Thanks to Abu Elvis, Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, Nilk, Paul Green, TB, TV, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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President Bush Meets With President Talabani of Iraq
President Talabani to president Bush: “We in Iraq are looking to you as a hero of liberation of Iraq from worst kind of dictatorship.”
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, welcome. First of all, I am so pleased to see that you’re looking good. The President’s health is strong, and that’s going to be very important for the people of Iraq. After all, there’s been no stronger defender of a free Iraq than President Talabani. I’ve known him for a long time. He cares deeply about the Iraqi people, and he has been a strong defender of human liberty.
President George W. Bush welcomes Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to the Oval Office, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008, where the two leaders heralded the improved security situation and quality of life for the citizens of Iraq. White House photo by Eric Draper Mr. President, thanks for the good conversation we had about the election laws, about the need to get a strategic framework agreement signed. And thank you very much for bringing me up to date on your perspective about life inside of Iraq. It’s — things have changed a lot since we’ve known each other.
PRESIDENT TALABANI: Of course.
PRESIDENT BUSH: And attitudes are completely different now that people realize the security situation has changed and mothers can raise their children in a more normal life. It’s still difficult, but there’s no doubt that the surge has been effective, which has enabled us to take out troops. Iraqis want there to be fewer U.S. troops, the United States wants there to be fewer U.S. troops, but both of us want to realize that vision based upon success.
And so, Mr. President, welcome back. I’m glad you’re feeling good. And thank you for the visit.
PRESIDENT TALABANI: Well, Mr. President, thank you very much for giving me the honor of meeting you again. I think it’s clear that we are in Iraq looking to you as a hero of liberation of Iraq from worst kind of dictatorship. And now we are working with your — with you, Mr. President, for finalizing the strategic framework agreement between United States and Iraq.
And also, we are always getting benefit from your views about how to secure Iraq. I think you know very well that you and we in Iraq achieved very good successes on terrorism. Now I can say all parts of Iraq liberated from terrorist control and activities. It’s true that some groups remain hiding themselves from here or there, but there’s no place, no inch of Iraqi land under the control of terrorist activities. There are some terrorist — still groups working — hiding themself, and thanks to you and sacrifice of your brave army and to Iraqi people, now we can live in peace and security.
And Iraq government started to spend the money which we have for serving the Iraqi people and rebuilding the country, reconstructing the country. Not only we liberated our country from terrorist activities, but also from militias, outlawed militias who are also making troubles and danger for Iraqi people.
And as you have heard, the Basra city, Sadr City, (inaudible), Ninawa, Baqubah — all these cities are now liberated. So we are thankful to you and to your people, your army. We hope that the agreement about this strategy formation will be signed soon.
And as usual, we are working, our parliament is working now for finalizing the draft of a new law for election provinces, and I hope that, as I heard the news yesterday, I hope that today it will be finalized, because the groups — head of groups of parliament are now gathering in parliament to reach — to finalize this.
In our country, we are now busy to reconstruct our country and to rebuild our country. And I am glad to tell you, Mr. President, that our position with our neighbors is improved very well — with Turkey, with Syria, with Iran, with the Arab countries. The relation is notable now and we have no problem with any of these countries. In contrary, many, many new ambassadors are coming —
PRESIDENT BUSH: That’s right.
PRESIDENT TALABANI: — to our country from Arab countries. And our visit of Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr. Tayyip Recep Erdogan, and of the — His Majesty, the King of Jordan, to Baghdad were very successful, and was encouraging to Iraqi people to understand that they have friends outside Iraq.
So I hope that friendship and relation between your great people and the Iraqi people will continue and will be strengthened. And we will never forget what you have done for our people.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, President.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Television Finds Unique McCain Footage
Footage showing U.S. presidential candidate John McCain as a POW has been gathering dust for 35 years in Sweden.
Sweden’s national television has released what it claims is previously unpublished film footage of US Republican Party Presidential Candidate John McCain leaving North Vietnam following his release from a prisoner of war camp.
The footage has reportedly been in SVT archives for the last 35 years, but has now been released on DVD to accompany a book about the Vietnam War by the Swedish author Erik Eriksson. The footage shows McCain and other former POWs leaving a bus and standing on the tarmac at Hanoi’s airport.
McCain’s name is heard being called out, after which a slightly limping McCain is greeted by a high ranking U.S. military officer on his way to an airplane after more than five years of captivity as a prisoner of war.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
A Hate Fanatic Has Boasted That Muslims Will One Day Conquer Britain — by Having More Babies.
Speaking at a rally marking 9/11, Anjem Choudary bragged that a birth explosion would let followers of Islam take control of the country.
Undercover Sun investigators secretly recorded Choudary telling a young and impressionable audience that they would eventually rule under strict Sharia law.
And our team listened in chilled silence as he predicted: “Islam is superior and will never be surpassed. The flag of Islam will rise over Downing Street.”
Lawyer Choudary also said it would be easy for vast numbers of Muslims to declare Jihad, or holy war, against Britain — and that every one of them could become “a time bomb waiting to go off”.
The Sun team watched vile Choudary, the right-hand man of exiled preacher of hate Omar Bakri, ranting to 100 young Muslims at a meeting in East London.
The mob bayed and cheered as he said: “About 500 people in Britain become Muslim every day.
“The Home Office say there are 1.5million Muslims but there were 1.5million ten years ago. Since then our brothers in Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and other places have had eight or nine children each. Eight children here, ten children, 15 children. There must be at least six million people.
“It may be by pure conversion that Britain will become an Islamic state. We may never need to conquer it from the outside.”
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Estonia Sees End to Russian Oil Transit
Estonia has seen a steady fall in volumes of Russian oil product exports and is eventually expecting the flow to dry up completly, a top railway official said, Reuters writes.
Russia used to export a quarter of its heavy fuel oil, about 25 million tonnes a year, as well as light products, through Estonia’s port of Tallinn. But a diplomatic quarrel led Russian railways to divert most of the light products to its own ports.
This will also in the future apply to heavy fuel oil, said Estonian Railways Chairman Kaido Simmermann.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Expert: Estonia’s Only Hope is Transit Trade
Heido Vitsur, economist for the Estonian Development Foundation, writes that claims that Estonia can be successful also without the transit trade sector are misleading.
Vitsur writes in Eesti Päevaleht that today there is only one sector that is capable of increasing exports and bringing in the much-awaited budget revenues: transit trade.
“The other two export sectors, textile industry and wood industry, are in deep trouble. In addition, transit trade is pure exports and also creates thousands of jobs,” writes Vitsur.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
German Anti-Mosque Group Forecasts 1,500 at Tense Cologne Demo
Cologne, Germany — An anti-mosque demonstration in one week’s time in Germany is likely to attract 1,500 rightists from around Europe, according to an organizer, Markus Beisicht, in Cologne on Friday as fears grew of violent clashes. Riot police throughout North Rhine Westphalia state have been put on standby to separate the rightists from up to 40,000 opponents.
The two groups are at odds over the start of building work for Cologne’s grand mosque.
The right-wing Pro Cologne group rejects the house of worship for the city’s large Muslim community as alien.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the anti-immigration National Front in France, will be one of the speakers at the Pro Cologne rally.
Violent leftists are expected to try to disrupt the rally, while trade unions have also rallied to the side of the Muslim community and organized a peaceful mass counter-demonstration.
Beisicht, who is Pro Cologne’s chairman, said at least 1,500 people would attend the main rally of his “Congress Against Islamicization” on a downtown square, the Heumarkt.
The Vlaams Belang party in neighbouring Belgium would send hundreds of supporters to cheer their leader Filip Dewinter. Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria, would also address the rally.
The weekend event would be launched with a Friday news conference and a city tour to Muslim districts of the city including the grand mosque site. Pro Cologne is hostile to immigrants and campaigned against building permission being granted for the mosque.
Beisicht said the tour would pass the office of “our opponents,” the Ditib organization which builds mosques for Turkish-speaking Muslims all over Germany. The city gave planning permission this month for the mosque, which will have a dome and two minarets.
Commenting on leftists’ plans to hold sit-ins to block roads around the venue, Beisicht said he was confident “the majority of our participants will be able to reach Heumarkt without harm.”
His group had devised ways to move in small groups to evade the leftists.
While Pro Cologne is separate from Germany’s far-right parties, state police have put it under surveillance so as to follow up suggestions that it may be an extremist organization.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: 1,500 Anti-Mosque Protesters Expected at Cologne Demo
Cologne, 12 Sept. (AKI) — At least 1,500 rightists from around Europe are expected to attend a protest next weekend over the start of building work on Cologne’s grand mosque, triggering fears of violent clashes, Germany’s news agency DPA reported.
Riot police throughout North Rhine-Westphalia state are being readied to separate the rightist anti-mosque protesters from up to 40,000 opponents expected to show up at the rally, being held in Cologne’s central Heumarkt square.
The founder of France’s anti-immigration National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is expected to show up.
The right-wing Pro Cologne group rejects the house of worship for the city’s large Muslim community as alien, while trade unions have organised a peaceful mass counter-demonstration in support of the mosque.
The far-right The Vlaams Belang party in neighbouring Belgium plans to send hundreds of supporters and Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria will also address the rally.
Pro Cologne which is organising the protest, will also have a bus-tour for anti-mosque protesters that will take in the site of the planned mosque and the city’s Muslim quarters, as well as the Ditib organisation which builds mosques for Turkish-speaking Muslims all over Germany, DPA reported.
The city gave planning permission this month for the mosque, which will have a dome and two minarets.
Pro Cologne is separate from Germany’s far-right parties, but state police have put it under surveillance.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
German Finance Minister Rejects Idea of European Stimulus Plan
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck rejected Friday the idea of a European stimulus plan to revitalise the economy, as EU finance chiefs gathered to map out a way to avert a recession.
“I think there is no need for a European stimulus package. Every country is responsible for itself … it makes no sense to burn money,” he told reporters in Nice, southern France. […]
The European Commission estimated on Wednesday that Europe was teetering on the brink of a technical recession, which economists define as two consecutive quarters of contraction. […]
Unlike other global economic heavyweights, Europe has few options for tackling the growing crisis. […]
Among the major eurozone economies, only Germany has healthy public finances, but Steinbrueck has repeatedly refused to loosen up fiscal discipline even though the commission estimates that Europe’s biggest economy is already in recession.
Steinbrueck disputed Brussels’ prognosis, telling journalists: “I think we are not facing in Germany recession, (but) we are facing a lot of slowdown risk undoubtedly.”
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http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5962139/The-Hague-could-deport-up-to-5000-Iraqis
The Hague could deport up to 5,000 Iraqis
The Dutch cabinet has decided to end the special status of Iraqi refugees, which means that 5,000 of them could be deported.
The cabinet says improved security in Iraq no longer justifies an automatic temporary permit. Three-thousand refugees will now have their cases reviewed on an individual basis. Two-thousand others who awaiting the result of asylum requests will not receive the permit.
Deputy Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak stressed, however, that no one will be expelled before the decision has been approved by parliament. Labour, one of two main coalition partners, has cast doubt on whether security in Iraq has really improved.
A Dutch refugee group insists that the government is making a big mistake. The group points out that 600 Iraqi civilians were killed in July alone..
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Mohammed Teddy Row Sparked Islam Murder Plot
TERROR suspects tried to kill a British diplomat in revenge for a teacher letting kids name a teddy Mohammed, it was revealed yesterday.
The unnamed diplomat escaped unhurt when he disappeared into a crowd on the day the five men were to execute their plot in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
Details of the would-be assassination came out during the trial of five men accused of killing a US diplomat in Sudan when police general Abdul Rahim Ahmed Abdullah said the five were Islamic fanatics seeking revenge for the teddy bear incident in Khartoum.
Last year, teacher Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was jailed for 15 days for insulting Islam by allowing pupils to name their class mascot Mohammed.
She was later pardoned and allowed to return to the UK.
The five suspects are charged in the killing of American envoy John Granville, 33, and his Sudanese driver.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Worker Given Birthday Card With ‘Too Old to be a Terrorist’ Message
A Muslim computer worker was given a 40th birthday card by work colleagues saying “too old to be a terrorist”, an employment tribunal heard.
Omar Fikri, 42, said he was so offended by the card he destroyed it after showing it to his wife.
He told the hearing that although it was meant as a joke, his co-workers knew he was sensitive about being labelled an extremist after the terrorist attacks on London and America.
He also told the hearing that co-worker Sam Low called his praying “disgusting” when Mr Fikri failed to answer the phone while praying at his desk.
Mr Fikri, who worked as a £30,000-a-year software programmer for international freight company Davies Turner, in Dartford, Kent, is claiming discrimination on the grounds of race and religious beliefs.
He was sacked in April this year following an investigation into his conduct. He refused a £20,000 ‘termination package’, claiming he was dismissed because he had started proceedings against the firm and complained “too much”.
He said: “Had I been white and Christian I would not have been dismissed.”
He said he didn’t mind jokes about terrorism but “there are limits” and he didn’t think the card, given to him in 2006, was “funny at all”.
The hearing, in Ashford, was told Mr Fikri prays five times a day, twice a work where special arrangements have been made for him.
Of the conversation with Mr Low, in October last year, he said: “I was just praying — everyone knew that was normal. They were used to seeing me do it. He racially abused me for praying and not answering the call, saying that my praying was ‘disgusting’“.
Mr Low admitted he started shouting at Mr Fikri because he thought he was “ignoring him” and “didn’t care” what he was doing. He said he couldn’t remember using the word ‘disgusting’. He added: “He shouldn’t have been praying in the middle of an open plan office.”
After a morning of evidence, Mr Fikri agreed to a settlement, thought to be over £20,000.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: New Major Fire in Bergen
Another historic building in Bergen has been destroyed by fire. Firefighters were not able to save the warf-side storage house Maaseskjaeret in Sandviken, dating back to the 16th century.
More than 30 persons from two nearby apartment building were evacuated. No one was injured in the explosive fire.
According to NRK, the building was empty, and had been left unlocked. The Central Office of Historic Monuments says the owners are responsible for taking care of historic buildings and has said it will report them to the police.
Friday’s fire came less than a week after four other historic warf-side buildings burnt to the ground in the same section of the city last Sunday.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Poland’s Last Communist Leader Stands Trial
Wojciech Jaruzelski, the communist general who declared martial law in 1981, ending Poland’s brief flirtation with freedom under the Solidarity labour union, on Friday went on trial with other retired officers and former party officials on charges of being part of a “criminal conspiracy”.
The charge is usually brought against the leaders of criminal gangs, but prosecutors from the Institute of National Memory, a government organisation which details communist and Nazi crimes against the Polish people, wants to use the charge to prosecute the martial law leaders as common criminals.
Many lawyers are dubious of the institute’s legal reasoning; in one twist the weapons used by him and his co-conspirators to commit their crimes would be communist Poland’s military and police force.
Gen Jaruzelski has defended his actions on the grounds that they saved Poland from a possible Soviet attack. The general is supported by the ex-communist left and detested by the conservative right.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: 20.5 Bln Euro Trade Deficit for Five Years
(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 29 — The Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina has announced that the country’s trade exchange in the period January 2003 to June 2008 reached some 86.7 billion KM (some 44.33 billion euro), the office of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) in Sarajevo said. exports stood at 23.3 billion KM (11.91 billion euro), while imports amounted to 63.4 billion KM (some 32.42 billion euro). In the same period the country’s trade deficit reached 40.1 billion KM (20.5 billion euro). Significant increase in exports was registered in 2007, when the overall value amounted to 6.0 billion KM (some 3.1 billion euro). Imports in the same period stood at 13.9 billion KM (7.11 billion euro), with a growth trend registered in this division as well. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Illiteracy Rate Drops by 2.3% in Two Years
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 12 — Egypt’s illiteracy rate has dropped from 29.7% in July 2007 to 27.4% in July this year, said the minister of Education. These figures cover the 15-35 year age group, which is the targeted age group in the fight against illiteracy, Youssri el Gamal said at a ceremony on the occasion of the world illiteracy day at the Ministry of Education. The number of illiterates from the 10-15 year age group has dropped to 350,000 between illiterates and drop-outs, a rate that does not exceed 4.5%, he said. This means that 95.5 % from this age group attend school regularly, he added. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Women: Italy Helps Reduce Gender Inequality in Maghreb
(ANSAmed) — TURIN, SEPTEMBER 12 — Italy’s Foreign Ministry is a major contributor to a programme aimed at improving employment opportunities for women in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and other Arab countries where the labour market is largely dominated by men. The programme was launched recently by one of the European Union’s specialist agencies. According to information received today from the European Training Fund (ETF) — an EU Agency based in Turin specialising in vocational training and education — the ‘Women and Jobs’ programme funded by the Italian organisation ‘Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo’ (Italian Development Cooperation) is seeking to boost female employment rates. “Raising them to equal the rates of the Scandinavian countries, which are the highest in the EU,’’“, Italian ETF Programme Coordinator Milena Corradini said to ANSA today. “In Tunisia only 29.2% of women work, in Egypt 20.5% and in Jordan 28.1%. Cultural stereotypes and the major difficulty women face in deciding between work or a family, these two concepts being still irreconcilable in these countries, are just some of the problems these women experience in finding work locally,” the ETF expert explained. The situation becomes even more worrying when the salaries paid to men and women in these three countries are compared. According to Corradini, “the salary gap between men and women in Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan is inordinately striking.” It is for precisely that reason that the ETF-run EU programmés objectives include “as our number one objective, seeing more women in the labour market,” affirms the Agency’s Director, Muriel Dunbar. “At a time when more Tunisian, Moroccan and Egyptian women than ever are successfully finishing their basic education, thereby achieving a certain “educational parity”, the number of women in these three countries taking up secondary education is significantly lower than the number of men. We must, therefore, change society’s viewpoint from the bottom up, by encouraging gender equality in schooling,” Corradini stated. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: NATO Ready to Train Iraqi Forces
Baghdad, 12 Sept. (AKI) — The Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Sir John McColl on Friday expressed the organisation’s readiness to train and rehabilitate Iraqi security forces.
McColl made the commitment at a meeting with Iraq’s National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubaei, according to a statement released by the cabinet’s national media centre.
“Al-Rubaei presented a detailed explanation on the security improvement in Iraq, calling on European countries to contribute in rebuilding Iraq through the participation of their companies in investment and reconstruction projects,” said the statement published by the Voices of Iraq news agency.
American President George W. Bush announced a significant change in policy last week when he said US troop numbers would be reduced in Iraq while more soldiers would be sent to Afghanistan.
Under the plan he will order about 8,000 of the 146,000 US troops in Iraq to return home in February. Another 4,500 troops will be deployed in Afghanistan.
He congratulated coalition troops for the progress made in Iraq, but warned that the progress was “fragile and reversible”.
Nevertheless, the US president said troop numbers would be reduced in Iraq so the military could focus on a “quiet surge” in Afghanistan where “huge challenges remain.”
NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an international alliance of 26 countries of Europe and North America created to ensure the peace and security of the North Atlantic region.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Student Protesters Arrested in Istanbul
Istanbul, 12 Sept. (AKI) — Eighteen students have been arrested in the Turkish city of Istanbul for protesting against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
News agency, Dogan, said on Friday that members of the Turkish Communist Party and an Istanbul Technical University student club were protesting against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The protest coincided with a visit by Erdogan who attended a ceremony to mark the university’s new school year.
The agency said protesters chanted slogans against the AKP and the ITU’s newly elected rector.
Eighteen student club members, who continued to chant slogans, were taken into custody by police.
Gul reportedly appointed a pro-AKP candidate as rector who had come third in the voting among academic staff instead of the candidate who won the majority of votes.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Germ Warfare’ Fear Over African Monkeys Taken to Iran
Hundreds of endangered monkeys are being taken from the African bush and sent to a “secretive” laboratory in Iran for scientific experiments.
An undercover inquiry by The Sunday Times has revealed that wild monkeys, which are banned from experiments in Britain, are being freely supplied in large numbers to laboratories in other parts of the world. All will undergo invasive and maybe painful experiments leading ultimately to their death.
One Tanzanian dealer, Nazir Manji, who runs African Primates, an animal-supplying company based in Dar es Salaam, said that in recent years he had been selling up to 4,000 vervet monkeys a year to laboratories, charging about £60 each.
Vervets are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). Despite this they are being routinely caught and sold to any buyer prepared to pay.
Another Tanzanian dealer, Filbert Rubibira, was asked last year to prepare an order of monkeys to send to the Chinese military for “scientific purposes”. The deal was cancelled at the last minute for reasons that were unclear.
Rubibira told an undercover reporter posing as a buyer that the Cites office in Tanzania would sign permits regardless of what fate awaited the monkeys. “They don’t care about that,” he said. “If it’s for scientific, if it’s for the zoo, if the plane is accepted for transport they don’t care about that . . . The purpose is not a problem.”
Rubibira also indicated that he had no problem if the animals were to be used for cosmetics testing. He said: “We can ask the Cites officer to write [on the certificate] M for medical, scientific purposes, or T for trade purposes. whichever you want.”
Manji said scientists at the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Iran had bought 215 vervet monkeys from him this year but he had become suspicious about their true motive, although he was still trading with them. They had “spent a lot of money” on getting the monkeys, even sending over scientists to check on each consignment.
“Iran is very secretive,” said Manji, who has been exporting monkeys for 22 years. “They said it [the monkeys] was for ‘our country’, for vaccine. [They said] ‘We don’t buy vaccine from anywhere; we prepare our own vaccine’.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
On Why the Islamic World Fell Into Backwardness, and the Key to Future Success.
Addressing a meeting of the Indonesian Islamic Society of Brisbane (IISB) in Australia on 7th September Heru Sriwidodo Sari, founder of the Trainer Muslim Indonesia Association, worried that many parents today regarded their children’s school textbooks as being more worthy of mastering than the Quran, more likely to bring success for their children later in life.
Heru said this was wrong-headed, and that for seven hundred years after the time of Muhammad the Muslim world dominated world culture and learning while at the same time the European peoples had not advanced, precisely because people held fast to Quranic study and principles.
After this period of dominance, and likely near-coinciding with what is called “the great divergence” — when northern/western Europe began streaking ahead of the Arab and Asian worlds in scientific, technological, and economic achievements — Heru says Muslims neglected the Quran and herein lay the seeds of their failure until today.
In order to achieve success in this life and the next Heru said only seven verses of the Al Fatihah chapter of the Quran were necessary to be learned and repeated every time one prayed, these being:
In the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful:
Praise be to God, the Lord of the Universe.
The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Master of the Day of Judgment.
You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help
Guide us to the straight path;
The path of those whom You have favoured, not of those who have deserved Your anger, nor of those who stray.
This could be formulated or summarised into the following, by some uncertain process:
- vision
- potential
- opportunity
- motivation
- mission
- strategy
- action
Reading the above verses would bring understanding, visualisation of goals, and obedience to God, the keys to success, Heru said.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Dear Leader Takes Care of Me’
James Dresnok has lived in North Korea since defecting as a US soldier almost 50 years ago. In a rare interview, ‘Comrade Joe’ tells Mark Seddon why he’s no traitor, why North Koreans are right to hate Americans — and who he’s backing for the White House
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. and Venezuela Escalate Crisis
The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials it accused of helping Colombian rebels smuggle drugs, deepening a diplomatic crisis that raised the specter of an oil supply cutoff.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Venezuela’s top two intelligence chiefs and a recently retired interior minister of had assisted Marxist guerrillas fighting the U.S.-backed Colombian government to traffic in cocaine and guns.
The United States banned U.S. citizens from having dealings with the officials and froze any U.S. assets they may own.
The sanctions were announced in Washington a day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to stop crude sales to the United States and expelled the U.S. ambassador, plunging relations to the lowest point in years.
Chavez, who calls Cuba’s Fidel Castro a mentor and sees Russia as a counterbalance to U.S. power, had warned on Thursday that world crude prices would immediately double to above $200 a barrel if he cuts oil to the United States.
The clash was part of a long-brewing conflict between the United States and Latin America’s bloc of left-wing leaders antagonistic to traditional U.S. dominance in the region. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Couples to Sweden
Marriage traffic across the Øresund Bridge could get hefty if mixed nationality married couples with one Danish spouse decide to move back to Denmark from the Swedish province of Scania.
A Swedish Statistical Office report shows that the beginning of 2008 saw 2,158 Danish mixed marriages in Scania, according to Jyllands-Posten.
Immigration rules
A study by the Øresund Committee shows further that about 20 percent of all Danes who choose to move to Sweden, cite the Danish immigration rules as the reason for the move.
The latest statistics from 2007 show 4,925 moves from Denmark to Scania. Hundreds of other couples may also have moved since then.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Broken Pencil Sharpener Earns Suspension
Fourth-grader booted for 2 days
A fourth-grade student has been suspended from classes in South Carolina for two days and could face further punishment for having a broken pencil sharpener in school.
According to a report in the Island Packet, covering the Hilton Head Island region, the 10-year-old had a broken pencil sharpener, but he decided to use it anyway.
A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School then noticed what appeared to be a small razor blade during class, the newspaper said a Beaufort County sheriff’s document reported. Police were called immediately.
Part of a police report after school officials caught a fourth-grader with a broken pencil sharpener
The deputy said it was obvious that the metal insert was what commonly is found in small, plastic pencil sharpeners used routinely by grade school students across the country.
The sheriff’s report said the child, whose name was withheld, “said that while he was using his pencil sharpener at home the day before, it came apart. He said that he took the small piece of metal, which was inside the sharpener, to school in order to use on his pencil.”
The assistant principal confirmed an immediate two-day suspension, and said the piece of metal would have to be kept for a school district hearing “which would be held to determine what if any further action would be taken,” the sheriff’s report said.
Principal Jill McAden sent a letter home with students to their parents yesterday about the incident.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: McCartney Rejects Pressures, Will Sing in Tel Aviv
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 12 — The former Beatle Paul McCartney (66) decided to reject pressures from pro-Palestinian circles in the UK and confirmed his plans to perform in Tel Aviv on September 25. “I do not do politics, I do music”, he explained to daily Yediot Ahronot in Tel Aviv. “Everybody can understand that I come to sing before the people and not governments”. Pro-Palestinian circles had asked him in the past few weeks to cancel the concert as a sign of disagreement with the Israeli policy in the Territories. McCartney added that it was “very sweet” on the part of the Israeli Ambassador in London, Ron Prossor, to express, months ago, his regret for the ban imposed in the ‘60s by the Israeli government on a Beatles concert in Tel Aviv. ‘‘I remember that the ban made us laugh”, he said. In the meantime, in Israel the sale of the 70,000 tickets for McCartney’s concert, which arouses extraordinary interest in different circles, continues at a hectic pace. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Analysis: 7 Years After 9/11, Al-Qaida is in Disarray
by Jonathan Spyer
Seven years after September 11, 2001, al-Qaida as an organization is seen by many analysts to be in some disarray. One prominent observer of the network depicts it as having been reduced to a core of 200-300 operatives. Yet al-Qaida as an idea and as a franchise remains healthy and is still a threat.
Responding to this changed reality, the al-Qaida leadership is investing increased resources in propaganda, with the intention of radicalizing large numbers of young Muslims throughout the world. And these efforts are proving successful, though it is doubtful whether this success will produce real-world political benefits for al-Qaida.
The 9/11 attacks were meant to draw the United States into the Middle East, opening an extended war of attrition. Al-Qaida’s model for this was the jihadis’ war against the USSR in Afghanistan.
Those attacks succeeded in drawing the US in. However, the score card so far is largely against the Sunni jihadists. Consider…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Does ‘Islamic Democracy’ Exist?
Part 2: Kuwaiti Democracy Heading for a Rough Patch
Kuwait continues to be a wealthy country, and it would be an understatement to describe its middle class as well developed. The average per capita income of the some 1.2 million native Kuwaitis lies somewhere between that of Switzerland and Germany. The country is not threatened by religious or ethnic divisions like those found in Iraq and Lebanon. The Kuwaitis continue to be profoundly grateful for the fact that 17 years ago the United States liberated them from military occupation by Saddam Hussein.
PHOTO GALLERY: DEMOCRACY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (5 Photos)
If democracy is heading for a rough patch in a country as thoroughly blessed with prosperity, stability, and political tolerance as Kuwait is, what is likely to be awaiting it elsewhere in the Islamic world? What future will it have in Iran whose parliament is the scene of lively debates but doesn’t decide anything; in Indonesia where a moderate form of Islam exists in a relatively democratic system; in the Gulf Region and Northern Africa where tribes and families rule instead of parties and labor unions?
The United States, which has been singing the praises of democracy in the Middle East since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is not making it easy for champions of the political form here and in neighboring regions. “Since the fall of Iraq the very word ‘democracy’ has had a radioactive taste to it,” says Saudi Arabian human rights activist Ibrahim Mukaitib. He says that educated Saudis come to him and ask him why parliamentary democracy is supposedly better than other systems when the democratic governments of the United States and the United Kingdom made the colossal mistake of occupying Iraq?
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
OIC Expresses Concern Over ‘Muslim Massacre’ Computer Game
A spokesman of the OIC Islamophobia Observatory in Jeddah today expressed concern over reports of ‘Muslim Massacre’ computer game, in which soldiers are portrayed in being involved in a war to wipe out the “Muslim race”.
The OIC Observatory spokesman said that the computer game was incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims. He said that the game would serve no purpose other than to incite intolerance. He called on the Internet service providers who are hosting the game to take immediate action by withdrawing it from the web and ensure that it will not be available in the market.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UN Soldier Trades Beret for Hijab
Sylvia Monika Wyszomirska is a Catholic from Poland, but in an effort to integrate better into south Lebanon’s conservative society she has traded her UN peacekeeper’s beret for a headscarf during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“Out of respect for the environment I work in, I feel I need to try to integrate myself during Ramadan. And since my contingent is deployed in a Muslim area, I have decided to wear the hijab,” the Muslim veil, over military fatigues,” said 37-year-old Wyszomirska who has been stationed in the country for four months.
Wyszomirska chose a veil in the same light shade of blue used for the berets worn by members of the 13,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which keeps the peace along the tense Lebanon-Israel border. A native of Krakow, Wyszomirska works as a translator for the 200-member Polish contingent of UNIFIL, and her job brings her into direct contact with the people who live in Shiite-majority villages across the Marjayoun region. Her deployment to southern Lebanon is not Wyszomirska’s first encounter with Muslim tradition. She has also been to Kuwait and Iraq and worked in Syria as well to perfect her Arabic.
“When I was studying Middle Eastern languages at Jagiellonski University back home we also learned about the customs, traditions, history and geography of the countries we might end up working in, places like Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Kuwait,” she said.
Wyszomirska’s decision to wear the veil during Ramadan has helped to break the ice with local villagers, both for her personally and for her colleagues in the Polish contingent.
“At first relations were lukewarm, especially since we don’t come from a rich country with things to offer the people,” she said. “All we can offer them is respect and a smile. But since I started wearing the veil, people have been more welcoming with me and also with my colleagues. This has opened more doors and opportunities to strike up friendships. They began inviting us into their homes for coffee or sweets. And when we pass by the children smile and wave at us. Today I feel almost as if I have a second family in Debbine, Blat and Arid,” she added.
Wyszomirska said that wearing the veil was “a gesture from the heart — it was not imposed on me.” Her superior welcomed the idea that she wore the veil during the holy month. “He also suggested to me that I explain Ramadan customs to the other soldiers so they can respect the traditions and refrain from eating and drinking in public during fasting, between dawn and dusk,” she said.
Another woman peacekeeper in the Polish contingent, a 36-year-old, said she thought “wearing the veil was a smart move, because it brought us closer to the residents,” but also added that she would not do the same herself. “It would change my look completely, and that’s not something I want.”
Some of the villagers were slightly taken aback by the sight of the fatigues-clad Wyszomirska wearing a veil.
“I was surprised to see Sylvia wearing the headscarf, because I know she’s not a Muslim,” said Zahraa Hijazi, a veiled student from the village of Debbine. “But in any case nuns wear veils even though they are Christian,” she added. Debbine’s mayor, Mohammed Sherif Ibrahim, agreed that many of his constituents were surprised by Wyszomirska’s decision to wear the veil “because it is out of the ordinary.”
“But it is also a nice gesture that breaks down barriers between UNIFIL and the local people,” he said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
3 comments:
Punishing a child for bringing a piece of his broken sharpener to school? I wonder if the boy has terrorist affiliations we should be concerned about too. Holy crap, they better check his background out to see if he's ever broken a window with a ball - that should put him away for ten years at least.
Sweden showing something that doesnt reflect badly on a Republican? Wow. When I saw that headline I was fully expecting to read about some film footage showing a broken McCain confessing to war crimes or something.
"Speaking at a rally marking 9/11, Anjem Choudary bragged that a birth explosion would let followers of Islam take control of the country."
It is hard to argue with him. When your right your right.
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