A pro-government council of Afghan Islamic clerics said on Saturday Muslim holy war against foreign troops was not allowed and those who shunned reconciliation with the government were rebels.
That fine point would be why the Talibs weren't defined as terrorists. They're adherents of the ousted government, which puts them in rebellion against the current government. The Paks and the Arabs swarming in and out of the country and blowing things up are terrorists, but they're not Afghan Taliban.
The Islamic council in the southern province of Kandahar issued a fatwa, or decree, rejecting fatwas issued by Taliban insurgents, including a call for jihad, or holy war, against foreign forces. "We cannot call foreign troops invaders ... jihad against them is not allowed," Ghulam Mohammad, head of the clerics' council, told a news conference in Kandahar town.
Naturally the current government doesn't describe them as invaders, since they're invited.
The Taliban, ousted from power in late 2001, have intensified their insurgency to expel foreign troops and bring down the Western-backed government in recent months. Several clerics who have spoken out against the Taliban have been killed over the past few years. Mohammad said foreign forces were in Afghanistan to help the elected government of President Hamid Karzai. "Those who do not accept Karzai's government are rebels," he said. "Those who do not accept the reconciliation process are rebels," he said, referring to government attempts to persuade Taliban to give up and rejoin society.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Anglican Church say no holy war on foreign troops.
#2
An interesting bit about Afghanistan is that their current government adopted the traditional model, not knowing any other way, of a weak central government surrounded by strong warlords in the mountains.
But this time, things are different. Much of the power of the warlords has been shattered, and the foreign troops control much of the mountains. So now they have to tease and cajole the central government, convince them, that they *can* rule over all Afghanistan.
It is a novel paradigm to them, and difficult to grasp.
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer planned to meet yesterday at the State Department with a top Sudanese official linked by human rights groups to the violence in Sudan's Darfur region that the Bush administration has labeled as genocide. But the official, deputy foreign minister Ali Ahmed Karti, did not show up for the meeting, a State Department spokesman said.
David Sims, a spokesman for the Africa bureau headed by Frazer, said a meeting had been planned but Karti "just decided he didn't want to make it." Frazer, who last week was in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, for intensive talks that led to a tentative peace agreement on Darfur, did not have qualms about meeting with Karti, Sims said.
Human rights groups say that Karti, though he now holds the title of state minister for foreign affairs, was the head of the Popular Defense Forces, a paramilitary group that fought alongside the militia known as the Janjaweed during a campaign of terror that has now resulted in as many as 450,000 deaths and driven more than 2 million from their homes. Some experts have said they believe his name is on the secret list of 51 names referred by the United Nations to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution for war crimes.
Another official believed to be on that list, intelligence chief Saleh Gosh, traveled to Washington last year to meet with CIA officials.
Karti did not respond to a message left at the Sudanese Embassy. He has been a key public figure in rejecting the jurisdiction of the war-crimes court. "Our decision not to hand any Sudanese national for trial outside the country remains valid and has not changed," Karti was quoted as saying last June by the official Sudanese Media Center.
Besides his alleged role in Darfur, Human Rights Watch documented that Karti was involved in the scorched-earth clearances in the oil regions of southern Sudan, beginning in 1998, as part of the long-running civil war in the south. A report on the campaign said that "PDF coordinating director Ali Ahmad Karti read out the names of the brigades that had been sent to the field, including the 'Protectors of the Oil Brigade,' and promised that more brigades would be created."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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that the Bush administration has labeled as genocide.
Oh, so just the Bush Administration thinks it genocide? This quibbling over the term genocide is one of the greatest shames I have seen in my lifetime. Those who participate in this "intellectual" sham should just get a gun an blow their brains out because they have sunk to depths so low that the act of suicide must be far less painful than a look in the mirror.
So how many dead bodies do you need before it's genocide. Add those from the South and East, and you are looking at 3 or 4 million dead.
Piss on the UN. Piss on the MSM. Piss on the Tranzis. I'm tired of this crap. It's a slaughter of people whose skin isn't the right color and who don't speak Arabic (the right way).
LONDON, May 13 Britain's biggest union for college and university teachers plans to ask its 67,000 members to consider boycotting Israeli lecturers who do not publicly dissociate themselves from what it called Israel's "apartheid policies."
The language is from a resolution to be put before the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education at its annual conference in Blackpool from May 27 to 29.
The move has reopened a fiery debate that seized another college union, the Association of University Teachers, last year. In response to appeals from 60 Palestinian organizations, the Association of University Teachers voted in April 2005 to boycott two Israeli universities, saying it would bar faculty members from Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities from taking part in academic conferences or research with British colleagues.
Less than a month later, the association voted to overturn the boycott when numerous advocates, including a group of Nobel laureates, argued that university campuses in Israel enjoyed vigorous political debate and were not the most appropriate institutions to boycott.
This year, however, the Association of University Teachers, with 40,000 members, plans to merge with the larger National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, just after its conference in Blackpool. The contentious resolution is one of two relating directly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The first, concerning Hamas's victory in Palestinian elections, enjoins British academics "to continue to help protect and support Palestinian colleges and universities in the face of the continual attacks by Israel's government" and to "contact the Palestinian Authority government to reaffirm that support."
That resolution accuses Britain of displaying "outrageous bias" against Hamas.
The European Union, the United States and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization with which they refuse to have dealings, especially so long as it declines to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
It is the second resolution up for approval that will revive last year's arguments over the boycott of Israeli academicians.
The second resolution "notes continuing Israeli apartheid policies including construction of the exclusion wall, and discriminatory educational practices."
And it "invites members to consider their own responsibility for ensuring equity and nondiscrimination in contacts with Israeli educational institutions or individuals, and to consider the appropriateness of a boycott of those that do not publicly dissociate themselves from such policies."
David Hirsh, a lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a member of a group called Engage, established last year to fight the boycott call, said the new resolution was "nastier" than the 2005 campaign because it was asking the National Association to "legitimate private, personal boycotts."
"It's a sanctioning of private discrimination," he added.
Shalom Lappin, a philosophy professor at King's College, London, and another supporter of Engage, called the boycott call "a form of inquisition, of McCarthyism."
"No other national group is being identified in this way," he said in a telephone interview. "There's no call for a boycott of American academics if they don't stand up against the occupation of Iraq."
The union's leaders declined to discuss the boycott resolution before the meeting.
But the British Committee for Universities of Palestine, a group which advocates a boycott, says on its Web site (www.bricup.org.uk) that Israeli policy, including the construction of a so-called security barrier, "is making everyday life, to say nothing of teaching and research, ever more difficult for our Palestinian colleagues."
It said Israeli academics supporting their Palestinian counterparts were "few in number (less than 1 percent) and institutionally, Israeli universities are at worst active supporters of Israeli state policy, at best in passive compliance with it."
"Especially in the current climate of rising Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, boycott is among the clearest and least violent forms of action in resisting occupation and injustice at an international level," the committee's Web site said. "An academic boycott is both a personal and a collective act made in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues whose academic freedom is currently denied."
It was not clear whether the National Association's conference would approve the resolution. Additionally, it remained uncertain what effect the approval of a boycott resolution would have on the proposed merger of the National Association with the Association of University Teachers just a few days after the conference.
Zvi Heifetz, the Israeli ambassador in London, said in a statement that the boycott call would distance members of the National Association "from other academics, and particularly from those working towards coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians."
"British academics are at the forefront of educational cooperation in the Middle East," he said.
#1
Same crap they pulled last year. A worse lot of TRANZI "leadership" can only be found at the head of the California Teachers Union. It's impossible for the rank and file to remove them and they are speaknig totally for themselves and not the rank and file.
Typical of your leftist anti-semitism and hate of Israel.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/14/2006 4:40 Comments ||
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I see that the British: who've invented the blood libel and also were the first European country to expel its Jews (except Jewish doctors, of course; are continuing with their pround traditions.
#7
"British academics are at the forefront of educational cooperation in the Middle East."
Yeh riiiight ! And Im really sure you are appreciated . Perhaps they all ought to go over there and get a cup of realism , as well as feel the love from ANYWHERE in the ME .
Did Ken Bigley , that muppet Christian Group , Terry Waite and countless others fare well over there :) nahhh
All hot air and bravado by a bunch of narrow minded , short sighted , obnoxious , self centred , guardian reading , sycophantic warped worms ..
If they had an ounce of intelligence then they would be supporting Israeli lecturers .. and learning from them
#8
My own (limited) experience doing business in the middle east left me with two conclusions:
The Israelis I dealt with were, by and large, arrogant and often duplicious sons of bitches.
The Palestinians were worse.
I have significant reservations about the way the Israelis have dealt with Palestinians. It's a mistake to gloss over the Israeli contribution to the conflict.
That said, the Palestinian corruption, terror tactics and general sense of entitlement is disgusting, dangerous and must end.
#9
It's a mistake to gloss over the Israeli contribution to the conflict.
Who's glossing? To any rational observer Israel has a measured, argeaubly too measured, response to every Paleo action.
anon, I'll suggest you are confusing your personal experiences with geopolitical imperatives.
By way of comparison Singaporean Chinese businessmen used to really piss me off, but it didn't make me think Malaysia's anti-Singapore actions were justified. In fact I thought they were a crock.
#10
To any rational observer Israel has a measured, argeaubly too measured, response to every Paleo action.
Bulldozing houses is collective punishment, which I don't consider measured.
But yes, I understand the problem ... how to respond to terrorism that strikes out of a population. Israel could perhaps have dealt with that, decades ago, by insisting that the world community hold the Palestinian leadership to account for such actions.
The problem is that most countries decided that the creation of Israel and its ratification at the UN was a huge mistake. Britain was pretty anti-Zionist the whole time they had the Mandate, but no definitive solution was reached. And that set the stage for the whole mess over there.
Don't get me wrong: I think we should support Israel and I do support Israel. But I also think that many of its supporters do gloss over the moral issues involved in bulldozing homes and assasinating people via missiles that inevitably hurt bystanders.
#11
Frigin unions. Yes I belong to one, because like the teachers I have to belong in order to work. Too bad they don't make membership optional or that would be an end to them.
#12
#3 To compare the 'Britain' of 1290 with the country as it exists today is disingenuous at best.
Perish the thought Tony. Perish the thought. The British people of the 20/21th century are friends of Israel. Wide their Palestinian Mandate policies and their current role as Paleo advocates to USA.
#13
"Israel could perhaps have dealt with that, decades ago, by insisting that the world community hold the Palestinian leadership to account for such actions."
Israel has to make the world community hold Palestinians accountable for terror? Why is that Israel's responsibility? Does Palestine have any responsbility at all in this conflict?
No matter your experiences with Israeli businesspersons, anon, the mindset at top, which does accurately reflect that of the majority "world community", is what gives Palestinians license to continue terrorist acts-it relieves them of any responsibility for solutions in the conflict. It is rubberstaped, eternal victimhood. This is how terror is sanctioned-in the world commmunity. They must be so proud of the human splatter their weak thinking delivers.
I guess it is up to Israel and the US to point out that excusemaking for terror will not stand, as the "world" seems unable or unwilling to come to that conclusion themselves. My money is on unwilling.
#14
Israel has to make the world community hold Palestinians accountable for terror? Why is that Israel's responsibility?
The issue of responsibility is pretty muddy here. Israel as a nation was created by fiat in the mid-20th century, in part as a result of increasing activities by the Zionists who believed that the land their ancestors held nearly 2000 years prior was theirs by right.
Maybe they're right, maybe not. And certainly the Arab population in the area wasn't making much of the place. And certainly the holocaust under the Nazis raised the stakes tremendously.
But the reality is that the modern state of Israel was in some sense imposed.
As were a whole lot of other states in the area which are ALSO pretty problematic. Gertrude Bell pretty much defined the borders of Iraq, for istance, and she wasn't even a British official with that authority .... she held it de facto. Her decision to favor some of her Arab friends over others means that the borders of Iraq don't and didn't correspond to natural ethnic or religious boundaries either. The difference from Israel is that in the creation of Iraq there were no largescale migrations that formed the basis of the new government and that shifted the nature of the population significantly.
Lots of grievances in the middle east. Tangled, tangled webs of hatred, wrongs done, more wrongs done in revenge / opposition .... it goes on and on.
I have little truck with the Palestinian leadership and much of the population at this point. But before we just write them off and raise up Israel as the blameless victim in this mess, step back and look at how we got to this point. There is blame on both sides ...
It is certainly true that Israel has often tried to find a compromise to the conflict. Dyan's decision not to expel all Arabs after the 6 day war is a good example -- but note that the land they were invited to remain in was significantly larger than it had been before the attack in 1967. And it was (by definition) infinitely bigger than the non-existent state of Israel a century prior.
It is also true that the Palestinians have, by and large, refused to work equally hard to find a compromise. And have resorted to terror attacks again and again.
But then, so did the Zionists against the British under the Mandate, albeit to a lesser degree and mostly against military/government officials ... they being the majority of Brits in the area at the time.
It goes around and around. Again, yes, I support Israel. But it's pretty obviously not a black and white, one side is all good and the other side is all bad, situation there.
#16
What is wholly unfair is that no paleo academics have condemned suicide bombing that I know of. And no paleo institutions or academics are being boycotted.
#17
Did the British invent the blood libel? They had it, but so did Germany and Russia.
I hope any of these union members who come to the US and any US groups supporting them get indicted for cooperating with the Arab boycott of Israel.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/14/2006 11:03 Comments ||
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#18
What one responsibility have they satisfied?
What responsibilities do you think they have?
And what responsibilities has Israel not satisfied?
Look: absolutely, the current Palestinian government is a bunch of crooks and thugs. At this point there's little to be done except to beat them into submission.
But we got to this point via a history in which Israeli hands are not entirely clean or free of responsibility for the use of violence to impose their state on the land they now hold. Refusing to acknowledge that at all is willful blindness IMO.
I haven't a clue how this will play out. It's hard to see how it can resolve short of genocide of one or the other group. But before everyone cheers on the nukes that will obliterate all annoying Palestinians and their ilk, be very sure you all have taken a full reckoning of the situation.
Ahmadinajad had one thing right (and I will dies of shock at agreeing with him): the Israeli / Palestinian tragedy is the result of European actions, starting with the Roman explusion of the Jews 2000 years ago, through anti-Jewish prejudice that persisted for centuries, to the Dreyfus affair that lead many to decide that Jews needed a homeland of their own to avoid persecution, to the the hamfisted actions of the British under the Mandate.
#19
They have a responsibility to want peace more than martyrdom for their children. They have a responsibility to work in good faith towards a resolution of this crisis. Two biggies, both of which they have failed on for decades.
Your desire to want to even out blame, though it may come from an impulse to be fair, is neither fair or helpful. It doesn't make you evenhanded; it is frontloading a bias to support your political view, which is that Israel was wrongly created. You cannot answer the question I posed, twice, because it never occurred to you that Palestinians might have a responsibility to shoulder in this crisis.
No one is saying that Palestinians are only to blame, that an Israeli never did anything against a Palestinian that was wrong, but it defies logic and senses to assert that each party is equally to blame for the violence and ongoing impasse...or that all blame rests entirely with Israel.
If there is to be hope, it will start with the mothers of Palestine choosing life for their sons instead of martyrdom, followed up by a real, non-taqqiya based proposal from the Palestinian government on borders and negotiations. It will also include a recognition that Israel will exist in the Middle East as a Jewish state-the only one in the world. A rather small sliver of concession from both Muslims and Arabs, whose own recent mistreatment of Jews wipes out any centuries-old folk tale of fairness to peoples of other religions.
#20
"But the British Committee for Universities of Palestine, a group which advocates a boycott, says on its Web site (www.bricup.org.uk) that Israeli policy, including the construction of a so-called security barrier, "is making everyday life, to say nothing of teaching and research, ever more difficult for our Palestinian colleagues."
Umm. NO. Its the Hamas and Fatach guys withthe bombs, rifles and killing that are making live difficult for paleostenians.
These dumbf**ks cannot even connect cause to effect, and they are supposedly TEACHING?
#21
Anon, what responsibility do Egypt and Jordan have for the current mess? After all, THEY'RE the ones that created "Palestine". Remember that the West Bank and Gaza were NOT independent until after the Arabs attacked Israel (again) and (again) got their butts kicked. Then they just walked away from any responsibility for that misbegotten hell hole.
If there is to be hope, it will start with the mothers of Palestine choosing life for their sons instead of martyrdom, followed up by a real, non-taqqiya based proposal from the Palestinian government on borders and negotiations.
That cannot happen. The root of the problem is not the aspiration of Palestinians for state (lets just remember that they didn't protest when Egyptians, Jordanians and Syrians gobbed the non-Israeli parts of Palestine and that before 1967 they said Palestine was part of Great Syria), the root is the Islamic doctrine that Muslims in general and Arabs in particular are a master race. In that persepective while Muslims are allowed to consuer non-Muslim land, every conquest by non Muslims is illegitimate. Let's remember what bin Laxden said about the liberation of East Timor, what a Saudi big cheese said about the Spanish reconquista (unjust) and that the Hamas is in this moment teaching to Palestinian schoolkids that once Israel is wiped out they will have to reconquer Spain. It also applies when non-Arab Muslims are opposed to Arab Muslims: it is perfectly legitimate to steal lands from Sudanese Black Muslims or from Kurds but they oppose to restitution of Kurdish lands and never accepted Turkey and Iran ownership of Arab lands. Until Palestiniand stop considering themselves as a master race, ie until they are unislamized, there will be no end to the conflict.
#24
Anon, you'd better get an encyclopaedia out and look up the history of Israel.
Though the borders were defined mid-20th C, the area was not simply land the Jews 'once had 2000 years ago'.
There were a number of jews who lived in the region and always have been throughout the last 2000 years.
More recently there were 3 main waves of jewish immigration, one in about the 1890s, one in the early 20th century then another in WWII as jews fled the holocaust.
It is a myth there were no jews there for 2000 years, get your facts right.
It is also a myth the land was 'stolen' from the palestinians.
The first wave of jewish immigrants in the 1890s were predominantly European jews - zionists - (the dreaded term) who wanted to make a homeland.
They started BUYING, yes paying for, land from arab landowners.
The arabs were like feudal lords. They had peasant tenants who lived on their lands often farming olive trees.
The European jews legitimately bought the land but they did not understand that they did not own the trees, just the land.
So when they kicked the arab tenants off, as was their right now as owners, the arab peasants got really pissed off they weren't allowed to harvest their olives.
This was a fault of different traditions and lack of communication on both sides.
But don't pretend the land was stolen it wasn't.
In addition a lot of the land given to Israel when created was barren desert on which nobody lived. Through hard work and ingenuity the jews made the desert bloom.
And let's not forget where the palestinian refugees come from.
The second Israel was declared a nation, the surrounding Arab states declared war on it.
In the ensuing war the palestinians fled after rumours were spread the evil jooos would massacre them. Plus they were simply frightened of the war.
If the arab states had not attacked there would not be a problem now.
also let's not forget the British partitioned settlement of British Mandate Palestine so no jew could settle east of the Jordan river.
They said that area was for Muslims only. Like India and Pakistan, BMP was partitioned. Jews west, Muslims east.
So they are all palestinians, just jewish palestinians and muslim palestinians.
And the Muslim palestinians have a homeland: JORDAN
I never said Israel and the Palestinians have "equal" blame, nor am I trying in any way to be "even handed".
I'm just calling it the way I see it, the way I saw it when I was there and the way I read history.
JFM, you're absolutely right about the fascist demands of the Islamacists. But until the last few decades the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was less about those claims than about general tribal conflict over who would own land.
I did not say that there were NO jews in Palestine prior to the Zionist movement. There clearly were. But they were a relative minority and culturally they were similar to their Arab neighbors.
And I didn't use the word "stolen" re: land. I did say the STATE of Israel was "imposed". And it was.
The arrival of the European jews changed things a good deal. You're right about that.
Re: desert blooming, it's true. I got to know a leading sabra and heard a lot of that history first-hand.
Back in July 2004, the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the USA (PCUSA) resolved to consider divesting the church's assets from American firms allegedly profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. The resolution provoked angry reactions both within and outside the church. Opinion polls showed that a decisive majority of church members opposed the move.
#30
Imposed, shmimposed. Most of the modern borders in the world were imposed, a trend starting at the beginning of 20th century. Nobody is bitching about that much, but imposition from joooos, no, that can't be tolerated.
#31
Tell that to the Irish. Or to half the countries in Africa, where Europeans did the same thing they did in the middle east: created a massive mess in the form of countries that had more to do with European administrative districts than with local history, ethnic or religious identities.
And no, I am NOT devaluing what the British in particular tried to bring to their colonies. Just noting that, counter to feelings on the part of some, Israel isn't the only situation where the imposition of national borders is deeply resented and has caused ongoing problems.
#32
"...Europeans did the same thing they did in the middle east: created a massive mess in the form of countries that had more to do with European administrative districts than with local history, ethnic or religious identities."
Agreed-colonialism left a mess. But if these borders hadn't been imposed, what effect on both borders and people would we have now in the ME? Though you may be correct that "indigenous" leaders would have been more sensitive to local history, ethnic and religious identities, is it possible that they might have left a different kind of "mess" behind? How many Jews would have lived through it-perhaps less than lived through the Holocaust? Would there be left standing anywhere in the ME a single synagogue?
#33
No big deal, just the British Teachers Union trying to make their membership 'Juden Frei'. Then they can all get together and sing the 'Horst Wessel' song.
#34
Though you may be correct that "indigenous" leaders would have been more sensitive to local history, ethnic and religious identities, is it possible that they might have left a different kind of "mess" behind? How many Jews would have lived through it-perhaps less than lived through the Holocaust? Would there be left standing anywhere in the ME a single synagogue?
I don't know. I don't have any easy answers. But as anon1 pointed out, there was a minority jewish population in "Palestine", as in a few other predominantly muslim countries in the region. They had their synagogues, IIUC. How much of the current situation is the result of Ashkenaz zionists tilting, not only the deomgraphics but also the cultural/political climate? Again, I don't know ... but I've had conservative, observant sephardic Israelis pose the same questions in my hearing.
It seems to me the world (and the Israelis and Palestinians) really only have a few choices about moving forward. One is the cling to the old hatreds and angers. G*d knows there are enough of those to fuel generations of war, if it doesn't go nuclear.
Another option is to try to define a single, "just" solution and impose it once and for all. See #1 above.
Or ... people could decide to start from where things are today and try to make them better. Obviously, that would mean the muslims would have to accept a permanent Israel ... and that's a big nut to swallow. But it also means Israel would need to make some adjustments and accept some facts on the ground as well.
In the 50s, Menachem Begin dismantled Irgun, but he also led the push to refuse German reparations for the holocaust. How much better might we have been if some sort of tentative reconciliation had occurred at that point, if Begin and other hardliners had not vetoed some sort of peace with the new generation of Germans?
Hard to tell. But one reason I support Israel today is that its current leaders, including Sharon, made some attempts to find a way forward.
#35
there was a minority jewish population in "Palestine", as in a few other predominantly muslim countries in the region.
Some of those Jews had been living in North Africa, Irak and Iran since Babylonian occupation of Israel (ie over a thousand years before the coming of the Arabs) in fact if you have read the "Acts of the Apostels" it is those Jews who are visited by Peter and Paul.
Also the last surate in the Koran ends with a calling to draw Jews and Christains out of Arabia and Muhammad spent most of its post-hejira life battling and exterminating the Jewish tribes of Arabia.
#37
Sure are a lot of complicated explanations. I think a big part of the leftist swoon over the Pali cause has to do with the replacement of Soviet paymasters with Arab petro sheiks. When it comes to Lefties, always, always, follow the money.
THE number of Islamic extremist security suspects in Britain has increased by 50 per cent since the deadly suicide bombings in London last year, The Observer newspaper said overnight.
A senior intelligence source at the country's domestic spy agency MI5 was quoted as saying that they were targeting 800 such suspects before the bombings on July 7 last year, but that figure now stood at 1,200. In September 2001, the number of people deemed a "risk to national security" was 250, the newspaper said.
The unnamed MI5 source did not give a reason for the apparent rise in radicalisation but described the threat as "current, relentless and increasing".
Sounds like a sober fellow at MI5, no doubt he'll get tossed.
The Observer said a radical Islamic cleric whose sermons were attended by one of the July 7 bombers is to be released from prison "within weeks" after serving just over half of a nine-year sentence for inciting murder and racial hatred. Jamaican-born Abdullah el-Faisal once preached at the Brixton, south London, mosque attended by "Shoebomber" Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui.
He was convicted by a British jury in 2003 after his trial heard he had called for the murder of all non-Muslims and justified the use of nuclear and chemical weapons. The newspaper said an order for his deportation was filed by the Home Office on March 30 but his lawyers have applied for his release on parole pending his removal.
At least 52 people have died in two nights of violence in Sao Paulo state, Brazil, with criminal gangs attacking police stations and riots in prisons.
State officials say the unrest is being organised by the First Command of the Capital (PCC) criminal faction. There have been revolts in more than 70 state jails and more than 250 people are being held hostage.
But State Governor Claudio Limbo said the situation was under control, and rejected a federal offer of help. He said there was no need for extra police, or for troops.
The BBC's Steve Kingstone in Sao Paulo says the mood in the state police force is extremely dark and tense. Bigger police bases have extra security, he says, and nearby roads are coned off to prevent drive-by shootings. Smaller mobile and street corner booths have been closed down.
The transfer of about 600 prisoners to a maximum security unit is thought to have sparked the unrest, which raged throughout Friday night. Officers in police stations, mobile units, at their homes or in bars were targeted.
Violence erupted again on Saturday evening, with police patrols and off-duty officers again targeted with grenades and machine guns.
In one incident, dynamite was placed at the entrance to a police station and the resulting explosion blew off doors and iron railings.
Our correspondent says that, taken together, the attacks and the prison revolts represent the biggest wave of organised violence in Sao Paulo's history.
Founded in 1993, the PCC has been involved in drugs and arms trafficking, kidnappings, bank robberies, and prison breaks and rebellions, police say. In November 2003, the gang attacked more than 50 police stations, killing three police officers and wounding 12.
Those attacks were thought to have been orchestrated by PCC leaders in jail. This being from the Beeb, they printed a letter from a reader who blamed the police.
ONE of the Russian militarys most tragic and haunting defeats at the hands of Chechen separatists has been turned into a patriotic war film on the Kremlins orders in an attempt to turn one of the darkest chapters of Russias recent history into a cause for pride not shame.
The bloody episode, in which 85 Russian paratroopers from one provincial town were massacred on a foggy hill in Chechnya in 2000, is known to fascinate President Vladimir Putin.
The incident occurred soon after Putin became president, and ordered Russian troops back into Chechnya for the second time in a decade to quell separatist sentiment. At the time, news of the massacre badly dented Russian morale, causing some sections of the population to question the war, and triggering a national outpouring of grief.
The film, Breakthrough (Proriv in Russian), purports to faithfully depict the military debacle and was financed largely by the Kremlin and the defence ministry.
For some in the Russian military, the films subject remains an enduring cause of shame since it was poor planning, poor equipment and poor intelligence that landed the paratroopers in such a dire predicament and prevented them from getting reinforcements.
But far from being a cause for regret or shame, the films makers say they hope their retelling of the story will prompt young people today to ponder the meaning of duty and Rodina (the Motherland).
Though the battle ended in the defeat and almost total annihilation of the Russian troops, it is being held up six years later as an example of selfless sacrifice, bravery and love of country.
The events upon which the film is based unfolded between February 29 and March 3, 2000, though some elements of the clash are disputed.
What is known is that 90 Russian paratroopers, all from the town of Pskov, were told to defend a hilltop against a force of 2000 Chechen fighters.
In the film the Chechen rebels are portrayed as a rag-tag army of extremists, mercenaries and drug addicts, who are intent on breaking out of the hills and swarming into towns and villages in order to take hostages and wreak terror.
All that stands between them and a Beslan-like scenario, the viewer is told, are the 90 paratroopers of 6th Company, many of whom are young conscripts with little military experience. Outnumbered, outgunned and starved of reinforcements, the paratroopers resort to luring the Chechens towards their own position and calling in an air strike on themselves towards the end of the battle. Thick fog prevented the Russian army providing any meaningful air support at the time since its helicopters were not equipped with all-weather radar equipment.
According to some reports, the Chechens radioed the paratroopers at one point offering to spare their lives if they were allowed to pass unhindered in the night but the Russians refused. Of the original 90 paratroopers only five survived but the resistance they put up was so fierce that the Chechens were unable to break out of the hills.
The survivors were awarded top military honours and the Kremlin claimed that the 85 paratroopers had died like heroes, killing 600 to 700 rebels before being overwhelmed.
Breakthrough is not the first time the incident has been given the Kremlin treatment. Earlier this year the debacle was the subject of an expensive and sentimental four-part TV mini-series called Storm Clouds At The Gates that ran on Russias Channel One.
Putin was reported to have liked the series so much that he requested a DVD copy of it; the incident has also inspired an unlikely musical stage production.
The premiere of Breakthrough was attended by Dmitri Kozak, Putins point man on Chechnya, and Alu Alkhanov, the republics Moscow-backed president.
However, in its review of the film, the weekly magazine Afisha suggested that Breakthrough may not have succeeded in turning the defeat into a patriotic propaganda coup.
The main reaction after watching the film is not a patriotic one, it wrote. [Instead you think] who needs this war and when will it finally end?
#1
I never ceased to be amazed at how the Media can never seem to focus their views. The thing that should outrage us is not the Russian's handling of this event, but the event itself.
I can only wonder at the mind so dark that it feels the need to denigrate itself by defending mass murder with quibbles over the term "genocide" or that is willing turning the focus from the evil of Beslan into a 1960's retro feel-good of blaming "the man".
#2
There doesn't seem anything outrageous about this event, a large battle between 2 sets of combatants which ended up in the destruction of the smaller side, apparently after causing massive casualties to the other.
It's a pity the rest of the war couldn't be so clear cut and honourable.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/14/2006 6:30 Comments ||
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#3
Does this mean Russians will annually start eating Mexican-Hispanic food, or at least Taco Bell, on CINCO DE MAYO???
SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of students and labor and civic activists rallied on a downtown Seoul boulevard on Saturday to protest a plan to relocate American military bases, in the largest anti-US demonstration in the capital this year. According to police estimates, about 6,000 protesters waving candles, chanting slogans and singing songs staged a sit-in along a 10-lane boulevard at a major intersection about a block away from the US Embassy.
Stop the expansion of a war base! shouted the demonstrators, as dozens of large flags representing unions, student and civic groups fluttered in the windy night air.
About 8,500 riot police wearing helmets and plastic shields were deployed around the area. Police formed barricades around the protest site with buses parked bumper-to-bumper to prevent the demonstration from spreading down narrow side streets.
Organizers set up a makeshift platform for dance and songs. Blaring music and slogans from batteries of loudspeakers reverberated through the city center, as a giant electronic screen mounted on a truck flashed slogans such as, Withdraw US Troops! and Down with the defense minister!
The turnout was the largest among anti-US demonstrations held in Seoul this year, police said. After two hours, demonstrators dispersed voluntarily and there were no reports of violence. It was one of several demonstrations scheduled for the day to denounce a South Korea-US project to move the Seoul-based American military headquarters and some other bases to Pyeongtaek, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital.
The project, agreed upon in 2004, has been a main target of anti-US activists here. They claim the project is part of a US scheme to position its troops in a place where they can be quickly deployed to possible conflicts outside the Korean Peninsula.
If we wanted to do that we'd move them to Guam.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Pull them out...pull them ALL out! Watch'em scream like banshees for forgiveness.
#3
I bet zero of the people in the street were born before the Korean war unless they are Commie true believers or in the pay of the Norks. I bet most of the money for this "rally" came from the otehr side of the border.
Just the same if we didn't need the buffer for Japan and Tiawan I would be all for telling the Korean's to piss up a rope.
I encountered a tour bus load of Korean High School kids today they were your typical clueless consumers for all I could tell. Go figure. Peace will do that to people.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/14/2006 3:45 Comments ||
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#4
"Go figure. Peace will do that to people."
Yep-- especially when it's provided free of charge, on a silver platter.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/14/2006 7:45 Comments ||
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#5
Staying or leaving Korea is pretty much an issue of what serves our needs and those of our allies best. If the government wants us to leave, we will .... but even Roh isn't that stupid, public statements notwithstanding.
#6
Is it wrong for me to hope that we'll pull all the troops out, and then have a ceremony where we hand over symbolic keys to a representative of North Korea's government?
Y'know, just to say "F$%k you, and choke on your kimchee, dahlinks"?
(I know it would never happen, but it would be sweeeet!)
#7
The 'students' were seething back in 1988 too. Tossing firebombs over the fence on to the Seoul compound. Their rant then was that the US was responsible for the division of the two Koreas. Back then we had a good Commander in theater who public denounce the actions and pointed out loudly that the US and UN [when it meant something] had achieved reunification. It was the intervention by a half a million Chinese that resulted in todays division. Things seemed to calm down after that.
#8
I'm just happy that more of our troops will be out of artillery range. Seoul will be pretty chaotic when the balloon finally goes up. They're (SKoRs) big boys now and should be expected to absorb the initial attack.
#9
6,000 is chump change. If the people really wanted us out the demonstrations would be wild. This looks like another Chinese Maoist attempt to discredit the US and Korean Governments. I wonder if they served food at the event as a draw or offered discounts on computer toys for taking part.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/14/2006 11:15 Comments ||
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(KCNA) -- The Juche idea is a unique political philosophy, a revolutionary philosophy as it provides principles and methodology for leading the revolution and construction along the road of victory. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed article. The unique Songun political mode of the Workers' Party of Korea was set out in the course of the revolutionary practices for embodying the Juche idea and the revolution and construction in the DPRK are making dynamic progress despite any difficulties and ordeals thanks to the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il, the article notes, and continues:
The Songun politics of the WPK is the most scientific political mode as it is a comprehensive embodiment of the principles, method and requirements of the Juche idea. The Songun leadership of the WPK embodies the principle of the Juche idea which calls for achieving and protecting independence of the country and the nation.
President Kim Il Sung taught the profound principle of revolution long ago that a country can emerge victorious in the revolution, safeguard the triumphant revolution and independently carve out the destiny of the country and the nation when it has strong revolutionary armed forces as the popular masses' cause of independence, the cause of socialism is accompanied by a military confrontation with the counterrevolutionary forces including imperialism, and wisely led the revolution and construction.
The Juche-oriented principle of revolution laid down by the President has been successfully applied to practice thanks to the Songun politics pursued by Kim Jong Il. The Songun politics of the WPK fully embodies the principle of the Juche idea which calls for bolstering up the driving force of the revolution and speeding up the revolution and construction. It is the basic way of winning victory in the revolution indicated by the Juche idea to strengthen the driving force of the revolution and increase its role and accelerate the revolution and construction. The WPK set out from a new angle the theory of building up the revolutionary forces with the army as a main force by applying the principle of strengthening the driving force of the revolution as required by the changed situation and the developing reality and thus indicated the right way of significantly bolstering the driving force for accomplishing the cause of socialism.
The WPK's Songun politics is a political mode which meets the requirements of the Juche idea for fully satisfying the intrinsic demand of the popular masses and firmly maintaining the fundamental principle of revolution and strictly abiding by it.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm inspired to have a long session with the goldies and the cats this very am on the ideals of Juche as it applies to this households revolutionary ideals. I will espouse the Tomgun way or owner-first philsophy and demand my neighbors fork over 50 lbs of puppy-chow a month. Or face yard-of-fire.
PARIS - More than 11,000 people marched through Paris on Saturday to protest a bill that would stiffen rules for immigrants in France and give authorities power to choose who can enter.
Protesters shouted "Solidarity with immigrants!" Many wore stickers showing an immigrant being tossed into a trash can. Demonstrators marched to a square near the Interior Ministry and the headquarters of the governing conservative party.
Police said 11,200 people turned out to protest Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's bill; organizers put the figure at 35,000. It was France's largest march in support of immigrants in years.
The bill would make it more difficult for poor immigrants with little education and few skills to start a new life in France.
Sarkozy, a presidential hopeful in next year's elections, says France should take a more pro-active approach to immigration, an argument that gained resonance after riots ripped through heavily immigrant French suburbs last fall and forced France to rethink its model of integration.
The plan would create a three-year "competence and talent" residence card for foreigners whose skills would "constitute assets for the development and influence of France." Lawmakers began debating the plan early this month, and a first reading is planned next week.
Many Christian and Muslim leaders whose institutions often provide support services for immigrants have joined human rights groups, labor leaders and the opposition left in expressing concerns about the bill.
Gassama Mady, president of a group of illegal immigrants, called the law "inhuman."
"We will continue to fight until this law is repealed," Mady said.
#1
How about adding a medical check, like checking for glazed, blood-thirsty eyes.
"constitute assets for the development and influence of France."
Could have sworn that was the reason given for allowing the muslims to replace the French in the first place.
Posted by: ed ||
05/14/2006 8:02 Comments ||
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#2
Gassama Mady, president of a group of illegal immigrants, called the law "inhuman."
Eh? What bloody right does he (I checked) have to start mouthing off about 'laws'!
Idgit.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/14/2006 8:12 Comments ||
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Many Christian and Muslim leaders whose institutions often provide support services for immigrants have joined human rights groups, labor leaders and the opposition left in expressing concerns about the bill.
They'll all be out of a job if the welfare-sucking ignoramuses are cut off. Real immigrants would get jobs and speak French and everything.
Being able to recite (but not read) what some guy told you is the Koran, is not a skillset of any use.
I thought their sticker would advocate throwing the welfare-sucking bums in the trash rather than opposing such action. I like the sticker!
#4
Tony (UK), apparently the same right exhibited by our illegals to march in the streets demanding all of the benefits of citizenship, without bothering to do all that stuff our government requires for processing them legally.
#7
In Frogland, the sensitibities of muzzies is more important than addressing corruption at the very top :
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=708932006
Vile Penis and S**t Rack are not charged for corruption.
#8
Many Christian and Muslim leaders whose institutions often provide support services for immigrants have joined human rights groups, labor leaders and the opposition left in expressing concerns about the bill.
Key phrase: whose institutions often provide support services
Just like the Strange Bedfellows who make up our current sprawling Immigration Corporation, pimping for the continuation of our current status of poorly enforced and poorly regulated policies and borders.
Strange Bedfellows:
La Raza Reconquistadors
Big Box industries
Tyson Foods
WalMart
Chain Restaurants fast food
Garment industries
Hotel chains
Some City and County Governments [SF comes to mind]
#11
RD that's Teachers Union leadership. The Trade Union leadership doesn't speak for or represent the people forced by law to be members. Every time I read that crap of "teachers union" it turns my guts because it's a big fat lie.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/14/2006 19:56 Comments ||
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch legislator who has championed the rights of Muslim women, is returning from a book tour to a firestorm for lying on her asylum application when she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage. Hirsi Ali, 36, said Saturday she was puzzled by the uproar since she publicly acknowledged the false refugee application when she stood for parliament in 2002. "Have they all gone mad?" she said, accusing her rivals of a political vendetta. "Yes, I did lie to get asylum in Holland. This is public knowledge since at least September 2002," she said in a telephone call from Hamburg, Germany.
Political opponents want her stripped of her Dutch citizenship and deported. Others say she should be expelled from parliament.
I'd offer her asylum in the U.S. in a second.
Hirsi Ali became a popular figure in the Netherlands for renouncing her Muslim faith, condemning the treatment of women in many Muslim households and criticizing Dutch immigration and integration policies. She became internationally known when a film she wrote provoked the murder of its director, Theo van Gogh, by an Islamic radical in 2004. With her own life under threat, she went into hiding for three months, and still lives under 24-hour protection.
The latest political storm followed the airing of a 30-minute TV documentary Thursday tracing her steps from Somalia, where her father was an imprisoned opposition politician, to her family's exile in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Hirsi Ali repeated on the TV documentary that when she arrived in 1992 she changed her name from Hirsi Magan and her birth date on her asylum application and did not tell the authorities that she had lived in three different countries since leaving Somalia. "I invented a story that would be consistent with the conditions for asylum," she told The Associated Press.
Posted by: ed ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Any single male Rantburgers up for a "Marrige" to get her a green card? I'm available!
It would be faster and more reliable than a Asylum claim!
Posted by: N guard ||
05/14/2006 0:21 Comments ||
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#2
don't worry,
the many feminist groups fighting against Islamo fascism will come to her aid
Yes, they have. All that is islam is good and all that isn't islam is bad. Evil is good and good is evil. Got it. Boggling, isn't it? Canada has an open door eh, Ayaan. C'mon by.
#5
Actually, someone with her poise, intellect, background and bias toward speaking out would be a breath of fresh air in the US. I'd LOVE for her to become a US citizen...run for congress... decry the plight of women globally, the abomination that is islam, etc. She doesn't have to change a thing about herself. She's great.
The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections has expressed its anger at the closure of the Muslim charity KindHearts by US authorities in February this year. KindHearts, the Ohio-based group was a $5 million-a-year charity with branches in Lebanon, Pakistan, and the Gaza Strip. It provided funds for water treatment plants and orphanages, but was shut down by federals authorities amid allegations that it was aiding Hamas. Pleas by American-Muslim leaders to US Treasury Secretary John Snow for guidelines on how to financially aid the Palestinian people without being accused of terrorism have been ignored.
According to a leading Pakistani-American Muslim activist, Prof Agha Saeed, "There's no clear communication and that is keeping the whole community nervous and on edge. Our community wants to be on the right side of the law, but it's not clear what is the right side." He was talking to the newspaper, Toledo Blade, which said that a public relations battle is continuing between the Treasury Department and the nation's largest Muslim organisations, whose leaders say that their charities have been shut down without cause since the war on terror began after the 9/11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
There's no clear communication and that is keeping the whole community nervous and on edge. Our community wants to be on the right side of the law, but it's not clear what is the right side
Err.. it is real easy. Just stop funding terrorist groups.
And stop lying...
Posted by: john ||
05/14/2006 12:16 Comments ||
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#2
Fred - What's funny to me is that some Muzzie would (at the urging of his favorite Holy Man) take the Holy RB Hand Grenade, pull the pin, blow himself (and anyone he could get close to) to little tiny bits - and then that same Holy Man would organize massive "Bomb Us Next!" demonstrations. The twit would be an instant martyr and the MSM would blame you (and Bush), of course.
Any means to the declared end, global Islam, as long as it doesn't require a ranking Holy Man or other "special" person to suffer the slightest inconvenience, that is.
Enough of this shit, already. Islam should be eradicated for the threat it is. No gray area, no quibbling, no quarter. Islam is the pox and polio of the mind. Kill it. "Moderates" (LOL) are welcome to renounce or die, same as is offered to non-Muslims.
#3
Currently in Phase I is underway: The determination of Islam's ability to self-reform and peacefully coexist. It's not looking too good, LOL.
Phase II will be acceptance of Islam's Phase I failure. Policies will evolve to accept de facto reciprocal total war. As part of Phase II:
Proposal for US Treasury Guidelines Regards Contributions to Paleostinian or other Muslim "Charities".
I. Definition of Terms
A. Contribution to a Paleostinian or Muslim "charity" will be, henceforth, conclusive proof that the contributors are terrorist supporters or too stupid to have assets.
B. This condition will be, henceforth, defined as being "fucked".
C. Correction of this condition will be, henceforth, defined as being "unfucked".
II. Recognized Methods for "unfucking" a terrorist supporter.
A. Voluntary Unfucking
1) Change of Will, assets distributed as follows:
.. a) 50% to the US Govt
.. b) 50% to the local synagogue
2) "Accidental" Death assistance provided, gratis
.. a) Assistance will be provided upon request
.. b) Plausible "evidence" will be created to guarantee full insurance coverage
B Involuntary Unfucking
1) "Accidental" Death assistance provided, gratis
.. a) Plausible "evidence" will be created to guarantee full insurance coverage
2) Apply RICO statutes, assets distributed as follows:
.. a) 50% to the US Govt
.. b) 50% to the local synagogue
SAROKI, Pakistan: Thousands of people gathered yesterday for the funeral of a Pakistani student found dead in a German jail while awaiting trial for an alleged assault over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, officials said.
More than 20,000 attended funeral prayers for 28-year-old Amir Cheema in the dusty town of Saroki near the eastern city of Lahore, said a local government spokesman. An official from an Islamic party put the figure at close to 40,000.
It was a big funeral, participated by up to 20,000 people, Punjab provincial government spokesman Chaudhry Iqbal said.
Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi provided his own helicopter to transport the body from Lahore airport to his native village, Iqbal said.
The funeral was held peacefully, he said, adding that about a dozen people fainted due to scorching heat.
Earlier senior government officials and close relatives were present on the tarmac when the plane carrying Cheemas body landed in Lahore from Frankfurt.
Hundreds of people, mostly members of hardline parties had gathered outside the airport but police prevented them from entering the premises, witnesses said.
We adopted strict security measures and no incident took place, police officer Ahmed Din said.
People in Saroki, chanting Long Live Martyr Cheema and God is Great, showered rose petals on the coffin as it was taken from his family home for burial in a nearby graveyard, witnesses said.
Some party activists carried banners calling on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to Go and bring the killers.
Supporters of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an organisation banned by the United States earlier this month for its links with terrorism, tried to stop journalists from taking photographs.
Despite a post-mortem this week in the presence of two senior Pakistani officials finding Cheema had committed suicide, Pakistans main opposition alliance of religious parties has labelled him a martyr.
Cheema was found dead in his cell at the Moabit prison in Berlin on May 3 while awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting a German newspaper editor over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
German prosecutors said on Wednesday that a post-mortem proved that he committed suicide with a noose fashioned from his own clothes in his cell.
The post-mortem examination took place in the presence of two Pakistani officials, one from the police and one from the Federal Investigation Agency, they said.
Germanys ambassador to Pakistan, Gunter Mulack, told a news conference in Islamabad yesterday preliminary findings showed there were no traces or indications of physical violence or other external influence on Cheemas body.
Cheemas father has alleged his son, who had been held for six weeks awaiting a court appearance, was tortured to death.
His death sparked anger among Islamic parties, which called for Pakistan to lodge a protest with Germany and boycott German products.
He had been charged by German prosecutors after entering the Berlin offices of Die Welt newspaper on March 20 armed with a knife. Authorities said he wanted to kill the newspapers editor.
Earlier this year religious parties held mass demonstrations across the country over the cartoons, which appeared in several Western newspapers.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday spoke to Amirs father to convey his sympathies, officials said.
Aziz said that the death of Amir was a human tragedy and the matter should not be politicised by any party.
The Islamist parties organised small but fiery protests in the capital and several cities in Punjab province yesterday.
The demonstrations were only attended by a few hundred people in each place, but there were demands for the expulsion of the German ambassador and attacks on German interests, together with calls for jihad, or holy war, and the overthrow of Musharrafs government.
Thousands of people have gathered for the funeral of a Pakistani student found dead in a German jail while awaiting trial for an alleged assault over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, officials said. More than 20,000 attended funeral prayers for 28-year-old Amir Cheema in the dusty town of Saroki near the eastern city of Lahore, said a local government spokesman. An official from an Islamic party put the figure at close to 40,000. "It was a big funeral, participated by up to 20,000 people," Punjab provincial government spokesman Chaudhry Iqbal told AFP. "Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi provided his own helicopter to transport the body from Lahore airport to his native village," Mr Iqbal said. "The funeral was held peacefully," he said, adding that about a dozen people fainted due to scorching heat.
Earlier senior government officials and close relatives were present on the tarmac when the plane carrying Cheema's body landed in Lahore from Frankfurt. Hundreds of people, mostly members of hardline Islamic parties had gathered outside the airport but police prevented them from entering the premises, witnesses said. "We adopted strict security measures and no incident took place," police officer Ahmed Din told AFP.
People in Saroki, chanting "Long Live Martyr Cheema" and "God is Great", showered rose petals on the coffin as it was taken from his family home for Islamic burial in a nearby graveyard, witnesses said. Some party activists carried banners calling on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to "Go and bring the killers."
Kinda hard to do that, since he offed himself. But if you're determined not to believe it, I guess the demand makes some sort of sense. Kind of, anyway. Though I wouldn't think Pakland was in any position to go snatching German officials to be mistreated in Multan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Nepal's new Parliament is set to pass a proclamation drastically curtailing the monarch's power and bringing the army under parliamentary control. "The seven-party alliance is making a draft proclamation to be presented in Parliament that would give full autonomy to the house," Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said.
Parliament was reinstated after King Gyanandra handed back power at the end of April. Weeks of anti-royal mass protests across the country left at least 19 dead, forcing the King to end direct rule he seized 14 months ago. Parliament has matched a cease-fire by Maoist rebels and says it will elect a body to redraft the 1990 constitution.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Freedom to criticise the government is one of the few things flourishing in contemporary Iraq. But editorial cartoonists who are testing the limits of expression face a different threat: extremists incensed by their art. During Saddam Husseins time, speaking out could bring imprisonment, torture and even execution.
Nowadays, the danger doesnt come from the government but the readers. These days there are two kinds of people: those who accept your drawings and criticism, and those who take the drawings as insults ... and threaten to kill you, said Diaa al-Hajar, a cartoonist for the government newspaper Al-Sabah. The threats which come by e-mail, phone and even cell phone text messages have forced many cartoonists to flee the country. Others, like al-Hajar, are thinking about leaving. One cartoon that appeared Thursday in Al-Sabah showed a young boy and girl standing in a pile of garbage singing the national anthem, My homeland, my homeland.
The same newspaper printed a cartoon last month showing a chicken reading the paper while musing: Very strange. People are scared of bird flu but not corruption flu. Al-Hajar said threats have forced him to tone down some of his cartoons dealing with the insurgency. Nevertheless, every day about 10 newspapers publish cartoons satiriSing issues ranging from political instability to sporadic electricity to the brutal, daily violence chipping away at Iraqis faith that things will get better. Heady optimism has given way to disillusionment and fear that their country will continue its slide toward anarchy.
The deep frustration, bordering on desperation, is reflected in the cartoons. In the Al-Sabah al-Jedid newspaper, a mother, cloaked in a black robe, takes her baby, representing democracy, to the doctors office. Doctor, she says, its three years old but still not growing. Its getting smaller — is there a cure? Faith in politicians is waning, particularly after five months of struggling to form a national unity government since the Dec 15 parliamentary elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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The lawyer for former Iraqi deputy premier Tareq Aziz said on Saturday his client had been questioned in Baghdad by French judge Philippe Courroye and denied receiving bribes under the UNs Oil for Food programme. Judge Courroye questioned Tareq Aziz in the presence of an Iraqi judge, and Aziz told the judge that he refused to participate in a political settling of scores, said Badie Aref, Azizs lawyer. Aziz said that offers from companies and individuals close to the Iraqi people were studied and retained, but those did not result in a single case of payment of commissions or taxes. We sold oil to everyone at the same price, he told the French judge, relayed Aref.
Aziz declined to answer a number of questions, in particular those regarding the names of French individuals implicated in the case, he added. Aref added that the judge will be returning in a week. According to Le Parisien/Aujourdhui en France on Saturday, the judge also visited the archives of Somo, the Iraqi institution then charged with selling oil under the UN programme, as well interviewing other former Iraqi officials. Translations of documents seized and minutes of his meetings were still being worked on in Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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We sold oil to everyone at the same price, he told the French judge, relayed Aref.
The bribes were how we selected who we sold to, silly.
DOHA, 13 May - On his private visit to Qatar, Wasim Ahmad, a key-member of Congress, the ruling party in India and former parliamentarian, said in a public statement that the Palestinian issue concerns not the country's Muslims alone, but all Indians. "Palestine is a national issue in India", he affirmed reminding that the late chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, Yasser Arafat "used to get a rousing welcome like head of state when he visited New Delhi during the premiership of Indira Gandhi." When asked why India's stand on the Palestinian issue had come to fade away over the last years, Wasim Ahmad pointed out to global changes in foreign policies of the kind that induced some Arab countries to engage in relations with Israel. Also in Doha, Dr. Yussuf al-Qaradawi, on of the most prominent Muslim scholars worldwide, renewed his call to Muslims to confront those banks which bow to US threats and refuse to transfer funds to the Palestinian National Authority. His call, made during yesterday's sermon, came as a follow-up on last week's Islamic scholars' conference in Doha to gather support for the Palestinians trapped without revenues, food and medical supplies in the Occupied Territories due to the collective punishment pronounced on them by Western powers and Israel following Hamas' rise to power. Al-Qaradawi called for a boycott of the banks who refuse to transfer the financial aid granted by Muslim countries to the Palestinian Authority and warned European countries that their sanctions against the Hamas government would be met with a boycott of their products by Muslims all over the world, just as the Danish products had been boycotted following the blashpemous Danish cartoons earlier this year. Regarding Western countries request that Hamas should recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state on Palestinian territory, al-Qaradawi reminded that "these lands were taken away by Israel illegitimately and by force. If Hamas recognizes this occupation, we would loose respect for them."
#3
I think we should drop bread and deprive them the ability to use starvation as a tool. Gotta be cheaper than anything else. We did it in Berlin and we can do it for the poor, poor, pathetic Paleos.
#9
pals have been the vanguards of the poor misunderstood muslim. Victims all of an oppresive west that doesn't understand their primitive culture and insists on civility. Poor oppressed barbarians.
A mentality of "kill the guy next to me because he made me feel bad and isn't as good a muslim as me or he wouldn't have made me feel bad" is not a place to start reason from.
Until "humiliation" is not an acceptable causi belli, no hope here,
Mosque preachers, schoolteachers and students, college students and women are the target of two workshops in Aqaba and Amman designed to fight the takfiri ideology on the basis of the Amman Message. Arab Bridge Centre for Human Rights and Development President Amjad Shammout said these segments of society are the most effective tools in combating extremism if they receive the proper education that empowers them to fight the ideas extremists try to disseminate. Mosque imams, for example, can be very useful in these efforts because they deal with ordinary Muslims on a daily basis, Shammout told The Jordan Times yesterday.
The Aqaba workshop, which is funded by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, is scheduled for today and tomorrow and will host university professors specialised in Islamic law, who will refute the basic arguments of the takfirists. The lectures will be followed by discussions of the topics raised.
We understand that some people might sympathise with certain extremists, said Shammout, a lawyer by profession. The discussions will be open to all points of view. At the end of the day, we hope this effort will help eradicate extremism from our society. We know that the security approach alone is insufficient to address this phenomenon.
The Amman workshop will be held on May 21-23 at the City Hall, with support from the Greater Amman Municipality. The two events, which are coordinated with the ministries of education and awqaf, will also focus on the fatwa [religious edict] chaos. Speakers are expected to call for the establishment of a local council of Muslim scholars to serve as the sole authority on fatwas. The panellists will suggest the requirements needed for any scholar to be allowed to issue fatwas for Muslims, Shammout said.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Amman last year, His Majesty King Abdullah called for a relentless war on takfiri ideology. Takfiris believe contemporary Muslim society has reverted to a state of unbelief (kufr) and thus consider both rebellion against the state and acts of violence against Muslim citizens as legitimate. In July last year, over 170 Muslim scholars, thinkers and historians agreed to forbid takfir and decided to work out criteria for issuing fatwas in an attempt to unify the eight schools of Islamic law and put an end to violence carried out in the name of religion.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Of course the salafis will declare the participants of the Aqaba Conference to be takfir.
Jordan on Saturday ruled out any political talks with the Palestinian government until it dispatches a security team to uncover more Hamas-hidden arms. The Jordanian government wishes first to receive a Palestinian government security delegation to examine and discuss the issue and be capable of uncovering more evidence as well as hidden arms that pose a threat to national security, Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying. All of this must happen before any political contacts with the Palestinian government at the current stage.
Judeh was responding to a reported statement by Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar that he was ready to visit Jordan this week to put an end to this tension over the arrest of suspected Hamas activists accused of smuggling weapons into Jordan and plotting attacks in the Kingdom.
Three suspected members of Hamas confessed on Jordan Television Thursday to plotting to kill General Intelligence Department officers and stockpiling weapons in the country. The Jordanian government, which does not wish to escalate the situation, is keen on maintaining strong relation with the Palestinian Authority and its components, Judeh said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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The Arab League has denied it is unable to transfer aid to Palestinians, saying that the issue is still under discussion. An official from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Liberation Organisation said on Thursday the Arab League head said the pan-Arab body could not transfer an estimated $US70 million to 165,000 Palestinian Authority employees' accounts. "I did not contact the Palestinian President at all and I have not spoken to him since we met in Paris 10 days ago and discussed the best way to send this," Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa said.
An Arab League official says the body has not abandoned efforts to send the money it has collected to Palestinians. Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, is hoping the League can sidestep US restrictions by depositing the money directly into the employees' accounts. Under US law, any foreign bank that refuses to cooperate with the United States in cutting off funding to Hamas risks having its US assets frozen and its access to US financial markets denied.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Why they should shell out any money when it is likely that the Euro-dhimmis will do it at some point?
#6
They can't transfer "pledges" which is what they have, not money. The problem is not the banks, it's the illusion of funds. Mouth service is all they've ever given to Pals - and arms. Don't Pals know yet that they aren't supposed to live - they are all supposed to die killing Israil. And the Arab world is getting rather tetchy that they haven't yet succeeded.
Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Wannasathit has questioned the idea of establishing a Muslim political party, which drew mixed responses from university scholars and Muslim communities yesterday. Pol Gen Chidchai, while not opposing the idea, said it was too soon to say whether a new party could help solve the ongoing southern insurgency.
''The party has not yet taken shape and what I can see now is only its shadow. It's too soon to predict its future role,'' Pol Gen Chidchai said.
He said any new party could be set up under the constitution, which grants people the right to carry out political activities.
The idea was recently initiated by Muslim scholars in Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, the southernmost provinces adjacent to Islamic Malaysia.
It was proposed under the concept that the problems of Muslim people should be solved by Muslim people.
''This new party could be the most crucial factor in future politics, no matter what side _ the government or opposition _ it would be aligned with,'' said political scientist Chidchanok Rahimula of Prince of Songkhla University (PSU) in Pattani.
Muslim communities nationwide could found the party and together decide their own policies, which should satisfy the needs of Thai Muslims, she said.
Groups of Muslim politicians in big parties did not always represent the Muslim voice, Ms Chidchanok said.
Citing the Wadah faction in the Thai Rak Thai party, the academic said the group had only little influence in drafting policies because it usually depended on party leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
She said many people in the three troubled provinces welcomed the idea after learning about it.
The scholars who proposed setting up the Muslim party are now working on proposals for its structure.
However, an economist at the PSU's Islamic College in Pattani believed the idea could not be brought into practice.
''The Muslim party would become only a voice of people in the three southernmost provinces,'' said Abdulloh Abbru.
''A political party must be set up for the sake of the nation.''
Leading historian Prof Nithi Eawsriwong said the proposed new party would cause people to feel that the southern insurgency resulted from a religious conflict.
He said the root of the problem was racial, as many Muslims in the deep south were descendants of Indian settlers.
The Muslim community in Ayutthaya also disagreed with the proposed Muslim party. Members said yesterday that it would cause divisions in the country and widen the difference between Buddhists and Muslims.
Pichet Sathirachawal, a former deputy transport minister, said he was ready to contribute five million baht to help start the party.
Banned from politics for five years until Aug 29 next year, Mr Pichet said he believed the new party could help solve the problems of the 11 million Muslims in Thailand. If the party was supported by only five million of the Muslim population, it would secure 20 House seats for candidates under the party list system.
The former Thai Rak Thai member has been barred from political activities after the court found him guilty of falsely declaring assets in 2002. He became Muslim through a marriage and has been selected as a member of the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand.
Hezbollah head of executive council Sayyed Hashem Saffeidine said that the honoring of Bolton by Lebanese figures is a scandal. He said that the May 10 protest to push for social welfare exposed the ideology of some of the Lebanese who were quick to cast accusations.
He declared "It's regrettable that some of our Lebanese brothers are still moved by some false dreams that are fabricated by ambassadors like Bolton who's being honored. Who is John Bolton so that they would rush to pay tribute to him? What has he offered to Lebanon? What we have read in the newspapers is a scandal and a shame. When some of the Lebanese say they want to travel far away to honor the head of Zionism in the United States. This is a shame and this is what destroys the country."
Ahmadinejad says nuke talks won't be held under pressure
BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- Iran's president has won support from fellow Muslim leaders for his contested uranium enrichment program, as he told the world there was no reason to be nervous about his nuclear ambitions.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he has cooperated fully with the U.N. nuclear agency and was willing to hold talks about the deepening international standoff with anyone except longtime foe Israel and countries who hold "bombs over our heads."
The hardline leader made the comments Saturday after hobnobbing with heads of state and prime ministers from Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Turkey and Malaysia and government ministers from Egypt and Bangladesh.
Though they were on the Indonesian resort island of Bali to discuss ways to boost economic and political cooperation, alleviate poverty and restructure debt it was impossible to ignore Iran's intensifying nuclear stalemate with the West.
Ahmadinejad insisted his nuclear program was "100 percent" peaceful, but the United States and its allies accuse him of trying to develop atomic weapons.
But the Iranian president, who accused the West of greedily trying to monopolize nuclear technology, was clearly among friends.
The eight Islamic leaders -- from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo to Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz -- released a statement at the end of the day supporting the rights of nations to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
"Our people need to do more to help one another," Yudhoyono said earlier in the day, adding that "proud" Islamic countries should work together to develop renewable and alternative energy sources.
"Our potentials are enormous. Our resources are vast. Great opportunities lie await," he said.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said after a hastily arranged bilateral meeting that he supported a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, something everyone seemed to agree on.
Fears that Iran is trying to build nuclear warheads were aggravated Friday, when diplomats said U.N. inspectors may have found traces of highly enriched uranium on equipment from an Iranian research center linked to the military.
The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for divulging the confidential information, initially said the density of enrichment appeared to be close to or above the level used to make nuclear warheads.
But later a well-placed diplomat accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was below that, although higher than the low-enriched material used to generate power and heading toward weapons-grade level.
"I have not heard that," Ahmadinejad said about the claims, saying there was no reason for the world "to become nervous about nothing. The nuclear program of Iran is totally peaceful."
He said his country has worked closely with the U.N. nuclear agency.
"The cameras are there, the facilities are there, closely monitoring our activities. Therefore there are no concerns."
He also said that while he was willing to talk to just about anyone about the dispute he would not do so with "countries that hang planes with bombs over our heads."
"If they want to threaten the use of force we will not go into dialogue with them."
#2
I wonder if Ahmadinejad is making a statement by going to Bali. Rat Bastard.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
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"I have not heard that," Ahmadinejad said about the claims, saying there was no reason for the world "to become nervous about nothing. The nuclear program of Iran is totally peaceful."
Allan told him to say that. He really thinks he is the Mahdi. And he's about ready to show the world.
DAMASCUS - Ten people have been sentenced in Syria to jail terms ranging from three to nine years for membership in banned Islamist organisations, the head of a rights organisation said on Saturday.
Ammar Al Qurabi, of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, condemned the sentences by the high state security court as very harsh and demanded that the 10 be released.
There you go, just demand stuff in Syria. Should work well.
He did not name those condemned, or say what groups they had been convicted of belonging to. He said they had been arrested early last year in several different parts of the country. Qurabi also called for dismantlement of the court, which he called unconstitutional, as a step toward lifting the 40-year-old state of emergency in place in the country and an end to all special courts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, traded barbs during bad-tempered talks at a foreign ministers' summit in New York on Iran's nuclear programme.
The exchanges provided a candid introduction to diplomacy for Margaret Beckett, the new Foreign Secretary, who attended the tetchy session at the end of her first full day in the job. The row, which further undermines hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis, reflects deepening rifts between the United States and Russia.
Tension surfaced at a private meeting hosted by Ms Rice in the Waldorf Hotel for the Russian, British, French, German and Chinese foreign ministers, and spilt over into a much-delayed dinner.
One official in Washington said: "It was a pretty extraordinary session and everyone's been talking about it in private since. It was certainly quite an introduction to the rough and tumble of the new job for Mrs Beckett."
Mr Lavrov arrived at the Waldorf for the meeting seething about a speech on Kremlin policies delivered by Dick Cheney, the vice-president, the previous week in Lithuania. The Russian repeatedly complained about the comments and then threatened to veto a Security Council resolution, drafted by Britain and France and backed by the US, that would force Iran to abandon enrichment of uranium.
Although Moscow has made clear that it opposes any use of mandatory powers, the other ministers were left in no doubt that Mr Lavrov's approach reflected fury over the Cheney speech. As the mood worsened, Mr Lavrov accused the Americans of seeking to undermine efforts by Britain, France and Germany to solve the crisis.
He singled out Nicholas Burns, the State Department's number three, for particular flak, complaining about his criticism of Russian involvement in Iran's
Bushehr nuclear plant. Already frustrated, Ms Rice, a Russia expert, took exception to his remarks about Mr Burns and curtly told her guest: "This meeting isn't going anywhere." The gathering in Ms Rice's suite had been intended as a 30-minute chat before dinner but turned into a two-hour session. By the time the foreign ministers sat down to eat at 10.30pm, their sea bass was shrivelled and, to Mrs Beckett's surprise, the bickering continued in front of senior officials.
The next day, John Sawers, the Foreign Office political director, and colleagues from the other five nations worked to smooth over the row. They came up with a new proposal for incentives on trade deals, security guarantees and civilian nuclear technology for Iran if it halts enrichment.
The offer represented a significant tactical shift by the US, as Washington had previously refused to back rewards for Iran. Privately, American and European officials doubt it will alter Iran's behaviour but believe that it may be the only hope of securing Russian and Chinese backing for tougher diplomatic measures, including UN sanctions.
Last week's developments also underscore tensions between Ms Rice and the men who effectively ran US foreign policy during George W Bush's first term - Mr Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary. Ms Rice was annoyed that talks on Iran with Mr Lavrov were complicated by the vice president's remarks but Mr Cheney and other hardliners want to send a tough message to Russia and also oppose US overtures to Iran and North Korea.
Indeed, they believe that it is better for the US to make clear that it is willing to pursue a solution with its allies, than to become bogged in negotiation with unco-operative partners. Ms Rice's friendship with Mr Bush has strengthened her position, but Mr Cheney's intervention signals that his voice will be crucial as the administration decides whether to attack sites where it believes Iran is developing a nuclear bomb.
Meanwhile, it was revealed on Friday that UN inspectors had found traces of near bomb-grade enriched uranium on equipment at an Iranian research centre.
Posted by: Danny ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Secretary Rice - "Oh, and please inform Mr. Lavrov that what I said goes for the horse he rode in on too."
#5
Condi's got more balls than all of the other attendees combined. The graphic should be the one of her eyeball-snatch Kung Fu move. Lavrov and Pooty Poot seething, LOL. Good. Emulate your Masters, dhimmis.
The European Union is planning to offer incentives to Iran to get it to halt its nuclear program. The package includes freer trade and political rewards in return for a stop on uranium enrichment. Iran will be encouraged to import the fuel it needs for its civil nuclear power stations, rather than producing its own. In return the European Union would offer freer trade and political incentives.
The ideas will be considered by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as Germany at a meeting next week. It is a measure of the west's desperation that it has had to resort to such an incentive package. The chance of getting tougher wording on a UN resolution to threaten Iran appears slim. Both China and Russia which have seats on the Security Council and the power of veto, do not want to support any move which might open the door to military action.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says any proposal that does not include Iran's right to nuclear technology will be unacceptable. "No incentive can be of interest to the Iranian Government and the Iranian nation unless it includes Iran's right to benefit from peaceful nuclear technology, so we expect the European countries, as we have in the past to accept Iran's rights and then they will see the upmost cooperation from Iran," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2006 00:00 ||
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Political rewards to the mullahs, presumably not to the Iranian people.
#2
"No incentive can be of interest to the Iranian Government and the Iranian nation unless it includes Iran's right to benefit from peaceful nuclear technology, so we expect the European countries, as we have in the past to accept Iran's rights and then they will see the upmost cooperation from Iran," he said.
Be good dhimmies or I'll have to send you the call to islam letter, too. In fact, I'm drafting it now.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
That fine point would be why the Talibs weren't defined as terrorists. They're adherents of the ousted government, which puts them in rebellion against the current government. The Paks and the Arabs swarming in and out of the country and blowing things up are terrorists, but they're not Afghan Taliban. 
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer planned to meet yesterday at the State Department with a top Sudanese official linked by human rights groups to the violence in Sudan's Darfur region that the Bush administration has labeled as genocide. But the official, deputy foreign minister Ali Ahmed Karti, did not show up for the meeting, a State Department spokesman said.
THE number of Islamic extremist security suspects in Britain has increased by 50 per cent since the deadly suicide bombings in London last year, The Observer newspaper said overnight.
ONE of the Russian militarys most tragic and haunting defeats at the hands of Chechen separatists has been turned into a patriotic war film on the Kremlins orders in an attempt to turn one of the darkest chapters of Russias recent history into a cause for pride not shame.
SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of students and labor and civic activists rallied on a downtown Seoul boulevard on Saturday to protest a plan to relocate American military bases, in the largest anti-US demonstration in the capital this year. According to police estimates, about 6,000 protesters waving candles, chanting slogans and singing songs staged a sit-in along a 10-lane boulevard at a major intersection about a block away from the US Embassy.
(KCNA) -- The Juche idea is a unique political philosophy, a revolutionary philosophy as it provides principles and methodology for leading the revolution and construction along the road of victory. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed article. The unique Songun political mode of the Workers' Party of Korea was set out in the course of the revolutionary practices for embodying the Juche idea and the revolution and construction in the DPRK are making dynamic progress despite any difficulties and ordeals thanks to the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il, the article notes, and continues: 
PARIS - More than 11,000 people marched through Paris on Saturday to protest a bill that would stiffen rules for immigrants in France and give authorities power to choose who can enter.
The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections has expressed its anger at the closure of the Muslim charity KindHearts by US authorities in February this year. KindHearts, the Ohio-based group was a $5 million-a-year charity with branches in Lebanon, Pakistan, and the Gaza Strip. It provided funds for water treatment plants and orphanages, but was shut down by federals authorities amid allegations that it was aiding Hamas. Pleas by American-Muslim leaders to US Treasury Secretary John Snow for guidelines on how to financially aid the Palestinian people without being accused of terrorism have been ignored.
Thousands of people have gathered for the funeral of a Pakistani student found dead in a German jail while awaiting trial for an alleged assault over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, officials said. More than 20,000 attended funeral prayers for 28-year-old 
Nepal's new Parliament is set to pass a proclamation drastically curtailing the monarch's power and bringing the army under parliamentary control. "The seven-party alliance is making a draft proclamation to be presented in Parliament that would give full autonomy to the house," Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said. 
The lawyer for former Iraqi deputy premier Tareq Aziz said on Saturday his client had been questioned in Baghdad by French judge Philippe Courroye and denied receiving bribes under the UNs Oil for Food programme. Judge Courroye questioned Tareq Aziz in the presence of an Iraqi judge, and Aziz told the judge that he refused to participate in a political settling of scores, said Badie Aref, Azizs lawyer. Aziz said that offers from companies and individuals close to the Iraqi people were studied and retained, but those did not result in a single case of payment of commissions or taxes. We sold oil to everyone at the same price, he told the French judge, relayed Aref. 
Mosque preachers, schoolteachers and students, college students and women are the target of two workshops in Aqaba and Amman designed to fight the takfiri ideology on the basis of the Amman Message. Arab Bridge Centre for Human Rights and Development President Amjad Shammout said these segments of society are the most effective tools in combating extremism if they receive the proper education that empowers them to fight the ideas extremists try to disseminate. Mosque imams, for example, can be very useful in these efforts because they deal with ordinary Muslims on a daily basis, Shammout told The Jordan Times yesterday.
The Arab League has denied it is unable to transfer aid to Palestinians, saying that the issue is still under discussion. An official from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Liberation Organisation said on Thursday the Arab League head said the pan-Arab body could not transfer an estimated $US70 million to 165,000 Palestinian Authority employees' accounts. "I did not contact the Palestinian President at all and I have not spoken to him since we met in Paris 10 days ago and discussed the best way to send this," Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa said.
Hezbollah head of executive council Sayyed Hashem Saffeidine said that the honoring of Bolton by Lebanese figures is a scandal. He said that the May 10 protest to push for social welfare exposed the ideology of some of the Lebanese who were quick to cast accusations.
BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- Iran's president has won support from fellow Muslim leaders for his contested uranium enrichment program, as he told the world there was no reason to be nervous about his nuclear ambitions.
DAMASCUS - Ten people have been sentenced in Syria to jail terms ranging from three to nine years for membership in banned Islamist organisations, the head of a rights organisation said on Saturday.
The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, traded barbs during bad-tempered talks at a foreign ministers' summit in New York on Iran's nuclear programme.
The European Union is planning to offer incentives to Iran to get it to halt its nuclear program. The package includes freer trade and political rewards in return for a stop on uranium enrichment. Iran will be encouraged to import the fuel it needs for its civil nuclear power stations, rather than producing its own. In return the European Union would offer freer trade and political incentives.
