ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia freed 31 opposition members on Saturday who had been held without charge since a disputed 2005 election led to violent street protests, a senior official said. The Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) members were arrested after they cried foul over some 2005 election results, sparking protests in which 200 people were killed, 800 wounded and 30,000 arrested, according to a parliamentary inquiry.
They admitted their guilt in a letter, Special Adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Bereket Simon, told Reuters. That is the basis for their pardon.
But global anti-poverty campaigner ActionAid said at least two activists, including one of its own staff, remained in prison facing charges of outrage against the constitution. They were not released, the aid agency said, because they refused to sign a formal apology. They ... continue to defend their case. They declined to join the others in an appeal for a pardon, ActionAid spokesman Julian Filochowski said in a statement, adding that they were prisoners of conscience.
It was unclear how many other prisoners were still being held in relation to the riots.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/19/2007 00:00 ||
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MANAMA, Bahrain - Bahrains largest Shiite Islamic parliamentary bloc the Al Wefaq Islamic Society, said on Saturday that it was currently reviewing several laws, including the penal code, because of an urgent need to modify them.
The bloc is currently reviewing a number of laws, including the Penal Code, which is an ancient law that was issued more than 30 years and is in dire need of radical amendments in most doors, said Jalal Fairooz, an Al Wefaq opposition MP. Special emphasis is placed on aspects concerning the ethics of society to tighten sanctions on the patrons of prostitution which violates the ethics of the community, he said.
Fairooz pointed out that his bloc had contacted the Bar Association, Bahrain Human Rights Society and other political and social societies and praised the Ministry of Interior and Public Prosecution for raiding places of prostitution.
The move comes just days after the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) issued its second report on human trafficking in which it focused on internet websites promoting prostitution. The report revealed that more than 10,00 people had subscribed to such networks, and more than 50 websites had links to prostitution networks in Bahrain.
Last June, the United States State Departments annual report on human trafficking ranked several of the US Gulf allies, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, in the lowest category and subject to possible sanctions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The English translation is interesting. Special emphasis is placed on aspects concerning the ethics of society to tighten sanctions on the patrons of prostitution which violates the ethics of the community. So, the sanctions violate the ethics of the community? Or is it tightening the sanctions that violates the ethics? It isn't the patrons of prostitution, because the translator would use who. And if prostitution did that, the translator would use a comma afterwards.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
08/19/2007 7:48 Comments ||
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#2
It's interesting to see Bahrain try to crack down on patrons of prostitution and not just on the prostitutes.
The Internet and web-enabled cell phones must be making huge inroads in these Gulf states among the younger set.
Four rival outlawed parties and groups in four southwestern districts have closed ranks and are regrouping, sources said. Leaders of Bipplobi Communist Party (BCP), Gono Bahini (GB), Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF) and recently floated Mukti Bahini led by notorious criminal Mukti, held several meetings in Kushtia and Chuadanga in last 20 days, intelligence sources said. Outlaws belonging to the parties are active in Kushtia, Jhenidah, Chuadanga and Meherpur. Leaders from the four districts attended the meetings.
The meetings decided to sink differences on issues like supremacy in their respective areas, local leadership and toll collection. This correspondent also contacted some leaders who talked from their hideouts. There is no 'war' between them now, they said.
Sources said, the first meeting was held at Udaypur village in Kushtia on July 30. Top leaders of outlawed parties attended the meeting. They included GB's second-in-command Mandar, BCP's Bakhtiar, GMF's Choto Mukul and Mukti chief of Mukti Bahini, the sources said. A good number of regional leaders also took part in the meeting. They included Liton, Keramat and Chatur of GB; Kalimuddin and Mamtu of Mukti Bahini; Icha, Faraz, and Rofez of GMF and Keti, Uzzal, Danesh and Biru of BCP.
Outlaws belonging to different parties usually had rivalry over toll collection from businessmen and rich farmers in the areas. They often clashed over establishing supremacy in the respective areas, which led to murders. Some intelligence sources however claimed that they have sank differences and are trying to regroup to save themselves.
According to official sources, at least 150 outlaws including some 'regional leaders' were killed in 'crossfire' with police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in the four districts in three years since June 2004.
According to official sources, at least 150 outlaws including some 'regional leaders' were killed in 'crossfire' with police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in the four districts in three years since June 2004.
At least 500 cadres belonging to 14 outlawed parties are active in the southwestern region. Police said they are aware of the meetings and have increased their vigilance in some areas of Sadr upazilas of in Kushtia and Jhenidah.
Police in a a raid arrested two top cadres of outlawed GMF and BCP from Khezurtala village in Kushtia Sadar upazila on August 1. The raid was done acting on a tip-ff that some leaders of two former rival outlawed parties were holding a secret meeting there. Later, the arrested cadres--Basir Ahmed and Zamarat Hossain--were killed in 'crossfire' on the same night after police took them to Khejurtatala village to retrieve firearms.
Wotta shame. Don'tcha hate it when that happens?
In another incident, villagers caught GB cadre Abdul Kuddus of Kalicharanpur village in Jhenidah Sadar with a rifle and five bullets from a house at Jhoudia village in Kushtia Sadar upazila when some outlaws were holding a meeting there on August 11. Three others managed to escape. Kuddus is a close associate of most wanted of GB chief Azibor Rahman.
According to different law enforcing agencies, outlaws are trying to capture some water big bodies including Nandia, Uzangram and Chypaygachi in the districts. They earlier fled from the areas following tougher action by law enforcing agencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I just wanted to use Biplobi in a sentence. Thank you. Now, back to your regular Upazila.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/19/2007 8:20 Comments ||
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Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/19/2007 8:21 Comments ||
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#2
IONews, WAFF.com > US NAVY deploys SEAWOLF/
VIRGINIA class SSN Subs to Pacific. Pearl Harbor gets three VIRGINIAS [no new SSN honey for Guam]; + WORLDTRIBUNE > INDIA, JAPAN AND NEW ASIAN POWER BALANCE. Article redux on WAFF.com < RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN WARN USA TO STAY OUT OF CENTRAL ASIA.
Holocaust survivors move closer this week to being able to find a paper trail of their own persecution when the keepers of a Nazi archive deliver copies of Gestapo papers and concentration camp records to museums in Washington and Jerusalem.
For a survivor, it could be discovering one's name on a list of deportees crammed into a cattle car; a record of a fiendish medical experiment from which physical or mental scars remain; an innocuous-looking "behavior report" condemning the inmate to further tortures; or an order from the Gestapo, the secret police, to liquidate a camp, signaling the start of a "death march" in the closing days of World War II.
But it will be months before the archive can be used by survivors or victims' relatives to search family histories. Even after it opens to the public, navigating the vast files for specific names will be nearly impossible without a trained guide.
This week, the director of the International Tracing Service, custodian of the unique collection that has been locked away for a half century in Germany, is transferring six computer hard drives bearing electronic images of 20 million pages to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Copies will go to the Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem.
It is the first tranche of digital copies from one of the world's largest Nazi archives, with the final documents scheduled to be copied and delivered by early 2009.
"For research into the Holocaust, this is the main substance. It is the heart of the archive," said Reto Meister, the former Swiss diplomat who heads ITS, a branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Meister will hand over the hard drives to museum director Sara J. Bloomfield in Washington. He also will brief U.S. Congressional staff on progress in opening the files a nod to American lawmakers who pressed the ITS' 11-nation oversight commission to open the doors.
Though the museums' researchers can begin working with the material immediately, the public must wait for legal formalities to conclude which could take several more months.
Unlocking the archive required all 11 countries to amend their international treaty. France, Italy and Greece have yet to complete the process. The others on the commission are the United States, Israel, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Luxembourg and Germany.
The index of 17.5 million names on file with ITS is the key to finding documents and will arrive later this year, though it is not in computer-readable format and cannot be used like Google. "The public will be able to come to the museum and see the material in the manner in which we received it," said Paul Shapiro, director of the museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies.
Also, there is no guarantee that a name appears in the archive. It may have been among the many destroyed by the Nazis as their defeat approached. Those sent to directly to death camps may never have been listed anywhere.
But historians believe the files will add texture to the narrative of misery in the camps, where millions of people were worked to death or were simply exterminated with industrial efficiency. Six million Jews died in the Holocaust, one of every three Jews on earth.
The Associated Press has been given repeated access to the archive in Bad Arolsen in recent months. Random searches through its 16 linear miles of files revealed a wealth of mundane yet telling detail on life and death in the camps.
For instance, a researcher can learn that already in 1936, well before Hitler's Final Solution was launched, food rations at the Lichtenberg concentration camp were so meager that an officer complained to his commander that the inmates' health was in jeopardy. The file contains no indication rations improved.
The Tracing Service was created from the papers gathered by the Allies after the war and stored in a disused SS barracks in Bad Arolsen. The Red Cross took over responsibility in 1955. Its task was to find missing people, reunite families or discover how victims died. Later it was used to support restitution claims.
"There can be a lot there that no one expects," said Juergen Matthaeus, the director of applied research at the Holocaust Studies center in Washington. "This is the biggest trove of material on the camps. If it's not there, then probably it's not to be found."
#1
Could someone hit me with the cluebat please? I must have missed the first half of the story. Are these contested waters, or does Turkey think it owns the entire Med? Why is Turkey so PO'd that some companies put in bids on oil exploration that it is going to take action against their countries?
#2
Cyprus has been an independent country ince 1960, but throughout history both Turkey and Greece have claimed the island as their own and the population is divided between Turkish and Greek backgrounds. In 1974 the Greek Cypriots attempted a coup and in response Turkey occupied 1/3 or so of the island. There is a UN-monitored Green Line but the status of things there politically has been disputed ever since.
The Greek portion of Cyprus has essentially asserted control of all the oil in and around Cyprus by issuing this call for bids, including waters that in any case might be considered Turkish. Turkey is pissed that companies from the 4 countries mentioned (including the US) have responded with bids and that they are locked out of the decisionmaking process.
This is seen in Turkey as just one more example, as with the PKK operating in Turkey across the Iraqi border, of a failure on the part of Europeans and Americans to treat Turkey as a full partner despite its NATO status. It strengthens the hand of the Islamicists within Turkey by stirring up the perception of ill-treatment.
#3
of a failure on the part of Europeans and Americans to treat Turkey as a full partner despite its NATO status
A "full partner" which is military occupying, as you reminded, a sovereign country that happens to be an EU member, after an invasion that was marred by thousands of disapperances, rapes and the eviction of the native population and the bringing in of colonists from anatolia; and yet, the turks have the schtupazh to feel entitled to that EU membership. Bizarro world.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
08/19/2007 8:22 Comments ||
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#6
My friend you seek the Kemallist Thought Club?
By being perceived of as supportive of the Greek-backed Coup _we_ are giving the Islamicist branch of Turkey's populace a big crowbar to pry away the Kemalist faction from its natural western symapthies.
Don't complain to me that the strategy works when you think it shouldn't.
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that he was in favour of "national reconciliation", but it would happen after the general elections on the basis of political parties' strength in the new assemblies.
"I am in favour of national reconciliation in view of internal and external situations, but this will be given serious thought after the general elections," Gen Musharraf was quoted as saying by a participant of a meeting between the president and Pakistan Muslim League parliamentarians in Bahawalpur. The president, who has held a series of meetings with PML parliamentarians as part of his election campaign, faced a number of questions regarding a deal between him and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but he did not divulge any details. "Your interests will not be harmed," he was quoted as saying. "The PML and the PPP will separately contest the elections."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2007 00:00 ||
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The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) is faced with a serious internal crisis with a strong anti-Pakistan People's Party (PPP) group not supporting President General Pervez Musharraf's bid to strike a "deal" with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Sources in the PML told Daily times that there is a clear divide in the party and a majority of parliamentarians not only opposed the idea of a Musharraf-Benazir agreement, they had also threatened a "revolt" against such a move if all political parties were not involved in a "deal".
The sources said Khurshid Kasuri, Hamid Nasir Chattha, Manzoor Wattoo, Majeed Malik, Kabir Wasti and Ishaque Khakwani were among those who believed that a deal only with Ms Bhutto would not benefit the country and the PML. "They have called for a deal with all political parties," the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2007 00:00 ||
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Sherry Rehman, information secretary of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), on Saturday rejected the findings of recently conducted media surveys related to political parties and their popularity ratings, and said the party still represented the largest number of voters in Pakistan.
In a statement, Sherry said that in a random survey that appeared last week, some media reports erroneously reported the findings and failed to distinguish that the PPP votes had been divided between the father and daughter. When put together, the PPP polled the largest amount of votes even in such non-scientific surveys, she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2007 00:00 ||
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Iranian authorities have arrested dozens of alleged international drug smugglers, state radio reported on Saturday. The report said the smuggling ring's head and 84 others were Tanzanian nationals who swallowed narcotics to bring them into Iran. Authorities arrested five others, including three Pakistanis and two Iranians. Police also confiscated dozens of kilograms of cocaine and heroin after arresting the alleged smugglers, said the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2007 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.
Four rival outlawed parties and groups in four southwestern districts have closed ranks and are regrouping, sources said. Leaders of Bipplobi Communist Party (BCP), Gono Bahini (GB), Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF) and recently floated Mukti Bahini led by notorious criminal Mukti, held several meetings in Kushtia and Chuadanga in last 20 days, intelligence sources said. Outlaws belonging to the parties are active in Kushtia, Jhenidah, Chuadanga and Meherpur. Leaders from the four districts attended the meetings.
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that he was in favour of "national reconciliation", but it would happen after the general elections on the basis of political parties' strength in the new assemblies. 
