Al Jazeera Correspondent

When Shula Cohen was arrested for espionage in 1961, Beirut society was shocked. How could such an elegant, classy high society woman turn out to be an Israeli spy? Shulami 'Shula' Cohen was born of Jewish parents in Argentina and grew up in Israel. At 16, she was married off to a wealthy Lebanese Jewish businessman, Josef Kishik, and moved to Beirut. It's not entirely clear how Cohen, codenamed 'The Pearl' became a spy for the Jewish Agency and then for the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, when it was formed in December 1949. One theory is she'd always wanted to be involved in the building of Israel. Another is that she was recruited in Jerusalem and her marriage to Kishik was a "front". Either way, Cohen carved out a prominent place in the higher echelons of Beirut society and hosted salons where she entertained and cultivated politicians, influential businessmen and senior army officers. She used these parties, her cafes, casinos and her husband's Beirut shop to make contacts who'd enable her to provide intelligence to Israel and build a spy network. "Shula Cohen established this network not only to gather information, but also to smuggle Jews via the south," said writer Saqr Abu Fakhr. Cohen was part of a huge operation called "Aliya Bet" to bring Jews from Arab countries through Lebanon into Palestine. Arabs were opposed to the settlement of Jews in pre-1948 Palestine so their transit had to be secret. Jewish emigration from Arab countries to Israel remained highly contentious post-1948 and so this smuggling continued for many years. "The big success was not the information she gave, but she was there and the people from here, from the army would go to the Prime Minister Ben Gurion and say we have spies in the heart of Lebanon," said Ronni Shaked, a journalist at the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth. Rumours began to circulate about the goings-on at Cohen's salons and their clientele, with suggestions that sex was bought and sold. Lebanon's intelligence service, Le Deuxieme Bureau, was set up by President Fouad Chehab and asked to observe Cohen. "We considered it a new challenge to reveal what that woman was hiding, what her job was and who she was working for," Major General Sami al-Khatib remembered. "We rented an apartment above Shula Cohen's house in the same building. We also rented a second apartment opposite Shula Cohen's. We started spying on her through remote listening devices on the floor, wall or ceiling, linked to satellites. We recorded the voices and sent them to control rooms. Each apartment worked 24 hours a day." After two months of surveillance, the Deuxieme Bureau decided it had all the information on Cohen it needed. It planned a raid for the August 9, 1961. "Shula Cohen's arrest in Beirut was a shock. She was a spy receiving high-ranking figures at her salons. It was a shock to Lebanese public opinion that Lebanon could be infiltrated," said Saqr Abu Fakhr. Cohen's trial began on October 27, 1961 and received huge media attention. But, interestingly, nothing came out during the trial about the many Lebanese and other Arab politicians who had been caught in her clandestine web. On July 25, 1962 Cohen was sentenced to death. But due to international pressure, including from Israel, her sentence was commuted to 20 years. Cohen only served six years of her sentence imprisoned in Beirut. Israel took a large number of Arab prisoners during the second Arab-Israeli war in 1967 - and Cohen, among others, was exchanged for a number of Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian soldiers in the summer of 1967. Shula Cohen died in Jerusalem on May 21, 2017, aged 100. Also in 2017, the Lebanese authorities claimed to have made several arrests in connection with the passing of information to Mossad. Shula Cohen has passed away but her legacy lives on. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe

Former President of South Africa Frederik Willem de Klerk has criticised current leader Jacob Zuma's African Nationalist Congress (ANC) party for failing to realise the country's potential after the end of apartheid. The man who helped to bring an end to the country's apartheid policy by developing a one-person-one-vote policy across the country told Al Jazeera he was "very concerned" that race continues to dominate politics in the country, calling for South Africa to "normalise" its politics. 'The ANC is being torn apart' "[South Africa needs to move] away from ethnically driven politics towards policy-driven politics where people ... irrespective of race or colour can ... work together because they believe in the same things," he told Al Jazeera's Yehia Ghanem. Pointing to poor economic policy and corruption under Zuma, de Klerk said that the ANC could not continue to exist in its current form. "Bad leadership has led us to a point where the president of a country has lost his credibility. The ANC is being torn apart by faction fighting at the moment, and we don't have clear, well-balanced, credible and morally sound political leadership in South Africa," he said. "[The ANC] will split because you have in the same party true red communists, you have people committed to free enterprise, you have people with totally different ideological and policy principles in which they believe," said de Klerk. "It cannot last. So, I see a split and I think that can be healthy for South Africa." - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif has condemned US President Donald Trump over his threats to walk away from a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and western powers signed in 2015. The lead negotiator for the Iranian side told Al Jazeera that the US leader's remarks would not "help peace and security in the region" and would harm the long-term interests of the United States. Trump has repeatedly described the nuclear agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and enshrined under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, as "the worst deal ever". "I think it is an ill-informed statement, because certainly any deal would not be a perfect deal for all sides; it has to be less than perfect so all sides can live with it," Zarif said, warning that the international community could never trust the US again if it violated the deal. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

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The Chinese community in Egypt has grown to over 10,000 currently, thanks to a burgeoning commercial relationship between the two countries. Increasing numbers of Chinese have come to study, work and open businesses in the Arab world's most populous country, where many have developed an affinity for its life, culture and its people. For over a quarter century, China and Egypt have steadily been learning how to make money together – through a range of economic and infrastructure projects. Egypt has awarded several contracts to Chinese companies for the construction of a $20bn administrative and residential city that will be physically linked to Cairo. And China is the lead investor in the construction of a planned multi-billion dollar industrial zone around the Suez Canal. Each new collaboration is an opportunity for the Chinese diaspora to grow their businesses. South of Cairo, the Shaqel Thoben area is one of the world's major production centres for marble and granite. "The equipment and machines used here are from China," says Zhaou Ping, a marble and granite factory worker who has been in Egypt for three years. "My boss in China asked me to come with the equipment and be a consultant... Before I came to Egypt, I worked in the same field in China. When an Egyptian manufacturer visited my factory, he asked me to work with him. I now have many Muslim friends in the factory where I work. They treat me like a brother and a friend so I don't feel like a stranger or foreigner in Egypt. I feel I'm in my country, with my family." The Chinese have quite quickly helped diversify Egypt's economy. In 1999, there were only a few hundred but their numbers continue to grow as the two countries build stronger economic ties. Some who started out as small traders are now successful business owners, like restaurant owner Po Wein Zhoun. Po cleverly opened a Chinese restaurant when she realised there was a growing demand for it. "I realised many Chinese in Egypt have problems finding Chinese food...So I opened a small Chinese restaurant six years ago. After two years, the restaurant started becoming successful. For a year-and-a-half, I bought this restaurant from another Chinese," says Po, who is married to an Egyptian. Business is the main but attraction for Chinese who come to Egypt; but some are also drawn to the country's ancient heritage, like blogger Ali who studied Arabic and Egyptian history back in China. Fascinated, "I read an essay about Egypt and its pyramids and loved it. It's about mystery of the pyramids going back thousands of years. No one knows how they were actually built," says Ali. For some, their love of Egypt becomes profound, forming friendships that touch them and make them want to stay permanently. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe

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As Catalonia prepares to hold a historic referendum on whether to split from Spain, Catalonia's pro-independence President Carles Puigdemont, a former journalist, talks to Al Jazeera's John Hendren. He says “one important thing has happened in the past few days. There is a new majority in Catalonia, a wide ranging majority amongst the Catalans people which has grown that want to vote – be it ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but they want to vote and this is unstoppable. Referendums are not carried out by the courts or the police, its voters who make up a referendum… The wish to vote is unstoppable. You cannot put a brake on it.…Today the debate is not between independence yes or no, it’s above all between those who wish to create a new state right from the grassroots. A modern state. Or to continue with an authoritarian state which can cut back on our freedom, our liberties, to compel us to continue forming part of this state.” More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

Since the start of Europe's migrant crisis, Hungary has regularly been criticised over its controversial and tough immigration policies. In September, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected complaints filed by Slovakia and Hungary against a mandatory quota to accept asylum seekers, established as part of efforts to resettle arriving refugees more equally across the EU. The court's decision is final and not open to appeal. As a result, European officials will continue to be able to order member state governments to take in specific quotas of refugees entering the bloc. Budapest condemned the court ruling as "appalling and irresponsible", saying the EU will pay for its security fence with Serbia. Hungary's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, reportedly said: "This decision jeopardises the security and future of all of Europe. Politics has raped European law and values." So is Hungary willing to play by the EU's rules? And with increasing criticism of the country's immigration policies and concerning freedom of speech, does Hungary really share the EU's values? "I think [the criticism] it's extremely unfair because there's an issue where we don't agree - definitely. We think illegal migration is a security threat to Europe. Others say that illegal migration is acceptable. We don't think its acceptable. But that should not give the reason to anyone to question whether Hungary respects European values or not because we have been members of the European Union... we share the European regulations, and we share the European values, of course," Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's foreign minister, tells Al Jazeera. Responding to criticism that his country isn't living up to its treaty obligations of accepting more refugees, Szijjarto tells Al Jazeera: "Hungary has always fulfilled all the obligations we have on an international level. When the migrants came to Hungary, we have offered them the supply and treatment which is written in the international contracts and regulations. But those people were not ready to go to refugee camps, those people occupied public areas, those people blocked the highways, those people occupied the railway stations.... They refused to cooperate with the local authorities, they refused to go to the refugee camps, and they have violated very important European regulations..." Hungary's foreign minister calls illegal migration a "bad phenomenon" and believes the migrant issue is to blame for the security threat facing Europe. "The security situation has never been that bad in Europe than currently in modern history and the threat of terror has never been that serious as it is currently, and this is a direct consequence of the fact that 1.5 illegal migrants were allowed to come to Europe without any kind of control, regulation or check. And with this I don't say that those 1.5 million are terrorists - of course I don't say that - but I say such a big, illegal massive influx of people gave the opportunity for terrorist organisations to send their fighters, their terrorists to come to Europe." "Our position is that we should not encourage more people to take the life hazard, life risk to come to Europe, but we should help them to stay as close to their homes as possible. That's why our initiative has always been to give more financial aid to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, the Kurdish region of Iraq because these entities have been taking care of many refugees," Szijjarto says. Despite disagreements and controversy, Szijjarto says Hungary is committed to staying in the EU: "We have been members of the European Union and we will be members of the European Union - that's not a question, no one raises this question." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/

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Gautam Singh grew up in a remote village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. He was fascinated by the art of movies and wanted to become a filmmaker ever since a travelling cinema group passed through his isolated village when he was 10 years old. The nearest movie theatre was 50km away from his village and there were no buses around, so Singh would skip school and walk almost a day to watch a film and then come back. Like every aspiring Indian filmmaker before him, he eventually moved to Mumbai to try to make a name for himself. After sleeping in cramped rooms with seven other people and getting small gigs as a video editor, he finally decided that documentary filmmaking was his preferred style of storytelling. However, the people of his village didn't really consider documentary films to be "real films" because they were not run on the big screens. So after years of making documentaries, Singh decided to make a Bollywood-style movie that the people of his village would be able to see and be proud of. The story he picked for his Bollywood film "Gaon" which means "The Village," is one extremely close to his heart - a tale of the village he grew up in and its transformation. My Own Private Bollywood traces one filmmaker's passionate dream to make a Bollywood movie that will be loved and accepted by the people from his home village of Asarhia. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

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n 2011, four young Omani women decided to break the mould, challenge stereotypes and learn to sail. It's a sport dominated by men, but Rajaa Mubarak al-Owaisi, Entisar al-Tobi, Raya Rashid al-Habsi and Asrar al-Ajmi made up the crew of al-Thuraya under the auspices of Oman Sail. The crew and their boat take their name, al-Thuraya, from a constellation of stars. The four young women were part of a government initiative to promote the power of sport internationally, put Oman on the global map and revive the country's maritime heritage. By doing so, they challenged Gulf stereotypes of women. The women and their families had to think carefully about the effect their sailing might have on family life and whether it would affect their marriage prospects or responsibilities in the future. "It [marriage] hasn't happened yet," says Asrar al-Ajmi. "If it happens, I'll have to think about my priorities. It also depends on whether he'll accept it or not." As well as empowering these young Omani women in ways they didn't imagine possible, sailing enabled them to develop as people. "I've changed a lot", says sailor Rajaa Mubarak al-Owaisi. "I wasn't a sociable person before. But now I've changed. I meet journalists and people from other countries. I never thought I'd travel abroad." Al-Thuraya was the first women's sailing team in the Gulf region.They set out to change perceptions of women in the region by doing the same thing as the men, in the same conditions. But it was about more than just a yacht racing. They wanted to move barriers to achieve something different. "We're doing this for our country, our families who've supported us and the management as well," explains Raya Rashid al-Habsi. "We want to present a positive image and change the stereotypical expectation of women… We want to tell them that women can do more, physically and mentally. We want to change the misperception of women's capabilities." Al-Thuraya crewmembers and coaches paved the way for what's now called The Oman Women's Sailing Team and hope their example will encourage young Omani women to follow suit. "What I would really like the al-Thuraya team to do... is to show other people, women, men that this is a good adventure," explains coach Niall Myant. "It is something really special to have people say 'well, you know, you were impressive, I respect your talent' and that is what this team is about. It is about hopefully some children will look at the team and think maybe that is for me, maybe I should work hard enough that I can go to the world championship, with the Oman flag on my back and show everybody how strong we can be." More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe

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On January 21, Yahya Jammeh boarded a plane at Banjul's international airport and left the country he had ruled for 22 years. He had refused to accept election defeat in December. West African heads of state set off on a marathon month-long negotiation, taking turns to get him to accept the results. Eventually they gave Jammeh an ultimatum: either he steps down or 7,000 soldiers from the region step in to take back control of the country. On January 19, foreign troops marched in as the country's elected leader, Adama Barrow, was sworn in. Jammeh took power after a bloodless coup in 1994, when he was a 29-year-old lieutenant. "We have no plans to stay long. What we are here for is to set a just system and to put up structures so that what happened in the past 13 years will never happen again," he said back then. But soon, he swapped his army uniform for a white traditional robe and changed his tone. He ruled the country with an iron fist - imprisoning critics and political opponents. Human rights organisations accused him and his security forces of torture and enforced disappearances. We talk to the men and women who helped bring Yahya Jammeh's 22-year rule to an end. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/