A RELIGIOUS ruling by an Islamic scholar permitting women to breastfeed adults with whom they work has led to his suspension this month from al-Azhar University in Cairo, the world's leading Sunni university.
Izzat Atiyaa had issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, offering his bold suggestion as a way around the prohibition in Islamic religious law against a woman working in private premises with a man who was not her close relative. Breastfeeding, he argued, would create a familial relationship under Islamic law.
Dr Atiyaa explained to the Egyptian newspaper al-Watani al-Yawm that: "A man and a woman who are alone together are not (necessarily) having sex but this possibility exists and breastfeeding provides a solution to this problem (by) transforming the bestial relationship between two people into a religious relationship based on (religious) duties."
In Islamic tradition, breastfeeding at infancy establishes a degree of familial relationship between nurse and child even if there is no biological relationship.
Dr Atiyaa argued in his fatwa that if an adult male was nursed by a female co-worker it would likewise establish a familial bond that would permit them to work side by side without raising suspicion of illicit sex.
Teachings attributed to prophet
Dr Atiyaa headed al-Azhar University's department dealing with hadith - oral tradition, outside the Koran, attributed to the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. He said he had based his ruling on one such tradition according to which, at the Prophet's order, a man named Salem was breastfed by the wife of another disciple.
"The fact that the hadith regarding the breastfeeding of an adult is inconceivable to the mind does not make it invalid," Dr Atiyaa said, in defending his ruling. "Rejecting it is tantamount to questioning the Prophet's tradition."
Universal rejection
Nevertheless, his ruling evoked almost universal rejection among Muslim scholars and in the popular Egyptian press. Al-Azhar University formed a committee of hadith experts, who dismissed his ruling, and the university administration ordered him to publish a retraction. He complied.
Armed war veterans last week violently broke up a meeting called by the Christian Alliance, a coalition of churches fighting for political change in Zimbabwe, to launch a womens branch in the Midlands town of Kwekwe. President Robert Mugabes ruling Zanu PF party has in the past seven years used veterans of Zimbabwes 1970s liberation war as its foot soldiers to harass and crush the ruling partys political opponents.
The war veterans, who were armed with axes and knobkerries, stormed the Roman Catholic Church Parish in Redcliff and ordered that the Christian Alliance should not proceed with plans to launch a womens branch in the area. They also threatened to kidnap Father Mapfumo, who presides over the Catholic Church in Redcliff working class suburb if he allowed the group to proceed with the launch in his church. The war veterans accused the Christian Alliance leadership of plotting together with the main opposition MDC to overthrow Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwes independence from Britain 27 years ago.
The war veterans have since 2000 been a virtual law unto itself after they spearheaded the violent seizure of white farms as part of Mugabes efforts to redistribute land to landless blacks. Scores of white farmers and over a hundred supporters of the MDC party were killed during the political disturbances, sparking a waver of international condemnation for Mugabes government. Mugabe has since last March stepped up a crackdown on the opposition and other voices of dissension ahead of key presidential and parliamentary elections next year that political analysts have said he and his party could lose.
#1
Knobkerries: A short club with one knobbed end, used as a weapon by warriors of certain South African peoples. ( From The American Heritage Dictionary via Dictionary.com)
(SomaliNet) Six oil workers identified as three Americans, two Britons and a South African were on Friday kidnapped by gunmen from a pipe laying vessel off the coast of Nigeria Friday, oil industry sources said.
Reports revealed that gun shots were fired during the abduction by suspected militants in two speed boats, which took place off the coast of the southern state of Bayelsa near the town of Sangana. The sources said the six oil workers were taken from a pipelaying vessel contracted to Nigerian oil company Conoil.
This incident came a day after gunmen kidnapped a Polish engineer near the oil city of Warri, which took the number of foreign workers being held by armed groups in the anarchic delta to 16.
Oil production from Nigeria, the worlds eighth biggest exporter, is down by about 700,000 barrels per day or almost a quarter because of an 18-month surge in violence. About 100 foreigners have been kidnapped this year and released unharmed after their employers paid ransoms.
While not strictly WoT, the unrest in Nigeria has real potential to cause us and the industrialized world problems.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) As many as 200 activists were arrested by Police in Zimbabwe after the cops raided the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in capital city Harare.
Though the MDC's Nelson Chamisa said police had no search warrant, the activists were taken away in police vans. Mr Chamisa told reporters that the meeting was held in party offices to discuss civil issues and insisted the MDC was doing nothing illegal.
Which doesn't matter in Zim-bob-we.
The arrests came a day after police extended a ban on political rallies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets Saturday chanting "Freedom, Freedom!" to protest President Hugo Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of the country's most-watched TV station, an outlet for the opposition.
Police lined a Caracas avenue while the protesters paraded past, some holding signs reading "No to silence," while others placed tape over their mouths.
Radio Caracas Television, the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach, is due to go off the air at midnight Sunday. Protesters say that by not renewing RCTV's license, Chavez is attempting to silence critics of his leftist government. "Our president wants to control everything, even what we watch on television, so his voice is the only voice on the airwaves," said Roger Montoya, a 23-year-old university student at Saturday's march. "It's totalitarianism."
The Supreme Court said Venezuela's telecommunication commission would assume responsibility for RCTV's equipment, including microwave dishes and antennas ...
Chavez defends the decision as a legal move to democratize the airwaves by turning over RCTV's signal to a public service channel. The president and his supporters have accused RCTV of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him, violating broadcast laws and regularly showing programs with excessive violence and sexual content.
And supporting the opposition is the 'crime' that really counts.
In one downtown Caracas plaza, hundreds of red-clad Chavez supporters gathered in front of a large television screen, where alleged violations by RCTV were replayed as the words, "Tell the truth," rolled across the screen.
Founded in 1953, RCTV broadcasts a mix of talk shows, sports, soap operas and the popular comedy program "Radio Rochela," which often pokes fun at Chavez.
Dictators can't allow themselves to be lampooned. Once parody and humor take hold their downfall is inevitable. Chavez knows this.
The Supreme Court said Venezuela's telecommunication commission would assume responsibility for RCTV's equipment, including microwave dishes and antennas, while the court reviews RCTV's appeal of Chavez's decision not to renew its license. The court also ordered the military to temporarily guard RCTV's broadcasting equipment.
Just temporary, you understand, and the court is so concerned about the safety of the journalists that it will ask the military to 'temporarily' guard them too. It's close to a police state in all but name.
During a speech that all of Venezuela's private TV channels were forced to broadcast, Chavez defended his decision. "That television station became a threat to the country so I decided not to renew the license because it's my responsibility," said Chavez.
Globovision is the only other major opposition-aligned channel, and it is not seen in all parts of the country. Two other channels that used to be staunchly anti-Chavez, Venevision and Televen, have recently toned down their coverage.
See? Working already.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm sure the Donks are already looking towards their own version of the Hugo Fairness Doctrine.
Let's hope this isn't a Trucefire. Just the new stuff in this post, see below for the rest.
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's feuding president and prime minister agreed early Sunday to hold an early parliamentary election on Sept. 30, defusing a crisis that threatened to escalate into violence when the president sent troops streaming toward the capital.
"We found a decision, which is a compromise," President Viktor Yushchenko said after emerging from eight hours of tense talks. "Now we can say that the political crisis in Ukraine is over."
Analysts said Yushchenko's move was an attempt to pressure Yanukovych to agree on an early date for new parliamentary elections, rather than a sign he was preparing for violent confrontation. In the hours-long talks, Yushchenko had sought new elections as early as possible, demanding them held first in May, then in June. Yanukovych wanted them no earlier than the fall.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Thousands of troops were pouring into Kiev yesterday, exacerbating the tensions that have been building in Ukraine between President Viktor Yushchenko and the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych.
The deployment of the soldiers to back the President represents the latest chapter in the drama of the two men, who represent the two opposing strands in Ukraine - its Catholic, pro-European west, represented by Yushchenko, and its Orthodox Russian-leaning east, represented by Yanukovych - that has seen an Orange Revolution in 2005, street violence and the poisoning of Yushchenko.
Months of infighting, however, have turned more dangerous in the past few days as the country's security forces have been drawn in to the political stalemate. Tensions between Yushchenko and Yanukovych have been building since Yushchenko ordered parliament disbanded in April and called new elections. His move last week to fire the nation's chief prosecutor and take control of Interior Ministry troops escalated the standoff.
The ministry's 32,000 troops answer to the Interior Minister, a Yanukovych ally, but the troops' commander is a Yushchenko ally who defied the ministry by calling troops into Kiev.
Yanukovych and Yushchenko, along with other top political leaders, met late on Friday for talks that stretched into yesterday. They ended without any visible progress.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Viktor Yushchenko, the president of Ukraine, yesterday claimed command of the country's 32,000 interior ministry troops. But in a dramatic escalation of a major political crisis, a ministry official refused to obey the "illegal" order. Renewed tensions between the president and his arch-rival, Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister, have been building for weeks and Mr Yushchenko's move to take control over the troops appeared to suggest rising concern over possible clashes. A statement on the presidential website said Mr Yushchenko's order was necessary "to prevent using interior ministry troops in the interest of some political forces that cause a threat for Ukraine's national security".
But Konstantin Stogniy, a ministry spokesman, said the order was illegal and "fulfilling illegal orders is a crime".
The country's crisis intensified on Thursday when Mr Yushchenko sacked prosecutor general Svyatoslav Piskun. The interior ministry, which is led by a Yanukovich ally, responded by sending riot police to Mr Piskun's office. The interior ministry has about 32,000 troops and 220,000 regular policemen under its control; Mr Yushchenko's order calls for his taking control only of the troops.
The dismissal of Mr Piskun, a member of Mr Yanukovich's party, severely aggravated tensions that have been high since Mr Yushchenko's order to dissolve parliament and call early elections last month. "It is again a violation of the constitution and making such a decision is unacceptable. We need to immediately stop legal nihilism," Mr Yanukovich said during a meeting of his government.
The European Union urged Mr Yushchenko and Mr Yanukovich to settle their power struggle through negotiation and not resort to the use of force. "All efforts should now be focused on reaching a peaceful joint settlement quickly," a spokesman for the German presidency of the EU said. "The presidency appeals to all those with political responsibility to distance themselves from action which could result in any further escalation of the dispute."
"Fergawdsakes, Viktor and Viktor, don't make us get out the 40lb bond paper and the shutter pen again! The blister we got from the last demarche has just barely healed!"
#1
A Ukrainian civil war could get real ugly for the region real fast - and give Putin and the Russkies something else to think about than US missile defense.
#2
I suspect a Ukrainian civil war, if it comes, will not so much preoccupy Putin as it will have been caused by his heavy-handed attempts to place his pro-Russian allies into key elected positions in Ukraine.
Thousands of Turks rallied in the western city of Denizli Saturday in the latest of a series of pro-secular demonstrations against the Islamist-rooted government sparked by political turmoil. Brandishing Turkish flags, the demonstrators packed a main square of the city, which has recently come to the fore as a center of increasing Islamist activities.
"Turkey is secular, it will remain secular," the protestors chanted. No figures were given for the numbers of demonstrators, but television reports said the rally attracted participants from nearby cities as well. The crowd also condemned a suicide bomb attack in the capital Ankara Tuesday which killed six people and injured more than 100.
Turkish officials have said the attack tallied with the past practices of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group fighting a violent 22-year campaign for self-rule for the Kurdish minority. The rebels have denied involvement in the suicide bombing.
The Saturday rally, organized and supported by some 30 non-governmental organizations, ended peacefully.
Millions have taken to the streets in recent weeks over the prospect of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the moderate offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, appointing one of its own as president. The AKP has disowned its Islamist roots, pledged commitment to secularism and carried out democracy reforms that secured the opening of membership talks with the European Union.
But opponents say the party still harbors Islamist ambitions, pointing at AKP opposition to a headscarf ban in universities and public offices, its encouragement of religious schools, and a failed attempt to restrict alcohol sales.
RB doesn't generally cover Irish politix, but earlier reports I read said that Sinn Fein had been making gains in some polls, which I would generally consider A Bad Thing. I'd be glad if any Euroburg readers can comment...
Bertie Ahern last night emerged as Ireland's undisputed political king as his Fianna Fail party cruised to a third term in government in the country's general election.
On a day of high political drama, Fianna Fail confounded its critics with a sensational electoral performance that opened up the possibility that it could form a single-party government.
Enda Kenny's opposition Fine Gael party also made considerable gains but it was a bad election for the smaller political parties. Sinn Fein, in particular, failed to make the breakthroughs it expected in constituencies in Dublin and Donegal. And Deputy Prime Minister Michael McDowell quit politics after losing his seat as his Progressive Democrats party lost a number of high-profile candidates.
With many seats still to be decided, Fianna Fail strategists were not ruling out the possibility that they would have to enter into a coalition again. With the party chasing the magic 83-seat figure for an overall majority, the Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said: "We potentially will be around the 80-seat mark. "That might mean we won't have to look at coalition options."
He also confirmed Fianna Fail received congratulations on their success from an unlikely source last night - Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists. He received a message from the DUP leader's son, Ian Paisley jnr, a junior minister in the new Stormont Executive. "He congratulated me and the party," Mr Ahern said. "He said maybe the DUP could take a few lessons on vote management from the Fianna Fail election machine."
Chinese territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesha key component of the longstanding boundary dispute with Indiahas once again come in the way of bilateral interactions, acting as a major party pooper for a group of IAS officers headed for a management program to China.
A study visit of 107 IAS officers to Beijing and Shanghai, part of a programme to learn more about Chinese economic growth and policies, has been cancelled because of Beijings refusal to grant visa to one IAS officer hailing from Arunachal Pradesh.
The denial of visa to the officer, Ganesh Koyu, a 52-year-old promotee, obviously stems from Chinas refusal to accept Arunachal Pradesh as part of the Indian territory. In fact, Beijing is understood to have pointed out that the man in question is a Chinese citizen. An Arunachali, Koyu is presently secretary-in-charge of panchayati raj, textiles and handicrafts in the Arunachal government. Beijings decision not to play host to an Arunachali was conveyed to New Delhi earlier this week. The officers from the 1991 batch, who on Thursday finished first part of their training program at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy in Mussoorie and were in anticipation of their China leg of the program, will now report back to their respective posts. They were to visit the National School of Administration in Beijing and the China Executive Leadership Academy, Pudong in Shanghai and interact with their Chinese counterparts for two weeks.
The public policy analysis-training programme, sponsored by the government, was devised by IIMs in collaboration with three US universities, including Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public affairs and designed to help officers take on administrative challenges presented by Indias rapid economic growth.
Sources here contend that the inclusion of the Arunachali officer could not have been an oversight, when China has refused to acknowledge the northeastern state as Indian territory. Earlier, the Chinese had denied visa to an Arunachal chief minister to visit Beijing.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/27/2007 08:52 ||
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#1
Meanwhile...
In a break from the past, India looks to be taking tentative steps towards increasing political contacts with Taiwan. Although New Delhi does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taipei, it will be playing host in mid-June to Taiwans main Opposition leader and Kuomintang chairman Ma Ying-jeou who is also the partys candidate for this years presidential elections.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/27/2007 8:57 Comments ||
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#2
Well, if The Chinese consider Arunachal Pradesh part of China, shouldn't they just let the guy visit China anyway without a visa, since he's a "Chinese Citizen"? I don't get it...
#5
If China thought they could get away with it, they'd claim all of India. China is a mad bull in a large glass shop. They need to have a come-uppance, to curb their territorial ambitions. Unfortunately, I can't see how to do that at the moment, but as time passes...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/27/2007 14:54 Comments ||
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#6
They need to have a come-uppance, to curb their territorial ambitions. Unfortunately, I can't see how to do that at the moment, but as time passes...
Bird Flu!
Posted by: Natural Law ||
05/27/2007 16:33 Comments ||
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#7
economic disruption - watch when the banking house of cards folds
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2007 17:25 Comments ||
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Tests on the type of ammunition used in the 1963 assassination of US president John F Kennedy raise questions about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, according to a new scientific study. The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald fired three shots from the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas at Kennedy's motorcade. A further government inquiry agreed in 1979, finding that the two bullets which hit Kennedy came from Oswald's rifle.
The committee's findings were based in part on the testimony of the late forensic chemist Vincent Guinn, who said the recovered fragments came from only two bullets. Mr Guinn testified that the bullets Oswald used were individually unique and that it would be possible to distinguish one from another even if they both came from the same box. BUT in the new study researchers found that fragments were not nearly so unique and that bullets within the same box could match one another. One of the test bullets also matched one or more of the assassination fragments.
"This finding means that the bullet fragments from the assassination that match could have come from three or more separate bullets," the researchers wrote in a paper detailing their study, which is to be published later this year by the journal Annals of Applied Statistics. "If the assassination fragments are derived from three or more separate bullets, then a second assassin is likely, as the additional bullet would not be attributable to the main suspect, Mr Oswald," the report adds.
However lead researcher Cliff Spiegelman, of Texas A&M University, stressed: "We're not saying there was a conspiracy. All we're saying is the evidence that was presented as a slam-dunk for a single shooter is not a slam- dunk." Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, which is dedicated to Kennedy's life and assassination, insisted: "Their study can't answer anything about the assassination because they didn't test the actual fragments." Jim Marrs, author of Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, said: "Is this going to solve the case or change anybody's mind? Probably not, but it supports the contentions of conspiracy researchers all through the years."
A CONSPIRACY FOR EVERYONE
A host of conspiracy theories have developed around the assassination of John F Kennedy, most of them stemming from the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have been a lone gunman. Some 35 witnesses thought that shots were fired from the now-famous "Grassy Knoll". More than 50 said they came from the Book Depository, while five thought shots came from two directions. According to various conspiracy theories, the CIA, the Mafia, the Soviet Union, Israel, anti-Castro Cubans and/or Cuba were to blame.
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.
(SomaliNet) Six oil workers identified as three Americans, two Britons and a South African were on Friday kidnapped by gunmen from a pipe laying vessel off the coast of Nigeria Friday, oil industry sources said. 
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets Saturday chanting "Freedom, Freedom!" to protest President Hugo Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of the country's most-watched TV station, an outlet for the opposition.
Thousands of troops were pouring into Kiev yesterday, exacerbating the tensions that have been building in Ukraine between President Viktor Yushchenko and the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych.
Tests on the type of ammunition used in the 1963 assassination of US president John F Kennedy raise questions about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, according to a new scientific study. The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald fired three shots from the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas at Kennedy's motorcade. A further government inquiry agreed in 1979, finding that the two bullets which hit Kennedy came from Oswald's rifle. 
