In the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. A wall with posters commemorating George Habash, the founder of the militant group PFLP. Habash died last January 26 of a heart attack in Jordan.

(CNN) -- Britain said Friday it will reconsider the asylum application of a gay Iranian teenager who claims he will be persecuted if he is returned home.

The announcement came after the European Parliament urged a resolution to the case and said Iran routinely detains, tortures, and executes homosexuals.


The case of 19-year-old Mehdi Kazemi has been in limbo after Britain initially rejected his asylum request. He fled to the Netherlands and sought asylum there -- but the government turned him down, saying the case should be dealt with in Britain, where he first applied.

"Following representations made on behalf of Mehdi Kazemi, and in the light of new circumstances since the original decision was made, I have decided that Mr. Kazemi's case should be reconsidered on his return to the UK from the Netherlands," British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in a statement.

Kazemi was studying in Britain in 2006 when he learned that his partner in Iran had been arrested, charged with sodomy, and hanged, according to Kazemi's uncle, who spoke to CNN on condition that his name not be revealed because of safety concerns.

"Under torture and pressure, (the partner) revealed Mehdi's name as his boyfriend," the uncle said.

Homosexuality is illegal in Iran, and gay sex is considered a capital crime. Human rights groups allege the Iranian government targets gays with beatings, lashings and execution.

Kazemi applied for asylum in Britain. In his application, he wrote that Iranian police were now after him, and he feared execution if he returned home.

Kazemi's father disowned him when he learned his son was gay, the uncle said.
Britain's Home Office initially rejected Kazemi's asylum application, saying that although homosexuality is illegal in Iran and gays do experience discrimination there, Britain does not believe homosexuals are routinely persecuted purely because of their sexuality.

Kazemi then fled for Canada but wound up in the Netherlands, where he was detained. He made three successive appeals for asylum in the Netherlands before the Council of State -- the Netherlands' highest court -- announced Tuesday that it rejected his plea.

The decision complied with a European Union agreement that an asylum application submitted in any EU country would be handled by that country alone, according to council spokeswoman

Daniela Tempelman. She said the regulation seeks to ensure that an asylum seeker is not redirected from nation to nation simply because none will take responsibility for the case.
In order for the Dutch court to consider Kazemi's asylum application, he needed to prove that Britain did not handle his asylum application properly, but he wasn't able to, Tempelman said.

His chances for appeal in the Netherlands now exhausted, Kazemi faces deportation to Britain.
The European Parliament passed a resolution Thursday demanding that a solution be found to Kazemi's case.

The resolution points out that the Iranian authorities "routinely detain, torture and execute persons, notably homosexuals" and that "Mehdi's partner has already been executed, while his father has threatened him with death."

It says the EU and its member states cannot send people back to countries where they risk persecution, torture and death because that would violate international human rights obligations.

The resolution asked EU member state "to find a common solution to ensure that Mehdi Kazemi is granted asylum or protection on EU soil and not sent back to Iran."

A new Walmart store in the United States is specifically targetting Arab-American shoppers.

No big surprise that it opened last week in Dearborn, in the U.S. state of Michigan, a Detroit suburb with a very high population of Americans originally from the Middle East.





So they've hired Arabic speaking employees (such as Mohamad, whose trainee badge is pictured above) and have stocked an "international aisle" with products like Halal meat, green olives and Taboule. The new store offers some 550 items geared toward Arab-American shoppers.

Dearbon, Michigan, March 6, 2008. Middle Eastern-American shoppers in the international aisle of the new Wal-Mart store. (AP Photos/Carlos Osorio)

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, March 11, 2008. Erdogan is expected to travel Saturday, March 15, 2008, to the country's poor southeast, in an apparent effort to address the concerns of the Kurds, two weeks after the Turkish military ended a ground operation against Kurdish rebels based in Iraq. (AP Photo)

"As part of the push, the government will dedicate a state television channel to Kurdish language broadcasting, a measure that Kurds in Turkey have sought for years," according to a report in today's New York Times.

Speaking of which, we will be traveling to Istanbul next week to film the April edition of Inside The Middle East.

Watch this space for regular updates on our reports and interviews from Turkey.

Update (4pm EST)


Mehdi Kazemi believes he will face persecution if he is made to return to Iran.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, had originally sought asylum in Britain, where he was taking classes on a student visa, because, he said, his boyfriend had been executed in Iran after saying he and Kazemi had been in a gay relationship.

-- By CNN's Octavia Nasr

-- AFP, March 11, 2008

A Frenchman was sentenced to three months in jail on Tuesday after having slandered King Abdullah II twice -- the second time as he was being bailed on the first charge.

Palestinian-born Muntaser Shehab, 47, was arrested on January 29 after a dispute over bills at a five-star Amman hotel where he was staying.

"He left the hotel and told a taxi to take him a money changer and, when he arrived there, he started to insult the king and country in the street," court documents said.

After two weeks in jail, Shehab was ordered released on bail pending trial.

"But before his release on February 12, Shehab again slandered the king at a police station, prompting the authorities to retun him to court."

Shehab pleaded guilty and was initially sentenced to a year in jail by the state security court, which later reduced the penalty "because he is a foreigner."

Punishment for defaming the king can be up to three years in prison.

--By CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh

An 19-year old Iranian who dared identify as gay nervously awaits a court ruling that he says could lead to his execution. “Mehdi” was studying English in Britain, when he says he learned his boyfriend back in Tehran had been arrested, charged with sodomy and hanged in 2006. But before the boyfriend was killed, Mehdi says, authorities forced his partner to name past lovers.

Days later, Mehdi’s family claims, Iranian police showed up at their Tehran family home with an arrest warrant. In an asylum claim submitted to Britain’s Home Office, Medhi said if he returns to Iran, he too would be executed.

Britain’s Home Office didn’t buy it. It turned him down – then Mehdi fled for Canada before British officials could deport him to Tehran. But he was stopped by border police in Germany and sent to the Netherlands.

He now sits in a Dutch detention center, where he waits for a judge to decide whether to grant him asylum, or carry out a British extradition request to send him to the U.K.

The British Home Office says it does not believe that homosexuals in Iran are routinely persecuted purely because of their sexuality.

But gay rights activists are outraged. Is Mehdi telling the truth? Could this be a scam to start a new life in Europe? The head of one Persian gay rights organization tells me the group’s own researchers in Tehran could not verify Mehdi’s claims – but they did find the boyfriend’s family, visited his school, searched government records; nobody would talk.

Such is homosexuality’s taboo in Iran. So how can one prove a past ‘gay lifestyle’ to British authorities when one comes from a country where being gay is illegal – and where gay sex is punishable by death?

I sat down with Mehdi’s uncle – he’s been living in England some 30 years. He says his nephew had been living as a openly gay man while in Britain – even moved to from London to Brighton, the English seaside city many consider Britain’s unofficial gay capital. If Mehdi is returned to Britain, then deported to Iran, the uncle says, whomever at the Home Office signs his deportation papers, signs his nephew’s death sentence. The uncle fears for his nephew’s safety if he’s deported.

He also tells me Mehdi’s father in Tehran has - to put it diplomatically - disowned Mehdi, “for the shame he’s brought on the family.” A growing wave of politicians, human rights organizations, gay rights activists and ordinary citizens make an interesting point: regardless of validity of Mehdi’s claims, no gay person should be sent back to Iran.

Mehdi’s case has become so well-known that if he returns home, he becomes a living symbol against the Iranian Regime’s moral code. A symbol that Regime may not be able to ignore. There are many people putting their own reputations on the line to campaign for Mehdi. It would seem quite an elaborate plan to fake. Where does the truth lie in this complicated, sensitive story?

Watch our in-depth look at Medhi’s case – and decide for yourself.

Mohammed Thaeir cries over his father's body in Baquba, Iraq, Monday, March 10, 2008. A female suicide bomber on Monday killed the head of a local group of Sunni fighters Sheik Thaeir Ghadhban al-Karkhi. (AP Photo)

-- By Maya Khourchid

Monday February 18th marked the premiere of ‘Dinner in the Sky’ in the Middle East, the first dinner taking place above the Emirates Towers in Dubai at sunset.

An interesting article published on the Nowlebanon site about a woman named Liza, one of the last Lebanese citizens of Jewish ancestry remaining in Beirut:

"An internal refugee from the civil war, Liza now lives with several generations of pet cats in an abandoned building set for demolition in the old Jewish quarter of Wadi Abu Jamil. Her unique story traces the recent history of Jews in Lebanon, from a childhood of tolerance and acceptance to the dark days of suspicion, emigration and violence after 1967 and the civil war. "

Check out the full article here.

-- By CNN Cameraman Neill Bennett

The Al Deira hotel is an oasis of calm in the conflict-ridden place that is Gaza. A regular haunt for foreign journalists on assignment here. Once back in its airy rooms from a day filming, it’s easy to forget the dangers and the squalor of Gaza.

But there was no getting away from events last night. An unholy sound of battle erupted outside.

Our first thoughts were that this was a continuation of the fighting that has recently engulfed this place. Ben Wedeman and I had heard moments before, as had the people of Gaza, the news of the shooting at the Jewish seminary in Jerusalem. This wasn’t fighting – this was celebration.

A cacophony of gunfire, cheering, car horns and fireworks went on all around the hotel. Standing cautiously at the window I filmed bright red tracer rounds flying overhead. Very much aware that what goes up, must come down.

This morning from my window at the Al Deira all seems calm. The sun reflects on the Mediterranean and people on the street go about their lives. And one fears how long this can last and whether there is another storm brewing.

Our Alphonso Van Marsh sent in this photo of a billboard in Cairo. The clinic advertising its services here offers plastic surgery and weight loss programs. It makes sense in Arabic, but in English, it may be a hard sell.