So what did Santa bring you for Christmas?He brought us some headlines about an imminent IDF incursion into the Gaza Strip, a blatant public extortion of Europe by Vladimir Putin using Russian energy supplies, and the Pakistani Taliban threatening to kill any girls who dare attend school.
In other words, the usual presents.
Thanks to Abu Elvis, JD, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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School Nixes Change to ‘Obama Elementary’
They said NO-bama.
A proposal to change the name of a Long Island public school to Barack Obama Elementary was scrapped this week after running into fierce public opposition.
Cristobal Stewart, a trustee of the school district in Valley Stream, first broached the idea of renaming the Clear Stream Avenue Elementary School in November to commemorate Obama’s electoral triumph.
But the plan was met with loud resistance at a Nov. 24 hearing. Town residents and parents argued that the existing name, in place since 1924, represented a long and proud tradition that shouldn’t be tinkered with.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Jewish Groups Blast TV Show
Jewish groups have condemned a Belgian public broadcaster for airing a show in which a standup comedian jokes about the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews.
The protest marked the third time in two months the VRT broadcaster was accused of gross insensitivity toward Jews. On Oct. 27, protests forced it to scrap a TV show about Adolf Hitler’s supposed favorite dish — alpine trout in butter sauce — as part of a series about famous people’s favorite foods.
In the 2008 review show “Het Besluit” [“The Decision”] — which aired Dec. 21 and is available on the VRT web site — comedian Philippe Geubels accused Belgians Jews of overreacting to the food show.
“What are they going to do if there is a big gas leak in Antwerp?” asked Geubels referring to the Belgian port city, which has a large Jewish community. “Take the city to court for provocation? Preemptively file charges against anyone who dares joke about that?”
Geubels also said the Holocaust cannot happen again because “Jews are much smarter now.”
“They have spread across the world. Try rounding them up! Most are in America so you cannot send them by train to Germany” to die in gas chambers.
“What a comedian does is up to him, but the VRT decides to include it in the show. At that point, the question can be asked, is this the task of a public broadcaster?” asked Michael Freilich, the head of the Jewish group Joods Actueel.
The VRT also came under criticism for a recent ad about a travel show focusing on Berlin.
It showed a drawing of Hitler as a male stripper giving the Nazi salute in front of a swastika flag, the banner of Nazi Germany. That incident triggered a protest by the German embassy, which called it “totally tasteless.”
The CCOJB, a Jewish umbrella organization, said the VRT’s “multiplication of anti-Semitic provocations disguised as humor” dishonored its role as a public broadcaster.
It said it planned legal steps against the VRT and asked the government of Dutch-speaking Belgium, which is responsible for the VRT, to act against those responsible for the broadcast.
Repeated phone calls and two messages left with the VRT were not immediately answered.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Death-Plunge Muslim Model ‘Had Told Police of Sex Attack’ as Family Claims: ‘it Wasn’T Suicide’
The model who fell to her death from a block of flats lodged a complaint of sexual assault with police.
Sahar Daftary, from Brentford, died in the fall from the 12th floor balcony of businessman Rashid Jamil’s Manchester flat on Saturday.
A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police told the London Evening Standard: “Police received a report of sexual assault in May 2008. An investigation was launched but the victim refused to co-operate further.”
Mr Jamil, who has been branded a womaniser by Miss Daftary’s family after he wed the 23-year-old in an Islamic ceremony while still married, was arrested on suspicion of murder but was later released on bail.
A close friend of Miss Daftary, who asked not to be named, said: “Sahar went to the police about six months ago after she split with Rashid. She thought she was being followed and walked into a police station near the apartment in Salford Quays to lodge a complaint.
“He was very possessive of her and she said that he told her that he had people watching her.”
Miss Daftary had been in Mr Jamil’s home city of Manchester for work but was persuaded to go to his flat after he offered her an Islamic divorce.
Her sister Mariya Massumi, 34, said Miss Daftary had previously tried to get Mr Jamil to sign divorce papers but he had not agreed.
Ms Massumi said: “On the way up to Manchester, Sahar was arguing with Rashid on the phone but then he acted nicely and promised to sign the divorce papers.”
[…]
Friends have told her family that they had a row but that she then agreed to go to his £250,000 rented apartment at the NV Buildings on Saturday evening after he offered to give her an Islamic divorce.
Shortly afterwards, police received a call from Mr Jamil requesting assistance. By the time they got there she had suffered fatal injuries after her 150ft fall.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman Jailed for Life After Murdering Husband Just 33 Days After Their Wedding
A Muslim woman who knifed her husband to death 33 days after their wedding to escape from her arranged marriage has been jailed for life by the Old Bailey.
Mahamuda Khatun, 28, hid a knife inside her burka and plunged it into Mohammed Dilwer Miah’s chest when he opened the door of their home in Stepney, London.
She had been having a relationship with another man and was angered that her husband wanted her to quit her job at an optician’s.
Khatun then tried to cover up the murder, repeatedly lying to police and persuading a friend to give her a false alibi for the night of the killing.
When her alibi was exposed she said her husband had attacked her and she struck out in self-defence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists Go Digital, Using Iphones, Google to Coordinate Attacks
In Egypt, the GPS utility on the iPhone has been banned from the general public and is restricted to military use.
The restrictions stem from fears Cairo has that terrorists can utilize the mapping tool to coordinate attacks, and Apple, which developed the popular gadget, has acquiesced and removed GPS devices from iPhones sold in Egypt.
Their fears are not unfounded. Last month terrorists attacking Mumbai used Google Earth to plan the blitz, according to findings from India’s security services.
Brig. Gen. (Res.) Moshe Marko, who was head of an Israel Defense Forces technological unit in the 1980s, is not surprised by terror organizations’ increasing use of sophisticated technological devices freely available to anyone.
“Any technological invention that was originally made for military use over time becomes available on the civilian market,” Marko said.
Like computers or the Internet, GPS — the initials stand for Global Positioning System — was originally developed by the United States Army for its own purposes. Over time, the U.S. decided to loosen restrictions on its usage and make it available to everyone with only a few limitations.
The decision to introduce the device to the public was made after much deliberation due to fears that hostile factions might make use of them. Some 10 years ago — before the September 11, 2001 attacks — U.S. intelligence and security forces drew up a nightmarish scenario in which terrorists navigated an unmanned boat laden with explosives toward New York City’s harbor using a GPS device. Only recently, Defense Minister Ehud Barak repeated his fear of this scenario, which might also affect Israel.
Though some restrictions remained in place, U.S. authorities reached the conclusion that use of the technology could not be denied the public.
Washington has banned the sale of images from civilian satellites with an accuracy of less than two meter’s resolution.
“But a two meter resolution is sharp and clear enough,” Marko said. “Identifying objects of up to two meters is sufficient to give users much valuable information.”
The nuclear reactor at Dimona or the base near Beit Shemesh where, according to foreign media outlets, Israel is storing its Jericho ballistic missiles, can be clearly seen using Google Earth’s two-meter resolution.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, hijackings by Palestinian terror organizations led by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PLO] were routine. Still, few terror experts predicted something on the scale of the hijackings that occurred on September 11, 2001 when terrorists turned civilian aircraft into flying bombs. Al-Qaida has since been at the forefront of technological usage. Its operatives use the Internet and e-mails, turning them into one of their key tools for seeking recruits, disseminating their ideas and transmitting coded messages.
No sign of surrender
“The relative ease of sending coded messages on the Web greatly affects intelligence services,” Marko said. “Contact with agents is easier, but so is the work of terrorists.”
Many Israeli companies started by former members of Israeli intelligence units have developed successful deciphering systems to defend information security.
Palestinian terror organizations have also learned from Al-Qaida. In the past they have used e-mails to track Israelis targeted for assassinations and have blown up explosives using cellular phone remote-operated devices.
But Marko is optimistic and doesn’t concede that terrorists have won in the technology arms race. “We haven’t lost yet,” he said.. “In my day, we faced some intelligence challenges that seemed lost that we found original solutions for.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Muslim Grinches Steal Christmas
A top Christian leader in Gaza told WND the decision to keep celebrations quiet came after he received threats from local Muslim groups against any public display of Christianity during Christmas. The leader was speaking on condition of anonymity, saying his life would be threatened if he spoke out publicly. He said the threats were conveyed to other Christian leaders in Gaza.
“We were warned not to celebrate in the streets or ring the church bells, otherwise Christians would be targeted. We are living under a state of fear,” the Christian leader said.
[…]
Contacted by WND, Abu Islam, chief of Jihadia Salafiya, denied making any threats against Christians.
Still, Abu Islam commented, “Gaza is a Muslim state. Why do 3,000 Christians need to celebrate openly in a territory of 1 million Muslims? Any celebrations are clearly for missionary purposes and must not be tolerated.”
[…]
“[Now that Hamas is in power,] the situation has changed 180 degrees in Gaza,” said Abu Islam, speaking from Gaza in June 2007.
“Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity,” he said.
[…]
In the case of Ayyad, who managed the only Christian bookstore in Gaza, his body was discovered riddled with gunshot and stab wounds. Just before his murder, Ayyad, a Baptist, was publicly accused by Abu Islam’s group of engaging in missionary activities. Ayyad’s bookstore, owned by the Palestinian Bible Society, was firebombed in April 2007, after which he told relatives he received numerous death threats from Islamists.
WND quoted witnesses stating Ayyad was publicly tortured a few blocks from his store before he was shot to death.
The witnesses said they saw three armed men, two of whom were wearing masks, beat Ayyad repeatedly with clubs and the butts of their guns while they accused him of attempting to spread Christianity in Gaza. The witnesses said that after sustaining the beating, Ayyad was shot by all three men.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Kicks Off Global PR Campaign to Recruit Support for Gaza Raids
Israel is kicking off a public relations campaign with the intention of widening a basis for international support of a military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has instructed Israeli representatives abroad to begin diplomatic efforts focused on members of the United Nations Security Council and Europeans states.
The foreign minister told Israeli delegates to the UN to file an official complaint with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and the Security Council stating that Israel would not remain apathetic to the continued firing of rockets from Gaza, adding that it will do everything necessary to protect its citizens.
The statement was relayed Sunday night, a move that is considered highly irregular as it is the UN officials’ day of rest. Livni, however, instructed delegates not to wait until Monday.
Livni is also planning a series of telephone conferences with her counterparts across the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Ban, and the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Simultaneously, Israeli envoys across the world have been instructed to stress Israel’s opposition to the rocket fire and to emphasize that it was Hamas who stood in violation of the six-month cease-fire which ended on Friday.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Preparing for an Invasion of Gaza
Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Thursday that militants in Hamas-run Gaza would pay a heavy price if they continued to target Israel, as the Israeli military made preparations for a possible large-scale assault on the coastal territory.
A day earlier, militants had pummeled southern Israel with more than 80 rockets and mortar shells, causing no injuries but generating widespread panic. Israeli cabinet ministers huddled for hours discussing Israel’s response to the barrage, and defense officials later said that ministers had approved a broad invasion of Gaza that would begin after winter rains subsided.
On Thursday, Barak insisted that “we will not accept this situation.”
“Whoever harms the citizens and soldiers of Israel will pay a heavy price,” he said.
He did not elaborate. But defense officials, speaking on condition on anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss the plans, said the Israeli operation would probably begin with airstrikes against rocket launchers and continue with a land incursion..
Israel has thus far been reluctant to press ahead with a campaign liable to exact heavy casualties on both sides. Past incursions have not halted the barrages, and officials fear anything short of a reoccupation of Gaza would fail to achieve the desired result of halting the rocket fire.
Israel left Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation but still controls its border crossings. The Islamic Hamas militants seized control of Gaza in June 2007.
The barrage Wednesday came days after a six-month truce expired, and a day after Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants along the Gaza-Israel border fence.
The military said four mortar rounds were fired early Thursday, causing no injuries. According to Israel’s Army Radio, a fifth mortar shell landed at Israel’s passenger crossing with Gaza as Gaza Christians were crossing, en route to the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas Day celebrations.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was in Cairo on Thursday to update the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, on Israel’s objectives. The meeting was originally planned to attempt to renew the Egyptian-mediated truce. But after the bombardment on Wednesday, Livni — who is running for prime minister in Israel’s February elections — dismissed that option.
“There is a point where every country and every leadership says — and this is what we say tonight as well — enough is enough,” she told a campaign rally.
Peaceful night in Bethlehem
Christians celebrated the merriest Christmas in Bethlehem in years, with hotels booked to capacity, Manger Square bustling with families and Israeli and Palestinian forces cooperating to make things run smoothly, The Associated Press reported.
[…]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Mortar Shell Narrowly Misses Pilgrims, No Injuries
(IsraelNN.com) A mortar shell fired by Hamas terrorists exploded at the terminal of the Erez Crossing, narrowly missing about 150 Egyptian Pilgrims, who were on the way to Bethlehem for the Xmas holiday.
There were no injuries.
Throughout Thursday morning, 3 Kassam rockets exploded near agricultural settlements in Sha’ar HaNegev. There were no injuries in these incidents, as well.
Erez Crossing is the main border crossing in which goods and food items are transferred to Gaza residents.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
NYC Man Admits He Helped Air Hezbollah TV
The owner of a satellite TV company pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material aid to a terrorist organization by letting customers receive broadcasts from Hezbollah’s television station.
Javed Iqbal, 45, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. He declined comment afterward. As part of the plea, Iqbal agreed to serve a prison term of up to 6 1/2 years. Sentencing was set for March 24.
Prosecutors said Iqbal, who has lived in the United States more than 20 years, used satellite dishes on his Staten Island home to distribute broadcasts of Al Manar, the television station of the Lebanon-based organization that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s.
Israel and the U.S. consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization and accuse it of being behind deadly attacks in Lebanon and abroad.
The charges against Iqbal sparked a First Amendment battle. Iqbal’s lawyers said their client was no different from major news companies and Internet providers, some of which permit live streaming broadcasts of Al Manar.
“All these entities, like the defendants, were exercising their First Amendment rights to freely disseminate news and information, even satire, within the United States — but, all, except the defendants, have escaped prosecution altogether,” Iqbal’s lawyers said in court papers.
Lebanon’s information minister, Ghazi Aridi, called the man’s arrest an “attack against freedoms (that) robs a large section of people from watching a specific channel.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Rare First Century Half Shekel Coin Found in Temple Mount Dirt
A rare half shekel coin, first minted in 66 or 67 C.E., was discovered by 14 year-old Omri Ya’ari as volunteers sifted through mounds of dirt from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The coin is the first one found to originate from the Temple Mount.
For the fourth year, archaeologists and volunteers have been sifting through dirt dug by the Waqf, the Muslim authority in charge of the Temple Mount compound, in an unauthorized project in 1999. The dig caused extensive and irreversible archaeological damage to the ancient layers of the mountain. The Waqf transported the dug up dirt in trucks to another location, where it was taken to Emek Tzurim. 40,000 volunteers have so far participated in the sifting project, in search of archaeological artifacts, under the guidance of Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Yitzhak Zweig.
[…]
The half shekel coin was first minted during the Great Revolt against the Romans. The face of the coin is decorated with a branch of three pomegranates and ancient Hebrew letters reading “holy Jerusalem.” On the flip side, the letters say “half shekel”.
The coin that was found in the sifting project, though it was well preserved, showed some damage from a fire. Experts believe it was the same fire that destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E.
Dr. Gabriel Barkay explained that “the half shekel coin was used to pay the temple taxes… The coins were apparently minted at Temple Mount itself by the Temple authorities.”
The half shekel tax is mentioned in the book of Exodus (Portion Ki Tisa), commanding every Jew to contribute half a shekel to the Temple every year for the purpose of purchasing public sacrifices.
Dr. Barkay added that “this is the first time a coin minted at the Temple Mount itself has been found, and therein lies its immense importance, because similar coins have been found in the past in the Jerusalem area and in the Old City’s Jewish quarter, as well as Masada, but they are extremely rare in Jerusalem.”
So far, some 3,500 ancient coins have been discovered in the Temple Mount dirt sifting, ranging from earliest minting of coins during the Persian era all the way up to the Ottoman era.
An additional important archaeological discovery in the sifting project was another well preserved coin, minted between 175 and 163 B.C.E. by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, against whom the Hasmoneans revolted. This revolt brought about the re-dedication of the Temple after Antiochus seized the Temple’s treasures and conducted idol worship in it. The coin depicts a portrait of Antiochus the Seleucid King..
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Liwaa Says Hezbollah Has “Reservations” About Russian Jets
Al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Thursday that Hezbollah had reservations and had expressed concern about the Russia’s providing ten fighter jets to Lebanon without previously informing any Lebanese party, especially as these jets would not be able to confront Israeli air defenses.
The paper added that media sources close to Hezbollah launched a campaign against the Russian military support claiming that the maintenance would be expensive and the pilots would need to be well trained.
- Comment by “Essam”
‘without informing Lebanese Party’ !!…you have taken the WHOLE bloody Country to War & near destruction without telling the Government nor Army AND ADMITTED it was a mistake…what a joke when u claim you want a strong Army…
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Camel Beauty Pageant in Abu Dhabi
Thousands of camels will be fluttering their long eyelashes and swaying their giant humps in the Al Dhafrah Festival to celebrate Bedouin culture. As much as $40 million (AED) and 143 trucks will be given away.
Thousands of camels from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries have entered the beauty contest, where camels are assessed on strict criteria including the curvature of their ears, the size of their nose relative to the rest of the face and the fullness of hump.
The Al Dhafrah festival is organised by the Abu Dhabi authority for Culture and Heritage as a way of preserving the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) love of camels. Camels are always part of the culture of Bedouin life and revered as a measure of wealth. They have long been seen as central to the heritage of the Gulf.
There are two very distinct forms of camel worlds in UAE,: The racing animal and the animal that enters the beauty competition. Both bring huge money and prestige to owner.
Camels are known as the “ship of desert” and have always been the main measurement of wealth, along with horses and falcons.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Women’s Group Assails Judge Over 8-Year-Old’s Marriage
(CNN) — A group fighting for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia condemned a judge Wednesday for refusing to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.
The group’s co-founder, Wajeha al-Huwaider, told CNN that achieving human rights in the kingdom means standing against those who want to “keep us backward and in the dark ages.”
The Society of Defending Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia, in a statement published on its Web site, called on the “minister of justice and human rights groups to interfere now in this case” by divorcing the girl from the man. “They must end this marriage deal which was made by the father of the girl and the husband.”
On Saturday, the judge, Sheikh Habib Abdallah al-Habib, dismissed a petition brought by the girl’s mother. Watch CNN’s Mohammed Jamjoom report on the case "
The mother’s lawyer, Abdullah al-Jutaili, said the judge found that the mother — who is separated from the girl’s father — is not the legal guardian, and therefore cannot represent her daughter.
The judge requested, and received, a pledge from the husband, who was in court, not to allow the marriage to be consummated until the girl reaches puberty, al-Jutaili said. When she reaches puberty, the judge ruled, the girl will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said.
Al-Jutaili said the girl’s father arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, “a close friend” of his.
In its statement Wednesday, the Society of Defending Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia said the judge’s decision goes against children’s “basic rights.” Marrying children makes them “lose their sense of security and safety. Also, it destroys their feeling of being loved and nurtured. It causes them a lifetime of psychological problems and severe depression.
“Moreover, children marriage creates unhealthy families because they were built on bad relationships.”
The judge’s decision also contradicts the king’s consultative council, called the Majlis al-Shura, which found that anyone under the age of 18 “is a child and should be treated likewise,” the women’s rights group said.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Wedding Blues in Bahrain
Persian Gulf kingdom allows new form of legalized prostitution by way of one-hour marriages. Custom results in unusual cooperation between preachers, feminists
The Kingdom of Bahrain has seen a recent surge in the number of “pleasure nuptials” — a tradition which allows men and women to marry for a brief period of time, for the sole purpose of having sex.
“We’re holding five or six wedding ceremonies a day now,” said a senior Bahrain clergyman. “The couple signs a temporary marriage contract, for half an hour to 90 minutes, and the man pays his’ bride’ about seven or eight dollars for that time.”
“Pleasure nuptials” are the Muslim-Shiite version of institutionalized prostitution, carried out with the full knowledge and blessing of the authorities.
This loophole in Muslim laws has been implemented by the Iranian authorities for a long time, as the ayatollahs have been using it to “reward” their esteemed warriors.
Shiite Bahrain has decided to take up the custom, and now thousands of it men have been practicing one-hour marriages.
The kingdom’s clergymen, however, are less than pleased with the new custom: Some women get pregnant but the men refuse to take responsibility for the children, who are them born without rights, they say.
The ridiculous ease of the practice has brought about an unorthodox cooperation between the religious preachers in the country and its feminist and human rights groups, meant to warn women against this “promiscuous custom,” which they say could result in women losing their hard-earned civil rights.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Sends a Shiver to Britain With Warning: ‘The Time of Cheap Gas is Coming to an End’
Russian premier Vladimir Putin warned Western consumers yesterday that gas bills are set to soar. To ram home the point, he oversaw the setting up of a new international ‘cartel’ of gas producers — unofficially led by Moscow — which observers fear will seek to fix output and prices.
‘Costs of exploration, gas production and transportation are going up — it means the industry’s development costs will skyrocket,’ said Mr Putin. ‘The time of cheap energy resources, cheap gas is surely coming to an end.’
It was the second day in succession that the Kremlin hardman had entered the fray in what Western diplomats increasingly see as a policy of ‘gas imperialism’, holding consumers to ransom.
On Monday, his government warned that gas supplies to Britain and the rest of Europe could be disrupted during the New Year as part of a battle by Moscow to force its neighbour Ukraine to pay off debts and accept a huge rise in prices. The EU gets 42 per cent of its gas imports from Russia, mostly via pipelines across Ukraine.
A similar dispute three years ago affected supplies to several western European countries.
Putin was addressing a meeting of the world’s gas producers, which include Iran and Libya, in Moscow. Russia has been a key mover in seeking to get the group to set up as a ‘gas Opec’ — a copy of the international cartel that sets oil prices. The 16 gas producers are to sign a joint charter at the meeting. […]
Iranian oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said that the group would ‘prevent unnecessary harmful competition on the market, which may damage exports’.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Arrests 3, Seize Bomb-Making Materials
Police in northern Bangladesh arrested three suspected militants tied to a banned Islamic group and seized a large cache of bomb-making materials, an official said Thursday.
The raids came days before national elections to restore democracy, though police said it was unclear whether the explosives were part of any plot to disrupt the polls.
Officials seized at least 50 casings of grenades, explosives, batteries and books on jihad, or holy war, according to S.M. Muniruzzaman, police chief of the Gaibandha district where the arrests were made in separate raids Wednesday and Thursday.
He said the suspects are members of the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group, which has been blamed for bombings in Bangladesh in recent years.
Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh has been blamed for more than 400 small bombs that exploded across Bangladesh on one day in 2005, killing two people and wounding dozens.
The group wants to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people that is ruled by secular laws. Muniruzzaman said it was not clear immediately if the militants were preparing to disrupt the national elections slated for Monday after nearly two years of military-backed interim rule.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Mumbai: Terrorists Sexually Humiliated Guests Before Killing Them
Foreign nationals at the Taj were particular targets of barbaric terrorists who first forced some of the guests to strip, then killed them
Disturbing photographs made available to this newspapers by police sources indicate that several of the guests at the Taj Mahal Hotel during the siege November 26 were sexually humiliated by the terrorists and then shot dead.
Police sources confirm that even as the terrorists were engaged in a fierce combat with NSG commandos, they were humiliating their hostages before ending their terrifying ordeal.
Foreign guests were their particular target. Eight of the 31 killed at the Taj were foreign nationals…
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Pak Hits Back, Tells India to ‘Stop Propaganda’
Pakistan’s parliament Wednesday asked the world community to press India for the closure of “terror cells and to stop anti-Pakistan propaganda”, even as the president and the prime minister said that the armed forces were ready to defend any aggression against the country.
A strongly-worded resolution passed unanimously by the National Assembly urged the global community to press India to “close terror hubs and stop anti-Pakistan propaganda” through the media and at international forums.
The resolution, presented by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan, stated that Pakistan wants peace and stability in the region and end of tension with India. President Asif Ali Zardari, while addressing a students gathering in his home province of Sindh, said: “We will defend the country till the last drop of our blood.”
In an address at the Hyderabad Cadets College at Petaro, the president vowed there would bo no compromise on the independence and sovereignty of the country and maintained that the Pakistan armed forces were ready to defend the country against any aggression.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, while talking to reporters in Islamabad, said that there were no chances of war between India and Pakistan, adding: “Pakistan is ready to face any adventure”.
India, on its part, will seek Saudi Arabia’s support in putting pressure on Pakistan to act against terror outfits during Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal’s daylong visit to the Indian capital Friday.
In his meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee will share information that establishes a clear link between Pakistan-based elements and the Mumbai terror attacks, official sources said. […]
With Pakistan stepping up its propaganda offensive against India in the Muslim world, India is likely to draw attention to reports in sections of Saudi media that have been critical of New Delhi but sympathetic to Islamabad.
Speaking at a Christmas cake-cutting ceremony at the Punjab Chief Minister’s Secretariat at Lahore Tuesday, Sharif said “he believed the Pakistan government had no link to the blasts”, The News reported Wednesday. […]
The attacks were a tactical operation that had strategic effects, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters on the flight home after a visit to Pakistan. It placed progress against Taliban extremists using safe havens in Pakistan’s remote areas in jeopardy, he said.
Before the attack in Mumbai, the Pakistani government began operations in Bajaur on the border with Afghanistan, Mullen pointed out.
[…]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Threaten to Kill Pakistani Schoolgirls
ISLAMABAD (AFP)—Taliban extremists in Pakistan’s troubled northwest Swat valley have banned girls from attending school, threatening to kill any female students, officials said Thursday.
The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP.
“You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls,” one official quoted the commander as saying.
“We also warn schools not to enrol any female students; otherwise, their buildings will be blown up.” The mountainous Swat valley was until last year a popular tourist destination featuring Pakistan’s only ski resort.
But the region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan’s Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley.
Durran said local Taliban leaders were determined not to allow girls to attend school, saying: “We want to enforce the true Sharia in the area — for this, we are fighting and laying down our lives.” Swat residents said Taliban fighters had already destroyed scores of government-run schools, leading some to set up private schools in their homes to educate girls.
An official at the Pakistani education ministry said there are about 1,580 schools registered in Swat — once known for its top-flight schools.
But the official, Naeem Khan, told AFP: “Already Taliban militants have destroyed 252 schools, mainly those where girls and boys were studying together.” Education has suffered badly in Swat as a result of the ongoing fighting between Taliban-linked militants and security forces, with only a handful of schools still open in the region’s main city Mingora, Khan said.
The government had reached a deal with the rebels in May to gradually pull out troops and introduce an Islamic justice system in exchange for an end to rebel attacks, but the violence eventually resumed.
- Adding:
Taliban Local Color:
The Taliban codex
Story: I was molested by the Taliban
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
Analyzing my flat in Prague which I hardly heat for the third year (not once this year), I could see the more expensive gas as an angry response to our lowering consumption in Europe.
The times we had minus 10 for weeks are probably over.
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