have the resources and the networks," said Grace. "So we make it a priority to go after these networks because they have the ability to do a lot of damage in a very short period of time."

Tougher sentencing

Criminals dealing rhino horn are on notice that soft-sentencing is a thing of the past. In the last few weeks alone, two men with links to Vietnam were successfully convicted after an Operation Crash sting.

 

Jimmy and Felix Kha — found guilty of procuring horn, tax evasion and other offenses under the Lacey Act, one of the world’s oldest wildlife protection laws — are both facing up to 20-year terms in prison.

 

“We will continue this effort for as long as it takes to identify, apprehend and jail every bad guy engaged in this illicit trade in rhino horn," said Joseph Johns, chief of the environmental crimes section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, California. "And we do expect more very significant arrests and sweeps to take place with regard to Operation Crash  in the next year.”
 

Targeting profits

To improve the odds of saving the rhino, Operation Crash is not simply targeting low-paid middlemen and couriers. Instead, Johns explains, agents are pursuing the bosses behind the trade, seizing their cars, homes and gold deposits, and draining their bank accounts of millions of dollars in cash.

 

“The goal is not just to punish the crime, but take the profit out of it," he said. "We want to eliminate this [crime] in this generation. We call them endangered species for a reason. We cannot just wait and sit on our hands.”

 

The U.S. has a proven record helping the recovery of species on the verge of extinction. In the 1980s, federal agencies were key players in eradicating the illegal caviar trade, saving the Caspian sturgeon.

 

However, the U.S. also is the world’s second largest wildlife market after China. As such, Johns says the country needs to be doubly committed to protecting endangered animals.

 

“It is ironic. On one hand, developed nations have the luxury to put in place environmental regulations and actually enforce them, protecting endangered species. But the flip side of that is that individuals in developed nations also have the monetary wealth to acquire and consume endangered species,” he said.

Calls for international cooperation

Besides the Khas, Operation Crash has netted a Chinese wildlife dealer, a cowboy, and an antiques expert, among others.

 

Such arrests highlight the international nature and diversity of wildlife criminals. Faced with such a global challenge, agent Grace says a transnational response is required.

 

“This is a crisis, and we are working with Interpol, with law enforcement in Africa and Asia," said Grace. "It is not a problem that will be solved by one country, but by numerous countries working together.”

 

As conservationists across Africa and Asia fight to save the rhino, U.S. law enforcement says it is committed to going after the criminal networks that profit from the poaching.

Saving African Elephants: The Global Debate

Elephants gather at dusk to drink at a watering hole in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya, March 25, 2012.

• Interpol Conducts 'War' on Poaching in Africa
• US Targets Traffickers as Rhino Horn Value Soars
• Wildlife Advocates: Religious Leaders Vital to Endangered Species
• Record Number of Rhino Killings in South Africa

Mary Alice Salinas

November 13, 2012

Wildlife experts and conservationists say African elephants are under unprecedented attack. Organized gangs have turned wildlife ranges into war zones as they hunt for the creature’s prized ivory. The trend has raised questions about whether international efforts to protect them are helping or making the problem worse.

African elephants splash in ponds of water deep inside the Dzanga Sangha Reserve in the Central African Republic.

Andrea Turkalo, a scientist for the World Conservation Society, travels through the park, first by car, then on foot, hacking a path through the jungle with a machete.

About 50 elephants mill about. The majestic and iconic creatures appear safe here, but Turkalo says the threat has never been greater. “It’s bad news everywhere. They’re being poached everywhere. And I think people have to realize that. That whole situation has changed," he said.

But why has poaching for elephant ivory skyrocketed in recent years? The commodities have always been prized in Asian countries, where the appetite for them has also surged.

This will be a central question during a March gathering of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.

CITES was formed more than 30 years ago to ensure that international trade does not threaten the survival of wild animals and plants.

Nations voluntarily sign onto the convention. CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon says parties have legal obligations and if they do not comply with the convention they face possible suspension in the trade of some 35,000 species.

“So it is very much a hard law international convention and in fact it stands out amongst all of the conventions dealing with the environment for the teeth that it has,” he said.

Ivory that was confiscated in Singapore in 2002 and returned to Kenya was burned during the first African Elephant Law Enforcement Celebrations held on July 20, 2011 at Kenya Wildlife Services Field Training School at Manyani, Kenya. (Steve Njumbi / IFAW)

​​Stockpiles from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana were traded to Japan and China.

176 parties have signed on. But some countries in sub-Saharan Africa blame CITES itself — at least in part — for the surge in elephant poaching and illegal ivory trade.

CITES banned the trade in newly obtained ivory in 1989, but since then it has twice allowed African countries to legally trade ivory from elephants that died of natural causes.

Debate

Critics argued the so-called “one-off” sales wrongly sent a signal that it was legal to trade in ivory again and made it easier to launder illegal ivory with legal ivory. Opponents of the sales — like the Kenyan government — say this fueled demand and caught the attention of organized gangs that have set out to cash in.

Authorities say the new, highly-sophisticated gangs are equipped with weapons of war and increasingly brazen as they hunt for ivory and rhino horns — now worth more than gold in the Asian black market.

"If nothing is done in the coming CITES meeting to deal with the issues to enforcement and deal with the issues of demand, many countries in Africa will lose their entire elephants population,” says Patrick Omondi, head of Kenya’s wildlife management and conservation.

Kenya has proposed that CITES place a moratorium on any more legal ivory trade until at least 2017.

Legal sale

Ivory seized by year, worldwide, from 2008 to 2012.

​​Tanzania, however, has asked CITES to allow it to sell 100 tons of legal ivory, arguing the government needs the money to fight well-financed and heavily-armed poachers.

“We are experiencing some of the most defining moments in our conservation efforts because of the increased poaching,” says Lazaro Nyalandu, Tanzania’s deputy minister of natural resources and tourism.

Nyalandu says whether or not previous legal sales caused the spike in poaching, his country needs the proceeds to better equip its game rangers.

CITES Secretary-General Scanlon says the legal ivory sales were part of an “experiment” to see if a fresh supply would help drive down the cost and demand. He said statistics on the sales have been inconclusive.

Out in the wild, conservationists like Turkalo believe it all has to do with more than protecting wildlife.

"It’s trade and it’s about money and that’s the way the world works. And I think a lot of us are very naive in thinking that we can decide all these things at national meetings, international meetings,” he says.

CITES is currently considering proposals by countries on both sides of the ivory-sale issue and will issue its recommendations in January.

Egypt crisis: Mass rally held against Mohammed Mursi

The BBC's Bethany Bell reports as thousands of people gather in Tahrir Square, Cairo

Tens of thousands of people have held protests in Cairo against Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, who last week granted himself sweeping new powers.

Flag-waving demonstrators chanted slogans accusing the president and the Muslim Brotherhood of betraying last year's revolution.
On Monday Mr Mursi sought to defuse the crisis by saying the decree granting him new powers was limited in scope.
However, his opponents want him to withdraw the measure completely.
Ahead of Tuesday's rally, opposition activists clashed with police protecting the nearby US embassy. A protester, who was in his fifties, died of a heart attack after inhaling tear gas.
Activists later converged on Tahrir Square - the main focus of the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak - for one of the largest demonstrations to date against Mr Mursi.

Some journalists joined the protests

"The people want to bring down the regime," marchers chanted, echoing slogans used in last year's protests.
"We don't want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom," protester Ahmed Husseini was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Journalists, lawyers and opposition figures - including Nobel Peace prize laureate Mohammed ElBaradei- joined Tuesday's rally,
"The main demand is to withdraw the constitutional declaration," said Amr Moussa, a former Arab League chief who has joined the opposition.
Protests were also held in Alexandria and other cities.
'Sovereign' matters The president's decree - known as the constitutional declaration - said no authority could revoke his decisions.

President Mursi says he wants to find common ground

There is a bar on judges dissolving the assembly drawing up a new constitution. The president is also authorised to take any measures to preserve the revolution, national unity or safeguard national security.
Critics say the decree, issued last Thursday, is an attack on the judiciary. It has sparked violent protests across the country.
On Monday Mr Mursi told senior judges that the scope of the measure would be restricted to "sovereign matters", designed to protect institutions.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which supports President Mursi, said it was postponing its own demonstration, originally due on Tuesday, to avoid "public tension".
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says the postponement is another sign that the government wants to defuse confrontation, but it remains to be seen whether it ends the days of angry and sometimes violent protests.
Egypt's union of judges, known as the Judges Club, rejected the president's statement, calling it "worthless" and said they would continue to suspend work in courts.