England has the same problem with her "Asian" subjects, as do Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Marriage between relatives is seen as distasteful within some cultures, but it has been a common feature in many others for thousands of years.
However, growing evidence has shown that children born to parents from the same extended family face a higher risk of developing a range of health problems.
Research from 2008 shows that marriage between cousins in the US, Europe, Russia and Australia is less than one per cent.
In countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, more than half of the population marry a spouse who is considered a relative.
Some of these countries and a number of African and Asian countries have the world's highest rates of birth defects - up to 69 cases in every thousand people.
How many of the chief culprits are not Muslim?
Some experts say the real figure is much higher.
No doubt. Many genetic problems are not immediately visible at birth... or later.
Like its Gulf neighbours, Qatar has now made pre-marital medical tests mandatory.
Khalid bin Jabor al-Thani, the chairman of Qatar's cancer society and former deputy director of its national health authority, told Al Jazeera that inter-family marriages are tolerated because they are the product of "tribal traditions".
"The tolerance comes from people who used to live in very remote areas and tribes would always want to keep their blood within the family and not go outside," he said.
"In Islamic religion it is always advisable to go outside the family. But since this has [been happening] for such a long time ago, and has been carried forward, it [is] one of the issues that people overlook." Been saying for years that these people are insane. Turns out they are. More than 50% of them. Stupidity is in the genes. So is psychosis. We're fighting the mentally challenged and psychotics. Not allowed to say that out loud tho'.
#3
What this article claims is 0.7% of live births have visible defects. However,
The Times reports that fifty-five per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and, in Bradford [an immigrant community], the figure rises to 75 per cent. One-third of children with recessive disorders are British Pakistanis, but they only account for three per cent of UK births.
This is the most likely explanation for the observation that, in some sections of the British Pakistani population, the risk of death or serious disability in children may be as high as 10 per cent.
I suspect the 10% number is a bit low, given the millenia that this population has practiced close-cousin marriage -- the metaphor of a pole-like family tree I used a few days ago was deliberately chosen -- but I haven't the knowledge to back up my belief.
#5
I have seen the same problems with marriage between relatives in some Alaskan rural villages. Birth defects and other problems related to this phenomenon show up more commonly in the population. With increased mobility, this is not as much an issue as it was not too many decades ago.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/01/2010 15:40 Comments ||
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#6
100 years ago the physically and mentally handicapped would often die young, before propagating. Now, not so much.
(CNN) -- A Lebanese man charged with sorcery and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be beheaded on Friday, the man's lawyer said Wednesday.
May El Khansa, the attorney for Ali Hussain Sibat, told CNN that she and Sibat's family were informed about the upcoming execution. She said she heard from a source in Saudi Arabia with knowledge of the case and the proceedings that Saudi authorities "will carry out the execution."
The Saudi Ministry of Justice could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter.
El Khansa said she has appealed to Lebanon's prime minister, Saad Hariri, and president, Michel Suleiman, to stop the execution. Amnesty International, the human rights group, has called on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to block it as well.
Sibat is the former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Beirut-based satellite TV channel "Sheherazade." According to his lawyer, Sibat would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.
El Khansa told CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra.
Sibat was then put on trial, and in November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found him guilty and sentenced him to death.
According to El Khansa, Sibat appealed the verdict. The case was taken up by the Court of Appeal in the Saudi city of Mecca on the grounds that the initial verdict was "premature."
El Khansa tells CNN that the Mecca appeals court then sent the case back to the original court for reconsideration, stipulating that all charges made against Sibat needed to be verified and that he should be given a chance to repent.
On March 10, judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed. "The Medina court refused the sentence of the appeals court," said El Khansa, adding her client will appeal the verdict once more.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
If Sibat couldn't predict that, he wasn't a very good sorcerer. On the other hand, if he wasn't a sorcerer, perhaps he shouldn't be executed. A paradox, a paradox, a most ingeneous paradox.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2010 8:08 Comments ||
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#3
If sorcery warrants beheading in Saudi Arabia, there ought to be a lot of headless people there. They have been practicing sorcery against the West for years.
#4
this is not the first person charged and convicted of sorcery in Soddiland.
However, it is the first person charged and convicted despite no allegations that he did anything wrong while in Saudi Arabia. That is, he is to be executed in Saudi Arabia for something he legally did in Lebanon. I doubt whether the Soodis will actually execute him. They will probably show him 'mercy' by giving him lashes and sending him back to Lebanon.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/01/2010 12:41 Comments ||
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#5
a duck also floats!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2010 19:03 Comments ||
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#6
Why don't they just amputate his wrist? Like the guy yesterday.
#7
he is to be executed in Saudi Arabia for something he legally did in Lebanon
So Sharia law extends across borders? By Saudi reasoning Sharia law could punish someone who violated Sharia law but did so in the U.S. I have a problem with that thinking. One cannot allow Sharia law to creep into the established law of the land.
..Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said Tuesday. While local law enforcement officials and the federal government argue that no significant incidents of "spillover violence" -- a term they say should include "deliberate, planned attacks by the cartels" -- have occurred thus far in Texas, McCraw disagreed.
One of the fiercest battles between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas took place in the city of Mante Mexico on Sunday morning. A Tamaulipas rancher who has property in Mante confirmed that SUV's with loudspeakers warned the public to stay indoors just before the battle and said he counted more than 30 bodies lying on the street and at least six charred SUV's with bullet holes and bodies inside. "I can't believe this is happening here," he said. "I don't have the luxury of moving. I have all of my assets here. I sent my wife and kids with my suegros but I have to keep working my land." It could not be confirmed with Mexican officials if any of the inmates Who escaped from the Matamoros prison last Thursday took part in any of the weekend firefights or if they rejoined with either of the two sides in the struggle. 50 former prison employees are now themselves incarcerated for aiding in escapes.
What appeared to be a Mexican military helicopter was spotted hovering over U.S. territory Sunday afternoon, said Zapata County TX Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez. The incident -- at least the second reported this month -- occurred Sunday afternoon over RV parks on the southwest outskirts of Zapata, a small town about 100 miles northwest of McAllen near the Rio Grande, the sheriff said.
#3
There needs to be some kind of coalition of citizens from California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona that patrol the border and assist federal and state law enforcement that are assigned to the border. They can call it, I don't know, the Minutemen or something like that. The people would surely support a group of average Americans that help keep out as many criminals coming over the border from Mexico as they can (sarcasm). Either way, D.C. doesn't give two shits about the Western United States. It will have to be a self-starter kind of mission. (was in Downtown L.A. museums yesterday... for every Mexican adult there was a quintuplet of children following with at least two of them in strollers). Seriously, it's getting really old already.
Posted by: Jack Thrinetle4718 ||
04/01/2010 11:58 Comments ||
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#4
That border falls under specific responsibility of the federal government. They are so busy playing nanny asshat meddelers to do their specified tasks.
The US federal government must handle this with serious manner or the states there should look at sceeding.
#5
Seceding isn't necessary. When the federal government doesn't handle a responsibility in a manner satisfactory to the state most impacted, the state should simply step up to the plate.
#7
Well we are just about done in Iraq and Mexico does have oil....
Logistics would be simpler, as well as the cultural issues. Since one poll showed 60% of Mexicans wanted to move to the US perhaps we should just move the border. Call it a territory for a couple of decades until the place is fixed up and rule of law starts to set in. Then let them decide if they want independence or if they'll take on English as a language.
#8
Couldn't be much worse than what's brewing now.
Oh yes it could. When W. Germany unified with the basket-case economy of E. Germany, it took on an economic albatross that dragged it into a decade-long stagnation. Mexico's a _lot_ poorer than E. Germany, and its oil reserves aren't that huge.
In any case, the oil is monopolized by a corrupt, extremely inefficient corporatist structure comprising politicians, a massive union, and an entire panoply of social welfare organizations that taken together is a state unto itself. Try unwinding THAT statist monster.
Better to take a chapter from Jack Pershing, and halt low-end unskilled immigration, period. No more mexification of the US.
WASHINGTON--In an effort to reduce wasteful spending and eliminate non-vital federal services, the U.S. government announced plans this week to cut its long-standing senator program, a move it says will help save more than $300 billion each year.
"Now more than ever, we must eliminate needless spending wherever possible," President Obama said at a press conference Wednesday. "When we sat down to go over our annual budget, we asked ourselves, where can we safely trim back? What programs can we do away with without negatively impacting the American people? Which bloated and ineffective institutions can we no longer justify having around?"
"The answer was obvious," Obama added. "The U.S. Senate just needed to go."
#3
Well, the Beltway is moving along smartly in cutting billions of misappropriated spending at the local level by doing away with state legislatures who'll have no money to work with after federal mandates are fulfilled. Obama will just work through the imperial governors.
(Reuters) - The Pentagon will extend the deadline for bids on its huge refueling aircraft contract by 60 days if Europe's EADS formally pledges to bid against Boeing Co. The announcement on Wednesday came a day after President Barack Obama vowed to run a fair and open competition for the new aerial tankers during a news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
EADS said it would consider the 60-day extension but also said it had told U.S. officials it needed a 90-day extension to the May 10 deadline, the minimum time needed to prepare a bid. You should have a bid in the can, eh boys?
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that a decision was expected from EADS within the next several weeks, but stressed that the U.S. Defense Department did not plan to change any requirements in the competition besides the deadline.
"It is not uncommon to grant reasonable extensions in competitions of this sort, and we consider 60 days to be reasonable in this case," Morrell said.
But Boeing backers in Congress blasted the decision saying the Pentagon was bending the rules to placate Europe in the contest that could be worth as much as $50 billion.
EADS is deciding whether to bid alone after its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman, pulled out of the race saying the contest terms clearly favored the smaller Boeing 767-based tanker over the A330 built by EADS' Airbus unit. EADS and Northrop won the previous U.S. Air Force tanker contest in February 2008, but the Pentagon canceled that deal after government auditors upheld a Boeing protest.
Obama had assured French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday that the competition would be completely transparent, open and fair. Sarkozy, saying he trusted Obama, said EADS would bid if the terms of the competition were fair.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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Indian authorities have rejected a request for early release made by the woman convicted over the assassination of Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi.
Nalini Sriharan, who is in a prison in Tamil Nadu state, says she has been eligible for early release since 2005.
Last year she held a fast in the prison in support of her demand. That'll get the parole board on her side ...
Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomb at an election rally in May 1991. At least 14 other people - including the suicide bomber - were killed in the attack. India has always blamed the attack on Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels.
Sriharan was convicted for being part of the assassination squad and was one of four plotters initially given a death sentence. This was commuted to a life term following a plea for clemency by Rajiv Gandhi's widow and Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi.
Sriharan has served more than 18 years in Vellore prison. She claims she is only required to serve 14 years in prison before being entitled to early release under Indian laws.
The government of Tamil Nadu, however, rejected her request on Monday. "Considering the social history, circumstances of criminal behaviour, degree of criminality, her case is not fit for recommendation on premature release," an advisory board appointed by the government to consider her plea said.
In 2006, the Tamil Tiger rebels expressed "regret" for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi in a move which correspondents say was a realisation by the rebels that the assassination was a huge mistake.
Sriharan also went on hunger strike in 2006 because she wanted her daughter, who lives in Sri Lanka, to be given a visa to visit her in India.
In 2008, Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Rajiv Gandhi, met Sriharan in prison.
"I don't believe in anger or violence and I refuse to let it overpower me. Meeting Nalini [Sriharan] was my way of coming to terms with my father's death," Ms Gandhi said after the meeting.
This article starring:
Nalini Sriharan
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2010 11:22 ||
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India is launching a new census in which every person aged over 15 will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database.
The government will then use the information to issue identity cards.
Officials will spend a year classifying India's population of around 1.2 billion people according to gender, religion, occupation and education.
The exercise, conducted every 10 years, faces big challenges, not least India's vast area and diversity of cultures.
Census officials must also contend with high levels of illiteracy and millions of homeless people - as well as insurgencies by Maoists and other rebels which have left large parts of the country unsafe.
President Pratibha Patil was the first person to be listed, and appealed to fellow Indians to follow her example "for the good of the nation".
"Everyone must participate and make it successful," she said in Delhi.
This is India's 15th census and the first time a biometric element has been included.
"India has been conducting a national census since 1872," the man leading the exercise C Chandramouli told the AFP news agency. "Nothing - floods, droughts, even wars - has been able to stop it.
"The trick is to get things right the first time. There is no question of a re-census."
Over the next year, some 2.5 million census officials will visit households in more than 7,000 towns and 600,000 villages.
The officials, many of them teachers and local officials, will first begin the process of house listing - which records information on homes.
This count will, for the first time, also attempt to gather information on the use of the internet and the availability of drinking water and toilets in households.
he physical count of residents will take place from 9-28 February 2011.
The mammoth registration exercise will stretch over 11 months, consume more than 11 million tonnes of paper, and cost 60bn rupees ($1.3bn; £880m).
India's Home Minister, P Chidambaram, has described the process as the biggest of its kind in human history.
"An exercise of this kind has not been attempted anywhere else in the world," he told reporters in the capital.
The national census is the only source of primary and credible data in India and is used not just to formulate government policies but also by private companies to identify markets for their products, says the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi.
The first 16-digit identity numbers are due to be issued starting in November.
The full census results will be released in mid-2011.
The collation of biometric information on a national database raises questions about possible infringement of civil liberties in the future.
BBC correspondents say many Indians support the new ID cards, believing they will make it easier to receive help and benefits from the state and remove the current need for multiple personal documents.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/01/2010 11:07 ||
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#1
"India... is seven hundred thousand villages, not a few lawyers in Delhi or Bombay."
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi
[Geo News] Dozen of media persons have been subjected to the horrible torture by doctors in the presence of police at Jinnah Hospital here on Wednesday. Tension began when media persons went to hospital to cover a demonstration staged by the relative of 60-year-old patient, who died due to alleged negligence of the doctor. The doctors became annoyed when journalists asked them the reason for the death of patient while instead of answering the question, they started beating the media persons. According to Geo correspondent Faisal Karim, media persons were invited for talks at the hospital's conference room, where they were beaten again both by the doctors and police. Faisal said he was also among the journalists, who were also severely beaten by the doctors-turned-rioters. According to report, hospital's main gate has been closed after the incident. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken the notice of incident and formed an inquiry committee. Hey, doc. It hurts when I do this.
WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP...how does it feel now, funny man?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2010 00:00 ||
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A Malaysian model who was sentenced last year to six strokes of a cane for drinking beer in public has had her sentence commuted, her lawyer said Thursday. Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will now instead be required to perform three weeks of community service -- beginning Friday.
An Islamic court in the eastern state of Pahang fined Kartika $1,400 (5,000 Malaysian ringgit) and ordered that she be stroked with a rattan cane for drinking beer at a hotel bar in 2007. The sentence was to have been carried out Thursday.
However on Wednesday night, the sultan of Pahang sent a letter where he commuted the woman's sentence, said Kartika's lawyer Adham Jamalullail Ibrahim.
Each state in Malaysia is ruled by a sultan who, in effect, is the guardian of Islamic matters in that state. He can overrule the decision of an Islamic court -- and Sultan Ahmad Shah did so in this case.
Kartika, a mother of two, was visiting Malaysia from Singapore when her troubles began. She said she lost her job as a nurse in Singapore and took up part-time modeling to support her husband in raising their two children. Her son has cerebral palsy; her daughter a heart condition.
She pleaded guilty, paid the fine, and wanted her caning to be carried out in public. "I want to move on. This case has been hanging over me for a long time," she said in August.
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.
[Geo News] Dozen of media persons have been subjected to the horrible torture by doctors in the presence of police at Jinnah Hospital here on Wednesday. Tension began when media persons went to hospital to cover a demonstration staged by the relative of 60-year-old patient, who died due to alleged negligence of the doctor. The doctors became annoyed when journalists asked them the reason for the death of patient while instead of answering the question, they started beating the media persons. According to Geo correspondent Faisal Karim, media persons were invited for talks at the hospital's conference room, where they were beaten again both by the doctors and police. Faisal said he was also among the journalists, who were also severely beaten by the doctors-turned-rioters. According to report, hospital's main gate has been closed after the incident. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken the notice of incident and formed an inquiry committee.
