MALAYSIA, Iran and Turkey plan to build an "Islamic car" fitted with a compass to find the direction of Mecca, and a compartment to keep the Koran in, the Malaysian state news agency said.
Malaysian automaker Proton's managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said during a visit to Tehran that the vehicle would be aimed at the global export market.
"We will identify a car that we can develop to be produced in Malaysia, Iran or Turkey," he told the Bernama agency in a weekend report.
"The car will have all the Islamic features and should be meant for export purposes," he said, adding that it would feature a compartment for keeping the Muslim holy book the Koran, and prayer scarves.
Mr Syed Zainal said the vehicle was an Iranian initiative.
"What they (Iran) want to do is to call that an Islamic car," he said, giving no further details.
Proton announced last week that it had won an order to supply 5000 units of its compact Waja model to be used as taxis in Tehran as part of the city's $US200 million public transport renewal initiative.
Proton has been trying to kick-start its export market as it attempts to halt a sharp decline in domestic market share and stem a series of losses - attributed to a lack of new models and a reputation for poor quality.
It is in negotiations with German auto giant Volkswagen over an alliance that it hopes could turn its fortunes around.
#3
Sorry Muhammed, but on a globe any direction faces Mecca. The Koran prescribes directing prayer on the shortest path, because Muhammed believed that the earth was flat. Muslims are required to believe that Alexander the Great travelled to the spot where the Sun sets and found people living in a swamp. (I have a book titled, "Islamic Legends Concerning Alexander the Great.")
#10
Proton has been trying to kick-start its export market as it attempts to halt a sharp decline in domestic market share and stem a series of losses - attributed to a lack of new models and a reputation for poor quality.
I've got it! A Mecca compass and a Koran compartment!! Our dealers will be beating them off with sticks! Inshallah!!!
#11
Plus it promotes recycling. You can use the same sticks to beat them off with that you use on your wife or on any woman who walks down the street without lowering her eyes.
Leading the way in environmental awareness, they are.
#16
In keeping with Islamic tradition, all the technical details will be stolen from the west. Soon we will be hearing that Islam invented the wheel, the windshield wiper, and the side curtain air bag.
#20
*Koran compartment is where the airbag would usually be.
*Moon roof standard.
*Dent resistant exterior so it can be beat when it doesn't work.
*Car Cover/burqa permanantly attached so the guys are not disturbed by its headlights.
*Voice activated ignition - must recite a passage in deemed acceptable arabic to start.
**Warrenty void until it is driven to mecca.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) recovered six bombs in Meherpur yesterday and three others in Daulatpur upzila in Kushtia on Thursday. Rab also arrested a member of infamous gang group Lalchad Bahini in Kushtia yesterday and recovered firearms from his possession.
Acting on a tip-off, a team from Rab-6 raided Kederganj Bazar in Mujibnagar upazila in Meherpur yesterday morning and recovered six bombs. Wrapped in a polythene bag, the bombs were kept in a garbage. Rab picked up shop owner Golam Hossain from near the spot but released him after interrogation.
[Thump! Thump! Beat! Clobber!]
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Aaaaiiiieee!"
"Okay. You can go."
"Thanksh. [Hobble. Hobble. Hobble.]"
Flight Lt. Mortoza of Rab-6 told journalists that they were investigating the matter.
On Friday, law enforcers recovered three bombs from a graveyard at Khalishakundi in Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia on Thursday. According to police, local people saw three bomb-like things there in the morning and informed them. Teams from Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-12 and Philipnagar camp police went to the spot and recovered the bombs. Kushtia Police said they were investigating into the matter.
In Kushtia, a team from Rab-12 arrested Abul Kalam, a top cadre of notorious Lalchad Bahini from Philipnagar village in Daulatpur upazila. Rab said tipped-off, they raided the house of Kalam at the village and arrested him at about 6:30am. Rab recovered a shutter gun. Daulatpur police said Kalam was a close accomplice of Lalchad, chief of Lalchad Bahini who is evading arrest for last six years.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Sector Commanders' Forum, a platform of sector commanders of the Liberation War, will go for legal actions against the war criminals of 1971 within this week, Convener of the Forum Lt Gen (retd) Harun-ur Rashid said yesterday. National Law Committee [law wing of the forum] is making preparations for this. They are taking time so that the war criminals cannot escape through the loopholes in law, the former army chief said at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital.
He also urged the caretaker government to initiate legal actions against the war criminals and said their trial is as important as the ongoing crackdown on corruption. We demand punishment of war criminals, who committed crimes against humanity [during the Liberation War], because if these criminals go unpunished there would be recurrence of such crimes in the country, Gen Harun said.
This is high time to try the war criminals, he said. If we fail to try them this time, we would never be able to bring them to book. The freedom fighters, who are witnesses to their war crimes, are now above 60, and we may not find them among us for long.
Condemning the recent statement of Jamaat leader Abdul Kader Mollah, Harun recalled that during the Liberation War, Pakistani regime and newspapers there termed the freedom fighters the nation's betratyers. Echoing their views, local collaborators of that regime have once again raised their heads 37 years after independence, and are calling the valiant war heroes 'traitors to the nation', he said.
These people belong to that force against whom the Liberation War heroes also fought in 1971 while fighting the Pakistani army, Gen Harun noted. After the Liberation War, we [freedom fighters] ourselves could punish the war criminals but we wanted to get it done through legal process. But this was thwarted due to a move of the then government.
At the press conference, Justice Syed Amirul Islam demanded observance of a 'Freedom Fighters Day' or 'Bir Shreshtha Day' each year in honour of the freedom fighters and martyred war heroes.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Foreign Office officials have turned on Lord Malloch-Brown, their minister, describing him as a liability for the government. Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations official brought into government by Gordon Brown, has fallen out with some diplomats who have dubbed him Bollock-Brown for his off-message views.
The minister has clashed with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and caused embarrassment for Brown before the prime ministers trip to Washington by saying that Britain and America would no longer be joined at the hip. Malloch-Brown is said to have been reprimanded by Miliband for suggesting the British government was about to open talks with Hamas and Hezbollah, the Islamic militant groups, and was forced to clarify his remarks in the House of Lords, which irritated Labour Friends of Israel, the campaign group.
Gordon wont be brave enough to sack him. It would look like the whole things been a mistake, but Malloch-Brown will probably resign in the end because he feels frustrated that he is not getting the recognition and the things done he wanted to, said a Foreign Office official.
Brown made great play of appointing Malloch-Brown, former chief of staff at the UN, in June as he brought outsiders into his government of all the talents. The appointment angered Washington which was aware of his opposition to the Iraq war and hostility towards the neo-cons around George W Bush.
Malloch-Brown, who is paid £81,504 a year, has also upset colleagues by strolling into meetings with foreign dignitaries even though he has not been invited. A critique of the minister appeared last week in The Spectator magazine, questioning his continued use of a grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House on Whitehall which was once used by John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister. Only two other members of the government Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor have grace-and-favour homes.
The article quoted Brown as having confided to colleagues that if he had known it would cause such a fuss, I wouldnt have appointed him. It added that Malloch-Brown is viewed in Washington as viscerally anti-American. Foreign Office officials and allies of Miliband thought the article bang on.
From the comments section at link: Living among Americans as I do, I can say quite authoritatively that Lord Malloch-Brown [has] replaced George Galloway as Britain's greatest embarrassment among the Yanks!
Talk about "bang on"! LOL
#4
It's not whether or not he's in the mainstream. In many ways he is, especially in the Foreign Office. It's simply that he doesn't know his place. He lives in a free apartment his job doesn't entitle him to, he wanders into meetings as if he owed the place, he makes policy statements that cause the Prime Minister to change his travel plans in order to grovel at That American's feet, and speaks publicly what was meant to happen sub rosa...
Lord Malloch-Brown is acting as if he still were the assistant to the ruler of the world, Kofi Anan, not a mere small-M minister in the Foreign Office.
#5
Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations official brought into government by Gordon Brown, has fallen out with some diplomats who have dubbed him Bollock-Brown for his off-message views.
He's there because he makes the prime minister look reasonable. Bollock says something outrageous, and Gordo gets to play the diplomat (even tho he agrees with Bollock) It's like the old Monty Python routine:
WHISTLER: Yes, thank you. Right, Your Majesty is like a stream of bat's piss.
(gasps)
PRINCE OF WALES: What?
WHISTLER: It was one of Wilde's.
WILDE: It sodding was not! It was Shaw!
PRINCE OF WALES: Well, Mr. Shaw?
SHAW: I, um, I, ah, I merely meant, Your Majesty, that, ah, you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
#2
He said: "Miss Beach is a pacifist and a stupid bint and felt unhappy about the Rifles marching with guns through the town. But she received absolutely no support.
"Members of all parties all feel that this is a time to support our armed forces.
"We need them and they do an impossibly difficult job, laying down their lives for the rest of us. I felt this would be undermining them. But it was all very civilised, and Miss Beach accepted the views of the majority."
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/11/2007 6:57 Comments ||
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#4
They banned the cannon because of "health and safety" ?
Posted by: john frum ||
11/11/2007 8:59 Comments ||
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#5
"Health and Safety" in the UK so far this year has been given as the reason to:
1. Ban at least one town's firemen from using their ladders to put up Christmas lights in a shopping district;
2. Ban fireworks and bonfires on Guy Fawkes' Day in Guy Fawkes' hometown; and,
3. Attempt to ban rifles and (a little further down in the article linked here) poppies on Rememberance / Armistice / Veterans Day.
What do all of these occasions have in common? They are important to a sense of shared heritage, history and sovereignty, also a sense of shared obligation to each other. I'd also like to add that the law-abiding population of the United Kingdoms have been effectively stripped of their arms.
And if Christmas is a little duller and boring this year, well that's just fine with Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the Bakribots.
#7
Her attitude doesn't surprise me. At a Civil War Reenactment last weekend we had planned on a School Program Day on Friday but the Sullivan County School Superintendant refused to let any children come because there were guns there. This is the first time in 11 years of reenacting a school system has refused our offer of a program. This is in East Tennessee where damn near everybody has guns.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/11/2007 14:56 Comments ||
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#8
At a Civil War Reenactment last weekend we had planned on a School Program Day on Friday but the Sullivan County School Superintendant refused to let any children come because there were guns there.
Deac, that is so fucked up on so many levels I barely know where to begin. What better way for children to understand about guns than to witness a large assembly of adults displaying and carrying them in a safe and responsible manner?
This is akin to arguing that sex education classes promote teen pregnancy. Children who do not get a chance to see how firearms can be managed properly will be among those most likely to mismanage one themselves should the opportunity arise. The superintendent may as well argue that driver education classes promotes more accidents for teens. What a stupid git.
#9
I guess she wanted the children to believe the Civil war was fought without firearms. Some of the parents were really PO'd when they found out. They weren't asked their opinion about it. It was a dictate.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/11/2007 16:46 Comments ||
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A senior federal police official was gunned down Saturday while driving his car in the northern city of Saltillo and was in critical condition, police said. Jose Luis Hernandez Marquez, chief of Mexico's Federal Preventative Police force in the border state of Coahuila, was shot at least five times Saturday morning by gunmen traveling in two vehicles, said a spokesman for the force, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to comment on the case.
The police chief's car "was intercepted by two vehicles from which various people, who have yet to be identified, opened fire on him," the federal attorney general's office said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2007 00:00 ||
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The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist." Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."
Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences. "Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.
Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was off.
Spanish King Juan Carlos, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said, "Why don't you shut up?"
The Venezuelan leader did not immediately respond, but later used time ceded to him by his close ally Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to answer Zapatero's speech. "I do not offend by telling the truth," he said. "The Venezuelan government reserves the right to respond to any aggression, anywhere, in any space and in any manner."
#2
When the Civil Guard sprayed the Spanish Assembly with bullets in a seventies' coup attempt, the King alone did not climb under his desk. The Spanish remember that.
#5
Chavez calls Aznar a facist (talk about irony) and then Zappy begs/demands Chavez acknowledge that Aznar was democraticly elected (w/out really addressing the facist charge). King of Spain breaks up the circle jerk. Sounds like a summit of titans.
Posted by: regular joe ||
11/11/2007 10:29 Comments ||
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#6
Things not so good for 'ugo at home. He's off to Saudi in a couple of days.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/11/2007 10:35 Comments ||
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#7
The king should've told him to have another doughnut...
#9
What's great about this, other than the King telling Hugo to put a sock on it, is that you had Zappie defending Aznar in public. That's as it should be in a democracy, where your opponents are that and not your enemies. But there's no love lost between the two.
Hugo, uniting the Spanish. Way to go big boy!
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/11/2007 15:44 Comments ||
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#10
Shut up - cayete la boca - is less nasty in Spanish.
A Hong Kong-based Chinese-language weekly said in its latest issue that an Indian parliamentarian who had served as India's defense minister had secretly visited Taiwan many times to help Taiwan develop nuclear weapons.
The magazine identified the parliamentarian as 77-year-old Shri George Fernandes. Accompanied by his girl friend and staff, Fernandes arrived in Taipei aboard a China Airlines flight in mid-April for visit, the magazine said. He was greeted by officials of the National Security Council and then escorted by them through a secret passage, according to the report.
But Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense reiterated that the country was not involved in the development of nuclear weapons. "We abide by the regulations of the international treaty, and we always uphold our position of no engagement in developing, producing, requiring, storing, and using of nuclear weaponry," said MND spokesman Major General Yu Sy-tue in response to the report.
The report referred to Fernandes as "the pushing hand behind India's nuclear weaponry."
Many senior security officials, including former National Security Council deputy secretaries-general Parris Chang and Antonio Chiang, as well as former Vice Defense Minister Lin Chong-pin, had secretly visited India many times at Fernandes' invitation while he was employed at the Indian defense ministry, the report claimed. The magazine quoted what it described as reliable sources as saying that India is helping Taiwan develop nuclear weapons with assistance provided by Fernandes.
Su Chi, a Taiwan legislator affiliated with the opposition Kuomintang, said in a media interview that a senior official affiliated with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party had revealed to him that Taiwan is developing nuclear weapons. Su said Taiwan is very likely to develop nuclear weapons in the face of growing military threats from China.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/11/2007 13:26 ||
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#1
Taiwan should have been armed with nuclear weapons decades ago.
Wouldn't it be grand to have Taiwan admit its possession of numerous nuclear weapons and then declare independence on the eve of Beijing's olympics? Talk about stealing someone's thunder! The Chinese Mandarins would be all aquiver with impotent rage.
Fernandes (a former catholic seminarian turned trade union activist) was defence minister in 1998 and did not even know that nuclear tests were being prepared. He found out when the Indian PM told him afterwards.
There is serious bad blood between him and Sonia Gandhi and he is unlikely to have any current influence within the nuclear establishment. Not enough to arrange transfer of tech or to act as a go-between, Sonia Gandhi would never allow it.
A personal friend of Burma's Aung San Su Kyi, He is a vindictive SOB if crossed and has no love for the Chinese at all.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/11/2007 15:03 Comments ||
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#4
I just don't see Taiwan as needing help to develop nukes and I seriously doubt an Indian parliamentarian would have any useful knowledge anyway, except perhaps a rolodex with names.
Personally I believe Taiwan has had nukes for some time but have kept it silent as a public annoucement would make life even more difficult with their large neighbor.
#7
We might be missing the obvious. What if Taiwan buys already built nukes from India, on condition that the Indians secure those nukes, and only provide them to Taiwan on demand?
Taiwan knows it is crawling with mainland spies and sympathizers, so that it would be very, very difficult to develop or protect nukes there. But if nukes can be delivered to Taiwan, designed to be placed into Taiwanese missiles, it is the best of all worlds.
Taiwan can have a buttload of missiles *capable* of carrying nukes as well, without arousing any suspicions as long as they seem to be conventional. Just take out the conventional warhead and slap on a nuclear one.
Until actual hostilities have commenced, India should have free access to Taiwan, both by air and by water. They would probably have a warship in the vicinity with the nuke on board, which the Taiwanese could pick up in an hour or two.
President General Pervez Musharraf decided on Saturday not to extend the National Assemblys tenure, Geo news reported while quoting a federal minister. Presiding over the 103rd Corps Commanders Conference at the GHQ, Musharraf praised corps commanders, principal staff officers and other senior army officials for backing his imposition of emergency rule in the country. Emergency has been imposed to ensure effective governance, maintain impetus to root out terrorism and to ensure a stable political transition, he said. Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, corps commanders, PSOs and senior military officers attended the meeting. Musharraf briefed the participants about the situation that prompted imposition of emergency rule and the evolving environment after its proclamation.
This article starring:
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2007 00:00 ||
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PPP chief Benazir Bhutto told reporters outside Judges Colony on Saturday that she still considered Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry the real chief justice of Pakistan (CJP). Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and all other judges who refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) should be reinstated and orders for their house arrest lifted, she said. Denied meeting with Iftikhar: Bhutto was denied a meeting with the deposed CJP on Saturday. Soon after being freed from house arrest, she went to meet Chaudhry at his residence, where riot police baton-charged her supporters who tried to cross the security barricades.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2007 00:00 ||
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The Gaza Strip's isolated and cash-strapped Hamas rulers are planning to build a multi-million pound media city and film production house. The £100 million centre will be part tourist attraction and part effort to cement control of the territory it seized by force in June. So far, however, the Islamic militants have raised only a tiny fraction of the money it needs for its own Hollywood.
The idea comes at a time when the Gaza economy has ground to a standstill and its people are struggling to feed themselves because of Israeli and international sanctions against the Islamic group listed as a terror organisation.
Even so, Hamas envisions a glittering facility with production and graphics studios, satellite technology, gardens, water ponds, a children's entertainment area and an array of cafes and restaurants, said the Felasteen daily, a Hamas paper. It will even feature mock towns and villages similar to those that Palestinians fled or were forced out of after Israel's creation in 1948, the newspaper reported, quoting Fathi Hamad, a Hamas lawmaker and head of the project.
Hamad said the project's directors have raised £500,000, a small fraction of the price tag. He said he was confident the group could raise the rest from local donations and from Palestinians living abroad.
#3
Good. More fungible funds spent on something other than bullets and rocket parts. Perhaps they could start by making a series of films about suicide bombers: but to get the lighting and the background right, use stage sets instead of, say, Israel.
#5
Good. More fungible funds spent on something other than bullets and rocket parts. Perhaps they could start by making a series of films about suicide bombers: but to get the lighting and the background right, use stage sets instead of, say, Israel.
You may well be incorrect on this, trailing wife. I'm tellin' youse we should not underestimate the profound influence that propagandano matter how contrived or fabricated it may behas upon high context Muslim culture. Witness the enduring anti-Semitic role played by that grand forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
The indoctrination and misinformation that such a facility could spew forth might end up killing far more Jews and other civilians than the death toll brought about by a similar expenditure on conventional weapons. Just sayin'.
#6
awesome! a $44,000 "computer generated" (Nahoul the) Bee Movie
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/11/2007 17:09 Comments ||
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#7
I'm incorrect on a great many things, Zenster. My information is incomplete, my memory porous, and my understanding of human nature is skewed toward nice people. But I do the best I can with what I have, and await the final proof or disproof of events.
I'm kind of fatalistic about anti-Israel/antisemitic propaganda nowadays. The current level of hate is mostly based on lies. They already believe Jews bake babies' blood into Passover matzah and poison wells, are genocidaires... and are evil incarnate who must all be killed, all 18 million of us. How much worse can it get, really?
#10
I'm kind of fatalistic about anti-Israel/antisemitic propaganda nowadays. The current level of hate is mostly based on lies. They already believe Jews bake babies' blood into Passover matzah and poison wells, are genocidaires... and are evil incarnate who must all be killed, all 18 million of us. How much worse can it get, really?
While I definitely dispute your own self-assessment, I do believe that things can get a lot worse. Remember the old saying, "Before things get worse, they have to get a whole lot worse."
Imagine these genocidal bastards with sophisticated computer graphics at their disposal in order to create faked "atrocities" that incite further terrorist reprisals. I know they already do this in print, but within quasi-literate and ill-informed high context societies like much of the MME (Muslim Middle East), such slickly produced disinformation could have a substantially negative impact.
Look at how Iran is able to puff up national pride by Photoshopping the demolition of an Australian naval vessel. Muslims are nothing if not gullible and the upshot of truly vile fanatics like Hamas having access to advanced video or film production facilities bodes not at all well. That's why I advocate Israel blasting it straight to hell on opening night (or maybe a few weeks later after all the equipment has been installed).
#11
That AFP "news" film of the 10-year old Palestinian boy who was supposedly shot point blank by Israeli soldiers in the middle of a shoot out with Palestinian gunmen was made a few years ago. Last I heard they were in court refusing to turn over the original film, because it showed the AFP camera men and the father staging the scene, and the boy walking away after. One of the French television stations based a special on it that was shown in repeats several times in France alone, as well as referenced around the world. The newest blood libel, and they didn't need any computers to do it. All sorts of things are already on You Tube. New stories won't add to the hate, just the novelty.
UN human rights expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro was due Sunday to start his first visit to Myanmar in four years as rights groups demanded the ruling junta release all political prisoners.
Pinheiro had been refused entry to the country since 2003 but had repeatedly requested access, especially after a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in September.
The Brazilian rights expert earlier this week welcomed the generals invitation as a positive indication of their desire to cooperate during his November 11-15 visit, which comes amid apparent signs of progress on establishing dialogue between the junta and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Rights groups said Pinheiros visit was a chance to push the generals on reforms and demanded the release of all political prisoners. Amnesty International wrote Friday to Myanmars authorities with a briefing paper outlining grave and ongoing human rights violations committed since the start of the clampdown, which sparked international outrage. Amnesty estimated 700 political prisoners were still in detention, including 91 detained during the recent protests, and accused the authorities of the enforced disappearance of at least 72 people.The government said 10 people died in the protests and about 3,000 were detained, but diplomats put both figures at far higher.
The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all of those who were arrested for exercising their right to freedom or expression or assembly during the crackdown, as well as all prisoners of conscience held before the recent events, the London-based group demanded. Amnesty also called on the generals to cooperate with Pinheiro and deliver concrete human rights improvements.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2007 00:00 ||
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Police in the Malaysian capital used water cannon and fired tear gas shells on Saturday to scatter crowds gathering for a banned opposition rally to demand changes to the countrys electoral system.
Although hundreds of policemen, including riot police with shields and batons, guarded Kuala Lumpurs landmark Merdeka (Freedom) Square, tens of thousands of people turned out for one of Malaysias biggest anti-government rallies since 1998. Police sprayed water cannons twice to disperse a crowd of about 500 protesters chanting slogans, said a Reuters witness who watched the incident outside a historic domed mosque guarded by about 50 riot police, as helicopters hovered overhead.
Nearby, another group of 2,000 protesters, chiefly teenagers wearing yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan Bersih, or Clean in Malay, marched in heavy rain towards the citys colonial-era railway station. They chanted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) and Reformasi, a reform demand that was the war chant of 1998 opposition protests, while waving banners reading Save Malaysia and Election Commission, stop your tricks.
Groups of demonstrators later converged on the palace of Malaysias king, where opposition leaders handed over a list of election reform demands. Policemen in the crowd said it numbered less than 10,000, but organisers put the figure at 30,000.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he was happy with the turnout despite the governments condemnation of the protest. I think this is a major success in the expression of public sentiment against fraudulent practices in the elections, Anwar told Reuters in a telephone interview. There is open defiance by Malaysians, which is not normal practice in this country.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2007 00:00 ||
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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.
MALAYSIA, Iran and Turkey plan to build an "Islamic car" fitted with a compass to find the direction of Mecca, and a compartment to keep the Koran in, the Malaysian state news agency said.
Foreign Office officials have turned on Lord Malloch-Brown, their minister, describing him as a liability for the government. Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations official brought into government by Gordon Brown, has fallen out with some diplomats who have dubbed him Bollock-Brown for his off-message views. 
A senior federal police official was gunned down Saturday while driving his car in the northern city of Saltillo and was in critical condition, police said. Jose Luis Hernandez Marquez, chief of Mexico's Federal Preventative Police force in the border state of Coahuila, was shot at least five times Saturday morning by gunmen traveling in two vehicles, said a spokesman for the force, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to comment on the case. 
A Hong Kong-based Chinese-language weekly said in its latest issue that an Indian parliamentarian who had served as India's defense minister had secretly visited Taiwan many times to help Taiwan develop nuclear weapons.
The Gaza Strip's isolated and cash-strapped Hamas rulers are planning to build a multi-million pound media city and film production house. The £100 million centre will be part tourist attraction and part effort to cement control of the territory it seized by force in June. So far, however, the Islamic militants have raised only a tiny fraction of the money it needs for its own Hollywood.
