The biggest news stories tonight concern President Obama’s visit to the Middle East. Turkish intelligence thwarted an assassination plot against the president by a Syrian with a fake Al Jazeera press pass. And much of the Muslim world seems to be thrilled with Mr. Obama, who has promised never, ever to say a mean word to Muslims.In other news, an anti-communist revolt is underway in Moldova.
Thanks to AI, C. Cantoni, ESW, Gaia, Insubria, JD, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Activists Celebrate Blows to Electoral College
[Comments from JD: This will lead to the end of the Republic of the United States.]
But critics say change would render rural America politically irrelevant
Activists seeking to eliminate the Electoral College in favor of a popular vote to elect the president boast that their movement is almost one-fifth the way to its goal.
Four states — Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey — which represent 50 of the 270 electoral votes needed to declare a presidential election winner, have committed to an agreement whereby they would grant their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, a move that — if adopted by enough states — would reduce the Electoral College to irrelevancy.
With most of the nation’s states considering similar bills pending in their respective legislatures, activists are looking to 2016 as a possible death date for the Electoral College.
[…]
Opponents of the change argue that turning the election over to the popular vote would result in candidates focusing only on major metropolitan areas and television campaigns, cutting out rural America altogether, and that it would overturn our Founding Fathers’ vision of a republican form of government, replacing it with a pure democracy, where the majority has mob rule.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America for Sale … to China?
Leading economist requests dollar protection larger than U.S. homes
A high profile Chinese economist has begun circulating a new plan under which the U.S. government would guarantee foreign investments, so foreign nations with large dollar holdings in U.S. Treasury debt could convert that debt into equity to buy and own U.S. assets or invest in the nation’s infrastructure without risk of loss, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.
In the process, much of U.S. industry and infrastructure would be sold to the Chinese.
In the Financial Times of London, Yu Qiao, a professor of economics in the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsighua University in Beijing, proposed a plan for the U.S. government to guarantee foreign investments in the United States.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America Has a Naïve President
As far as nuclear weapons are concerned, the president of the United States wants America to disarm: “Countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament.”
It is hard to imagine a more destructive goal. A nuclear disarmed America would lead to massive and widespread killing, more genocide and very possibly the nuclear holocaust worldwide nuclear disarmament is meant to prevent.
There is nothing moral, let alone realistic, about this goal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bolton: Obama Needs Additional ‘schooling’
[Comments from JD: Lots of other topics discussed in this transcript of an interview with Bolton.]
VAN SUSTEREN: Is President Obama right? Ambassador Bolton is still with us. What do you think about his speech?
BOLTON: I was shocked at how poor his knowledge of history is. If he thinks tensions between Europe and the United States are of recent vintage, particularly during the Bush administration, he really needs some additional schooling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Islam Has Shaped the U.S.A.
By Robert Spencer
“We will convey,” said Barack Obama to the Turkish Parliament Monday, “our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”
Undeniably the Islamic faith has done a great deal to shape the world — a statement that makes no value judgment about exactly how it has shaped the world. It has formed the dominant culture in what is known as the Islamic world for centuries. But what on earth could Obama mean when he says that Islam has also “done so much” to shape his own country?
Unless he considers himself an Indonesian, Obama’s statement was extraordinarily strange. After all, how has the Islamic faith shaped the United States? Were there Muslims along Paul Revere’s ride, or standing next to Patrick Henry when he proclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death”? Were there Muslims among the framers or signers of the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men — not just Muslims, as Islamic law would have it — are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Were there Muslims among those who drafted the Constitution and vigorously debated its provisions, or among those who enumerated the Bill of Rights, which guarantees — again in contradiction to the tenets of Islamic law — that there should be no established national religion, and that the freedom of speech should not be infringed?
There were not.
Did Muslims play a role in the great struggle over slavery that defined so much of our contemporary understandings of the nature of this republic and of the rights of the individual within it? They did not…
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
President Obama Invites Ihsanoglu to Visit the White House
The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, had the occasion yesterday on the sidelines of the 2nd Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC), to have a brief encounter with US President, Mr. Barack Obama. The encounter took place during the official reception given by Turkish Prime Minister, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, where the President reiterated to the Secretary General the willingness and readiness of the US Administration to explore areas of cooperation with the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
To this end, President Obama extended an invitation to Prof. Ihsanoglu to visit the White House in Washington D.C.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Muslims Debate How Much to Help FBI
A petition organized by a Newark nonprofit urging Muslims to limit social outreach with the FBI has provoked a national debate within the Muslim community about how to deal with law enforcement.
The curb proposed by the petitioners — eliminating joint FBI town halls and other meet-and-greet events — is largely a response to the FBI’s restricting its work with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights group.
The petitioners say their stand on behalf of CAIR, which has an extensive presence around the country and in the Bay Area, has larger meaning for all Muslim institutions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Obama Evasion Means He’s Unfit
Obama was elected to serve you under the parameters of the Constitution, to which he took a sworn oath to uphold. (We all watched him botch it so badly he was forced to do it again — in private.)
Yet he steadfastly refuses to provide the evidence of his own eligibility under that Constitution. No one has seen it — not the Federal Elections Commission, not the secretaries of state who presided over his elections, not the Supreme Court of the United States, not the governor of Hawaii who has refused to release what she claims is a birth certificate that would end this matter of supreme public interest, and not the Congress of the United States, whose members — both majority and minority — are apparently too afraid of public ridicule to do what they are sworn to do, enforce the Constitution.
What does that tell you?
According to the aforementioned principle of the law, Obama is a kind of fugitive, a kind of scofflaw, someone who is deliberately, and with malice aforethought, undermining the rule of law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey: No Confirmation of NATO-Adhesion From Brussels
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 6 — In exchange for the go ahead to the appointment of the Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Secretary General of NATO, Turkey has allegedly been promised the acceleration of the two chapters which are currently being negotiated for the EU adhesion process. The news, reported today by the International Herald Tribune, was not confirmed by the EU Commission. According to diplomatic sources at the NATO summit which on Saturday saw the appointment of Rasmussen with the consensus of Turkey, which had previously opposed the appointment, Ankara had received confirmation of six posts within the Alliance, the most important being the post of deputy to the Vice Secretary General, which was carried out today by Italy. Other sources quoted by the Herald Tribune added that an unblocking of two EU adhesion chapters were amongst the elements which led to the agreement. “The European Union and NATO are two very distinct organisations and there is no connection between the EU adhesion process and NATO agreements,” Christiane Hohmann stated, not confirming the news. Speaking from Helsinki last Saturday, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn commented unfavourably on Turkey’s veto of Rasmussen, which was motivated by the Danish PM’s failure to censor anti-Islamic cartoon strips. Rehn said that the motivation did not bode well for Turkey’s adhesion. “This does not bring anything good on a European front, given that the freedom of expression is one of the Union’s fundamental values, at a time when Turkey is hoping to join the EU”, Rehn said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marine One Deal ‘Not Dead’
Congress ‘must still approve’ Pentagon cancellation
(ANSA) — Rome, April 7 — A deal to supply new presidential helicopters to the United States is not dead despite the Pentagon’s cancellation of the order as too expensive, the Italian consortium involved said Tuesday. “It isn’t over. We won’t take this sitting down, we will try to move, the story starts now,” said Finmeccanica Chairman and CEO Pierfrancesco Guarguaglini, noting that Congress had until October to approve the budget cuts announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates Monday.
Guarguaglini argued that the move to scrap the ‘Marine One’ deal after cost reviews would not affect the first, ‘increment one’, part of the consignment, in which five helicopters were on course for delivery.
He said a price and technology review was only possible on the ‘increment 2’ of a further 23 copters.
The Finmeccanica chief said Gates’ announcement would not affect his company’s balance sheet.
“It doesn’t change our numbers because the stop is for the second consignment, not the first. And the second has no financial impact because we haven’t itemised it yet”.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday the copter price “appeared too high for the American taxpayer”.
He said Gates had taken the decision because the initial cost of some $6 billion “has risen to more than $13 billion”.
United States President Barack Obama said last month he might rethink the contract from the US-British-Italian consortium in which Finmeccanica has a lead role.
Obama called the Lockheed Martin-AgustaWestland project an example of military procurement “gone amok”.
“The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me,” Obama said at a White House summit on fiscal responsibility, adding in jest, “obviously I did not have a helicopter before”.
The new model is supposed to be developed in two phases.
Five helicopters in the first phase are scheduled for delivery by September 2010.
The second phase of the program would deliver 23 more high-tech helicopters, but that stage has now been scratched by Gates.
Lockheed Martin and AgustaWestland said last month the contract had been placed “under review,” stressing that it was a “normal procedure” when costs rise by more than 25%.
The 2005 decision by the Pentagon, which is responsible for transporting the president, came at the end of an intense lobbying battle between the Finmeccanica group and the Pentagon’s supplier since the Eisenhower era, Sikorsky.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi went to bat for the American-European consortium in meetings with US President George Bush.
AugustaWestland, based in Italy and Britain, is a division of the Italian corporation Finmeccanica.
Other partners in the American-European consortium include Bell Helicopter and Northrop Grumman Corp.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Quake: Over 100 Dead, 1, 500 Injured
Rescuers continue to dig through rubble
(ANSA) — Rome, April 6 — Monday’s earthquake in central Italy left over 100 dead, 1,500 injured and some 70,000 homeless, officials said 14 hours after the disaster, Italy’s biggest quake in almost 30 years.
The official death toll was set at 91 but rescuers said they had pulled over 108 bodies from rubble in the Abruzzo capital L’Aquila and neighbouring towns and that numbers were set to rise.
Italian Police Chief Antonio Manganelli said the 6.2 magnitude quake which hit at 03:33 local time (01:33 GMT) quake had left “a horrible scene of death and destruction”.
One foreign national has so far been found among those killed, a female student from the Czech republic. Some 4,000 rescuers were at work and Italy will have access to the European Union’s disaster fund, said Premier Silvio Berlusconi who cancelled a trip to Moscow to be at the scene. Helicopters were taking the most badly injured to hospital while many minor casualties were driving, or being driven, to Rome. Some 2,000 tents were being put up for the homeless, each able to house 8-10 people, empty couchette trains were also being made available, and the fire service thought it could find temporary lodgings for 2,000 more, Berlusconi said. Abruzzo Governor Gianni Chiodi said some 10,000 of the displaced could be moved to hotels on the coast. Berlusconi urged citizens not to stay indoors because of the risk of aftershocks or new quakes.
Messages of condolences and offers of help from countries including Serbia, Romania, Kosovo, Malta and Albania poured in Monday afternoon to join those of the European Union, the Vatican, the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Greece, Israel, Poland and Afghanistan.
Three people were meanwhile taken into custody after allegedly being caught looting in the centre of L’Aquila. The earthquake was Italy’s worst since 2,570 people were killed southeast of Naples in 1980. The two most recent big quakes were in 1997 when 11 died in a tremor that damaged churches in Assisi and in 2002 when 27 school children and one teacher were killed in the collapse of a school east of Naples.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Swiss Govt Willing to Reveal Banking Secrets
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 6 — The Swiss government has included Spain among the countries to which it will reveal part of its banking secrets and has said that it is willing to change the current bilateral agreement, in order to supply further information. A “firm and encouraging commitment” in this matter, according to the Spanish government cited today by El Mundo, was contained in a letter sent to the Madrid executive. In the current agreement with Spain, Switzerland does not recognise tax fraud, while Madrid considers the exchange of information with Switzerland as insufficient and unsatisfactory. The agreement reached by the Group of 20 on April 2 in London constitutes a basis to demand “individualised information” from Switzerland on Spanish accounts held in Swiss banks. The Finance Ministry considers Andorra and Gibraltar to be tax havens that must be neutralised, while Switzerland and Luxembourg are bastions of large-scale tax avoidance. The Spanish invested 500 million euros in Switzerland in 2007, 300 million of which went to the “banks and other financial intermediaries” sector. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Dyslexic Children Simply Struggle to Read’: Expert Claims Thousands Are Being Falsely Diagnosed
Thousands of children who simply struggle to read are being wrongly diagnosed with dyslexia, an education expert has claimed.
Parents with children who have difficulty in literacy lessons push for them to be diagnosed with dyslexia so they can get the extra support they need, according to Professor Joe Elliott.
Prof Elliot, a director of research at Durham University’s School of Education, says this leads to children being falsely labelled and ignores the fact there are simply many children who may need extra help learning to read.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cambridge University ‘Paedophile’ Avoids Jail After Judge Rules Prison Would ‘Ruin His Studies’
A Cambridge University student found with child porn images was spared jail by a judge because it would ruin his studies.
Jonathan Jenkins, 21, was caught with 293 indecent images of children on his computer when police raided his university accommodation in October 2007.
But in a decision that provoked a storm of anger yesterday, Judge Gareth Hawkesworth said jailing him would be a ‘cruel and pointless exercise’ as it would wreck his studies.
He gave him a four-month suspended sentence instead. It is the second time that Judge Hawkesworth has been involved in controversy after he allowed Cambridge University professor Nicholas Hammond to walk free last September..
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: How Can Children be So Evil? a Top Criminologist Reveals Why Some Youngsters Are Capable of Such Appalling Violence
[Comments from JD: Warning — graphic descriptions of crimes.]
It is natural for the infant to be selfish. A child has urgent needs and requirements that must be satisfied, and it will seek aggressively to have them satisfied.
The first need is the breast. Very quickly, the infant learns that the breast is sometimes withdrawn, and that provides it with its first experience of frustration and anger.
The rest of its infancy and childhood will be geared towards learning how to deal with this frustration and anger without damage to itself. Still later, it will learn that the task must be undertaken without damage to others as well.
So altruism, the recognition that other people have needs and requirements as well as oneself, evolves gradually in the child who is morally healthy.
The two boys who launched the attack at a clay quarry near Doncaster have clearly not evolved into altruistic beings. A barrier, a dam, has blocked their development.
That an infant’s universe is self- centred is only to be expected. But by the age of ten, he should have grown out of this self-centredness, matured and been enabled to recognise the reciprocal benefit of helping others and his responsibility for their well-being. If he does not, it is a sign that his moral development has atrophied.
[…]
There is yet another layer to this moral emptiness. The infant cannot easily differentiate between people and objects. They are both satisfiers of needs, furniture in the world he is newly exploring.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Protesters Clash With Police as Thousands of Tamils Lay Siege to Parliament
Police and protesters have clashed at the Houses of Parliament today as thousands of Tamils lay siege to the centre of London.
Rescue boats have also been put on alert amid fears the protesters — flying the flag of the terrorist Tamil Tigers — may leap en masse from Westminster Bridge if they are not allowed to speak to Gordon Brown.
There were four arrests today as the protesters were hemmed in by more than 100 officers.
Police were caught off guard by the surprise demonstration after organisers used their mobile phones to alert thousands of supporters by text message.
One man jumped off the bridge yesterday evening after up to 5,000 protesters converged on Parliament yesterday afternoon to protest over the Sri Lankan government’s offensive against the rebels.
Rescuers plucked the man, thought to be from Mitcham, South London, after he jumped in at about 6pm. He was taken to hospital and police believe his condition is not serious.
Four RNLI lifeboats are on standby in the river after threats that other demonstrators — illegally occupying the bridge — may also throw themselves into the water.
During the night a rump of 900 blocked the bridge — including women and children sleeping in sheets and blankets…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Violent Anti-Communist Revolt in Moldova
[See URL for photos and video]
This is happening in the last country in Europe run by a communist regime.
Moldavia, a historical province of Romania was forcefully ceded under the threat of invasion to the Soviet Union following the 1939 Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between Hitler and Stalin. The majority of the population is Romanian (78%) followed and Ukrainian (8.3%) and Russian (5.9%) minorities. The official language according to the official communist propaganda is Moldavian; in fact the so-called Moldavian language is nothing more than 100% Romanian spoken with a regional accent.
Since the 1990’s break-up of the former Soviet Union, Moldavia is ruled by the Moldavian Communist Party, a client of the Russian Federation. Although the Moldavian government declared itself “independent”, they are still receiving their orders from Moscow.
| — Hat tip: AI | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Islamists Expanding in Bosnia
Radical Islamists known as Salafists are expanding their subversion into Bosnia’s Serb Republic and penetrating their network is increasingly hard says the President of the Committee for Defense and Security in the Parliament of the Serb Republic.
“In Gornja Maoca lives totally closed Salafists community where no authority can come in from Srebrenik,” said President Petar Djokic.
Djokic said that Serbs can not return to Gornja Maoca because the Islamists confiscated their property and ethnically cleansed the village of Serbs.
It is believed that the leader of Islamists from Gornja Maoca also runs an extremist Bosnian Muslim web site, putvjernika.com, that glorifies Jihad and tabulates number of dead Americans in its war on terror.
Djokic urged the security agencies in Bosnia to increase their attention on the activities of all Islamist groups and in particular those associated with the Salafi movement.
“In the struggle against the extremist organization we must include all security and intelligence agencies in Bosnia, because these groups are a threat to the stability,” said Djokic.
He said that the police is ill equipped to deal with extremist Bosnian Muslims and urged additional resources for the police in the Serb Republic to deal with the threat.
Bosnian Muslim extremist Salafists in public prayer
The Parliamentary Committee will also schedule a hearing with the police school where they will analyze extremism and in particular the Islamic one.
“The aim is to uncover the activities of the extremist groups and cut off their radical goals because those groups are a threat to the constitutional order,” said Djokic.
Djokic said that his Committee has analyzed the latest intelligence on the Salafists but that the intelligence is highly classified.
“Those are groups of people that advocate a different approach to Islam and a different kind of life. That is a method of religious expression that is, obviously, unusual for this region and publicly unacceptable,” Djokic said.
The intelligence service in the Serb Republic has recently uncovered documents from the extremist groups that show an elaborate weapons network and funding for arms.
March 28, 2009
SERBIANNA
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: GIA Founder Escapes Attempt on His Life
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, APRIL 6 — A few days before the presidential elections in Algeria in which the leader of the Front de Libération Nationale, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, may be elected for a third term, the founder of the Armed Islamic Group (Groupe Islamique Armé, GIA), Abdelhak Layada, has escaped an attempt on his life. A bomb planted in front of his house in the Baraki district of Algiers was defused yesterday morning by security forces, the Algerian press wrote today. “My father found the bomb and sounded the alarm,” said Abelak Layada, son of the former Emir released from prison in 2006 in a general amnesty. “The threats against my father since his release go beyond simple intimidation,” he added. “His life is at risk”. Several “repentant” emirs have been killed in the past by armed Islamic groups still active in Algeria and which are now affiliated with the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb. Layada founded the GIA in 1992, the day after the second round of elections was annulled when FIS won the first. He was arrested in Morocco in 1994 and released in 2006, despite the fact that he had been sentenced to death. Today he is one of the supporters of Bouteflika’s reconciliation policy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jewish Easter; Hamas TV, Jews Use Islamic Blood
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 6 — While Israel is making final preparations for the Easter festivities which begin on Wednesday, Hamas’s television is reviving in its own way the medieval anti-semite stereotype according to which Jews had the habit of using non-Jewish blood for their religious rites. The alert was given by an Israeli organisation named Palestinian Media Watch (Pmw). Controversy originated from the broadcast in recent days by the Hamas television network of a few excerpts from a theatrical sketch set up by Gaza’s Islamic University. Passages stated that, because of divine will, jews have the habit of drinking Islamic blood and using it to wash their hands during a rite of purification. Greeted with apparent hilarity by the Gaza University campus, the scenes raised concern in Israel. The directors of PMW, Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, pointed out that during history the Jews have been unfairly accused of using non-Jewish blood to produce unleavened bread for Easter. They added that these accusations were often the root of pogroms and the mass slaying of Jews. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tsahal Says 1,370 Killed in ‘Cast Lead’, 600 Hamas
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 25 — Two months after Operation Cast Lead came to an end in Gaza, the Israeli Armed Forces (Tsahal) are now able to say that 1,370 Palestinians were killed, roughly the same as the figures published by Palestinian sources (between 1,324 and 1434). However, in contrast with the Palestinian statistics, those by the Israeli army show a different picture of the effects of the battles. Six hundred of those killed, said the Haaretz daily, have been identified by the Tsahal as “Hamas members”, while 309 were undoubtedly “ not involved in fighting”, including 189 children under age 15, as well as 91 women and 6 UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) medical team employees. One hundred and twenty-one victims have not yet been identified. In a statement made to the military radio broadcaster, the commander of the southern military zone General Yoav Galant (the leader of Operation Cast Lead) said that overall “800 terrorists and 300 civilians” were killed in Gaza. “It is an unprecedented report,” he continued, “if we compare it to other military operations conducted by other armies in similar, heavily-populated areas.” Galant said that his forces had had orders strongly limiting their range of action in the attempt to avoid killing innocent civilians. “Commanders were forced to prove they had assessed the moral pros and cons for each action undertaken, weighing the protection of their soldiers’ lives against the precaution not to hit Palestinian civilians,” said the general against the harsh criticism seen recently — even in the Israeli press — against Tsahal actions in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Concerns Over Iran’s ‘Atomic Umbrella’
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, 6 APRIL — The possibility that an Iran with nuclear weapons could in the future protect Israel’s immediate enemies is worrying the latter country’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff. According to the Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General Dan Harel, “despite international attempts to dissuade it, Iran is proceeding with its nuclear armament,” and this represents the “number 1 threat” to Israel. “Israel,” General Harel continued, “has already said in the past that it would prefer a political solution, but it also has to be ready for a whole range of possible reactions.” “The fear,” the major general continued, speaking at a conference broadcast on military radio, “is not only about nuclear devices, but also about the ‘nuclear umbrella’ that Iran guarantees to terrorist organisations”. The general made specific reference to the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, both of which have pro-Iranian tendencies and with whom the Israeli armed forces have engaged in bitter battles in recent years. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Should Quit Ghajar, Frattini
Withdrawal from Lebanese town would send important message
(ANSA) — Beirut, April 7 — Israel would send an important message to the international community were it to withdraw from a Lebanese border town it occupied during its 2006 offensive against the Hezbollah, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Tuesday.
“I believe that Europe and the United States, which together with Italy are Israel’s true friends, could play an important role by convincing the new Israeli government to respect United Nations Resolution 1701 and withdraw from Ghajar,” Frattini explained.
“There is no alternative and the time is right for Israel to make this gesture,” he added.
“What we are asking for,” the Italian foreign minister observed, “is to speed up the the contacts between the two sides working on the technical aspects to ensure that this withdrawal can take place before the Lebanese elections on June 7”.
A preliminary accord calls for Israel to withdraw from Ghajar and its troops to be replaced by those of the Italian-led UN peace keeping force.
Frattini made his remarks during a visit to the UNIFIL headquarters and talks with the mission commander, Italian General Claudio Graziano.
Italy has some 2,500 men deployed in the UN mission which was set up after Israel’s offensive against the Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Frattini arrived in Lebanon on Monday night and on Tuesday held talks with Head of State Michael Sulayman, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Foreign Minister Faouzi Salloukh.
After his meeting with Salloukh, Frattini said there was no alternative to a two-state solution for the Mideast crisis.
Salloukh voiced “high” appreciation for Italy’s important role in the UNIFIL peace force and voiced the hope that a new Palestinian state would be created, Jewish settlements stopped and Jerusalem made capital of both states.
Frattini later left for Damascus and talks on Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, considered Iran’s closest ally in the Mideast. The Italian foreign minister is expected to ask Syria to use its influence to moderate the anti-Israeli positions of Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Observers, however, say these efforts may have been complicated by the new Israeli government’s decision to shelve any possibility of returning the Golan Heights to Syria, in exchange for peace between the two countries. In his talks with Assad and Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, Frattini is also expected to review the situation in Afghanistan. Italy, in its role as the rotating president of the Group of Eight (G8), is organizing an international conference on Afghanistan and Pakistan to be held in Trieste in June, which Iran is expected to attend.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Abdullah on Eastern European Tour to Push for Peace
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, APRIL 6 — King Abdullah of Jordan on Sunday headed to Eastern Europe for an official visit that will include Romania, Czech Republic and Slovakia to discuss mutual interests and recent development in the Middle East, according to palace statement. Abdullah is scheduled to hold talks with Romanian president President Traian Basescu, Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus and the Slovak President Ivan Gasparovi, said the statement. The Jordanian monarch is expected to sign several agreements on economic cooperation with each of the countries, added the statement. Abdullah will be pushing for more international efforts to push the dormant peace process on track, particularly that the Czech Republic is currently holding the EU presidency. “Efforts will focus on re-launching the peace process in order to end the Arab Israeli conflict based on the principle of two states solution,” added the statement. Abdullah’s visit comes amid sluggish progress in the reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fateh to form a unity government and the arrival of hardliner Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanhyahu. Officials in Amman are concerned of a possibility of further deterioration in the political climate in the region amid lack of progress on the ground between the Palestinians and Israel. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kazakhstan — Iran: Kazakhstan Wants to Create a “Nuclear Fuel Bank”
The “bank” would produce nuclear fuel to be sold to countries that use nuclear energy for civilian purposes. Kazakhstan possesses 20% of the world’s uranium, but rejects nuclear weapons. Iran’s president present at the announcement.
Astana (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev yesterday announced his country’s willingness to “consider the possibility of hosting on its territory . . . a nuclear fuel bank for nuclear energy.”
This possibility, which was communicated during a press conference held together with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was visiting the country, revisits a 2005 proposal from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In favor of the project are the United States (which earmarked 50 million dollars for it in 2007) and Russia.
This bank would produce enriched uranium, necessary for nuclear reactors, which it could sell to countries that use nuclear energy for civilian purposes, but do not have their own nuclear fuel. Kazakhstan has reserves totaling about 20% of the world’s uranium. The IAEA would have a supervisory role.
In the past, the Soviet Union tested atomic bombs in the country. But now Astana rejects any sort of nuclear weapon, and on March 31 representatives of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan ratified a treaty banning nuclear weapons in central Asia.
President Ahmadinejad expressed his “support” for the proposal, but did not say whether Iran would want to use such a bank. Tehran has long been accused by the United States of enriching uranium to make weapons. But it has always defended itself, saying that it is using this for civilian purposes.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Islam Message Delights Muslims
WASHINGTON — Leading Muslim organizations and community leaders welcomed President Barack Obama’s assertion that Islam is not the enemy, hoping this would be reflected in policy changes on the domestic front as well.
“We appreciate President Obama’s positive initiatives on the international front,” Dr. Agha Saeed, chairman of the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a coalition of major national Islamic organizations, told IslamOnlin.net.
“The statement is very much welcomed, this is a wonderful statement.”
Obama seized upon his visit to Turkey, his first to a Muslim country since assuming office, to bridge the gap between the US and the Muslim world.
“Let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam,” he told the Turkish parliament on Monday, April 6.
Obama vowed a new way of dealing with the Muslim world.
“We will listen carefully, bridge misunderstanding, and seek common ground. We will be respectful, even when we do not agree.”
The AMT held a press conference Monday at Washington’s National Press Club to comment on the visit.
“This is a very important message to the American people, to the West and to the Muslim World in general,” said Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
“This is important to restore relations with the Muslims, which were damaged in the past eight years through wars, confrontation and a lot of misconception and misunderstanding.”
America’s relations with the Muslim world hit all time low under wartime Bush.
Muslims were particularly angered by his so-called war on terror which saw the invasion of two Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We believe that President Obama is both serious and sincere,” said Awad.
“We appreciate Obama’s efforts to bring peace and justice to the Muslim world and American Muslims are not only willing but they are ready to help.”…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Syrian Man Arrested Over ‘Obama Murder Plot’
Istanbul, 6 April (AKI) — As United States president Barack Obama began an official visit to Turkey on Monday, reports surfaced that a Syrian man was arrested in Istanbul in connection with a plot to kill him. The man — who sought to disguise himself as a journalist for the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera — managed to obtain press accreditation and allegedly planned to stab the US president with a knife, said Saudi daily al-Watan.
The Saudi daily contacted Al-Jazeera’s bureau in the Turkish capital Ankara and spoke with the bureau’s director Yusuf al-Sharif who claimed the Syrian man never worked with Al-Jazeera.
The suspect was arrested last Friday in Istanbul, where he had been permanently living for a number of years. After his arrest, al-Watan said he confessed to having planned Obama’s murder and that in case he failed, there were three other accomplices that would carry out the assassination.
Obama arrived in Ankara late on Sunday for a two-day trip to shore up ties with majority-Muslim Turkey, whose support is crucial to the US to solve the conflicts in Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
He is due to meet Turkish president Abdullah Gul and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Obama was also due to visit the Turkish parliament and address the general assembly.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
USA-Turkey: Obama, Favours Turkey in EU, No War Against Islam
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 6 — American President Barack Obama said today in Ankara that the United States wholeheartedly supportS Turkey’s request to become an EU member. Turkey, he added, is a “critical ally” of the United States and is an “important part of Europe”. Without using the word genocide, Obama said that the United States “strongly supports” the full normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia. “The United States is not in a war with Islam,” said the US President, but rather, considers “partnership with the Muslim world as crucial”. As for the crisis in the Middle East, the United States “strongly supports the two state solution for Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and safety”. “We know that it is a difficult road,” said Obama. “We will not yield to pessimism.” “We must pursue all opportunities for progress,” he added, “like we did by supporting negotiations between Syria and Israel”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
USA-Turkey: Obama to Islam, We Are Not at War
(by Cristiano del Riccio) (ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 6 — “The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam,” were the words that Barack Obama chose in his first trip as President of the United States to a Muslim country to reach out to Islam. He did so speaking in Turkey, a country described by him as a meeting point between the East and the West, confirming for the second consecutive day the “strong support” of the United States for Turkey’s entrance into the European Union. He had already expressed the same sentiments yesterday in Prague at a US-EU summit, in which he met sharp opposition from France and other EU members. Obama’s decision to make his first visit to a country across the Atlantic (until now he has only visited Canada), after the G20, NATO, and US-EU summits, shows the great symbolic value that the new president has given to Turkey. “The United States wholeheartedly supports Turkey’s entrance into the EU,” said Obama who was given a long applause by Turkish Parliament. “We are not speaking as members of the EU, but as great friends of Turkey and Europe. Turkey is connected to Europe by more than the bridges of Bosporus.” Obama, while alluding to Europe’s fears about a flood of Turkish immigrants said: “Europe can only benefit, and not lose, from Turkey’s ethnicity, tradition, and faith. The entrance of Turkey can only broaden and strengthen Europe’s foundations”. Obama devoted the main part of his speech to the most important point: “The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam,” he said clearly punctuating his words. “Rather, we consider the Muslim world a crucial partner in rejecting extremist ideologies that all believers reject.” Obama went beyond cooperation against terrorism: “Relations between the Muslim world and America cannot be based only on opposition to Al Qaida.” We desire to “extend our relations, listen carefully, surpass incomprehension, and find common ground,” said Obama reaching out his hand to Islam. “We will be respectful, even when we are not in agreement.” He added a personal touch: “Many Americans have Muslim family members or have lived in Muslim countries: I know because I am one of these people.” Obama cited a Turkish proverb: “You cannot put out a fire with more flames.” “Strength alone cannot resolve problems,” he said. “And it cannot be an alternative to extremism. The future must belong to those who create, not those who destroy.” On this note Obama warned Iran to choose “between creating a nuclear weapon and creating a future for his people”. And he reiterated his support for Ankara “against the terrorist activities of the PKK”, Kurdish separatists. The US President also stated his support in the Middle East “of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, side-by-side in peace and security”. When it was time to speak about the issue of Armenian genocide, a word that was not used by Obama in his speech, the American president avoided the idea of America giving any lessons, speaking first about racism in the US and the massacre of the Native Americans. Obama spoke in the past of the “genocide” of the Armenians, a word that the Turkish still consider taboo. “History, if unresolved, can be a heavy burden,” said Obama. “We give our maximum support to the complete normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
USA-Turkey: Obama Open to Islam, Reactions From Arab Press
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 7 — This morning, the Arab Press has reacted in different ways to the declarations made by US President Barack Obama in Istanbul, but the bottom line is that all newspapers are welcoming Obama’s openness to the Arab-Islamic world. The Lebanese publication an Nahar sees yesterday’s Turkish-American summit as “an essential step in the process of reformulating relations between Islam and the West”, whereas the other Beirut daily, as Safir, drew attention to the fact that Obama announced his openness from Turkey and not from an Arab country. In its editorial, as Safir comments, “Islamic, modern and democratic Turkey represents the best platform from which to speak to Muslims, and amongst them the Arabs, who have lost the prestige which they once had.” In turn, the Syrian state newspapers ignored Obama’s openness to Islam, and instead focused on the commitment of the US president to the Israeli-Arab peace process and his interest in the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The two major pan-Arab newspapers, the Saudi-owned but London-published al Hayat, and al Sharq al Awsat, restricted their comment to printing Obama’s statements as the headlines of the front pages, as did the other Gulf newspapers. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US-Turkey: CIA Confirms Foiled Obama Plot, CNN
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 7 — Two agents from the CIA confirmed today that an attempt on the life of US President Barack Obama was foiled in Istanbul as reported yesterday the Turkish newspaper HaberTurk. So reports today the internet site of the Turkish newspaper Vatan which cited CNN. As HaberTurk reported, Turkish security forces last Friday arrested a Syrian citizen who had planned to kill Obama by throwing a precision knife at him. The attempt on the President’s life was to have taken place, according to what the man confessed, during the Alliance of Civilizations Forum which ended today in Istanbul. On the man, who is currently being identified with the initials M.G., an identification badge from the Qatari satellite TV network Al Jazeera was found, but it has yet to be clarified if it is authentic or a fake. According to the newspaper, the man intended to get close to the US President by using the badge to infiltrate, thanks to the press badge, the group of journalists crowded into Ciragan Palace where the forum was taking place. The man also supplied the names of three others, who if the attempt was to have gone awry, would have been ready to help him. Police are currently investigating the three individuals that the Syrian named. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Turkey May Build Armenia’s Nuclear Plant
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 2 — As Turkey and Armenia inch closer to some possible form of reconciliation, Armenian attention is increasingly focused on whether Turkey will participate in construction of the country’s new nuclear power plant, Hurriyet daily reports. Still the reaction in Yerevan to the idea of a Turkish-built nuclear power plant remains chilly. Representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a nationalist member of the country’s coalition government, termed “doubtful and unacceptable” the prospect of Turkish involvement in the project. Bids for construction of the new power plant began yesterday. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey, Armenia Agree to Open Formal Talks for Normalization
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 3 — Turkey and Armenia have agreed to open formal talks on a number of issues, including opening their joint border, in a step towards the normalization of relations, Turkish press reports today quoting the Wall Street Journal, or WSJ, of yesterday. The two neighbors, who have not had diplomatic relations for more than a decade, will open talks on opening borders, restoring diplomatic relations and setting up commissions to deal with historical disputes, the report said citing diplomats. The Turkish and Armenian governments could soon announce the deal, diplomats told the paper, speaking on condition of anonymity. The diplomats, who said the timing of the deal is being choreographed to coincide with the schedule of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Turkey on Sunday, added that one date under discussion for signing the agreement with Armenia is April 16, the WSJ suggested. Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations and their border has been closed for more than a decade over Armenia’s invasion of 20% territory of Azerbaijan. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: the World’s Youngest Terror Suspect… Ready to Blow Himself Up at the Age of 11
A would-be suicide bomber aged 11 has been arrested alongside Taliban fighters.
Known only as Abdullah, the youngster was caught crossing the mountains from Pakistan’s tribal region into Afghanistan wearing a jacket packed with explosives.
Police say he is the youngest terror recruit they have ever come across. Abdullah has also become Afghanistan’s youngest prisoner but he is still being held at a top security prison in the capital, Kabul.
[…]
It is not yet clear what authorities will do with the boy but it is likely he will be returned back to his religious school.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Dhaka Government Bans Beggars
Three months in prison for anyone caught asking for charity in public places. The authorities promise to eliminate the phenomenon within five years, but there are about 60 million people in the country living below the poverty level.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — The government of Bangladesh is banning beggars. With a law approved in an open vote, the parliament has decided that anyone who asks for charity in public, or displays handicaps or mutilations in order to obtain money, will be punished with three months in prison.
The law, proposed by interior minister Sahara Khatun, will apply to the large cities in the country, and comes after the parliament included Sylhet and Barisal in the category of metropolis. Together with these two cities in the capital of Dhaka, the new anti-begging law will also go into effect within a month in Chittagong and Rajshahi.
Various humanitarian associations are accusing the government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed of carrying out a “blatant violation” of human rights. According to United Nations estimates, about 40% of the more than 150 million inhabitants live below the poverty level. In the capital alone, the number of beggars is estimated to be between 27,000 and 100,000. The government is rejecting the accusations, asserting that the law will uproot the phenomenon of begging within five years, and will ensure greater security for the citizens. Nonetheless, it remains to be clarified how the authorities intend to guarantee the practical implementation of the new directive.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Flogging Video ‘An Attempt to Undermine Swat Peace Deal’
Islamabad, 3 April (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — The release of a video showing a 17-year-old girl being brutally flogged in public is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the peace deal signed with the Taliban in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern Swat valley, according to North West Frontier Province’s information minister, Mian Iftikhar.
The shocking two-minute video shows bearded Islamic militants — one of whom is her brother — holding the girl down as she screams out in pain. It was aired Friday on a Pakistani TV channel talk show and inflamed public opinion in the country.
“We were able to acquire peace [in the Swat valley] after a very long time and such media manipulations showing a past event as recent would spoil these efforts and could drag the region once again in turmoil,” Iftikhar told reporters.
He claims he personally visited the Swat valley to investigate the case and that the flogging occurred on 3 January, nearly five weeks before the Swat peace deal was signed on 16 February. Local Islamic courts were established a few days later.
Iftikhar is the leader of the anti-Taliban secular Pashtun Awami National Party, which was targeted by Islamic militants during a bloody two-year conflict with security forces in the Swat valley which ended in February when they signed a controversial peace deal with the NWFP government.
The Taliban have downplayed the video.
“This was an old incident which happened before the Islamic Sharia courts were constituted in the Swat Valley and even before the ceasefire was announced.
“It was not officially done by the Taliban but some Taliban did that in their private capacity,” Taliban spokesperson Haji Muslim Khan told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Khan said the girl’s flogging took place while the Taliban was fighting the Pakistani army. “We were not in a position to control each and every event and therefore some lapses happened,” he said.
“Nevertheless, one thing was confirmed and that is that the girl was wayward and therefore she should be punished.”
The flogging occurred after a neighbour reportedly claimed the girl had a relationship with a married man.
“Some rules were ignored during the implementation of flogging like, it should be done behind closed doors and not in public,” Khan admitted.
Pakistan’s chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has ordered Pakistan’s interior secretary and the NWFP government to prepare a report on the incident by by Monday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Taliban Blow Up State Radio Station in Northwest
Wana, 3 April (AKI) — Suspected Taliban militants on Friday blew up the only radio station in the lawless South Waziristan tribal region, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said, condemning the attack.
Gunmen surrounded state-owned Radio Pakistan Wana, broke down the doors and took away its transmission equipment before blowing up the building, it said.
The attack on Radio Pakistan Wana was almost certainly carried out by Taliban activists but their motive was unknown, said Reporters without Borders.
“Waziristan has clearly become a lawless region not just for ordinary citizens but for journalists in particular,” it added.
The station had already cut back its broadcasts to a minimum because of repeated Taliban harassment and had been avoiding any controversial programming, including music, the watchdog said.
Other state-run radio stations in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan have been intimidated and had their offices ransacked, the watchdog reported.
“We urge the authorities to accept that they have a duty to protect journalists and prevent attacks on the media so that press freedom can be established in the tribal areas,” it said.
Friday’s attack was the third on Radio Pakistan Wana since its creation in 2004. The first one came just a few days after it began operating. The second one was in 2006.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Whipping 17-Yr Girl a “Barbaric Act”, Anger Against Taliban Mounts
Protests and demonstrations against Islamic fundamentalist madness are organised in many Pakistani cities. Supreme Court starts hearing to determine who is responsible for whipping the young woman, who refuses to testify fearing retaliations. Extremists reject accusation, claiming the video is a “fake”
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Almost unanimous protests and condemnation have erupted across Pakistan after the Taliban publicly whipped Chand Bibi, a 17-year-old girl. The “barbaric act” was taped by videophone. Muslim Khan, spokesman for the fundamentalist Islamic group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), said that the video was a fake. However, a few days ago he claimed the action was justified.
Last Saturday Pakistani TV stations broadcast a video clip showing a young woman repeatedly whipped by a bearded man, his face made unrecognisable by a turban, wielding a whip. She was punished for an “unlawful relationship with her father-in-law.”
The alleged incident took place in the Swat Valley, an area of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where Islamic law was imposed following an agreement between the Pakistani government and the Tahrik-e-Nifaz Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) movement.
For Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry the whipping of the 17-year-old girl by the Taliban was a serious violation of fundamental rights and ordered the interior secretary to bring the girl before his court on 6 April where he will head an eight-judge panel to hear the case, but the young woman did not appear today.
During today’s hearing Attorney General Latif Khosa asked the court to have future hearings conducted behind closed doors given the matter’s sensitive nature.
Chief Justice Chaudhry turned down the request arguing that the incident has already been made public as a result of media coverage and that all the facts need to be brought before the public.
In a statement, the young Taliban victim, fearing fundamentalist violence, denied that she was the victim of violence.
Also during the initial hearing the NWFP Inspector General told the court that police have no access to several areas in Swat under Taliban control.
Elsewhere in Pakistan protests against Taliban violence are growing. On Saturday the Labour Party of Pakistan organised a demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club, attracting a large number of women.
In Lahore thousands of people—students, teachers, human rights activists, actors, artists, journalists, lawyers and ordinary citizens—protested the whipping of the young woman by taking part in a rally for peace and against terrorism.
As a result of this episode the whole country seems to be rising up against fundamentalism, demanding that everyone’s basic human rights be respected.
For their part the Taliban are claiming that the video at the centre of the controversy is a fake and a distortion of reality.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) movement, claims that a conspiracy is underway to sabotage the peace deal.
He has pointed the finger at women’s rights NGOs, accusing them of causing the storm even before any of the facts were confirmed.
In turn, those who back the charges have reasserted the authenticity of the video.
Documentary film maker Samar Minallah said she received the video from an activist from the Swat Valley.
She confirmed that the young woman seen in the video spoke Pashto, a language spoken in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.
“Everyone knew about the incident,” Ms Samar said, but the provincial government is trying to draw attention away from the violence and abuses inflicted on women.
Furthermore, she noted that “Muslim Khan had said that the actual punishment for the girl was stoning to death” when in reality “she was ‘only’ flogged”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Taleban-Style Law for Women in Afghanistan is Dropped After Outcry
A controversial law condoning marital rape and reintroducing Taleban-era rules for Afghan women has been shelved after an outcry in the West.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry said that the law had not been enacted, while Justice Ministry officials said that its contents might be reconsidered. The legislation was put on hold pending a review.
“The Justice Ministry is reviewing the law to make sure it is in line with the Afghan Government’s commitment to human rights and women rights conventions,” Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman for the ministry in Kabul, said.
The British Government expressed alarm at the law, which applies to the 15 per cent of the Afghan population that is Shia Muslim. President Obama called the law “abhorrent” at the Nato summit in Strasbourg last week.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
‘Economic’ Patrols Masking Nukes?
Report raises concerns over threat to U.S. cities
China recently has increased its deployment of ships to the South China Sea ostensibly to protect its “exclusive” economic zones. However, the real reason may be to keep the United States from spying on its increased nuclear submarine buildup, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
In recent months, China has added patrols in the South China Sea, using possibly armed fishing vessels to protect its interests in disputed areas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Authorities Recover More Than 100 Bodies Off Coast
Tripoli, 1 April (AKI) — Libyan authorities said on Wednesday they have recovered the bodies of more than 100 migrants who drowned after their boat sank off the coast of Libya after it set sail for Italy. Seventy seven bodies washed ashore near the Libyan port city of Sebrata, located west of the capital Tripoli on Tuesday, and at least 23 more were found between Sunday and Tuesday.
However, hundreds more are thought to be missing. The boat was designed to hold 75 people, but officials believe up to 365 boarded the ship.
Reports quoted by Libyan authorities say there were four people-smuggling boats which had sailed from Libya over the weekend. One was rescued after its engine failed on Sunday near a Libyan offshore oilfield.
One of the boats is said to have reached Italy and another one was spotted close to the island of Malta.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR expressed shock and sorrow at the reports of the missing migrants.
“This tragic incident illustrates, once again, the dangers faced by people caught in mixed irregular movements of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean and elsewhere which every year cost thousands of lives,” said UNHCR chief spokesman, Ron Redmond.
UNHCR’s office in the Italian capital Rome reported two boats have arrived in Italy this week — one carrying 244 people reached Sicily and another with 219 aboard made it to the southernmost island of Lampedusa. It is not clear if either of the boats came from Libya.
Last year, more than 36,000 people arrived in Italy by sea from North Africa. Some 75 percent of them applied for asylum and about 50 percent of those received some form of international protection from the Italian authorities.
Authorities said those aboard included Moroccans and Tunisians as well as migrants from Nigeria, Somalia, Algeri and the Kurdish and Palestinian territories
Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni claimed on Monday the problem of illegal immigrants from Libya landing on the Italian coast will end in mid-May, when a bilateral agreement to combat illegal immigration enters into force.
Under the bilateral treaty Italy will give Libya millions of dollars in aid while Libya will allow the Italian military conduct joint patrols with its navy in patrolling the country’s coasts to intercept people traffickers’ boats.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Patriarch of Venice Has a Dream: a “Mestizaje” of Civilizations
And his philosopher friend has written about how to get there. But the road between the religions is strewn with obstacles, especially between Christianity and Islam. Archbishop Teissier tells about what happened in his Algeria, divided between repression and respect for religious freedom
by Sandro Magister
ROME, April 1, 2009 — On the cover of the book are a question and a photo. The photo shows the confluence of the Amazon River and the Rio Negro: waters of different colors run next to each other, and then mix together. The question is in the title: “Mestizaje: coexistence, or confusion?”.
In effect, the word “mestizaje” does not enjoy a good reputation in contemporary language. Born from the interbreeding between Spanish and Indians after the discovery of the Americas, it brings to mind conquest and subjection. Or, if it is associated with modern multiculturalism, it evokes confusion, a mishmash of persons and civilizations, juxtaposed without any comprehension.
And yet, a wager has been made on a “mestizaje of civilizations” by one of the churchmen most closely engaged in interpreting and directing relationships among peoples, religions, and cultures: Cardinal Angelo Scola, the patriarch of Venice.
The book is an important phase in this program. It is published by Marcianum Press, the publishing house of the patriarchate of Venice. The author is Paolo Gomarasca, a professor of philosophy and anthropology at the Catholic University of Milan…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Bangladesh: Dhaka Government Bans Beggars
Will this mean that the Bangladesh government will not go cap in hand to the West for aid? Or will begging from the West be justified as legally sanctioned Jizya, and thus permitted?
I consider the meme "Obama is naive"to be a moral error: Obama is a Marxist; he is following his ideology knowing full well it means the destruction of the free society or any non-Marxist society. He foreknows that his decisions will destroy the American society politically, economically, and socially.
The very writers who declare Obama naive are the ones who are truly naive.
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